#Christ-centered living

[mindfulldsliving]

The "Go" of Renunciation

Responding to Jesus' call requires decisive action. It challenges individuals to leave behind past attachments and embrace a new path, despite the fear of the unknown. This journey demands courage and introspection to identify what truly holds us back.

Renunciation is a key aspect of the Christian journey, focusing on personal growth and healing. It involves letting go of attachments that hinder progress, particularly for those facing addiction, co-dependency, or family issues. This process is not about losing oneself but about finding a better version of oneself through faith. The biblical foundation of renunciation highlights the importance…

[compassionmattersmost]

Living in Alignment with God’s Will and The Mind of Christ

Introduction:In the journey of Christian faith, believers often find themselves wrestling with the dichotomy between the “carnal mind” and the “renewed mind.” The carnal mind, also referred to as the “worldly mind,” is inclined toward sin, temptation, and the distractions of the flesh. On the other hand, the renewed mind is aligned with the will of God, filled with peace, love, and the presence…

[thinkingonscripture]

Dedication to God and the Spiritual Journey

For Christians, dedication to God is the starting point for the spiritual life and the advance to Christian maturity. Dedication is a synonym for commitment, devotion, loyalty, and positive volition. According to Charles Ryrie, “There is perhaps no more important matter in relation to the spiritual life than dedication.”[1] In another place he states, “Dedication concerns the subjection of my…

[the-clay-quarters]

(tags from @neathyingenue @zeebreezin)

hang on have I not mentioned this enough- Hi! Yes! Vincent is Catalan, from Barcelona! I usually talk about them as being/using Spanish but that's honestly just because I know that's what most people would recognise/understand, compared to how relatively niche Catalan is unfortunately. A lot of the time it's more important in the moment to connect somewhat even if it's not entirely accurate "^^ (and they do use Spanish, it's just their second language instead).

Being Catalan specifically is a key part of Vin as a character because, well... I'm projecting, honestly! I live in Barcelona! I may be British, but I've lived here for most of my life now and it's an equally important part of me as a person. Writing about Vin is an excuse to write about the experience of immigrating (though admittedly in reverse of my own) as well as Catalan language, culture, politics, history...

One day I'll sit down and write out some of this stuff and approximately nobody will know the cultural/historical context <3

[alltherelicsofalifelonglived]

what if i just lit the entire kitchen on fire

[triflesandparsnips]

So it looks like people are being Weird about RPF again. I've already talked about this before, but here we go, have an even shorter version of it:

The "real people" typically included in RPF aren't, and it's downright creepy that so many people in comments and posts and whatnot conflate writing/reading about their goddamn neighbors or kids in their class with writing/reading about Famous Actor We Only "Know" From Curated Public Interactions Where They Know They Are Being Observed And Are Projecting Deliberate Personas Based On That Observation.

We don't know them. We can't know them. That's literally the whole thing about parasocial relationships. And this hyper-focus on "protecting" these crafted personas is just the inside-out version of the creepy belief that we have any ability to "know" what these strangers secretly want and need.

(And there's the whole infantalizing aspect, too-- like fuck, man, if they google themselves then they chose that. Give them the goddamn benefit of the doubt that they can make their own adult decisions.)

Actors play two roles these days-- the fictional characters they're called on to play, and the personas they adopt to project the version of themselves we're allowed to know. Neither are real. Waaaay far away is a real person (just as there are real authors, artists, musicians, and other creatives who sometimes put significant parts of themselves in their works but are not, in fact, actually knowable from those works), and we can't really write RPF about them because we don't know shit about them.

It's all just another character being played. And if you can't tell the difference between a character and a person, that's the real damn issue.

[omarfor-orchestra]

Sometimes the author does the worst possible thing they could to some character and sometimes the fanbase interpretation makes the whole thing even worse and you're there looking at the character like they massacred my boy(gn)

[anaalnathrakhs]

mental health facilities looooove to only have inpatient available when it would make things worse

[hag-lad]

Holy fuck, all of your takes about homosexuality are DOGSHIT today, kiddos. Has “queer” in-fighting fully circled back around to become pure homophobia? It’s more likely than you think!

[lemoncake438]

How do u know if its love or mental illness?

[girlcockholmes]

the boy-who-cried-wolfification of gene cousineau…..

[slowwshoww]

i've gotten to a point in my life where skinny people make me angry like so sorry to my skinny friends but i would love to see fewer of you out and about i'm tired

[slayter-kinney]

google search how to shoot deadly lazer beams at yelp reviewers through the phone

[incomprehensiblebi]

i got that cabin fever fr

[chewablepebbles]

PLEASE

[inherpower]

Where is the love?

I have a deep yearning to know and feel God’s love. I’m in an interesting season in my life. There are some relationships that I have upheld as a form of identity for myself and through those relationships I have loved as deeply as I knew how to. All of those relationships have transformed and no longer provide the same sustenance that they once did. I’m being broken down, my sense of identity completely shattered. It’s as if God has inserted himself into my life and decreased my interactions, changed my heart posture so that all I could do was come to Him. In reading 1 John 4:7-21, John tell us that God is love and when we love, we know God.

"We love because he loved us first"  -- 1 John 4:19

But what if you’re view on love and how you were giving and receiving love gets damaged? I find myself having to start fresh and go back to square one, learning what love truly is and is not. I often tell a story of how back at the start of 2020 (before the pandemic hit) I shouted to God at the top of a mountain saying that I am ready to be who HE created me to be. My life utterly broke down after that prayer. In fact I’m still clearing out the rubble as I write this. God stripped me of all perceived safety and security in anything that was not Him. Now I spend a great amount of my time praying and allowing God to rebuild me. This hasn’t been easy. If you are married, a parent, an exalted child, a person of status in your career, imagine that position or title that you hold most dear being adapted into what God desired for you, not the other way around.

One thing I’ve asked God in the past and I’ve heard other people ask is why would God allow for a certain situation and circumstance to happen? God broke it down. Bear with me. At times we get ourselves into situations that weren’t even what God wanted for us in the first place and then we ask why He allowed it to happen. God gave us free will. We made those decisions of our own volition. In fact God loves us so much that He will often send us a messenger telling us hey, that might not be the direction you wanna go in and we may get defensive and push back on that message and say that WE have a right to choose. And if the situation or circumstance that we may be getting into is really bad, God many send a messenger multiple times in many different forms. So why be mad at God? 

Yeah I know it’s a hard pill to swallow but the beauty is that we can come to Him when it all comes down and He will rebuild us and set us on the path that He designed for us. When I asked God to come into my life He cleaned house. All that I had known, believed and stood on was dismantled. Initially I called out to God asking why. Why was I being punished? To make matters worse I had to be silent and not clap back or defend myself when I wanted to. In rare moments when I was crying and pleading to take action He would tell me Do nothing. Say nothing. Let me take care of it. It took some time but He calmed my storms. My conversations with God turned into prayers then they turned into praise. A situation would come along and try to knock me off my square and I started thanking God for His love and protection. I may have been rattled for a bit but I got back to center and grounded myself in God’s love.

So back to what I was initially presenting in regards to my relationships. In each realm of my life (family, friend, self) God has revamped my relationships to show me how loved I am. And for the relationships that still need some work, He has set them aside and is taking care of them on my behalf. While He does that I lean into Him to nourish me. That’s all He’s ever wanted is for me to come to Him so that He can wrap himself around me and remind me that I am loved. There is a verse that has been my beacon of light when it comes to love. When you have a chance read all of Ephesians 3:14-21 but I will share the parts within this larger text that I rest on.

"...that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."  -- Ephesians 3:16-19 ESV

I’ll come back to this passage in another post and dive deeper into this cause it’s so good. But I want to end here with this and let you meditate on these words.