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Pearls Before Pigs?
I once had someone invite me to confess all my sins to them to “clear my heart” or something like that. Except I knew that wasn’t really what they were offering—rather, this person was looking for ammo against me should it ever prove useful. Though I often try to be vulnerable with people, I said…
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Cartoons VS Anxiety
I couldn’t sleep easily when I was younger. Instead of getting rest, I would stay up and think of all the things I had done wrong in life, repenting of new and old sins alike. In that way, I had a religion similar to that of an early Martin Luther, who was so addicted to…
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Guard Your Eyeball Lightbeams
Up until the 1500s, it was thought that eyes actually emitted or projected something like light or energy. This energy wasn’t as extravagant as an X-Men superpower, but ancient people certainly believed there was a power of sorts in the eyes. Indeed, they believed that you could basically curse someone by casting an “Evil Eye”…
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In Jackson as it is in Heaven
“In Jackson as it is in Heaven.” That’s the mission statement of our church, and it comes straight out of the short prayer Jesus himself taught us to pray. The Kingdom of Heaven was Jesus’ favorite theme to preach on, but he rarely spoke on it in the way that we think. For him, it…
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Fraud Spirituality
The first time I fasted was a total waste. I made a deal out of it everywhere I went. I went out for pizza with some friends and stared at it longingly and said, “I wish I could I could eat that but… I’m fasting.” I went to church and emitted hunger groans. “Oh how…
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An Ethic of Cruciform Love
Martin Luther King Jr. was out for more than winning an argument—he was out for winning people. That is to say that winning a debate and proving people wrong (as necessary as that was) wasn’t at the heart of his movement—converting angry white racists into black advocates through pacifistic enemy love was the highest goal…
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Better Off Blind
I think the first time I really saw pornography was on a fuzzy TV channel that would occasionally straighten out into something visually comprehensible. When the image finally broke through, it felt like I was hit by a powerful force. It was like every good and bad emotion in existence were all lit up inside…
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The Root of Murder
Pastor and theologian Jack Deere spent the week in group therapy with others who all had a similar story: abusive mothers, passive fathers, and traumatic childhoods. Jack followed the therapist’s instructions, bringing his mother into his imagination for a conversation. He soon found himself screaming in front of the group. Then he did the same…
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You Are Dead to Law… But Only Kind Of
The Old Testament law has a strange place in Christian tradition. On one hand, we know we’re dead to it and alive in the Spirit. But on the other hand, we know that as Christians we can’t just do whatever the “hell” we want—that’d be a blasphemous nonsense. So what then? Is being dead to…
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No Works, No Light
It weirded me out the first time I realized it. I was familiar with the concept of Jesus being “the light of the world,” but I was less familiar with the Bible passage that identified Christians as “the light of the world.” But sure enough, there it was, staring me in the face the whole…
Jamin Bradley 