Posts in Religion
(0)
If entering into the presence of God is the goal, why do I stop short of that goal so often?
I think there’s something in many of us that still seeks “safe” religion. That is, we only want to progress in our faith so much. Religion in moderation, so to speak.
We go to church. We pray […]
(0)
They say truth is stranger than fiction. I wholeheartedly agree.
The past few weeks have been met with intense discussion about Christ and Christianity. I’ve read dozens of opinions about the absurdity of Christianity and the ridiculousness of a group of people believing in what is little more than a story book, one that has been […]
(0)
What does it mean to be pure of heart? What does it mean to be chaste?
The obvious answer is to have never committed impure acts or thought unclean thoughts. The obvious answer is to live your life with holiness and purity.
In today’s culture, the answer often feels like an impossibility. I’ve yet to meet a […]
(0)
Let’s get one thing straight. God didn’t have to create us.
The Christian worldview of God, the God of the Trinity, already had everything. Within the dynamic of the Trinity existed the perfect love relationship. The Son constantly brought glory to the Father, the Father delighted in the Son. There was no need for humanity in […]
(0)
The biggest obstacle to God is pride.
Which is why I’ve had such a hard time growing in my relationship to him. Indeed, the process has been one of the most frustrating, though exhilarating, experiences I’ve gone through.
There are other vices or character flaws that don’t throw nearly as great a wrench in the desire to […]
(0)
Last night I had a conversation with a girl.
I told her that I’m trying to stop deriving my energy or my happiness from other people. I told her that I’m trying to derive my happiness from…
She cut me off and said “yourself.”
And I said, “No, from God.”
She didn’t understand. Thought I was strange. And I […]
(0)
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.
The unreasonable man insists on adapting the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw
Throughout time there have been men who have shaken the world from its foundations.
Men who have been thrown into the same world as everyone else, yet see it in a […]
(1)
“We look for rest and if we find it, it becomes intolerable. Incapable of the divine activity which alone can satisfy, fallen man flings himself upon exterior things, not so much for their own sake as for the sake of agitation which keeps the spirit pleasantly numb. The distraction diverts us aside from the one […]
(0)
Truly believing in forgiveness of sin is a tough thing to do.
Some of us, no matter how many times we ask for God’s forgiveness, still feel as though the things we’ve done are unforgiveable. We feel as though a just God wouldn’t be able to forgive our most heinous and agregious acts. I’ve been struggling […]
(0)
If you were in love with a woman because she had the good fortune of being wealthy, would you really be in love with her? Or would you (at least partially) be in love with the money? Even if you fell in love with her at first for her character, and were only later made […]
(0)
Why does evil exist?
Why would an all-powerful, all-loving God allow such terrible things to happen? This problem of evil is behind many of our questions and doubts about the existence of God.
Each of us has had some pretty terrible things happen to us. Each of us, in one way or another, have had our innocence […]
(2)
What is love?
In the Greek language there are three kinds of love.
EROS love, from which we get the word erotic. It refers to a self-referential love. That is, you love this person or thing because of what they do for you. This isn’t always a bad thing - a baby loves their mother because without […]
(0)
If there’s one thing that unites all of us, it’s the fear that we’re alone.
Whether we’ve felt it in a very real way or simply as a constant feeling in the corner of our minds, most of us have feared that in the end, we are alone in the world. It’s easy to understand why.
We’re […]
(0)
It appears as though I have a problem.
Most people I know who believe in God do so in a very emotional way. They have a relationship that allows them to experience a deep connection with the Eternal. They don’t seem to spend a considerable amount of time thinking about the deep philisophical questions related to […]
(0)
Christmas is on Thursday. But make sure you don’t celebrate it.
If you do, please don’t do it in public. Sure, you can talk about the presents and the good cheer and all of that, but please don’t mention anything about God.
Don’t include any Christmas carols in the school play, because I find it deeply offensive. […]
(1)
I grew up in church, but I believed for myself by looking at the evidence for or against belief in the natural world. That’s why today’s post will be pretty fun for me.
I’ve already talked about moral relativism at relative length, but the argument boils down pretty simply:
Without a Creator, there are no morals. Which […]
(0)
People have been telling me that remorse and guilt are useless emotions. They’ve been telling me that my attempts at genuine repentance aren’t useful, and will just make me feel worse.
I’ve been reading Kierkegaard pretty intently as of late, and he was a pretty intelligent guy. Some of his thoughts on remorse:
“….Repentance and remorse know […]
(0)
Midnight.
The end of another long day. I try to pray, but as usual I feel disconnected, distracted. Why can’t I have the kind of close relaitonship with God that I see in other people? Why doesn’t he talk to me?
Oh well. Get some sleep. zzzzzzz.
9:00-10:00 - Get up and rush to get ready for my […]
(0)
There’s a lot of irony in people’s beliefs and how they think those beliefs should shape their world view.
Irony in that most people get it wrong. They don’t think all the way through what their beliefs must mean. Two examples:
The Atheist
The atheist believes that there is no God. I think we can all safely agree […]
(0)
How do we avoid judging people?
In my quest to systematically eliminate character flaws, I hit upon this one recently. And it’s a doozy. I honestly don’t have the slightest idea how to go through life, to go through a single day, and not judge someone. Very rarely do I make my judgment known - most […]
(0)
A lot of people knock Christianity, describing it as a huge mass of people who do whatever the church tells them to do, who are absolutely incapable of thinking for themselves.
In a lot of cases, those people are right. But I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to be.
People, not just Christians, have a natural […]
(0)
Pascal was on to something with his wager. He said you have four choices, with four consequences.
-there is no God and you believe there is; you live your life, die, and become dirt.
-there is no God and you don’t believe there is; you live your life, die, and become dirt.
-there is a God and you […]
(0)
Christianity doesn’t make sense. It’s not supposed to.
It is nearly impossible to enter a university in America these days and not be bombarded by the lack of belief in the Christian God. Students leave the protective womb that is their childhood home, and eagerly embark on a journey of self-discovery and newfound freedom. In that […]
(0)
Finished what turned out to be a horrible failure of a fast. Sure, I didn’t eat anything the entire time, although I desperately wanted to. But last night my business partner and I met up with the editor of a local newspaper for drinks. On three days with no food, I made the brilliant decision […]
(0)
I’m on day three of my four-day fast.
I LOVE food. I miss it dearly. But this has been a pretty phenomenal experience. You begin to become acutely aware of your own frailty. You begin to realize how precious your relaxation time is. And when you hit the wall, when your body screams to provide it […]
(0)
I’ve started attending a Bible study the past couple of weeks, and I forgot how nice it is to spend time learning about God. I also realized how much more of that I need to be doing. For years I’ve put a ridiculous amount of energy into a lot of things - the obvious one […]
(0)
I’ve recently begun the process of rediscovering God. I was raised in a Christian household, and have always been a pretty good kid. But in college, I was surrounded by thousands upon thousands of kids who claim to be “religious but not spiritual,” which basically amounts to believing in a higher power but not wanting […]
