Contemplating Life

  The nice thing about house cleaning (yes, there is something positive about it) is that it gives my brain free license to run its rabbit trails. This morning I have been pondering “conflict among Christians” as I clean. (You’ve probably figured out by now that I seldom ponder easy things. ;) ). Conflict arises among Christians far more that it should, and I think it is because we have a tendency to allow our emotions to take over without effectively communicating first. We feel slighted by someone’s words and/or actions and, without giving that person an opportunity to clarify or even apologize, we run ahead with our emotions. A mole hill soon becomes a mountain, and sometimes, sadly, that mountain is a gossip mountain. Some people really are mean. There are bullies and control freaks and abusers even within the church, and those problems need to be handled differently than what I am sharing here. What I am referring to is that sometimes I think a majority of issues that arise betw

  As I was lying in bed, unable to sleep, the word “repetition” began to play through my thinking this morning. A little back story here: In Ephesians 6:10-12 scripture tells us “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty Power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” Scripture is clear that our enemy is not each other, even when it feels like. We are in fact fighting against evil entities that are set on our destruction and the destruction of the Kingdom. H owever, I do acknowledge that deception allows these evil powers to sometimes use people in their evil activities. Satan has a whole lot of tools in his slimy arsenal that he uses to capture and deceive the minds of people, and this morning I was