Index of Articles

Keep My Memory Green

I'M TRYING TO forget. I'm wishing there was a way to wipe out that part of my brain's hard drive which stores hurtful emotional memories. I don't mind learning from mistakes or analyzing the causes of my pain, but reliving all that pain is excruciating! I don't want to see those sad, mental pictures. They are over, done with, and besides my life now is...well, at least it is not as chaotic. It's a gray day as I stare out my window, watching the blue ice melt in patterns on the window pane.

Word Count:

743

772 min read
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Lessons in Leadership

Remaining faithful to the ancient sources yet not boring us with extra- neous details Robert Graves wrote I, Claudius in 1934 when the cruelty of even the worst emperors was mirrored in Adolph Hitler and by a Nazi barbarism that threatened the boundaries of human decency. As I re-read I, Claudius and its sequel Claudius the God (1940) I was intrigued by the connection between personal poverty and power. Claudius was never poor economically though Graves often refers to him as poor uncle Claudius. His was a patient poverty, humble, humourous and wise. He may have looked like a

Word Count:

440

448 min read
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Letter to a Young Man

This letter addresses a young man's anxiety about life. A recent Christian, he is wondering about the difference between the promise of life in the Spirit and the apparent mundanity of the everyday. First, the first symptom of the spiritual flu involves a sense of boredom. You will recall that the Ephesians in our Revelation studies had a bad bout with this. So much so that they had lost their first love, just as you have lately been lacking your regular enthusiasm. The Desert Fathers and Mothers of the early church, those who roamed around deserts 

Word Count:

869

895 min read
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Listening to Jesus in Luke

As his narrative turns from Jesus' healing & teaching ministry in the countryside of Galilee towards his long trek to Jerusalem in which he teaches his disciples about true discipleship, Luke is reminding his listeners that Jesus is no ordinary prophet. Luke is saying Jesus is not John the fiery preacher. Nor is he Moses the great law-giver or the larger-than-life prophet Elijah. Jesus, as Peter confesses first, is greater than all of these -- the very Messiah of God. He is the radiant Son of Man who has a profound connection to God. There is urgency to Luke's voice

Word Count:

1143

1167 min read
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Little Tim Grows Up A Review of Mr. Timothy

Louis Bayard assists Tim Cratchit in finding his own voice and getting some dignity, as well as revenge, in the recent thriller Mr. Timothy. Fed up with being a product of someone else's pity, idealization or philanthropy, Tim, upon the death of his father Bob, found his way to the gritty side of Victorian life. Living in a whorehouse, paying his rent through reading tutorials with the resident Madam, Tim acquired an autonomous start, out from the velvet grip of the Cratchits and Scrooge.

Word Count:

481

495 min read
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Luke and the Plan of God

Luke is a Gospel of Reassurance. It describesthe suffering of discipleship, that Christ is forming us, that we are called to be witnesses of redemption and forgiveness to the world and that we are called to participate, through listening to the Spirit, in the creation of the Kingdom. On Wednesday we began our look at the book of Luke, our focus for 2007. Luke is the best book for learning about discipleship and learning how to live in community. There are a number of different sources that will inform our study including commentaries from Darrell L. Bock (The NIV Application

Word Count:

1071

1129 min read
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Marriage and Mary Shelley

I WAS SITTING in Merk's restaurant out on Pembina Highway with Bev in 1990 when I solemnly swore that if I were to do it again, I definitely would not want to be married. At the time I k that marriage left a very sour taste in my mouth. It wasn't only that I hadn't taken care of my marriage of seventeen years well enough to make it worthwhile, it was the whole idea of being married that irked me. I joked about marriage being a socio-economic relationship which was merely functional to get a mortgage

Word Count:

2262

2220 min read
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Matthew - A Good Story

Bev: So the literary device of Matthew - and this is really really summary stuff - we are let in on the story through direct speaking and being told about the characters. So we get to know the characters based on their traits and ultimately the story is woven through this telling of traits, i.e. Jesus' traits are described as obedient toward God and compassionate towards crowds. Jack Kingsbury talks about that there's round characters which is Jesus and the disciples. And what he means by that is that these characters have a variety of traits and sometimes they're conflictual.

Word Count:

823

825 min read
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Monsters at the Margin

VIRTUE IS FOUND at the margins of society more often than at its centre. If this is so, Mary Shelley's Monster is a real find! Her creature is an isolate of great sensitivity, kindness, and insight. Contrary to James Whale's 1931 film of the Creature as a lumbering dolt, Mary Shelley's Monster was modeled on Rousseau's notion of humanity as the "noble savage." The nobility of the Creature is evident as he unveils his chronicle to Victor Frankenstein upon the icy crags of Mount Blanc. Meet Frankenstein's Creature

Word Count:

3041

3116 min read
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Mount Merton

fair-haired whelp of the Alps fragile
depth charge dodger
brought to himself.

Through motherlessness
black virgin Alabama
to Madonna girl, child of the drama.Through fatherfulness
securing nothing, liberation from France,
leads you in a desperate cheek to cheek dance.Through dissipation's fatigueyou're brought to God
lost layers of loneliness long to be heard.

Word Count:

153

173 min read
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