John 21:22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” When Jesus said this to Peter he was talking about a specific person, yet I think this vers…

by Mike Edwards When Charlie Kirk was recently assassinated, it has been said or implied that God is somehow responsible for taking Charlie in his own time. The problem with this thought is that it…

by Mike Edwards There has been much discussion about prayer with the latest tragedies – Charlie Kirk’s assassination, children wounded and killed during a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic School, etc. Why pray when God obviously doesn’t intervene with so much evil in the world. Let’s be honest – are the majority of your prayers answered in the way you pray?

by Michael Donahoe As Christians, fellowship is an obviously important part of living as a follower of Jesus. Fellowship with other believers should be encouraging and a time to build one another u…

by Mike Edwards It should be obvious, but wasn’t to me early in my journey with God, that even if the Bible is inspired by God, our interpretations of the Bible are not inspired. It is rarely admitted that our interpretative views of God according to the Bible could be right or wrong. Some say God condemns gays according to the Bible, others interpret the same passages differently.

by Mike Edwards If you read my weekly Post you are probably tired of my harping on the Bible. The word Bible has occurred over a hundred times in the title of my Post in the past decade or so. &nbs…

by Michael Donahoe For those of us who grew up church, we usually had the feeling that we were not to ask questions. I can remember I felt odd if I had a question about God or my faith, and if I ac…

by Mike Edwards We don’t know what happens after life here on earth. No one can claim the Bible, subject to fallible interpretation, has the definitive answer. We are free to speculate what a lovin…

by Mike Edwards Many religions — like Christianity, Islam, and Judaism — hold that God is all-powerful and all-knowing. That creates the “problem of evil” – If God is good and powerful, why does suffering exist? Different religions respond in various ways: Free will defense: God allows suffering because free will is necessary for genuine love and moral choice. If God prevented all evil, we’d be robots without moral agency.

by Mike Edwards It is said often the main message of the Bible or the gospel is Jesus dying on the cross as a payment for our sin. Jesus took on our punishment so we could be forgiven by God  (Romans 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24). Unbelievers are often advised to pray to God “ I have sinned and fallen short of Your glory, but I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins.

by Michael Donahoe When it comes to Christianity with all its different denominations, interpretations, different versions of the Bible and such, it seems there are always times when we run into conflict with others. Each of us as brothers or sisters in Christ seem to want it our way. Our church, our interpretation, our version of the Bible. We each feel that we are right and feel the need to distance ourselves from those who feel differently.

So many followers of Christ today live like they are under the Old Covenant. We have been brought up in the religious system that seems more like a corporation rather than a community where the priesthood of all believers should be the norm. The church has a pastor, elders and deacons just like a corporation has a CEO, board of directors and operating committee.

Sanctified Gatekeeping and the Church of Conditional Welcome Rev. Mark Sandlin Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor.” But let’s be honest, some folks read that like it came with a stack of footnotes and a link to the dress code. They’ll cross-stitch that verse for the guest bathroom wall, but try applying it to someone who’s queer, questioning, brown, broke, or heaven forbid, a Democrat… and suddenly that love runs drier than year-old communion crackers.

by Mike Edwards Many claim dogmatically that the Bible predicts future events such as what is happening in Israel currently and the end-times when Jesus returns down to earth, allowing such interpretations to guide their foreign policy views. But many fail to recognize that biblical experts don’t agree on the meaning of many passages that may or may not relate to future events.

by Mike Edwards Condemnation of gays in God’s name is one of the greatest stumbling blocks Christians put in front of those wanting a relationship with God. Stop with “God hates sin, not the sinner…

by Michael Donahoe A good friend of mine wrote the following paragraph. There is an old hymn that says “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand” As important as the church is in our lives, we have to be careful not to put our hope in it. I have received a lot of help thru the church and a lot of good basic teachings.

by Mike Edwards I can’t prove Hell or Heaven is real. But, why would we think a loving God would create a place to torture forever those who held certain beliefs while here on earth a short period …

by Mike Edwards Early in my relationship/journey with God, I struggled knowing what God’s plan was for me in marriage, career, etc. Athletes often stated events, even tragic injuries, happened in their life according to God’s will. This implies God has a specific plan in the future for those devoted to God. I so desperately wanted to please God but was clueless.

by Mike Edwards Don’t take personally whether your child adopts your spiritual views or not. It’s their journey. Don’t assume they are being rebellious. There are personal or intellectual reasonable objections to not believe in God. Be careful how you portray God. Our mental views of God shape our attitudes toward God. Have a plan how you want to turn your child toward and not away from God.

by Michael Donahoe What do you think of when you hear the word Atheist, gay, transgender, Muslim, Jew, Christian, black, white or a host of other labels we put on people? Usually, we think of something specific and usually something we have been taught or heard over the years. It depends on where you heard it or who taught you, but a lot of times what we think is something negative in one way or another.

by Mike Edwards Claims made by Christian leaders about God, according to their interpretation of the Bible, keeps believers and unbelievers distant from God. Our relationship with God cannot exceed our views of God. Even if a Book is inspired, interpretations are not. Few admit that their interpretation may be wrong. The only God worth believing in must be a perfect Lover.

by Michael Donahoe When we talk about good works, many of us can get confused and think that we need to do good works to earn our salvation. This way of thinking is totally wrong. Good works do not help us earn salvation or pay for anything with God. Good works will be the result of our salvation that was given to us by the grace of God.

by Mike Edwards Clicking on the link below will take you to an internet summary of my blog. Doing so will lead you to article links that support the stances I take. Or you can search “what god may really be like Mike Edwards.” I agree with its summaries. Maybe you can do a similar search to find summaries for your blogs.

by Mike Edwards Many rightly wonder if what Christian leaders claim about God is true. Who can blame them when God supposedly created a place such as Hell, to torture forever those who don’t believe in God a short time here on earth. In these Posts I will propose a question, which can paint one’s view of God, and then will provide a link what I have written before about the topic.

Yet Has Not Changed My Faith In God by Michael Donahoe We hear the word fundamentalism often in the Christian world. I actually grew up as a fundamentalist, but never realized that was what I was because I never put much thought into all the different terms and labels. I just loved God and went to church because that was the way I thought we lived the Christian life.