If we look honestly at our mistakes and listen within for guidance, we will discover our true identity as an unlimited spirit.
When we share, our awareness grows beyond our little self to a broader reality.
"... remain here, and stay awake with me." Jesus, Matthew 26: 38 One night of our dog's life lasted for just a few
From the Festive Worship Collection
Theme: Dreamtime Reality -- Season of Hope Thoughts for Reflection To travel hopefully is the mark of a pilgrim. To believe one has arrived is the mark of the insecure.
The way you tell the Christmas story, it all sounds so simple. So simple. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I really like it. It’s just that for so long now people have been telling my story and the way they tell it, it all sounds so simple and easy, so neat and tidy, that I hardly recognize myself in the story. It’s not your fault. It all started a long time ago. Luke and that other fellow Matthew, they started it all. They wrote my story down and wouldn’t you know it they cleaned it all up. But who can blame them. Nobody likes messy birth stories. And as birth stories go, my baby’s birth was a really messy one.
From the Boundless Life collection
“Knock, knock, knock and the door will surely open, * Seek, seek, seek and the questing heart will find,” All that only seems to lie outside us Also dwells within our heart and mind.
From the Boundless Life collection
O God of sky and God of Earth, We honor your presence Within us and beyond.
From the Boundless Life collection
God of sky and God of Earth Your bright presence we explore Deep within us and beyond All our reason’s structured lore.
From the Boundless Life collection
1. How liberated are those who have learnt to let go; They shall experience the mystery of God.
From the Boundless Life collection
(i) How happy are those who have learnt to let go; They shall discover the Christ within.
I think Christian missionaries should live among the people exhibiting their Christianity in their daily lives. If the people see something in their lives that is missing in their own lives they will ask about it, which gives the missionary permission to tell them about their faith.
Mary, we did not know you. Kept hidden for centuries you were despised, A Queen not seen, under harlot’s disguise. Mary, we did not know you.
Be still and know what’s going on inside yourself, and after a while your relationship to yourself will change. There will be the One who observes with kindness and patience, and the one that is observed - and after a while you’ll identify more with the kind and patient Observer than with the one who is observed. The compassionate Observer is God. Then you’ll know that God is not some supernatural superhero working miracles in the cosmos. You’ll know instead that God is love even for your worst enemy, who, all to often, is your own selfish self.
The terms faith and beliefs are sometimes used interchangeably, but I think it is useful to make a distinction between them. Beliefs are things you think are true, like “I believe in God.” “I believe that there is life after death.” These are improvable opinions (or they would be accepted by all as “facts”). A list can be made of beliefs.
We all belong. We are each one a part of the Temple of God. Paul wants the church at Corinth to recognize that they all belong to one another, and that it is foolish to divide and polarize around certain leaders. Paul argues that there is no place in the church for petty jealousies and pride.
Celebrate our life together, giving birth in many ways; Father-Mother Love is with us, leading to a better day. Equal partners ‘round the table, family groups of every kind show us how to nurture kindness, new creation’s joy to find.
The one thing that almost all theologians, biblical scholars, and historians agree on when it comes to Jesus is that the kingdom of God was foundational to his mission and ministry. It is front and center, it is at the heart and core of his life and work.
This past Saturday night, my wife Roberta and I stood with a group of people on Hollywood Boulevard, holding flickering candles. Passers-by might
Individualism vs Collectivism
I would say that belief in either God or spirituality goes hand in hand with collectivism. Spirituality is about “the whole enchilada."
9. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. 10. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11. Give us this day our daily bread; 12. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
INTRODUCTION Who are we? Jesus responded to the Jews preparing to stone him: "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods?'" John 10:34
Mary’s song promises that God brings about wondrous reversals in the world: showing favor to the uncredentialed and ignored (“the lowly”); rendering ineffectual the machinations of the arrogant (“scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts”); bringing down those who exploit positions of power; lifting up the poor.
If we are honest, this parable of the wedding guests is perplexing and almost beyond understanding. It weaves here and there, turning expectations upside down and just when you think "I've got it!" - no you haven't because it twists again.
What is seldom noticed by traditional Christians is that consignment to hell is not the payback for “sin”; it is the consequence of not believing that Jesus was the one Anointed by God to return the world to God’s covenantal rule. If you don’t believe Jesus was the one – according to Matthew – you won’t follow Jesus’ teachings, and when the transformation comes, you will be found in the company of the goats.
The process the early followers of Jesus went through that resulted in the Church of Jesus Christ is fairly long, fairly obscure, and full of pitfalls for those who seek to recreate it.
Paul’s interpretation of who Jesus was probably never crossed paths with the later gospel writers. Or, if it did, most of his theology was misunderstood.
Matthew 16:13-28; Romans 6:5-11 This commentary is going directly through Matthew without regard for the traditional Christian liturgical year, so will not skip
Harold Camping says that the rapture described in 1 Thessalonias 4 will occur on May 21, 2011, and that God will destroy the entire Universe on October 21, 2011. Unlike John the Baptist and Jesus, Camping offers no chance for salvation.
Jesus is seriously dead. None of the rest of it makes any sense otherwise.
Sea Raven details how the Gosepl of Jesus relates to the current debate over worker's rights.