Da Vinci Is Not Hanging in the Louvre: The Creator/Creature Distinction
It’s tempting to blur God into nature, into ourselves, into everything — until the Creator becomes just another part of creation. But Scripture insists on a difference: God is the artist, we are the art. The mountains are radiant, but they are not God. Holding the Creator-creature distinction protects wonder without collapsing into worship of ourselves or the world. Da Vinci isn’t hanging in the Louvre — and neither is God.
Sam Kinison: The ‘80s Preacher-Comedian
Sam Kinison didn’t start in comedy clubs — he started in church, trained to preach with heat and conviction. When ministry collapsed under money trouble, heartbreak and a crisis of faith, he walked away, but the pulpit never quite left his voice. Onstage, his fury sounded like lament, his jokes like distorted sermons. And in his final moments, the shouting stopped — replaced by a quiet, startling surrender.
The Shopkeeper: A Short Story
A shopkeeper builds a beautiful mountain world indoors — streams, cliffs, seminars, certificates, the best maps money can buy. People come in droves, hungry for the peaks and leave with souvenirs that look impressive on a shelf. One day, someone asks about actual excursions. The answer is telling: guiding is inefficient. And quietly, the mountains remain mostly untouched — real, risky and waiting.
Rooted in a Restless Age
Outrage feels like the air we breathe now — at meetings, online, even in church. We brace for defensiveness, settle into cynicism, and call it normal. But Paul says this restlessness has a root: life “in the flesh,” where neglect grows weeds fast. The Spirit offers another kind of cultivation — belonging, surrender and a steady step-by-step walk that forms real fruit in us.
Suffering and the Providence of God
Providence isn’t a theory meant for armchairs — it’s the difference between living landlocked in fear and living anchored in hope.
I Know What I Need to Be Doing
Every January, I come back to three risky prayers — because they invite Jesus to disagree with my plans. When I finally asked with real openness, one word surfaced: with. Then a face: my 89-year-old dad. The invitation was simple — Friday lunch — and it reshaped my year. The third answer surprised me too: silence, walking my neighborhood with God.
The Year Faith-Based Films Finally Grew Up: The Top 10 Movies Of 2025
In 2025, faith-based movies didn’t just get louder — they got better. The big releases still gave audiences what they came for, but the craft finally started catching up to the subject matter. Meanwhile, Hollywood kept circling religion with fresh seriousness, especially in horror and thrillers. For the first time, this list isn’t about picking the least embarrassing option — it’s about choosing between genuinely good films.
Rethinking New Year’s Resolutions
Bob Stephens’ elliptical has become a coat rack, which is honestly how most resolutions die — quietly, under the weight of real life. But he’s back at it, not to earn God’s favor, but to steward what he’s been given. That’s the shift. The new year invites a reset, but the gospel reminds us we’re already loved. So set goals, yes — measurable, humble ones — and let them serve your people, not your ego.
The Story of the Christian Canon
A Baptist buys a Bible without wondering who decided these books belong together. A Catholic opens a hotel Bible and senses something missing. A student discovers extra pages in the “required” Bible for class and panics. Canon questions have been hiding in plain sight. Canon once meant a reed — a measuring stick — and eventually, a standard. The canon is the Church’s straight edge for truth.
Gratitude and the River of Life
Gratitude doesn’t start as a feeling for me. It starts as a decision to look. To slow down long enough to notice beauty still offering itself: a warm coffee cup, December sunlight, a quiet house. Fear tells me everything is fragile — my body, my people, my time. Gratitude doesn’t deny that; it refuses to let fear narrate the whole story. It reminds me I’m held, even here.
Reversing the Explosion: the Big Bang, but Backward
Playing the universe backward, everything rushes toward a beginning it never had to have. Possibility narrows to a single point where nothing should exist — and yet something does.
Further Up and Further In
Some places wake something in us we didn’t know had fallen asleep. They remind us that beauty is real, desire is good and the story is not winding down but opening up. The gospel does not shrink our longings; it redeems them. The invitation still stands: further up, further in — toward more wonder, not less.
The Weight of Being Yourself
There’s a rare freedom in people who know who they are without needing to prove it. They live open-handed — rooted, unashamed, fully present — able to carry both joy and grief without closing down. This kind of identity isn’t self-made or self-protected. It’s received. And when we stop grasping for ourselves, we begin to feel the steady weight of being truly alive.
Why Dreams and Why Now?
Dreams have always been part of how God reaches his people, but something about this cultural moment seems to have opened the floodgates. The rising noise of our world — the screens, the speed, the constant pull — leaves little room for a whisper. Yet in the quiet of sleep, when defenses fall away, God still speaks. Not to confuse or obscure, but to draw his children closer, invitation wrapped in mystery.
The Both-And of Self-Kindness: Why Loving Yourself Isn’t Selfish
Self-kindness, for A.C., began not as a trendy practice but as a terrifying assignment: speak to herself with the same gentleness she’d learned to offer everyone else. Slowly, Scripture and therapy together reframed kindness as part of bearing God’s image, not betraying it. Naming old, shaming messages and letting divine compassion seep into those bruised places became less self-indulgence and more quiet agreement with how God already loves her.
Quiet Saints: The Practice of Living Quietly
Quiet living isn’t withdrawal or escapism; it’s the steady confidence that God fights for us even when we can’t. Scripture keeps circling back to this — Moses at the Red Sea, David waiting in silence, Paul urging a peaceful, dignified life. And every generation has its quiet saints, the ones whose gratitude steadies whole rooms. Their stillness isn’t passivity; it’s trust that the Lord’s love is enough to quiet any storm.
A Primer on Logos Bible Software: A Seminary Library in Your Pocket (Copy)
In our digital age, with countless apps vying for attention, one stands out for its potential for transformative impact: the YouVersion Bible App. This powerful tool, created by Life.Church, has become indispensable to millions of Christians globally.
“The Divine Conspiracy” — The Book That Helped Us See the Kingdom
Readers often describe The Divine Conspiracy in the same breath as "slow" and "life-altering." This is not a book to skim. Willard writes with the patience of a professor and the tenderness of a pastor, inviting you into what he calls a "conspiracy" of grace—a quiet, subversive work of God teaching his people how to live.
