Volume 5, Issue 5

Keeping God at the Center of Our Lives

Cover Stories

Keep Choosing God
By Candace Chellew
Keeping God the center of our lives in an ongoing process. It cannot be done once and then forgotten. We have to keep choosing God, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.

Practicing the Presence of the Living God
By Steve Pearson
To live in communion with God every moment of the day is not a practice reserved for the special few whom God calls to live away from the rest of the world, rather, it is an essential component of our call to walk in faith. It is the way in which we bring God back into the world that has rejected him. It is a necessary part of our life in Christ Jesus.

Seeking the Life Hid With Christ in God
By Sonia Balcer
What I am discovering anew is that the foundation for a life in which God is at the center is, in a sense, nothing more or less than quietness. This is conveyed so vividly in the life of Jesus, who repeatedly sought times of solitude in prayer.

By Our Fruits
By John H. Campbell
If I keep love for others in my heart, regardless of what kind of fearful perceptions I may occasionally allow to overtake me, then I will still be one with God. If I spread an attitude of love and kindness and joy, and sow positive thoughts, actions and feelings, then I will reap a harvest of abundant joy through a closer walk with God.

Falling in Love Again
By Rev. Vera I. Bourne
How do we get back to that place of loving again, that place where God is our “first love?”

Calling God Central
By Carol Stabel
I have repeatedly resolved to conquer my fears and know that my refuge is God. However, society’s demands as well as those of jobs, authorities, and even well-meaning and supportive relationships have often competed for the first fruits of my energies, skills, and time. Too often these external factors uproot personal confidence in self, as well as upset a resting hope upon God.

God Is at the Center of Your Life
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
Our standing with God has already been decided from the foundation of the world and there is absolutely nothing we can do to change that fact, save turn our backs on God which, I believe, is impossible for a Christian to do. God is at the center of our lives because He chose us to be His own possession! We didn’t choose God; He chose us!

Keeping God at the Center of Our Lives
By Roger Stratton
It’s tough for anyone, I think, to truly keep God at the center of their lives. When the activities of our lives demand our attention and we drift away from the secure feeling we have when we are close to God, we begin to feel lost, insecure and alone. The everyday problems start to pile up and life is no fun anymore. For me, that’s when I start to look around and ask myself, “why do I feel this way?” because I remember what it felt like to be loved and secure. Then I see it isn’t God who has abandoned me, but I who have abandoned Him.

Stan Struggles to Find a Loving God
By Steve Hopesharer
This is a fictional story based on real life experiences of those I have worked with or read about who are gay and struggling to find peace with a God they can believe loves them. This is Stan’s journey and his thoughts written as if he is speaking to the reader.

How Do We Keep Jesus in the Center of Our Lives?
By Lucas Hawkins
The journey of grace begins the moment a person first receives God’s free gift of grace for salvation, accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ’s blood as the atonement for his sin. Now, along with every other believer, we share the privilege of glorifying God by walking in His grace and radiating that grace to others. This is the reason God created us.

Keeping God as the Center of My Life
By Mary Sue Horan
I would turn my attention back to God and say “Why are you doing this to me?” and God always responds to me the same way: “My precious child, I’ve been here the whole time you’ve taken this path away from me.

Homospirituality

The Joy of Letting Go
By Rembert Truluck
I can still remember my overwhelming sense of relief when I finally decided to let go of trying to prove my salvation and just trust God to be in charge. But it was far from all over.

The Labyrinth: A Journey Into Silence
By Darrell Grizzle
The physical act of walking the Labyrinth, with its curves and twists and turns, becomes an act of meditation, occupying my body and eventually my mind, as I go within my self, to see what noisy distractions I need to leave behind.

Clean on the Inside
By Dave Reid
True faith is spiritual hygiene.

Free at Last
By Wade Lee Richards
Overnight I became the youth “ex-gay” poster child. Speaking nationally at conferences, workshops, youth assemblies, and media outlets. Living blocks away from the gay sub-culture of West Hollywood, the reality of my true change would be tested. After months of struggling with my sexual orientation, I decided I needed to resign from my position with the ministry.

Features

Same-Sex Marriage: Rights and Wrongs
By David Strand
I have come to the conclusion that denial of civil marriage rights to same-sex couples or differently gendered people is an act of violence against the people involved, regardless of whether I believe the relationship is condoned by my faith or in the eyes of God.

New Book Assures Gay Christians That Jesus Makes “No Exceptions!”
By Candace Chellew
Overall, the book is a handy introduction to why it is possible to be GLBT and remain a Christian. The arguments are solid and the writing easy to understand for those just beginning to grapple with this dilemma as well as those already well versed on the issue.

Even the Dogs Beneath the Table
By Edward J. Ingebretsen
The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s most recent action against Robert Nugent, S.D.S and Jeannine Gramick, S.S.N.D. follows a long, protracted siege of their professional ministry — one that was, as well, intentionally destructive of their personal lives. This action should give Catholics pause. But it should not surprise anyone, least of all Catholic homosexual persons.

Letters to the Editor

From the Pulpit

Better Heresy of Doctrine Than Heresy of Heart
By Candace Chellew
Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also. That sounds wonderful, but there’s a warning there, too. Think carefully. What do you treasure? Do you treasure your partner, your job, your house, your car … money? Wherever our treasure is … our hearts will be there. But are we treasuring the right things?

Centered in Stillness
By Rev. Patricia Pearce
One of the fallacies we hold is that doing and being are antithetical to one another, that if we take time to be — to be present to our souls and to our God — we will accomplish less because we won’t have as much time. In truth, just the opposite is the case.

Joy in God’s Law?
By Stephen Harte
God’s law is not something that we have to make people hate themselves. Condemnation for condemnation’s sake has no place in the Gospel. The purpose of the God’s law is to make the world and our lives the best they could be — to make God’s realm real on earth.

Bible Study and Inspiration

Speak Softly and Forget the Stick: A Look at Proverbs 15:1
By Rev. Chancellor Carlyle Roberts, II
Soft, quiet words, gentle tones, have a soothing, calming effect on the person who has exploded in a fury. Grievous words, cutting, wound-inflicting words, insults, cause their target to become angry. It’s as simple as that; but the deep truths of God’s word often are.

Holy Humor

This Explains It All

Church Bulletin Bloopers