christianity

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Regrettably, there is one goal that has eluded me in the seven years since my dog Tammy and I left our old hometown to find our place somewhere in America.  It was something I was very serious about, and still am.  I speak of finding a place of worship.  Somewhere that I can be an active part of a community of believers.

This area doesn’t lack for churches.  I’ve visited many of them.  Guess you could say that I’m hoping and praying that God will lead me to where He needs me to be.  It’s almost like a microcosm of the journey across America we did.  I’m still in that “let’s see what’s out there” mode.

In the five years since I’ve been here I’ve visited some churches that were very big, others that were quite small.  A few of them had beliefs that I can not for good reasons ...

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This post is going to honk a lot of people off, probably.  Whether it cuts one way or another.  I know and accept that.

First of all, the older I’ve gotten the more I have come to understand something.  Mainly, that the republican form of government that the Founders gave us in the Constitution of the United States is ideal only for a people who believe in something higher than man.  Whether you call that something God, or Yahweh, or the Universe, or whatever, the Constitution is best suited for those who hold themselves accountable to that greater entity.  I believe that the past several decades have proven that in the hands of they who believe that man is the be-all/end-all of law and life, that weak attempt at imitating democratically-elected republican government has led to disaster on multiple fronts.

So yes: I do believe that the American government is ...

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“Well done, My good and faithful servant.”

 

Let us be thankful for the very long time that God let him be among us.  A lot of people came to Christ… and drew closer to Him… because of this man’s seemingly tireless efforts.  Dr. Charles Stanley truly had a servant’s heart.  I for one learned quite a lot from watching his In Touch weekly series on television.

I got to meet him once.  It was January 2001, some friends and I went to a service at First Baptist Church of Atlanta.  Stanley struck me as one of the kindest people I’ve ever encountered.  He asked where was I from and I told him Reidsville, North Carolina.

“Oh I know where Reidsville is!” he replied.  “That’s right down the road from Danville!”, where he grew up.

I asked him if he could sign my Bible and he did on the inside ...

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How I have not been diagnosed with some kind of anxiety disorder, I may never know.  But it is true: I have been anxious too awful much for anyone during these past several years (and by “several”, I mean two decades at least).  Especially too anxious as a Christian, when I should have been waiting patiently for God in His time.

A few weeks ago a dear friend gave me a copy of Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World, by Max Lucado. I’m about halfway through it so far.  First of all, I am delighted to discover that Lucado is still writing.  I first became introduced to Lucado’s work about twenty-five years ago, when I was just starting my life as a Christian.  It became some of the more influential literature during my early walk with Christ.

Second, it has been quite some time since a ...

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Last night I was on the phone with a friend and, as has happened with a lot of our conversations lately, it turned to spiritual matters.  And that led to me sharing a little (I say “little” because the entire story runs WAY too long for a phone or blog post) about how I came to follow Christ, now a little over twenty-five years ago.

I haven’t said very much about that, either here or elsewhere.  I guess as with so much else it got washed away in the flotsam and jetsam that comes in the wake of persistent mental illness.  So much that has been forgotten about while flailing my arms, trying my hardest to keep my head above the dark water.

But, I am a Christian.  Deeper than that, I am a follower of Christ.  It’s not enough for me to simply go to church on Sunday.  For ...

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Today is Good Friday: the commemoration of the day that Jesus Christ died at Calvary.  It’s only fitting, then, that today’s installment of “blogging for Lent” should be mindful of that.

Good friend of this blog and all around amazing guy “Lowbridge” found this a little while ago and shared it on another forum.  I decided it was well worth passing along to this blog’s readers as well.  As good a thing as any for the occasion.

Longtime television viewers will recognize Agnes Morehead for her portrayal of Samantha’s mother on the 1960s sitcom Bewitched.  What I didn’t know until just now was that Morehead was a devout Christian.  She grew up in a Presbyterian house where her father was a minister.  It’s been said that Morehead brought her Bible with her to work every day, and would read from it between scenes.  It also goes without saying that ...

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What I’m about to share, has been a long while percolating. It’s not going to be taken well by too many people. Especially by those around my age and fellow Christians. But it’s time that it be said. Maybe there can yet be some salvaging what has come of us.
A few weeks ago I came upon some music. It was a collection of MP3s. I was the one who made them, all the way back in 1999. They’re MP3s of a night of singing from Elon’s chapter of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Real, home-grown and heart-felt praise and worship from a young people with their entire lives ahead of them.
 
I listened to them and wept tears of remembrance at how FRESH it sounded. I will never claim to have been fully immersed in the IV culture, it seems more like I was playing on the edges. That,
...
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This morning one of the local churches had a broadcast of their service from last Sunday morning.  They have adapted well to the coronavirus-engendered shutdown.  Several dozen choir members sang hymns together via Zoom and a father baptized his daughter in the family’s bathroom tub.  The sermon – delivered to an empty sanctuary – was no less potent and encouraging.

I imagine that much the same is happening across America and in other places also: churches holding virtual worship services across the Intertubes.  But really, it doesn’t matter where a church meets.  As Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered in My name…”, there is the body of Christ also.

Along those lines, there’s an idea I had a few days ago and I’ll pass it along to this blog’s readers and anyone else…

Churches should have a “Revital Sunday” service (or “Revital Sabbath” for our friends among the ...

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Hell-raiser?
Poster for hell house in Texas

The first time that I went to a hell house (we’ll get to what that is soon) it depicted a commercial airline crash.  It was pretty impressive really, all taking place within the basement of a Baptist church in Asheville.  Then we were taken through a series of rooms that showed what happened to the characters following their untimely deaths.  Some were lifted away by “angels” (younger members of the church in white robes absent the wings) and didn’t show up until later.

And then there were some who were condemned because of their unbelief.  These were hauled out of sight by other youth members in demonic makeup.  Their eternal destination was what could only be called the “Hell Room”: a very dark room that required holding onto a rope to navigate through.  Still more youngsters in glow-in-the-dark masks and faintly luminescent attire ...

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