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Watch VideoWe all need to spend more time in those places.I think I feel closest to God in my truck by myself riding down the road listening to worship music; or outdoors, or when I’m fishing. I love to fish. If I am fishing by myself—nothing else around—I feel closer to God. I am praying and I am thinking.And with my family, reading The Word. That’s when I feel closest to God.And when I do something that I believe is truly best for someone else and it costs me something—I feel closer to Him.1 J …

Watch Video I think I feel farthest from God when I allow my fears to take the lead in my life, and I run down those rabbit trails of what-ifs, and then I make selfish decisions to protect myself as if I am the best protection that I have for myself, instead of trusting God. I asked my wife Tammie, “When do you feel farthest from God?” She said, “I don’t ever feel far from God.” I said, “That’s awesome, but when do you feel the farthest from God?” She said, “You know, it is wheneve …

Watch VideoWhat are you meditating on and why are you meditating? There are a whole lot of people meditating right now who are, but unfortunately most of them are trying to create an experience. They are trying to call something up or call something down or create an environment that makes them feel better. If you’re doing that and something shows up, you need to run. And I don’t mean just run out of the room. You need to run—run from that kind of meditation. The only thing you should ever be me …

Watch VideoIt’s modern psychology that teaches this idea that we need to forgive ourselves. It also teaches that we need to forgive others for ourselves. Neither one of those is the truth. My forgiveness is not for me, but for you and for others. Just imagine I do something incredibly offensive to you, and I come back the next day and say, “Oh, by the way, I forgave myself.” You did what? That is not how it works. I don’t have the power to forgive myself. So, quit trying to forgive yourself. Wel …

Watch VideoThere are a couple ways to do this. You can just take it or you can manipulate it out of them. The problem is that what you think you want isn’t what you need. If you get what you need, you’re never going to want anymore. Getting what you want from people doesn’t fill you, it only empties you. We see this all the time: people who have anything and everything anyone could ever want. And they feel empty. Here’s why. …

WATCH VIDEOThere is only a couple of ways people manipulate. The one that we all recognize quickly, and the most common way is: if you don’t do this for me, I won’t do this for you; and if you don’t give me what I want, these will be the consequences. But I think the worst kind of manipulation is a love-based manipulation. It is not really love, but it pretends to be. It is very soft-spoken. It is very patient. It is very kind. It pretends to be truthful and pretends to be protecting you. But n …

WATCH VIDEOThis is a question I get a lot. The Bible is not actually in chapters, it’s in books. There are several different books divided into chapters and verses. But hands down, if you ask me, there is no question that you should start with the book of John. Or, as it is called—the Gospel of John. God’s Word is our instruction manual for how we should live this life. Jesus is our example. Jesus is like the picture. You look at the picture first. John paints a picture of who Jesus is …

WATCH VIDEO …is that I mislead you; that I wake up one day and realize that I misled thousands of people on social media; that I misled thousands of people by writing a book; and--even worse--that I misled my own family because I didn’t believe the truth. What concerns me the most is that I have a hard time finding any major social media influencers I agree with, or even any modern authors, who I agree with. So, if you think I am wrong, please let me know. I embrace criticism. I want cr …

WATCH VIDEO This may change the way you see everything. It did for me. The world says that unless you love yourself, you can’t love anyone else. And the world’s example used most often is this: You are on an airplane and the oxygen goes away. The masks drop down… Unless you put your mask on first, you can’t help anyone else put their mask on. So, unless you love yourself first, how are you ever going to love anyone else. Sounds like a pretty good point. But here is where it breaks do …

Did you know that if we allow someone to keep hurting us it's never because we love them? If we really love them, we only desire what is truly best for them. And we all know it is not best for them to be hurting people. If we really love them, we’ll make sure they know they are hurting us. Then we will ask them why they are hurting us. Then we will do anything in our power to stop them from hurting us or anyone else.  I understand we don’t control what other people do but we do control whet …