Teach Me Oh Lord, To Love Like You

One of the things that is disappointing about Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, is it is so big, and unwieldy. I find myself getting swallowed up inside of it, and lost in the corners of the big machine. I'm not in a group, and although I have gone to 2 Thanksgiving dinners, and 8 men's meetings, it just seems like i'm still a passer by. What i'm looking for is COMMUNITY. I'm looking for a Church that follows Christ, apologetically, and to the letter, and lives vibrant Christian lives, defining Christianity in a very Biblically inspired, and positive way. Maybe if i get more involved in Calvary Chapel, I can find this. I was really inspired to purchase LOGOS 5 from Calvary Chapel, and their school looks like a great place to send kids, if i ever have any . . . but for me, for now, I think I'm going to check out Rock Harbor Costa Mesa and see if they walk the walk they talk. If memory serves me correctly, the couple that I had a wonderful religious and biblical c...

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." - Verbal Kint (The Usual Suspects 1995) One of the things I find hard about "debating" with Atheists is that they generally will use anononimity when talking points about the evils of society come up. Any "bad man" or "bad deed" committed by an atheist goes without judgement, while they seemingly stand as judge, jury, & executioner of God, Jesus, and anyone who doesn't bend to their school of thought, which they unceremoniously call "SCIENCE". Honestly, It's like arguing with a two year old. MINE. MINE. You just have to sit em in the corner and let time deal with this one. Interestingly enough, politics of some situations renders this nearly impossible. And they all feel they have THE RIGHT to trump card your belief system because they don't believe in angels, or anything bigger than they are. When you get right to i...

i had a kind of realization today that God works through people. And rather than having monocultures, or having people all act the same, all grasping onto the same way of doing things, the Almighty is at work through many different ways in everyone's life. We have to come to terms with His love in our own time, and in our own way, but there were 12 tribes for a reason, and each disciple was very different in his and her personality, persona and each had a different relationship with Jesus. i think today i realized that we aren't going to fully understand the interconnectivity of it all, until ultimately we get it explained to us in heaven. What can i do with this information? And how much of an epiphany is this anyway. Well, it gives me the power to forgive with an incredible amount of energy because i don't need to figure out what the other person is working on or how God is working within their life. I just need to make sure that I am working with God in my life. I n...

Some good points on redefining marriage. I saw everyone changing their FB picture to the red equal symbol, and so I decided to change mine to the "not congruent" symbol. I used white text in a slate black field.  http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2013/pdf/bg2775.pdf

Trying to Communicate With the Passive Aggressive Parents As They Duck, Weave, Lie, & Smiley face Me into Submission March 24, 2013,   0  Comments   Edit post M&D:  On Mar 19, 2013, at 10:08 PM Hello Stephen, Hope all is well with you!  We-Stephen, Mom, and Dad all agree that we want a relationship with each other. We also agree that a relationship must be built on mutual respect and tolerance. On the road to reconciliation we need to agree on a framework of communication.  We feel it is important to come to an agreement on how this process should work.  We realize this may take time but sure and steady leads to a better long lasting relationship. Here are some expectancies: Use Kind words  (no cussing, no name calling) Be respectful to each other (No patronizing, sarcasm) Constructive Conversation (no blaming, or finger pointing) Social media is off limits ( facebook, twitter, etc.) Do not involve or put at ...

Here are some authors i really like that i've recently read & the books they've written which i think are their best  - I've broken these up into two distinct categories & two Subcategories. First i separated by gender. Then i subcategorized by Fiction & Non-Fiction Here are some of my favorite male authors: Fiction Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere Chuck Palahniuk - Choke George R. R. Martin - A Song of Fire & Ice Series Joe Hill - Horns Stephen King - The Stand David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest Robert A. Heinlein - Friday ; Starship Troopers C.S. Lewis - Screwtape Letters ; Chronicles of Narnia Mark Twain - (anything really) Huckleberry Finn Joseph Heller - Catch 22 ; Ahab's Wife Non Fiction Chuck Klosterman - Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto  Augusten Burroughs - A Wolf At The Table  MIchael Lewis - The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine ; Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World...

I think it’s time to set the record straight on a number of issues, almost all of them poorly constructed arguments from a poverty of knowledge and lack of research. In other words, putting aside the scientific method to elevate science, or rather atheism. Science and atheism are after all bedfellows, are they not? Well, in the view of the majority of atheists on this site it would certainly seem to be the case. I’m going to quote some pretty eminent fellows here, fellows you should be familiar with; you quote them frequently enough. “Religion raises the stakes of human conflict much higher than tribalism, racism, or politics ever can...  Consequently, faith inspires violence in at least two ways. First, people often kill other human beings because they believe that the creator of the universe wants them to do it.”  - Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation , page 80 “Without religion there would be no labels by which to decide whom to oppress and whom to avenge.... ...