Spiritual Ponderings

I am deeply deceived. Of course, the problem is that I can't clearly see how. I am talking about real deception that hides true reality from me the way that heaven views reality, not other people's ideas about my deception in holding opinions that go counter to what other people hold. My desire is to think and act and operate in the realm of true reality and be in harmony with the principles of heaven – the way things really are. This is where the deception keeps me groping for more light and truth. The past few weeks I have been experiencing elevated levels of seething anger deep inside of me. It is very familiar anger as it is the same kind of thing I experienced for years while growing up. In fact, it is likely the very same anger because it is still being fueled by the very same lies that have not yet been fully exposed deep in my heart about how God feels about me and about my true worth. This is not a bad thing, this awareness of anger inside of me. If I take this

Believe in... That is something I have been trying to understand and unpack all of my life. It is one of the most nebulous concepts that I have encountered in Christianity with all sorts of people insisting that their religious explanations are the definition that I need. But most of them are simply platitudes stringing together a lot of religious phrases, texts and traditions that have very little relevance to real life, at least for me. So I keep searching for real clues and insights to help me better clarify this most important exercise, for Jesus seems to think that it is of utmost importance in everyone's life. It is one of the most crucial things we are supposed to do in order to come into right relationship with God which is vital if we are ever to begin experiencing eternal life. And this eternal life thing is not just about living for a very long time but is about experiencing the deep kind of satisfactions that only come from experiencing the joys of discovering what

I enjoy nature videos. Of course, it would be even more exciting to be able to be there in person and enjoy all the sensory stimulation that is missed in only seeing things through a sterile TV screen, but it is still very helpful and informative to watch well-made videos of the many things that God has created that we have never seen before. But along with the wonderful insights that can be learned from seeing how God designed nature to operate, there can also be seen the effects of sin on nature. The killing, stalking, pain and tragedies involved in nature are unavoidable. Also the weaving into the narration of the videos of the blatantly false ideas of evolution is often a source of irritation. But there are many videos that are not deeply infected with this disease. One thing that came to my mind yesterday morning as I was driving to work was the common theme that is seen among animals who tend to prey on other animals for their food. Particularly the inbuilt actions of herd