As a child, I was resistant to the idea that what we consume with our senses — those things to which we expose ourselves — truly impact who we are. What we hear and see, in particular, can have profound effects on our minds and hearts. That’s an assertion I’m making for this post; I don’t intend to argue it here.
If you’re thinking this is going to be a post about purity of any kind, please put that aside. While I do want to tie this in with Christianity, this isn’t about abstaining from immoral images or removing ourselves…
Breath prayers are a form of meditative prayer that follow the rhythm of your breathing. They can be good for ground yourself if you’re anxious or overwhelmed, or they can be good for practices of stillness. Breath prayers can be great for children, as well, because they combine a practice of stillness and mindfulness with simple prayers that can be easy to learn.
This is part of the Prayer series where I describe various ways of praying in the hopes that you can find something (or multiple somethings) to help diversify and/or enhance your prayer life.
The Basics of Breath Prayers
Breath prayers can be…
Dangerous words are words that cause harm either to the speaker or to the listener. That harm can be intentional or unintentional and may manifest in different ways. The purpose of this series is to help us think about the language we use and how it might be supporting systems or structures that are harmful. Today, our dangerous word is “just.”
This isn’t “just” as in something being fair, usually in a legal sense (justice). This is “just” in the sense of something being “merely.” This is the kind of just that limits what something is. For example: “I’m sick…
There are many ways to approach this question, and since many people (myself included) like nice, neat categories, let’s examine some of these approaches separately: Jesus in history, Jesus in Christianity, and the name Jesus.
Who Is Jesus Historically?
Jesus was a Jewish man born in the first century CE. He was Jewish by both ancestry and religious affiliation. If you’re from a Western country, you might be most familiar with European-looking depictions of Jesus (like in this post’s featured image). Those are inaccurate, of course, and there are a lot of mixed feelings among Christians and non-Christians alike concerning those images, but European-looking…
Romans 13:8–10 is a powerful passage where Paul states that all of the law is wrapped up in loving our neighbors as ourselves; love is the fulfillment of the law.
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. …
Christianity is a religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus, who is called the Christ by his followers. You’ll probably see his name most often written as “Jesus Christ” or “Christ Jesus”.
Christ is a title from ancient Greek; in Hebrew, the title is Messiah. These are essentially the same thing, although Christ is where the terms Christian and Christianity come from.
What Is a Christian?
A Christian is someone who believes that Jesus is the Christ/Messiah and chooses to follow in the Way that Jesus shows us through his life and teachings. …
Safe spaces are digital or physical “locations” where a person doesn’t feel ashamed of who they are or feel afraid to be themselves. I believe that part of combating shame and fear is empowering people to add their voices to whatever conversations are happening in that space, so you could also say that safe spaces are digital or physical “locations” where people are empowered. Let’s unpack some of that.
What Is Shame?
Shame is the feeling that we are unworthy in some way. It’s a feeling that speaks to our very identity as a human being, and that’s what makes it so dangerous…
Scripture has a lot to say about joy and happiness. The words that sometimes get translated as “blessed,” for example, are used also to mean “happy,” and some of the gospels talk about the joy of receiving the Kingdom, such as in Matthew, where joy characterizes the reception of the Gospel in several parables. In Mark, however, the author doesn’t emphasize happiness. Mark’s gospel is quite somber.
Joy and Happiness in Mark
Joy and happiness in the gospel of Mark are not at all like they are in the gospel of Matthew. There are no forms of the words glad, rejoice, or happy in either…
Just about everyone who has heard about Christianity and Jesus, whether or not they’re Christians, has heard about Jesus casting out demons or healing the demon-possessed. In fact, demons in general are one of the most popular themes from Christianity. This is probably due in part to the fact that scripture doesn’t say much about them.
Like with the heavenly messengers and other creatures described in visions throughout scripture, there’s a lot of room for imagination when it comes to demons. …
In Mark 14:32–42, we find Jesus in Gethsemane with some of his disciples. He takes a few (Peter, James, and John) a little way off from the rest and asks them to stay awake with him. Here is what it says:
32 They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. 34 And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” 35 And going a little…
