Spiritual Formation
Okay, this may sound overly simplistic at first, but hear me out. The first commandment is that we are to love God with all we have and are. But when we sin, there is always the same one-two punch that Satan delivered to Adam and Eve: First, he gets us to believe that we can…
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“Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. He existed before creation began, for it was through him that every thing was made, whether spiritual or material, seen or unseen. Through him, and for him, also, were created power and dominion, ownership and authority. In fact, every single thing was created through, and…
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Last weekend the DJ/musician Avicii (age 28) and “mini-me” actor Verne Troyer (age 49) both died of alcohol-related issues. These were tragic deaths related to an addiction, so I wanted to provide some perspective. Perhaps alcohol isn’t your poison, but Christians – and our Christian counselors at 1st Principle Group – have more to say…
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“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” – Cormac McCarthy If you’re new to this series, I’ve been exploring a “theology of emotions.” I’m going to conclude the series this month by looking at how to do all of this in a way that glorifies God while also helps…
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“No feeling is final.” -Rainer Maria Rilke If you know me well, you know how much I love the band U2. If you want to hear me nerd-out to anything, U2 is probably where I get my “nerdiest.” When I was in 5th grade, I heard one of their songs on my sister’s mix tape…
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“What you resist not only persists, but will grow in size.” -C.G. Jung- Last month I began to explore why we have emotions by looking at how Jesus used his emotions as a gauge. Jesus used them as a gauge for how close he was to the Father – anger/sadness at the brokenness of the…
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“Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings – always darker, emptier and simpler.”-Friedrich Nietzsche- Google “scripture” and “emotions” and notice what shows up: What does the Bible say about controlling emotions? 10 verses on controlling emotions How to get rid of bad emotions How to not be controlled by your emotions What’s the theme here?…
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“Strange how complicated we can make things just to avoid showing what we feel!” -Erich Maria Remarque- “…but I shouldn’t feel this way.” I have heard it, and even said it myself, very often. There is some emotion inside of me that lurks, feeling uncontrolled, like I can’t get rid of it…can’t make sense of it…so…
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“There is a great deal of pain in life and perhaps the only pain that can be avoided is the pain that comes from trying to avoid pain.” -R.D. Laing “Where do I start?” Almost every person that sits across from me has trouble knowing how to tell me their story…how they got to be sitting in a…
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When we turned the corner and entered the grounds of the church, I immediately froze. My wife and I were on vacation, exploring a foreign city, excited to visit the grounds of a church that was over 1,000 years old. What caused me to freeze was not some gorgeous stained glass window, or the sheer…
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