Posted in Faith on Apr 17th, 2009 1 Comment »
Normally, we develop close friends with those we share things in common with. Unfortunately, even if we share a number of things in common, there usually are other areas where we can readily find disagreements. The very possibility of such disagreements can lead us to avoid making friends with otherwise decent people simply because we [...]
Posted in Faith on Mar 22nd, 2009 No Comments »
Lee Grady of Charisma magazine wrote a column (here) concerning evangelist Todd Bentley’s restoration from sin he now admits to. Rick Joyner, who is the lead pastor for the restoration process, responded with an email (here) that he didn’t expect would be published and sounds somewhat harsh. I have been following Rick’s video updates (here) [...]
Posted in Faith on Mar 16th, 2009 No Comments »
A friend said he wondered, “how much of ‘Christianity’ in the US is primarily cultural rather coming from a heart-devotion to Jesus?”
I was intrigued by this thought. For me, much of life is culturally determined. Not just in the U.S., but in most places and in most times. Even church has its own culture. We get [...]
Posted in Faith on Jan 3rd, 2009 No Comments »
I happened to hear a few minutes of a discussion on NPR last weekend where they were asking what wisdom is, and how does it differ from simply being smart. I’ve long liked this topic as it is one of those things that is quite difficult to define well.
Our experience tells us that there are [...]
Posted in Faith on Apr 1st, 2008 No Comments »
In part 1 of my article, “I Saw The Welsh Revival” (see here), we see that Evan Roberts was “accompanied by two young lady converts” Now why wasn’t Roberts accompanied by two “old” converts, or simply two converts for that matter? Why do so many talk about “youth” when revival is talked about?
Some call the [...]
Posted in Faith on Mar 31st, 2008 3 Comments »
A professor I know in Wisconsin has started a project for Christians to engage in dialogs on topics outside the normal range of issues typically discussed in churches. Her website describes it this way:
The GROUNDINGS PROJECT seeks to stimulate dialog, inspiration and action among Christian artists as we walk together in an authentic pursuit [...]
Posted in Faith on Mar 10th, 2008 2 Comments »
I’ve always loved a particular chapter from David Matthews, “I Saw the Welsh Revival”, taken from here, and commented on below one part at a time.
Now, it’s not easy to describe a revival. As Matthews says at the end of this chapter, “one realizes the limitations of his human vocabulary when attempting to describe these [...]
Posted in Faith on Mar 7th, 2008 No Comments »
This is part 3 in a series looking into the question of whether or not our soul and spirit are two distinct and separate “components” of our lives. The next verse I looked at was this one:
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from [...]
Posted in Faith on Mar 7th, 2008 No Comments »
Let’s look at another verse in the discussion of “spirit, soul and body”:
Luke 2:40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
Is this saying that we need emulate Jesus and grow the distinct part of us that we call our “spirit”?
Well, I take [...]
Posted in Faith on Mar 7th, 2008 No Comments »
I was unable to keep up with my blogging this week because I have been involved in a separate discussion. However, that discussion relates to something I recently wrote in my article The Code Breakers, pertaining to the subject of one’s “spirit, soul and body”:
But this is where we often miss what was truly unique [...]
Posted in Faith on Feb 29th, 2008 1 Comment »
This is an expanded version of the first article I wrote on this blog: Daniel – A Man of Light, Understanding & Wisdom.
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Dan 12:4 But you, Daniel, keep these words secret and seal the book until the time of the end…
Consider how God tells Daniel to “keep these words secret and seal the [...]
Posted in Faith on Feb 28th, 2008 No Comments »
Consider the Copernican Principle, the idea that we do not occupy a privileged position in the universe. As Fred Heeren of First Things says in an article here:
Many regard [the Copernican Principle] as a necessary axiom for the continued success of the scientific enterprise. The practice of science begins, we are [...]
Posted in Faith on Feb 27th, 2008 No Comments »
Radio talk-show host Dennis Prager recently wrote a column about some thoughts he had on the subject of love (see here). Two of his points stood out to me:
3. That is one reason the notion of “unconditional love” is foolish. The fact is, we all earn love, and it is a good thing to have [...]
Posted in Faith on Feb 25th, 2008 2 Comments »
The New York Times reported last week (see here) that a “new five-year analysis of the nation’s death rates recently released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the suicide rate among 45-to-54-year-olds increased nearly 20 percent from 1999 to 2004, the latest year studied, far outpacing changes in nearly every [...]
Posted in Faith on Feb 15th, 2008 No Comments »
Consider these words from Sarah Pierpont Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards, describing an experience she had in Northampton, Massachusetts on a Tuesday night in January of 1742 (from here):
I felt a strong desire to be alone with God, to go with him, without having any one to interrupt the silent and soft communion, which I [...]
Posted in Faith on Feb 13th, 2008 1 Comment »
Not many people have heard of the amazing journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions in the New World in the 1530’s. He was part of a fleet of five ships and 600 men who left port in Spain on June 27th, 1527, as a part of a royal expedition intended [...]
Posted in Business, Faith on Feb 7th, 2008 1 Comment »
In the high-tech industry where I work, innovation is highly valued. Where would an Apple or a Sony or a Google be without innovating totally new products or ways to do things that no one has thought of before (or thought out nearly as well)? In my business, the enemy of innovation is frequently conventional [...]
Posted in Faith on Feb 6th, 2008 No Comments »
As Christians, we are spiritual beings who should be living in God’s Kingdom — a kingdom of grace, peace, love and even the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And yet.
And yet all too often we spend our lives contained inside of a (largely) intellectual world, where we sit politely and listen quietly as the pastor [...]
Posted in Faith on Feb 4th, 2008 No Comments »
Psalms 24 is a very well known chapter in the Bible, especially these two verses…
Psalms 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor [...]
Posted in Faith on Jan 30th, 2008 No Comments »
Consider this verse:
John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.”
The Greek word for “hardened” in this verse is “poroo” which means, “to grow hard, callous, become dull, lose the [...]
