The Super Blogosphere of a parallel word.

Pastors and leaders are getting frustrated because they are overworked, and overwhelmed with their jobs. Being a religious minister is appealing for some and in the christian religion the appeal to save souls for Christ can be a strong motivation to serve in the ministry. Whatever your calling is in life, it takes hard work to succeed and there is no guarantee that you will be living out your "calling" for the rest of your life. But this is where most of us are now or somewhere where we want to be in the future. There is no greater delight than taking pride in your work, but if you are a minister or a leader in a church, where do you find the motivation or momentum to keep doing what you are doing? To be motivated in the right way, requires that you know internally what drives you and what you are working for? I am learning from a mentor that if you find a job, external motivation (Things like rewards, fame, accolades, and making a name for yourself) will eventually fall

I actually stumbled across the practice of mindfulness one day, after coming across a podcast on iTunes called "The New Psychology of Depression." It was like a second awakening for me as I discovered the book "The Mindful Way through Depression." The practice of MBCT (Mindfulness based Cognitive Therapy) became something I wanted to explore personally, which I did on my own. Mindfulness literally brought me back from the meditation grave which died with me back in 1999 after being diagnosed with clinical depression. Clinical depression is something that is very serious, and I have been living with this for 18 years. With no cure, or healing in sight, what I did know was that before my diagnoses I loved to meditate. When I became depressed, I lost the ability to have a constantly calm mind, and it was frustrating that I couldn't meditate. My attempts to find God again, were attempts to rediscover a peace that I once knew all too well. That I felt was still a p

Some might think that the body in the christian realm is more important than the soul? While we live in a physical body, Christians believe that when the body dies the soul goes into the presence of the Lord. My argument here is that the soul and the body are just as important. In the Catholic mass, when we celebrate the Eucharist, we are partaking in the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. While he was on earth, Jesus gave us his life in exchange for our sins. The purpose for his death was so that we can be forgiven! The catholic mass celebrates Jesus' death on the cross for our forgiveness, and we partake through the Eucharist in his life death and resurrection. The Eucharist is a celebration for sinners, and saints who are in communion with the church and the purpose is to make us holy. That is why God wants us to be prepared to celebrate the mass, because the more we are prepared to receive Jesus the more God can help us to become holy. The bib

the plan of salvation. A long time ago, a Roman Jailer asked of the Apostle Paul the most important question that could ever be asked, “ What must I do to be saved? ” Paul’s answer was immediate, to the point, clear, and concise. He said “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, and your house. ” (Acts 16:30-31) That’s how simple it actually is. A man named Nicodemus pretty much asked Jesus the same question. Jesus answered him by saying, “ You must be born again ” (John 3:1-8) EVERYONE are sinners. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that “ All have sinned and have come short of the Glory of God .” That means that everyone has sinned. We are born sinners, in desperate need of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, there are no exceptions to this. That means you and me, and all others for that matter. Paul also said in Romans 6:23, “ The wages of sin is death! ”   So that means that unless something is done about this terrible situat

Everything is subject to Time, and is relative to change. A saying my father said to me when I was growing up has taken on deeper meaning for me in the twenty first century. The idea that our fate is sealed, and that there is nothing we can do about it is a defeatist proposition. The idea that things are fixed comes from our culture and popular movies like Jesus Christ Superstar in the scene when Pontius Pilate is questioning Jesus and his response is "everything is fixed." He might have been referring to the sovereign will of God, where God determines the outcome of all human events. But within the epoch of time, there is constant change within our universe because we live in the space time continuum. Everything is subject to time means that we cannot just escape the drive of history, but we are caught in the passage of time and the effects that time has on our environment, ourselves, and the way we think/act/live and our bodies. The way that everything is relative to chan

Consequences are the things that usually keep us from doing really stupid things. If life had no consequences there would be constant anarchy. It is hard not to feel sometimes that we are living in a crazy world. Political leaders instead of showing humility, are showing brazen arrogance and are failing to lead their people into a safe world, a world that I new all too well growing up. What I feel is an abuse of power, just might be political pride as I am becoming oversensitive to the lack of peace in the world right now. It takes herculean faith these days to have faith these days, and keep your mind and body in a state of rest. It shouldn't be this way. Everyone is connected in this world, whether we like it or not, and sin is at an epidemic level that I sometimes wonder how God in Heaven feels about this period in history. History and religion has seen it's fare share of abuse, but when people don't feel safe at night in their own homes, because presidents and religio

Compassion, a word that carries with it feelings of love and security. When we were children, and we saw a bird with a broken wing on the side of the road, my first instinct was to care for that bird, but being a child, I needed to find someone bigger than me to help. I remember a time, when a sick animal possibly a bird was badly injured in my parent's backyard. I remember the feeling I got when we buried this animal in our back yard. It was a feeling of sorrow, and coming from a loving home, these childhood experiences fostered deep compassion, not just for others, but for myself as well. I just recently watched "Self Compassion with Kristin Neff" on YouTube, and surprisingly agreed wholeheartly with everything she was saying. I would like to consider myself as a compassionate person, but as I am learning when we have compassion for others and not ourselves, it can very easily lead to hatred of yourself and burnout. When you are in a position of caring for someone, yo

Go to any of their websites and you will discover Harvest's model for discipleship. I was a member of a Harvest Bible Chapel for about six years, and being out of work for a long time and also entertaining thoughts of being a paid minister of the gospel, a Pastor there told me there, "Mike you don't have to have a degree to serve the Lord!" When I heard these words, I was excited at the prospect of actually serving God without any formal education. What Pastor Ed didn't tell me was that you can serve the Lord without a degree, but you won't ever get paid for it. During my time there as a volunteer minister , I worked extremely hard. I remember friends telling me, "Mike you are working again?" they couldn't understand my dedication to this church, and why I was spending so much of my time and my talent for many years without getting paid! What I came to understand, is that any church cannot function without a healthy volunteer base. Many of