Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

Without love, as a Christian, I am just a charlatan peddling a world view.  I feel that it is a world view that is complete and total, healing and hopeful. But really without love, it is just another of many. In Christianity, it is said that God is the God of relationship.  The dogma I have accepted says he is three in one, father spirit and son in eternal relationship with each other.  So it makes sense that relationship would be important in this world view.  I think it was important to Jesus: he was always taking time for people, interacting with them on a deep level and being present with them.  And they responded. Like Zacchaeus, they ran to get a glimpse of him, and then he surprised everyone by coming to dinner with us - like Zacchaeus - unworthy sinners.  And, as a Christian, when I say I am unworthy, I am not getting down on myself.  No, the bible teaches me to look upon myself as a unique, chosen individual at the receiving end of an ...

In twelve step programs, I am invited to put my trust in “a higher power,” (God as I understand him/her/it.)  The point is that I have to give my will and eventually, my life over to something or someone outside my control.  This is so I will stop relying on self to control the uncontrollable – the circumstances in my life, the weather, other people’s reactions to me, the next urge to use.  In 12 step programs, you walk out a spiritual path with the end result of giving your life over and surrendering your will.  This was all fine with me as I had been slowly becoming a Christian over the past 20 years, starting first with a deepening relationship with the God I found in the pages of the bible.  But I learned one day that the higher power in 12 steps could be the group or the group consciousness, or, what really got me thinking, a doorknob.  It still works because the addict gives his choices and will over to something outside himself.  That simpl...

In these days of ever quickening change and biased arguments, it is easy to get discouraged.  If I fill up on news-as-entertainment television, get bogged down in religious or political arguments on Facebook, or get caught up in the issue du jour, I end up feeling depleted, stressed, and frustrated.  It seems to me that our public milieu has increasingly become one of biased, polarized debate. I may be inclined, as many people do, to escape by satiating on the ubiquitous outlets for entertainment- where I get filled up with even more of the same and left more depleted than I was when I came. No time to rest or be at peace with one’s self. But in my back pocket, waiting to be remembered, is another way to live that I can rely on.  And it’s all about changing focus. It is an exciting time to be alive.  Advancements in technology are progressing at a frenetic pace: from bionic arms for amputees, to new wonder materials, like Ozy, that will be in everything, makin...

I have a Buddhist friend out of my much-loved pool of Buddhist friends that said one day to me that Jesus never claimed to be divine.  I want to put that misconception to rest, because I have heard it more than once.  (As an aside, I think it is imperative that every Christian has some close friends outside of the Christian faith. It’ll keep you honest). Jesus claimed many times in the New Testament writings, his divinity.  There are simple too many instances to treat here.  But here are some.  Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."     Jesus replied, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don't know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?" Jesus shouted to the crowds, "If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me. For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me. I have come as a light to shin...

God is immanent and transcendent.  Immanent in that he is present every hour of every day.  Transcendent in that trying to sum him up is like trying to catch Niagara Falls in a teacup.  If we believe one or the other, and not both, we will have a false sense of God.  (Losing this balance is the root of most of the major heresy’s in the long history of Christianity.) He is immanent in that he is ever present and available.  When someone in Alcoholics Anonymous prays earnestly, “Higher Power, help me not to take this drink.”  He expects God to remove the urge for him, just for that minute, and hopefully for the next hour.  And you know what? God does.  It is why 12 step programs work.  He is an ever-present help in times of trouble. He is also immanent in nature.  Have you ever really looked at a tree?  Ever really thought about it?  It is a collection of dust that became a seed so perfectly designed that it, as big as a...

The Christian God is a God of time.  He is the other person in your relationship with life and the universe. In my experience, I believe that the thing he wants most from us is our time.  Time, interestingly, is the thing that is increasingly the most precious commodity in our society.  But it takes time to be in relationship with someone.  Lives without the intentional giving of time to others become increasingly superficial.  We know from relationships that the thing people want most from us is our time.  My wife desires, above all things, for intentional, present time with me.  My friends, the close ones, are one side of a relationship invested with time. God is a person too.  He wants our time.  Uninterrupted, focused, intentional time. God designed us to be in relationship with one another to teach us how to be in relationship with him (or her). But I am too busy. I am raising three screaming children, I have work and commit...

I think one of the things I hear most often from other Christians is that that their life is spiritually dry, that they are not hearing from God.  This is the same problem honest atheists, agnostics, and seekers have too.  Anyone who entertains the thought of a God, is confronted with this problem sooner or later. Some people are ushered into their faith in the crucible of pain.  They hit the dregs of life and find in their need, that they have reached the end of themselves and they have no choice but to cry out.  When they do, they are met with a voice coming back to them. Some people find that they are bored with life and caught up in its little battles and start searching for something deeper. And a voice clear and concise speaks something so profound to their heart that they never forget it.  Others hear the voice of God coming to them through someone they love, someone they have let into their inner life and they seek to find the source.  Some hea...