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The Good, Bad and Ugly

Yesterday, we did a giveaway of Bob Goff’s new book, Love Does. I love giving stuff away, and you can enter to win through tomorrow. Unexpectedly, God really spoke to my heart through one of the comments on the post. Here is part of the comment:

Thanks for your blog. Your story and being...

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The Only One

Have you ever felt like you were the only one?

My guess is that today, at some point, The Enemy will try to convince you that you are the only one. You are all alone. No one else can relate to what you feel. No one else understands what you are going through. You are the only one.

  • You are the...
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5 Things a Dad Needs to Be

I had an amazing Father’s Day yesterday. I am so blessed with three boys that love God and love me with a love that I’ve done nothing to deserve but I cherish with all of my heart. They love me well.

If I’m honest, each of the past few years, Father’s Day has been a tough...

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Counterfeit Intimacy

I (Justin) was never taught how to develop true intimacy, never realized the spiritual aspect of intimacy and never considered there could be any deeper level of intimacy than having sex. Almost from the beginning of our marriage, I fell into the trap of withholding parts of my heart from Trisha....

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God's Not Done With You

When you grow up in church, there is really only one unpardonable sin. The Bible says that it is blasphemy, but in the church world I grew up in, it was adultery. When Trisha and I left ministry in 2005 due to my affair, I had no idea what the future held, but I was sure of one thing:

...

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The Biggest Obstacle

Throughout my life, no relationship has been spared from dysfunction. I’ve had dysfunctional friendships. I’ve had unhealthy relationships with family members. My marriage has been dysfunctional in multiple seasons in the seventeen years I’ve been married. My relationship with...

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3 Things That Fuel Insecurity

What I’ve learned over the past few years is that most of the dysfunction in my friendships; most of the problems I have with co-workers; most of the issues that I have in my marriage are driven by one thing: insecurity. Most of the time it is my own insecurity. Sometimes it is the...

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Watch Me

“Watch me. Watch me, dad!”

Last week, Trisha and I took the boys on a four day vacation to Florida.

Three boys in three different stages of life. Each with a desire to be seen.

Watch me ride these waves.

Watch me walk on my hands under water.

Watch me catch this jelly fish.

Watch...

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Without Conditions

The word, “unconditional” is an amazing word. It isn’t dependent on performance. It isn’t dependent on ability. It isn’t biased. It doesn’t have favorites. It isn’t based on what one deserves or doesn’t deserve. It can’t be earned or paid...

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Should I Stay or Should I Go

Over the past couple of years, Starbucks has become a place where I often meet with women to talk about the hard things in life.  I remember one morning sitting with a friend, both of us cupping our coffee as if it was a microphone and she began to share her story with me. Her tears fell...

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You Can't Afford Not To

Most of the time it is assumed that the biggest regret I have in our marriage is my choice to have an affair. The hurt was visible. The devastation was widespread. It must be my biggest regret. There is no doubt that I regret that choice every single day.

But the single worst mistake that...

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Mistakes that Hold You Back Part 4

Oh, if learning from our mistakes was as easy as asking “miss-know-it all” Lucy for help!

One of the biggest mistakes I (Trisha) made in our marriage was in the area of physical intimacy. I went to sex education class in 7th grade. Unfortunately, I made poor choices in high...

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Mistakes that Hold You Back Part 3

We started this blog series Monday, talking about the mistakes that we allow to creep into our marriage. These are the mistakes that probably won’t cause divorce, but they will keep us from experiencing the marriage we long for and the marriage God has in mind for us. First, we talked about...

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Mistakes that Hold You Back Part 2

We started this blog series yesterday, talking about the mistakes that we allow to creep into our marriage. These are the mistakes that probably won’t cause divorce, but they will keep us from experiencing the marriage we long for and the marriage God has in mind for us. Yesterday, we...

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Mistakes that Hold You Back

Our youngest son, Isaiah played Upward Basketball this past season. Upward is a Christ-centered athletic program that does a great job teaching the fundamentals of basketball while at the same time teaching the kids about God and sportsmanship.

To reinforce the value of sportsmanship, the league...

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Confession for Healing Not Forgiveness

I had the opportunity to speak at Cross Point on Sunday. We continued our series, Empty Promises, based on Pete’s new book. It has been a powerful series for our church, and for me personally. I talked about how easy it is to be addicted to our appearance.

Each week, we...

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