Giant killers don’t like to hang out with grasshopper thinkers!
MY2CENTS
Nice ’sounding quote’ but If I am a Giant killer I would love to hang out with ‘grasshopper thinkers’ to influence their thinking around..;D
QUOTE OF THE DAY . November 5, 2009
X-TRAMARITAL FUN!!?? November 4, 2009
A week in the life of a marriage counsellor
By Diana Appleyard-From the Daily Mail
QUOTE : 9AM Andy and Laura, both in their late 30s, come to see me. Andy is a stockbroker and Laura is a commodities broker. Both work in the City and both love living on the edge. These two are fighting for their marriage of eight years. Both have had affairs, both have admitted them to the other and yet they are so happy in so many ways.(oh dear!!)
The reason for the adultery was because both believed they needed the excitement of an illicit affair, so if they can find this level of excitement with each other they will be fine.
LET ‘S GET NUMB! November 4, 2009
On the quiet, the US is legalising marijuana
You know things are shifting in America when Fortune magazine, the bible for business journalism, runs a cover story titled “Is pot already legal?”.
And my bet is that in a decade’s time, the banning of cannabis will seem as strange as the banning of alcohol.
The need for taboos is eternal. But the object of the taboo is always shifting. The age of tobacco may be ending; and the millennium of marijuana may be about to begin.
In one of the comments of the above article that was to be read ( by someone listing the goods of pot):
The best one is this though, in the Bible when Jesus is covered in annointing oils did you know that these contained cannabis that would have seeped through his skin causing him to feel the ’stoner high’. Yes thats right, Jesus got high.These are the truths that don’t get mentioned in the press or by goverments.( Obviously rubbish Fact,along the lines of Rastafarian believing that the tree of life was Marijuana!!)
MY2cents:
I am sure that we will eventually get there,’Pot’ is ‘maybe’ not a threat as ‘physical’ as alcohol but it is a mental threat,Government will eventually legalize it to numb society.People do see ,interpret things differently when High,they go into another dimension,the more they smoke the more they stay there and eventually become ’something’,It will definitely suit the ‘New Spiritual Age ‘ Humanity is heading to .;(
RACE vs RACE November 4, 2009
“People should realise that, if you have a right to discriminate against another race, you have automatically given others the right to discriminate against you.”
MISCARRIAGE TWEETS! November 4, 2009
‘It’s no different to saying what I had for lunch’: Outrage as mother tweets miscarriage from boardroom
Peine de mort : si loin, si près… November 4, 2009
Depuis bientôt 30 ans la peine de mort fait partie de l’histoire ancienne… A 30 kilomètres de nos côtes, elle est pourtant encore tristement d’actualité. Si au niveau mondial, plus de deux tiers des pays ont aboli la peine capitale, les Petites Antilles sont très en retard dans ce mouvement.
Parmi la soixantaine de pays à encore appliquer la peine capitale, 10 sont dans la Caraïbe
QUOTE OF THE DAY November 4, 2009
If we only have the will to walk, then God is pleased with our stumbles.
C S Lewis
VERSE OF THE DAY . November 4, 2009
Jesus stopped in the road and called : ‘What do you want me to do for you ?
No men OR women needed November 3, 2009
Scientists create sperm and eggs from stem cells
By Fiona Macrae-from Daily Mail
- Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood.
- It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own.
- But it raises a number of moral and ethical concerns. These include the possibility of children being born through entirely artificial means, and men and women being sidelined from the process of making babies.
- Dr Reijo Pera said any future use of artificial eggs and sperm would have to be subject to guidelines.Whether one builds the boundaries on religion or just on an internal sense or of right and wrong, these are important. In this field, it is not “anything goes”.
- Dr Peter Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said that IVF should be the preserve of married couples.’The question is, why are we creating artificial gametes (eggs and sperm) and aborting 200,000 babies a year when there are many, many couples willing to adopt?’
PAEDOPHILIA NOT A ‘CRIME’ BUT AN ‘ATTRACTION’ ?? November 3, 2009
« On diabolise, on dit aux gens qu’un pédophile, c’est un monstre. Evrard est un monstre parce que c’est un criminel sexuel, récidiviste en plus. Mais pédophile, c’est une attirance, pas un crime. Est-ce qu’on précise que le violeur de la joggueuse en Seine-et-Marne était hétérosexuel ? »
Translation:
We tend to demonize,It is said that pedophile is a monster,Evrard is a monster because he is a sexual criminal,recidivist to top it all.But Paedophilia,is attraction, not crime.Do we specify that a rapist was an Heterosexual?
Very Interesting way of putting it ! ;(
SEX IN THE 50′ November 3, 2009
A portrait of love and marriage in the very different world of Fifties Britain
MARRIAGE
In the Fifties, marriage was the unassailable norm and all-pervasive expectation.
Never before had such a high proportion of women under 30 been married – and never since.Politicians linked the moral and social health of the nation with the moral and social health of the family.
Marriage was an integral part – arguably the integral part – of the Fifties deal. Divorce, running at an annual rate of two divorces per 1,000 married people, was very unusual and much frowned on.
XTRA-MARITAL
As for extra-marital affairs, there is little concrete evidence of how much was going on outside the statistically insignificant world of the open-marriage intelligentsia.
The only guide was a dubious Mass Observation survey in 1949, which declared that one husband in four and one wife in five admitted to sexual relations outside marriage.
There was widespread condemnation of sex outside marriage (63 per cent in one sample). But more tolerance was creeping in, such as over what a husband or wife should do if the other was having an affair.
But, for all the slight softening of attitudes, the fact remains that, throughout the Fifties, sex was a subject with which the British were ill at ease.
Deep sexual ignorance resulted. Lively recalls how she and her female generation ‘found out by trial and error, and mistakes ended in marriage or abortion’.
VIRGINITY
Surveys showed that the vast majority of young people expected to be virgins when they married, and their partners too. ‘I want a pure girl, so the least I can do is to be the same myself,’ said a 20-year-old London lad.Whether these aspirations matched reality is unclear. Another survey reported that 43 per cent of single women in their 20s had had sex.Those from wealthier backgrounds were more likely to have had it.
ABORTION
But there were risks for a girl who defied the taboo on sex. Her choice of husband might be limited. Given the cult of virginity, she would be seen as ‘used goods’.Fatalities among women undergoing an abortion were high, but were far higher among women who tried to do it themselves, unaided.’Public opinion was softening on abortion. For unmarried mothers, however, the shame was as sharp as ever.
MARRIED SEX
And what of sex within marriage? In the only systematic survey of this during the Fifties, four out of five women said they got ‘a lot’ or ‘a fair amount’ of satisfaction. The higher up the occupational ladder the husband was, the more sexual satisfaction his wife was likely to get – or claim to get.Oral testimony tends not to support this. A doctor who talked to hundreds of married women said half never discovered that physical satisfaction could, and should, be as real and vivid for them as it was for their husbands.Some expressed disappointment that sex lasted only ‘two minutes’.Other researchers concluded that most women regarded sexual intercourse as a necessary part of married life, but did not enjoy it.
In the Fifties, the greatest priority was to keep the family show on the road, even if that show involved untold frustrations and resentments.
PAUL THE UN-CHARISMATIC ?? November 3, 2009
The Apostle Paul had apparently no charisma!
Interesting fact to ponder over in a generation always running after charismatic speakers, one that makes us laugh etc – aka motivational speakers.What a contrast,with one of the greatest preacher!
It seems that Paul didn’t rely at all on his natural abilities,but on the Holy Spirit.
For they say “His letters are authoritative and forcible, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and as for eloquence, he has none.”
But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things.
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
- 11:6 If I am unskillful in speech – If I speak in a plain, unadorned way, like an unlearned person. So the Greek word properly signifies.
- Paul did not lack the type of eloquence which is proper for a man, and fit for the Gospel, but he willingly lacked that eloquent type of speech, which too many now a days search after and follow.
- There was nothing of majesty or authority in his manner; he bore himself tremblingly among them, whereas the false teachers spoke with authoritative bearing and language.
HOSEA’S WIFE November 1, 2009
- Jeroboam was one of the wicked kings of Israel and the nation was going through a difficult time when Hosea was preaching. People were “living it up,” as we might say, and didn’t have much time for God.
- So, as always, people didn’t pay much attention to Hosea. He spoke of judgment and of chastisement from God. and they said that Hosea’s God must be a pretty vengeful sort to talk like that. Hosea tried to tell them that wasn’t so. He said that God was a God of love and that his doing this was the very activity of love; that God wanted them to see what they were doing to themselves and that the only way he could get them to listen was to make things rough for them.
- And so young Hosea found that his audience was diminishing. People were polite to his face, I suppose, but they sneered behind his back. He found that he was being given the nice-and-harmless treatment. That is what people usually do to preachers.
- So Hosea is rather discouraged and in the opening chapter of this little book of prophecy we read a personal note about him. He went to God and God told him to do a strange thing. God said, “I want you to get married.” Her name was Gomer.
- But God said to him, “I want you to know the whole story about this girl. I want you to marry her, but she is going to be unfaithful to you; in fact, she will become nothing but a common street prostitute. But I want you to marry her anyway.
- At first it was heaven on earth. Hosea loved this girl.
- Hosea’s household. was full with children but then Gomer began to fulfill the sad prediction that God had made when he had told Hosea to marry her. What a heartbreak it must have been to this young preacher as he heard the whispers that began to circulate about his wife
- About this time a new tone came into Hosea’s preaching. He still warned of the judgment to come and the fact that God was going to send the Assyrians down across the land, but no longer did he announce it with thunder. He spoke to them with tears. And he began to speak of a day when love would at last triumph, when — after the bitter lesson was learned that the way of the transgressor is hard — Israel would yet turn back to the God who loved her.
- But poor Gomer passed from man to man, until at last she fell into the hands of a man who was unable to pay for her food and her clothing.
- Hosea stepped him to help.
- Now you may say, “That’s a foolish thing for a man to do”‘ But who can explain the madness of love? Love exists apart from reason and has its own reasons. Love does not act according to logic. Love acts according to its own nature. And so Hosea acted on the basis of love.
- Well, how long this went on we don’t know for sure, but at last word came that the woman Hosea loved was to be sold in the slave market. Her current husband had tired of her and she w as to be sold as a slave. The brokenhearted prophet didn’t know what to do. He went weeping to God. And God said. “Hosea, do you love this woman in spite of all that she has done to you?” Hosea nodded through his tears, and God said. “Then go show your love for her in the same way that I love the nation Israel.”
That is the story of the Bible isn’t it?
At Bethlehem God entered the slave market where the whole human race was putting itself up for auction, prostituting itself and its humanity to a cheapened life. But on the cross the Lord Jesus paid the price, the full price for our freedom, and bought us back. This is the story of God’s love and God’s heart — his loving desire to make of his people the full persons he intended them to be.
WOMEN PREDATORS! November 1, 2009
Don’t call us cougars!
Article taken from the Independent
The popularity of the term ‘cougar’ – used to describe older women who pursue younger men for ‘fun and friendship’ – has been growing for years.
Julia Macmillan, founder of UK dating site www.toyboywarehouse.com, says she is actually against the term cougar, even though she preaches the attractions of younger men. She has started a blog called Don’t Call Me A Cougar, in which she writes: “What I really object to with the cougar word is that it is such a stereotype. It’s the image the media love of the older predatory woman who ‘eats’ young prey.”
She argues that in the same way that the term ‘Mrs Robinson’ is now outdated “because women don’t have to stay in unhappy marriages because they are no longer financially dependent on a man”, so too is the term cougar.
“Women are looking more fabulous for longer and it’s normal that guys should find older women attractive. It’s always been the other way around, now things are changing!”
( oh Dear!)
AH THOSE SCIENTISTS!!! November 1, 2009
THE STORY OF OTA BENGA
From the Daily Mail
This was Ota Benga, a pygmy, brought from the Congo and put on display in a zoo as an example of what scientists at the time proclaimed to be an evolutionary inferior race.
( Interesting the story differs from both accounts1!)
THOUGH NOTHING IS HAPPENING ,YET… November 1, 2009
17 Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
HABAKKUK 3;17
in other words :
THOUGH NOTHING IS HAPPENING IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW ,YET I WILL PRAISE MY GOD.
SEX,BIG BRO AND WHY? October 31, 2009
I have a friend who took a test on Facebook on ‘how good of a lover are you ?’,He got 340 comments and counting,I have never seen so many comments to a post in my whole facebook life !!!,
How interesting that people are so interested about someone else sex life!
Generation of voyeurism,yes we are!
Or maybe there is more to it than that !Why does that topic always get such spontaneous overwhelming reaction?.
Well let’s find out, Time to research..
;D
THE PROMISE -chap 36 October 31, 2009
Now,after the way things turned with ‘IT’,it is still very hard for me to contend for it again,claim it etc…But it is ok ,just relax God is in charge.
But also I find myself telling God ,Lord what do I have ‘to go through that to get to that ‘,cannot we skip ‘IT’? I still can be used by you with mental and heart knowledge without having to experience it,no?
Of course not ,I know that now ,with everything that you have been downloading in my heart this year,I know that even though one could go without the other,if it was to ,it would mean a loss of credibility for the message that you are putting in my heart.
Yes indeed I am a modern Hosea,I mean by that ,God through first hand experience will birth his message in me to …..
Hosea ,here I come
THE PROMISE-chap 35 October 31, 2009
After a few month of nothing ,I think that God spoke to me yesterday regarding ‘IT’
Here what He said:
‘IT’ is your ministry! Through ‘IT’ I will birth what I call you to do !
Waohhhhhh..,that is heavy,but it makes so much sense,It is whatI have been feeling all along but couldnt put it into words.
For background sake:
Over a year ago,I had just re-surrendered my life to Him and was expecting directions on what to do to serve my King ,when God unexpectedly dropped ”IT’ on my heart .That was a bomb!!
My first reaction was WHY?????? ,I thought that you were going to send me this way..I argued for few seconds than shut up and accepted Gods choice!
Even though I relented,it has been a long journey ,and that question mark was still very strong! I just couldn’t get it! but trusted anyway.Now when everything took a bad turn and went the exact opposite direction,my faith was tested big time.
But strangely enough ,this year everything God has been downloading in my spirit needs ”IT’ to be fulfilled.I have just come to realized that it is all entwined ,and now for the first time it makes plenty of sense!
Though I thought that God was taking me away from a life of full time-no distraction- service to Him that I so long for ,He absolutely wasnt ,indeed He was putting things into place that would birth in me what He has for me..
I see things differently Now …
THE PROMISE-chap 34 October 31, 2009
I didn’t know what to write anymore about ‘IT’.
The last few months has been very dull,since August when I was last inspired and pumped .
Not really sure what God is up to or if it is a sign or death,maybe the promise is no longer coming to reality.
It is not that it has been rooted out of my heart,but it is just that ,I dont know ,it is hanging somewhere,and God is not giving me any directions! But in the same time if I want to move on,He is keeping me from doing so.
I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place..
THE PROMISE -Chap 33 October 31, 2009
A few months with ‘IT’ being locked away somewhere in my being. It seems that even God is not ‘arguing’,I guess that He is feeling me.
What a strange thing I went through,I guess one day it will make sense!
Time will tell..
‘HOLY’ FLIRTING. October 30, 2009
‘FLIRTING’ should only be used to let that ‘someone’ know that she/he is ‘Special’.
Don’t leave ‘mixed messages’ on anyone voice-mail!
No PLAYING is allowed in the Kingdom!!
If we make someone fall let’s make sure we are able to catch them!
Love is the motivation,Trust is the door ,Respect is the Key…and great is the reward….;D
PRATICING SINNING.. October 30, 2009
It is not ‘having the thought‘,but ‘entertaining the thought‘,that is wrong!
It is not ‘sinning ‘but ‘practicing sinning‘,that is wrong !
The former will always be with us ,in us but The latter is a every day conscious choice of our will!
;D
ME & YOU TODAY October 30, 2009
My Jesus,
I can see that you have strategically destroyed all my usual cities of refuge ,Now the only place I can run to is to YOU….
XX
FEW BONES ON MARRIAGE October 30, 2009
The Case for Early marriage-mark regnerus
- Our personal feelings may lead us out of a marriage as quickly as they lead us into one. As a result, many of us think about marriage much like those outside the church—as a capstone that completes the life of the autonomous self. We claim to be better promise keepers, but our vision of what marriage means is not all that unique. When did this all change?
- Chemistry is the new watchword as we meld marriage with science. Should opposites attract? Or should we look for common interests? There is no right answer to such questions, because successful marriages are less about the right personalities than about the right practices, like persistent communication and conflict resolution, along with the ability to handle the cyclical nature of so much about marriage, and a bedrock commitment to its sacred unity. Indeed, marriage research confirms that couples who view their marriages as sacred covenants are far better off than those who don’t.
- While it may be nice to find an optimal match in marriage, it cannot hold a candle to sharing a mental and spiritual commitment to the enduring covenant between God, man, and woman. It just can’t. People change. Chemistry wanes. Covenants don’t.
- Marriage is a remarkable institution in many ways, but it cannot bear all of the unrealistic expectations that we moderns have heaped upon it.
- So enough of the honeymoon banter: insiders know that a good marriage is hard work, and that its challenges often begin immediately. The abstinence industry perpetuates a blissful myth; too much is made of the explosively rewarding marital sex life awaiting abstainers. The fact is that God makes no promises of great sex to those who wait.
- In reality, spouses learn marriage, just like they learn communication, child-rearing, or making love.
- In sum, Christians need to get real about marriage: it’s a covenant helpmate thing that suffers from too much idealism and too little realism.Weddings may be beautiful, but marriages become beautiful.
MARRIAGE SOONER THAN LATER..?? October 30, 2009
By Mark Regnerus
Say Yes ,What Are You Waiting for?
- Too bad real life isn’t like that. Marriage actually works best as a formative institution, not an institution you enter once you think you’re fully formed.
SEX SLAVE TRADE October 27, 2009
An estimated half-million women and young girls are trafficked annually for the purpose of sexual slavery. This is the first in a series of posts about one man’s mission to rescue young girls from the sex slave trade, and to provide them with rehabilitation, education and a safe haven…
7 Reasons Not to Mess With Children.;D October 27, 2009
A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, ‘When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah’.The teacher asked, ‘What if Jonah went to hell?’The little girl replied, ‘Then you ask him’.
A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, ‘I’m drawing God.’ The teacher paused and said, ‘But no one knows what God looks like.’Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, ‘They will in a minute.’
A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.After explaining the commandment to ‘honor’ thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, ‘Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?’ Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, ‘Thou shall not kill.’
One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, ‘Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?’ Her mother replied, ‘Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.’ The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, ‘Momma, how come ALL of grandma’s hairs are white?’
The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.’Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, ‘There’s Jennifer, she’s a lawyer,’ or ‘That’s Michael, He’s a doctor.’A small voice at the back of the room rang out, ‘And there’s the teacher, she’s dead.’
A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, ‘Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face.’ ‘Yes,’ the class said. ‘Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn’t run into my feet?’ A little fellow shouted, ‘Cause your feet ain’t empty.’
The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: ‘Take only ONE . God is watching.’ Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, ‘Take all you want. God is watching the apples.’
UNDER THE CARPET OF GRACE October 27, 2009
its time for the Church to come back to a more balanced teaching of the Gospel,to be taught of the difference between conviction ( from God ) and condemnation ( devil ) ,correction ( God ) and judgment ( devil )
this weak teaching going around numbing people out of their responsibilities is ridiculous and is creating a generation of weak, irresponsible ,unaccountable Christians!
Enough with putting everything under the carpet of Grace,
let’s take responsability and work out our salvation with trembling and fear…
;D
GOD SPOKE…. October 25, 2009
The evidence of a speaking world is a wonder the scientist cannot explain away with mechanistic words. But what if language is the gift of a speaking, personal God to persons made in God’s image? The world speaks and God listens. Will we, in turn, stop and take notice of the God who spoke first?
BIBLICALLY ILLITERATE? October 25, 2009
Discernment. Stick that word in your vocabulary. You will need it because we in the Christian church have become so biblically illiterate and have such little comprehension of what it means to have a biblical worldview, that if you don’t have discernment skills you’re going to be slapped around by every wind and wave in the culture and even within Christianity.
SPIRIT OF RELIGION? October 25, 2009
From Hank Hanegraaff :
Usually when people say that you have the Spirit of religion,it is typically because you are trying to be biblical ,you are trying to test all things in light of scriptures and hold fast to that which is good and say God doesn’t have anymore new revelation,in fact all new revelation have to be tested in light of the revelation we already have.
To believe so is not having a spirit of religion,but it is saying in no uncertain terms that experience is notoriously unreliable that is why we have to have to have some objective frame of reference = Bible
STARVING FOR MORE October 25, 2009
- So We want more of God ,but are we ready to pay the price ?:
-We have to actively pursue God in the secret place .We have to have private victories so that you can have public victories. We have to have privates times of triumph so that it gets displayed publiquely.David fought the lion & Bear when no one was watching and was able to kill Goliath when everyone was watching.
- You know when your mind is renewed when the impossible looks logical.
-When the power who raised Jesus from the dead lives in us,he expects us to conquer something
IS YOUR STRENGTH IS YOUR WEAKNESS ?? October 24, 2009
If your Good eye causes you to lust , gouge it out,throw it away!
If your Strong Hand causes you to sin, Chop it off, throw it away!
In other words ,If your ‘Strength’ is your weakness,GET RID OF IT !
Better that than to perish!
JESUS IS SLEEPING ! October 24, 2009
A boat.
A direction.
A journey.
Suddenly, a terrible storm.
Doubts,Distress,Frustration,Tears,Fear.
Questions arise: Am I in the right boat? Have I am made the right choice?
JESUS IS SLEEPING !
Wake Him up shouting!
Jesus response to the seemingly desperate situation :
Why are u so afraid,Why so little faith!!!
Jesus rebukes the storm!
Stillness,Peace is back….situation sorted
In Awe, we wonder : who is this Man that even the wind, waves obey Him!
Why did we doubt?
PROUD NEW YORKERS ATHEIST! October 21, 2009
AN advertising campaign has been launched in New York-by Atheists!:
The advertisements ask the question, written simply over an image of a blue sky with wispy white clouds: “A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?”
MY 2Cents:
Interesting the article says ,quote ‘De Dora said individuals “don’t need religion to be good people and productive members of society” and ultimately he feels that groups of nonbelievers are “adding to cultural life of NYC.”Well Christians ,what do we answer to that ? I guess not much ,with the Gospel of cheap grace everywhere these days it seems that the Church is so busy preaching that ,good deeds is all it takes.being a ‘good’ person is all that is required,well it seems that even people who don’t believe in God can do/be that!!
So what does it take then?What set us apart?
CONVICTION or CONDEMNATION ? October 21, 2009
There is a fine line between ‘Conviction’ and ‘Condemnation’,Knowing the Voice of the Good Shepherd helps us draw that line !
WHAT IS LOVE ? October 20, 2009
Are your palms sweaty, is your heart racing and is your voice caught within your chest??
-it isn`t love, it`s like.
You can`t keep your eyes or hands off of them, am I right??
-it isn`t love, it`s lust.
Are you proud, and eager to show them off?
- it isn`t love, it`s pride.
Do you want them because you know they`re there??
-it isn`t love, it`s loneliness.
Are you there because it`s what everyone wants??
-it isn`t love, it`s loyalty.
Are you there because they kissed you, or held your hand??
-it isn`t love, it`s low confidence.
Do you stay for their confessions of love, because you don`t want to hurt them??
-it isn`t love, it`s pity.
Do you belong to them because their sight makes your heart skip a beat??
-it isn`t love, it`s infatuation.
Do you pardon their faults because you care about them??
-it isn`t love, it`s friendship.
Do you tell them every day that they are the only one you think of??
-it isn`t love, it`s a lie.
Are you willing to give all of your favorite things for their sake??
-it isn`t love, it`s charity.
Does your heart ache and break when they`re sad??
-then it`s l o v e.
Do you cry for their pain, even when they`re strong?? -
then it`s l o v e.
Do their eyes see your true heart, and touch your soul so deeply it hurts??
-then it`s l o v e.
Do you stay because a blinding, incomprehensible mix of pain and relation pulls you close and holds you there??
-then it`s l o v e.
Do you accept their faults because they`re a part of who they are??
-then it`s l o v e.
Are you attracted to others, but stay with them faithfully without regret??
-then it`s l o v e.
Would you give them your heart, your life, your death??
- Nicole Tran
IF GOD EXISTS,WHY SUFFERING? October 20, 2009
Interesting explanations of why God allows pain and suffering .
A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: “I don’t believe that God exists.”
“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.
“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.”
The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber:
“You know what? Barbers do not exist.”
“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”
“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”
“Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me.”
“Exactly!”- affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”
TO WAVE OR TO BE ‘WAVED’? October 15, 2009
Instead of being tossed by waves of doubt ,we should ride of the wave of Faith!
Beware of friends like Job’s! October 15, 2009
The problem with Job’s friends is not that they didnt mean well, but just that they were clueless !
BOOK of JAMES: THE LIFE OF FAITH October 13, 2009
Essential message of the letter,and find that its central teaching has a positive and a negative emphasis :
Positive teaching: Faith in God produces life according to the will of God
Negative teaching : Life contrary to the will of God denies faith in God.
- When the child of God in circumstance of trial is impatient,it is always because confidence in God wavers. Faith failing,Patience goes down.
- The life of faith is a life of peril.We cannot live the life of faith in God without being immediately in great peril.
- The life of faith challenges the spirit of this age.The spirit of this age is not in favour of faith; it never has been,still isn’t.The spirit of this age is the spirit of life by sight, by wit, by wisdom ,and by human cleverness. To live by faith is immediately to challenge the spirit of this age.
- The life of faith denies the call of the flesh.The moment we begin the life of faith in God,we begin where Christ said we must,’If any man comes after me he must denies himself’
- The life of faith is not a soft,dilettante-superficial life in which we sing hymns all the time.It’s a life of conflict,demanding heroism and courage and definiteness.It is a life of peril.It is a life of Power.
Taken from’ Handbook for bible teachers & preachers by G Campbell Morgan
‘COMPENSATED DATING’ October 13, 2009
For a year and a half, Sze was part of a growing social phenomenon among teens in Hong Kong called “compensated dating,” a practice in which a young woman agrees to go on a date with a man for a fee. More often than not, the date involves sex.
Sze said she started compensated dating because many of her classmates at an all-girls school were doing it. She says she became jealous when she saw the designer clothes, bags and cosmetics they bought with the money they earned through compensated dating. Sze wanted the same for herself, so her classmates introduced her to Internet chat forums where she met male customers.
‘NAKED’ SCANNER October 13, 2009
A trial of a scanner that produces “naked” images of passengers has begun at Manchester Airport.
The authorities say it will speed up security checks by quickly revealing any concealed weapons or explosives.
But the full body scans will also show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers’ genitals.
The airport has stressed that the images are not pornographic and will be destroyed straight away.
MY 2CENTS:
WHERE WILL ‘BIG BROTHER’ STOP?
THE PROMISE-Chap 32 October 13, 2009
I like what is happening to me right now,I am turning into someone that I used to know but lost contact with .There is no better place than to be fully focused on Jesus.
IT ‘seems to remain in the background
I am going from setback to setback BUT also from strength to strength…..
The shackles are going…going……and will be gone soon….
I am pressing on.
THE PROMISE-Chap 31 October 13, 2009
A few days have passed,I made it ,I kept the right attitude,I am in a good place.at God’s feet.more than ever,this bad thing has catapulted me into a deep-needy relationship with God.if I move one step away from it …I AM DEAD!
It has been confirmed that I wasn’t crazy,by another human being and by God.
I don’t know what happened,why it went so wrong,I know that I shouldn’t have gone down to Egypt,but I surely didn’t deserve that outcome!
Anyway the ‘IT’ is like a distant memory and that is where it needs to be right now….
God is you and me ,now..
THE PROMISE-Chap 30 October 13, 2009
The whole thing has taken a complete new turn,the hardest ,the deadliest
There are things more important the ‘IT’ right now ,and that is to remain in God ,not to get upset at You ,I have to make that choice now or Ill die-for sure.
My world is crumbling down,Was I crazy? Did I really dream it all up?
Whatever the answer to these questions ,its not important right now ,I got to focus on God and Save my relationship from the deadly’ HOW COULD YOU LET THAT HAPPEN TO ME ,GOD?”
I am not even allowed to think about it,wait on God ,
That was the biggest wake up call ever!
THE PROMISE-Chapter 29 October 13, 2009
I am like Abraham after You confirmed your great promises to him,he found Himself in a place of great famine where You were silent as to what to do next ,so he took matter into his own hands,and went down to Egypt…..
Nothing,was happening,or maybe not fast enough,got restless,didn’t remain in your peace so I tried to sort it out myself,I went down to Egypt ,,,,,,,and screwed it up…BIG TIME.
‘IT’ been thrown in my face with the deadliest poison ever ,the ‘YOU ARE CRAZY’!
You made ‘IT’ all up,it has been your imagination all along! When someone get a ‘crazy’ promise for God and is told that she hears voices,that is deadly,it is for me anyway!!
Now I am left with a decision to make…I am facing the biggest test ever
It is a death or life situation!
GIVE OBAMA A BREAK! October 12, 2009
Last night my wife asked me if I thought I was a little too hard on Obama in my letter yesterday congratulating him on his Nobel Prize. “No, I don’t think so,” I replied. I thought it was important to remind him he’s now conducting the two wars he’s inherited. “Yeah,” she said, “but to tell him, ‘Now earn it!’? Give the guy a break — this is a great day for him and for all of us.”
I went back and re-read what I had written……..
MICHAEL MOORE..
Do as I say, not as I do. October 11, 2009
James 3: 1
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
James warns the people not to be too anxious to become teachers as there is a heavy responsibility associated with the position. He also understands that teachers cannot tell their students to “do as I say, not as I do.” For students will naturally wish to emulate their teacher. Because of this great responsibility and the example set, a person who becomes a teacher will be more heavily judged for his words and actions
A GOOD MARRIAGE… October 11, 2009
“There is no bond on earth so sweet, nor any separation so bitter, as that which occurs in a good marriage.”
“There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage.”
Martin Luther
BE QUICK,SLOW,SLOW October 11, 2009
James says in verse 20, “Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
Even our own folk sayings reflect the wisdom of James. It is often said that “A person learns very little when his mouth is moving.” Indeed, this is true. We must be careful to hear all the facts of a matter before we speak on it.
Oliver Cromwell, once the Protector of England, was noted for his rigid self-control in speaking in Parliament. He always waited until everyone else had had their say and then he made his pronouncement. He was thought a very wise man. This also applies in our daily life when making decisions regarding our moral actions. Listen to all the facts, do not be hasty, do not speak out of turn. Most of all, be slow to anger, for anger clouds the mind, and as James points out, “does not produce the righteousness which God desires.”
BOOK OF JAMES: BE ‘JUST’ BE….. October 11, 2009
A person who closely follows James’s imperatives cannot go wrong. Although James does not teach us how to come nearer the lord through salvation, he does tell us how a just man orders his daily existence. James, throughout his life, was known as James the Just, because of the correctness of his actions, the uprightness of his demeanor and the strength of his character. His book will help us to be like him…Just.
BOOK OF JAMES: A SURE SIGN OF NEW LIFE! October 11, 2009
A Sure Sign of Life
The book of James, controversial because of its emphasis on “good works,” is perhaps best understood through the analogy of motion. In both the physical realm as well as the spiritual realm, where there is life there will be motion.
When a person becomes a Christian, new life begins, and inevitably that life must express itself through “spiritual motion,” or good deeds. In James’ words, “What good is it … if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?” (2:14)
Movement does not cause life, but it does inevitably follow life. It is a sure sign that life is present. Similarly, genuine faith in Christ should always result in actions that demonstrate faith.
Does James Contradict Paul?
James is not writing about how to become a Christian, but rather how to act like one. Having all the correct beliefs about God will hardly suffice: even demons believe in God. Real, life-giving faith should produce motion, and James minces no words in describing the specific spiritual actions expected of Christians.
Christian thinkers, notably Martin Luther, have struggled to reconcile the message of James with that of Paul, who so firmly warned against slavish legalism. But Paul never belittled holy living. When he wrote to carousers, such as his letter to the Corinthians, he railed against immorality as strongly as James.
Evidently, James’ readers were not even flirting with legalism. They lived at the other extreme, ignoring the laws that God had clearly revealed. James had a simple remedy: “Do not merely listen to the word …. Do what it says.” (1:22)
Straight to the Point
Unlike the apostle Paul, James was no urbane man of letters. He was a simple, homespun preacher, perturbed at people who were not living right. His letter covers a wide range of topics, applying the Christian faith to specific problems, and commanding readers to live out their beliefs.
Be humble! James orders. Submit to God! Stop sinning! James is as forthright as an Old Testament prophet; it is hard to miss his point.
Modern readers of James face the same dilemma as the first recipients of this unsettling letter. His words are easy enough to understand, but are we doing as he says? What kind of motion characterizes our spiritual lives? As Luther himself said, “You are saved by faith alone, but if faith is alone, it is not faith.”
As leader of the headquarters church in Jerusalem, James knew how to speak with authority. You don’t have to look for hidden meanings in this book. James tells you clearly how you should act in 54 direct commands. Note that many of these have parallels to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. As you study these verses, keep in mind the diverse audience he was addressing which included the rich and the poor. Note, too, his “asides” to specific groups.
THE BOOK OF JAMES: ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS October 11, 2009
Author: James half brother of Jesus-leader of the Jerusalem Church
Actions speak louder than words.
this old adage comes through loud and clear in the book of James.This book attacks the notion that becoming a christian is simply a matter of assenting to a few spiritual truths without experiencing any real change in behaviour or thinking.
James a leader in the Jerusalem Church ,and so his book has a very Jewish flavor.It contains many short,proverbial sayings and resembles the teachings of Jesus-especially the Sermon on the Mount. James addressed several matters in which Christian behaviour should reflect Christian faith.
He discussed pride,discrimination,greed,lust,hypocrisy,worldliness,and slander.
James used several analogies to show how true faith must evidence itself in good works.He compared it to a tree bearing only the kind of fruit that belongs to it.
Because of the book’s emphasis on good works,it is a very practical book regarding the Christian life.Its purpose is to correct the false belief that a person can have faith without a change of behaviour and to give practical instruction regarding the Christian Life.
