What’s your favorite Christmas movie? In our family, the list includes Elf, Home Alone, A Christmas Carol, Polar Express, Rudolph, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and just about any Hallmark movie (my wife loves a predictably happy ending sentimental love story!). Most intriguing to me is our granddaughter’s fascination with the

Don’t Forget to Thank God… …for so powerfully, tenderly, graciously, and majestically being God. In this season of thanksgiving, we tend to lean more heavily toward thanking God for the myriad gifts he generously provides. For our family and friends. For good health and answers to our prayers. For our

“You are a lot of work,” she said with a glint in her eye. I’ve seen that facial expression hundreds of times over the years. As a result I wasn’t offended when my wife uttered those words. She’s right. I fell and fractured my patella in Germany on the first

 Have you ever been on a spiritual pilgrimage? For sure, our life in Christ is our most significant pilgrimage. But, in our lifetime we also have opportunity to go on pilgrimage to sights of holy significance. LTI has hosted several over the years…to Greece (in the footsteps of Paul), Italy

Slow Down! I live on a street with a middle school at the end of our road. We’ve lived in the same house for nearly 40 years. Many times when I’m outside working in the garden or playing with my grandchildren on the front lawn, cars go whizzing by…at what

Chrissy Chang, LTI’s Coordinator of Online Ministry, recently reflected on the significance of a “monastery of the soul” in our podcast conversation about Psalm 131. She talked about how having a calmed and quieted soul is like a weaned child in her mother’s comforting embrace. Such a beautiful picture offered

It’s already mid-August. How can it be that summer 2024 is nearing its end? I don’t mean to be a downer about it, but my soul is craving the beginning of summer all over again. I had all sorts of godly aspirations for this summer. Unfortunately they mostly got eaten

The “one another” passages in the New Testament are my favorite way of defining the textures and contours of spiritual community. The phrase comes from the Greek word allelon which means “one another, each other, mutually, or reciprocally.” Each time it’s used as an imperative command and the basis for

Henri Nouwen once wrote, “The discipline of the Christian disciple is not to master anything, but rather to be mastered by the Spirit. True Christian discipline is the human effort to create the space in which the Spirit of Christ can transform us into his image.” (The Selfless Way of

Wondering The word “wonder” has a twofold meaning…the verb wonder, as in curiosity, “I wonder what that really means” and it’s opposite, doubt, “I wonder if that marriage will last.” Secondly, the noun wonder, which is more like awe, “noticing the sunrise with the wonder or joy of a child.”