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New Devotionals!
Will We Choose Love Or Hate?
In Matthew 5:21-22 (NLT), Jesus says this:
21 “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ 22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.
In Jesus’ eyes, hate is as heinous a sin as murder. So, I’m asking myself and I’m asking you, my brothers and sisters: Are we who call ourselves followers of Christ guilty of murder?
On September 10th, 2025, Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at an event in Utah. On the same day, there was another school shooting in Colorado, where 2 students were shot. In the same week, Israeli military operations in Gaza, Yemen, and Qatar killed over 110 people, including some civilians. Also, in the same week, a Russian airstrike killed 24 elderly Ukrainians collecting pensions, and Tommy Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom” rally, attended by over 110,000 people, saw 26 police officers injured. (Sources: CPR News, Al Jazeera, MSN, Democracy Now, The Telegraph)
In the face of all of this death, I find myself becoming alarmingly numb to the loss of life. I’m also observing the surge of emotions going through my heart as I see the comments on social media in response to Charlie Kirk’s death, and I’m asking myself: Am I guilty of murder? I may not have killed anyone, but am I just as guilty of contributing to the violence in this world?
In the same sermon in Matthew 5, Jesus said (NLT):
9 God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.
And:
43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.
Our very identity as children of God is not that of a warrior fighting for Christian values through political power or social media influence. The image of the Christian hero battling a human enemy is absent from Jesus’ teachings and example. Jesus taught and modelled not an earthly power struggle but a love that sacrificially persists in the face of hatred, persecution, and even violence.
We have become embroiled in an unholy battle. Whether we fight through social media tirades, in-person debates, political rallies, or online watch lists, we must disentangle ourselves, repent, and get back to the foundation of Christianity – love.
The very first step in loving one another is listening. We need to really listen with our hearts to those with whom we disagree and put ourselves in their shoes. We don’t have to agree with them, but if we are to be peacemakers, we must be willing to empathize with them.
It doesn’t matter where we most naturally lean toward on the political spectrum; the people on the other side are human just like us. They are human beings looking for love, acceptance, and respect.
I firmly believe that the key to de-escalating most of the social conflict in the world today is the eradication of shaming. Nobody likes to be told that they are bad people. Nobody. The activism of the LGBTQ+ community and pro-choice activists is, I believe, at the root, a response to decades of shame. They have been told repeatedly in many different ways that they are bad. That is not how God sees them, and as Christians, it was our job to love them, and in the main, we failed. We failed, and Satan stepped into the void to create bitterness, resentment, anger, and hatred.
It is the same with people of colour in America. We have been told for decades that we are less than the white man. Again, the Christians of European heritage who were supposed to love their brothers and sisters of African heritage have largely failed. Sometimes their silence in the face of our suffering has been deafening. Again, Satan has stepped into the void to the point that there is now a pervasive layer of anger in the heart of much of the black community toward white people.
However, more recently, the pendulum has swung the other way. The shame finger has been pointed at males, particularly the white male, and those who hold to conservative values. I wonder if, at the heart of white nationalism, is a desperate cry to stop being told that everything about the Western white man is bad. Maybe the whitewashing of the museums and educational system is just a cry to be told something good and noble about their heritage. We, the black Christian community, have also failed to love the white man. And again, Satan is stepping into the void as we speak.
‘You are bad’ is not a message anyone of any race, gender, or sexual orientation wants to hear pounded into them over and over again. And more importantly, it is not a Godly message. It is, however, exactly what the evil one wants to pound into our hearts. It is a tactic with one goal in mind – death and destruction.
But THIS is the battle, my brothers and sisters, that we must fight – the battle to love every person no matter who they are, what they believe, the values they have, or the background that they come from, with unconditional love. Can we tell people about their goodness? I’m not saying to hide the truth, but can we also remind people of the best of themselves?
Can we arise with such radical love as this for our enemies? We are the only ones who can! Jesus Christ – Love – lives in us! We can say to the women and men, blacks and whites, immigrants and nationals, straight and gay, cisgender and transgender, conservatives and liberals that maybe we don’t see eye to eye on some issues, but we want to understand your perspective… and even if we have to agree to disagree, we still LOVE YOU unconditionally as a precious human being made in God’s image!
So, as I watch my social media feeds fill with an escalation of hatred in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death… as the keyboard warriors double down on their positions… I want to leave you with this: The choice my brothers and sisters, for us… (not for the world) …but for us as ambassadors of Christ… is not between liberal or conservative but between hatred or love of our enemies. That is the only choice that is important; the only choice that has the power to overcome the real enemy of our souls and change the world.
There is hope, and that Hope resides in us!
Reflections On Christian Leadership With Henri Nouwen Part 2
To start my second instalment of this blog, here is the quote from In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri Nouwen that resonated with me:
“Somehow we have come to believe that good leadership requires a safe distance from those we are called to lead. Medicine, psychiatry, and social work all offer us models in which “service” takes place in a one-way direction. Someone serves, someone else is served, and be sure not to mix up the roles! But how can we lay down our life for those with whom we are not even allowed to enter into a deep personal relationship? Laying down your life means making your own faith and doubt, hope and despair, joy and sadness, courage and fear available to others as ways of getting in touch with the Lord of life. We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for. The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God. Therefore true ministry must be mutual.
Oh, how I feel these words in my bones! In my area of interest, discipleship, I have become totally disinterested in preaching, teaching, and ministry that is devoid of the minister vulnerably opening his/her soul to his/her brothers and sisters. I have little interest in your expositions on Moses or Elijah or Paul, but I am keenly interested in how these Biblical examples intersect with the outworking of your personal salvation. I am not interested in what you read. I am interested in what you are living. It has almost become an obsession of mine – a search for a people on fire for God who are willing to live in mutuality and vulnerability.
I have generally found that the discipleship model in the church is a teacher-student/s or mentor-mentee/s relationship where the teacher or mentor is the expert who takes the student/s under his/her wing. All of the learning is assumed to be one-way. The student bares all the intimate details of her soul, while the teacher gives wise advice and remains closed and inaccessible.
What did Jesus say? He called His disciples friends on account of the fact that He wanted a more mutual relationship – one where He shared His plans with them (John 15:15). Jesus even invited three of His disciples to be with Him in His moment of deepest travail in the garden of Gethsemane.
I am thirsty for a space where disciples gather together to seek Jesus in heart-to-heart community. Where the numbers are small, the sharing is deep, and nobody is trying to fix me, save me, or heal me. I long to get together with a small group of individuals who are on fire for Jesus, hungry to seek Him with all their heart… but who are also hungry to be knit heart-to-heart with their brothers and sisters.
My wife and I have embarked on a bold experiment to create spaces such as these. This is what shapes the way we do our workshops and, more recently, what birthed our discipleship groups. It was first a desire that we had for community for ourselves before it was a desire to provide community for others. We get as much, or more, from our workshops as we give.
All true ministry is mutual. All true ministry comes from a relationship with our fellow man that, at the deepest level, recognizes the other as of equal value. We are all students, and there is one Teacher. We are all in the same boat. The minute we see ourselves as higher than the other is the minute we step out of the heart of Christ, who emptied Himself of the glory of heaven and became a man like us in order to save us. Who came down to our level and lifted us up with Him. Who took the lower position of a servant to mankind as the path to ministry and influence.
Reflections on Christian Leadership with Henri Nouwen Part 1
I recently picked up one of my favourite books to read AGAIN – In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri Nouwen. It is one of those books where the impact of the truths contained in it is not diminished with repetition. This time, particular parts of it collided with my current experience with such eye-widening relevance that my impulse to process and memorialize in writing was aroused.
I will start this mini-series with the first quote that struck me from the book:
“But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relavistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.”
“Willing to confront without being offensive”. This phrase aptly describes the crux of my current struggle at work. I’m pretty good at the confront part (and there was a time I did not know how to confront people), but I am not as good at the not being offensive part.
If I’m honest, I have been bad at this for a very long time. But I feel like there comes a time when God says, “OK, you cannot take this malformation any further. You need to work on this now.” Or maybe there comes a time when one has the maturity and tools to deal with the problem. Either way, I know I have to deal with this in this season.
Actually, and this just came to me: Nouwen points to intimacy with God as the enablement to walk this line of confrontation without offense, and it is quite probable that I did not have the level of intimacy with Christ that I now have to be able to cross this hurdle. (Ahh, the therapeutic gift of writing.)
The way I see it, the challenge is to be able to authentically say to someone, “I think what you are doing is bad,” without saying, “I think you are bad.” This is not easy, at least not for me. I never shout or curse or demean people, but my wife says, “Just because you say something in a soft voice doesn’t mean that you are not being harsh.”
Honestly, I thought it did mean that I wasn’t being harsh! I mean, c’mon… I don’t curse… I don’t raise my voice… I’m always polite, even when people are impolite and raise their voice at me. What more do you want? Well… as it turns out, what God wants is nothing less than loving my ‘enemies’ even while confronting them. That goes heart deep, below actions, below words, below tone… deeper.
That kind of love can only come from intimacy with Love. Love must dwell in me. Overflow from me. It must be felt. Holy Spirit, help me. I write today not as one having mastered love but as one in the throes of struggle to become more like Jesus and often getting it wrong. I have no advice to offer.
I offer only the consolation of knowing that if you struggle too, you are not alone. Pray for me as I pray for you: Jesus, for every one of your disciples who reads this, give them the gift of a deeper encounter with your ferocious, unrelenting, cleansing, healing, breathtaking love. As they wrestle in their souls, may all malice, bitterness, envy, and unforgiveness die by the power of the cross! May love win the day! May their hearts burn for you and may your love emanate from their lives, from the very centre of their Jesus-enflamed hearts.
Amen.
Training Versus Trying Part 5 – Community
Welcome to the last instalment of our Training Versus Trying series! Today we are talking about Community.
A training approach recognizes that as spiritual athletes, we grow fastest when we train with others. However, it is a particular type of community that we need to grow. One that is not very common. When we think of community in a church setting, we normally think of the brothers and sisters with whom we attend church or maybe those who are a part of a ministry that we serve in.
However, the type of community that I am talking about is a training community – a small circle of people with whom we share our inner lives. It is a community committed to walking together in pursuit of God without trying to fix, or save, or advise each other. Often, as Christians, we try to force our training regimen on everyone else without honoring the unique person that they are and the unique work that God is doing in their lives.
This is something I have with very few people. Most Christians, in my experience, do not have deep conversations about the things that matter, or if they do, it is in the context of giving advice or holding each other accountable. Some even think it is their job to condemn and shame. However, what I have found is that what most people need is actually just a safe space to talk about the deep inner things that truly matter without being judged, reproached, corrected, or Bible-verse-slapped. In a supportive and safe environment such as this, there exists the ideal conditions for God to speak. Or to stick with our analogy, for God to coach us as a group.
I’m not saying that God cannot use another person to correct us or to give us feedback where we may have a blind spot. He does use people in our lives like that. I’m saying that in a training community, that is a small part of why we get together, and it is accomplished more indirectly through vulnerable sharing, asking each other probing questions, and discerning God’s voice together.
In a community of Christians-in-training there is safety and freedom to talk about what new training techniques we are trying, what is not working, and what we are working through with our Coach. In that kind of community, we are celebrated, encouraged, inspired, and supported. In that kind of community, we can give a voice to our soul and hear the heart of others in ways that bring redemption, healing, and transformation.
Well, we have come to the end of this little series. I hope it has been helpful to you.
Train well, my fellow disciples of Christ!
Training Versus Trying Part 4 – Coaching
A training mindset approaches our relationship with the Holy Spirit like a coach who is deeply invested in and committed to our growth. We have a coach who longs to be a partner in our progressive sanctification.
Remember those moments of reflecting on our failure that we mentioned earlier? Well, those moments are also an opportunity to process with God. This is powerful. The Holy Spirit knows you better than you know yourself and knows how to help you to grow like no one else does!
If we can release ourselves from the guilt and shame that often keeps us from approaching God and realize that He sees us through eyes of deep compassion, then we can unlock a level of healing and wisdom that is simply transformative.
Every time I have brought my darkest desires (the ones I would never even voice), my deepest fears, or my most shameful thoughts to God, it has resulted in something transformative. (Even if it has simply been a revelation of just how loving and compassionate God is.)
All champions know that a coach is essential to their success. A coach sees the potential in us that we don’t see in ourselves. A coach also sees the barriers to our progress that we don’t have the wisdom or objectivity to see. He can see when our stride is too long or when our follow-through is an issue. In like manner, the Holy Spirit knows what to target to move us forward and how to encourage and motivate us in a language we can relate to.
Up next, community!
Training Versus Trying Part 3 – Roots Not Shoots
Someone training for a marathon may need to focus on their diet, mindset, and breathing to get to the desired outcome. It is the same with our spiritual growth. To achieve the behavioural outcome we desire, we must address deeper issues like our mindsets, identity, beliefs, and values.
Often, we can become too sin-focused, which results in the very opposite of what we are trying to achieve. Obsessing over not doing something is the worst way to approach our growth. Instead, we need to find the roots of the issue and put a holistic training program in place.
For example, say I have a problem with over-eating. A trying mindset will be all about focusing on controlling how much I eat. However, the roots of my struggle may involve issues with my identity, stress coping mechanisms, and the relationships in my life. Therefore, a trying mindset will be ineffective and frustrating because all the underlying causes (the roots) remain untouched.
Training often seems unrelated to the outcome we desire, like the Karate Kid painting walls to learn karate. However, it is actually addressing the roots that impact the entire tree of your life.
Next, we discuss how a coach is essential to training.
See you then!
Training Versus Trying Part 2 – Self-Compassion
The first element of a training mindset is self-compassion.
A training mindset recognizes that we are all imperfect beings on a path of sanctification and healing. We are all works in progress. There is no benefit to beating yourself up when you fail. God does not beat us up when we fail. He meets us with mercy and compassion. So, why shouldn’t we do the same?
This is extremely difficult to grasp when in many religious circles we equate a self-compassionate approach as being compromising or soft on sin. But it does not have to be. We can maintain an uncompromising view of sin while being gentle on ourselves. Our aim is progress, not perfection.
When we have a compassionate view of ourselves, it frees us to learn from failure. And this is one of the huge superpowers of a training mindset – every failure becomes an opportunity to learn about ourselves and what is not working in our training programme. This is so critical for real growth. When we give in to a temptation, if we can carefully examine the thoughts and emotions that led us to the sin without turning away in shame, then we gain the insights needed to heal and grow. Without these insights, we will never truly grow. Without these insights, the most we can hope for is to cope, never to overcome.
Self-compassion enables us to move from hiding and repression to exploration and discovery of the root causes of our afflictions. But that’s for the next instalment…
See you then!
Training Versus Trying Part 1
One of the concepts that we teach at Authentic Joy is the idea that in pursuing spiritual growth we need to have a training mindset not a trying mindset. We often use the metaphor of running a marathon to explain. In the metaphor, the ‘marathon’ is that challenge in your life that you are trying to overcome. Some examples are impatience, unforgiveness, pornography, a short temper, anxiety, racial prejudice or over-eating.
A trying mindset would be like waking up on the day of the marathon and saying, “Today I will finish this marathon! God says I’m more than a conqueror!” And so, we set off to try our best to complete the marathon… without training. Our determination and grit may get us halfway there, but without putting in the training, we inevitably end up face down in a puddle of sweat and tears.
A training mindset, on the other hand, would be like waking up every morning and training for the marathon. Training prioritizes consistency and progress over the end result. It embraces learning from failure as a necessary pathway to growth.
One of the most damaging things about a trying mindset is the cycle of guilt and shame that results when we do not achieve our goal. This has been one of the most difficult mindsets to change in my own life. In the areas where I struggle with an ongoing sin issue, every time I fall, my tendency is to beat myself up and wallow in shame. Then, to comfort myself, I end up even deeper in self-destructive behaviours. When I finally muster up the courage to go back to God in repentance (again), it resembles something like this: “This time, this time, I mean it God. This time I will stay the course.” And so, the cycle begins again. With no real plan, change is unlikely.
A training mindset has the potential to break this cycle, but there are several components to the approach that need to be implemented:
- Self-compassion
- Roots not shoots
- Coaching
- Community
I will unpack each of these facets of the training mindset in this series.
See you for the next instalment!
Navigating A Global Deep Fake Distopia
This week, I went to the movies to see Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning with my kids (spoiler alert). In the movie, The Entity (an AI entity) takes control of the world’s digital media. No one can know what is true or fake. Frankly, it felt more like a peek into the near future than a work of fiction. I began to wonder if (or when) truth was such an elusive commodity, how would I navigate my world? How would we all?
A phrase came to me:
“If we are not led by the Spirit we will not survive what is coming.”
It hit me like a ton of bricks. For years, I have been advocating the need for the church to be able to hear the voice of God, but I suddenly realized that the time of reckoning was at hand. Those who had not invested in intimacy with God would be hapless victims of the deceptions of this age.
In a reality where you cannot tell fact from fiction by any natural means, only the supernatural voice of God can guide.
If we are honest, we’ve already been infiltrated. For years, we have been conditioned to believe whatever comes across our screen once it jives with what we want to hear. Many Christians have been navigating life by the equation: truth = what I want to believe. It’s plain to see in US politics, at least for an outsider like me. I can tune into the feeds from two or more different Christian groups and hear the most passionate, convincing, and diverse descriptions of what the truth really is behind anything from riots to legislation to President Trump’s motives.
Brothers and sisters, if you do nothing else in this season in your life, invest in developing your ability to hear God’s voice and direction for your life. It is the only lifeline that we have.
John 16:13 (ESV)
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
A time is coming and is already here when truth will be a scarce commodity. The ability to navigate life via reason and logic will be cut out from under us. How can we know what to choose when the choices may be fact or fiction? How can we plan a course of action when we have no idea if our data on what is real can be trusted? Even applying Biblical principles will be of little use if we are not sure of the facts of the situation that we are applying them to.
In those times, only those who can truly hear from God and be guided by the Spirit of truth will stand. Take heed.
Reporting to you live from the edge of the precipice of deception.
Blessings,