Religion can be one of the greatest impediments to finding God.

Abraham is such a fascinating figure. Three world religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - all claim him as a patriarch. He was raised in a religious home. And yet he rejected religion in order to pursue a personal relationship with God.

If God can bring blessing from the broken body of Jesus and glory from something that's obscene as the cross, He can bring blessing from my problems and my pain and my unanswered prayer.

I believe that God has a plan and purpose not only for the human race, but for my individual life.

It has been religious people, often within the organized church, who have been the most critical of and even hostile to my relationship with God.

Are you facing a superheated furnace? What God wants is for you to look full in the face of Jesus. Get your focus off whatever it is that appears to be unanswered and focus on the Son.