It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.....Galatians 5:1

All Blog Posts (141)

The Raging Sea

The Raging Sea A wave, crashing against the shore Shaking me from my reverie I was lost in my thoughts once again Lost within the confines of my pain An infinite jumble of emotional fears and doubts I struggled to make some sense Of my life thus far In a world tinged in darkness and pain I know that my heart remains pure But not untouched by it My life of pain has left an imprint upon me The valleys and crevices are emotions pool Often overflow within me Drown me in feelings of despair And no… Continue

Added by Barbara Engle on December 10, 2009 at 7:54am — 1 Comment

Spiritual abuse, because you are chronically ill

Learning to live with a chronic illness is a challenge many Christians face on a daily bases. Dealing with a chronic illness, in a church system that tends to be critical and judgment towards people suffering from a chronic illness and pain, can be devastating. My Name is Barbara , I have Gastroduodenal Crohn’s disease, Gastroparesis, fibromyalgia , and a wide varity of other complications associated with these disease and disorders. I have been dealing with the realities associated with Crohn’… Continue

Added by Barbara Engle on December 3, 2009 at 4:32pm — 2 Comments

Happiness....a Choice!?!?

Some random thoughts about happiness ... What if God WANTS me to be happy...? What if I need to train my mind to see the good all around me ... to see the beauty in life ... to see the reasons to celebrate rather than to gripe, or to mourn ...? (what if I don't WANT this responsibility ...? what if being a victim of circumstances is *easier*... and more *familiar*...?) But what if happiness is NOT circumstance-dependent...? What if happiness is a choice, that requires a decision...? (what i… Continue

Added by Deb on November 20, 2009 at 5:06pm — No Comments

SEEK NOT OUTSIDE YOURSELF.....

"You will undertake a journey because you are not at home in this world. And you will search for your home whether you realize where it is or not. If you believe it is outside you the search will be futile, for you will be seeking it where it is not. You do not remember how to look within for you do not believe your home is there." [T208f/224] A Course in Miracles says that the ego's maxim is "Seek but do not find."(2) Have you noticed that some way somehow, you are always seeking something? An… Continue

Added by Deb on November 10, 2009 at 1:08pm — No Comments

Exposing the Ego ~ Some Reading Snippets

Yesterday I bloggeth not. It was "running around the countryside doing artsy stuff" Day. Schlepping painted furniture day. On days like that, I wonder why I chose such a medium as furniture and mirrors and lamps ... heavy, ungainly, unwieldy stuff ... why didn't I choose postcards to paint? Or Styrofoam? Or even canvas? I'll stick to blogging about art on my art-blog, however, and get back to ego-exposing here ... As always, I'm reading my way through a few books at a time, and it's uncanny how… Continue

Added by Deb on November 5, 2009 at 4:45pm — No Comments

Exposing the Ego ~ A Deeper Look at Jesus

I stand here in trepidation ... entering a realm that's considered sacred-beyond-questioning ... and yet, I must question what I've been taught, by humans, about Jesus. Integrity begs me to do so. Truth beckons beyond the surface-understanding ... beyond the traditions of man, the unquestioned pat answers. I figure that anything I say here will offend someone. It's inevitable. Here's what gives me the gumption to do this: I believe that Truth is self-evident. I believe that Truth can withstand… Continue

Added by Deb on November 3, 2009 at 9:18pm — 6 Comments

Exposing the Ego ~ What If..?

If it's true that everything we experience boils down to either an expression of love, or a cry for love ... what might that mean? How might we see things differently, IF it really IS that simple...? What if ... the work we think we're *supposed* to do isn't as important as the "interruptions" that annoy us, and keep us from doing that "supposed" work...? What if they're both important...? What if ... whenever we feel that whatever we might choose would be wrong, it's not an accident? What if… Continue

Added by Deb on November 1, 2009 at 11:24pm — 1 Comment

Exposing the Ego ~ An Example of Attack/Forgiveness

Imagine this all-too-real-life situation with me ... Here I am, sitting somewhere, minding my own business ... and you walk into the room, and offend me, by insulting me, or doing something to me that I interpret as harmful. Let's say that when this happens, I'm in my egoic mind (my not-right mind), sitting here in a state that imagines God is not with me, that I am guilty and disconnected, and in general, not feeling good about myself. So, you come in being "offensive" to me, and on some leve… Continue

Added by Deb on October 31, 2009 at 7:25pm — No Comments

Exposing the Ego ~ Anger/Forgiveness

Have you noticed how the ego thinks it's pretty smart...? Well, rest-assured that the Spirit is infinitely smarter ... in fact, it's so smart that it USES the ego's tactics to work on exposing and dismantling (& ultimately absorbing, as in embraced-to-death!) the ego. Y'know, hug the snot out of it 'til it's utterly enfolded in Love ...! Such could be our response to our "enemies", once we saw them as they are, once we saw their attacks as a cry for love ... (more on that next time). It s… Continue

Added by Deb on October 30, 2009 at 8:05pm — No Comments

Exposing the Ego ~ Counterfeit Relationships

The ego knows only two ways to have relationships -- and both are dishonest. One is the type we've already looked at -- the "special hate" relationships ... wherein we blame others for our own stuff, attack them for showing us our stuff, and then banish them from our lives, to alleviate our guilt for having our stuff. But what's even more insidiously damaging, and far more subtle, are the "special love" relationships. We're talking about a counterfeit "love" here ... not real love, but that wh… Continue

Added by Deb on October 30, 2009 at 12:13pm — No Comments

Exposing the Ego ~ The Tactics of Attack & Defense

All set to peel back the veneer of the ego's tactics...? Go get that cup of whatever, get comfy, open your mind, and let the Spirit highlight whatsoever He will, if anything, out of what I'll share here ... it's perfectly ok with me if this is *just* for me -- for I certainly need a daily dose of this expose...! Keeping in mind that the ego's main goal is to keep me thinking/feeling/acting guilty, follow me in this line of thinking: once I believe that I'm guilty, and I thus project my guilt on… Continue

Added by Deb on October 28, 2009 at 4:11pm — No Comments

Exposing the Ego ~ The Tricks of Denial & Projection

To recap yesterday ... we have the erroneous belief that we are Wrong, Bad, Depraved ... and Separate-from-God. We then feel guilt. We believe we must be punished for this guilt. And we live in fear of this punishment (sound familiar?!?). Because we believe that we and God are at odds, and even enemies, we cannot turn to God for the help we need, in overcoming the guilt ... so, we do what humans have always done instead -- we turn to the ego. I.e., our inner-idol. That Which Pretends to be Us a… Continue

Added by Deb on October 27, 2009 at 7:23pm — No Comments

Exposing the Ego (Carnal Nature) ~ The Foundation

Got to confess ... right now, as I'm learning a whole 'nother level of awareness ... I'm finding myself face-to-face with some uber-challenging concepts ... none of it is new, and I can see how I've been led to this point, to this moment in my story ... So, on a deep level, down where I Know Who I Am, this is good, right, timely. But on the more surface level, wherein my ego thinks it's running the show, tumult is reigning. Which lets me know that this is GOOD. My surface-resistance is proof-po… Continue

Added by Deb on October 27, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

A Love Letter.....

Hey love, how are you doing? I know I'll see you today, but I wanted to express my thoughts to you in writing. Do you remember the last time we took a walk? I really enjoyed that and hope we can do it again soon, especially now that the leaves are turning. I have a hard time choosing my favorite season. Right now it's definitely Autumn, but when Spring comes, I'm likely to change my mind again. ;) Anyway, I'm writing you now in order to clarify some things about our relationship. I know it seem… Continue

Added by Deb on October 21, 2009 at 4:41pm — No Comments

"Mommy, what am I made of?"

Little one, you are made of subtle stuff, in the image (for want of a better word) of the divine. You can feel Love and express Joy, and when you are really still to your core, your deeper characteristics will mature. You have the ability to be Honest with out fear and Tolerant in the face of anything, you are Gentle by nature and without any need, for you are also Defenseless. You have your Father's Spirit of Generosity so Patience comes naturally to you, and of course there is your deep and… Continue

Added by Deb on October 21, 2009 at 3:37pm — No Comments

The Trouble with Christianity ...

[Warning: To the degree that you believe that God can be defined and confined by Christianity, you will either loathe or love what I'm about to write ... as always, don't take what I write as truth ... go to the Spirit - the Only One Who Knows.] So far, everything I've seen exposed about Christianity, shows me that Gandhi was right in saying, "I love Christ, but I don't much like Christians." It's not the people that I have trouble with ... it's the mindset of the people. The fear-based menta… Continue

Added by Deb on October 15, 2009 at 7:10pm — 4 Comments

From Ripple to Cripple

What goes around comes around is not a new insight. Often referred to as the law of reciprocity, in the east it is known as the philosophy of karma, and in the west it sounds like 'as ye sow, so ye shall reap'. Just as the ripples of a stone in a pond will reflect and return from anything in their way, so our actions in the world will return to us according to the rippling energies of our thoughts and behaviours. It is something most of us intuitively know but easily forget. While we tend to rec… Continue

Added by Deb on September 25, 2009 at 11:01am — No Comments

Rethinking the New Covenant.....

Did you know that we're in the new covenant...? Now, this may elicit a big collective "duh" from y'all, but I've come to believe that while we talk new covenant, we tend to think, and thus live, old covenant. Christianity strikes me as being uber-fixated on adherence to the law, external rules, striving, achieving, measuring-up, sin, shame, fear and separation ... rather than realizing what's been done, who we are, and the inherent freedom we have ... The old covenant, as I'm seeing it, was a… Continue

Added by Deb on September 21, 2009 at 9:10pm — 8 Comments

The Living Word

"Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." This Old Testament scripture has been used to promote the practice of scripture memorization. That might have been helpful under the Old Covenant since believers didn't have daily access to the scriptures. The only time they got to hear them read is when they went to the synagogue on the sabbath. Today, however, we live under a new covenant. We no longer need to go to a building in order to hear the word of God read be… Continue

Added by Aida on September 5, 2009 at 2:43pm — 3 Comments

THE TEN PLAGUES OF GOD

Many have heard of the plagues God sent to Egypt to set Israel free. Many look at this as a past event and not as something that may indeed happen to us all. They also look at these events as a great punishment because Pharaoh and the Egyptians had done great wrong. However, we know that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, he made Pharaoh a great house so this great deliverance could be known. This paper may indeed challenge the belief that these are past events and may open your eyes to the possibili… Continue

Added by Deb on August 23, 2009 at 1:16pm — 2 Comments