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The Upside Down World ~ The Blog

May 18, 2014
1 min

Weekend Wake Ups

Behind the scenes, every true artist is far more disciplined and deliberate than it appears from the outside looking in. (PS God is an artist, you know.) Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #art #christianity #creation #artist #God

May 16, 2014
3 min

Compromise, Convictions and the Good Samaritan

Yesterday, a Christian friend put a quote from a famous pastor up on facebook which ended with this little gem: You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate. Which is what we like to tell ourselves, but it’s not true. Jesus even told us a story to show that it’s not true. You know, the story of the good Samaritan. That story is Jesus telling us that sometimes we do have to compromise our convictions in order to be compassionate. You see, we read the story and

May 16, 2014
6 min

What’s Up With the Nigerian Church?

My brain is all confudled after all the technical difficulties over the last few days. And the $900 car repair bill. And the fact that my husband has been traveling and I have too many children and I’d really just like to go veg somewhere for a week without being interrupted multiple times an hour. So this post is going to be really unfancy, but I think it’s important. I mentioned recently that a small group of Nigerian Christians found the blog and reached out to me not long

May 15, 2014
8 min

The Church and Me

So, I happened to get into several conversations with church people yesterday. Now, by church people, I don’t mean people who belong to a church or work for a church or love a church. I don’t even mean people who have accepted and are trying to live within the boundaries set by a church. When I say church people, I mean people whose identity is tied up in a church or some brand or denomination in the church or a particular theology or even just a bunch of cultural assumptions

May 15, 2014
1 min

God as Man

I think that when God became embodied, he would have had to go through a sort of forgetting process in order to experience life fully as a man. People who deal in mystical things commonly teach that we each contain all knowledge within us, but we need to remember. We’ve forgotten. So it makes sense that Jesus would have been born having forgotten everything he knew as God. Jesus would have sought unity with God, just like other mystics, only to discover that he was God and ha

May 14, 2014
2 min

When Praise is a Sacrifice

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. ~ Hebrews 13:15 Do you know that sometimes praise is a sacrifice? When there’s nothing left to praise but the air you are breathing and you praise God for air. When you’d just as soon not wake up for another day and you praise God for the bed you’re lying on. When there’s no comfort or relief so you praise God for revealing himself so you have s

May 14, 2014
1 min

More Recklessness, Please

Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #christianity #religiousmeme #forgiveness #christianspirituality #spirituality #memes #religion

May 14, 2014
6 min

Manhunt for Peace in the Dark Heart of Africa

You know my thing about Africa that I’ve mentioned a couple of times lately? Well, allow me to share a story out of the Congo and Uganda. Now, in Western minds, this part of Africa was long considered “the dark heart” of Africa. And unfortunately in the last few decades, there have been times when anyone who was paying attention would wonder if there wasn’t some sort of curse on that area. The details of the back and forth that got and kept the conflict going are long and bor

May 14, 2014
3 min

Churches Don’t Like You When You’re Suffering

Now, I’m not sure if I agree with what this person thinks that the church should be doing for people. I’m actually kind of a fan of doctors, safety nets and mental health services. But this really does capture the way the church deals with the suffering. I haven’t been involved in a church for a few years for a number of reasons. But probably the biggest obstacle for me was that I dread what happens once I can’t hide just how screwed up my life is. Just the thought of having

May 13, 2014
2 min

The Real Challenge to Religious Liberty in America

The things Christians decide are important enough to raise a stink over on religious liberty ground always astound me. Like the way we keep fighting for the right to say prayers at government meetings and such. As if such prayers have ANY meaning at all or losing them would be detrimental to Christianity. It’s a laughable proposition. Especially when the meetings that follow these prayers may wind up with a seriously anti-Christian law like this: Daytona Beach is one of a han

May 13, 2014
4 min

In the End Times No One Listens to Their Pastor

Remember me writing about the church’s inability to deal with the reality of the world rather than clinging to their ideas about the world? Well, if you would like to see what this looks like in action, ask a pastor why people leave church and then ask 20 people who have left church about their experience. The overlap will be non-existent. Oh, I get where the church people are coming from. It’s easy enough to take “I never felt accepted” and hear “I’m unwilling to engage with

May 13, 2014
4 min

New Age Stuff Drives Me Nuts

Since the 80s at least, brave Christians have been noticing that there is some syncronicity between the mystical practices and teachings of Christianity and New Age theories. Being a fairly adventurous sort of mystically inclined Christian, I understand the allure. But in the end, I would strongly warn people against delving in too deep. Many Christians warn against New Age teaching primarily because getting involved with New Age teachings is so frequently associated with lea

May 9, 2014
6 min

The Process is the Solution

I once knew a family that didn’t do Santa Claus with their kids at Christmas. The reason they didn’t do Santa Claus was because they felt it might lead their children to doubt the existence of God. You see, Santa is basically an old man living far away at the top of the world. He gives you what you want because he loves you. And nobody ever gets to see him. And many children think of God as an old man living far away in heaven who answers our prayers (gives you what you want)

May 8, 2014
5 min

In the End Times, We All Tell Our Story

Remember me raving a few weeks back about Humans of New York? Well, I want to share a picture and the quote that went with it which was recently posted on their Facebook page: “I had forty acres and a new home out in California. I was working as a stone mason. I could bring in $6000 cash some weeks. Then I was walking home one night and someone tried to kill me. I got brain damage. I lost my sense of smell, my sense of taste, most of my hearing, and now I can barely stand wit

May 6, 2014
4 min

Prayers of Faith

Earlier this year, I did a series of posts on why God doesn’t answer prayers. My reason for writing the posts was to push back against the common church narrative which says that if you just have enough faith, God will answer your prayers. I think this is such a problematic teaching as it basically teaches us that if our lives are hard and God is not answering our prayers, it is because our faith is inadequate. We didn’t believe hard or well enough to be rewarded with answere

May 5, 2014
5 min

There Are No Secrets In the End Times

So, did you hear what NBA team owner Donald Sterling said to his mistress? Did you happen to see Prince Harry in his birthday suit a while back? Have you seen the video of family-values Congressman Vance McAllister kissing a staffer (who was not his wife)? Or maybe you gawked at pictures of the mansion and private zoo deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych bought for himself with bribes and money stolen from government coffers. Within living memory, part of being rich

May 5, 2014
1 min

Your Daily Cud

A random thought to contemplate over your lunch break: Anyone in a serious relationship with God will at some point find it necessary to forgive Him. It may not be theologically correct, but it’s true. Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #christianity #christianspirituality #spirituality #God #religion

May 5, 2014
1 min

Wounded Image Bearers

Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #christianity #meme #religion #religiousmemes

May 1, 2014
4 min

Let’s Talk Prophecy and End Times

The parts of the bible which deal with “end times” prophecies are something I’ve always shied away from dealing with directly. Studying and researching those parts of scripture can be very entertaining, but it’s a dangerous past time. Nearly everyone who gives it a go winds up lost and led astray. And sadly, some of these people have managed to warp many people’s entire understanding of Christianity. Part of the problem is a pervasive, fundamental misunderstanding of what pro

Apr 30, 2014
2 min

Some Afternoon Encouragement

If you are feeling poor, worn out, full of grief, weak, despairing at the state of the world, hungry for change, wishing you could make things better, and you are misunderstood and rejected today, Jesus says that you’re doing it right. He says that the people who are sitting pretty, enjoying the rewards of a comfortable life now are already enjoying their passing rewards. But you will hold heaven in your hands. You will be comforted. You will rule over the earth. You will be