Some people will go to any lengths, including bending the words, to separate themselves from others they don’t like or disagree with. I’ve experienced this myself several times… being cut off from others because of my differences or because I offended them in some way. But there have also been times when others have felt cut off from me because I didn’t agree with them or thought that I couldn’t commune with them. There are different way to thin out... Read more
I live in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, far away on the Atlantic shores of eastern Canada. So finding the supplies to do something like this linocut is difficult. It took me a while to find an art-supplier that sold the sheet of linoleum. Then I had to glue mount it onto a piece of plywood. I had to find the knives, which wasn’t as difficult. But I had to order the ink weeks ago from Daniel Smith’s in the... Read more
After years and years of serving communities, keeping the faith, and struggling through everything, the last thing I want to be is bitter, grumpy, sad, narrow-minded and hateful. I want to be happy, hopeful, gracious and loving. I don’t want to be sad so that after my life is over, people will jump to the conclusion that it was because of all my trials, my poor finances, my negative community experiences, my confrontations with other leaders, and my apparent lack... Read more
In Matthew you have some references to the last day. On that day, some will stand before him and say that they prophesied in his name, cast out demons in his name, and did many deeds of power in his name. They seem to recognize him, know his name, speak collectively as an organized group who apparently know him and operate under the authority and auspices of his name, and converse with him with confidence and a sense of membership... Read more
It is reprehensible to use certain passages that speak about division and swords and enemies to encourage, endorse and enable our propensity towards disunity. It is proof-texting to the extreme, combing the words to find support for our inability or unwillingness to find ways to unite all people. How am I any different from a suicide bomber, fueled with his supposedly scripturally supported hatred for those of different religion and race, if I use the words to explain and even... Read more
Well, another week’s past, and still my iPhone has not let me down. My cellphone continues to fulfill at its promises. Out of all the phones I’ve had, the iPhone leaves them all in the dust. I don’t even use the data plan because I’m usually near enough to my powerbook. I use wifi when necessary if I want to get on the internet away from my apple laptop. I haven’t really downloaded many applications yet. I do have “Recorder”,... Read more
Last night I was told about someone… he and his whole family… life-long members of the Christian church… they left the church (not mine but theirs) for certain reasons. They are incredibly wounded because of things that were done to them. Without going into detail… they are done with church. They still love the Lord, but they are devastated, including their children, and they don’t want to risk subjecting themselves to that kind of harm ever again. My immediate verbal... Read more
Jesus, in the face of a centralized hostility towards outsiders, foreigners and the unclean, spoke a message of decentralization, inclusion and the reconciliation of all things. He resisted the official representatives of an exclusive elitism, an insular ideology, a segregational salvation, and a divisive dogma. The people with their leaders had dismally failed in their mission to be a light to the whole world. The early church believed Jesus to be that light that ended the tyranny of darkness over... Read more
I made a comment on one of my own previous blog posts that perhaps the narrow way isn’t so much a prescribed way to think and live, but the way of love and unity. I’ll be writing more on this later today. It seems to me that we’ve been required to love unconditionally as it has been shown to us. Instead, generally speaking, it seems that in the wake of our own reception of mercy, we go out into the... Read more
They assure me I’m among friends. They say they love me like their God does. Oh how I hope it is true! Could it be, that I could find a place to be and rest? Where I could belong? I fear with all my might that they will see the me that’s inside of me. I edit my words. I tell my story with caution. I read their faces. for any reaction that says I don’t belong. He cracks a... Read more
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