Daily Readings by Wild at Heart

Talking about the Self Life is a difficult thing to do, because there are teachings that sound very righteous and holy, which basically say that anything connected to your humanity is the Self Life and must be crucified. Any desire, any dream, even your own gifting is something essentially contaminated and needs to be killed to get on with your Christian life. I’ve seen this interpretation cripple...

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. ... “Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” So he took me in the Spirit t...

Christ is not joking when he says that we shall inherit the kingdom prepared for us and we shall reign with him forever. We will take the position for which we have been uniquely made and will rule as he does — meaning, with creativity and power. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creat...

But doesn't Christianity condemn desire — the Puritans and all that? Not at all. Quite the contrary. Christianity takes desire seriously — far more seriously than the stoic or the mere hedonist. Christianity refuses to budge from the fact that man was made for pleasure, that his beginning and his end is a paradise, and that the goal of living is to find Life. Jesus knows the dilemma of desire and...

It all begins with a couple. Not some hero standing alone against the rising tide of the world. A marriage . A man and a woman, given to one another at the dawn of time. The human race is about to enter into its great adventure and its great struggle. As God begins the wild, terrifying, and beautiful story, we are introduced to the hero and the heroine. And they are ... married. Well, what do you...

God is the source of all masculine power; God is also the fountain of all feminine allure. Come to think of it, he is the wellspring of everything that has ever romanced your heart. The thundering strength of a waterfall, the delicacy of a flower, the stirring capacity of music, the richness of wine. The masculine and the feminine that fill all creation come from the same heart. What we have sough...

Most Christians desire very deeply to be known as gracious, kind, patient, and forgiving. We feel we “owe” it to Jesus to be seen on our best behavior. This is even truer for those of us in “the ministry,” whose lives are publicly attached to Jesus. Now, some of the motivation behind this is beautiful (we’ll look at the rest in a moment). We know how horribly religion has distorted the world’s vie...

Too many men hide behind reason and logic. A man must grow beyond mere reason, or he will be stunted as a man, certainly as a lover. No woman wants to be analyzed, and many marriages fail because the man insists on treating her as a problem to be solved, rather than a mystery to be known and loved. David was a cunning tactician as a warrior, but he was also a poet of the first order. Jesus could h...

I’m thinking about love this morning. I’ve been noticing that most mornings I don’t wake up super happy, and I’m not sure why. I’ve also been noticing for some time now that when I first wake up, I find myself racing through the coming day in my mind, bracing myself for what’s required of me, but even more so searching to see if there is anything to look forward to. It’s not really voluntary. It’s...

As we seek to convert our unconverted places, and take hold of the strength that prevails, we need to bodyguard our faith and our Eden hearts back to Jesus. We turn from all other comforters — even benign things like remodeling projects and vacations — to give our heart fully to Christ. Where are we chasing life? We must make sure that this tender part of our heart belongs to Jesus. I love summer....

This is why we accept the false reverence — it’s like having a relationship with someone out of state. It doesn’t intrude into your life like a spouse or a good friend does. There is safety in the distance. We secure ourselves against a fuller experience of Jesus’ presence because he is so unnerving. There is no faking it in the presence of Jesus; there is no way we can cling to our idols and agen...

There is something mythic in the way a man is with a woman. Our sexuality offers a parable of amazing depth when it comes to being masculine and feminine. The man comes to offer his strength and the woman invites the man into herself, an act that requires courage and vulnerability and selflessness for both of them. Notice first that if the man will not rise to the occasion, nothing will happen. He...

Then from on high — somewhere in the distance there's a voice that calls — remember who you are. If you lose yourself — your courage soon will follow. (Gavin Greenaway and Trevor Horn, Sound the Bugle ) You are going to need your whole heart in all its glory for this Story you've fallen into. So, who did God mean when he meant you? We at least know this: we know that we are not what we were meant...

Allow me, then, to review what we have encountered. First, our lives are not a random series of events; they tell a Story that has meaning. We aren't in a movie we've arrived at twenty minutes late; we are in a Sacred Romance. There really is something wonderful that draws our heart; we are being wooed. But there is also something fearful. We face an enemy with vile intentions. Is anyone in charge...

I don’t think we’ve admitted to ourselves just how much belief is a choice. Some mornings you wake and feel God is near; the day looks hopeful. Next morning God seems far; the day has no color to it. For years I wrote this experience off to the ins and outs of the spiritual life, clouded by the weather of my emotions. Then Jesus began to show me something. Innumerable times in the past several yea...

The right words at the right time can prove a valuable lifeline. We thought it would be helpful to spotlight some key conversations we've had on the Wild at Heart podcast. Whether for the first time or a second pass, we hope you savor these stories and insights. Simply click on any of the titles below to begin listening. The Story You Choose No Divided Allegiances Depleted Reserves Protect the Epi...

This is the point of encountering those things in your life you cannot handle — you are forced to turn to Christ. Did you really think you could be kind for the rest of your life without the inner help of Jesus? One day of kindness is a miracle. What about forgiving? Generous? Honest? Did you really think you could overcome your lifelong strongholds without some sort of Lazarus-like breakthrough?...

As I was praying about my disappointments the other day, I noticed something lingering beneath the surface. I realized that somewhere along the way, I’d come to an agreement of sorts — I need this. Not that I want it, and very much. But that I need it. It’s a very subtle and deadly shift. One that opens the door to despair and a host of other enemies. I was coming to believe that God’s love and Go...

The book of Hebrews describes the prayer life of Jesus in the following way: “While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him” (5:7 NLT). That doesn’t sound like the way prayers are offered up in most churches on a typical Sunday morning. “Dear Lord, we thank you for this day, and we ask you to be with us in all we say an...

I (John) just let out a deep sigh. That we even need to explain how beauty is so absolutely essential to God only shows how dull we have grown to him, to the world in which we live, and to Eve. Far too many years of our own spiritual lives were lived with barely a nod to beauty, to the central role that beauty plays in the life of God, and in our own lives. How could we have missed this? Beauty is...

Our false self demands a formula before he'll engage; he wants a guarantee of success; and mister, you aren't going to get one. So there comes a time in a man's life when he's got to break away from all that and head off into the unknown with God. This is a vital part of our journey and if we balk here, the journey ends. Before the moment of Adam's greatest trial God provided no step-by-step plan,...

The religious technocrats of Jesus' day confronted him with what they believed were the standards of a life pleasing to God. The external life, they argued, the life of ought and duty and service, was what mattered. "You're dead wrong," Jesus said. "In fact, you're just plain dead [whitewashed tombs]. What God cares about is the inner life, the life of the heart" (Matt. 23:25-28). Throughout the O...

Let's come back for a moment to original glory, the glory of God given to us when we were created in his image. So much light could be shed on our lives if we would explore what we were meant to be before things started going wrong. What was it that we were created to do ? What was our original job description? God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fi...

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised. Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.” (Luke 11:37–39) Jesus has just entered this man’s home,...

It was to the most religious people of his time that Jesus spoke his strongest warnings about a loss of heart. It is tragic for any person to lose touch with the life of their heart but especially so for those of us who once heard the call in our heart and recognized it as the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. We may remember him inviting us to a life of beauty, intimacy, and adventure that we thought w...