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 ...