In Silencio Dei

“Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. (1 Samuel 8:6-7 ESV) It seems for all of our advancements in science, technology and understanding the world around us we as God's people can still fall into the same traps Israel did 3000 years ago. Some Personal Context I'm going to be highlighting a problem I see with the structure of the church, but I want to be clear about one thing upfront. I love Christ. I love the gospel and the kingdom of God. And I love the church. I love the people of God and the ministers that serve. There isn't another organization on the planet that has done more to help mankind than the Christian church. You won't find more honest, loving people than those that know Jesus Christ personally and strive to make his name famous in the world. The church is f...

Do you remember playing with Chinese fingers traps as a kid? I can't be certain when or to whom but I'm pretty sure I made one of my cousins cry when they placed their fingers inside only to realize to their horror that they couldn't get them out. Ah, the joys of being an older child. If you don't remember, these toys they are small tubes woven out of something fiberous - usually bamboo. The trick is once you put your fingers inside and try to pull them out the tube constricts. The more you pull the tighter the trap gets. It's only by relaxing and pushing your fingers together that the trap can fall off. By the way if you didn't know this secret and I spoiled the surprise I sincerely apologize and would also like to know what it feels like to be seven years old. :) As I stated in my last post I believe the gospel of Jesus is very simple. I understand it as God coming down to man to demonstrate empathy and compassion on us while we experience the growing...

I've been in a two year process of deconstructing my faith. I've been doing some deep soul-searching to understand what it is I really believe. I've been raised in an evangelical, charismatic tradition my entire life and have always felt I understood the gospel of Jesus. And then something wonderful happened that transformed my head knowledge into heart knowledge. I no longer believed in God's love with just my head; I believed in God's love with my heart. Since that time I've been trying to understand why I didn't see and experience this before and why those around me haven't seemed to experience this either (or perhaps they have but I was unaware of it). Now that I've had some time in solitude I think I found a key to something that might be missing to our understanding in what it means to be "saved." Bear with me for a second as I sketch in broad strokes and forgo some details. I think one of the main points of the Protestant Reforma...