It is not a simple process because before one can cross, unknown dangers may have to be faced and terrifying battles fought. This is what Jacob discovered. To cross over into Canaan was not just a matter of crossing a stream, because in the darkness a strange and mysterious presence arises. Ancient tales had it that rivers had spirits which had to be defeated before the river could be crossed.

How long can we wait? As Christians, we read this and are still looking for God’s action. Even the coming of Jesus didn’t slow down the wickedness we see all around us. And, often times, this wickedness pervades our lives and slows us down. How long, O God?

I have discovered as I grow older in Christ Jesus and wiser in all things spiritual, that one of the best possessions any person can have is a clear conscience. You feel good. I mean, you really feel good. You can let folks say about you whatever they will and it is of little consequence.

“Faith is an openness and trusting attitude to truth and reality, whatever it may turn out to be. This is a risky and adventurous state of mind. Belief in the religious sense, is the opposite of faith - because it is a fervent wishing or hope, a compulsive clinging to the idea that the universe is arranged and governed in such and such a way. Belief is holding to a rock; faith is learning how to swim - and this whole universe swims in boundless space.” - Alan Watts

It was in the middle of the night and the boat was being tossed in the wind. The crew was stressed...

Rabbi Kushner could not comprehend how a loving, supposedly merciful and compassionate and just God, could allow such a tragedy to befall him and his loved ones. After all, he considered himself a God-fearing, obedient man who was living a more religiously committed life than most people. So how could a God of justice permit so great an injustice?

All of us have had failures and we have all walked down that lonely fairway of life not knowing if we would win or lose. But what brought Phil Michelson to that moment in time was not the many tournaments that he won in the past, but those that eluded him. Phil could have chosen this weekend to just say here I go again, and dwell on what could have been, yet he didn’t, “today is my day” he thought.

Although your creative ability and talent is something that God has given TO you, it’s primary purpose is not meant FOR YOU only. God’s purpose for your gift is to be a benefit or solution for someone else who needs it.

Even as I started dating a Chinese girl, I knew I was embarking on a remarkable adventure. I just had no idea where and how far the adventure would take me. The more events unfolded, the more I realized that my view of the world and how I lived in it were being profoundly and permanently altered... If the problem with marrying a gentile was that my religion prohibited intermarriage, why should that bother me? Perhaps not everything in Judaism made sense, and as an intelligent and thinking individual I could take from my heritage what I felt was meaningful and disregard the rest...

What is your prayer of faith missing? Have you lost any blessings from god lately? Are your blessings from God void of your hearts desire?

This is an inspirational article about trusting where God leads you and having the faith that He will provide what you need to accomplish the task.

Do we really think we can just ask God for some great position in life with out any preparation? Not hardly. Psalm 107 tells us that God sometimes brings storms into our lives to accomplish a purpose in us. And that purpose, I believe, is to prepare us for greater things.

The inescapable fact of the matter is that by ourselves, we cannot do what is right. We just do not make the grade. Knowing the rules whether they are golden or silver, do not make us able to obey them. We keep on falling into a trap called sin.

We diminish the integrity of our prayers when we foolishly attempt to use God as a means of straightening out the mess we, ourselves, have created. Getting yourself in debt and begging God to get you out from under is not praying. Mumbling words to Him when your back is against the wall is not praying.

I said something last week I haven't said in years. Where it came from, I really don't know. It's funny, you're tooling along minding your own business for weeks, maybe months at a time, and then something you haven't thought about for years pops into your noodle.

The cost of freedom is not free! A reminder on this Memorial Day weekend of the cost.

After returning from a camping vacation, hopefully we will feel refreshed, we will have a better appreciation for our modern conveniences, we will have made some good memories, we will have strengthened relationships, and we will have brought our life a little more into balance.

How are you building it? Is it making you happy?

A brief exploration of our relationship to the present moment, and how our conditioned or habitual resistance to 'what is' causes suffering.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. --GALATIANS 3:27, RSV I was thanking the Father today for His mercy. I began listing the sins He’d forgiven. My motives were pure and my heart was thankful, but my understanding of God was wrong. It hit me when I used the word remember.

Understanding humanity's relationship in time and space is crucial in understanding his relationship to that which created him. This awareness leads us to enlightenment and the knowingness that we are part of a process and not separate from it. We are one with all that is, and the process cannot work without us.

Whren it comes to the relaxing properties of a massage, many of us cannot afford the regular high cost of visiting a salon or the services of a personal massage therapist. If this is the situation you face there may be a solution: the HoMedics Massager line.

Stress and strain robbing you of rebound? Here's how to bounce back and start to flow again.