-
How to Be Spiritually Minded
To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 When I read this verse in my daily devotional time, the words spiritually minded popped out at me. I instinctively knew what it meant to carnally minded since I have so much practice at it. But I couldn’t pin down what it meant to be spiritually minded nearly as easily. One of my goals in my blog is to make spiritual concepts more concrete. I do this not for my readers but for myself. How easy it is to sound high minded and cerebral without saying anything coherent, particularly when it comes to…
-
How to Move Mountains
I live in full sight of Highland Mountain. Just one of the many in the Chugach range, it sits at 3360 feet according to the internet. While not a particularly tall as mountains go, nevertheless the Alaskan sun can barely peek over it in winter. To me, it looks primitive and wild, like the old black and white pictures of Alaska that I used to look at as a child. Squat and rugged, Highland Mountain, as minor as it is in the realm of mountains, seems immovable to me. And yet it has been moved several thousand times in the last couple of months. Each aftershock shimmies up the mountain,…
-
Jesus and Oxytocin: How to Bond with God
Oxytocin is the love molecule, the chemical behind social and familial bonding. It reduces stress and increases our happiness quotient. Interestingly, it has also been called the moral molecule because our oxytocin levels increase when we treat others well. And as it happens, oxytocin can be very helpful in developing a close relationship with Jesus. So many of the activities that scientists recommend for increasing oxytocin levels correspond directly to many worship practices, both individual and corporate. And our imagination can go a long way towards helping us develop an emotionally intimate relationship with Jesus as well. In fact, regular prayer and interaction with fellow believers can add significantly to…
Healing Through Art & Words
