Spiritual Ponderings

So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves." (John 6:53) As many have, I have often felt a twinge of something like disgust whenever I read these words by Jesus. Maybe He intended it that way to get our attention. Of course, I have also heard the explanations about what this verse means but it still seems rather stark and even crude to my inner reactions. Something came to my mind today that helps me understand this a little better. A few years ago I learned something very fascinating about the natives in jungle areas that are known for cannibalism. The more civilized people of the world have usually assumed that cannibals are simply just bad people with murderous intentions that hate outsiders and want to get rid of them by eating them. But that is actually not very accurate. Primitive cannibals actually have some very interesting motives for their strange actio...

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...

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8) For some reason today I became curious about this text and decided to look up some of the original words from which it was translated. I wondered if this word roaring really meant what it seems to mean. At this point I cannot find any reason to see that it means anything differently. However, as I looked over some of the other words I came across something quite interesting. The word for prowls , or walks as it is rendered in the KJV, actually has much more behind it than can been seen in the English translation. It actually includes the idea of almost strutting around in a way to impress others of his strength or prowess, to try to convince others of his ability. This would go along with the roaring part of the verse because lions who are seriously hunting don't actually roar while they stalk their prey, they hunt very stealthily ...

I had a train of thoughts invade my head recently and need to lay them out to help me understand them in a more logical way. So I took some time to rough them out in a table format that is helpful for me to see their relationships better. Path of forgiveness Path of assumed “justice” Choice of injured Reaction in offender Choice of injured Reaction in offender Forgiveness Surprise, confusion Blame Defensiveness Taking ownership and responsibility for the pain Attraction toward reconciliation Resentment souring into bitterness Self-justification, pride, legal shelters Give the pain to Jesus – release offender of responsibility Faced with making a choice how to respond Relive the pain, focus on wounds, attempts to inflict even more pain on others Fear, denial, withdrawal ...

All that the world could endure of their Redeemer was the few years He was with them upon the earth, and they wanted to get rid of Him almost as soon as His mission commenced. . . . The question that every one of us has to settle is: Am I prepared for the coming of the Son of man? If you have accepted your Saviour by living faith, if you have repented of your sins, then you are in a position of acceptance with God so that if Christ should come you would meet Him in peace . . . . {CTr 216} I read these words in a devotional book I am following this year and it really got my attention in a number of ways. First, it addresses one of the deepest fears and frustrations that has plagued me for nearly all of my life – how to find assurance of eternal life and acceptance with God. Secondly, although it necessarily uses some religious words and phrases that have been seriously hijacked by cultural religion, it addresses some of the lies about God and the contrast between what we have ...