Tag: Jesus

The Christian Mind: Persecution

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You will be hated by everyone because of me . . . in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. (Matthew 10, John 16)

In beginning our discussion on the Christian Mind, I think this is a good place to start. The reason is that we live in a time when the distinction between what is true and what is socially acceptable is blurred. The line of argument that dominates much of the discussion around today’s issues goes something like this: “X is true. And if you think otherwise, you are stupid/intolerant/deplorable/a bigot/evil.” Continue reading “The Christian Mind: Persecution” →

The Christian Mind: A Question

Published on by dpatrickcollins9 Comments

All the time I was writing the series on The Christian Soul, methodically mapping the human soul and the way it is designed to interact with God, I could not help but ask myself a question: “Does any of this matter?” Continue reading “The Christian Mind: A Question” →

The Christian Soul: The Devil

Published on by dpatrickcollins2 Comments

When I was young, my mother received a knock at the door one Saturday morning. It was the neighbor’s kid who could not have been more than four years old. “Do you know the Debo?” he asked. Puzzled, my mother asked, “Who?” “You know,” the small boy continued, putting his fingers to his head in the form of horns. “The Debo!”

Thus began my first encounter with theology in the public square. I thought to myself this neighbor kid was much too young to be worrying about the Devil. And in a way, all of us are. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: The Devil” →

The Christian Soul: Principles

Published on by dpatrickcollins4 Comments

I wish to expand on the idea we introduced in our last post concerning the idea of control in the Christian life and outline five principles pertaining to how control — or rather our surrendering of control — determines our success in the Christian life.

But first, let’s connect some dots and briefly discuss how control relates to the other concepts we have discussed in this series. Simply put, control is the opposite of love. You may say hate is, and that is fine. But in the context of relationship, control is more its opposite than anything else. When we seek control in a relationship, we have ceased to love. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: Principles” →

The Christian Soul: Control

Published on by dpatrickcollins3 Comments

It is God working in the soul to make it like unto Himself. Perfection is neither more nor less than the faithful cooperation with this work.
— Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence

I came to the Lord in a rather unusual way. I was raised Catholic, and though Catholics are not necessarily known for having (or at least professing) a personal relationship with Jesus, this young Catholic stumbled into one quite unexpectedly. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: Control” →