I have this tendency to summarize. It’s how I am organized – a characteristic in me that I observe and that I feel no need to change. Maybe it’s an attribute parceled out to teachers of which I count myself among. Maybe it’s how my brain learns. So when given the opportunity at my church […]

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 The ancient scriptures use concepts we can all grasp like fruit. If we follow the analogy we know that fruit comes from seeds. The seed encapsulates the programming, the […]

Whatever the Bible tells us to do, by definition becomes doable. The Lord lacks pretense as should we. If that is true (and it is) then rule free living is not purely conceptual. There must be a path. The devoted soul, loaded up with energy, but lacking concepts from which to build, seeks out something […]

Intent trumps rules. The ancient scriptures dangle this concept for all who can grab hold. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:  “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Matthew 22:35-36. In rules-based living, which of the commandments should we focus on? Onlookers would have already had an answer […]

If and only if we have been transformed, we can get on the road towards rule free living. Paul laid it out for us in the first verses of Romans 8 when he wrote: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the […]

So my last post was about reclaiming the dreaded concept of being “religious.” The idea here is that to be religious is to have had your core person transformed by an experience outside yourself. That’s Carl Jung’s definition, and something I can get behind. In fact, the Christian experience speaks to those who have been […]

Neurosis is a substitute for legitimate suffering. Carl Jung 1938 by Yale University Press, Inc. This quote from the noted psychiatrist resonated in me, since having spiritual leanings, I am very interested in the mechanisms of fear (though this first blog entry has nothing to do with neurosis). The quote was the hook. So much […]