Spiritual Ponderings

Empirical or empathetic. Religions based on an empire mentality seek to control the minds and beliefs of all those brought under their authority. Their main concern is conformity to their rules, their practices, their culture and the strengthening of their organizations. Such religions depend on hierarchal structures where people at the top enjoy the most benefits, expect the most honor and respect, and feel they should enjoy the most rights. Authority in such a system is along the lines of demands and enforcement and is a position earned through education, connections, popularity and often economics. On the other hand, the religion of Jesus is almost the complete opposite of the religions of this world. His is based on heart relationships and is more attuned to the condition of a person's spirit more than their externals. Jesus' religion is based on empathy, compassion, unconditional love and acceptance without judgment. It operates on completely different fundamental princ...

Truth in labeling. Salvation by labels. Remnant. God's people. The truth. Three angels messages. The people who spread the everlasting gospel. The title of my particular denomination. Saved. Heretics. Backsliders. Insubordinate. Heresy. New light. New Age, Emergent church. Meditation. Inner healing. Spiritual formation. The name of someone else's religion. If none of these buzz words and phrases have struck a resonant reaction in you yet, then you may not be quite awake. Very likely you have had a strong reaction to at least one of these by the time you read this far. But the question is, what is behind the intense, knee-jerk reactions that some of these phrases can produce in so many of us? I have been confronted by people within my denomination who insist that our members should not read religious material written by people outside of our denomination. Ironically one such leader turned around soon after and handed a book to our head elder that was aut...

(initial thoughts jotted here at first that I want to unpack) Direction of flow of the spirit. Direction of progression – increasing revelation toward agape or reverting into darkness of selfishness. What version do we embrace about what the cross really revealed about God? How does our beliefs about what God is like impact how we relate to others under extreme pressure? Jesus was the ultimate revelation of selfless, agape love. But when true love meets the counterfeit love, the incompatibility creates enormous friction. This is the essence of what constitutes hell. Because the religious people clung to beliefs in a God of power, force, fear and control rather than accepting the version of God that Jesus revealed, they had to act on their beliefs by killing the Enemy who threatened to annihilate the foundations of the God they believed in themselves. They had to defend their own god, the god created from their determined interpretations of the Scriptures given to them by God. Otherwis...