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….
What a sad day when one religious organization burns a copy of another’s holy documents. This supposedly Christian Reverend did a huge disservice to all of Christiandom. Where is the outrage among the mainline Christian denominations? Do we really want to start a round of totally “dissing” each others views of God? Sad, sad, sad. Quran burned at Rev. Terry Jones’ tiny church – Faith & Reason. Continue reading Quran burned at Rev. Terry Jones’ tiny church – Faith & Reason
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??
Many if not most Christian evangelical denominations insist that they are the only ones who 100% understand the nature of God. They each believe everyone else is wrong to one degree or another. There sometimes seems to be more arguing with fellow Christians among themselves than there is any sharing of the Word with those outside their current brand of beliefs. In that regard it … Continue reading You are WRONG!!!
Divorce is one of those things that gets very different treatment in different Christian denominations. The red letters are pretty clear as to what Jesus thought of it. Matt 5:31-32 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes … Continue reading Divorce–A Christian Perspective
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….
I have often said that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. He is indeed my Lord and Savior. But, is there a difference between being a follower of Christ and being a Christian? Up until recently I had not tried to discern any difference in those two state. But now I am coming to understand that they can be two quite different things. Being … Continue reading A Follower of Jesus Christ….
(Here is a post from the past and on another of my blogs. Find the original here http://waiting4god.net/2010/10/04/10410/ ) I heard an interesting sermon this Sunday. It was about waiting for God. As you know this is a topic dear to my heart. Some examples given in the sermon were all the prayers to stop the BP oil leak and the many amber alerts that … Continue reading Waiting For God…
Here is an excerpt from a book entitled “If the Church were Christian” by Philip Gulley. Several years ago I visited a museum and saw the skeleton of a dinosaur. As I read the plaque, I learned only a handful of the bones were original, that the remainder had been fabricated based on a paleontologist’s extrapolation from the authentic bones. In many ways, this is … Continue reading Is the Church Christian?
I am having trouble with my project of comparing what Jesus said to what Paul said. There are several reasons for this difficulty. They, for the most part, didn’t appear to address very many of the same issues. There is so much baggage associated with this topic it is hard to not be prejudged by it all It seems I must extrapolate the two men’s … Continue reading Jesus and Paul Comparisons – Harder than it looks..
To me the title of this post is the perfect blend of words. We must acknowledge that Jesus is our Lord and we must also acknowledge that he is our Savior. Those two conditions are very different so lets study them some here. Jesus Christ is my Savior — Jesus was very clear that one of the reasons he came was to die for our … Continue reading Jesus Christ – Lord and Savior
I have spent some time with my comparisons between Jesus’ words and Paul’s. I will be posting my first comparisons in the next week or so. But I wanted to talk a little about what I have found so far. As Sam, who commented on the last post, indicated I have found that a big part of the differences between Jesus and Paul lay around … Continue reading Jesus and Paul – Some Initial Thoughts
I am going to start yet a new category on this blog called “Jesus and Paul”. I will try to pull out words from Jesus and then corresponding words from Paul to see how the words and their corresponding meanings might differ. From my initial look at this topic I was somewhat surprised to find what I have. This will be an interesting place to … Continue reading Jesus and Paul…
I am going to keep this post simple and just put out some verses about doing good deeds. This time I am going to also pull up some words from Peter and Paul. Matthew 5:14-16. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put … Continue reading Doing Good Deeds
That is a question that has been on my mind the last few days. I have lived for more than six decades on this earth so I have been exposed to probably millions of different situations but what is the saddest? The list initially was quite large but the more I have thought about it the more it shrinks. I think I am finally down … Continue reading What is the saddest thing in this world???
As some of you may know I recently was more or less forced to leave my church home of eight years because I publicly via this blog said I believe that the earth is more than 6,000 years old. The leadership of the denomination insists that this idea is heresy. In that light it was interesting to note the article today about the Catholic church very publicly professed … Continue reading Creationism Gone in Catholic Church
Recently I seem to be asking questions that I was previously very reluctant to consider. I know I am not supposed to test God but I just can’t understand why he has not shown himself more directly in more than 2,000 years? Even according to biblical standards this is probably the longest period of time without a direct and powerful intervention from God. Why are … Continue reading Why, God??
With this post I am starting a new category. It is called the Best of the Past. I will be pulling up some of the previous two years posts to look at them again. This one is from October 1, 2009 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Is it possible to know too much about Christian theology. I didn’t used to think so but I am tending to come to that … Continue reading Best of the Past – Like Little Children
Happy New Year’s everyone! God has given us another year to show the Lord’s love in our lives. Let’s not waste it! This will just be a short post from something I have been reading this afternoon. It is an article in the January 2011 issue of Friends Journal – Quaker Thoughts and Life Today. The article is entitled The Meaning of Universalism by Phil … Continue reading Why Did You Tell Us?…
For a number of weeks now I have been looking for stories about Christians doing good in the world. When I brought up the new category entitled Let’s Show the World I thought finding Christians reaching out to the world would be an easy thing. It is sad for me to say but I found the opposite to be the case. After hours of searching … Continue reading It’s Sad…. But Joyful…
WARNING I am going to get on my soapbox here. I try not to do it very often but sometimes things just grate on me too much! I want to get this off my mind so I can start fresh in 2011 I am sorry to say that I have evidenced a strong link between what is probably the majority of Christians who call … Continue reading The Link between Evangelicals and Radical Right Politics..
Sometimes a burst of questions comes into my mind. They usually come and go before I have time to even put them on a Post-It for further study. This time I was at my keyboard. Here is what I have been thinking of this afternoon. In the past I have been a member of different Christian denominations who say we must go out and save … Continue reading The Rambling Questions of a Past Jesus Freak
Speaking up in church is something that varies widely in the Christian world. When my wife and I joined a small startup church eight years ago everyone there felt welcomed to speak up after the service. Since the church was a liturgical one speaking up during the service was a limited to chanting the required verses as they came up in the service text. But … Continue reading Speaking up in church..
With this post I am reviewing a book named Genesis One – A Scientific Perspective by Hugh Ross. Hugh Ross is a noted astronomer and the founder of Reasons to Believe which is a foundation dedicated to reconciling the Bible with scientific findings. This short 34 page book goes line by line through Genesis 1 – 17 and shows how each passage is backed up by scientific … Continue reading Genesis One – A book review
After the flurry of posts around my leaving my church of eight years this two week respite has been refreshing. I will probably start up again soon. Via this post I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. May we all spend a few extra minutes in the next days contemplating some of the red letters. After all that is what this day is … Continue reading Merry Christmas…
Why must some versions of Christianity pit scientific discovery against religious doctrine? It seems from my personal experiences that to some if you believe in God then you cannot believe in scientific discovery. Of course much of this goes back to the literal interpretation of Bible. Since those holding that view must believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old how do they reconcile … Continue reading Science & Religion…
RedLetterLiving 