The Super Blogosphere of a parallel word.

  If you’re a Christian you have heard of God’s presence, but what is presence, and how can we give our presence to other people? Presence is about connecting to other people in a full and embodied way. The danger with technology is that we can exclude people from our physical presence even if we are present with them in the room. You have heard the saying “give me your attention” but being present for others is not just a brief moment, but a continuous sustained presence which takes ability. Being physically absent, and withholding your presence from someone, feels almost the same! Life demands that we remain present for it, you have heard the saying that this    person has “checked out” of their life, but when we “check out” on other people, it can be just as much disastrous. The reason why we want to be present for our lives and others is because we have one life and whether we know it or not, it is passing us by. Part of building family, faith, and relationships, is b...

  Kindness is a quality that we should never lose. It’s something we teach our children and it’s something that makes our society better. The Bible is filled with admonitions about kindness, so why do we see a lack of kindness in our society? People have drifted away from God and the Bible, so Christian qualities are quickly being ignored and forgotten by our society. Titus 3:4-7 says;  4 “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Cruelty has a negative affect on us as humans, by nature we know that cruelty is wrong, no one likes to be mistreated. This is why unjust war and violence is wrong. We are made in the i...

  When you have an awareness of the Divine your perspective on time changes. Uncertainty can be the cause of a lack of belief in God. In generations past our culture has had more of an awareness of God and lived with more certainty. The bible is not just a story book for the present moment, it contains the past, the present, and the future in it. The Holy Spirit can give us a perspective that holds the past, the present, and the future, and allows us to see God’s whole picture, despite what we may be feeling or experiencing around us or in our lives.   Trials and persecution can make it difficult to see the whole picture, but I believe that it’s a gift of God to live with this perspective. Unbelief can hinder us from “seeing it all” and insecurities and weaknesses can also disable us from living with this certainty. Also the fear of death, or impending doom, can erase God’s perspective of the future, because our minds get clouded with fear, and we are not able to perceive real...

  Someone asked me recently to what extent do we help the homeless if we choose to invite them into our homes. Let’s assume you have a home, and that you are the owner of that home first! I want to quote Isaiah 58:6-7 “Is not this the fast that I choose:     to loose the bonds of wickedness,     to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free,     and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry     and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him,     and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”  And Isaiah 58:10-12 “if you pour yourself out for the hungry     and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness     and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually     and satisfy your desire in ...

 There are many doctrines out there that have to do with time and its meaning. In some religions and cults, transcendence of time is the main goal. As we get older, we all naturally feel that time is more elusive and consequently more precious, so the focus becomes getting the most out of out time as possible. Jesus Christ lived in time, and he lived with the restrictions of time. Because Jesus is God, he was able to redeem time for us. Because of his life, death, and resurrection, he changed the course of time, this is why the early church was able to say they were living in the last days.  As Christians we remember the past, and anticipate the future, but the present is where the past and the future meet. God’s kingdom is always coming to us in the present, and its fulfilment will be in the present, not in the past. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he transformed meaningless time to have meaning. Because of his death, Jesus Christ has given meaningless time meaning becau...

  The argument is: “Does the righteousness that we receive at salvation affect the soul or is it a positional righteousness alone?” If your faith doesn’t change you, then it’s possible that the Holy Spirit is not conforming you to the character of Christ. Part of sanctification is being made holy, but why do some people who call themselves Christians, show no real evidence of holiness in their lives? They are being taught that positional righteousness is all that matters, that God will not judge them on their sanctification. This teaching fails to promote the kind of character change that the Holy Spirit wants to accomplish in every Christian’s life, from the moment of salvation.   We are justified by faith, and not by works, but the point of the Christian life is not just to get a free pass to Heaven, it’s to be conformed to the character of Christ, while we are here on this earth, (Romans 8:29). While it is true that sanctification is progressive, we are not instantly made h...

  There is something healing about the past if we revisit it in the proper way. Many of us have things in our past that we want to remain in the past, but some of us have trauma that is waiting to be healed. There are different causes of this particular trauma, some can be caused by our sins, but sometimes it is the sins of others that causes suffering. Mixed in with this trauma are good or positive experiences, which may no longer define who we are, but still have an effect on our psychology.   When we embrace negative trauma, the kind of trauma that is currently unwanted, when we embrace it in a positive way, we can learn from the mistakes we made and we can repent. Repentance can bring healing into your life, even if you were the cause of the trauma or you participated freely in it. The kind of trauma that is harder to heal, but not impossible is the trauma you experienced from an authority figure or people much older than you. Forgiveness helps to heal this kind of trauma ...