in morning prayer this week we read from Matthew 9.27-34 about how Jesus heals two blind men and frees another man from some demon. what was interesting about the translation we were reading from was that it said this: 'As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" When He had gone indoors, the blind men came to Him, and He asked them, "Do [...]
Ambition: the dark side, the light side Dalene Reyburn I suffer from various Double-Edged Personality-Strength disorders. If you’re human you probably do too. ‘Cause your greatest strength is always what most quickly becomes your greatest weakness. For now, I’ll just ‘fess up to one. I have Ambition, which has led to a secondary infection known as Competitiveness. There are a number of different strains of the Ambition Virus, so it’s important that I clarify. I’m [...]
these are a series of posts i am sharing that i have taken from a series called 'How to Love your Woman/Man better' from a while back and also a series titled 'One way to Love your spouse better' that i ran more recently [with the input of some friends] - there are many incredible gems here that can help you as you look to contribute to a healthy and thriving marriage and i hope [...]
a few years ago i visited new york with a good buddy of mine, justin paton, and one of the touristy things we came across was the Charging Bull, a 3,200-kg (7,100 lb) bronze sculpture by Arturo Di Modica that stands Wall Street in Manhattan. being a touristy symbol, we had to wait a fair amount of time to get a picture with it and so naturally when we did i had to be a [...]
Taboo Topics is a series dedicated to sharing stories from real live people [mostly who i know] on real life issues, situations or experiences that are seldom spoken about for various reasons. So far the topics that have been addressed [with links to all the stories] are the following: Abortion Addiction Adoption Cancer Dealing with the Grief of losing Someone you Love Eating Disorders Fostering a Child Infertility Living with Disabilities/Special Needs Losing a Baby [...]
my friend and bossman, Darin, shared some stuff on Saturday's Simple Way Conversations day on the theme of stewarding your treasures [your money and things] well in the world we live in... one really interesting thing he said which made me think was when he asked about the definition of poverty and said that often poverty has been defined as THE LACK OF STUFF? that's true, right? i'm sure most of us would agree... but [...]
"the Bible says so!" end to an argument for a lot of people [who won't necessarily give you a book, chapter and verse to make it easier on you but are pretty convinced in their heads that because they think something is true then surely the Bible must say so] about a week ago i got involved in a 'discussion' on the 'book [the less quotable one] where a pastor had posted a statement made [...]
Firstly, I want to thank Brett for giving me a podium and his trust. Secondly, I want to thank you for your courage to read anything about the struggles people face with porn and masturbation. This is not a really short story, but perhaps it is a familiar one. I pray that it is as helpful to you to read it as it was for me to write it. I was introduced to masturbation before [...]
so this week i found out on twitter that our south african olympic swimming gold medalist, cameron van der bergh, had admitted to cheating to get his gold medal by doing a succession of dolphin kicks underwater in the pool [apparently only one is allowed] and it bummed me out. so, as one does, i made a facebook status about it... and was doubly surprised and bummed at how many [mostly christians] wrote comments on [...]
i do have a second lesser known blog called 'the simple weigh' where the idea is to hold two different ideas up against each other and also to document some of our travels as we are part of the Simple Way community in Philadelphia, Americaland... and i just posted a big risk and an incredible follow-up which is the story of last nite's happenings at the youth week i am currently speaking at in the [...]