The Super Blogosphere of a parallel word.

Ok, so Christmas is officially over. How did you celebrate it? Not everybody had family or friends to go through the Christmas season with and because of our fast culture I am beginning to feel that some of us actually missed the true spirit or meaning of the season. The term drive-through Christmas is coming to me right now, a great way to take the air out of the energy that Christmas holds for some people. Now, the term jaded is coming to me right now and the last thing I want to do is create a bleak picture of how Christmas should have been. To get sentimental, would be to get emotional, but there is nothing wrong with having a healthy emotional life. What makes us humans are our emotions, and the Creator want us to have healthy emotions. What happens when people shut down their happiness to please others, or to not cause conflict in the family, is that they seem strange to others in the family because what makes one person happy, really annoys another. Christmas is a season of good...

 Christ came for the poor and lowly. God choose to leave Heaven's riches and became a human being for us, in the person of Jesus Christ. I have been listening to sermons throughout this Christmas season and being mindful of the story of the birth of Jesus and what the bible has to say about it. One of the stories that has been in my mind is the Angels announcing the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds keeping watch of their sheep by night, (Luke 2:8-14) And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night . 9 An angel of the LORD appeared to them, and the glory of the LORD shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the LORD. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 13 Suddenl...

Holidays can be emotional for some people who are lonely or who are grieving lost opportunities or people that they lost this year or over the years. Sadness is a natural emotion, and we should allow ourselves to feel it. I have suffered with clinical depression for many years now, but my faith seems to always pull me from the terror that invades my mind sometimes. When we have been deeply hurt or had our hearts broken we can related to what the bible calls a broken spirit. What we do with our hearts when they have been hurt determines our recovery. I am 45, and I am convinced that having a broken heart makes us more human.  My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. (Psalm 51:17) May I suggest that this Christmas we all be mindful of those who have no home, or are struggling in life. Our churches this year should be filled with people who have never entered a church before, of course it is up to them to come in. Jesus of...

I have a question for you, is the world fast enough for you yet? Despite my current writer's block, I am trying to muster up enough courage to give a realistic reflection of how I believe the world is changing with it's celebration of Christmas. When I was growing up, I didn't have to muster up faith or feel good feelings, they just came naturally with the year coming to an end, and the birth of the Saviour. The picture I want to paint is a bleak one, throughout the years I have personally struggled with the gaining commercialization of Christmas, and then there were the years when Christians struggled against the political correctness of the world, that removed the Christ out of Christmas. This is the holiday that the world likes to celebrate, but growing up there was a clear sense of goodwill especially during this time. Sometimes with age comes boredom and always trying to keep up with the changing world can suck the hope dry, for some people. Hope is not hard to find ...

I recently found out through a CTV news article that people like me who have a mental disability and are just coming into the system of social assistance under the new guidelines will be denied Ontario works or ODSP because the Ontario Doug Ford Government is redefining the word disability, in my opinion to cut the costs the Government spends on Social Assistance. They are cleverly packaging this as empowerment to the poor, in the real sense that they will be encouraging the disabled who no longer qualify for financial support to re-enter the work force. They are saying that disabled people like me have become dependant on the system which has prevented us from working for a long time and by redefining the term disability to fall more closely under the Federal Guidelines, it will somehow cause disabled people like me to miraculously go back to work and re-habilitate myself.  In all honesty, it has been a very long time for me not working, but the nature of my illness is long t...

We live in a culture where Christianity is only important to those who profess it. But just because you profess to be a Christian doesn't make you one. To be saved in the way that the bible uses that term, means that at one point in your life you turned from your sins to welcome Christ into your life as Lord and Saviour. True Christianity is a life long journey of repentance and faith, and to claim that you are saved without any signs of repentance in your life means that at one point you stopped trusting in God for your salvation. I used to hear of stories of adults being saved as children, and then walking away from their faith. Does that mean that they are still saved while living in their sin and rejection of God? I would say no. Anyone who dies living in a state of sin will go to hell. Of course we can't be completely sinless untill we all get to Heaven and are glorified, but to leave the state of Grace and live in sin is what sends even the Christian to hell. Of course ...

I am turning 45 this month and I want to take the time to express to you what really matters in my life. Some think that life is a mystery and that our questions about hope and about eternity can only really be experienced when this life is over, but I think the opposite is true! There are many ways to get to God or Heaven (you hear) and the best way to get to Heaven when you die is to be a good person they say. Being good and going to Heaven will only work if you know the Lord Jesus now. When I was 21 I had a born again experience, it wasn't just a coming to Jesus moment, (I don't think I have had any of those!) but it was a biblical experience that is talked about in the evangelical world as regeneration. Around that time, someone asked me after I told them I was born again "What does that mean?" Although I knew God had just forgiven all my sins for all eternity, I didn't know enough about theology to explain to them the doctrine of the new birth, all I could ...

There was a meeting of the angels with God in Heaven. Only the good angels were present and one of them looked down to the earth and saw that the entire earth had become corrupt but there was still "good and faithful people living among all the corruption!" This angel brought this information to God and said, "Almighty Father what would You have the Angelic Host do about all the corruption that is taking place on the earth right now? Do you want us to destroy the people?" God said "If you destroy all the bad people, it would be impossible to save the good people. They all live on the same earth, and it is not that time when I would make all things new on earth, and the second coming of my Son Jesus. I want you to build a Heavenly Wall, and set it in the Heavens. This wall will protect all the good people from being punished along with the evil people. It is not my time to destroy the earth, but I can still protect those for whom the wall will protect." Sai...

Everyone wants to feel loved and accepted, but in our instant society are we making it harder and harder to really connect with each other in a lasting way? I pose this question because part of being happy in my life is feeling a sense of purpose and direction, and we need each other to do just this. While we spend our days taking care of ourselves, it helps to remember that everyone needs to be shown compassion! We can make our lives more difficult and painful when we fail to remember that everyone has pain, and no one is completely happy all the time. Can we return to a time where we genuinely care for each other's needs and I don't just mean helping someone financially, I mean caring for one another's emotional needs. Religion tries to meet this need in men and women, and we set up communities of faith, but if we are honest most of us don't live what we preach, (we just like to think we do!) When we are mindful on how we live our lives, we should think about living...

Faith teaches us that man and woman were and are born into sin. Through this doctrine of Original sin, we see the effects if we look closely at our own lives and the misery that we feel at times or all the time. The bible teaches that because of our sins, we are under the just judgement of a Holy God and unless we do something about our sins, we will die in them. The Church teaches that Jesus the Son of God came to this earth over 2000 years ago to deliver man from their sins, and the bible teaches that Jesus is coming back to this earth at the end of time to set up his Kingdom. The great truth that we don't have to suffer eternally for our sins comes as good news to some people who decide to put their eternity into God's hands, and realize that Jesus didn't come to condemn anyone but to save anyone who trusts in him for eternity. You don't have to be perfect to go to heaven, but you have to have a desire to go there and you must have faith. What is faith? The bible t...

We are all born into this world in a state of Original Sin. The church teaches that through the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden all his descendants throughout history and up to the present time are born with a sin nature, or an inclination to sin. In the Old Testament mankind's sins were covered by the sacrificial system given to Moses, Hebrews 2:1-4 ESV Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard , lest we drift away from it . 2  For since a the message declared by angels proved to be reliable , and b every transgression or disobedience received a just c retribution , 3  d how shall we escape if we e neglect such a great salvation ? It was f declared at first by the Lord , and it was g attested to us h by those who heard , 4  g while God also bore witness i by signs and wonders and various miracles and by j gifts of the Holy Spirit k distributed according t...