When we insist that our version of God is the only true one are we putting God in a Box? That is are we limiting him to how we currently perceive him or maybe just want him to be? I think that is the case with many Christians today. Here are some examples of putting God in a restrictive box: The Bible contains everything we need to know about … Continue reading Putting God in a Box….
Trying to determine the nature of God is something many who are much smarter than I am have been doing since our very existence. I don’t pretend to have any answers that they have not considered. But, I have been looking at a different understanding of God at least from a personal perspective. This new approach came from a comment on a previous post here on … Continue reading The Nature of God….
Since this is my 300th post to this blog and as I am coming off a rather long hiatus, I thought I would handle an impossible topic and that is the nature of man. I apologize in advance for this post’s length but describing the nature of man will take a few more than the five hundred words I try to limit my posts to. 🙂 The … Continue reading The Nature of Man…
I seem to have a medical condition that is somewhat rare today. No I am not talking about Cochlear Otosclorosis that caused my deafness many years ago but one maybe even more rare. That condition is called a “Bleeding Heart”. I know this is a condition that my fellow Republicans loathe. Whenever they want to diss someone they call them a “bleeding heart liberal”. But … Continue reading My Rare Medical Condition….
This is the fourth post in the series on a book by Philip Gulley entitle If God Is Love. Here is the quote for this one. This wrestling with our theology, though absolutely necessary to spiritual growth, often puts our lives out of joint. On several occasions, I thought, “Remind me again why I wanted to question and challenge the beliefs I was taught.” The … Continue reading If God is Love – Part 4
This is a continuation of my expose of the book by Philip Gulley entitled If God Is Love. In this post he talks about Dualistic Theologies. Dualistic theologies reduce the questions of life to one: Are you saved? Nothing else matters. The purpose of life it to answer that single question. Of course, simply saying “yes” is not enough. You confirm your salvation by accepting … Continue reading If God is Love… Part 3
Since judgment day seems to be on the short list of things Christians talk about lets look at the story about it as spoken by Jesus Christ: “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from … Continue reading The Least of These…. The Final Judgment
I have been getting hit by some because I don’t quote the Bible often enough for them. As I have stated many times before I am just not a “chapter and verse” Christian. I do read the Bible frequently but instead of memorizing the words I try to learn the lessons behind the words and then attempt to make those lessons a part of my … Continue reading Lessons Learned….
I was a fervent member of a church for most of the last twenty-five years. You could count on my being in a church pew almost every Sunday morning. Of course part of that time was listening to the current clergy leader give his sermon. After a while I tended to see a pattern to most sermons. They would always contain at least a dozen different tidbits … Continue reading Mining for Tidbits…..
This is the second post in the series about how I believe today’s Christian establishments disappoint God. If one believes that God is only really concerned with a couple of issues, it becomes easier to ignore others. But human life and particularly the words of Jesus are just too complicated for this kind of reductionist approach to our faith and beliefs. How can we even … Continue reading Two Issue Christians…..
In a previous post I asked the question “why didn’t God write a book?”. One possible answer to that question came from a Quaker friend. He said that if God had written a book then man would have a relationship with a book and not with God. God want us to come to him not to a book about him. But that did not end … Continue reading If God Were To Write a Book….
Before my “literal and inerrant” friend became frustrated and stopped dialoguing with me he often asked the question why I have so much an ambivalence towards today’s churches? I repeatedly tried to tell him that it isn’t so much ambivalence as it is a disappointment. I will use this post to explain one of the major reasons for that disappointment. Before I start I need to tell you a … Continue reading Disappointments about Today’s Christian Establishments…
So here it is Monday and I am right where I was last week. What happened to the predicted rapture? Of course this prediction that failed to happen is among a long line of similar predictions. Every time someone insists that they know the heart of God in minute details they tarnish Christ a little more. He seems to be very tarnished lately. The only … Continue reading Another Sad Attempt….
When it comes to the Bible some Christians seem to fall to the concept of “can’t see the forest for the trees”. That is they concentrate so much on the words they totally miss the underlying messages. Some, at the drop of a pin, can quote chapter and verse for many of the sayings in the bible. I am definitely not one of those people. Yes, … Continue reading Can’t See the Forest for the Trees…
This series was about looking at the Bible as a human document. That is, it was written and assembled by humans with different life experiences, viewpoints, and passions. Much of their thoughts and words obviously came from inspiration from God. When I study the Bible I try to understand the reasons why some of the writers might have penned what they did. Of course, I am also a human … Continue reading About the Bible – Part 6 Closing Thoughts…
This is the fifth post on this series about the Bible. If it is not obvious by now I want you to understand that I put my Christianity on Jesus Christ not on a book about him. I will try to keep this brief as it is really a wrap-up of the past posts. About the Literalists: Panic – In some cases I see almost total panic … Continue reading About The Bible — Part 5 Summary
This, the fourth post on the Bible centers around where I see some others may have gone astray in regards to their beliefs surrounding the Bible. Some have replaced the Holy Spirit with the book called the Bible… They put so much power in the Bible and so little in the Holy Spirit. Compared to the others in Trinity studies there is very little in-depth … Continue reading About the Bible — Part 4 .. Misguided Beliefs?
This time I am going to go over a short list of things that are somewhat widely accepted by some twenty-first century Christian denominations but of which I basically disagree. Most of these topic titles are from texts of discussions I have had with Christians on various topics. I put them in a special category here because they were so deeply felt by others. All … Continue reading About the Bible –Part 3.. Other Views
This is a continuation of the last post to finish up some of my fundamental beliefs about the Bible. I have not come to these beliefs on a whim. They are the result of many years of thoughtful prayer and study. I am also not trying to prove anyone wrong. Everyone should come to God in their own ways. So let’s get on with the final four … Continue reading About the Bible— Part 2 .. What I believe (con’t)
It has been a while since I have done any “deep” posts so this post will start a series on how I view the Bible and how that might differ from some mainline denominations today. The first two post are about how I personally view the Bible and other related Christian text. The third post is about how some of these belief are contrary to how others, … Continue reading About The Bible — Part 1… What I believe
We Christians seem to like to take ownership of others actions. If a missionary is killed in South American we say that proves that we are suffering and dying for Jesus Christ. Somehow or another that death gets attached to our individual selves as if we were the ones who died. We just can’t live vicariously through other. We are each responsible for our own actions. The … Continue reading Taking Ownership of Others Actions….
I spend a lot of time on this blog trying to convince you that Jesus intended us to help each other out. Especially those less fortunate than us. I have mentioned that I volunteer to do the cooking a couple of days a week at a soup kitchen. That is one way that I attempt to do what Jesus says. But I don’t think I … Continue reading Helping “The Least of These”…
Sundays continue to be a strange time for me. Up until last November I could always be found in a church pew on Sunday morning. At that time I was told by my church of eight years that my views of God no longer aligned with what their denomination expected of members. Instead of going through an inquisition I choose to separate my self from … Continue reading Sundays???
It is, I have learned, far easier to ask forgiveness of a god we can’t see than from a person we can see. Perhaps this is why many religions are vertical in nature, focused on pleasing and placating God. That orientation has usually entailed sacrifice, the notion of giving God something—our time, our attention, our praise, our skill, our money—and, in extreme instances, our children, … Continue reading Being Estranged From Others….
A fellow blogger who happens to be a Quaker asked an interesting question recently. It was “Why didn’t Jesus write a book while he was on earth and settle this thing once and for all?” I know Jesus, like most of the twelve apostles was probably illiterate but I’m sure he could have written a book if he thought it was important. Why didn’t he … Continue reading Why Didn’t Jesus Write a Book??
There are many places in the red letters where Jesus appears to conditionally forgive sins. If you break certain rules your sins are not forgiven. The most obvious of these are sins against the Holy Spirit. I must admit that I don’t really understand that condition as much as I would like. But that is not the only place where Jesus appears to withhold forgiveness. … Continue reading Does Jesus Conditionally Forgive Sins??
Although I don’t focus very much on the Old Testament I have always been troubled about how it seems to condone slavery. There is an interesting article in USA Today about this topic. See it at In Civil War, the Bible became a weapon – USATODAY.com. Here is a little bit of it. God said so In the 1860s, Southern preachers defending slavery also took … Continue reading When the Bible becomes a weapon….
The concept of the Trinity was something that was invented many years after Christ’s ascension. It did not originate from Jesus but was invented more than one hundred years after is resurrection. It has, however, become a bedrock item in much of the Christian church. But it seems many church denominations have now replaced the Holy Spirit with the Bible. From my studies on this substitution … Continue reading The Father, The Son, and the Holy Bible
It seems that some Christians think that this world is simply a waiting area for the next one in heaven. They take on the mantel of we are all just poor miserable sinners who are capable of nothing good. So the only thing to do is to wait passively to get into heaven which is their “true” home. This philosophy is primarily accounted for by … Continue reading Waiting to Die….
As I have mentioned in the recent past I have disassociated myself with the Christian church that I was part of for over nine years. I have always tried to not mention what my religious affiliations were on this blog but now that they are severed I will say it was with a LCMS Lutheran church. The pastor of the church was a regular viewer of this … Continue reading Intrepreting the Bible….
RedLetterLiving 