"Most of us began our journey into faith with trusting hearts. Yet incidents of abuse, media accounts of perverted religion, personal disappointment, loss, betrayal, and even unrealistic expectations of God can cause us to develop a warped or damaged view of faith. Too often, what began as an authentic relationship with God deteriorates into a defective faith with an incomplete or poisoned view of God — one that allows the religion, not the relationship with God, to control our life." Stephen Arterburn
Read the rest of this entry »
“The perfect church service,would be one we were almost unaware of .
Our attention would have been on God.” CS Lewis
Read the rest of this entry »
“The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity” -Andre Gide
Read the rest of this entry »
"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satisfied; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
C.S. Lewis, author/theologian
Read the rest of this entry »
“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.” Lord of the Rings
Read the rest of this entry »
Hyper-authoritarianism in Christendom is on the rise and being touted as a "Biblical" response to feminism. It's entering the church via hyper-Calvinists (aka "Calvinistas"), not to be confused with genuine Calvinists. There is a difference! There is absolutely no question that Calvinism, or reformed theology, is within the pale of Christian orthodoxy. The "real" Calvinists are to be admired for their dedication to the careful study of Scripture. However, Calvinistas take their reformed view much further. Instead of believing as their predecessors did — that Calvinism is just one of the acceptable views of orthodoxy –they have become Christian extremists, claiming that only their interpretation of Scripture is correct.
Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, my husband and I had a major shock. We left our church where we had been members for over seven years because of a serious disagreement over the handling (or should I say mishandling) of a pedophile incident. The former pastor, who supposedly cared for our eternal souls, reportedly told the pastor of the church we planned to join that we were “troublemakers” (his words) and that we were not in good standing with the church we were leaving. How strange! We were not informed of this while we were attending and leading an adult Sunday school class, which we last taught on the day we submitted our written resignation. How could we be teaching in our church and not be in good standing? Is there such a thing as stealth church discipline?
Read the rest of this entry »
“Americans, indeed all freemen, remember that in the final choice, a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
Read the rest of this entry »
Are you sitting in your church thinking that something is amiss? Do you think you are the only one who feels this way? Did you try to express your concerns to your pastor? Did he claim you are the only one who has come to him regarding this matter? Did he seem annoyed that you are questioning him? Did he make you feel like you had done something unbiblical by speaking with him?
Read the rest of this entry »
