some reflections on life and its meaning, looking to find a deeper sense of significance through experience and observation
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Once Saved, Always Saved? |
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Reflections
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This belief has raised many questions over the years, but it is still quite widespread. A recent email for clarification promoted me to look again at this idea. A number of different texts are given in support, particularly:
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from me. John 10:28 TEV.
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Reflections
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That’s how I see what we are doing. We are not static, this is a movement—going places! That’s the problem with creeds—defining in such a way that progress becomes more difficult. The cry “Our only creed is the Bible!” has been essentially lost. While the urge to write down beliefs—that’s what the Latin word that we use for “creed” actually means, “I believe”—is understandable, the problem is that we then become content and satisfied in those statements, rather than the living faith. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. Truth is ever-expanding, a progressive development that only works if we are open. If our formulas we have so carefully crafted end up closing our minds, then how does God continue to work with us?
So as the church progressing, we see ourselves on a journey, a voyage of discovery, an exploration. We do not “have” all truth (how could we ever be so arrogant to make such a claim!), yet what we have discovered makes such good sense. We follow where that path leads, because we believe it is to God and with God. Come and join us for the journey!
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Patrick: The Difference of One |
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Reflections
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We know little enough about this man who lived long ago on the fringes of the then known world. Debates continue over his birthplace, ancestry, and mother tongue. Just about every event in his life is in dispute, while some even question whether he ever lived at all.
Yet the impact of Patrick, apostle to the Irish, is without question one of the most momentous in history. Little do we realize…
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Reflections
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I’m sitting on a plane, reading a modern version of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. I reach the part when the ever-loving father welcomes his long-lost son home. I smile at the beauty of love and reconciliation. For the parable is far more about the nature and character of God than the foolishness of the prodigal. I’ve often wanted to re-name the story “The Parable of the Generous Father” instead of the “Prodigal Son.”
Of course, we are the ungrateful kid who cashes in the family inheritance, and ignoring the pain we cause, grab the money and run. The story speaks to us where we are, so it’s understandable perhaps that we want to identify with the prodigal’s experience.
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Reflections
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Ice white traces black
Four Haiku

Ice white traces black Among the trees, snow shadow Caught upon the breeze.
Crystals of star night Broken by dawn, early mist Veil crumpled and torn.
Life as the sad snow Fallen from high, to break in Wind’s cold empty sigh.
Born as winter’s death Destruction dies, new life flames The Supreme Sunrise.
Jonathan Gallagher 1976

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