Life | Love | Freedom

a splinter in my mind xv

How do you fall in love?

posted by Rick @ 6:07 AM 2 Comments

a splinter in my mind xiv

What is the most significant (or only) power that transforms you when you experience it?

How do you experience that power?

posted by Rick @ 8:13 AM 0 Comments

a splinter in my mind xiii

Reflect back on a time when someone spoke to you from their deepest feelings.

Maybe it was a parent, friend or significant other expressing the goodness and beauty they see in you and how joyful they were to know you.

It could have been your son or daughter, without agenda, seeking you out and hugging you like their life depended on it, topped with the soft words ‘I love you’.

Maybe it was your closest friend vulnerably, humbly and honestly expressing how you hurt them deeply.

Or maybe someone you walked through hard times with expressed their gratitude for your presence in the midst of heartache.

How about a time when you spoke to another from your deepest feelings?

Reading further is worthless if you haven’t revisted such a moment…I’m just saying

How would you describe the transformational power of such a moment?

Is there anything in this life more significant than those moments?

posted by Rick @ 6:22 AM 0 Comments

a splinter in my mind xii

1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Why is love the greatest of these?

posted by Rick @ 6:20 AM 0 Comments

a splinter in my mind xi

If God is NOT a belief or a belief system.

If we cannot relate to God through what we believe.

then...

What IS God?

How do we relate to him?

posted by Rick @ 5:24 AM 0 Comments

a splinter in my mind x

What can you or I do for God?

Seriously...

What does an all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal being need or want that you or I could do for him? Why would he need or want in the first place?

So maybe there's nothing that you or I can do for God...where does that leave things?

The following is not an answer to the above question...or maybe it is.

John 15:5 says "he who abides (remains) in me and I in him will bear (not produce) much fruit"

What does it mean to abide (remain) in God?

John 6:29 says "Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent'"

What does 'believing' look like...how does it play out for you?

Maybe the question is "what does God want to do for us" or maybe even..."what has God done for us?" that we need to realize?

posted by Rick @ 11:45 AM 0 Comments

a splinter in my mind ix

If all this world's stuff & activity doesn't exist in heaven, what will exist there and what will we do there?

Most all agree the abscence of suffering, death & evil in heaven is something they're looking forward to experiencing, but what about the abscence of TV, internet, cell phones, Xbox, sports, books, hobbies, yard work, coffee shops, restaurants, clothes, you know - all the stuff we experience with the body's five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell)?

What will we do for e-t-e-r-n-i-t-y?

John 17:3 says "and this is eternal life knowing the one and only true God..."

How you feel about that reality depends on how you view God. I mean, you don't look forward to spending a lot of time with folks with whom you share very little common interest, who are seemingly boring, uncomfortable to be around, make the entire relationship about themselves, who judge you and punish you even though they say they love you...most people look for ways to avoid those relationships.

In many instances folks choose heaven because it's better than hell...it's supposed to be great but the prospect of pearly gates, gold roads, lavish homes, 24/7 praise and worship while casting crowns at the feet of God seems like it would get old quick.

On the flip side, what if God is the most intriguing, thoughtful, kind, interesting, caring, loving, likable, fascinating, joyful, respectful, gentle, enthusiastic, peaceful and self-controlled friend who likes you and wants to know you and take you on guided tours (only when you want a guide) of all that exist?

What if the other people in heaven are the same way, and part of the process of knowing God is knowing them from all of history and from all parts of the our world and whatever other worlds that exist or have existed.

What if God and his kingdom (heaven) are so vast and his children so many, that moving and relating at 'god speed' (zillions of times faster than light speed...or warp speed for you trekies) requires eternity to discover, understand and know.

What if a single moment of knowing God in the kingdom of heaven is exponentially (lots) better than the totality of what we've enjoyed of this life?

What did Jesus mean when he said the kingdom of God is within you? How does that make sense?

posted by Rick @ 10:39 AM 0 Comments

a splinter in my mind vii

Where do you connect with God in your relationship with Him? Where is God when you think of him, talk to him? When he's communicating to you, where does his communication come from?

A. The sky (heaven, clouds, outer space)...a 'sky God' of sorts (i.e. like the folks in babylonia demonstrated by building a tower to reach 'up' to him or like people do in church services reaching 'up' with their hands).

or...

B. Within you (i.e. Jesus comes to live in your heart or the mystery of the gospel is Christ (God) in you, the hope of glory - Col 1:27 & 3:4)?

or...

C. Everywhere and in everything?

or...

D. None of the above (your thoughts)
__________________________

posted by Rick @ 5:16 AM 2 Comments

a splinter in my mind vi

How do you reconcile God who can't look on sin, who's holiness is repulsed by it

with...

Jesus (God as man) who hung around whores, alchoholics, tax collectors (the greedy), the demon possessed and many other 'sinners'?

posted by Rick @ 6:03 AM 1 Comments

a splinter in my mind v

A sermon given to a million people.

A cup of water given to a thirsty person.

Which has a greater impact in the kingdom of God?

posted by Rick @ 5:59 AM 3 Comments

a splinter in my mind iv

Is the key to knowing God our mind? Does the person with the greatest knowledge of and ability to understand scripture in the original languages, who is the most versed in the cultural context of the biblical times, knowing and understanding the entire history of the church, who has the greatest cerebral processing capacity...well...is that person the one who could know God better than anyone else if he/she wanted to?

What is the key to knowing God?

Can a child or someone mentally retarded, or physically handicapped in one or more ways know God just as well as the most advanced adult? If so, how?

posted by Rick @ 4:20 PM 2 Comments

a splinter in my mind iii

Is our consciousness a self-fulfilling prophecy?

If I am conscious of everything (nature, animals, people & the spiritual kingdom) as good, will that in turn cause my experience of everything to be good?

Example:

If I see Christ (i.e. God who is good) as the life of every person will that cause my experience with everyone to be good?

Conversely, If I see evil within certain people will that cause my experience with them to be bad?

posted by Rick @ 4:19 PM 4 Comments

a splinter in my mind ii

If God is love and the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfullness and self-control...then why would an all powerful God create a system in which evil exists?

If it was to give us free will, I would ask couldn't an 'allpowerful' god create a system in which we have free will but without evil?

If it was to give us a reference point for good (i.e. to know good wemust know evil), I would ask couldn't an all powerful God create asystem in which we could know good without evil?

Why would we want to know a God who created the system in which evil exists?

Are there alternatives?

posted by Rick @ 5:09 AM 3 Comments

a spinter in my mind

If eternal life is knowing God (i.e. having a relationship with God), how do we have a relationship with God?

posted by Rick @ 2:45 PM 2 Comments