Lamentations

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long… He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has […]

How He loves

Many of us have heard of the Christian obsession with insisting that God loves us. I suspect for many, like me, that’s not an easy idea to buy. Life is full of heartbreak and hurt; disappointment and unfulfilled potential; tragedy and horror. At least that’s how it often feels to those of us who have […]

Perception, revisited

Tomorrow will mark the first birthday for this blog. I think this an opportune time to take a break from the series of posts discussing differences among Christianities and take another look at the foundational issue of this blog: perception. Psychologically speaking, what we perceive to be real is, for our psyches, legitimately real. It’s […]

The invisible, determinism, nihilism and Satan

Let’s break down the Nicene Creed and appropriate Scripture to the basics of what the Christian historically believes about the nature of reality. “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible…” Well. Talk about bang for your buck; that’s a lot of information per […]

Variety of Christianities – Do differences matter?

Within the broad spectrum of religious belief that is the Christian community, there is a movement to brush aside theological differences over “minor details” and focus on our similarities. For the most part, I fully support this endeavour. I am an advocate of ecumenism, which is the pursuit of reuniting the many varieties of Christianity once more […]

Sanctification – the praxis

Danger, danger, danger: my previous post and this follow-up may easily be misunderstood by those who are not far along the Christian walk, as it can easily be interpreted as legalism, which it is not – there is a balance. Let me emphasize this: be at peace. Romans 8 affirms us that there is no […]

Sanctification – the theory

I struggle living as a Christian. I mean really struggle. I’m a hypocrit. I’m filled with anger (I wish I knew why). I don’t really live as if I have much hope. I’m very demanding of myself and often give myself very little grace, which unfortunately can sometimes extend to other people. It’s easy to diagnose […]