April 21, 2026
Bring It to Me
A devotional reminder from Matthew 14 and a broken-lighthouse story: when you feel overwhelmed, embarrassed, or beyond repair, God’s answer is gracious and steady—“Bring it to me.”
Articles for tag: Brokenness
April 4, 2022
April 10 | Discovery
In Luke 7:36-50, what change in Simon’s perspective or beliefs was Jesus trying to achieve through his parable and subsequent three comparisons of Simon and the woman?
Unbroken
By Beau Bruton Sometimes people talk about the “broken body” of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As horrible as what Jesus went through, to say his body was “broken” is incorrect when taken literally. The Bible describes specifically what happened shortly after Jesus died: Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came
May 7, 2019
Marcus: Choosing to Love
By Jon Wren Nobody came to his first birthday party. He spent it alone in a wing designed for medically fragile infants in a hospital room in Northern Indiana. Marcus was born 3 months premature, weighing 1 pound, to a heroin-addicted mother who left him at the hospital as an orphan. He suffered from multiple medical complications, could not breathe on his own, and wasn’t expected to ever learn how to talk. Truth be told, doctors didn’t expect Marcus to live to see his 2nd birthday. But not long after, Marcus had a visitor, a 56-year-old nurse named Kelly. She
February 24, 2016
Safety
By Jim Tune A word has been on my mind lately. I”ve been thinking about what it means for me personally, and as a preacher. The word: safety. I encountered the word in an excellent book, Crucial Conversations. “In order to speak honestly when honesty could easily offend others, we have to find a way to maintain safety,” the book says. “When it”s safe, you can say anything.” We often focus on the content of our conversations, but content isn”t usually what makes or breaks relationships. Safety is. Feeling safe allows us to talk about difficult things and to speak
September 1, 2015
Chasing after Integrity
By Mark A. Taylor The October issue of CHRISTIAN STANDARD is devoted to the theme of integrity. As we finish making final corrections before sending it to the printer this week, I know it contains some of the best material we”ve ever published. Surely the issue will prompt soul-searching in every reader. In a world characterized by concern for image management more than private goodness, even Christians too often fail to walk their talk. But a question has come to me in recent days that we do not consider in those pages. What do we do with integrity failures we
April 11, 2015
Way Better
By Steve Wyatt You probably wouldn”t have liked the man I once was””though you might”ve been impressed by my résumé. I certainly was! I sang my first solo at 6, taught a seventh-grade Bible class at 15, preached my first sermon at 16, and was a youth pastor at 19. I served as senior pastor of a multistaff church at 23, and wrote two books by my early 30s while leading a church of 200 to more than 3,500! And all God”s people said . . . ? Big whoop. Back in my former life, I was on most short
Preaching from the Bible and the Heart
By Jim Tune Many debate the level of vulnerability preachers should exercise from the pulpit. If you share too much, you risk sounding self-absorbed. If you never share any personal stories, you may appear inauthentic or aloof. My experience is that most audiences embrace people who are willing to share their story, particularly those parts that reveal the preacher as an imperfect person, with whom others can identify. To be clear, I”m not suggesting this as an “approach” to preaching. Nor should it be considered a public speaking “method.” If vulnerability in the pulpit is contrived, a perceptive congregation will
October 29, 2014
Rest
By Jim Tune Luke tells the story of a prostitute who was so desperate to see Jesus that she crashed a dinner party at a Pharisee”s house. Moved by Jesus” love for people like her, she began to sob, drenching his feet with her tears. Finally, she was embarrassed by her own lack of inhibitions. She started to dry Jesus” feet with her hair, and then, overcome with emotion, she kissed them and bathed them in perfume. This scene made everyone uncomfortable. To the Pharisees, her actions seemed inappropriate, scandalous, sensual. The host expressed his outrage, saying to himself, “If
October 8, 2014
Capitulating to Grace
By Jim Tune It”s hard to get enough of something that almost works. Most people who have tried religion discover this sooner or later. I know this. I”ve tried life on the gerbil wheel of good works, knowing the futility yet running relentlessly to earn approval. Heaven knows I”ve tried””and still do. Reaching midlife and realizing I still fall far short has, in some ways, been a healthy discovery. I have not “arrived” spiritually; in fact, I”m as far away as I”ve ever been. That said, I”m not quite ready to capitulate to the demands of the flesh. Instead, I”m
September 21, 2013
30 Years, 50 Elders, 2 Lessons
By Jon Walker Which of these two lessons, if fully learned, could most help the elders at your church do their job more effectively and bring the greatest glory to God? Lesson 1: The RATS Formula One of the first elders I worked with said the life of a church is full of change, which is challenging because change changes things, and changing things can cause people to feel like they”re losing something, and when people lose something they grieve, and grief is not a widely celebrated emotion. That is why a congregation may look askance at change, even
Interview with David Clark
By Brad Dupray David Clark”s July 1 message at the North American Christian Convention was, “Grace that Heals,” a sermon aiming to help those who are carrying scars and pain of unresolved conflicts. At the end of his message, he invited people to bring their brokenness before God in a time of prayer for healing. In his 28 years as lead pastor of Central Christian Church in Beloit, Wisconsin, Clark has seen his church grow, not just in numbers, but in amazing outreach to the community. He and his wife of 35 years, Deby, have been blessed with four children,
