By JN Hong

Life is chaos.

We began in chaos. If we were to subscribe to evolutionary theory, we were a few atoms forced together by chance from a million others emanating from a cosmic bang producing hydrogen atoms. From the combinations forming from the random contact of atoms, compounds happened. These compounds multiplied, and continuously bumping around, mistakes happened, and mostly, we reached a dead end and most compounds decayed away. But some flaws worked in our favour and we changed somewhat to slightly different structures and the better compounds overtook and dominated over the older versions of the compounds. From the diversity of compounds became life. Life started off as simple, then complex life forms. Life is merely bumping into each other, and making more offspring, and moving further and further along the evolutionary cycle.

If we were to subscribe to creationism, we were conceived as very good beings from the dust of the earth. Yet, we are fundamentally tainted by the chaos, that is, power and the ability to sin against one another and against a Holy God. Through the fruit eaten in the Garden of Eden we have been forced to live a life without the direct providential care of God, and we are returned to working the earth for little fruit. It is the chaos we find, when we find our relationships strained because we have rejected the life of God for much less.

We are highly flawed beings, whatever theory we subscribe to. More Here...

The theme of space and silence were prevalent at Luminous which had an incredible impact on me, especially in these areas. I had never been to a conference that effectively made space for people to commune, and carved out times of intentional, communal silence.

It was beautiful and stirring. More Here...

It's Sunday, readers, and that means that, for Christians all around the world, today is a day to spend time at the local church -- serving, worshiping and learning from wise teachers.  We hope that you will be able to attend a service at your local church today.

But if, for some reason, you can't make it to your church today, we here at Revelife want to provide you with worship and good teaching today.  We know we can't completely replace the local church in your life, so we encourage you to invest in one when you can, but we hope that the services we feature here will help you focus yourself on God's word today.

At North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, we're in part two of our new series, Climate Change, featuring pastor Jeff Henderson.  We're not talking about the climate change you hear about on the news all the time.  This type of climate is the one you feel when you walk into a room -- does it change depending on who is there?  Chances are, you've experienced some extreme relational climates in your life, and to make these relationships improve, you might need to face some of your own climate change.

As I have shared in previous posts, I am thrilled to be pregnant and granted the blessing of creating new life, but this journey has also presented me with unexpected challenges. Although I’ve had a relatively easy pregnancy physically, I did not expect the bodily changes to impact my self-image the way that they have. This aspect of pregnancy has been a new challenge, but one that has definitely helped me to grow in good and wonderful ways.

I have also written some about The Weirdness of Becoming a Mommy, and how it has influenced my sense of self. Identity change is often hard, and it certainly has been for me. At times, I have wrestled with feeling a loss of self–the loss of who I used to be, the loss of my body, the loss of marriage as I knew it–and I suppose there is a bit of fear and even grief that accompanies those losses. Even in the best circumstances, change is difficult. More Here...

I just saw a blog over at Revelife. The post asks, "Do you believe God is hands-off or a puppeteer?" I answered, "Neither. I have seen Him miraculously intervene too many times to think He is "Hands off". And I have seen Him not too many times to think He is "a puppeteer". I don't see why such a complex question should have only two possible answers either. This is how I feel about it." And then I linked them here. 

This is something I have heard and thought about deeply. I think it comes back to love. (It is my strong opinion that a lot of people today have no idea what real love is or is all about, but to avoid getting diverted to that topic, let me just say real love always wants what is best for it's object, and is never forced.) So, if God loves us, He could not create us as little robots who have no conception of doing anything other than His Will. Without the freedom to choose for ourselves, it would be the same as brainwashing, or locking us in a cage. I can't conceive of how that would be honest or loving. It certainly wouldn't be genuine. And all that is completely against the nature of God. More Here...