Welcome to another FREEBIE FRIDAY. Today I’m giving away a great little book, Becky Garrison’s, Jesus Died for This? Find out how to win below the cartoon: So this is the book I’m giving away to the winner (I’ll ship anywhere in the world for free): All you have to do to enter the contest is: Join my free newsletter. Comment on this blog post. The contest ends midnight tonight Atlantic Time. Happy Holidays! ps: Newsletter members: don’t forget to... Read more
This was commissioned. I rather like it. It is watercolor and ink on Arches 300lb h/p acid free cotton rag, measuring 2.5″x3.5″. Some have asked that I make the woman curvier. Sorry, not this time. Commissions you know. Anyway, this woman continues to explore her freedom. It’s sure to offend some. But she’s spent so many years pleasing others that this new experience of pleasing herself is exhilarating. I’m calling her Sophia. Newsletter members: don’t forget to take advantage of... Read more
An interesting study by *Shelley Taylor, a positive psychologist at the University of California at Los Angeles, “Positive Illusions: Creative Self-Deception and the Healthy Mind“, notes that positive illusions in a person can protect mental and physical health. She writes: The effective individual in the face of threat seems to be one who permits the development of illusions, nurtures those illusions, and is ultimately restored by those illusions. Her explicit message is that positive illusions are good for people. The... Read more
I thought of calling this “Jesus Starts Early”, but it didn’t have the same ring to it. Newsletter members: take advantage of the 50% off special I sent you last night. (If others want to take advantage of it, join my newsletter and inform me and I’ll give you the coupon code.) Happy Holidays! Read more
Emmanuel: God with us. The angels informed shepherds… in fields… with sheep… that peace is for all people on earth. Heaven was emptying. The earth was filling. Earth. People. Animals. Peace. The great incarnational story signifies that God is no longer considered a remotely detached being “up there”, but that God is now on the earth and among us as one of us and with us, totally and completely invested in the affairs of people and the earth, willfully inseparable... Read more
This is the danger of ideas. If we love them too much they take on a life of their own and can turn into inhumane ideologies. The next logical step is it becomes an idol which dominates and rules us. Read more
Probably the best book on marriage is David Schnarch’s, Passionate Marriage. Here’s just one quote: Crucibles are always interlocking. When one partner goes into his crucible, the other partner goes into hers– or gets out of the marriage. I apply this to any relationship, including yours with the church or any community. Your life task, if you choose to accept it, is to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. If your relationship with a community is increasingly strained... Read more
I’m still reeling over how many relationships evaporated after we left the church. Of course. I’m not surprised. And I’m not blaming. But it is a shock to the system. It is grief I am experiencing. Which is why, I suppose, so many people continue going to church: for the social factor. I have an atheist friend who goes to church for this reason alone. Understood. We are trying hard to sustain some old friendships. But it is very challenging.... Read more
nakedpastor
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