parables of a prodigal world

I got a couple of responses to my "You Can't Handle the Good News" contribution to JR Woodward's Good News series , saying something like this: "You didn't really just tell people they shouldn't bother with the Gospel, did you?!" My response... "You're goddamn right I did!!!" Well, not really. Calm down, people. It was a blog post. It was a pretend article. Would I have done it if the Times had really asked me to write about "the Good News?" Probably not. Maybe. I'm not sure. There was one occasion when I had an actual opportunity to speak of "Good News" in print to the people of my community. And it went something like this: Better? Grace and Peace, Raffi

If you haven't yet heard, JR Woodward is running a blog series called The Good News . The series is running from Easter through May 31st, with daily contributions from 48 of the best and brightest minds in the blogosphere... ...and me (you'll have to ask JR about that decision). Well, my humble contribution is up today. Stop by Dream Awakener to take a look. Grace and Peace, Raffi

There are some stories, some images, that defy any efforts one may make to explain them. They are are so beautifully deep and meaningful that any efforts to explain them, analyze them, dissect them, would be self-defeating. Here's an example. Grace and Peace, Raffi

0 ( online surveys ) OK, you got it. Some "You Can't Handle the Good News!" with a little sprinkling of "Lakers Win, Recession Over, No-Doc Loans are Back...Good News!" thrown in. Watch for the post over at Dream Awakener on Thursday, April 30, as part of The Good News Series , which is taking place throughout the Easter Season, from Easter to Pentecost. A full list of the contributors, with links to all the posts to date, can be found here . Grace and Peace, Raffi

I was saved at the age of 34. Long story. What I was told is that I would now be going to heaven when I died, because my sins were forgiven, and I had come to believe in the method by which that occurred. I'd reached my life's goal. That was pretty cool. What I soon discovered, though, was that if salvation was the goal, it was a very anticlimactic goal, at least from the perspective of life here on earth. Fine—I was saved and my postmortem eternity would be glorious, filled with love and praise to God and never-ending bliss. But down here on earth, I started to realize that the questions and struggles in which I was mired before my salvation were still around. The same weaknesses, the same fears, the same doubts. I prayed and meditated daily about how I should now face these issues, but the fact that I was saved was a given. It was non-negotiable. The logical answer, therefore, was that life after salvation would be pretty similar to life before salvation, except with a change...