Pursuing God with Gene Appel

In any relationship where you have real influence, love sometimes means saying the hard thing. But there's a difference between correcting someone and punishing them. Punishing is about the past, making someone pay for what they did. Correcting is about the future, helping them grow. Psalm 145 reminds me that God upholds those who fall and lifts up those who are bowed down, and that's the heart behind doing this well. So speak truth calmly, not in anger. Say it quickly, before resentment buil...

If you ask people what they most want from the people closest to them, it usually comes down to one thing: to be understood. Not fixed, not corrected, not molded into someone else's image, just truly seen for who they are. This week we're drawing from Psalm 145, one of the richest portraits of God in all of Scripture, to explore what it means to love someone well. God knows exactly how each of us is formed, and He relates to us accordingly. When we take the time to understand the people we lo...

When my back is against the wall and I'm out of options, what I really believe about God gets exposed. The Israelites found that out fast, pinned between the Red Sea and an army with nowhere to run. But notice what God told them in Exodus 14:15: quit crying out, quit circling the problem, and move. He didn't take them around the thing they feared. He took them through it. And that's usually where the miracle is, on the other side of the one step we keep refusing to take. So what's the thing y...

Be honest: do you make better or worse decisions when you're afraid? Yesterday, we named three things that show up when our backs are against the wall: fear, sarcasm, and worst-case thinking. Today, we slow down and look at how they feed each other into a cycle that never takes us anywhere. Jesus put it plainly in Matthew 6:27, asking who of us can add a single hour to our life by worrying. So what would it look like to name the pattern the moment it starts? Pursuing God with Gene Appel is de...

Solomon identified five financial traps that quietly keep people stuck. Impulsiveness, buying something you don't need because the deal seemed too good to pass up. Stubbornness, refusing to follow a plan because pride gets in the way. Laziness, skipping responsibility and hoping things work out anyway. Self-indulgence, spending everything on yourself until there's nothing left. And craftiness, chasing get-rich-quick schemes instead of doing the steady work. The answer to why you never seem to...

Most people want to be generous. They see a need, feel the pull, and wish they could do something. But the money isn't there when the moment arrives. Not because their hearts are closed but because their margins are too thin. Savings changes that. When a friend hits a crisis, when someone in your church loses a job and needs help with rent, the person with reserves can respond. They can say yes when God prompts them to give instead of "I wish I could." Saving isn't just self-protection. At it...

In 1923, some of the wealthiest men in the world gathered in a Chicago hotel, collectively controlling more than the entire US Treasury. Twenty-seven years later, two had died penniless, two had been imprisoned, and three had taken their own lives. They knew how to make money. None of them ever had enough to make them happy. That tells us the question "why don't I have enough?" goes much deeper than "I don't make enough." Jesus said to be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves. Shrewd...

Moses had his doubts. Isaiah felt completely unworthy standing in the presence of God. Gideon couldn't believe the call was for him. And yet God used every one of them. Because the call was never a question of whether the project could be done. It was a question of whether their faith would let God do it through them. Doubts and hesitation are normal. But too often they become a smoke screen. We don't want to say no to God, but the uncertainty keeps us from saying yes. Here's what Isaiah disc...