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It is obvious to me that there is a work of the Holy
Spirit that is drawing some (but not all) committed Christians away
from the churches that they may have attended for many
years.
I have tried to describe in "What
is Church?" how I got started on this journey
outside the four walls.
I had already been faced with a dramatic
reappraisal of my own Christian beliefs. In "What is Theology and how much do we need?"
I ask the questions, "Who do we listen to?" and
"Who is our teacher?".
In "The Story of Life - possible
scenarios" I question what we mean by sin
and I also suggest that maybe God knew that mankind would fail - and eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
How can we reconcile the concept of eternal suffering
in hell with a God of mercy and love?
This was an important question for me. One of the best
articles I have read on the subject is "The
Battle over Hell".
What is the difference between the Christian faith
and the Christian religion? Some committed
followers are reluctant to use the word 'Christian' - does
this make sense? Over the centuries we have seen the rise and
fall of secular and religious empires. Are we seeing the
beginning of the end of Christendom (the Christian religion
- as opposed to the Christian faith) in a similar way
that we are seeing the continuing decline of the British
Empire some sixty years on?
Have we lost sight of what the Bible says?
Maybe we need to give more thought to the
priesthood of all believers. If anyone wants to
consider the place of leadership, the story of Dorothy
seems to be a good starting point.
Hearing God's
Voice - this for me is something very special. I
have included considerable extracts of a discussion that began
in May 2007 while Paul (the author of "The Shack")
still had time to engage with those on the forum.
I developed a particular interest in the
concept of Safe
Havens several years ago - maybe now is the time for
some of my thoughts to be put to good use. I developed a
series of 'mind maps' that reflect some of the questions that
I considered. Maybe they will be of some help to those
who are new to the journey and are still struggling with some
of the baggage of religion.
The heading
of the first mind map is:
An opportunity to explore the meaning and significance of
the Christian faith by sharing our individual JOURNEYS of LIFE
within SAFE HAVENS concentrating not on
what we believe, but how what we believe affects our
understanding of the purpose of life
This might be the place to consider the significance of the
"Stages of Faith"
Some additional articles that appear on the
site:
It is said that there is a book inside each of us.
Instead of writing a book I have developed a web site and now
a couple of blogs. I realise that the site contains a
number of controversial thoughts and ideas and an almost
endless number of questions, but I have been on a challenging
journey for some 50 years now - and for the last 19 years I
have not had a full time job, and that has led, quite
unintentionally to something of a hermit-like existence -
partly perhaps as a result of living with Aspergers Syndrome
all my life (an exciting self diagnosis that occurred last
year that probably explains some of my idiosyncrasies).
On my blog I have suggested that the meaning of sin might
be better described as a lack of love or missing the mark of what Father
wants us to be. This raises many questions. What
is Sin? How should we define evil? What
is the real meaning of the story of the two trees in
Genesis? What can we learn from a study of the Lord's
Prayer? These are some of the topics I would love to
be able to explore in "The
Room of Grace"
Nobody has all the answers. We are all on unique
journeys - seeing different parts of the overall picture -
peeling away different layers of the onion - but still
influenced by some of the baggage of religion!
If you would like to share your thoughts please feel free.
Site updated May 2009
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