Dear Folks -

I have a T-shirt that says: "God Bless Everybody - No Exceptions."

That is a very appealing concept to me. Everybody is inside the circle of God's love, including all of who we are.

It is also a very frightening concept. Everybody is in? I have to include everybody? Now, that's quite a challenge.

Jesus' second best-known parable, called The Parable of the Good Samaritan, offers us not only a redefinition of who our neighbor is, but also suggests the role the once-despised neighbor can play in bringing us inside the circle of God's love and justice.

That's a summary of what I talked about this week in Ordinary Life.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Click here to Download intro to current study theme: Why the Parables.pdf

Click here to Download text 20100110.pdf

Click here to Download 1_10_10 - Appealing and Frightening Presentation.pdf

Click here to Download audio 20100110.mp3

Dear Folks -

If we are to grow as centers of freedom and love, we must pay attention to two worlds at once - the outer world and the inner world.

I expand on this thesis in the talk I gave this week in Ordinary Life. The title is "Patience and Persistence: Realizing the Kingdom Within and Without."

The talk is based on a parable of Jesus that frequently goes by the title "The unjust judge."

In summary: We will not have peace in the world until we have justice and we will not be able to do justice until we have done our inner work.

In this talk I use a quote from Jungian analyst John Sanford. Two of his book you might want to follow up on after reading the text below are: Dreams: God's Forgotten Language and The Kingdom Within: The Inner Meaning of the Sayings of Jesus.

A copy of the full text I used is below with the the Keynote presentation and audio version.