Peaceful Religions?
April 14, 2008
If you say that Christianity is a peaceful religion according to scripture then it can be said that Islam, according to scripture is peaceful. In reality, both the Koran and the Bible present a dichotomy, promoting peace and violence. They both contain quotes that are peaceful and some not so peaceful quotes.
In Luke 19:27, Jesus himself says,
“But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them - bring them here and kill them in front of me.”
Now the popular phrase…what would Jesus do?…doesn’t sound to good, does it?
The Koran also has many quotes like 2:190,
“The believer is called upon to fight in the way of God with those that fight with you…but aggress not. God loves not the aggressors.”
The point of using quotes is to show that using quotes is pointless. They can be twisted around and interpreted in a multitude of ways. Organized religion and now, politics, are both guilty of using propaganda, containing quotes from the Bible or whatever text is appropriate, trying to influence the reader.
Conserving Water at a Car Wash Fundraiser
April 13, 2008
If you use a pressure washer during your fundraiser you can wash twenty cars with one capful of soap in a two-thirds filled five-gallon water bucket. Of course your soap will be biodegradable. At least twenty-five percent of the cars you wash will not require the use of soap due to previous wax coats that have been applied. These cars combine to lower your wet/rinse cycle to about thirty seconds of spray time or 1.2 gallons of water per car. This is fifty times more efficient. You can wash fifty cars with a pressure washer to the one car washed with a garden hose in the driveway. This constitutes a significant savings in water.
If you spray a car with special equipment (pressure washer) you will get a fine mist spray. The water can be applied evenly and gives the run off a spread effect. Thus the water that reaches the ground evaporates quickly. A car that needs to be soaped will have a wet/rinse cycle of about one minute and will use about two gallons of water. This water never reaches the storm drains.
Happiness Without Prescription
April 12, 2008
As life and lifestyles speed up, so does the growing increase of the sense of longing, wandering just what else is there for ourselves, our families. Some people address their thoughts and feelings as valid and some do the exact opposite, they act as if those questions don’t exist.
For those that avoid the inner questions, they tend to feel uncertainty, depression, and weighed down. Then they seem to wonder what is wrong with them. The truth is, nothing is wrong, their bodies are doing exactly what they were intended to do… alert you that something in your life needs attention.
Our bodies are amazing because they really do work together with our personal well-being. When we take care of ourselves, our bodies function as they should naturally. When we subject ourselves to negative behaviors and lifestyles, our bodies pay the price. You may not be able to always see the repercussions of negative behavior right away, but it does take its toll in the long term.
Our behaviors can trigger messages from our bodies. Ever wonder why you get sick after being stressed? Or why being around negative people leaves you feeling exhausted? This is just your body’s way of sending out a warning sign that your well-being is being subjected to something that causes imbalance.
Better Worship - 12 Marks of an Effective Music Ministry
April 11, 2008
Small Beginnings
My first experience in music ministry happened fairly soon after I first picked up a guitar at 15 years of age. I knew about 20 chords and could play a few songs from a new songbook titled Scripture in Song. Fortunately most of the songs were in guitar-friendly keys.
There were four of us who played guitar in a small country Baptist church. I know one song we dreaded was “Rise and Shine” (’God said to Noah there’s gonna be a floody floody?’). The chords were simple, but the strumming rhythm was a real wrist breaker.
After church we would retire to one of our homes and listen to the latest Larry Norman or Randy Stonehill album, and try to work out the chords and guitar licks. As Bryan Adams sang, ‘I played it till my fingers bled?those were the best days of my life’. The songs were simple and we’d try and embellish them with influences from progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd and Yes. However there’s a limit to what you can do with a $20 nylon string guitar. Sometimes this went down well. At other times some of the elders would warn us of the dangers of getting so caught up in the music that we forgot the main game. In their quirky country ways, they had a point.
Mythology and Parables in Modern Communication - Part 2
April 10, 2008
There is a big adjustment coming in terms of our Human and Spiritual evolution, where Mythology and Parables will again play a vital role in the process. As mentioned in part 1, when our usual systems of information discernment fail us ? you ? we ? I ? will turn back to something familiar and old.
Myths are as old as the dawn of man. They predate human history because the latter is only a recent event. Recorded history began just a few thousand years ago and there are at least 100,000 Earth years with human civilization involved yet to be accounted for. All of them as rich, I believe, as those we can currently look into through our history books. Prior to that, it was the Oral Tradition that kept subsequent generations informed. Oddly enough, some of those Oral Traditions are still alive today in certain cultures (Egypt for example) where this missing 100,000 years of human history is available.
The 1000 Year Millennium Kingdom
April 9, 2008
After the last bowl judgment is thrown by God the Father to the earth, the battle of Armageddon ensues and Jesus then comes back to put an end to all of it. The Antichrist and False Prophet are the first ones to be thrown into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.
Satan is thrown into the bottomless pit for a thousand years and all the bad and unsaved people are kept in Hades (Hell) for the next 1000 years. All of the above was discussed in my article titled “Basic Overview of Main End Time Events,” so I won’t repeat what was in that article. All the Scripture verses were given to you in that article on all of the above events.
Now that Jesus has returned back to our earth for the second and final time - what is He going to do? He is going to set up a 1000 year Millennium Kingdom of which He will literally rule this earth from the city of Jerusalem. Here is what the Bible has to say about what will be going on during this time period.
The Need to Survive; A Death Knell For Organizations
April 9, 2008
Changing the driving force upon which business decisions are based is crucial in order to not only restore ethics in business but to truly improve the lives of those whom they were meant to benefit: executives, employees and consumers. After all, weren’t business activities meant to improve the state of existence of human beings on this planet?
So what is this driving force that I am referring to? Well its the “fear of not surviving”. You thought I was going to say something like “the profit motive” didn’t you? Well the latter tends to derive from the former. Hence I would prefer to look at the deeper issue.
Is anyone surprized that the current state of business decisions and activities is ruled by this emotional factor? If you are an executive and look deeply within yourself I think that you will likely recognize it operating and living within yourself and also the CEO’s of many major corporations.
What impact does having such a force inside one’s self likely to have on that individual? Well if its powerul enough, and it can be quite powerful, as you can determine for yourself by recalling the last time you felt its effects operating, it can literally cause you to entertain decisions that could potentially undermine your self esteem, your integrity and the integrity of your organization.
What NOT To Do To Feel Good About Yourself - 10 Tips
April 8, 2008
From the moment we wake in the morning our heads start to fill with all sorts of thoughts. What will you give the kids for breakfast? Will you get the time to iron your blouse before you leave for work? What will you do if you miss the bus? And so it goes on.
The first clue to turning your life around and making it happier is to stop using negative thought. You probably aren’t even aware that you’re doing it but when you say “I was hit by a car and now I’ve got a broken arm” and feel angry about it, you’re using a negative attitude. If you’d said “I was hit by a car but luckily I escaped with just a broken arm” and feel relived about it, you’re tackling life with a positive attitude.
The question should never be “why did it happen to me?” but “what can I do to improve things now that it’s happened.”
The tips below will help you understand what you could be doing wrong and help you turn around your negative attitude, helping you cope with life and enjoy a brighter future.
1. SEE LIFE AS THE ENEMY
Mythology and Parables in Modern Communication - Part 1
April 7, 2008
Today there is a growing need to examine all our systems of thought and communication. We are witness to an information explosion. Never before has there been such a plethora of relevant and not so relevant information available on every subject imaginable. Most of us cannot even begin to fathom the depths of this apparent inexhaustible supply.
So how do we process what is coming at us now, let alone, what will be there in the future? There has to be a way to sort through this landslide of facts and fiction, to go over each piece and determine for ourselves its inherent validity and relevance to our lives.
In each epoch in our history there were major transition points that affected all of humanity. These were marked by chaos and fear, upset and upheaval, all related to a convulsive present and an indeterminate future. Examples would be the “Agricultural Revolution,” when, as a species, we stopped wandering and gathering, and started cultivating fields and growing our own food. Then came the “Industrial Revolution,” where there began the vast process of mechanizing our work. In all such cases, an old way was leaving, while the new way was being born. During these transition phases, chaos and upheaval were the signs of the times. Many current writers are suggesting that this is also the case today, with the present Information Revolution; and I would agree.
Can Jewish Americans Still Have Devout Catholic Friends?
April 6, 2008
America is dividing again. Jewish Americans are finding it hard to discuss issues with devout Catholics who go with the flow and support the new Pope, Benedict XVI a former Hitler Youth. The Catholic Church says that he only joined because all citizens of his age were compelled to join. Yet would Jesus have joined the Hitler Youth? Six million, that’s correct six million Jews were killed under Hitler’s orders. The Hitler Youth threw rocks threw Jewish residence windows, helped turn in Jews and anyone who supported them or aided them. Later they assisted in rounding up Jewish folks. And today we have a former Hitler Youth as Pope of the Catholic Church, with out regard to the fact. We have devout Catholics unwilling to question this, unwilling to leave the church and willing to go with the program giving into the hypocrisy. It is a complete slap in the face to the free world for the Catholic Church with their power, wealth and abilities to appoint this Catholic Pope, Benedict XVI, who has already betrayed the teachings of Jesus and the purported mission of the Catholic Church.
