Our New Year’s Resolution Idea for You: Look for the Good in 2015!

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Lee — 5 Comments

We get plenty of bad news. It’s all over the media, and all over the Internet.

So here’s a suggested New Year’s Resolution: Look for the good in 2015!

Yes, we do have to pay some attention to the bad things that happen. If we don’t, we’ll never be able to fix them. But it’s just as important—if not more important—to look for the good in the people around us, in our communities, and in the world.

When we look for the good, not only does it give us some happiness and joy, but it inspires us to do good things for others, and give them happiness and joy. And that means we’re growing into angels.

Here are some good news stories that happened in 2014, compiled by BuzzFeed:

Librarian donates all his earnings to the poor

"Paalam" Kalyanasundaram

“Paalam” Kalyanasundaram

73 year old librarian “Paalam” Kalyanasundaram donated his entire librarian’s salary every month for thirty years to help the poor—especially children—in his home country of India. He took on odd jobs to support himself. Even after he retired, he continued donating his pension to help the poor and needy.

Kalyanasundaram also founded a charitable organization in order to receive donations and use them to help those in need. This man, a devout Hindu, has devoted his entire life to helping others.

For more on this story, see:
The 73-Year Old Librarian Who Has Been Donating Every Rupee He Earned To The Poor For 30 Years!

For more good news stories of 2014, please click here.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Current Events, Spiritual Growth

If Non-Christians can Go to Heaven, Why should Christians Evangelize?

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Lee — 20 Comments

Here is a Spiritual Conundrum submitted to Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life by a reader named SeunAlaba:

In 1 of your articles-“If there is one God, why so many religions; & is it only Christians that go to heaven”, you revealed some very enlightening points, but then, there’s just 1 question which seems irreconcilable to the things you wrote. From what I was able to gather, it seems to me as though there would be no point of evangelizing any longer; so my question is are Christians still supposed to evangelize; if yes, to who, & for what end & to what purpose?

SeunAlaba went on to say in a recent comment on the same article:

Thanks for this article Sir. I just have an observation & a question. if it is just as this article suggests it is, it then means we are not supposed to evangelize. Perhaps, my deduction could be wrong, hence the question- what exactly is evangelism? To whom is it to be directed? who should do it? How is it to be done? & to what end & for what purpose should it be done?

These are all excellent questions. Thanks for asking!

The commandment to evangelize comes straight from Jesus Christ himself. Here are Jesus’ final words to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew:

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:18–20)

Christians have been following this “Great Commission” ever since—leading to the great spread of Christianity throughout much of the world.

One of the driving forces behind the Christian compulsion to evangelize has been the belief that non-Christians go to hell. Many Christians put tremendous energy into converting non-Christians because they believe that they are doing an eternal favor to all the people they manage to “save” by inducing them to believe in Jesus. That is why they are so persistent.

On the other hand, Christians who believe that non-Christians can go to heaven don’t have that driving force compelling them to convert everyone from the corner grocer to major pop stars and sports heroes. And quite frankly, it’s made many of them lazy and complacent about “making disciples of all nations” as Jesus commanded his followers to do.

Perhaps that’s one reason why, under God’s providence, so many Christians are allowed to believe that only Christians can be saved. While they are missing the greater point, at least someone is following the Great Commission and spreading Christianity to all the nations!

But there are better reasons for evangelizing. Let’s dig into your questions, and tease out some of those reasons.

For more on Christians, non-Christians, and evangelization, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in All About God, Spiritual Growth

The Song of Mary: My Soul Magnifies the Lord

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Lee — 8 Comments

Reading: Luke 1:39–55 The Song of Mary

 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

These words begin the poetic speech by Mary traditionally called “The Magnificat,” from the first word of the Latin version. In English it is often called “The Song of Mary.”

Skeptical scholars will point out the unlikelihood that Mary would spontaneously burst into polished poetry on the occasion of her meeting with her relative Elizabeth. Believers would say it was the Holy Spirit inspiring her and speaking through her.

For us today, does it really matter exactly what happened two thousand years ago in an unknown house in a small town in the Judean hill country? What matters is not an obscure bit of history, but what the spirit says to each one of us through these inspired words.

For more about the Song of Mary, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed

The Birth Announcement of Jesus Christ: Do Not Be Afraid

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Lee — 4 Comments

Reading: Luke 1:26–38 The angel speaks to Mary

Mary’s Fears

“The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary.’”

What was Mary afraid of?

For one thing, a powerful angel had just appeared to her. That was a little unsettling for a young woman of humble position.

But what the angel said to her was even more unsettling. He said that she was going to have a baby boy. And judging by her response after the angel finished his speech, I suspect that her eyes glazed over right there. A baby? She wasn’t even married yet, and she had not slept with a man. How was she going to have a baby? The angel seemed unfazed by her question, and went on to say a lot more strange things.

At this point, all sorts of things must have been racing through Mary’s mind. Unwed mothers did not fare well in those days. In fact, it could be a death sentence. And what would her fiancé Joseph say? Most likely he would reject her, she would be disgraced, and her life would be as good as over.

And what was all that stuff the angel said about the power of the Most High overshadowing her, and her son being called Son of God? Even if that wasn’t the craziest thing she’d ever heard, why would God pick her, of all people?

For more on Jesus’ birth announcement, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in All About God, The Bible Re-Viewed

Organized Acts of Pasta

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Lee — Leave a comment

Recently we posted a story about Matt Tribe, of Ogden, Utah, engaging in Random Acts of Pasta.

Now we bring you a story about organized acts of pasta.

Ten years ago, Bruno Serato, the chef and owner of the Anaheim White House Restaurant, a fine Italian restaurant in Anaheim, California, visited the local Boys and Girls Club with his mother, Caterina. When he saw a young boy eating potato chips, the director of the club explained to him that this was the boy’s dinner.

Caterina’s response to the situation: “Bruno, you must give them pasta!”

In Serato’s words, “You better listen to Mama! Mama is always right!”

And so began an organized pasta charity that today feeds 1,200 motel kids every night. Serato named the charity after his mother: Caterina’s Club.

Bruno Serato with children and pasta!

Bruno Serato with children and pasta!

More recently, Serato began a new initiative.

Feeding motel kids was good. But even better would be to get their families into a real home. And so began a new initiative to pay first and last month rent for families who can afford the rent, but are stuck in hotels because they cannot pull together that much money all at once.

You can read all about it at Yahoo News: “New hope for motel kids”

This is a charity that helps families to help themselves. And it was founded by a man who arrived in America from Italy in 1980 with just $200 in his pocket.

To watch the videos about Bruno Serato’s charitable work, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Current Events

Aliens vs. Advent: Swedenborg’s 1758 Book on Extraterrestrial Life

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Lee — 209 Comments

Aliens are very popular these days.

Not that we’ve ever actually seen a real one. (No, I don’t go for all the UFO stuff.)

But just try to tell Hollywood that!

E.T., The Extraterrestrial

E.T., The Extraterrestrial

Aliens!

Aliens!

To judge by the movie releases, the galaxy is packed with aliens! And though Steven Spielberg’s endearing E.T. captured millions of hearts in the 1980s, aliens are usually bad guys. Alien vs. Predator (2004), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), Cowboys and Aliens (2011). The list goes on.

Today, in honor of the season, I bring you a new cosmic drama: Aliens vs. Advent!

The plot is rooted in thousands of years of debate over extraterrestrial life. In ancient Greek culture alone, philosophers such as Anaximander, Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus argued that there are infinite worlds, and therefore room for infinite races of intelligent beings on an infinite number of planets.

However, the more famous philosophers Plato and Aristotle argued that our earth is the unique center of the cosmos, and that earth-dwellers are the only race of intelligent beings in the universe.

Similar debates played out in other ancient cultures.

Enter Christianity.

For more on aliens, Christianity, and Swedenborg, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in All About God, Science Philosophy and History

Random Acts of Pasta

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Lee — 2 Comments

Matt Tribe, of Ogden, Utah, was one of the lucky 1,000 people who managed to purchase a promotional “Never Ending Pasta Pass” from the Olive Garden Italian restaurant chain for $100. It entitled the bearer to all-you-can-eat pasta meals, complete with sides and a drink, for seven weeks.

As reported in an article at Consumerist.com, people who scored one of these passes used them for everything from stuffing their own bellies to making a quick (and illegal) profit by selling them for several times what they paid.

Not Matt Tribe.

Yes, he did use his Pasta Pass on himself fourteen times.

But after checking with Olive Garden’s customer relations department to make sure he could use it for take-out, he did something very different with his Pasta Pass:

He used it to give meals to 125 random friends, family members, acquaintances, and total strangers, including a number of homeless people.

Random Acts of Pasta, Matt Tribe

Random Acts of Pasta

Naturally, his Random Acts of Pasta video went viral. And naturally, there were grinchy naysayers who claimed that it was all just a hoax and an Olive Garden publicity stunt. But as reported at People.com, Olive Garden itself has stated that its only role was to sell him the Pasta Pass and happily fulfill his orders—which aligned with Olive Garden’s own program of donating food to local food banks.

Yes, of course, Olive Garden got some great publicity.

But more than that, Matt Tribe experienced the joy of devoting several weeks of his life to doing good deeds for over 100 people. And over 100 people enjoyed being on the receiving end of a Random Act of Pasta.

Check out Tribe’s own telling of the story at www.randomactsofpasta.com.

To watch the Random Acts of Pasta video, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Current Events

Is Heaven Physical? Can Angels Play Tennis?

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Lee — 87 Comments
Diagram of an atom (not to scale)

Diagram of an atom (not to scale)

In a comment on my recent article, “The Afterlife: It’s Not as Different as you Think!” a reader named Richard Neer responded to my statement that angels go through their daily life in much the same way we do here on earth. He said:

Does this statement not imply the afterlife is comprised of corporeal, physical matter attributes, having properties of a physical existence? And if so, how is it possible, where, on what plane of existence? After all, you can’t play tennis and hit a ball which does not exist with a racquet that does not physically exist either. These statements empirically define a physical world.

I’ll reproduce Richard’s full comment in a minute, and give a fuller response. Here’s the short version:

As described by scientist, philosopher, and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) there are three overall levels of reality:

  1. divine reality (God)
  2. spiritual reality (the spiritual world and the human mind)
  3. material reality (the physical world, including the human body)

Each of these three levels of reality has its own type of substance:

  1. divine substance (which is God’s love)
  2. spiritual substance (the stuff the spiritual world is made of)
  3. physical matter (the stuff the physical universe is made of)

We’ll skip over divine reality for now. It’s beyond our human experience anyway.

This leaves spiritual and physical reality. Each of these has its own substance. And we humans have two sets of senses adapted to these two kinds of substance:

  1. our physical senses
  2. our spiritual senses

When our physical senses are active, we sense and feel physical objects.

When our spiritual senses are active, we sense and feel spiritual objects—which look, sound, smell, taste, and feel the same to our spiritual senses as physical objects do to our physical senses.

So even though the spiritual world is not made of physical matter, it is a real and solid world, in which we live very human lives.

Let’s look at all of this more closely.

For more on the solidity of spiritual reality, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Science Philosophy and History, The Afterlife

Is Racism Equal-Opportunity?

Posted on November 28, 2014 by Lee — 2 Comments

I recently received an email asking these general questions:

  1. Why are whites held to a different standard than other races when it comes to racism?
  2. If people of other races can celebrate their own race, and form organizations based on their race and ethnicity, why can’t whites?
  3. If some white people choose to value and stick with their own race, where does that leave them spiritually?

Racial issues are a political and social powder keg—as the events currently unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri attest. This is a spiritual blog, not a political one, so I’ll do my best to avoid pure politics. However, I do have to dip into political and social issues to some extent in order to answer these questions.

So here goes:

Barack & Michelle Obama with Guy Scott & Charlotte Harland-Scott

Barack & Michelle Obama with Guy Scott & Charlotte Harland-Scott

I see no problem spiritually with valuing the characteristics and company of one’s own racial and ethnic group, or with creating groups and organizations based on one’s own race and ethnicity.

It becomes a problem, however, when one’s own group is considered better than other racial and ethnic groups to the extent that others are looked down upon in comparison with one’s own group. And it becomes a major problem when people of other racial and ethnic groups are disrespected, mistreated, or targeted due to the perceived superiority of one’s own group.

God created the different races for a reason. If we disrespect other races, we are disrespecting God.

For more on whites, race, and spirituality, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Current Events

The Afterlife: It’s Not as Different as you Think!

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Lee — 599 Comments

Throughout the ages, the afterlife has been pictured in many different ways—more ways than we can possibly list here. Christians alone have pictured heaven as:

  • The endless pleasure of intelligent and witty conversation with other angels
  • Perpetual feasting with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve Apostles
  • Relaxing in the everlasting springtime of garden paradises while breathing in the fragrant odors of beautiful flowers and enjoying the delicate taste of delectable fruits
  • Ruling over the masses as fabulously wealthy and powerful kings and queens
  • Praising and glorifying God to all eternity in vast, ornate cathedrals, complete with powerful organ music and inspiring hymns sung with thousands of fellow worshipers

In more recent years, under the influence of near-death experiences together with the mystical strains of various eastern religions, conceptions of the afterlife have grown even more fantastic. One account has us flying on the wings of giant psychedelic butterflies through vast Technicolor panoramas. Or, as inhabitants of the astral realms, we may be seen as diaphanous beings of light wafting around and through one another as we engage in mysterious dances that manifest the harmony of the spheres.

Now, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with any of these activities. For the most part, they’re harmless enough—though I’m not so sure about all those kings and queens! And I have it on good authority that whatever our idea of the afterlife may be, we’re given the opportunity to try it out after we die, and see how we like it.

Even for people who have a less fantastical idea of what the afterlife might be like, I suspect that it’s common to think that death will bring about huge changes in our life.

Perhaps it will.

But I’m here to tell you that the afterlife will not be as different as you think. In fact, in the ways that count the most, the afterlife will be a seamless continuation of whatever your life has been here.

That should get us to thinking about just what we’re doing with our life here on earth.

Let’s look at the afterlife based on:

  1. the Bible,
  2. rational thought, and
  3. human experience.

For more on the rather ordinary afterlife, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Posted in The Afterlife
Lee & Annette Woofenden

Lee & Annette Woofenden

Donate

Support the work of Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life by making a monthly donation at our Patreon

The Basics
"Christian Beliefs" that the Bible Doesn’t Teach

Christian Beliefs that the Bible Does Teach

Who is God? Who is Jesus Christ? What about that Holy Spirit?

Can We Really Believe the Bible?

Is Jesus Christ the Only Way to Heaven?

The Logic of Love: Why God became Jesus

What Happens To Us When We Die?

Heaven, Regeneration, and the Meaning of Life on Earth

Our Comments Policy

Join 1,260 other subscribers
Ask a Question!
Ask Lee a spiritual question
Earlier Posts
Featured Book

Great Truths on Great Subjects

By Jonathan Bayley

(Click the title link to review or purchase. This website receives commissions from purchases made via its links to Amazon.)

Blog Stats
  • 4,225,857 hits