Spiritual Ponderings

Revival and reformation. Do those two words create a certain resonance within us? What about 'revival meetings'? Does that elicit a certain set of scenarios? What about reform? That can bring up even stronger reactions. But as I think about these words I begin to sense that these are symptoms, and because they are only symptoms and not things we can produce ourselves they have become distorted in our perceptions and have confused our emotions. And in additions for me, a great deal of negative baggage has accumulated over the years in connection to these words. But this morning as I was praying, an unintended (at least by me) slip caused me to ask for 'revival and revelation'. But suddenly it occurred to me that in fact this was itself a revelation to my own heart, a most important awakening about some of the baggage that has for so long been able to weigh down my feelings and trigger internal resistance connected to this phrase, 'revival and reformatio...

I give praise and express my gratitude this morning to the wonderful God of all wisdom, knowledge and comfort, for He is so gracious and humble to come close to anyone who is willing to ask for wisdom and to share of Himself to open their dull minds with things beyond their ability to acquire in their own weakness. I am coming to admire this amazing God more and more each day as my awareness of His pure goodness and unselfish love becomes more clear to my consciousness. Over the past few weeks and months my affections are being awakened as time and again God suddenly gives me a hug of some sort to express His affection for me in various times and places. I admit that I think I am finally starting to fall in love with Him, at least a beginning though I am far from being worthy of such attentions. But then even that idea too is part of what He has been sharing with me; that the whole notion of worthiness itself is an invention in the counterfeit system of the enemy meant to confuse us a...

Last weekend we visited friends in Indianapolis and had a wonderful time there. It is the first time we have spent any extended time with them and it was well worth the trip. For church we attended one of our pastor friend's churches while he spoke at the other one. Yes, a bit strange but he wanted us to find out what it was like when people there wouldn't know we were connected with their pastor. The sermon that day was titled 'What if...' I really enjoyed it, so much so that I had to write notes on it all over the front of the bulletin. Not all the notes were directly from what he was talking about but most were spawned from ideas generated from what he was saying. At any rate, the title itself got me to thinking about my own list of what ifs that I wanted to explore further when I had more time. So here are a few notes and related thoughts that I wanted to revisit. What if as a church we talk about faith as being central to our connection to the go...

The economic system is designed to maximize profit at the expense of others. This is the core motivation of capitalism. Thus it is completely based on the selfishness of the human heart desiring to take from others in order to supply our own needs, desires and even extravagance. In this way it can start to be seen how subtle the trap is of believing in and embracing the principles of economics from the world's viewpoint. It prevents us from living life in the freedom of the true children of God. The system of law from the world's viewpoint acts to reinforce the selfish roots of economics as well as to serve as manipulation for maintaining the third system which is hierarchy. Human laws are meant as means to control other's behavior and even privileges largely for our own benefit. We put away people who malfunction so we can be free of their interference in our lives with little or no thought of seeking their restoration. We economically fine people for breaking ou...