JR. Forasteros - May 11, 2014
God as Mother
Women in our culture have a confidence problem - most women undervalue themselves (while most men tend to overestimate themselves). Women can find their confidence in the fact that they bear the image of God. While we usually think of God as Father, God often refers to Godself as a Mother in the Scriptures, too. What does it mean that God is both Father and Mother to us? How is the truth that God is both male and female good news to both men and women?
From Series: "Hello My Name Is..."
Who is God? The answers to this most basic human question can be found in the Scriptures. Over and over, God comes to humanity, interacts with us in ways we can understand, and we learn more of who God is. Often in these interactions, the people who met God would give God a name - a way to describe how God had worked in their lives. As we explore these stories, we'll learn that God is the same God for us today. God is our provider, our shepherd, our banner, our peace, our mother and more!
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Today’s about Ghost stories. Though they appear in many forms, the quintessential ghost story involves the spirit of a dead person who’s stayed around (usually a haunted house) because they have unfinished business. Maybe they have to deliver a message or ensure proper burial or get revenge. Whatever the case, once their business is complete, they leave into the afterlife.
Unlike our previous two monsters, today we’re not ghosts. Rather, to quote Peter Rollins,
We are the haunted houses. — Peter Rollins
We move through life collecting hurts, wounds and scars, evidence of pain inflicted on us by other people. Some may be slight, exaggerated in our heads – maybe someone who cuts us off or says something cruel or who causes us harm by accident. Others could be huge, life-altering. A spouse who left. An abuser. And there’s a whole range of hurts between.
Whatever their source, however legitimate or not, these people, these hurts don’t just exit our lives.
We carry them around with us, in our heads and in our souls. They haunt us, returning again and again out of the ether to drag us through the past, to relive history, to reopen old wounds.
The problem is we don’t know what these ghosts want. We don’t know how to resolve their business and get them to leave us. We can’t escape their haunting – especially if the person who hurt you is still a part of your life.
