I’m excited to talk about this chapter because I have such experience with it’s subject matter.
Up to now we’ve talked about demonic influence on someone’s thoughts and habits, but now we begin to explore in more detail how relationships are brought into the mix. Spiritual warfare in relationships is no joke.
A few nights ago on Omegle I ran into an Islamic Egyptian and we had quite a riveting conversation about faith and culture. I got to hear from a man following Islam in a war-torn country, and he got to peer into the twisted psyche of the comfortable Western world.
The following is a highly summarized autobiography written by my mother-in-law, Susan. It is an extremely short version of her book “You Don’t Have to Move the Washer to Make Toast.” Even the book itself is short and summarized, so keep in mind that the story below outlines a few quick snapshots from a long and very interesting life. I will post part 2 soon.
The point of the story is that God still pursues us even in our own rebellion against him. He loves us and continues to show His love even when we hate Him and think He hates us. And all it takes is submission to Him to have hope in our lives. God offers us a free gift, the gift of a relationship with Him, and there is no sense in running from it. Read on to hear my Mom-in-law’s story:
In my last post I shared my struggle with Calvinism and my stigmatic impression of its standoffish culture. For the most part, it was a rant, and a rant about what I’ve seen of Calvinism so far.
Alas, being myself an evangelical, I know what it’s like to have your belief system and attitude assumed based off the many. In most cases, based off the many and most vocal who usually do not represent the most reasonable. Therefore I am intellectually bound to give the doctrine of Calvinism a fair trial in my own mind, not pre-judging it based off of emotion and first impression.
Normally on this website I’m trying to give solid answers to questions related to the Bible and the Christian faith… I’m trying to point people to excellent Bible resources.
Today I’m the one asking the questions and talking about my struggle. Today I’m sharing my struggle with Calvinism.
I love my neighbor Trent. Not that I don’t like my other neighbors, but Trent is the one I’ve gotten to know the most.
I would say something like “neighborly love has gone to the dogs these days,” but the truth is that I never knew what it was like before.
I do think most folks probably don’t know their neighbors, but I can tell you that I’m grateful for mine.
The study of scripture is, of course, an extremely important religious discipline in the Christian faith. Reading the Bible spiritually feeds, recharges, and teaches us. It brings us closer to God.
But let’s be honest, sometimes it seems like something on a checklist we need to X off in order to be a good follower. We all know we need to pray, go to church, and read our Bible. Right? Are we missing something?
*Author’s Note: this is an edited re-post from my old blog. I originally wrote it in August of 2014*
If you haven’t heard of him, Matt Walsh (blogger) is sort of an internet anti-celebrity who works for the Blaze blogging about really controversial things and upsets a lot of people. In a nutshell.
Anyway, the point is that he’s a Christian blogger whom I highly respect. I enjoy his writing and I agree with his arguments. And so I sent him an email.
Something Matt occasionally does is respond to emails from readers. Usually he’s logically defending his stance from someone who is irrationally screaming at him, calling him names, and generally being really nasty while blaming him for hatred.
But sometimes he blogs in response to people like the “quiet, boring girl in class,” or people like me! You can find the post here.
I’ve never written about supernatural experiences before. Nor have I ever written about my personal worship experiences, or really even much about my prayer life. This is mainly because I’ve experienced very few such events worth mentioning.
That is, not much out of the ordinary the like of which you haven’t heard before. There are a few exceptions, however, some of which I will share in this post.
In the past (and still sometimes today) I wondered how to be intimate with God. How to get intimate with God. Truly intimate. Like, Eden intimate. Okay, maybe that’s a bit lofty.
*Author’s note: this is another re-upload, a short post I wrote roughly two years ago on an old freebie blog I had. Since it was about this time two years ago I proposed to my now-wife (and since I am barren to write much at this point in the week and have extra blog-fodder sitting aside), I found it appropriate to republish this.
It’s basically me giving a highly annoyed critique and social commentary on several trite sayings I heard over and over again as a betrothed man. In other words, it’s me complaining and generally being a curmudgeon about pre-wedding conversation. Enjoy my excessively peevish ramblings!*