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In: Faith, Prayer and Devotions, Sin and Holiness

It’s time to stop living under a cloud of shame because you’re damaged goods. It’s true that sin has damaged you, but what the devil isn’t telling you is that everyone is damaged goods. We’ve all been damaged by sin of some sort. Only one sin is unforgivable, blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, which comes from a seared conscience and a hardened heart. If you’re feeling shame, you haven’t committed the unpardonable sin. So kick Satan to the curb already, in three simple steps. Confess to the Lord that what you did was wrong and ask the Lord to forgive you. Accept you’re forgiven andRead More →

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In: God's love, Morality, Prayer and Devotions, Suffering

photo credit: Giorgio Galeotti Non-Violence – UN, New York, NY, USA – August 18, 2015 via photopin (license) Trigger warnings have gotten a bad rap from abuse of them as an excuse to shut down dissenting viewpoints. This has tragic results for everyone. The growing lack of respectful debate leaves us all poorer off intellectually, and the backlash against it is understandable. My concern is with the backlash’s tragic potential to endanger our ill neighbors’ health. The abused word “trigger” comes from conditions like PTSD, migraines, and seizures where those conditions’ symptoms are triggered (or worsened) by environmental stimuli; flashing lights, loud noise, and theRead More →

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In: Faith, God's promises, Prayer and Devotions

The  shoes pictures above arrived just before Christmas but they were not a Christmas present. They do, however, have something in common with John the Baptist. The reason I received the shoes goes back to October. I was walk/running at the City of Trees Half-Marathon.  It was the first of four half-marathons in the Run 4 Heaven’s Gate, to raise money for HIV/AIDS orphans in India. My primary reason for doing that many runs is to raise money for the kids , but whenever I’m competing in anything, I want to do my best. Let’s be honest for a second. I am a plodding andRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Faith, Marriage, Prayer and Devotions

photo credit: Riccardo Palazzani – Italy Presepe 2013 via photopin (license) A popular meme at Christmas states “One Unplanned Pregnancy Saved us All.” The intended point is true enough, however let’s make that lovely point in a theologically accurate way. To start with, due to what people usually mean by “unplanned pregnancy,” calling Christ the product of one implies Mary had either been raped or had slept with Joseph, accidentally got pregnant, and lied about Christ being God’s child and herself being still a virgin. To fix the issue, I propose a slight rephrasing, the title of this post, “One Inconvenient Pregnancy Saved us All.”Read More →

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In: Prayer and Devotions

In this world today, I see a phenomena, a human behavior I will call “the competition of suffering.” In the competition of suffering, sufferers with this mindset behave like they must compete with other sufferers to win a prize for having suffered the most. They fight each other for resources viewed as limited, that sometimes truly are scarce in the world–resources like compassion, caring, and help of all sorts. Competitive sufferers dismiss and minimize other sufferers’ pain while seeking more sympathy, comfort, etc. for themselves. Indeed, some competitive sufferers will go so far as to claim someone else’s suffering is not only inferior to theirsRead More →