Homily: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Sunday 2024.docxJames Knipper
Countless volumes have been written trying to explain the mystery of three persons in one true God, leaving us to resort to metaphors such as the three-leaf clover to try to comprehend the Divinity. Many of us grew up with the quintessential pyramidal Trinity structure of God at the top and Son and Spirit in opposite corners. But what if we looked at this ‘mystery’ from a different perspective? What if we shifted our language of God as a being towards the concept of God as love? What if we focused more on the relationship within the Trinity versus the persons of the Trinity? What if stopped looking at God as a noun…and instead considered God as a verb? Check it out…
Homily: Second Sunday in Lent, Cycle B, 2024James Knipper
This weekend we heard the famous biblical story of Abraham and his son Isaac, and the angel who stopped Abraham at the last minute from sacrificing his son as God had ordered. While this passage demonstrates Abraham’s unbelievable faith in God – it is a story whose ending is often missed. An ending which turns this story upside down and changes how that culture – and we – need to see God so differently. What is this surprise twist? And how does it impact our spiritual journey? Check it out…
Homily: The Feast of the Epiphany for 2024James Knipper
For the past 12 days we have heard the stories of the birth of Jesus Christ as God incarnate indeed good news of great joy all people. So, on this Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord we celebrate Jesus revealed as the Christ Child to the magi, who arrive by the light of the star. Every year we listen to this well-known Gospel story of the journey of the magi who pay homage to the Christ Child. But today I invite you to just focus on two lines that appear in the Gospel. What are they? Check it out because…as you will you see, any interaction with this Jesus the Christ, no matter where or how it happens, will change your own journey.
Homily: Feast of the Holy Family 2023 - Cycle BJames Knipper
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family…and tomorrow the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And I like the fact that this Feast comes hours before the Solemnity for it allows us to really look at how this God incarnate, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary…this Christ Child…this God who came into the world in a family that had its heart and its doors open to love – connects to our daily life and our families. It was Pope Francis who reminded us that, “The family is important, as it is necessary for the survival of humanity. Without the family, the cultural survival of the human race would be at risk. The family. Whether we like it or not, is the foundation.”
In a society where all too often we can easily fall prey to the notion of separating the secular and the sacred, and we close our eyes to what is sacramental, what does it take to build that foundation?
Check it out…
Homily: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Sunday 2024.docxJames Knipper
Countless volumes have been written trying to explain the mystery of three persons in one true God, leaving us to resort to metaphors such as the three-leaf clover to try to comprehend the Divinity. Many of us grew up with the quintessential pyramidal Trinity structure of God at the top and Son and Spirit in opposite corners. But what if we looked at this ‘mystery’ from a different perspective? What if we shifted our language of God as a being towards the concept of God as love? What if we focused more on the relationship within the Trinity versus the persons of the Trinity? What if stopped looking at God as a noun…and instead considered God as a verb? Check it out…
Homily: Second Sunday in Lent, Cycle B, 2024James Knipper
This weekend we heard the famous biblical story of Abraham and his son Isaac, and the angel who stopped Abraham at the last minute from sacrificing his son as God had ordered. While this passage demonstrates Abraham’s unbelievable faith in God – it is a story whose ending is often missed. An ending which turns this story upside down and changes how that culture – and we – need to see God so differently. What is this surprise twist? And how does it impact our spiritual journey? Check it out…
Homily: The Feast of the Epiphany for 2024James Knipper
For the past 12 days we have heard the stories of the birth of Jesus Christ as God incarnate indeed good news of great joy all people. So, on this Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord we celebrate Jesus revealed as the Christ Child to the magi, who arrive by the light of the star. Every year we listen to this well-known Gospel story of the journey of the magi who pay homage to the Christ Child. But today I invite you to just focus on two lines that appear in the Gospel. What are they? Check it out because…as you will you see, any interaction with this Jesus the Christ, no matter where or how it happens, will change your own journey.
Homily: Feast of the Holy Family 2023 - Cycle BJames Knipper
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family…and tomorrow the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And I like the fact that this Feast comes hours before the Solemnity for it allows us to really look at how this God incarnate, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary…this Christ Child…this God who came into the world in a family that had its heart and its doors open to love – connects to our daily life and our families. It was Pope Francis who reminded us that, “The family is important, as it is necessary for the survival of humanity. Without the family, the cultural survival of the human race would be at risk. The family. Whether we like it or not, is the foundation.”
In a society where all too often we can easily fall prey to the notion of separating the secular and the sacred, and we close our eyes to what is sacramental, what does it take to build that foundation?
Check it out…
With the calendar only providing us 3 full weeks of Advent, how have you been spending your time? What, perhaps have you been seeing…or feeling or doing differently? For Advent calls us to be conscious, awake, alert. Advent calls us to be open to how Christ comes to us every day. Advent calls for our participation by opening our eyes to our own brokenness and that of humanity. For Christ is there…just waiting and wanting our active participation. This week’s Gospel provides us three points which may lead us to a better understanding of what we are called to do moving from this briefest 4th week of Advent into Christmas and the New Year. What are they? Check it out….
Homily: 2nd Sunday of Advent, Cycle B, 2023James Knipper
As we each walk through this season of Advent, we may just find ourselves in some form of wilderness, thirsting for peace, reconciliation and healing – and thus it’s a time we need to be alert, awake, watchful and vigilant to God’s presence. So, perhaps we take the lead from Isaiah where we spend time seeking how we can better “Prepare the way of the Lord”…of how we can look at the valleys, at the crookedness, and the rough places not just in the outside world, but also in our own hearts. What does that look like? Check it out…
Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe: to some degree I think the title of today’s feast day could miss the mark of its original purpose and design. For did you ever notice, nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus say to worship him, much less as a king – he simply said to follow him and to do as he does. The best description of all of this, across all the Gospels, appears in today’s reading of Matthew’s recording of Jesus’ last discourse which indicates kinship seems to be more important that kingship. What does that look like? Check it out…
Homily: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time A 2023.docxJames Knipper
Biblical scholars tell us that this Parable of the Ten Virgins was likely cobbled together from a few sources meant to drive home the message of always being prepared – a Gospel theme we will hear often between now and Christmas. But was does that mean to you and me? What does being prepared look like? And tapping into one of today’s Gospel metaphors, what is the oil that we need to be placing in our lamps? Check it out…
Homily: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time A 2023.docxJames Knipper
For the past few weeks, we have been listening to Jesus telling parables to the Chief Priests and Pharisees. For Jesus is attempting to get their attention to think differently, choose differently and to open their eyes to his teachings of the Kingdom of God. But they show no interest in listening to his teachings about love and compassion, much less inclusion. Thus, they look to corner Jesus into committing a crime of sedition and thus be crucified, by putting the question to Jesus if taxes should be paid to Caesar or not.
Perhaps a way to phrase this question in the present time would be: is our allegiance with the spiritual or the worldly? Where is our focus today? Since this story appears in all three Synoptic Gospels, this story carries a deeper and more significant message than a Gospel about just paying taxes. What is that hidden meaning? Check it out…
This Sunday we heard the conclusion of the Gospel story that began last week when Jesus said he would build his Church upon the rock of Peter. But a few lines later Jesus calls Peter, ‘Satan’ and he is told to get behind Christ and follow him. So how did Peter get it so right to the point where Jesus will use Peter as the foundation of his Church and then in the next moment Peter gets it so wrong as to be called Satan? The answer and, indeed our lesson, is rooted in the two types of thinking that we face every day. What are they? How do we distinguish them? Check it out…
The Surgeon General of the US, Dr. Vivek Murthy, just announced the ending of COVID-19 as a global emergency. But at the same time declared a new number one epidemic in our country today – one that affects 50 % of our population, and even higher for our kids. What is it? And how does that tie into the Gospel reading from John this Sunday? Check it out…
During these past weeks of Lent, our Gospels have focused on the quintessential theme of life, death and rebirth – or what some call order, disorder, and reorder. However you look at this universal pattern, one thing is for sure – there is no skipping the process. So, on this Good Friday, instead of just focusing on the cross that Christ died on – a death that was for us…what if we spent some time on the deaths that happen to us…to focus on our crosses and on our dying that needs to occur each day? What does that look like? Check it out…
Homily: Third Sunday of Lent A 2023 .docxJames Knipper
This Sunday we heard the gospel that provides the longest dialogue recorded between Jesus and a woman. By breaking with social ‘norms’ Jesus reaches out with acceptance, self-worth and compassion to one who was socially outcast. For this is a Gospel story that teaches us, reminds us, encourages us that in the Kingdom of God there are no outcasts, there are no strangers, there are no us versus them, rather it is a kingdom of only repentant and welcomed sinners – people like you and me. But the core message of this gospel is hidden – and one that opens our eyes to what we already have. What is that? Check it out….
This weekend we hear in Matthew’s Gospel of John the Baptist sitting in a jail cell and wondering if he placed his bets on the wrong guy…questioning if the Lord is anywhere near to him. Then again, when we are faced with adversity, doubt, and loss how often have we questioned “Where is God?” and “Is the Lord anywhere near?” See how a street corner in Louisville and the wisdom of Thomas Merton may just open our eyes to see in a new way so that we can join in the chorus of Gaudete! Rejoice! on this 3rd Sunday of Advent.
Homily: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time C 2022.docxJames Knipper
This weekend we hear the parable of the widow and the judge. The Gospel writer begins with a summation that the parable talks “about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.” But if we just left it there, we would miss the secondary and deeper meaning behind the story. What is it? Check it out…
Homily for 21st Sunday in Ordinary TimeT .docxJames Knipper
The Gospel this weekend begins with the question that is asked a number of times across the gospels – and one that each of us may have asked in our own spiritual journey: “Lord, will only a few be saved? Or better said – who is going to heaven and who is going to hell?! To which Jesus answers: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” In those days the narrow gates were the side doors of the walled city where you could enter. They were less exposed and less visible allowing occupants to come and go inconspicuously.
So, what does the ‘narrow gate’ look like for you and me today? Once we figure that out, how does that begin to tell us who wins the ticket to heaven and who doesn’t? This complicated Gospel sounds more like a message of exclusion rather than inclusion. So, which is it and what does it mean for each of us? Check it out…
Luke speaks about prayer more than any of the other Evangelists…and in this weekend’s gospel we hear the disciples, asking Jesus to teach them how to pray and he responds with a simple version of the Lord’s Prayer. With prayer being so foundation to who we are, how do you pray? But the bigger question may have to do with how we view prayer. In other words, do we come to prayer as a transactional or a relational activity? Do we spend our time in prayer looking for something from God…or are we desiring a connection with God?
Leave it to my grandson Oliver to open my eyes to what prayer is really all about. Check it out and see what I mean…
Hindered by our language many have resorted to using metaphors to describe the Trinity such as a 3-leaf clover or a harmonic cord. But what if we stopped looking at God as a noun and considered God as a verb? Early Christians described the Trinity as a dance, where God is not the dancer – rather God is the dance itself. See what I mean…
As we gather on this Feast of Pentecost our Scripture focuses on the “what’s next” in our call to discipleship. What does “being sent” & discipleship look like for each of us? What are we called to do and not to do? So how can an African parable, a saintly doorkeeper, a foot massager, and college basketball player help point us to the way, the truth and the light? See what I mean…
If we look at the scripture that addresses the Ascension, it is no surprise that we find several conflicts across the Synoptic writers. But I believe it is John who gives us the line that opens up for us the best way to get to the deeper meaning of the Ascension, when Christ says, “it is good for you that I am going away. For unless I go away the Spirit cannot come to you.” In essence, Jesus seems to be making a connection between absence and presence - that it is necessary for absence to take place before we can be opened to presence. For this Feast Day really teaches us so much more about our life and about our loving God. What is it really all about? Check it out…
In this Sunday’s readings we heard that John saw a “new heaven and a new earth…for the old order has passed away…and He makes all things new.” This sense of ‘making all things’ new appears over twenty times throughout the Bible, with a reminder of our need to let go of our past, to allow room for the new – but what is this ‘’new thing”? And why is it so important that Jesus commands it?! Check it out and see how Ronald Rolheiser, Desmond Tutu and my grandchildren come at this from different angles to shed light on what we are called to do – which will allow us to transfigure the world!
I invite you to just focus on the God encounter that takes place in the Gospel story of the Transfiguration. It is when God appears in the form of a cloud which casts a shadow over those gathered – a cloud that, although frightens them, they still entered. What about the darkness and clouds that we face in our lives? For it these types of God encounters where lives are changed - encounters that break you open and rearrange what you think you knew and wanted.
So, take a few minutes to enjoy a few stories that have nothing to do with answers - but more so with encounters. Stories about hiker Trevor Thomas, Franciscan Richard Rohr and my recently departed brother-in-law Vincent – all which, like this Gospel, just may bring light into the darkness you face. Check it out…
If I go back some twenty or so years, I remember our family and friends gathering back in my wife’s hometown for many weddings, baptisms, and other sacraments. But as time has moved on and age begins to creep up on our generation, it seems that recently we have gathered all too often to mourn the death of one of our loved ones.
And so, this afternoon we remember the life and the love of Vincent. And while Vincent was physically and emotionally dis-abled – when it came to love he had the capacity to be very ‘able’ indeed. Being in the season of Lent while writing this homily gave me reason to pause and to believe that in some respect I think Vincent had an advantage over most, if not all of us.
What was that advantage…and how did he impact the lives around him? Check it out…
On this Thanksgiving Day, as our country and our world continue to climb out of this pandemic, which has gone on far too long, what does “giving thanks” look like? St. Paul gave us all a model called the paradox of gratitude. Why a paradox? And how can a true and personal story of the actions of a small Mennonite Community, post Hurricane Agnes, shed some light on how we are called to actively live a life of gratitude? Check it out…
With the calendar only providing us 3 full weeks of Advent, how have you been spending your time? What, perhaps have you been seeing…or feeling or doing differently? For Advent calls us to be conscious, awake, alert. Advent calls us to be open to how Christ comes to us every day. Advent calls for our participation by opening our eyes to our own brokenness and that of humanity. For Christ is there…just waiting and wanting our active participation. This week’s Gospel provides us three points which may lead us to a better understanding of what we are called to do moving from this briefest 4th week of Advent into Christmas and the New Year. What are they? Check it out….
Homily: 2nd Sunday of Advent, Cycle B, 2023James Knipper
As we each walk through this season of Advent, we may just find ourselves in some form of wilderness, thirsting for peace, reconciliation and healing – and thus it’s a time we need to be alert, awake, watchful and vigilant to God’s presence. So, perhaps we take the lead from Isaiah where we spend time seeking how we can better “Prepare the way of the Lord”…of how we can look at the valleys, at the crookedness, and the rough places not just in the outside world, but also in our own hearts. What does that look like? Check it out…
Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe: to some degree I think the title of today’s feast day could miss the mark of its original purpose and design. For did you ever notice, nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus say to worship him, much less as a king – he simply said to follow him and to do as he does. The best description of all of this, across all the Gospels, appears in today’s reading of Matthew’s recording of Jesus’ last discourse which indicates kinship seems to be more important that kingship. What does that look like? Check it out…
Homily: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time A 2023.docxJames Knipper
Biblical scholars tell us that this Parable of the Ten Virgins was likely cobbled together from a few sources meant to drive home the message of always being prepared – a Gospel theme we will hear often between now and Christmas. But was does that mean to you and me? What does being prepared look like? And tapping into one of today’s Gospel metaphors, what is the oil that we need to be placing in our lamps? Check it out…
Homily: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time A 2023.docxJames Knipper
For the past few weeks, we have been listening to Jesus telling parables to the Chief Priests and Pharisees. For Jesus is attempting to get their attention to think differently, choose differently and to open their eyes to his teachings of the Kingdom of God. But they show no interest in listening to his teachings about love and compassion, much less inclusion. Thus, they look to corner Jesus into committing a crime of sedition and thus be crucified, by putting the question to Jesus if taxes should be paid to Caesar or not.
Perhaps a way to phrase this question in the present time would be: is our allegiance with the spiritual or the worldly? Where is our focus today? Since this story appears in all three Synoptic Gospels, this story carries a deeper and more significant message than a Gospel about just paying taxes. What is that hidden meaning? Check it out…
This Sunday we heard the conclusion of the Gospel story that began last week when Jesus said he would build his Church upon the rock of Peter. But a few lines later Jesus calls Peter, ‘Satan’ and he is told to get behind Christ and follow him. So how did Peter get it so right to the point where Jesus will use Peter as the foundation of his Church and then in the next moment Peter gets it so wrong as to be called Satan? The answer and, indeed our lesson, is rooted in the two types of thinking that we face every day. What are they? How do we distinguish them? Check it out…
The Surgeon General of the US, Dr. Vivek Murthy, just announced the ending of COVID-19 as a global emergency. But at the same time declared a new number one epidemic in our country today – one that affects 50 % of our population, and even higher for our kids. What is it? And how does that tie into the Gospel reading from John this Sunday? Check it out…
During these past weeks of Lent, our Gospels have focused on the quintessential theme of life, death and rebirth – or what some call order, disorder, and reorder. However you look at this universal pattern, one thing is for sure – there is no skipping the process. So, on this Good Friday, instead of just focusing on the cross that Christ died on – a death that was for us…what if we spent some time on the deaths that happen to us…to focus on our crosses and on our dying that needs to occur each day? What does that look like? Check it out…
Homily: Third Sunday of Lent A 2023 .docxJames Knipper
This Sunday we heard the gospel that provides the longest dialogue recorded between Jesus and a woman. By breaking with social ‘norms’ Jesus reaches out with acceptance, self-worth and compassion to one who was socially outcast. For this is a Gospel story that teaches us, reminds us, encourages us that in the Kingdom of God there are no outcasts, there are no strangers, there are no us versus them, rather it is a kingdom of only repentant and welcomed sinners – people like you and me. But the core message of this gospel is hidden – and one that opens our eyes to what we already have. What is that? Check it out….
This weekend we hear in Matthew’s Gospel of John the Baptist sitting in a jail cell and wondering if he placed his bets on the wrong guy…questioning if the Lord is anywhere near to him. Then again, when we are faced with adversity, doubt, and loss how often have we questioned “Where is God?” and “Is the Lord anywhere near?” See how a street corner in Louisville and the wisdom of Thomas Merton may just open our eyes to see in a new way so that we can join in the chorus of Gaudete! Rejoice! on this 3rd Sunday of Advent.
Homily: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time C 2022.docxJames Knipper
This weekend we hear the parable of the widow and the judge. The Gospel writer begins with a summation that the parable talks “about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.” But if we just left it there, we would miss the secondary and deeper meaning behind the story. What is it? Check it out…
Homily for 21st Sunday in Ordinary TimeT .docxJames Knipper
The Gospel this weekend begins with the question that is asked a number of times across the gospels – and one that each of us may have asked in our own spiritual journey: “Lord, will only a few be saved? Or better said – who is going to heaven and who is going to hell?! To which Jesus answers: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” In those days the narrow gates were the side doors of the walled city where you could enter. They were less exposed and less visible allowing occupants to come and go inconspicuously.
So, what does the ‘narrow gate’ look like for you and me today? Once we figure that out, how does that begin to tell us who wins the ticket to heaven and who doesn’t? This complicated Gospel sounds more like a message of exclusion rather than inclusion. So, which is it and what does it mean for each of us? Check it out…
Luke speaks about prayer more than any of the other Evangelists…and in this weekend’s gospel we hear the disciples, asking Jesus to teach them how to pray and he responds with a simple version of the Lord’s Prayer. With prayer being so foundation to who we are, how do you pray? But the bigger question may have to do with how we view prayer. In other words, do we come to prayer as a transactional or a relational activity? Do we spend our time in prayer looking for something from God…or are we desiring a connection with God?
Leave it to my grandson Oliver to open my eyes to what prayer is really all about. Check it out and see what I mean…
Hindered by our language many have resorted to using metaphors to describe the Trinity such as a 3-leaf clover or a harmonic cord. But what if we stopped looking at God as a noun and considered God as a verb? Early Christians described the Trinity as a dance, where God is not the dancer – rather God is the dance itself. See what I mean…
As we gather on this Feast of Pentecost our Scripture focuses on the “what’s next” in our call to discipleship. What does “being sent” & discipleship look like for each of us? What are we called to do and not to do? So how can an African parable, a saintly doorkeeper, a foot massager, and college basketball player help point us to the way, the truth and the light? See what I mean…
If we look at the scripture that addresses the Ascension, it is no surprise that we find several conflicts across the Synoptic writers. But I believe it is John who gives us the line that opens up for us the best way to get to the deeper meaning of the Ascension, when Christ says, “it is good for you that I am going away. For unless I go away the Spirit cannot come to you.” In essence, Jesus seems to be making a connection between absence and presence - that it is necessary for absence to take place before we can be opened to presence. For this Feast Day really teaches us so much more about our life and about our loving God. What is it really all about? Check it out…
In this Sunday’s readings we heard that John saw a “new heaven and a new earth…for the old order has passed away…and He makes all things new.” This sense of ‘making all things’ new appears over twenty times throughout the Bible, with a reminder of our need to let go of our past, to allow room for the new – but what is this ‘’new thing”? And why is it so important that Jesus commands it?! Check it out and see how Ronald Rolheiser, Desmond Tutu and my grandchildren come at this from different angles to shed light on what we are called to do – which will allow us to transfigure the world!
I invite you to just focus on the God encounter that takes place in the Gospel story of the Transfiguration. It is when God appears in the form of a cloud which casts a shadow over those gathered – a cloud that, although frightens them, they still entered. What about the darkness and clouds that we face in our lives? For it these types of God encounters where lives are changed - encounters that break you open and rearrange what you think you knew and wanted.
So, take a few minutes to enjoy a few stories that have nothing to do with answers - but more so with encounters. Stories about hiker Trevor Thomas, Franciscan Richard Rohr and my recently departed brother-in-law Vincent – all which, like this Gospel, just may bring light into the darkness you face. Check it out…
If I go back some twenty or so years, I remember our family and friends gathering back in my wife’s hometown for many weddings, baptisms, and other sacraments. But as time has moved on and age begins to creep up on our generation, it seems that recently we have gathered all too often to mourn the death of one of our loved ones.
And so, this afternoon we remember the life and the love of Vincent. And while Vincent was physically and emotionally dis-abled – when it came to love he had the capacity to be very ‘able’ indeed. Being in the season of Lent while writing this homily gave me reason to pause and to believe that in some respect I think Vincent had an advantage over most, if not all of us.
What was that advantage…and how did he impact the lives around him? Check it out…
On this Thanksgiving Day, as our country and our world continue to climb out of this pandemic, which has gone on far too long, what does “giving thanks” look like? St. Paul gave us all a model called the paradox of gratitude. Why a paradox? And how can a true and personal story of the actions of a small Mennonite Community, post Hurricane Agnes, shed some light on how we are called to actively live a life of gratitude? Check it out…
2 Peter 3: Because some scriptures are hard to understand and some will force them to say things God never intended, Peter warns us to take care.
https://youtu.be/nV4kGHFsEHw
Why is this So? ~ Do Seek to KNOW (English & Chinese).pptxOH TEIK BIN
A PowerPoint Presentation based on the Dhamma teaching of Kamma-Vipaka (Intentional Actions-Ripening Effects).
A Presentation for developing morality, concentration and wisdom and to spur us to practice the Dhamma diligently.
The texts are in English and Chinese.
The Hope of Salvation - Jude 1:24-25 - MessageCole Hartman
Jude gives us hope at the end of a dark letter. In a dark world like today, we need the light of Christ to shine brighter and brighter. Jude shows us where to fix our focus so we can be filled with God's goodness and glory. Join us to explore this incredible passage.
A375 Example Taste the taste of the Lord, the taste of the Lord The taste of...franktsao4
It seems that current missionary work requires spending a lot of money, preparing a lot of materials, and traveling to far away places, so that it feels like missionary work. But what was the result they brought back? It's just a lot of photos of activities, fun eating, drinking and some playing games. And then we have to do the same thing next year, never ending. The church once mentioned that a certain missionary would go to the field where she used to work before the end of his life. It seemed that if she had not gone, no one would be willing to go. The reason why these missionary work is so difficult is that no one obeys God’s words, and the Bible is not the main content during missionary work, because in the eyes of those who do not obey God’s words, the Bible is just words and cannot be connected with life, so Reading out God's words is boring because it doesn't have any life experience, so it cannot be connected with human life. I will give a few examples in the hope that this situation can be changed. A375
In Jude 17-23 Jude shifts from piling up examples of false teachers from the Old Testament to a series of practical exhortations that flow from apostolic instruction. He preserves for us what may well have been part of the apostolic catechism for the first generation of Christ-followers. In these instructions Jude exhorts the believer to deal with 3 different groups of people: scoffers who are "devoid of the Spirit", believers who have come under the influence of scoffers and believers who are so entrenched in false teaching that they need rescue and pose some real spiritual risk for the rescuer. In all of this Jude emphasizes Jesus' call to rescue straying sheep, leaving the 99 safely behind and pursuing the 1.
Discover various methods for clearing negative entities from your space and spirit, including energy clearing techniques, spiritual rituals, and professional assistance. Gain practical knowledge on how to implement these techniques to restore peace and harmony. For more information visit here: https://www.reikihealingdistance.com/negative-entity-removal/
Exploring the Mindfulness Understanding Its Benefits.pptxMartaLoveguard
Slide 1: Title: Exploring the Mindfulness: Understanding Its Benefits
Slide 2: Introduction to Mindfulness
Mindfulness, defined as the conscious, non-judgmental observation of the present moment, has deep roots in Buddhist meditation practice but has gained significant popularity in the Western world in recent years. In today's society, filled with distractions and constant stimuli, mindfulness offers a valuable tool for regaining inner peace and reconnecting with our true selves. By cultivating mindfulness, we can develop a heightened awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and surroundings, leading to a greater sense of clarity and presence in our daily lives.
Slide 3: Benefits of Mindfulness for Mental Well-being
Practicing mindfulness can help reduce stress and anxiety levels, improving overall quality of life.
Mindfulness increases awareness of our emotions and teaches us to manage them better, leading to improved mood.
Regular mindfulness practice can improve our ability to concentrate and focus our attention on the present moment.
Slide 4: Benefits of Mindfulness for Physical Health
Research has shown that practicing mindfulness can contribute to lowering blood pressure, which is beneficial for heart health.
Regular meditation and mindfulness practice can strengthen the immune system, aiding the body in fighting infections.
Mindfulness may help reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity by reducing stress and improving overall lifestyle habits.
Slide 5: Impact of Mindfulness on Relationships
Mindfulness can help us better understand others and improve communication, leading to healthier relationships.
By focusing on the present moment and being fully attentive, mindfulness helps build stronger and more authentic connections with others.
Mindfulness teaches us how to be present for others in difficult times, leading to increased compassion and understanding.
Slide 6: Mindfulness Techniques and Practices
Focusing on the breath and mindful breathing can be a simple way to enter a state of mindfulness.
Body scan meditation involves focusing on different parts of the body, paying attention to any sensations and feelings.
Practicing mindful walking and eating involves consciously focusing on each step or bite, with full attention to sensory experiences.
Slide 7: Incorporating Mindfulness into Daily Life
You can practice mindfulness in everyday activities such as washing dishes or taking a walk in the park.
Adding mindfulness practice to daily routines can help increase awareness and presence.
Mindfulness helps us become more aware of our needs and better manage our time, leading to balance and harmony in life.
Slide 8: Summary: Embracing Mindfulness for Full Living
Mindfulness can bring numerous benefits for physical and mental health.
Regular mindfulness practice can help achieve a fuller and more satisfying life.
Mindfulness has the power to change our perspective and way of perceiving the world, leading to deeper se