Reminder: Tuesdays thru Fridays I post additional comments and questions on Monday’s blog on FB. Use this link: www.facebook.com/pages/By-the-waters/146585815373488 Today I am putting together a test for all of us to use in evaluating ourselves on our ability to incorporate the main contributions of four major  denominations in the whole body of Christ. Since writing […]

There is a glass ceiling in the church that limits how far we will go in loving God and following Christ. Every sect and denomination has confined the relationship with God into a box of beliefs with which it feels comfortable. If Catholics hold to the practice of the veneration of Mary and the saints […]

I will not live in fear!  I say that emphatically to our culture.  I hang up on the recorded voice that starts “The FBI reports that there is a home break-in every….” I say “no” to every sales pitch for a home security system.  I say a more emphatic “NO!” to those who want guns […]

“I am the way and the truth and the life.”[1] It is Jesus’ life and what he modeled for us that interests me in this declaration from the Gospel of John.  I am thinking in terms of lifestyle, a more modern way of looking at it, but we have to go back to the early […]

Here’s what I believe about the spiritual journey: God creates each of us with a purpose and a unique set of gifts that we can use to fulfill our purpose in the world. Each of us as we were created to be is needed in the world right now. We each have a contribution to […]

So Horatio Alger’s “Go west, young man” no longer calls  us. And Teddy Roosevelt’s “Walk softly and carry a big stick” no longer works in the world. John F. Kennedy’s challenge, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” has faded away. The old American myths […]

Living at the still point[see the 3/14/11 blog, “Living Deeply into our Lives”] allows the Holy Spirit to transform us from an ego-centered and culture-centered person to a person of God through whom God’s love can freely flow. As we are being transformed, our created selves are brought into focus.  This whole process unfolds as […]

I don’t need to tell you that our lives today are crazy with busyness: we have to-do lists that are endless and jobs that we carry with us through pda’s and i-pads on the weekends and even on vacations. Even stay-at-home parents feel pressured into taking on more and more activities for their kids, so […]

If our goal is to become whole, integrated people, “perfected” in the sense of the New Testament Greek word teleo[finish, complete, fulfill, to be completed, fulfilled, perfected, ended][1], if we want to fulfill our created purpose, then the major task of our lives is to separate ourselves out from the culture in which we were […]

I realized this morning that I am on a threshold to something as yet unknown. The signs are clear now that I have put them together: I am unsure of the territory ahead; things feel like they are shifting under my feet; I am more engaged in negative thinking—usually I can separate from it easily; […]