Free Republic

On the way home from his psychiatric practice, Dr. John Masko used to stop at St. Mary’s Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts, to buy chocolates that the nuns made — and sometimes to attend Mass. On those visits to the Trappistine monastery in the 1990s, he discovered something that changed his understanding of living the faith: a gift he is sharing through the new podcast series, “The Beauty Within.” Glimpses of the sisters at work and prayer led him to reconsider his assumptions about cloistered nuns, those who live a life of prayer inside their monastery and don’t do ministry in...

Excerpted: What Catholic mysticism does is reject the Bible as the sole and sufficient and perfect revelation of God and tries to delve beyond the Bible, even beyond thought of any kind, and find God through mystical “intuition.” In other words, it is a rejection of the God of the Bible. It says that God cannot be known by doctrine and cannot be described in words. He can only be experienced through mysticism. This is a blatant denial of the Bible’s claim to be the very Word of God. This opens the practitioner to demonic delusion. He is left with...

I normally spent first hour of day in office with the Lord and write down something my heart expresses at that moment, the loving dialogue like the ones I now send you. The ideas are not original in the sense that they are all originated from divine inspiration. Empty yourself completely of all thoughts especially on self to be filled with Christ. The last couple weeks of my life have been divine to the point I no longer consider this current life as significant. While living in it, I try to preserve my heart to the Lord only because I...

Hi you music buffs out there - this time I want your views on one of the very greatest and most singular American guitarists. John Fahey. A self-made man if there ever was one, and superbly intelligent and poetic to boot. In the 1960s he started out with a self-financed private pressing LP about a fictitious blues legend, Blind Joe Death. There were 50 or 100 copies extant, depending on whom you consult. Needless to say it's the proverbial collector's item nowadays. Then a stream of great, contemplative, adventurous albums followed, many of them accompanied by fantastic, albeit spurious personal...

Celebrating the Resurrection, But Denying the Atonement Source: Lighthouse Trails The Church's fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end, and the place of the cross must be reimagined in Christian faith. Why? Because of the cult of suffering and the vindictive God behind it.--Alan Jones1 As we here at Lighthouse Trails have joined with other believers in exposing the truth about the emerging church and contemplative spirituality, we have come to learn that the core of the New Age believes that the teachings of the East and of the West must be fused and...

The Future Lies in the Past -- Why evangelicals are connecting with the early church as they move into the 21st century.Many 20- and 30-something evangelicals are uneasy and alienated in mall-like church environments; high-energy, entertainment-oriented worship; and boomer-era ministry strategies and structures modeled on the business world. Increasingly, they are asking just how these culturally camouflaged churches can help them rise above the values of the consumerist world around them. For younger evangelicals, traditional churches are too centered on words and propositions. And pragmatic churches are compromising authentic Christianity by tailoring their ministries to the marketplace and pop culture....

I've Got To Get Some Things Off My Chest Greg Austin! www.gregaustin.org Don't Read This I warned you - I asked you NOT to read this, but here you are anyway . . . . Consider yourself warned! I've gotta say something. It's going to make some good, Emerging Church folks mad and it's going to offend "Ex-Church" friends alike. Some "Institutional Church" people won't like what I'm going to say any better. What I need to say is going to be extremely controversial, and knowing I'm going to stir folks up, I'm going to speak out anyway. Get mad...