Spiritual Ponderings

I have been probing for many years to understand better the confusing mystery and sort through all the false ideas about what really happened and why Jesus died on the cross. I am very familiar with most of the stock cliché's going around in religion about this and have very little use for most of them. They sound pious enough and can often be apparently supported with elaborate arguments and scripture references to tie their assumptions together. But all of them are generally based on very confusing or dark and false ideas about what God is like that I simply find totally unacceptable anymore. But in spite of years of revising my mental picture of what God is really like and updating most of my religious internal library along those lines, the cross of Jesus has still remained very vague and confusing to me. Since I have completely rejected the notion of the cross being an appeasement for an angry God, pitting Jesus and the Father against each other, I have been left to keep ...

Just before I woke up this morning I had a very vivid dream that caused me to wonder if it has some special meaning or was just a strange collection of memories and make-believe. In my dream I was walking with my children (who were back very young again) and my wife past the back of the church I currently attend. This is the same church where I went all the way through elementary school with my friends growing up. As we started to leave that side of the church to go on down the street, I noticed an old rotting wooden opening in the foundation about three to four feet square. Somehow I felt that people wanted me to repair it (that can happen in dreams without needing explanations) but I did not want to bother with it. However, curiosity caused me to want to see what was inside the hole so I pushed away some of the rotting boards and squeezed through the small opening against protestations of my wife. As I entered the opening I was met with a nearly solid wall of cobwebs coveri...

Can Jesus keep the Ten Commandments? That may sound like a rather bizarre question, but it is actually at the very center of the problem that most Christians have in reconciling their external life with the internal principles of God's government as outlined in the Bible. Most people that I know believe that Jesus lived a perfect life. They would agree that Jesus was sinless as the Bible clearly teaches and that He never committed a wrong act or mistreated anyone or indulged in any form of sin while He lived on this earth. Most do not have an argument when it comes to Jesus' life Himself. But when the question turns to their own life, their own choices when faced with temptations and their own motives and relationships, suddenly they seem to adopt a completely different set of beliefs about what it means to be a Christian – a follower of Christ. Nearly every Christian that I meet has some strong opinions about their inability to live life as Jesus lived it. Either tha...

Learning about His faithfulness inspires faith within me. Dwelling on His goodness can produce righteousness through me. Knowing His unconditional forgiveness empowers me to forgive. His unfailing love, the lovingkindness that is everlasting, can cause my heart to love others when it seems unnatural for me to love them based on my own past experiences. How do I experience these realities? What makes the difference between me struggling to look and feel like a Christian and actually experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit working in my life and transforming me into the image of God? It is putting Christ back into Christianity. I have heard a lot of people talk about putting Christ back into Christmas, but upon reflection I realize that trying to put Christ back into Christmas is a dangerous illusion. You cannot put something back that was not originally there to start with. And Christmas was not originated by Christ but was a fabrication of an anti-Christ power attempting t...

If I see a brother or sister doing something or having some attitude that I believe needs repentance, what stance should I take concerning them, what attitude should I choose to display toward them to encourage repentance on their part? My flesh usually reacts to these situations with an attitude of criticism, fault-finding and gossiping. This kind of disposition is driven by a subtle desire to look better than them, to take the opportunity to make myself feel more important, more righteous in other people's eyes that the person who appears to be in the wrong. This is the typical way of relating to sin in other people's lives that has most been modeled to me. Just point out their sins and expose them so I will not be held responsible for their blood. But this approach has proven itself to have originated from hell and only produces bitterness, pride, animosity and division. It is not a valid means of eliminating sin from the church but actually increases it, especially w...

It suddenly struck me today why we see so many of our children living together without being married and not seeming to have any problem about it. It is because we carefully trained them that way. We gave them the mental formulas that caused them to arrive at the conclusions that produced this kind of rationale. I know that many people would go into instant denial of this idea, and I would have been one of them for many years. But as I said, it suddenly hit me that the kind of religion that we are so accustomed to following and is still largely taught today has in it the subtle rationale that sets people up to fall into these kinds of deceptions very easily. And what is that rationale, that formula kind of thinking that results in such startling conclusions compared to the religious standards held firmly to by our parents? What is it that we have done in the name of God that has resulted in such widespread acceptance of what previous generations would have strongly condemned? ...

I read something this morning that added more insight to what I was thinking about yesterday. I was wondering about the possible reasons why Jesus expelled from the temple most of what were supposed to be legitimate elements of worship for that time. The animals for sacrifices along with the priests and others who were supposed to be there to conduct worship and assist the incoming worshipers were all cleansed even though many would assume they were supposed to be there. Today I read some significant things about Caiaphas the high priest during the time of Christ. This man was so corrupt and selfish that from the moment he maneuvered his way into office until it was all over, he was completely disqualified for that position. He, along with many of the other priests who held positions of powerful influence and control over the Jewish people were so corrupt and greedy that from heaven's perspective they were not even priests at all. They were only dressed up like priests but they...