Daily Readings by Wild at Heart

Remember that little guy I told you about, with the shiny boots and a pair of six-shooters? The best part of the story is that it wasn't all pretend. I had a place to live out those dreams. My grandfather, my father's father, was a cowboy. He worked his own cattle ranch in eastern Oregon. And though I was raised in the suburbs, the redemption of my life and the real training grounds for my own mas...

You are the son of a kind, strong, and engaged Father, a Father wise enough to guide you in the Way, generous enough to provide for your journey, offering to walk with you every step. This is perhaps the hardest thing for us to believe — really believe, down deep in our hearts, so that it changes us forever, changes the way we approach each day. I believe this is the core issue of our shared dilem...

The resurrection of Jesus was the first of many, the forerunner of our own. He paved the way, as the saying goes. The fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. (1 Cor. 15:20 NLT) God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along...

“‘For this people’s heart has become calloused;         they hardly hear with their ears,         and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes,         hear with their ears,         understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’” (Matthew 13:15) Heal them. Jesus yearned for his people to turn back to him so that he could heal them! The “otherwise” means...

The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face.     [John]    I’d love to share what thirty years of marriage (and twenty counseling young people) has taught me. But let me begin with a question: What is your greatest fear, as a man? [Sam]    That’s easy; I fear feeling like a fool. I fear and hate it above everything else. Hate might not e...

Your heart is going to grow for the kingdom, more and more as you mature, which allows us to receive more and more of God and enjoy so much more of the life he’s giving. But this can be very disorienting if you don’t understand what’s taking place within you. Just as you reach a place where you feel satisfied, it seems you need more. That’s because your soul is expanding, which is a very good thin...

Today’s Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book “Becoming a King” The context of the journey of deliverance from the false self and restoration of the true self is unique, but the process is universal. It begins with awareness. The first step to becoming true is becoming aware of the false. Who am I in my false self? What version of myself do I present to the world as a mask to self-...

I am haunted by the stories of people who make the summit of Everest. Such incredible devotion is required, such total focus of body, soul, and spirit. Reaching the top of the world's tallest mountain becomes for those who try the central driving force of their lives. The goal is so remarkable and the journey so uncertain. Many climbers have been lost on the mountain. Those who reach the summit an...

In our psychological age, we have come to call our affairs "addictions," but God calls them "adultery." Listen again to his words to the Israelites through Jeremiah: You are a swift she-camel  running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,  sniffing the wind in [your] craving—  in [your] heat [how can I] restrain [you]?  Any males that pursue [you] need not tire themselves;  at ma...

What did Jesus mean when he promised us life? I go back to the source and what I find is just astounding. I am still confident of this:  I will see the goodness of the Lord  in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13) I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as muc...

How much of what we do is motivated by fear of man? Think of it — to be entirely free of false guilt, free from pressure, from false allegiances. It would be absolutely extraordinary. This is what gives Jesus the ability to say such startlingly honest things to people. It is what enables him to be so scandalous. This is the secret of his ability to navigate praise and contempt. Neither success nor...

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures,  he leads me beside quiet waters,  he restores my soul. (Psalm 23:1-3). He heals the brokenhearted  and binds up their wounds. (Psalm 147:3) Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed;  save me and I will be saved,  for you are the one I praise. (Jeremiah 17:14) But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteous...

When Jesus speaks of the Restoration, he does so in very tangible terms, pointing to the recovery of normal things like houses and lands: “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne ... everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will i...

One of the strangest quirks of life here on this planet is the fact that the one face we hardly ever see is the one closest to us: our own. As we move about in the world every day, our face is always right before us and always just beyond us. Somebody could write a fairy tale about that. It would be an allegory for how rarely we see ourselves, who we truly are, the good and the bad. But in unexpec...

Learn to hear the voice of God. Yep. It’s the simplest, most helpful, least practiced treasure and it will literally rescue you in countless ways. The secret of the Christian life — and Christian marriage — is that you don’t have to figure it out. You don’t have to figure life out, you don’t have to figure each other out, you don’t have to figure parenting out, or money or family. You have a couns...

Right above my bed I think I shall hang a sign that says, GOD EXISTS. You see, I wake most mornings an unbeliever. It seems that during the night, I slip into forgetfulness, and by the time the new day comes, I am lost. The deep and precious truths that God has brought to me over the years and even just yesterday seem a thousand miles away. It doesn't happen every morning, but enough to make it an...

The single most significant decision that has changed my prayer life more than any other, the one step that has brought about greater results than all others combined is this (drum roll, please)... Asking Jesus what I should pray. So simple, and so revolutionizing! Utterly obvious once we consider it, but something we so rarely practice. That is probably one of the side effects of the “prayer is j...

Jesus’ manner can be appreciated only in light of a deeper river flowing in him, this fierce intentionality. Otherwise, you get those popular and ridiculous portraits of Jesus as the wandering storyteller, no more controversial or dangerous than a clerk in a health-food store. “The life of Jesus went as swift and straight as a thunderbolt,” wrote Chesterton in The Everlasting Man , “almost in the...

Our hearts long to recover a sense of wonder; it is one of the reasons only the child-heart can receive the kingdom. Remember now — we shall be as children again:“ Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Mark 10:14–15) The...

I have in my files a copy of a letter written by Major Sullivan Ballou, a Union officer in the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry Regiment. He writes to his wife on the eve of the Battle of Bull Run, a battle he senses will be his last. He speaks tenderly to her of his undying love, of "the memories of blissful moments I have spent with you." Ballou mourns the thought that he must give up "the hope of futu...

So much of the journey forward involves a letting go of all that once brought us life. We turn away from the familiar abiding places of the heart, the false selves we have lived out, the strengths we have used to make a place for ourselves and all our false loves, and we venture forth in our hearts to trace the steps of the One who said, "Follow me." In a way, it means that we stop pretending : th...

To make room for God to fill the vessel of our soul, we have to begin moving out some of the unnecessary clutter that continually accumulates there like the junk drawer in your kitchen. Everybody has a junk drawer, that black hole for car keys, pens, paper clips, gum, all the small flotsam and jetsam that accumulates over time. Our souls accumulate stuff, too, pulling it in like a magnet. And so A...

When he left Rivendell, Frodo didn't head out with a thousand Elves. He had eight companions. Jesus didn't march around backed by legions of angels, either. He had twelve men—knuckleheads, every last one of them, but they were a band of brothers. This is the way of the kingdom of God. Though we are part of a great company, we are meant to live in little platoons. The little companies we form must...

The time has come for us to quit playing chess with God over our lives. We cannot win, but we can delay the victory, dragging on the pain of grasping and the poison of possessing. You see, there are two kinds of losses in life. The first is shared by all mankind — the losses that come to us. Call them what you will — accidents, fate, acts of God. The point is that we have no control over them. We...

When God comes to call Jeremiah to be his prophet of hard sayings to Judah, Jeremiah protests, saying, "'Ah, Sovereign LORD ... I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.' But the LORD said to me, 'Do not say, "I am only a child." You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the LORD" ( Jer. 1:6...