Can You Believe What She Did???!!!
April 27, 2010
The scene begins with Jesus teaching people early in the morning at the temple…
The scribes and Pharisees were so excited. They could hardly wait. They came barging into the teaching session, dragging a woman who had been caught in the very act of adultery. It’s hard to tell what they were most excited about: exposing this woman and her sin and stoning her or waiting to catch Jesus in a trap so that they could accuse him of fradulence for claiming to be the Son of God. But one thing is certain… they were so excited to lift themselves up at the expense of someone else. Read more
Deceptively Attractive
April 14, 2010
When I did some research on the idea of “window dressing” in preparation for this article, the results of a Google search on the topic basically amounted to two broad explanations of the expression. The first is the original, and literal, defintion of the word, which involves creating an attractive display of merchandise in a store window to draw customers in, and the other describes the practice of making something appear deceptively attractive or favorable. It is the second defintion which concerns this issue of the newsletter, but I found the juxtaposition of these two explanations particularly interesting when applied specifically to the world of the consumer and the world of the religious. Why is it that when it comes to selling products in stores, window dressing is simply considered good marketing, whereas when it comes to our personal lives, it is considered deceptive? Read more
Belief and its Consequences
February 19, 2010
One participant told a story he remembered from childhood. He was around four years old at the time and was playing with toys in his room while his parents were arguing downstairs. When his father was not at work, he was usually hanging out with friends, spending little time with the family. The participant’s mother and grandfather raised him when he was a little boy. His mother was very sheltering and his eighty-year old grandfather knew nothing about playing sports. While his parents were arguing, he overheard his dad tell his mother, “you are going to make that boy a sissy.” Read more
Surviving is Overrated
February 9, 2010
With the economy in a slump, many people are becoming worried about finances and how they will make ends meet. When a person worries about money, he does not have much motivation or time to think about or do anything else. In the mid 1900s, psychologist Abraham Maslow theorized that if a person could not meet his basic survival needs, it would be nearly impossible for that person to feel secure or become socialized and feelings of esteem or achievement would be limited. Furthermore, Maslow believed these needs had to be developed in a hierarchical order. Read more
Broken Cisterns
February 1, 2010
God used his prophet, Jeremiah, as a means of expressing His problems with the Israelites. Jeremiah 2:13 identifies God’s problem with the Israelites. His people had left Him, the living water, and gone after broken cisterns which could hold no water. A cistern is a man-made container, usually hewn out of stone. Cisterns were often used to hold water. Today, many people within the church still struggle with this problem. Read more
Happiness or Holiness?
January 25, 2010
Is happiness your god?
For most of us, if we were to stop and really examine this question, the answer could very well be yes.
Most people are in pursuit of happiness, whether knowingly or unknowingly.
Does God want us to be happy? It really all depends on how happiness is defined. Read more
