Telling the Truth
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How the Bible Reads You When You Read It
The Bible is intertextual. In literary theory, the term intertextuality refers to the interrelationship between texts, especially works of literature; the way that similar or related texts influence, reflect, or differ from each other. And just as many works of literature reference the Bible, whether knowingly or unknowingly, we, too, are texts that interact with every book that we read. Think of it this way. I am a collection of experiences, memories, and acquired knowledge. I have a library in my mind. As I read any work, I access this library of the mind and interact with whatever I am reading. In a sense, everything I read is now understood in a whole new way. I create a new book that no one has ever read before, at least not…
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How to Tell the Truth in Love (Even to Yourself)
For someone who believes that Jesus is the Truth, I have sure spent a lot of my life trying to save people from the truth. Even from my childhood, I have tried to protect others from what I thought would hurt them, namely the truth about how I felt or the truth of their situations. I have a Ph.D. in tiptoeing around uncomfortable issues and if I am honest with myself, it wasn’t just to protect them, but myself from the horrors of personal conflict. Numerous reasons exist as to why I have struggled with this particular issue. Firstly, I am sensitive. You know the empath on Star Trek? The…
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Four Uncomfortable Truths about Peace
Peace is an essential component of a fulfilling life. Constant conflict spends our energies, wastes our strength, and distracts us from the really good things in life. But we often settle for an imitation of peace rather than the real thing. I often settled for a harmony that was not real because instinctively I knew that real peace would require me to make some real sacrifices. In fact, I have faced quite a few situations in which a genuine accord seemed impossible so I accepted something far less in order to avoid a reality that I did not want to admit to. The real deception, of course, was that I…