Spiritual Ponderings

I have been reading a lot of reports and watching stories about the horrific fires taking place on the West coast recently. I have also been noticing the psychological effect these stories can have on me and have been contemplating how I should relate to this. Is it wrong or dangerous to overfill my mind with so much fear that is unavoidable aroused from having such scenes imprinted into my memory and imagination while I watch videos of houses bursting into uncontrollable flames or read stories of people traumatized by heat so intense their shoes are melting? I find myself waking up in the middle of the night because I cannot help but identity with what it must feel like to be trapped inside a burning vehicle and to experience the searing pain of your body succumbing to being burned alive. Even writing these words makes me squirm to say the least, and part of me insists that it is not right for me to dwell on such horrors anymore than it would be healthy for me to w...

Today we face what some call the greatest crisis in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist church. A majority of church representatives have voted in a radical sea change of organization that denies the clear instructions of Jesus on how His disciples are to relate to each other in love and equality. Now each person faces a decision as to how they will react to this collective choice to follow the methods of the world instead of the ways of Christ. We have two choices awaiting our decision as to what path we will follow from here. The familiar path, now well tended and turned into a superhighway, is the path of law and order in the name of God Almighty where everyone is expected to bow to conformity to authority. It is the way of the world that nearly everyone presumes is also the way of God. Defenders of this course point to Old Testament models of order and insist that this is God's design and must be followed or be in rebellion. But is this the only option?...

Jesus said to him, " Because you have seen me, you have believed . Blessed are those who have not seen , and have believed ." (John 20:29) I have processed this story in the past and arrived at similar conclusions, yet I want to revisit this again to explore it a bit deeper. In brief, I feel that the reputation of Thomas 'the doubter' has gotten not only a lot of very undeserved bad press, but that we are still missing some really good news in this story. Maybe this is partly due to our penchant for projecting our own faults onto others instead of accepting responsibility for our own indulgence in the very things we accuse others of doing wrong. But this is a rather precarious path to follow. Therefore you are without excuse , O man, whoever you are who judge . For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself . For you who judge practice the same things . (Romans 2:1) Did Thomas indulge in doubt about the veracity of the wi...