I am aware that I am not sure how to address God in my writing, whether God or Christ or Jesus or the Holy Spirit would be the preferred name, whether He or She is the proper way to address God or what the preferences of my readers in naming God are. You might […]

Overcoming our Lack of Love for Christ’s church “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” Paul sets forth in this statement from 1 Corinthians 12:13 a guiding principle for how we are called to be the […]

41, 000 Christian denominations and organizations in the world!! That figure is from The Center for the Study of Global Christianity. When I looked this figure up two years ago, the number was 37,000. Clearly the church has splintered off and again and again, way beyond what the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century might […]

I am co-leading a Sunday School at my church on two contemporary figures, one Catholic—Fr. Richard Rohr(The Naked Now) and one protestant—Cynthia Bourgeault, an Anglican priest, (The Wisdom Jesus)who have had enormous influence on how I write about the Life of the Spirit. They both write and speak of non-dualistic thinking, beyond the either/or preferences […]

As we grow into the relationship with Christ, Love’s light shines brightly in the bright and dark corners of our psyche, illuminating both our “good deeds” and our shadowy feelings about and actions towards other people. Our judgment, condemnation and fear of other people have to go, if we are ever to feel Love’s presence […]

Inside my house I can only hear the train whistle(from across town) or the church bells(from a ½ mile away) in the wee or early hours of the morning. I live pretty close to uptown Charlotte NC, but unless the traffic noise is nonexistent, I can’t hear these signals. The train whistle calls me to […]

The story in Exodus of the Hebrew people enslaved by the Egyptians, oppressed by the work of building monuments, pyramids, to the glory of the oppressor, Pharaoh, moves us today. Every part of the story resonates in us—the oppression, the plagues, escaping from the Egyptian army, wandering for years in the wilderness and finally the […]

Myths & fairy tales–these are not valued in our post-modern world; they are for children, we adults like the facts, real stories. We no longer believe in Cinderella, Snow White or any of the Greek or Roman myths. We are thinking people, rational, not guided by larger than life stories. We live in the real […]

The words, repentance and religion, have been turning over in my mind this week, since our Bible study, Bible Workbench, focused on a reading from Isaiah 1. He called the Israelites, and now us, to change our ways. What were they talking about?  Repent means to deeply regret what we’ve done, but it does not […]

Everyone is a gift to the world, a neat package of talents, passions and even weak areas, that, if realized and fulfilled, would make a real difference in this world. God has created each of us to be a certain kind of person, to pursue certain interests, to contribute with all of ourselves to life […]