In this blog I’m going to write about one of those pesky verses in the gospels that we all know is there yet it’s often easier to pretend it isn’t, Matthew 16:24: “Then Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take […]
The second instalment of this New Earth 101 series is about the need to be uncompromising. We all struggle with change. At the same time, we often want change or at least recognise the need for it. Things have become stale. Or a situation that we have long tolerated becomes intolerable. We know we must […]
For this nineteenth tool in the New Earth series I’d like to discuss a tool whose power I have only recently come to recognise: compassion. That itself seems weird, because I consider it to be one of the four key values of Jesus: non-judgment, forgiveness, compassion, and unconditional love. Although the word doesn’t appear in the Bible […]
The structure of the Bible bears a specific resemblance to a blockbuster Hollywood film. Blockbusters start by presenting us with a problem to be solved. They introduce a hero or heroes, and at the end of the film we discover if or how the problem is solved. The Bible varies from conventional Hollywood film structure […]
There are many references to love in the Bible. A drop-down list on Bible Gateway of the various kinds of love references ‘love is patient’, ‘love your enemies’, and ‘love God’. Yet there is not a single reference to self-love. The most extraordinary declaration of love in the Bible is in John 3:16. “God loved the […]
The Old Testament is an incredibly accurate emotional account of its time. In it, I see the eternal brilliance of God shining through very temporal commands. Paul understood their transient nature: “[The Law] was only supposed to last until the coming of that descendant who was given the promise.” (Galatians 3:19) Then came Jesus: “The kingdom […]
We are normally taught that grace is something we only receive through a winning ticket in the lottery of divine dispensation. That it is unrelated to who we are or what we do. If we get lucky, we come up smelling of roses. If we don’t, we prick our thumbs on the thorns of life […]
In the first part of this series I described how breathing is the safety blanket of the inherently unstable evolutionary process. The second part covered intent, the rocket fuel of conscious evolution. But where is this rocket going? Neutrality is the compass that guides your journey to the New Earth. In John 16:33, Jesus tells […]
Breathe. No, not like that. That isn’t breathing. That’s just the autonomous nervous system ticking over in low gear while you’re stuck in the traffic jam of life. BREATHE. Breathe in for a count of 3. Hold for a count of 4. Release for a count of 5. Rinse and repeat. That’s more like it… […]
In Part II of ROCI21, Famine, I’ve written how the traumatization of the feminine that followed from desertification and famine gave rise to shame: “Shame stems from unconsciously judging our emotions, bodies and sexuality as socially unacceptable.” That which was socially unacceptable came to be seen as sinful. This in time led to generational sin. […]