Christianity

Meditations on the Doctrine of God: Part 3

By walljm on February 26, 2017 Doctrine of God

To know God. That is the full measure and purpose of the Christian life. We know God in many ways, both by searching out and listening to what He has revealed to us about Himself, and by experiencing Him through relationship, by abiding in Him through obedience, by interacting with Him through prayer. In the last article, we spoke of God’s eternal nature. In this article I want to talk about His unchanging or immutable nature. The fact that God is unchanging provides the Christian with a number of important guarantees, not the least of which is confidence that God’s…

Meditations on the Doctrine of God: Part 2

By walljm on February 5, 2017 Doctrine of God

To know God. That is the full measure and purpose of the Christian life. We know God in many ways, both by searching out and listening to what He has revealed to us about Himself, and by experiencing Him through relationship, by abiding in Him through obedience, by interacting with Him through prayer. We began this series by asking what God is. We talked about His triune nature and what each of the three members of the Godhead are. In this article, we will begin to discuss more of His nature, specifically, how He is eternal and why that matters.

Meditations on the Doctrine of God: Part 1

By walljm on January 1, 2017 Doctrine of God

To know God. That is the full measure and purpose of the Christian life. We know God in many ways, both by searching out and listening to what He has revealed to us about Himself, and by experiencing Him through relationship, by abiding in Him through obedience, by interacting with Him through prayer. The purpose of the following series of articles is to take a broad view of what God has revealed to us about Himself, to get a more complete picture of His attributes and qualities. I will attempt to tie together what these mean to us and how…

Joy in the Face of Destruction

Meditations on 2016, the Election, and God’s Love for Us

By walljm on November 24, 2016 Christianity

It has been a long year, this 2016. This election cycle and its results and plenty of painful challenges at work have left me a little ragged and feeling tired and worn out. It hasn’t been all bad. I’ve learned a lot, both from the election and the many conversations that it has provoked, and from the challenges at work that have provided areas of growth I might not have heeded otherwise. And I have been surrounded by a rich group of really good friends and family that have encouraged and counselled me, and for that I am profoundly grateful.…

Meditations on Psalm 1

By walljm on November 13, 2016 Christianity

Psalm 1 has much to offer in the way of perspective on living, and how to be successful. For the Christian, it distills the basic ethos of our philosophy, to know Him and by knowing to love Him. The psalm does not promise a specific level of blessing, but rather a way of living that improves life. Below are my thoughts, broken down by verse. What does it mean to be “blessed”? The Hebrew word (H835) is “esher” and is derived from (H833) “ashar” which means to “be straight”. When used figuratively, “ashar” means to go forward (because the way…

On Fear and Identity

By walljm on February 18, 2015 Christianity

I’ve been a Christian since 1984, growing up in a loving home with two amazing parents. For as long as I could remember God was as real to me as the sun and the moon. That changed six years ago, when I went through a crisis of faith followed by a series of severe anxiety attacks. Those anxiety attacks taught me some valuable lessons and I wanted to take some time to talk about what happened, to explain some of what I learned about fear, about identity and purpose and how God intends for us to live in relationship with Him

On Faith

By walljm on February 13, 2015 Christianity

It isn’t enough to ask God to do a thing, like restore your soul or reframe your heart or desire, or to help you do a thing He has asked you to do. Part of making this stuff work is proceeding to act as though He has done it once you have asked. We operate as Christians using faith to confirm the receipt of what we ask for. Ask, then act as though your prayer is answered. for if He has asked it of you, He will follow through.

On Song Leading

By walljm on September 17, 2008 Christianity

These are some notes I wanted to get on paper, as a way to remind myself of things to remember. Thoughts and conclusions I’ve come to from leading music at my church for the last 6 years. First and foremost, understand that your job is not to train, it is to minister. The congregation isn’t a choir. Your job isn’t to train them to sing well, or to teach them technical aspects of music. It is to lead them to worship and praise by example and entreaty. Ask, never tell. Repeat the song # at least twice, preferably 3 times.…

Quotes from Saint Patrick’s Confessions

By walljm on March 20, 2007 Christianity

I’ve been reading a couple books that look into Saint Patrick’s mission to Ireland and its affect on Europe. These books led me to lookup some of the few writings penned by Patrick himself. These two quotes stood out. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son. For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him, our way to repay him is to exalt him and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven.

God as a Person, not a Concept

By walljm on February 16, 2006 Christianity

Through the course of living and relating to God, God teaches you things. Lately, He has been teaching me about Himself, teaching me to view Him as a Person not a Concept. In the course of this post I’d like to try and explain why this concept is important to me, and some of the impact it has on life as a Christian. The principle is that you have to approach your relationship with God much like you approach relationships with other people. It is a concept I knew but didn’t, and still don’t to some degree, fully understand. When…

Lessons in Spiritual Warfare

By walljm on November 18, 2005 Christianity

Strategy #1 – Avoidance Don’t let your mind think about it. The moment it pops in your head, frantically think of something else… anything else. I call this avoidance… and cite Phil. 4:8-9 as scriptural reference. Avoidance works best if you combine it with Strategy #2. Strategy #2 – Turning the Tables This strategy is really just a derivation of Avoidance. But when you are accosted by thoughts or desires for sinful things, sometimes the source of these actions come from outside yourself. To turn the tables, you follow the Avoidance strategy. When a temptation pops into your head, immediately…

A Double Minded Man is Unstable

By walljm on September 29, 2005 Christianity

I hate being pulled in several different directions. hate. it. I hate not being able to take advantage of emotional energy to solve problems and overcome challenges and accomplish tasks because I don’t know which challenges, which problems and which tasks to do first. I hate the fact that I usually do know which ones to do first, but don’t want to do them because, though they have highest priority, they do not hold the most value to me. I can’t move, can’t accomplish, can’t resolve this problem.

On Being Filled With The Spirit

By walljm on September 2, 2005 Christianity

Have you ever been in love? You know the feeling, the one that grows richer the longer you know the person. How many of you have someone you love very much? Have you ever loved someone that the impact of them on your life was so visibly evident that people noticed? I think that what Paul was talking about when he said to be “filled with the Spirit” was a lot like being in love, truly being in love with Christ. When you love someone deeply and personally in the sense that you might love your wife or husband, or…

Why, as a Christian, I can’t vote for Trump

Pour Out Your Soul, My Brother

Panorama of Assateague sunrise

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