Spiritual Ponderings

Always be filled with joy in the Lord. I will say it again. Be filled with joy . Let everyone see that you are gentle and kind . The Lord is coming soon. Never worry about anything. But in every situation let God know what you need in prayers and requests while giving thanks . Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel (CEV) and will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. (GNB) Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected . (Philippians 4:4-8 ERV, GW) A couple weeks ago I put together this passage to leave open on my computer screen so I could revisit it easily. Over the past few months God has been increasingly convicting me about my need to turn away from the dark things of life and fill my mind and he...

The legal and justice systems that we know here on earth are designed around the foundation of offense. Written right into the legal codes and implicit in the methods of law enforcers is the practice of assuming offense both large and small. Policemen, military personnel, judges, lawyers – all are trained to look for the slightest infractions of the multiple layers of rules and policies and legislations, all designed to create opportunities and excuses to unleash punishments for supposed or real offenses. Given the all-pervasive atmosphere of expecting offense and even soliciting and inducing offenses, a climate is created for opponents to reflect a similar spirit and take offense themselves. Thus the basis is laid for offenses to multiply which is all calculated for the benefit of the state which is ever seeking for excuses to increase their power and strip their subjects of more and more of their rightful freedoms. To be offended by this state of affairs is itself to become a victi...

I have some observations about how the mind works from both experience and based on many things I have learned from others over the years. This directly affects my daily relationship with others and largely shapes how my intimate relationship with God progresses and deepens. At night when we are sleeping, the brain goes through a sorting and editing process. This idea is generally accepted by many experts and has been observed through laboratory experiments. Certain chemicals go through the brain and trim away nerve endings that were started the previous day but are considered unnecessary for long-term use. Additionally, memories created or awakened during recent experiences are stored away with other more long-term memories, all while we are sleeping. All these are stored primarily in groupings based on the type of emotional content of the memories. One of the main reasons and uses for dreams is the linking together of new and old memories during this sorting and filing process. Aft...

I caught a glimpse this morning of the truth about what we often think are blessings. Comforts and pleasures that we enjoy can often be the greatest hindrances in our lives to seeking intimacy with God. Pleasures and comforts many times fill in the emptiness that is supposed to be filled with God thereby preventing our hunger for God from motivating us to seek Him with an intensity enough to find Him. Lack of spiritual hunger and low levels of desire for God leave us satisfied with such tiny encounters with His glory that we never realize how dangerous our condition is until it may be too late. Our very gratitude for what we consider to be blessings that are in fact the very things that are keeping us from seeking God seriously, may be a mistake. It may be discovered that we are praising God for curses in our lives rather than things that are truly beneficial to us. The early Christians experienced such a deep level of intense fellowship with God under persecution that it was little...

If I attract someone's affections to myself but fail to at the right time seek to use that bond to introduce them and encourage them to attach their affections on Jesus, then I am betraying them and cheating them of knowing the only source that can provide them with the very essence of what they need and crave deep in their heart. If they enjoy what they are receiving from me, it is only honest that I need to relay to them at an opportune time the truth about how I am able to share that love with them at all. I cannot produce unconditional love in my own heart; I can only reflect it as I receive it and appreciate it coming from God. Yet unconditional love is the fuel which all of our hearts were designed to rely on for us to function properly. Anything else, any other kind of love or affection or pleasure or feeling is a substitute at best and does not contain the essential ingredients for life. Other feelings and fuels may keep me going for a time, may make me feel good and even ...

Some share similar struggles as I do in seeking to shed old, distorted feelings about God and want to link up with others on the same journey. If you come across this blog and would like to share your thoughts beyond just commenting, feel free to leave a comment with your contact info in it for me to get back in touch with you. I can return contact with you that way but will simply not publish the comment to protect you (and me) from spam. I have made some good friends by linking up with others who resonate with my own journey and want to become closer in the family of Christ.

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death... (Philippians 2:8) Why would obedience lead to death? What is obedience really? It must mean something different than the external, behavior-centered, appearance-maintaining kind of obedience that I grew up familiar with. Death in our thinking is very often viewed in the religious perspective as a punishment. Because we think so pervasively in legal terms we assume that death is the punishment for disobedience. But this verse doesn't bear that out since Jesus never sinned. And I reject the notion that Jesus performed legal fiction by His death to appease an angry Father. That simply is part of the great lies and accusations of the deceiver. Yes, Jesus took the consequences of our sins upon Himself in His death. But consequences of sin are not imposed but rather are natural results of violations of natural principles of reality. The only arbitrary thing about Jesus' death was that it was unnatural – in other word...