A just released, 887-page grand jury report states that 301 Catholic priests have abused 1,000 children over a 70-year period in Pennsylvania. The report also documents the church leadership’s massive cover up of these unconscionable acts. The problem was systemic. The church hierarchy not only failed to protect the most vulnerable under their care; they hid it. The report’s findings are tragic and contemptible. Real lives were, and still are, devastated. God takes such heinous sin seriously: Continue reading “Does Pastoral Abuse Invalidate Christianity?”
Tag: Christianity
People die without water. When someone is far beyond thirsty, a glass of water is worth more to them than all the world’s gold. At age 16, I got heat stroke in Florida…after fishing all day in the hot sun because I forgot to bring drinking water. That was just a single day.
God the Father sent us His One and Only Son, so that through our faith in Jesus Christ, we could be born again by the Holy Spirit. We who believe in Him, have turned from the darkness of this world’s lies to the light and glory of Christ’s truth. We have moved from death to life. Therefore, we are no longer condemned by God, and we will not perish—unlike those who refuse to believe. Continue reading “From Death to Life – John 3:1-21”
Some things never change:
Dr. Rob Oberto is the award-winning author of “Intimacy With God: Extraordinary miracles that opened a skeptic’s heart to God” available from Amazon.
©2017 Rob Oberto, All Rights Reserved.
Are Guardian Angels a myth we tell children to comfort them, or do they actually exist? In Matthew 18:10, Jesus says: “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.” (NRSV)
I’m an extremely light sleeper; always have been. One night I was awakened by some faint noises in our home. I sat up listening. I expected the sounds to be those of one of our two young daughters, but they weren’t. Someone else was in the house!
Is Hebrews 13:2 true? Have some entertained angels without knowing it?
In my early twenties, I was the buyer for my family’s manufacturing company. A buyer deals with many different types of sales representatives, for many different types of products, from many different vendors. I bought whatever raw materials, tools, or supplies we needed to make what our customers ordered.
One of those orders was for the piston housings of the M1A1 Abrams Army tank’s engine. A particular challenge was finding a lathe tool bit holder that could fit in the bore’s unusual bottom shape and was robust enough to reach the 14-inch depth without chattering. I custom ordered it from a national tool supplier. It arrived within two weeks and worked perfectly. Production continued. We subsequently made thousands of these housings and the pistons that went into them.
“Discipleship is a tricky business sometimes,” began the man introduced one Sunday morning as the head of the prison ministry. “You don’t always know how new believers are internalizing Scriptural truths, or some aspect of Christianity that you are explaining. They can parrot the right words back, but they might misunderstand those words – significantly sometimes.”
Such was the case with one prisoner — Jim let’s say. Jim was convicted of bank robbery and sent to the Monroe Correctional Complex in Monroe, WA (USA).
“Pastor Rob, a man arrived requesting to talk with a minister,” my secretary announced one early Monday afternoon.
I met Ted (not his real name) in the waiting room. He was clean cut and in his mid-thirties. I had just spent two hours helping sixteen people with food and other types of assistance. “This shouldn’t take long,” I thought as we walked back to my office.
Ted sat down and came right to the point, “My wife threw me out of the house. I’ve been living in my truck for the past three days, and it’s all my fault.”
Sunday is Father’s Day in the USA. I thought long and hard about what to post for this special day — an emotional one for many. There are several different directions I could have gone, but I decided to focus upward, on God the Father. The background picture and the verses, of the image below, deeply touch my heart. I hope they do yours.
It is a great blessing knowing Whose we are in Christ. Thank you Jesus!
Dr. Rob Oberto is the award-winning author of “Intimacy With God: Extraordinary miracles that opened a skeptic’s heart to God” available from Amazon.
©2017 Rob Oberto, All Rights Reserved.
We can never know when a Goliath will suddenly appear. At any moment, we can be confronted with a life threatening situation and must call upon the Lord to act, or someone will die. Moments like these are not the time to start developing a strong relationship with God, when they arise we must already have one.
My wife and I are beach bums from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Summer days on the Cape are typically hazy, hot, and humid. The three H’s, as the weathermen would say, are what we associated with beaches. That is, until we moved to the Pacific Northwest.
Opened Heart Publishing 
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