Well And Truly Loved!
Do you ever have days, or seasons, when you see, think and feel that everyone around you has it all together? They seem to have and get everything they need and more than they even want, and they are happy all the time? You can see the blessings and love of God all over them and their families. I had a few days where a bunch of things seemed to be going wrong in my family, with my computer, and my attitude. Adding insult to injury, my hubby, totally happy and at peace, barely reacted to my frustrations! He has a very close walk with the Lord, and I do thank God daily for this trust, faith and sunny disposition despite his physical and health limitations.
The Necessity Of Hope
The contemplation of suicide demonstrates the necessity of hope! While the circumstances surrounding suicide are varied, many turn to suicide because of a loss of hope. He or she has decided that life"s not worth living. This tells us in order to live we need hope that will sustain us through life"s painful circumstances. Where do we find the kind of hope that will anchor us when our little boat has capsized on the sea of life? I was raised in a Christian home since I was 2 years old. As long as I colored inside the prescribed lines, life was easy. I was in my late teens and early twenties before I began to experience the turbulence of life.
Amish Diversity
The Amish of North America are a diverse group. As an Ohio Amishman recently put it, "the typical English (Amish term for non-Amish person) fellow looks at one of us and just sees an Amishman. In reality there is a lot of difference." The Old Order The most 'mainstream' group is known as the Old Order Amish. The Old Order is found throughout North America, in approximately two dozen states, as well as Ontario. Large Old Order settlements are found in Holmes and Wayne Counties of Ohio, Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, LaGrange and Elkhart Counties in Indiana, and Geauga County in Ohio. These four settlements rank as the largest in the country.
Anglican Covenant Overlooks Liturgy - Flawed First Draft
The drafters of the proposed Anglican Covenant (a document intended to hold together a fragmenting Anglican Communion) have failed to include the concept of common prayer - one of the jewels of Anglicanism. The draft covenant proposes a sort of corporate papacy alien to Anglican (Episcopalian) thinking thus far. Whilst it might be surprising that the draft makes no mention of concepts of subsidiarity, reception, the three legged stool, or the wide tent of Anglican inclusiveness, it is the complete absence of shared liturgical practice that surprises me most. The genius of the (Elizabethan) Anglican settlement was community formed not by confessional hegemony (as with Continental Protestantism on the one hand), nor by authoritarianism (as with Roman Catholicism on the other), but by a commitment to shared liturgical practice.
Awakening into the Light
Ever since the beginning, the first time a human being truly noticed light of any kind, it was the light from the Sun. This fact may seem obvious to many, yet it is significant. It is important to note that the source of this predominant light is indeed from the Sun, for Sun-worship is perhaps the most ancient of religions. There is an ancient Hermetic principle which states that the outer reflects the inner. You may remember two ancient axioms: "As above, so below, " and adjacent to this, "As within, so without." How does the Sun of our outer physical world reflect something within us?
A Follower of What s-His-Name?
The more I read and listen to others who are wading the House Church pool, sadly, the more I see well-meaning Christians inadvertently lifting up the leaders of various "networks" within the movement. Once again, Dissension appears to be trying to rear its ugly head. Each House Church group and network seems to have their own philosophy with each placing greater emphasis on one thing or another. One places a strong emphasis on the Lord's Supper while another stresses that any "layman" can start a church in their home. Another group emphasizes signs and wonders while another emphasizes the "Saturation Church" concept.
Will You Be Living When The Sun Scorches Men With Fire?
By the time you will read this message the Inconvenient Truth, the documentary on global warming will be in your local video store on DVD and I suggest all you readers if you haven"t seen the film go and get yourself a copy. I am a guy who cannot watch the news on Television without prophecies in the Bible coming to mind, and passages that I know about earth"s final days coming to mind. As I sat and watched the fine documentary that shows a presentation by Al Gore on global warming one specific scripture verse in the Book of Revelation came to mind. As they predicted in the film that temperatures were going to shoot up there was one scripture reference put in my mind by God"s Spirit.
The Biblical answer to the Australian once in a thousand year drought.
The Honorable Prime minister John Howard PO Box 6022 House of Representatives Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 12th of November 2006 RE: The Biblical answer to the Australian once in a thousand year drought Dear John, As a person who has a mental illness, and a criminal record, it humbles me to write to a Federal member such as you. I am not aware of how strong a Christian you are and what denomination you are from, but I appeal to you as a man who I feel might respect scripture that this letter is a simple man"s answer to the problem we are in. I am aware that you must have many spiritual advisors and with my many arrests and presentation in mental wards I have come to have a respect for the police and the mental health system that I am a part of.
Christian Almsgiving The Habit Of Helping People
We're taught a lot about giving, but it's usually only about the tithes and offerings that support the church and the ministers doing the teaching. This leaves the most important aspects of giving untaught and grossly misunderstood. In this article, we'll discuss the rewarding and often controversial issue of Almsgiving. Almsgiving is the Christian habit of giving things to fill the needs of perfect strangers. Hold on to your hats, because some of what we'll cover can make people hopping mad. Selfish, Greedy Christians: It's always shocking to me when I discover how stingy we Christians are.
Atlas Shrugged Tikkun Olam
Tikkun Olam (Jewish concept of repairing the world) in its authentic, Lurianic Kabbalistic version refers to an introspective approach and methodology by which an intense relationship between man and God is forged, mitzvoth realized and slowly but meticulously, the world self corrects. Michael Lerner"s fabrication and fictional version of Tikkun Olam has no basis in Jewish thought. Judaism never adhered to, nor advocated, the social or economic system reflected in his vision of an advanced and sophisticate Western Civilization. If any economic system is advocated in our tradition it is capitalism.