7 ROYALTY OF CANADA

Special thanks to the author : Michael Duduit "I am mid-way through a month-long study leave in Cambridge, England, where I am doing research at Tyndale House as I work on a book. I’ve enjoyed meeting scholars and graduate students from many nations at this evangelical study center. Meanwhile I’ve been staying at Ridley Hall, a college for Anglican ministers, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know future Anglican clergy, as well as pastors there on sabbatical or retreat stays. This morning, I visited with a veteran pastor—31 years in ministry, 27 years in his current church—who is on retreat. He’s a few years from retirement, and he talked about the struggles of ministry without having close friends. I suspect that will sound familiar to more than a few readers. Harry Truman once said that if you want a friend in Washington, “get a dog.” I love my dog, but God made us to be in relationship with Him and one another. We also need to get a friend. Let me suggest to you the same thing I a...

Special thanks to the author of this article: Arielle Brown and also to Irwantini  for sharing this article. How our Feelings Weigh Down our Bodies. Via Arielle Brown on Dec 26, 2014 Lighten your load: express yourself. It isn’t easy being a human being these days. We are told how to look, how to be, how to act and how to feel as a prescription to being loved and accepted by others, and, quite frankly, it blows. We live in a culture obsessed with emotional, mental, physical and spiritual perfection, and in the pursuit of that picture-perfect, even-keeled, inside the box ideal, we start to suppress and shut down who we truly are, because if we’re not tapped into the paradigm social acceptability, then we believe we are sh*t out of luck for a date to the dance—so to speak. What does it feel like to smother your anger under layers of false smiles and stifled words? What does it feel like to perpetually swallow a powerful truth that is begging to be spoken? How does it...