Hope has nothing to do with wishing.

Hope is distinct from optimism or idealism. It has nothing to do with wishing. It references reality at every turn and reveres truth. It lives open eyed and wholehearted with the darkness that is woven ineluctably into the light of life and sometimes seems to overcome it. Hope, like every virtue, is a choice that becomes a practice that becomes spiritual muscle memory. It’s a renewable resource for moving through life as it is, not as we wish it to be. (Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living by Krista Tippett; p. 233.)

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Who Created “Good” and “Evil”?

How important is it for people to understand what “ good ” and “ evil ” mean? For those of us with Christian Biblical Heritages, evil is a very important word . In the King James Version of the Bible the word “ evil ” appears 613 times . “ Good ” appears 720 times . I found this very interesting, because I heard a lot more about evil than I did about good in the church my family attended when I was growing up. That really stood out at the end of every church service when “ the invitation ” was given. It was an opportunity for “ lost ” people to be “ saved .” Why were they lost and why did they need to be saved? Continue reading at -- https://mailchi.mp/a38b5c20c334/who-created-good-and-evil

Why Exploring the Bible is Important

Today, I want to tell you a story that will provide a context in which you can better understand why exploring the Bible is so important. Once upon a time, a professor, a rabbi and a pastor agreed to follow a guideline and explore the Bible. Their names are Ike Tennison , Jeffrey Leynor , and Jim Myers . (that’s me). We are the First Exploring the Bible Team. We explored the Bible for over 30 years and became very good friends. Agreeing to follow the guideline creates safe and open environments to explore belief systems; and that is priceless! Continue reading at – http://mailchi.mp/f9ac65506bb2/why-exploring-the-bible-is-important

What am I?

What am I? Now that’s a question a lot of people have asked in the history of humans. We ( Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor and former pastor Jim Myers ) created two models for working with that question – after wrestling with it for over 25 years . You may have noticed that use models instead of answers. Most questions about life are better understood by using models that reveal potentialities than statements of either/or answers . Our models emerged from two sources in which our research and studies focused on during our journey together – one source is an ancient wisdom account embedded in our shared religious texts and the other source is modern science . This makes our approach at the TOV Center unique in many respects – we combine the wisdom of ancient texts with the facts of modern science to maximize human experiences . As pointed out above, we created a model from each source to help us better understand humans: (1) Ancient Wisdom Model – Humans are creatures that share t

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