Spiritual Ponderings

Course curriculum: – not sure yet. I know many other people likely have already been in this course for quite awhile and could clue me in, but I don't know who they are yet. So – I need to simply apply my attention to the assignment presently put before me. Sometimes it changes from day to day or even several times a day. But my responsibility is to pay attention to the instructions and applications that are impressed upon me by the Holy Spirit, the primary tutor assigned to me. This morning the assignment I feel I have received is to better understand and learn how to apply these issues revolving around gratitude and thankfulness. I am to perceive the underlying attitudes and choices that can create the atmosphere conducive to the flourishing of these fruits so I can learn how to accelerate the cycle of praise that can then become self-promoting and self-intensifying. This think this part of my curriculum might be specifically designed as part of my healing protocol. T...

I have known for some time now that I have a serious receiver problem. I have not figured out all of the details but it has been becoming apparent to me for a number of years that I have been saddled with a serious handicap in my ability to receive blessings, kindnesses, expressions of love, appreciation, gifts etc. I have prayed about this for some time, pondered what may be the problem, looked for clues and waited for healing. This morning just before I got out of bed a thought suddenly landed in my head. I turned it over and tried to explore it more carefully but still don't grasp it clearly. But what was clear was that this insight is of extreme value in addressing this problem if I am serious about wanting to be liberated from this handicap. I do want to be free, I do want to grow in maturity and in social ability to better interact and bond with others. God is faithful and this is very likely an opportunity He is giving me to cooperate with Him in the healing process. ...

I recently began thinking again about how the laws of electricity parallel so closely to some of the principles of God's spiritual realities. I have thought about this for years and many things have opened up to me as a result of realizing that God has incorporated His spiritual laws right into the physical world in which we live. The more a person comes closer to seeing God properly the more clearly the counterpart reflective principles in nature reveal insights into unavoidable spiritual principles. One of the most astounding breakthroughs I have ever had in this area was when God took me quite intently on a two-year journey through the Bible pointing out more and more insights to me about the real truth about hell. I finally dedicated a whole web site to that subject but the underlying principles just keep coming up and revealing more and more things in this area. Finally a couple days ago I decided to go to the internet and refresh my knowledge about the formulas and laws ...

I believe in you! There is an incredible and yet mysterious power that can be conveyed in these words when coming from a real friend, a person who actually embodies the true meaning of these words. There have been countless thrilling stories written, lives transformed, whole nations changed as the result of someone choosing to invest belief in someone else. Most often that belief is like a very high risk investment. The person on the receiving end of that belief very often initially does not appear very promising to anyone else. Their life may be a total mess or they may be just as average as average can be. They don't see anything within their lives or their past that would give them any hope of ever rising above their circumstances. Their history is usually pot-marked with failures, abuse, tragedies or is full of shame and regrets. They may firmly believe that their own case is hopeless and that they are destined to just survive life until they finish it and then die as a...

Why do I feel tempted to criticize? What is my real motive, the supposed benefit that my subconscious mind thinks will come to me as a result of finding fault in others? There has to be a payback in there somewhere or it would not seem so appealing. We spend much time talking about the reasons why we should not have this attitude, but maybe we are not addressing enough the underlying motives, not exposing the deeper issues that keep this habit so alive and well. I have been thinking about this occasionally for some time now but it is not yet clear to me. But clues seem to surface occasionally. It must have something to do with making myself look better in comparison to others, propping up my own reputation by making other people's mistakes more look more obvious. I am not saying that the underlying reasons should make sense; I am only saying I want to ferret out what they might be so I can get a better look at them. If that last reason is true it is easily counteracted by t...

Faith has a backside. Faith actually needs unbelief to back it up and reinforce it. But not unbelief in the same thing that faith believes. We usually think of unbelief as something bad, a condition to be avoided. And that is always true when it comes to our attitude toward God's goodness and love and power and His desire to save us. This is the area where we tend to struggle to find faith. And that is largely because it is blocked by our faith in the very opposites. You see, whenever we demonstrate unbelief in something or someone what we are actually seeing is the backside of real faith in the opposite. To not believe something is a negative way of saying that we really believe something else that contradicts that. So when I find myself struggling to embrace some promise of God that I find in the Word and feel all sorts of emotions that draw me intensely to doubt that this promise is really for me or that God really intends to bless me, what is hiding in the background...