For many, a relationship with God is a powerful connection to real life. Healthy spirituality can connect us in healthy ways to reality. Healthy faith can help ground our entire lives. It can take the ordinary and seemingly mundane things of life and fill them with significance. Likewise, it can produce a sense of hope,…
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We ARE Chosen
How many of us remember the ad-hoc choosing of teams in the school yard? "I'll take Jimmy." "I'll take Jane" and so forth until there is a lone person left and chosen by default. There were times when I was growing up that I found myself the last to be chosen. It is an awkward feeling to not…
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My God, my God why have you forsaken me?
I have been reflecting the Gospel accounts of our Lord hanging on the Roman tree, and I am gripped by the sheer terror of the event. As Jesus hung there in great anguish, He cried out “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?) (Mt.27:46) For a long time, I…
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Easter: Good News for Zombies!
A few years ago, we were visiting a Church in the States on Easter Sunday. The Pastor, a friend of mine, was tremendously creative with sharing the Gospel through pop culture and his Easter Sunday message was no exception. He was presenting the Easter story using various media and was at the part in Matthew…
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Don’t Mind the Mess. Jesus Doesn’t.
I had an aunt who was a neat freak. There's no other way to put, and she would agree, if through gritted teeth and tight-lipped smile. I have a memory of visiting her home and my wife-to-be mistakenly walking into the freshly vacuumed family room. My aunt shrieked with panic as my betrothed's socked foot…
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Gratitude: Spiritual Practice Series
Gratitude is more than just saying please and thank you! Gratitude is the proceeds thankfulness. Gratitude is more of an awareness where thankfulness is more thoughtful and action that flows from gratitude. The thank-yous are a social response flowing from gratitude. Gratitude is something we cultivate within ourselves as we begin to shift our thinking from…
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Living Awake!
The idea that God can be found in all things has been a rich and welcomed renovation in my life. It is the practice of living awake. I am coming to understand that the mystery that is God cannot be contained by my thoughts and the structures I use to think about God. Neither do…
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The difference between Coaching and Spiritual Direction?
What an excellent question and while volumes have been written on Spiritual Direction and life coaching, it is important to understand the two are not the same thing as if Coaching is a more contemporary term for Spiritual Direction. Coaching Christian Life Coaching can be an incredible tool in real life of everyday people, but…
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Introverts in an Extroverts World
As a pastor, I was regularly required to preach and teach. I have had a great deal of positive feedback by those I present to and the positive effect in the their lives. However, after each time I taught or preached, as much as I enjoyed it, I felt drained. Yes, I had expended…
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Follow Jesus – On the Way
With a sincere desire to cultivate a deeper experience and relationship with God many folks are conditioned to ask the question "how." How can I experience greater peace, joy and freedom in the Lord? How can I get a deeper sense of my relationship with Jesus in all of life? These are honest questions. Unfortunately,…
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