God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

  Image created by the author using ChatGPT A Monday church Bible study on Matthew 26, led by our church deacon Tom Craig, inspired this post. Two issues in particular caught my attention. We discussed a meal in which a woman anointed Jesus’ feet with a costly perfume called nard, used for burials. Some claim that it was Mary of Bethany, others that it was Mary Magdalene. I wondered why the woman’s identity is still in doubt, so I launched my own investigation. Another central theme was the Passover meal and the institution of an important sacrament. The average church attender doesn’t know the significance of “new covenant.” It has an important Old Testament connection. Although four versions of the former meal leave us with questions about the woman, combining the accounts of all four gospel writers gives us a clearer picture of the Passover meal, the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples. That night, Jesus showed his followers and all of us how much that communal fello...

Image captured from facebook.com/ppnea  https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1435059125318178&set=pcb.1435059541984803 Early this morning, June 10, 2026, before I woke up, I had a series of chaotic dreams full of scraps that don’t mean anything. Inserted into the weirdness was a scene that felt strangely compelling. I was standing on a city sidewalk with two men, one of whom I supposedly knew. Since in reality, I was sleeping in a light robe with snaps, that was what I was wearing in the dream. But I wasn’t embarrassed about what I wore because concern about attire wasn’t in the script. The two men were talking about something in the news. I don’t recall what, but one man said to me, Janet, do you have any questions for this man? I said, Nope. Are you sure? I replied no again. The questioner was someone familiar in the dream. It kind of felt like my husband, although I’m not sure, but he was clearly hinting that the other man was someone famous, and I should be impressed that w...

  Image by Vecteezy First Problem In the spring of 1992, several young male students at an Assembly of God Bible college in Sacramento, California, were confused about all those women passages. If you were raised in a conservative Evangelical church, you know the ones―women should be silent in the church; women were created second and were the glory of man rather than the glory of God; first God, then Jesus, then the man, then the woman; women must submit to their husbands; women should not teach; women should pray and prophesy with their head covered as a sign of submission; women would be saved in childbirth; women should have long hair; women must not wear certain clothing, etc., etc. For two thousand years, those passages have supported male bias against women in academia, science, art, theology, and even sainthood. That constant disrespect is religion. It’s not love. The issue was never discussed in our Bible college because one of the professors was a woman, and most of...

  Image by author using ChatGTP Because of my Pentecostal background, I often write about contemporary political prophets. Ordinarily, I would hesitate to raise my pen against an anointed soul who is frequently lifted high “in the Spirit.” If God honors them, so should I. But I’ve had many of my own prophetic experiences regarding personal and national topics, and I’ve been a charismatic since 1965, so although I’m not necessarily the brightest bulb on the shelf, I’ve had the experience to earn a seat at the table for discussions on this significant and controversial phenomenon. In 1971, I had a prophetic dream that predicted that Nixon would be swept out of office. I was only half-plugged into the news at that time. I wasn’t sure what to make of it because I’m no prophet, leader, minister, or psychic, and I sure had no reason to suspect that Nixon would not finish his second term, but in 1974, Nixon was pressured by his own party to resign. In 2017, I had a  dream ...

  Image by author using ChatGTP I strongly recommend that the reader visit Part 1 of this two-part series, but both posts can stand alone if need be. On the writing platform Medium in particular, there is a lot of “deconstructing”―people rethinking long-held beliefs and tenets, especially about fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity. I’ve been through that process myself, and I’m all for it―to a degree. I’m certainly not the theological fundamentalist that I used to be, but neither have I spun off into New Age or some vague new paradigm. Nor am I awash in doubts or new questions about the nature of God. The way I stay grounded in my faith is to see Jesus Christ as the Shepherd and the Gate to the sheepfold, just as he claimed to be. The sheepfold is the Kingdom. It’s within us, it’s where we want to be, it’s the place of safety and blessing, it’s the place where we have the guidance of the Kingdom to make the most of our lives and to get in tune with the music of heaven here ...

  Image by author using ChatGTP This post may seem dark and negative, but it ends on a positive note. In a Bible study some time ago, I expressed a concern for lost souls, saying, “I wish I could convince people that there’s a hell.” For decades, I have been hearing and reading about negative NDEs. Whether you believe in hell or not, if it’s real, you may experience the horror of dying and finding yourself there, which is absolutely the worst thing that could happen to any human being of any place or era. That person may wish they had never been born. The pastor countered with, “I would rather convince people that there is a loving God, full of mercy and grace, who would receive the sinner into His arms and change their life.” The pastor was absolutely right, of course, but so was I. If I gave you a $100 bill that was blank on one side, you wouldn’t be able to spend it. It takes the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to find a godly balance between the raw truth about hell and the Fathe...

  Image created by the author using ChatGTP. The young women depicted do not resemble the persons mentioned in the story, but all else is spot on. This is my own true story. It was the end of the spring semester at the University of Washington. I was a flaky, insecure 20-year-old art student with an unimpressive GPA who had acquired a summer job in the cafeteria of the Safeco Insurance building. Despite my Catholic upbringing, I was an agnostic who was actively searching for God. The previous semester, I had taken World History. One of the requirements was to read “The Sermon on the Mount,” three chapters in the book of Matthew. It rocked my world. If there is anything to Christianity, I thought, this is how it should be. From my Catholic education, I knew the story of St. Augustine, how he heard a child’s  voice  one day saying, “Take up and read. Take up and read.” A book was sitting next to him, so he picked it up and read  Romans  13:13, admonishing hi...