Owner: On the Horizon URL:http://www.hopefulspirit.com Join Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 18:10:37 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Good things are on the horizon for me as the truth has set me free! Join me on my journey to a deeper understanding of the Gospels and enrichment of my faith. ALL persons are welcome, and ALL viewpoints and opinions will be respected and honored here. Site statistics:Click here
Sound Byte Saturday #3 2007-03-10 09:45:00 This week's selection is "Visions" by Jennifer Knapp.Listen using the MP3 player on the left. sound byte saturday
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Why Do You Blog? 2007-03-08 14:23:00 Have you ever asked yourself that question?Carol wrote a very interesting post on that subject in "Your Daily Dose of Inspiration" at the Christian Women Online Internet Cafe. She wrote:Four A's into BloggingAfter being asked to contribute to CWO's group blog I took a few moments to panic and pray. I'm good at that. The panic part, I mean. It's an honor to be included among the names of bloggers listed in the sidebar. I hope this, the first post, doesn't get me kicked off the team after my first swing.So, Darlene asked me to be on the blogging team for CWO and that got me thinking about teamwork. Which got me thinking about sports. Which got me thinking about laundry. Which got me thinking about television. Which got me thinking about blogging.Which doesn't speak well for the way my mind works, but there you have it.And here's what I thought. Out loud.As bloggers, at some point we all, quite naturally and understandably, stop and ask ourselves, "Why?" What compels us to share
Thursday Thirteen #1: Thirteen Mistakes Often Made by Well-Meaning Christians (Including Me) 2007-03-06 09:39:00 Included in the First Edition of the Carnival of Christian Advice, hosted at Ask Andrea.I've decided that it's time to start having a little fun with this blog! I discovered this meme, the ThursdayThirteen
: Every week participants post a list of thirteen items of their own choosing. So I am going to play, too (at least when I can think of thirteen things to list).I actually got the idea for this list from a post on a blog titled "Friendly Atheist". The author apparently goes to different churches as an observer and compiled a list of "20 Things That Christians
Do in Church That Annoy Me".I present my list here with this proviso: It is comprised solely of my opinions and viewpoints, and is not intended to be an indictment or judgment of any person. Martin Luther said we are "weak, puny and sinful" beings and that includes me! I am guilty of doing many of these things more often than I care to recount. I am actually going to print this post out and affix it to my bulletin board at hom Read more:Often
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Sound Byte Saturday #2 2007-03-04 01:29:00 This week's selection is "Stand" by Rascal Flatts. It is on their latest album, "Me and My Gang."Listen to the words, using the player on the left. They are "words to live by" and it is my hope that they bring you encouragement, as they have me! Plus, it is a pretty rockin' tune, sure to brighten your disposition if you're having a difficult day.sound byte saturday
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Wordless Wednesday #2 2007-02-28 03:49:00 A lone tree, with the horizon in the distance.Reminded me of myself.wordless wednesday
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Blog Your Blessings Sunday 2007-02-25 09:31:00 Today I am thankful for the many talented, creative people who inspire me. One of them is Alice Walker, author of one of my all-time favorite books, "The Color Purple."There is a very interesting interview with Ms. Walker at beliefnet. She talks about her new book, "We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness," which is definitely going to be the next book I read.What really intrigued me about this interview is her philosophy about the Divine Creator. "Alice Walker has always known God. But she prefers terms like 'Godness' [I like this term!] and 'Mama' to describe the divine—for her, it is everywhere, from the Japanese maples outside her window to the slow yoga she practices."About "The Color Purple," she says, it is "about theology. Many people assume that it’s about just about incest, wife abuse, spouse-beating; all of that is in there, but you will notice that the journey that Celie is making is toward her self-realization as a part of th Read more:Blessings
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Will the ELCA finally do the right thing? 2007-02-24 10:25:00 Gay Ruling Poses Tough Questions for Lutherans By Katherine BoyleReligion News Service WASHINGTON -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America may be asked to change a ban on practicing gay and lesbian clergy after a disciplinary committee voted to remove an openly gay pastor but suggested the church find a way to reinstate him.The ruling called for the Rev. Bradley Schmeling, an openly gay pastor in a committed relationship, to be removed from his pulpit at St. John's Lutheran Church in by Aug. 15. The committee said it reached the decision reluctantly and suggested the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly in August should "reconsider and revise" guidelines prohibiting gay clergy who are not celibate.The committee, made up of 12 Lutheran pastors from across the country, also recommended the assembly consider reinstating pastors who have been ousted from their positions for being in co
The Second Agreement 2007-02-24 05:43:00 Until now, I have not had time to get back to my discussion of "The Four Agreement
s" that I began in the post below entitled "Sticks and Stones."I emphatically recommend this book. It is a gem, filled with affirming and uplifting guidance for living a balanced, healthy life.The Four Agreements, again, are:Be Impeccable with Your WordDon't Take Anything PersonallyDon't Make AssumptionsAlways Do Your BestI think that the second agreement is the most difficult to live by.Why?Because everything is all about me, of course!But it really isn't. Author Don Miguel Ruiz calls that "personal importance." He points out that we should not take anything that happens around us personally. We take things personally because deep inside we agree with what is being said about us and we become trapped in our selfishness.But he teaches that "[n]othing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely diff Read more:Second
Thursday Thirteen #2: Thirteen Ways and Places to Worship 2007-02-22 09:31:00 Thirteen Ways and Places
to Worship worship (n.)1. The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.2. The ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed.worshiped or worshipped, worshiping or worship·ping, worships (v.)1. To honor and love as a deity.2. To regard with ardent or adoring esteem or devotion.Since extricating myself from the institutional church, I've been giving a lot of thought to what it means to worship. It is not necessary, of course, to be inside a particular structure in order to worship the Divine Creator. And, in fact, as the American Heritage Dictionary definition set forth above shows, the act of worshiping does not involve any particular action or behavior. Worshipping can be as simple as honoring and loving the Divine Creator which is something I do, consciously or subconsciously, every moment of every day.Here are thirteen of the ways and places that I have been worshipping since fleeing t Read more:Thursday
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Blog Your Blessings Sunday 2007-02-19 02:27:00 Today being Sunday
, I again enjoyed some time to myself engaging in my own form of worship. As I was doing so, my thoughts went to the one and only person from my former congregation that I can truly say I miss. So today, he is the focus of my post about my blessings.The gentleman in question is 81 years young and I don't use that cliche lightly. He not only appears and moves as though he is much younger than his chronological age, he is truly "young at heart" and in spirit. He always has a hug, and words of affirmation and inspiration for those around him.Like so many of us, he has much to be thankful for. You see, my friend is a highly decorated veteran of World War II who fought on Iwo Jima. He was a squadron leader and one of 110,000 Marines dispatched in 880 boats to invade Iwo Jima in February 1945. Shot by a machine gun on March 3, 1945, he finished out his tour of duty as a Drill Instructor for Special Forces operations.An extremely humble and unassuming gentleman, my friend w Read more:Blessings
Sound Byte Saturday #1 2007-02-17 09:03:00 My first contribution to Sound
Byte Saturday
is one of my all-time favorite songs by John Michael Talbot, "Come, Worship the Lord."You can listen by clicking on that selection in the mp3 player on the left.sound byte saturday
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Not Just Valentine's Day 2007-02-16 22:40:00 If you are interested in reading about St. Trifun's Day (February 14), pay a visit to zzz's creative mess. You'll learn a lot!
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Blog Your Blessings Sunday 2007-02-12 08:11:00 I am very late getting this posted! That doesn't mean I'm not grateful and don't have blessings to enumerate here. Oh, I do! That's part of why I'm so late.I am grateful that the Divine Creator has been working on my heart. You see, I have a lot of friends and even some relatives who still belong to the church I left. And that can make things kind of awkward.Among the ways that I served my former congregation was setting up the formatting for the weekly bulletins and then proofreading what the church secretary input each week. Every week what she forwarded to me was a mess . . . I spent a lot of time putting my original template back in order, not to mention correcting typos, spelling, punctuation, grammar and use of language errors. I did the same thing with a weekly publication outlining all of the church's upcoming activities and events, as well as the prayer list.I also created and maintained the church's website. When I left, given that I was smart enough to maintain owner Read more:Blessings
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Detoxing from Church 2007-02-06 06:16:00 That's the title of a really interesting article I stumbled upon tonight. Click here to read it in its entirety.The author, a pastor who left traditional organized religion to form a new kind of community of believers, makes the point that we get addicted to the formal structures of the church. We get used to having worship planned for and delivered to us, serving and using church to provide us with a reason to exist. "I need discipleship and Christian growth. So I go to my local church to attend Sunday services, Bible studies and small groups where someone opens the Bible and tells me what it says and how it should apply to my life." In other words, we become incredibly lazy, failing to fully explore our faith because we rely upon someone else to spoon-feed it to us.Frankly, it has been my experience that churches are more like country clubs than houses of worship, complete with their own social structure comprised of power-bases, cliques and those who are marginalized and outcast.Th Read more:Church
Thankfulness: A Way of Life 2007-02-04 09:45:00 Last Sunday I posted about giving thanks in all things, and I had a week that included some interesting moments, as you can read about below. But I am thankful even for those times because I learn so much from them.I am doing fairly well in my efforts to be thankful. I have remembered to be thankful each day, although I don't always remember as soon as I would like to. Sometimes I have "oh, yeah . . ." moments when I find myself realizing that my thankful attitude in kicking in later than it should be. I think I am going to post a little reminder in my office. I just have to figure out where to put it so that it is noticeable to me, but not necessarily everyone else who enters that space. That will help me remember to stop and say a prayer of thanks when I am frustrated with or aggravated by something happening in the workplace.Tonight I had to remember to be thankful for my children when they were driving me nuts! But I managed to maintain my sense of humor about it and even t
Sticks and Stones 2007-02-02 11:49:00 "Sticks and stones may break my bones,But words will never hurt me."Not so.". . . negative and disruptive spirit . . ."That's some heavy label to attempt to hang on another human being.Whew.In the weeks since I left organized religion, I have told many people the words that the noxious pastor (I shall refer to him simply as NP) of my former congregation wrote to me. The reaction has been uniform: "He said what? You made the right decision." People just can't believe that a pastor said that to a parishioner. But he did -- I have the e-mail to prove it.I have also extensively pondered his words. And I have reached a conclusion: Not only was there a complete failure by NP to live up to his professional responsibilities as my pastor (more about that in a future post), he is dangerous.I was talking with my college roommate the other day. We have been friends since we met in the fall of 1977. That is a long time to be friends with someone, so my former roommate knows me very well. Knows m Read more:Stones
In everything . . . give thanks 2007-01-21 09:25:00 More often than not, I am guilty of not listening to the Holy Spirit. It sits on my shoulder and whispers in my ear, but I am frequently so distracted by the frenetic pace at which we live in this 21st century that I don't hear what it is saying. The whispers get louder and louder . . . sometimes I hear something and swat at my ear as though a fly is buzzing near me. Sometimes I catch a word or two which causes me to stop and strain to make out the rest of the sentence, but then I get distracted or give up and never hear the entire message.Too frequently, it requires the spiritual equivalent of someone dropping a house on me for the Holy Spirit to get my attention! On those occasions, hindsight reveals the clues I missed along the way, of course.This is indeed one of those occasions.I have been reading Jan Karon's books about the fictional village of Mitford and her gentle-hearted protagonist, Timothy Cavanaugh, an Episcopalian priest. If you haven't read this series, I highl
On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday: The Letter from the Birmingham Jail Revisited 2007-01-16 00:32:00 On this day, the birthday of Dr. MartinLuther
King, Jr., I've been spending some time reading about his life and teachings, and listening to excerpts from his most notable speeches and sermons.While again reading his April 16, 1963,letter from the Birmingham
jail, I was struck by the timelessness of his words and found myself wondering what he would think of the churches of 2007.In the selection below, where he uses the term "Negro," substitute a description of any oppressed group -- women (still second-classes citizens in most mainstream churches), gays, lesbians, transgendered persons -- and you will see that his words are as relevant and accurate nearly 47 years later as the day he wrote them. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation Read more:Birthday
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Welcome! 2007-01-13 23:27:00 ~~ Updated February 26, 2007 ~~I started this blog as a way of assisting me in my recovery from lifelong Lutheranism. Actually, I also need[ed] to recover from lifelong Protestantism, volunteerism, and church membership as a generalized principle.Why I need[ed] to recover is one of the topics that I have will be explored here. I donated literally thousands and thousands of hours to the work of the church, serving as a musician and worship leader, website creator and administrator, Sunday School teacher, church council member, call committee member, and newsletter editor, just for starters. I was also a paid part-time staff member for many years.Churches are man-made institutions, erected, populated, and managed by “weak, puny, and sinful” (Martin Luther’s words) human beings. Therefore, churches are inherently flawed organizations.That being understood, I, however, had the misfortune of belonging for a good number of years to a toxic congregation led by a noxious pastor [NP]. I l Read more:Welcome
Simply Successful Secrets 2007-03-16 04:39:00 Sania Wyatt tagged me to participate in "Simply Successful Secrets
."Compose a new blog post listing the top 5 to 10 things that you do almost every day that help you to be successful. They can be anything at all, but they have to be things that you do at least 4 or 5 times every week. Anything less than that may be a hobby that helps you out, but we are after the real day in and day out habits that help you to be successful.In no particular order, here are some things that I do consistently:Work out regularlyIt's really simple: If I don't work out, I don't feel well. There is nothing magic or mystical about it. For me, working out is essential to keeping my energy level up, my blood and creative juices flowing. I would be at the gym every single day if my schedule would allow it. As it is, I'm there a minimum of three and maximum of five days per week.Make good food choicesSame story. I can no longer eat junk food and feel well. The dietary habits I got away with 20 years a
Thursday Thirteen #3: What's in a Name? 2007-03-15 07:11:00 What's in a Name?13 Names by Which Jesus is Known1. Rabbi2. Counselor3. The Light, the Truth and the Way4. Prince of Peace5. Light of the World6. Comforter7. Master8. Servant9. Shepherd10. Alpha and Omega11. Teacher12. Redeemer13. The RockThursdayThirteen
Sound Byte Saturday #4 2007-03-17 06:41:00 This week's selection is "Live by Faith" by Chris Rice.Listen using the MP3 player on the left.sound byte saturday
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Photo Hunt: Drink 2007-03-17 06:11:00 Drink"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air"~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~photo hunters
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Blog Your Blessings Sunday: Forgiveness 2007-03-18 21:46:00 ForgivenessIf you've been reading this blog regularly, you know that I have been working a great deal on the concept of thankfulness, feeling thankful, and giving thanks in a meaningful way for all things.This week I have turned my attention to the topic of forgiveness. More specifically, I have been focusing on the manner in which we are called to forgive one another and how well I live up to that directive.Consider these two passages:Jesus spoke to his disciples. "Things that make people sin are sure to come," he said. "But how terrible it will be for the person who brings them! Suppose people lead one of these little ones to sin. It would be better for those people to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck. So watch what you do. "If your brother sins, tell him he is wrong. Then if he turns away from his sins, forgive him. Suppose he sins against you seven times in one day. And suppose he comes back to you each time and says, 'I'm sorry.' Forgive him."Luk Read more:Blessings
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