Remember, Saul, who later changed his name to Paul to indicate his changed life, persecuted the followers of Jesus. Something that gets glossed over all the time is that he did so under the watchful eye of the religious institution. Even more, the religious leaders wrote a letter of authority so that Saul could go to other countries to persecute believers.

Saul even authorized, on at least one occasion, the murder of a believer (Stephen). Stephen’s crime was, well, that he didn’t believe the right thing. Stephen was not convicted of a criminal offense, a social abuse or failure to live up to his potential. The only “crime” Saul accused him of was believing in Jesus Christ as Saviour. Read more…

It doesn’t matter how many times I read it, or in how many places in the Bible (and there are a lot), I am flabbergasted at the reaction of the religious elite to Good News. Here’s another case in point: Read more…

Living a spiritual life challenges you every day, every moment of everyday. On the one hand it’s very exciting, but on the other, it means stop being so human and start being perfect. What? Read more…

Jesus makes light the burdens of trouble. Put your shoulder to the plow Jesus offers and get so much help it feels like you don’t have a yoke on at all. “Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Place my yoke over your shoulders, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble. Then you will find rest for yourselves because my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30 God’s Word). Read more…

Religious people don’t read and study the Bible much. They do talk a lot about how to interpret it, though. They even talk about “how this applies to our life today” as though they needed to bring life to a dead carcass of outdated ramblings.

The spiritual person reacts like this Read more…