513 results for tag: blog

I stand amazed! Irene Frances

I SOMETIMES BECOME overwhelmed with the grandeur of my God, his awesomeness, majesty, might and power, and how, though Creator King, Maker of the Universe, he still has time for us mere mortals. Shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks in America, I began my morning community radio program with two songs: Bette Midler’s From a Distance, and The Bachelors’ I Believe. The first describes how God watches over us from a distance, the second that in the storms of life he hears our smallest prayers. Psalm 8’s anthem of adoration to Almighty God captures the paradox that, while launching the sun, moon and stars into space, his thoughts ...

Christ is a Walking, Talking Tree of Life, a Cross in Motion – Kenneth Tanner

"Christ is a walking, talking Tree of Life, a cross in motion, and everywhere he wanders healing comes to the world." - Fr. Kenneth Tanner 2 Sam. 7:1-14a 1After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.” 3 Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.” 4 But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying: 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build ...

The Jesus I Know – Irene Frances

WHAT IS IT about Christians that they think they can treat other believers with contempt, but not be held responsible for their own bad behaviour? Are we really meant to be all sweetness and angelic niceness towards those who abuse us? Recently I lost my temper. It was not pretty. I was very angry with a guy, a Christian, who had, for the past twelve months, promised to do a job for me but who had no intention of doing it. When I decided to do the task myself, and was thoroughly enjoying myself, he was not happy. And I reacted, badly. His response was to tell me I was not a good Christian and that I was just having a bad day. I was not amused. ...

A Cold and Broken Hallelujah – response by Brad Jersak

Leonard Cohen's mournful ballad, 'Hallelujah,' moved me to tears from the first time I heard it (covered by Jeff Buckley). Why so? What is this dissonance between the victorious term of praise when sung in the tones of a dirge? What is it to sing 'a cold and broken hallelujah'?  (see below) I cannot speak for Cohen -- though others have (e.g. Liel Leibovitz's A Broken Hallelujah), -- but I can describe my own resonance with my fellow Canadian's lament. The song entrances me with the reality of life and faith beyond the surface narratives of triumphalism. Our 'hosannas' and 'hallelujahs' have too often signaled a desperate stuckness in what we ...

Satan’s Foundational Lie: “As God, ‘Knowing’ Good and Evil – Richard Murray

Here is the fundamental Satanic lie all men have subconsciously internalized--that God is BOTH good AND evil, BOTH love AND wrath, BOTH light AND dark, BOTH healer AND afflicter. "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be AS, AS, AS God, knowing good AND, AND, AND evil." Genesis 3:4-5 (emphasis added). Or, put another way, Satan's core lie here was about God's nature -- that God experientially knew good AND evil, that God in fact authored good AND evil, that God ultimately WAS good and evil. So, the "knowledge of good and evil" is ...

Fasting from Anti-Christ, Feasting on Love – Eden Jersak

I know that we’re in the Advent Season, but I think I’m going to fast as if it’s Lent instead. What was at first comical, amusing, and just plain silly, has become so abhorrent that I have to look away and stop listening and watching “the show.” I remember as a child being invited to our church on a Sunday evening to watch a film. It was called “Left Behind”, and it was all about what it was going to be like to be left behind when Jesus returned to take home all the Christians. This film was particularly effective at making me very scared of God, his judgement, and his return. It probably took about a decade after seeing that to finally ...

The Greatest Commandment – Laura Urista

I've always liked to watch detective shows. Growing up, two of my favorite detective shows were Columbo and Dragnet. Remember Sergeant Joe Friday of Dragnet? Sometimes when Sergeant Friday would interview a witness they'd get a little long winded or off topic. Sometimes they would give their own ideas about how to solve the crime. When that happened, Sergeant Friday would say in a very calm, monotone, no-nonsense voice: “Just the facts…just the facts.” In fact, that quote became such a popular catch-phrase or slogan that they started to sell T-shirts with the slogan “Just the Facts.” In Matthew we read about a Pharisee, described as “an ...

Jesus Died for Us … Not for God – Brian Zahnd

“You killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.” –The Apostle Peter, Acts 3:15   Golgotha is where the great crimes of humanity — pride, rivalry, blame, violence, domination, war, and empire — are dragged into the searing light of divine judgment. At Golgotha we see the system of human organization that we blithely call “civilization” for what it is: an axis of power enforced by violence so corrupt that it is capable of murdering God in the name of what we call truth, justice, and liberty. Golgotha is also the place where the love of God achieves its greatest expression. As Jesus is lynched in the name of religious ...

How Jesus Used Scripture – Richard Rohr

Looking at which Scripture passages Jesus emphasizes (remember, the Hebrew Bible is his only Bible!) shows he clearly understands how to connect the "three steps forward" dots that confirm the God he has met, knows, loves, and trusts. At the same time, Jesus ignores or openly contradicts the many "two steps backward" texts. He never quotes the book of Numbers, for example, which is rather ritualistic and legalistic. He never quotes Joshua or Judges, which are full of sanctified violence. Basically, Jesus doesn't quote from his own Scriptures when they are punitive, imperialistic ("My country and religion are the 'only'!"), classist, or exclusionary. ...

One Thing Is Needed – Lazar Puhalo

But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Luke 10:42. Christians need to regularly examine whether we have mere religion, or are rather struggling to have a life in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is the true goal of our Christian life.  Perhaps we might consider spending less energy trying to judge and condemn and correct others and focus far more on the condition of our own spiritual lives. It seems to me that the myth of a "holy nation" (i.e., one in which extreme political repression forces people to externally observe what one or another religious group ...

The Story of Jonah: Dare we hate those whom God loves? – Lazar Puhalo

Coptic Icon of Jonah The story of Jonah presents a quandary. The history of Nineveh and the Assyrians is well known and documented. The Assyrians left their own records and the nations around them had much to say of them. They were hated by all and proud of it. Nineveh, however, never accepted the God of Israel and certainly never repented "in sackcloth and ashes." So what is the story of Jonah about? This story unfolds at a time when Judah and Israel had become particularist. They were turned in on themselves and not even attempting to engage other nations with the worship of the true and living God. Indeed, the population of the two ...

Jesus as Scapegoat – Richard Rohr

Christianity Without the Religion All the great religions of the world talk a lot about death, so there must be an essential lesson to be learned here. But throughout much of religious history our emphasis has been on killing the wrong thing and avoiding the truth: it’s you who has to die, or rather, who you think you are—your false self. It's never someone else! Historically we moved from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice to various modes of seeming self-sacrifice, usually involving the body. For many religions, including immature Christianity, God was distant and scary, an angry deity who must be placated. God ...

The Wrath of God – Nuanced as Divine Consent – Brad Jersak

A pastor-friend of mine from America was telling me about how one of his pristine elderly congregants was lamenting news of the latest death of their troops in the Middle East. This precious Christian lady said, “Our boys are over there getting killed by the people they are trying to help. Maybe we need another Hiroshima.” Why do we go there? My best answer: the language of wrath is an expression of our felt-need for God to straighten out the ‘bent-ness’ of injustice in our world. Even those who don’t profess faith find themselves looking over their shoulder when tragedy strikes. “What did I do to deserve this?” We find ourselves ...