Category: Christian life

  • We need permission…

    We need permission…

    A friend of mine commented on a post that I wrote saying that it sounded like a request for affirmation. I responded that while I am not aware that I am looking for that affirmation I think that it is crucial for us as humans to be validated, to be affirmed. What we need is…


  • Oh no, religion!

    Oh no, religion!

    As I was browsing the interwebs I came upon this cartoon depicting how the secular society looks at christianity. It is true to a large degree. In todays society it is ok to quote Buddha, the Dalai Lama or Ghandi but to quote Jesus or the bible is somehow offensive. Of course the reverse is…


  • The mind is not infallible

    The mind is not infallible

    We live in a society that has for centuries prioritised the mind.  We have listened to Descartes who said Cogito Ergo Sum, I think therefore I am and so we believe that we are the sum of our thoughts rather than the sum of our being. God gave us the mind to protect the heart,…


  • I am the truth

    I am the truth

    In the Christian world we continuously repeat the mantra: Jesus is the answer, Jesus is the truth! Vi repate it over and over again and it most often seems to mean that outside the person of Jesus there is no truth. We seem to believe that Jesus statement means that everything else is untrue, lies.…


  • Feelings are not dangerous and unreliable
    ,

    Feelings are not dangerous and unreliable

    If you have been raised in church or spent a longer time as a member of some sort of church, then I am sure you have been told not to trust your feelings. I was certainly told time and time again that feelings are a roller coaster, they come and go and cannot be trusted.…


  • Shameless!
    , ,

    Shameless!

    A while ago I wrote about the importance of self love and how self love is the first step to loving others since you can only love others as much as you love yourself. Now we know we should love ourselves, and we hopefully feel that it is ok to love oneself. The question then…


  • Self actualisation is not self-worship

    Self actualisation is not self-worship

    “For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self … Therefore there is only one problem on which all my existence, my peace and my happiness depend: to discover myself in discovering…


  • Seeing the divine in all things is not heretical

    Seeing the divine in all things is not heretical

    Look around you, what do you see? Are you not surrounded by grace? By walking talking miracles gifted with the gift of life and love? How is it that within the Christian church, it has become heretical to see and to point out the divine outside of the confines of our little community, outside of…


  • As you love yourself

    As you love yourself

    When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,…


  • Loving the earth is not satanic
    ,

    Loving the earth is not satanic

    In the beginning when god began creating the heavens and the earths manifestations of god’s self of gods love, and god saw that it was good. And god created humans as embodied manifestations of gods consciousness, god’s glory and god’s love. God charged humanity to be stewards of the earth, to love it and care…


  • Tattoos are not evil

    Tattoos are not evil

    It is funny how a single verse in the bible can become so important to some people, important enough not to read or understand the context.  You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft. 27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of…


  • There is no us and them
    , , ,

    There is no us and them

    Someone once told me that all dichotomies are false dichotomies. And maybe this is the most sinister but also the most widespread of them all. The very idea that there is us and them, the idea that we are somehow different *better” that them, whomever they are. In what may have been one of the…


  • The world is not without hope

    The world is not without hope

    I don’t know about you but I hear a lot of hopelessness out there when I put my ear on the wire. The internet is buzzing with naysayers and doomsday prophets telling us that it is too late, that there is no hope left. We might as well just hold on and enjoy the ride…


  • Life is not a warm-up for heaven

    Life is not a warm-up for heaven

    The whole idea of heaven, while hope inspiring, often corrodes and hollows out our everyday life. It is interesting to note that Jesus rarely spoke about heaven. To him, it seemed much more important and urgent to deal with life here and now. Heaven in the here and now. “Repent, for the kingdom of god…


  • Sex is not filthy
    , , ,

    Sex is not filthy

    IT’S TRUE!! Not even when it’s really good! Not even when it’s long or loud, wet and rowdy. Sex is not even filthy when it is public or outside or taped. Sex is not filthy when it is between two men or two women. It is not filthy no matter what clothes we dress up…


  • Falling upwards or sin is not that bad
    ,

    Falling upwards or sin is not that bad

    So this week we are talking about sin. It doesn’t happen a lot around here. I abhor the notion of sin, not because of what it means but because of the cultural baggage that we have attached to the idea. Let me just say outright that the whole concept of a catalogue of sin, certain…


  • Science is not secular
    , , ,

    Science is not secular

    We live in a secular society, which for most people means separation of church and state. We have this idea that church simply should not be political or involve itself in matters of state. In the same way we have this notion that church has nothing to do with science and that science have nothing…


  • Love
    ,

    Love

    So let’s talk about love. What could be easier, love is after all the foundation of the Christian faith right! Love is the cornerstone, Love is the air that we breathe, all you need is love! Then again for as long as humans have walked the earth we have tried to define love and make sense of…


  • What did you expect?

    What did you expect?

    I have been a Christian on and off since I was 14 years old. I have prayed thousands upon thousands of prayers. Some deep and heartfelt, some pleading, some angry and demanding answers and some, I must confess, simply by routine. I think that is why I stopped saying grace (praying, giving thanks for my…


  • Why are we so afraid?
    ,

    Why are we so afraid?

    Those of you who have heard me teach have probably heard me say that joy is the Christian trademark, well that and or grace. While there are a lot of really awesome teaching in most of the world religions, the idea of grace, the completely undeserved, unconditional gift that inspires a no holds barred kind…


  • Peace is not a circumstance

    Peace is not a circumstance

    Most people have had this thought, I know I have, If I could just find some peace and quiet, then I could sort out my issues and get on with it. Most people wait for the circumstances to be right, or work frantically to make the circumstances right to achieve peace. This need for quiet…


  • Love is not a theory
    ,

    Love is not a theory

    We talk about love a lot, we say that: God is love! The scriptures say it over and over again, they even say that unless you are in love, saturated with love, bubbling over with love, you are not with god. And so we realise that love is necessary, it’s a fundamental part of our…


  • Kiss me, I am a Christian!
    , ,

    Kiss me, I am a Christian!

    So I was looking at one of my favourite geeky webpages when I found this T-Shirt that said: “Kiss me I’m elvish”. Which of course is a rip-off of the old “Kiss me I’m Irish” slogan. And it got me thinking…Today Christians are so afraid of any physical contact, because we have fallen into the…


  • Sinner is not our identity

    Sinner is not our identity

    I have heard it often spoken in churches, you are a sinner! We most often base this on a handful of verses out of scripture like the famous “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of god”. And so we fall into the trap where we think that we are what we…


  • Our humanity is not the enemy

    Our humanity is not the enemy

    It’s been around for a long time, the notion that the problem we have as humans is that we are in fact human. We call it the human condition. And so we aspire to be more than human, to be ‘spiritual’, to somehow leave our human existence and become something else. The problem is that…