"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…
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Added by Aida on September 5, 2009 at 2:43pm —
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I recently read
Matthew’s excellent post,
"Founded on the Rock." As I thought about what he said, a new picture of Jesus emerged.
The Bible takes Jesus’ three and a half years of ministry and condenses it into a few chapters. The result is that we think Jesus’ life as well as that of his disciples was filled with one exciting event after another. Maybe if the gospel writers had instead given us a daily log of activities, we would have found that…
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Added by Aida on June 21, 2009 at 9:55am —
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For some time,
Darin Hufford has been working with
Windblown Media on a rewrite of his excellent book,
“The God’s Honest Truth.” Windblown Media is the publisher of
“The Shack”, a book written by William P. Young, which skyrocketed to success and was listed by The New York Times on their…
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Added by Aida on June 5, 2009 at 5:13pm —
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On some christian online groups, there seems to be a fascination with doctrine. Doctrinal debates will begin that get so intense that they often de-escalate into arguing and name calling and sometimes even cursing. As a result, some members leave the group wounded and hurting. I’ve even seen this happen in groups where the members supposedly understand grace.
These believers will say that doctrine is important and that correct doctrine is critical and they feel it’s their christian duty to defe…
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Added by Aida on May 27, 2009 at 2:52pm —
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Although I’d been a believer for a number of years, I knew my life didn’t measure up to what I believed it should as a christian and, to be honest, I didn’t see that anyone else around me was doing any better. Toward the end of 1997, my desire to know God more intimately increased and I began praying what I’ve since come to realize is a dangerous prayer. I told him daily, several times a day, that I wanted to know him. Well, he took me at my word but, if I had known what was ahead, I don’t know…
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Added by Aida on May 12, 2009 at 5:38pm —
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I recently received a very interesting email. It was sent to me by Dr. Margaret W. Jones, a psychologist and author, who has just written and published a book entitled
“Not of My Making: Bullying, Scapegoating and Misconduct in Churches.”
Margaret was arranging a virtual book tour and wanted to include my blog as one of her stops. A virtual book tour as she described it is “when an author visits websites, blogs and forums, instead of bookstores, cafes and universities that a real…
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Added by Aida on April 7, 2009 at 7:21am —
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The following
statistics were posted on a site called Pastoral Care Inc. After looking at the figures, it becomes obvious that pastors and their families are also being victimized by a performance based system of religious obligation. As pastors are pushed, they tend to push back and, as a result, the people in their congregations are also victimized.
Since my experience with spiritual abuse, it's been hard to relate to pa…
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Added by Aida on April 4, 2009 at 3:10pm —
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When we come into an understanding of God’s love and grace, our life changes dramatically. One of the major changes is in our friendships. We may have had an active social life for many years before but, all of a sudden, our friends seem like strangers.
They just can’t understand why our lives no longer revolve around the institution. In the institution, social life is based upon its planned programs and activities. Since we’re either not going or we participate irregularly, we no longer have c…
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Added by Aida on April 4, 2009 at 3:04pm —
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I’m sure all of my readers know the amazing story behind the book
“The Shack.” Written by a then unknown author named William Paul Young, the book achieved almost overnight success due to the efforts of Paul and his friends
Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings. Unable to find an established publishing company that was willing to take a chance, they formed their own company and published the book. It became a runaway…
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Added by Aida on March 23, 2009 at 7:00am —
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I was digging around today reading in my blog's archived posts when I found a post I had written linking back to a post written by my friend and fellow blogger, Joel of
Grace Roots. Joel’s blog is filled with a lot of wisdom and I highly recommend you visiting his site if haven’t already done so.
I really enjoyed this allegory that he wrote comparing grace and legalism so I decided to re-post it here for you to enjoy too.
Hey little brother. I hope you…
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Added by Aida on March 21, 2009 at 1:30pm —
16 Comments
I just started reading
“Judgment in St. Peter’s” by Aaron Nathan Rotsstein.
The story revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a Jesuit priest. The major part of the story is set in Rome and centers around the actions of high ranking members of the Jesuit order.
I’m enjoying the book but I find myself growing angry at the religious system w…
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Added by Aida on February 21, 2009 at 3:00pm —
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This message of grace is the most exciting life that I’ve ever encountered. For years, I struggled as a believer and then a number of years ago, God started to turn my spiritual life upside down. The beginning stages were the most difficult of my life and I honestly thought I’d never make it. However, even in the difficult times, God was there making himself real. As the initial feelings of disorientation disappeared, I experienced an excitement and joy that I wanted to share.
I think all of us…
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Added by Aida on February 20, 2009 at 8:40pm —
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This morning I was thinking about geese flying in a V formation, a beautiful analogy of us as Free Believers. I'm sure most of you have already heard the explanation of why geese fly in a V formation but, as we head into a new year, it may encourage us to read it again. As Father is shaping us into a community of believers, maybe we can learn from how geese journey together.
I copied and pasted the following from a blog named Leadership in Perspective. The link for this post is: http://theleade…
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Added by Aida on December 31, 2008 at 12:41pm —
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This past Saturday, we took our two oldest grandchildren to Myrtle Beach to see Medieval Times. Last year, we started this as a Christmas tradition which we all enjoy.
Medieval Times is a dinner show set in medieval Spain with a king, a princess and a royal court with knights.…
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Added by Aida on December 25, 2008 at 9:57pm —
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Winter has traditionally been associated with death but actually it’s a time of dormancy, a time of rest and refreshing.
This is obvious in nature. Bears and other animals hibernate during the winter and wake up from their rest when spring arrives. Plants and trees also rest during…
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Added by Aida on December 1, 2008 at 8:30pm —
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A number of years ago, I became interested in the subject of leadership. I bought every book I could find that taught how to develop leadership skills and I went to several leadership conferences. Also, I spoke with everyone I could find who was interested in leadership principles.…
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Added by Aida on November 16, 2008 at 12:00am —
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I just finished reading a book entitled "PRINCESS: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil" by Jean Sasson. Set in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the story is about the plight of women in this strict religious s…
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Added by Aida on November 9, 2008 at 7:30pm —
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After reading Nicole's blog "Unplanned and Unexpected Visits With My Father", I began to think about what it means to seek God. I spent many years seeking God. I read books on the subject. I prayed, fasted and memorized scripture all in an attempt to seek God. The result was insecurity…
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Added by Aida on October 28, 2008 at 9:23pm —
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On 2/29/2008, Wayne Jacobsen posted a blog on his Lifestream site entitled "Live in Love - A Message from the Sudan." It was a great blog with a number of comments but I want to focus on a comment that was made by the The Other Pam.
She said,
"Are the institutions and structures the source of the problem or are they simply the result of people who don't understand how deeply they are loved? Our problem is our relationship to our Father."
I think she made a great point. Those of us who h…
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Added by Aida on October 15, 2008 at 5:37pm —
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Lions Set Free
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not be entangled with the yoke of slavery again." Galatians 5:1
A friend of mine recently told me about a conservation group in Zimbabwe that is taking captive lions and rehabilitating them back into the wild.
This is a difficult, four phase process, but they are having success with it. The rehabilitation process has many snags involved because of the effects of captivity on an African li…
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Added by Aida on October 12, 2008 at 2:00pm —
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