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 [...]
God is really good and just loves us too much to let these things pass under the radar! I was also exposed to pornography at a young age (Probably around 11/12) and the seed was planted. It was not so much the pornography I got addicted to, but masturbation. My mind was so contaminated with thoughts of masturbation, and my imagination was enough to keep me going! The odd e-tv movie or two every month [...]
this may be one of the tabooist topics [especially in the church, not a lot of sermons preached on this in my experience] and it's time to bring it into the light. i have a story to share and i am hoping that this will help people towards a journey of healing, restoration, self-forgiveness, hope and sexual purity. i do wish my story went something like this - i used to struggle with pornography and [...]
this is a tough little one - david whining about his enemies some more and calling on God for some ensmitement... i don't think i have ever gotten that hectic so i can't really relate but possibly the strongest i have gotten in enemy prayer is 'please God, make them go away'- i don't know, maybe not even that. i don't tend to hold on to enemy definition. sure, there have been some prime candidates [...]
'I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.' [vs.1] If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and change your... ...pace? i won't lie, i used to sing "face" as the last word of that popular Michael Jackson song, and i still do from time to time... but wot a great way to start a psalm and a day or week or year... [...]
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 [...]
'I said, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth while in the presence of the wicked.”'[vs.1] strong opening line and one we could all learn from, which James picks up and runs with in chapter 3.1-12 which includes these warnings: 'With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. [...]
'Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me. Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.' [vs. 1-4] Um, wait, what? This must be one of those other psalms, right, [...]
one of my facebook friends [Catherine Rogers] posted a status about the overabundance of brett FISH anderson articles/blogs/videos on her newsfeed and the struggle to pick which to give her time to [not complaining that there was so much but that there was too much choice] and so somehow five minutes later i found myself looking back through some early pre-Simple Way blog posts i made two or more years ago and finding a bunch [...]
'Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.' [vs. 7] this brings to mind the more well known psalm 46.10 line of 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.' i use this verse a lot when writing welcome letters to people coming [...]