Rejoicing now in the face of trials is simply a demonstration of where your faith rests…in the “unveiling of His glory” at the Day of the Lord. Rarely, if ever, do we in America and the Western world face the level of fiery trials that…
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I know. I know. It’s been almost a year since I blogged. What’s happened to me? Short answer: I’ve been building other peoples’ websites and blogs (www.richeeparks.com), including a brand new Daniel Training Network website. Long story short, the Lord has had my focus elsewhere over the last year even though I have longed to blog it up so many times. With that out of the way, I wanted to reengage my blog...
Read MoreI still have yet to finish my little blog series but had to interrupt it to blog about the precious new addition to our family. I cannot rave enough about my wife. I saw her do the most incredible thing that I will ever experience with her in my life. This labor and delivery was so radically different than our other two children and I wasn’t pushed to the side by lots of nurses and doctors during the process and/or did not have...
Read MoreTo read Part 1 (Parent Trap) click here or Part 2 (Helpful Hardship) click here. This will be the third and final post of this series. My first post recognized the gracious process of the Lord to humble my pride-filled heart over time through merely one example and facet of life (parenting), although I could have shared many others. The second post highlighted the transition that our lives made as God humbled us and we began to follow...
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Since arriving in Portland, the subject of death has come up in several different ways and been closer to home than usual. Yesterday (February 13, 2012) we received some news that we had been dreading. Our 9 year old niece Mercede (Grace’s side of the family) had passed away after an intense battle with leukemia. On June 9, 2011, Mercede Joy was diagnosed with Acute Monoblastic Leukemia(m5). She fought the aggressive cancer...
Read MoreSome days I am blown away by how trickle down theology affects massive numbers of believers/church attenders throughout the Western Church. One contributing factor to this pondering comes from reflecting on my own church upbringing as well as the wide variety of churches & believers I have seen in my past years of traveling with ministries. The seminary student bound for pastorhood reads theology books based on a Platonic...
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Without going to deep into the Western Worldview and Greek philosophy, I feel as though I need to address and skim over Platonic influence within current western Christianity. I don’t want to give a comprehensive overview but wanted to touch on it because it definitely factors into how we see God’s governmental covenants with His creation and ultimately view salvation. The main point that I want to address concerning...
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Some day our time in this age (internship of a life) will come to an end. And everyone, whether clear or ambiguous, has a concept of what the next age will look like and we live life now, based on the results of “then.” The end is always framed through some type of worldview and no matter what belief system we come from there is always a beginning of creation (cosmogeny), a brokenness of that creation that then needs some...
Read MoreREMINDER: My blog is really to get my processing from prayer and study into a place that actually helps it to become streamlined in my own mind and heart…even if it might be a little long. But if you track with me, I see some of what I blog as being critical to my own walk with the Lord and even my own salvation. For those who like simple blogs filled with pictures and only a few sentences (that’s me too), mine will...
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