Category Archive

When we violate our core moral foundations or are exposed to a great evil, our identity is derailed. Guilt, anxiety and suicidal thoughts can follow.

Knowing these five sad facts could improve your whole life. The reliable source for these facts is listed in a link at the end. What if a 17-year-old girl and a charming 21-year-old man want to spend lots of time together? It would be so much better if they both knew five important things: Even if you are not this … Read More

It’s exciting to have new people becoming integrated into our congregation! It feels good to expand and serve more people and partner with them in living into Christianity. So, in honor of our 4 new members, let’s explore our vision statement in a new and different way: A nationally known congregation in California has a statement very reminiscent of St. … Read More

I Am The inspiring reminder to refrain from pronouncing the name of God came during a talk I attended recently by environmental hero Rabbi Arthur Waskow. When Moses asked for God’s name, God’s answer did not include vowels or any way of pronouncing. Perhaps it sounded like the wind. The answer instead, gave Moses a way of speaking of God … Read More

In the Bible, in his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul names what he calls: spiritual gifts. “… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23a NIV) How often do you think about the personal qualities God has given you? The list of spiritual gifts in Paul’s letter to … Read More

Awareness developed studying psychology has recently prompted me to notice a need to cause others to tell me how good I am. This triggered a search for self-validation strategies. I found a few good ones, the best of which involve three elements. Put a hand on chest Take a few deep cleansing breaths Think a comforting word or phrase A … Read More

When Jesus told His disciples to love one another, he did not make this command conditional upon how much those others agree with us. The joy and power of the church has always crossed opinion boundaries as well as geographic and generational ones. The best future of the church depends on us continuing this excellent trend. An issue of Psychology … Read More

Heaven on Earth Do you ever think of heaven? You may have two sets of questions: Not only What is heaven like? But also … What is the reason for the whole idea? If you were to describe how you think heaven is or how you would like heaven to be, what would you say? For me, heaven will be … Read More

Prayer One way to think about Prayer is as communication with God. You can sit quietly and think in words toward God anything you would say to a friend. You might have a request or concern, anything at all. Prayer can also go beyond words. Once, when Jesus talked about prayer (right after listing ways not to pray) he gave … Read More

Pilgrimage, Resurrection, and Your Life Story A member of the Men’s Fellowship at a church I pastored a few years ago insisted that I get the young men to join. I told him that wasn’t going to happen. He persisted and after numerous such requests, we planned a listening session over breakfast in which the older men would be quiet … Read More