Unashamed no more.

At first blush I would look at my life, and comparatively speaking wonder at all the things I am missing out on? I could go into detail and list all the things that I have not yet achieved, but this would be a lie because over the past year, there has been many things that I have done! The question I want to ask myself at this point is "What do you have to do, to be called a man?" Don't feel underappreciated ladies, you can ask yourself the same question. Status and status updates have been the way that I communicated to others how I am feeling, and how I am doing. I am sure you can relate. Just what is on your mind? This question is becoming harder and harder to answer, as I turn 44 this year. Birthdays are a time of great joy for me, I take great pride in turning one year older and I am not ashamed of telling people that.

I don't like to hide my age because I feel that with age comes wisdom and experience. When we flip flop around in life, I really don't think it is our fault as humans. Life can become complicated at times, and that is why I like to believe in grace. Two very important realities in my life right now are grace and compassion. Christianity likes to throw around the word grace, but it has lost it's true meaning over the decades. I don't think that grace can be described like it used to, and that is too bad. I don't think we need to redefine the word, I just think we need to take it more seriously. When God gives us grace, it is a precious gift. Compassion on the other hand must be fought for at times. The church is fighting for doctrine (which is right!) but they also must be fighting for compassion and truth!

Finding the balance is very hard now, and if people are to wake up, it will be their own doing. When someone is asleep, a metaphor for ignorance, we must show them compassion. Finding out what we believe or what the church believes at this point, would just confuse the matter (let me explain.) When we are deceived, or have a mistaken belief about our identity, we don't need people telling us who we are! It just won't help to tell people what the bible says, if 'lets say' they are lacking food! We must feed that hungry person first and then if they are up to it, we can take them to church with us!

Another way of saying it is, compassion comes before grace! When we meet someone who is blind, do we scoff and laugh at them? No, we show them compassion! Anyone in their right mind would agree. So when I am lost in life, or my brother or sister is lost, it doesn't mean that I am lost too. I might have been found many years ago and am just waiting for the opportunity to show someone the way home. This is Mike.

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The Parable of the Ten Virgins.

Matthew 25:1-13 I have discovered a remarkable interpretation of this parable that I would like to share with you. The story in the Bible goes like this: “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy som...

Age of Brokenness.

We are living in an age of brokenness, no matter what age you are, you probably have been touched with relationships falling apart, which causes more and more people to live in isolation. In this generation there is less of an incentive to heal and reconcile relationships, but that doesn’t excuse the amount of people who are broken. Why people don’t seem to be motivated to heal relationships is because our beliefs about faith and God have changed, really giving us less of an incentive to do what our religion says. If I act from my personal beliefs, but the person that I am responding to has abandoned religious beliefs, than the response to my wanting things to be better can be misinterpreted and rejected then by someone else. Generally when a society has expectations about broken relationships, loneliness and isolation, and the beliefs are generally accepted, society becomes a more compassionate society, because all value the same things. When religious values are undermined and ...

The Biblical Meaning of “Life in the Spirit.”

“Life in the Spirit” is an example that the Apostle Paul gives in the book of Romans starting in chapter 5 and going through to chapter 8. He begins by telling us we are justified by faith (5:1), and have gained access by faith into the grace of God (5:2). We have been delivered from God’s wrath (5:9) and we have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son (5:10). He goes on to explain that through Adam all die (5:12), and that the free Gift of God brings justification and righteousness to the believing sinner (5:15-17). Through our conversion we are baptized into Christ and into his death, which frees us from the law and makes us dead to sin (6:2-4). He explains that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we are given new life in Christ (6:4). Our old unregenerate self was crucified with Christ so that our body of sin might be done away with (6:5-6). Because we have died to sin, we now submit ourselves to God being that we are now under grace, not the law (6:8-1...

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