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What Does It Mean To Be “Saved” Pt 5
By Steve on August 18, 2015
Salvation for Christians in the West has tended to imitate our culture; meaning it has become a very personal thing. Jesus somehow became a personal Lord and a personal Savior. Of course Christ has many titles and names ascribed…
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Mark Driscoll’s Open Letter Apology: Has the Mars Hill Pastor Finally Heard the Singing of the Whos Down in Whoville?
By Steve on March 18, 2014
I was a Mark Driscoll fan…and then I wasn’t! Back in 2007 I didn’t know much about Driscoll other than he was that “swearing” pastor Donald Miller mentions in Blue Like Jazz. Then a friend suggested…
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Mick Mooney’s “Snap” Reveals A Pastor’s Breaking Point
By Steve on November 12, 2013
Ok, full confession. As a Christian of nearly 40 years who has been a missionary, an elder, an Associate Pastor, and a Senior Pastor I was very familiar with every main character in Mick Mooney’s…
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Living Inside the City: It’s Not So Much About Heaven or Hell!
By Steve on September 6, 2013
In Revelation 21 & 22 there is a fantastic description of a “new Heaven”, a “new Earth” and even a “new Jerusalem”. The New Jerusalem is implied to be the physical manifestation of the church,…
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My Top 10 Changes Coming to Christianity
By Steve on May 7, 2013
Was reading Relevant Magazine this week and they were doing a number of “Top 10” lists on different aspects of church, faith, and leaders. It got me thinking along the lines of Christianity and what changes…
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Seeing (And Not Seeing) The Kingdom of God
By Steve on January 30, 2013
Readers of Beyond the Pale know I love Disneyland. I even like to joke that God, knowing I was going to be moving back to Hong Kong, had Hong Kong Disneyland built just for me….
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What Does It Mean To Be Saved? Part 4
By Steve on January 23, 2013
When we say “Jesus Saves” what do we think of? God’s mercy? Love? Forgiveness? Unfortunately in the West the term has become a bit cliche and sadly often invokes images of wild eyed preachers on…
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Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson: A Clip on Forgiveness
By Steve on January 17, 2013
Hi all, I decided to take a small detour from the “salvation” series when I saw this clip below sent from a friend on Facebook. About 3 years ago I wrote a post about Mel…
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What Does It Mean To Be Saved? Part 3
By Steve on January 16, 2013
The Thief on the Cross In part 3 of this series on salvation I want to take a look at the interaction between Jesus and the thief that was crucified along side of him. One…
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James Dobson, Fear, & The Shooting in Connecticut
By Steve on December 27, 2012
About 10 years ago a Christian friend gave me a CD with a teaching by James Dobson on it. Dobson at the time was rallying Christians to support a judge who refused to remove a…