A Christian interested in Islam

I’m a Christian who’s always been pretty religious and but I’ve been really interested in Islam because I have a lot of Muslim friends and I love how they follow their religion. Can somebody give me some good reasons why I could convert to Islam?

In any case, it is good to question or at least ask questions about your faith. Daily, we need to examine and weigh ourselves, our thinking and our beliefs against the data we can find in the Holy Scriptures.

To your question, some might react and ask that person with such a question or remark

Why would you exchange the truth about God for a lie?

Others might say

I can’t think of good reasons why you would want to convert to Islam but I can understand why your Muslim friends’ devotion would make you wonder.

Some Christians consider Islam a threat to their faith. In doing so, they do not ask why that faith needs to be a threat to our society.

About God, there are no lies in Islam. Like in Judaism Islam teaches about the Only One True God, Who is One and not Three, like lots of Christians think. When coming to know the God of the Bible it is understandable that you might think you come to serve that God to your best of your ability.

You should know that, in Christianity, not all Christians worship the Trinity. There are masses of Christians who worship only That One True God and keep away from any idolatry, like praying to saints or keeping pagan festivals (like Christmas and Easter).

Even when you see all the wrong doctrines your Christian denomination brought to in its faith, you should not step away from Christianity, though you could leave Christendom aside.

There are no good reasons to convert to Islam.

The fact you’re considering it, actually makes us wonder whether you actually believe in Jesus. We do know that there are many atheists, because they do not believe in God, that say that Christ did not exist; But that does not make any sense. Jesus Christ is a historical figure, like the world knowns so many historical figures about whom nobody would doubt, even when there is less material evidence of their existence than about the existence of Jeshua ben Josef, (the son of Josef) who is better known as Jesus Christ (the Messiah).

Jesus said,

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

It is God Himself Who provided this Nazarene man, born in Bethlehem. That Islam denies the deity of Jesus is not bad and totally justified, because Jesus is not God but the son of God. The fact that Islam denies Jesus died on the cross for your sins is another matter which is a shame. Because they do not believe Jesus really died, naturally Islam can only deny Jesus’ glorious resurrection from the dead. For Christians who believe Jesus is God, there is also a problem, because God has no birth and can not die according to the Holy Scriptures. But all Christians are convinced that Jesus died and was resurrected.

You need to think about what you’ll be rejecting if you decide to convert to Islam.

Without Jesus, where would your salvation come from? Here’s a Bible verse for you to think about:

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 (ESV)

It is not bad to have friends in all sorts of faiths, but that does not give yet one reason to change faith. One can have a lot of Muslim friends and one may love how they follow their religion. They do tend to be faithful to their faith and do not disregard as many precepts as Catholics and Protestants usually do.

Why would you exchange the truth about God and HIs son for a lie?

There are no good reasons to convert to Islam.

More than once we’ve read of priests and ministers who converted to Islam because Muslims take prayer so seriously and pray so often. They forgot they too could pray more often. We are all free to pray as much as we want.

In the Netherlands they are so afraid Islam would take over their country. Do they neve ask themselves how it would come that so many of their compatriots, Calvinists, Lutherans and other Protestants and Catholics made steps to leave their congregation and to go more regularly to the mosque instead of the church. Is it not because so many Dutch, Belgian French and English people are so much dissatisfied with their Christian faith that they go looking for other solutions and come up to the Muslim faith. If these churches in our area had enough to offer to the people, they would not be running away from them.

In Belgium we also heard it more than once that people were cross with the fact that in the schools of their children or at work Muslims were demanding and getting a special room set aside for prayer. Ditd they ever asked the school or their employer for a special prayer room?
Our response would be

“great for them – why aren’t you doing the same?”

So again is it not our own fault when Islam is getting a bigger denomination than all the Christian denominations?
Why is there not something people may find appealing in Islam/Muslim practice to challenge them to grow in their own faith and faith practice as a Christian?

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Find also to read

1. Are people allowed to have doubts
2. How Many Persons Created the Heavens and the Earth?
3. Christians saying Jesus is God giving food for atheists to prove there exist no God
4. Did Jesus Exist? Searching for Evidence Beyond the Bible
5. Nazarene Commentary Luke 3:1, 2 – Factual Data
6. Matthew 2:1-6 – Astrologers and Priests in a Satanic Plot
7. The place where Jesus was brought up
8. A rebellious movement founded on a fake?
9. Trinitarians making their proof for existence of God look ridiculous #2
10. Trinitarians making their proof for existence of God look ridiculous #3

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Additional reading

1. The habitual misreading of John 1 and the ‘Word being God’ #2
2. A Father Who begat a son

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Related

1. The Atheist Jesus: Man, Myth, or Mix?
2. Did Jesus Actually Exist?
3. Did Jesus really exist
4. Did Jesus Really Exist? – Christmas is around the corner
5. Jesus never existed?
6. Did Jesus Exist…
7. Did Jesus Exist? (Part One)
8. Evidence for Jesus – Was Jesus a Real Person?
9. Do Scholars and Historians think Jesus never existed?
10. Why Do Scholars Think Jesus Christ Existed Historically?
11. Are there historical documentations of Jesus outside the Bible?
12. What evidence should we expect about Jesus?
13. Jesus : Myth or Reality
14. #3: Is Jesus of Nazareth a Fairy Tale—a Legendary Copy of Pagan Myths? Part 1 (of 2)
15. #2: The Reason-Based-Faith Approach, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, Part 1 (of 2)
16. #8: The Strongest Historical Evidences for Jesus and the Resurrection, Pt. 1
17. Did Jesus Exist? 18 Parallels to Fictional Hero Narratives
18. Did Jesus Just Admit He Was a Fictional Character?
19. What about pre-Christ resurrection myths?
20. Living a lie or Desiring God?

The battle between action and belief

Margaret E. Atwood  sometimes thinks she has come from a different planet, so odd does she sometimes find the practices of Homo sapiens, our common species — you’d be forgiven for thinking that a Quaker is quite a different thing from a Russian Orthodox patriarch, and that an Ethiopian Copt is entirely distinct from a Pentecostal or an Irish Catholic or a Mormon or a Christian Scientist. And a green Christian Creation Cure person — from the organisation called A Rocha, perhaps — or a social justice Christian, from Sojourners, for instance, or even a service-oriented Christian from the Salvation Army or the Mennonite international service committee, they have nothing in common with a member of the cross-burning Ku Klux Klan.

“In my father’s house there are many mansions,”

Jesus said, but did he really mean a bunch of white supremacists with bedsheets over their heads? And does loving your neighbour really include blowing up the churches of your fellow Christians?

She finds it true — as their detractors say — that the Christian divergences from a single root source are extreme, and that Christians have historically gone to war with other Christians over doctrinal differences and have slaughtered a great many of their co-religionists. And they have slaughtered and oppressed members of other religions, too.
But that is not because they are Christians.
It is because they are human beings. As Humpty Dumpty says in Alice in Wonderland,

“The question is — who is to be master?”

That is one of the things human beings often fight about, whether they are Christian or not.

 

Read more about it: The battle between action and belief

a Path to explore more

When I started with this website, I wanted to share common thoughts or give similar minds an extra open door to reach others, as well as to present a selection of websites, blogs and writings I thought (and think) worthwhile reading or looking at.

For years on all my websites I also presented a “Related” articles list, to give my readers other opportunities to find more writings on the subject. After the many complaints having linked to their article, and having to search for placed links I was asked to remove, from this year onward, I stop to invest time looking for related articles, investing time to read them for after approval, placing links after the posted articles. Now much more time shall come available to publish more articles which are in unison with my thoughts and not bringing readers away from my own sites. (From the statistics more readers from this site went looking at the mentioned site, than receiving readers from the linked site.) At the same time on my websites I shall not any more bringing people to websites which are against me or my beliefs.

After giving all my energy to the world of dance my body could not fit any more the physical world of exuberance and graceful unlimited mobility. Having reached a certain age where they consider a human being not able enough to give enough to the world, I was made redundant, considered to be part of the ‘third age’ group.
First having been very disappointed by the way I was treated, the first two years I did not want to do much with ballet or theatrical dance. Not having to work full time for our living, receiving retirement fund, I could spend more time to my church work. My religious activities started even taking so much time I had less time to write at my own personal blog. (Because pensions not enough to survive I still have a few days a month I work for my living.)

I feel blessed that I am allowed to work at three Bible translations, even when it might consume also a lot of time and lots of thinking-work, being it a seriously very faithful responsibility, not to add or change anything in the saying or purpose of the original words supplied by God. Therefore, those translations in Judaic Dutch (Yiddish Dutch or Flemish), with the eye of two (or three) different groups (namely a Jeshuaist, a Jewish and an Orthodox Jewish public) is and shall be a time-consuming job with lots of thought and consideration).

This does not take away that I would have lost my interest in humanity and how man treats other people, animals and plants. I even became more active, spending also time in meetings concerning our way of life, necessary political actions a.o..
I must admit at meetings and conferences I seem to belong to a minority who strive to get unity in Europe, with some liveable world for everyone. Convinced we have to do something against this capitalist greedy world which does not show respect to the gross of people, animals and plants, I keep going strong and letting my voice being heard.

From  the moment I got retired I did not stop to seek a connection of like minds, to share common positive beliefs, and to be able to learn from each other about how to live life to the fullest.

Jonathan Hilton seems also on such a track. He writes:

Even when things don’t go as we plan, we all know no matter how hard we plan, life will throw us curve balls designed to engender growth. Our lives are defined by the lessons we learn at this moment and the way we handle ourselves. {Mind Connections}

Raising his level of consciousness has become Jonathan Hilton’s passion in life.

and understanding that when I follow and focus on certain core principles in my life and live in alignment with them, things go well. {Mind Connections}

He writes on the opening of his blog Mind Connections, admitting:

When I fall off, and my focus isn’t so sharp, then things are not so pleasant. Conscious thought about where my attention goes allows all of my energies to flow in that direction. {Mind Connections}

With the knowledge that each viewpoint may bring a different set of emotions, a different thought process, and a different reality to the perceiver it only can be enriching to share thoughts and to get to know more people from all over the world and getting to know how they manage to make the best of their life.

We have little control over the perceptions of others, but we may not forget that when we utter our ideas, share our thoughts, we might bring others to other ideas too.

How often do we not wonder if what we are doing is or would be right? How often do we not wonder if we should openly write what we think or if we should write in ways and words others would love to hear? I always have been a bad one at that. By creating my ballets I did not mind criticising the way our society was moving. I never tried to be popular by my creative works. [Choreographing fashion shows was a totally different matter, there I tried to bring the customers to find a connection in a future world to form. (We always had to be seasons ahead, manipulating the fashion trends – and yes, there stimulating human desires of consumption.) There it was also part the business to know beforehand what others would love to wear and see. ] In such way I also kept busy to try to find out what others would like to see and read.

On the surface, it is a simple choice, but in reality, it is a constant battle, {Life is a Mirror}

Hilton notes.
According to him

There is only a short time allotted to each of us to write the story of your life and with that time, we are tasked with a lot of things to accomplish. You have really only one life to get things right and sing the song that you want to sing. {The Story of Your Life}

We can try to make our dreams so compelling, that we will that we can’t wait to work on them, because waiting to experience them, in reality, is too painful. Often it is that enthusiasm which gets us to be restless and gets us up in the middle of the night to scribble something down or even to write certain texts.

A difficulty might be to:

Tune your enthusiasm to the size of your goals and attack it like your story depends on it because it does. That is how you write the story of your life. {The Story of Your Life}

At this blog I want to give, as many people as possible, the opportunity to share their thoughts which they and I find interesting enough to think about. I keep chasing my dreams that we can find enough people all over the world willing to bring others to see how we have to be careful which way of life we want to choose. As a Christian I also would love to see more people sharing the faith in One God and in His Gift and Good News of the coming Kingdom.

Once more, I dare to invite people to join us to share positive thoughts, but also to bring warnings how to tackle ecological and other problems.

Please do not hesitate to contact me, for becoming a part of joining hands across this globe.

Hillary Clinton Says Religious Beliefs About Abortion Have to be Changed

In reaction to what Hillary Clinton said at a recent Women in the World Summit on April 23:

“Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice – not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”

It is a strange way of saying to have “Religious Beliefs About Abortion” to “Have to be Changed”. When one has a certain faith it is because those people belief in certain doctrines. When the rules of that faith were notated long ago there can only be a change in belief when one considers changes in interpretation.

It is a misunderstanding or mis-interpretation to think she demands a change of believes.

She clearly demands rights for women and want to see that they can get access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth. How can this be a demand of changing matters of faith when those who say they keep to a faith are following the rules of that so called faith?

If they call themselves Christian they should follow the teachings of Christ. But naturally they perhaps could call themselves better Methodist, Pentecostal, Evangelist or naming themselves to belong to an other denomination and not giving others the impression that all Christians would think like them.

Jesus never told anybody that a woman had no rights to her body and that others could decide for her.

In life every person has to decide for himself or herself. It is no different for female beings.

God gave permission to have judges and leaders to be installed and to have laws been written to organise a society. Hilary Clinton is right to say “Rights have to exist in practice — not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will.”
When governments promise things they also have to keep their promises. When they want to respect their citizens they have to give them rights which are equal for all.

Though naturally those in charge can not demand that “deep-seated cultural codes can be changed when they are based on the Law of God. But in many societies we can see that lots of people have preferred to follow human doctrines and in such instance those deep-seated cultural codes are based on human doctrines, religious beliefs and structural biases which can and perhaps should have to be changed or to be looked at closer to see if they should not be accommodated.

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Preceding articles:

Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion

My Choice (by Jezabel Jonson)

The Real ‘Choice’

“They Told Me What I Wanted To Hear” – Real Abortion Stories

The Things We Carry, by Penny

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Further reading:

1. “The Vital Fact that’s Been Lost in the Debate Over Those Planned Parenthood Videos” | History News Network
2. “Empty the Uterus”
3. Bodies that matter. Bodies that don’t.
4. Crucial Abortion In Coppell TX Information That You Deserve To Know
5. Vital Abortion In Grand Prairie TX Information That You Should Be Aware Of
6. Texas Defunds Planned Parenthood
7. Meat On Our Bones: The Next Four Years
8. The Opportunistic Morality of a Nation
9. New at Live Action: Pro-Abortion Republican Murkowski Carries Water for Planned Parenthood
10. New at Live Action: The Most Blatant Pro-Abortion False Advertising Yet
11. Texas Defunds Planned Parenthood
12. Crucial Information On Abortion Options In Grapevine TX That You Need To Know
13. A Lesson On The Heart . . . .
14. From the Sidewalk Chronicles: Crime of the Unborn
15. Same Logic, Same Result
16. Move to defund Planned Parenthood only hurts Texas families
17. God Fearing Women Do Not Kill Babies
18. Texas cuts off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood
19. MSPs should hold abortion debate
20. If we value life, we don’t get to choose which lives we value
21. We Exist For Him
22. The Church and violence
23. Texas Defunds Planned Parenthood, Alleges Clinics Unsafe, Unsanitary
24. Links for 10-19-2015
25. Texas Cuts Planned Parenthood From Medicaid
26. The Child I Didn’t Plan For
27. Lawyer tried to keep pregnant refugee and rape victim in Australia, but government suddenly flew her out
28. A False Choice
29. A Revelatory Dream
30. Missing Persons
31. Why Should We Be Looking At The PP Defunding Debate? A Storify Assignment.
32. How the investigation into Planned Parenthood affects student lives
33. Can We Really Afford to Lose 700 Planned Parenthood Centers?
34. Man Stabs His Pregnant Wife 17 Times to Try to Kill Their Unborn Child
35. Abortion holocaust
36. Shout Your Abortion
37. Choices
38. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future
39. Abortion and crime rates
40. Support With Diagnosis
41. Reading for Abortion in the Victorian Novel
42. Planned Parenthood: another written question from the European Parliament – this time from a Socialist
43. “But it’s Legal” – Does the legality of an act make it moral?
44. What If Planned Parenthood Is Sincere?
45. Republicans’ Love Hate Relationship With Waiting Periods

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Related articles

• AME Church Leaders Organize for Justice
• The Revelation Anointing
• Season After Pentecost – Wending our way through challenging teachings (The Gospel Passage)
• Welcome the Children — A Sermon for Pentecost 17B
• Pentecostal Theology in Africa: critiques of prosperity gospel
• Why aren’t Christians uniting?
• Slavery
• Pope Pious: What Evangelicals Like About Francis
• The Daily Gospel and Readings 22 September 2015
• The Truth About The Roman Catholic Church

Believe today and now!

People do have to live with themselves, which is only possible when they accept themselves. First of all they have to believe in themselves. Only when they come to see themselves as a acceptable being in the universe they can go to look further and come to see the Hand behind their own being. Only then faith can come into their life.

You have to believe you can do it and that you can pull out of yourself that of what you are dreaming of.

You have to believe in your self, whether you call it self-esteem, self-confidence, or self-assurance, it is a deep-seated belief that you have what it takes – the abilities, inner resources, talents, and skills to create your desired results.

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to get anything done > your life relies on belief

all have dreams, goals and wishes > to achieve them > need to take action

Learn to live

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Preceding article:

Believe in yourself!

Related articles

• It is believed or it is not (forester21amado.wordpress.com)
• Be Believing in You! (beenough.wordpress.com)
• How Do We Know? (safetyrisk.net)
• This Heart in Shades of a Cool Night (erobles1963.wordpress.com)
• The Inevitable… (stormiesteele.com)
• An alternative to believing in yourself (sethgodin.typepad.com)
• What Do You Believe? (clara54.wordpress.com)
• Blessing the day (elladeewords.wordpress.com)
• Who Are You? (randomnessarranged.wordpress.com)
• Believe in your abilities (yoursuccessinspirer.com)

Holiday making and dreaming

We have entered a time when people go away from their own private environment and go into the wide world to enjoy their free time, hoping to have a marvellous Summertime. There is vacation time which can bring a “staycation” or bringing some time to go here and there or even further away, crossing boarders. For some it may be the maximising time for others the minimizing time.

When away from home many are not afraid to show their other ‘me’ and present themselves to others like they would not do in their daily working life. It is at their holiday time we often can see them more becoming like they really are. We can see then the man or the animal coming out of the person. Holiday time is the time that men can be seen as lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Seeing such people we should know better and from such turn away (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

So rude and crass has our society become that there is little acceptance of personal responsibility for what anyone says to another, or even the sense or feeling that, “Wow, I wouldn’t want someone to insult what is sacred to me, so maybe I ought not approach another (especially someone I don’t even know!) in that manner just because I have a case of ‘screen rage’.” (If anything is thought of as sacred anymore, that is…) That’s like road rage – the perception that it’s OK to curse, or yell at, or insult someone just because you are encased in something the size of a Sherman Tank, so you feel safe. The other person cannot reach through your computer screen or the windshield of your big SUV to strangle you, so it must be OK. Not! {Proverbially Speaking / Chapter 21}

Already in the normal working hours, time at home, many people do not show interest in God, but when away we do hear some making jokes about believers, be it Christians, Jews or Muslims, and mocking at holy scriptures.

It is a time when we can see and hear more people scorn and shun the Bible and openly renounce it, although they have never actually read it.

Within The Holy Spirit looks at those people who do not want to have a connection with the Maker of this universe, and writes:

It would seem to me that they might be at least curious about it – enough to open up a copy and find out for themselves – even if simply from the perspective of a good whodunit, or as something controversial that you might want to check out. {Proverbially Speaking / Chapter 21}

Lots of holidaymakers do like to complain to others about their country, their government and want to let others know how better it is somewhere else.
In case belief comes on the tip of the tongue guests leave or do find a possibility to attack those who have faith in that what is not seen. Many deny the little piece of heaven within themselves which has a sparkle with Divine Radiance itself! Then we can find many who have forgotten that little attic in their own personal life, where many treasures are.

The holiday season may be for many the escape gate to heavenly dreams.

Making intuitive art, as far as I’m concerned, is a means of “dreaming while you’re awake.” The whole process acts like meditation or contemplation – it bypasses all the mental clutter [drifting thoughts,worries, obsessing, anxiety, negative emotions, and so forth] and takes you right into the Heart and Center of your Soul. It’s here that you may meet with your Higher Self, your Inner Creator and all the spiritual and life changing awarenesses you may be looking for. {The ART of Conscious Dreaming, or the ART of Dreaming Awake}

Holiday time is also the time of getting lots of impressions and experiencing lovely explorations. On holiday one is left with distinct impressions and with many different meetings, with perhaps making new friends. Having time to reflect and looking from a distance on the own life and at the house environment, the traveller “sees” his or her own meaning in the art of travelling and in the art of being.

Often these meanings can provide confirmation of such things as where you are in life, or where you need to move forward, or what on Earth is happening to you for “Heaven’s” sake, and other useful answers you may be seeking!  {The ART of Conscious Dreaming, or the ART of Dreaming Awake}

Surprisingly these meanings can be multi-layered, as the person becomes increasingly aware of him or herself as a far more expansive Being than he or she may have ever realized before.

It is possible to practice the art of dreaming awake wherever you may be – on a bus or plane, waiting in the doctor’s office, or just grabbing a quiet moment to retreat to the kitchen table with pen and sketch pad in hand, while the kids are doing their homework or watching their favorite television program.

However, I would recommend that if you desire to commit to taking this inner treasure hunt seriously, that you carve out some “sacred space” for yourself, and at least a half hour per day when you can distance yourself from routine concerns and commitments, and insist upon committing to this on your own behalf! {The ART of Conscious Dreaming, or the ART of Dreaming Awake}

With all the dreaming going on it is not bad to have your mind also going into higher spheres trying to reach higher goals. For this the Book of books, the Bible, the infallible Word of God can help.

Most people are sort-sighted, looking for the treasures on earth and not interested in treasures for much later in future.

There is no understanding or acceptance of the need to be saved, about the redemption through Jesus Christ, or its implications for mankind.

This is simply not a part of the program for so many people who are into “metaphysics” or what they like to call “spirituality”. The preference in these circles seems to be personal power and/or the attainment of what feels good. A birthright has been exchanged for a bowl of porridge! {The ART of Conscious Dreaming, or the ART of Dreaming Awake}

At our usual times, at home, at work, most people do not feel like it to take up the holy scriptures. Lots of people do not know that the Bible is a treasury. In that book they shall be able to find many answers to their many questions. Though often man prefers to ask their questions to other people.

One thing about human beings is that many of us have little natural inclination toward reading the instructions or asking directions. I’ve found this to be true of myself from time to time, I’ll be the first to admit. Although at the end of the day, after enduring a lot of frustration, I may succumb and surrender, humbling myself to opening a set of instructions on some “smart” device which has me baffled. A good example of this is the cellphone or other 21st century inventions which have become the mother of “need”. I may or may not open the book, read, and heed – depending on the degree of frustration I’ve experienced going about things by the seat of my pants. {Insurrectionists And Instructions}

Most people do know and want to do it the Frank Sinatra way, going for ‘my way’.

Humanity seems notoriously hands on when it comes to doing things “my way or the highway”, as we grapple with life and its challenges.

It’s been said that some think they have evolved beyond the “consciousness” where they need any guidance at all from any external Wisdom, especially that silly old Bible or God. No, we’re far too advanced for that. It’s irrelevant for our time, except maybe for the backward. Besides, all we have to do is “go within” where the font of all wisdom is to be found. One has to ask, what is the source of that sort of arrogance? {Insurrectionists And Instructions}

On holiday you may hear several people finding religion a dangerous business. Many think it is the cause of all wars. Others might find that religion is entertainment.

You know – the parlor games crowd. Dabbling with no commitments. Spiritual one night stands. Tarot readings, newspaper astrology, palm readings… reading everything but the Bible. Seances, visiting haunted buildings, dancing in circle under a full moon, spoon bending, retreats and workshops on how to discover or enhance your psychic abilities or see auras. This is the group that objects most vehemently to the word religion for some reason. No, we are spiritual. {Cross Purposes 30 / Reasons For Religion}

Summertime meeting time on the beach (2012 Art Belgian Beach exhibition)

On the other hand it also a time where we can get others interested in the unseen. Several people do have a curiosity about the “unseen”. Away from home and work some might be more at ease to talk to strangers about those matters we so often do not understand. They might find it not such a bad time to involve themselves in metaphysical research.

The word itself simply means “beyond the physical”. There are many branches of metaphysical science. It’s essentially the study of how the unseen – “energy” – effects the realm of matter, what we can see. It is the study of the interplay of cause and effect of the unseen on the seen – prayer, positive thinking, science of mind, affirmations, and the like. Personally I do not actually regard this as a religion, except to add that paradoxically all religions have metaphysical practices and tools. Metaphysical science observes and theorizes how religious practices work, for example, how does prayer or ritual effect physical situations? Yet it would also include the effects of light or color (art and symbolism), sound or vibration (music), within integrative healing settings. {Cross Purposes 30 / Reasons For Religion}

Leaving behind the mess at home, people on holiday love to have the luxury of waiters and chambermaids taking care of them.

For the spiritual supply they have to take care themselves. They can go see places but next to it they need filling their mind with words from books.

One of the best books to supply necessary food is the Bible and now we can take much more time than at work-time.

… many things are written, spoken, and ruminated on today concerning what we think we don’t have, or what we’re afraid we’re going to lose… or all the awful things someone else is doing which violate our rights and the like. {Upbeat 1}

Lots of ideas are interchanged on holiday. Thoughts from many cultures. Lots of jokes may be made but lots of fears may be shared as well.

Listening to or reading many of these heavy gloom and doom reports, and political agendas, although they may be very informative, can have a real down and outer effect on us – especially if we’re sensitive and caring about what happens to our loved ones, other people in our life, and ourselves as well. I do in fact have to wonder if the propaganda mill has allowed some of the commentators to spill the beans as they do, because of the fearful effect it has on people. Being bombarded with fear tears down good moods, self confidence, creates apathy, anxiety, compromise, and the like. It can make your plate seem more full than it really is.

It really is a mind over matter issue in many ways.

Thus we find that we must really be very cautious about how much of this kind of thinking we partake of every day, or even how much we dwell on our own personal issues and problems. {Upbeat 1}

Summertime is the good time to fill in the absence of God and to take time to operate out of fear or turn to the source of love, the choice is and always has been yours.

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Preceding articles:

Summerholiday season time to read the Bible

Psst! Spread The Good Word!

Next: Home-stayers and their to do list

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Related articles:

1. People Seeking for God 1 Looking for answers
2. How we think shows through in how we act
3. Knowing where to go
4. Try driving forward instead of backwards
5. A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses

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Find more about these subjects at other websites:

• Insurrectionists And Instructions
• Remembering My Own Advice
• Maximizing Time

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• What is the difference between conviction and conversion?
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• How to fast in a way that pleases God (nyasatimes.com)
• Independence Day (emmanuelchatham.typepad.com)
• Project Devo – Day 15 (gilgonzalez.wordpress.com)
• Morning meditation 6.24.15 (nathanaelvitkus.wordpress.com)

Inner Voice

Not only is there the inner voice which has been receiving food from the educating people around us. More important is the inner voice which comes from much deeper than from our own experiences and our days on this earth.

When a foetus that Voice was already taking care of us. Other voices as soon as we saw daylight tried to transform or change those ideas of that deeper inner voice. Up until our twenties we get so much influenced by the other voices that they can tear us down. Instead of listening to the positive voice from within we often get too much carried away by the outer influences.

The strong person is not the one who keeps listening and trying to suit the outer voices but is the one who is willing to go deep inside the self and to live the own truth with confidence.

Being yourself is the most precious gift you can give yourself and which you received from the Most High Voice of Universe.

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To remember:

spending time trying to be who others want us to be

putting effort into pretending to be who we are not in the hopes for acceptance, love and approval of others

=> compromising yourself.

you let others shape you and tell you who you are <= you believe and trust in those people + you believe the words they say.

=> false + wrong motivation

We all allow words we hear to shape us and form us

=> give us confidence – or – => tear us down and hold us prisoner from our true purpose

To change that voice that haunts us and holds us back

• look for positives in everything
• challenge the thoughts and the voice

do know:

• you have talent
• you can touch people’s hearts with your words
• you can become the sculptor and not the lump of clay
• you can change the world one mind at a time

believe in yourself => others believe in you too

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Do find preceding article: Inner voice inside the soul of man

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  There is a quiet joy alive in my heart this morning, a sense of gratitude for the gentle breeze resting against my skin and another beautiful grey day. Inside, I hear my inner voice chant the words ‘thank you, thank you, thank you…’ And with that gratitude comes the openness to what magic the day may bring.
• Be Inspired: 04.05.15 (happybuddhabreathing.wordpress.com)
  “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
  Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.
• Arguments with my Inner Voice (silkepowers.blogspot.com)
  Does your intuition or inner muse talk to you? I recently discovered that mine does. In form of thoughts that won’t let me go. It’s a very persistent inner voice. And sometimes downright annoying….
• ‘Inner Voice’ Art Exhibit at Alto 211, Q&A with Curator Nile Tuzun (iliveindallas.com)
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  have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.– Steve Jobs
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  Self talk and self doubt usually leads to thoughts of changing something. Snap decisions based on an emotional experience, even a stretch of bad days and experiences are seldom grounded.
• Of i-hearts and tek conneks and alternative messages…. (davidianbrant.typepad.com)
  “Deep down it is a matter of trust. Look, on a small scale, we would what we are doing right now – talk to one another and work through to full understanding.”
• How To Find Your True Life’s Passion and Purpose (lifestyledezine.com)
  In order to awaken your true life’s purpose you need to be ready to accept ‘change’. Change may come in the form of a change in consciousness, a change in belief-sets and/or thought-patterns, a distinct career change, a change in lifestyle choices.
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  Sometimes your inner voice may lead you along a path that could bring you great personal joy and fulfilment, but may seem a little unorthodox, unsuited or inappropriate to family, friends or peers in their view and judgement. Sometimes finding and living your purpose could mean going against the wishes or advice of others, particularly that of close friends and family. Be true to yourself regardless.Walk your own path.
• Live fearlessly! (authorsmscott.wordpress.com)
  Thankfully we don’t need to share the experience of death to gain the wisdom of her words. Just let go of our fear! ….and taking baby steps is fine – one fear at a time. It’s liberating when you can do it.
• My new Song: Believe In You! (erikakind.wordpress.com)
  Actually this song was the beginning of me producing my own songs!

Voice of Survival of Traumatic Events

How often have we spent time trying to be who others want us to be? How much effort do we put into pretending to be who we are not in the hopes for acceptance, love and approval of others?  I am so guilty of this. I have a desire to want everyone to love me; even if that means I am compromising myself.

I find that I am a lot like a ball of play dough. I let others shape me and tell me who I am. The worse part about this is that I believe and trust in those people. I believe the words they say.

My father use to tell me I was fat, ugly, stupid, and a slut. I would grow up to be nothing. He called it “shock therapy.” He would sit me down and berate me in the hopes that somehow this would motivate me…

View original post 435 more words

He who knows himself, is kind to others

Do we know our dark side?
‘The Legend of King Ape’ talks about a Buddhist monk who undertakes a dangerous voyage with valuable manuscripts on his back. His fellow travellers were ‘a monkey, a pig and quicksand’ , which symbolise evil powers , our dark side. Dark is what is described as bad, where there is no light.

It is a tremendous undertaking to carry the burden safely across the mountains. Continuously they are confronted with dangerous situations. It comes as a surprise that during this adventure the negative forces undergo a change. They come to a new insight , they convert and in the end even become positive forces that ultimately save the monk. This is not brought about by the holy scriptures on his back or their content, but …

‘The desert the monk crossed’
Each one of us, sooner or later, is confronted with difficulties that can be severe and lead to despair.
We are on ‘quicksand’ , call out and shout and discover that our belief is not enough , it is too weak. What remains is agony of doubt,  desperation, a loud scream. Dark times leave their mark, but also lead to insight, because …

He who went through his own hell… stops with something.
He no longer ‘prescribes’ for someone else. He no longer judges anyone by whom and what he is. He does not construct walls anymore of ‘my values’ that divide, he is no longer caught in a bastion of ‘my norms, standards and criteria’ that call for defence. In short, he no longer ‘stipulates’ what the norm is, because he has experienced, while going through his own hell, that he is accepted for what he is. Unconditionally. Because , notwithstanding his ‘fellow-travellers’, he was not condemned, but rather sustained and forgiven. Or how compassion fell to him. The person who has been allowed to experience this, also becomes compassionate and forgiving to others, it cannot be otherwise, because … he who knows himself, is kind to others.

– Translation from the Bond Zonder Name or Movement Without a Name thought of the month

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Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Wie zichzelf kent, is mild voor een ander

Bhikkhu Vivekananda, a buddhist monk from Germany and a Vipassana-Teacher, walking on the street or being on his way (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Find to read:

1. May we have doubts
2. Dealing with worries in our lives
3. A Glory followed by Despair
4. Within despair
5. The Person Who Cannot Despair
6. Old age
7. Companionship
8. Watch out
9. Fear, struggles, sadness, bad feelings and depression
10. Are you right down in the dumps? Stop digging!
11. Obstacles to your goal
12. Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair
13. The soul has no rainbow if the eyes have no tears
14. Frank risks taking
15. A small trouble is like a pebble
16. Have a little talk with the Potter
17. A great man does not lose his self-possession when he is afflicted
18. Be happy that the thorn bush has roses
19. Your struggles develop your strengths
20. Remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead
21. Crying and trusting ones do not get disappointed
22. Remember there’s a light in the next day
23. Philippians 4:4–7 – Do Not Be Anxious
24. Is God behind all suffering here on earth
25. To Live Gratitude
26. Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
27. Looking at three “I am” s
28. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
29. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #15 Exposition before the Creator
30. If your difficulties are longstanding, try kneeling
31. A Living Faith #4 Effort
32. In Defense of the truth
33. Some one or something to fear #6 Faith in the Most High

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What moves mountains? Trust!

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry near Montreal, Canada (May 1942)

Antoine de Saint Exupéry was a passionate searcher. He was passionate about life, about spirituality, the depth of mystery. But, for a long time, for him too the skies remained silent. Notwithstanding all his sustained trials, his prayers were not heard. Until one day he discovered that the biggest mercy of prayer consists in – not being heard.
 
Prayer itself  is mercy.
Every human being  sooner or later is confronted with sorrow, suffering, saying goodbye, and come across questions that are not answered or are confronted with problems that cannot be solved. We try everything, but nothing succeeds, nothing works, nothing moves – not through willpower, not through sustained prayer. Sooner or later we ask ourselves: why?

We want an answer.

Interior Museum of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Tarfaya (Morocco) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A sign. In this way in spite of ourselves, we imagine what is good for us. We create an image  that we need to be helped and how and when this should happen. It is exactly at this point that de Saint Exupéry discovered that the answer to his prayer did not coincide with the images he had in mind. He realised that the answer to his prayer exceeds the image created by us. It does not allow to be steered, or the use of words and is only  to be understood by the heart. From a heart that exists through… trust.

Only belief that trusts completely can accept the holy ground of ‘not understanding’.
When we touch the bottom of  intense doubt with our problems – and yet trust – true belief surges. Something becomes visible and tangible which we would otherwise never see, feel or experience.

Then we may discover with surprise, with an inner certitude that does not need a rational explanation, that -in essence- we are inspired.

And stronger : right through the agony of doubt, paradoxally enough, we find inner peace.

– BZN Movement Without a Name  – Proverb of the month

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Additional reading:

1. A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow
2. Rejoice even though bound to grieve
3. The soul has no rainbow if the eyes have no tears
4. Trouble is coming
5. Do not be so busy adding up your troubles
6. Life’s challenges may not paralyse you
7. A small trouble is like a pebble
8. Remembering from times of trouble
9. Anxiety is the gap between the now and the later
10. If your difficulties are longstanding, try kneeling
11. A problem not worth praying about isn’t worth worrying about
12. Give your tears to God
13. Crying and trusting ones do not get disappointed
14. Call unto God so that He can answer you
15. Let God’s promises shine on your problems
16. Don’t put a question mark where God put a period
17. Don’t wait to catch a healthy attitude
18. Fearing the right person
19. Trust the future to God
20. Stick to one God
21. Trust God to shelter, safety and security
22. God is my refuge and my fortress in Him I will trust
23. Be convinced that we are loved
24. Love been perfected with us
25. Faithfulness when most necessary
26. Have a little talk with the Potter
27. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement
28. A person is limited only by the thoughts that he chooses
29. A Living Faith #1 Substance of things hoped for
30. What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
31. Confidence
32. Hope begins in the dark
33. It is not try but trust

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  A scene of Saint-Exupéry working on the manuscript for Le Petit Prince includes a peek at his imagined characters; the delightful back cover depicts the Little Prince and Tonio, shoes off, sitting in opposite chairs, apparently deep in speculative conversation.
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  One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.

  You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

  All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.

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  those Facebook friends mourning a grown-up who never lost his connection to the child within? They knew just where to look.
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  Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince. Richard Howard’s translation of the beloved classic beautifully reflects Saint-Exupéry’s unique and gifted style. Howard, an acclaimed poet and one of the preeminent translators of our time, has excelled in bringing the English text as close as possible to the French, in language, style, and most important, spirit. The artwork in this edition has been restored to match in detail and in color Saint-Exupéry’s original artwork. Combining Richard Howard’s translation with restored original art, this definitive English-language edition of The Little Prince will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.
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  “It is lonely when you’re among people, too”
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• Storytelling, Culture, and Revolution (goodmenproject.com)
  A story might simply be a story if it stands by itself — in a vacuum. Yet, a story rooted in our life experiences is not just a story. It is much more. In it we find revealed the particular relationship that we, the storytellers, have with our environment. Individual stories are part of the fabric that is our worldview. Stories, whether fictitious or true, spring forth from our values, believes, perceptions, dreams, imaginations or wishes, all of which are bound to our life experiences, which in turn are fundamentally shaped by our particular environment. The stories, then, that we tell ourselves are bound up in a feedback system whereby our lives find expression in stories which are in turn enacted by us. If, as Ishmael tells us, we believe that the world was made for man (i.e. man as the climax of the whole cosmic drama of creation) and that we are at odds with nature’s distasteful, dehumanizing elements (i.e. moving beyond the wretchedness of the animal condition), then the stories that we will write and enact are stories of conquest, progress, and an alienation from nature.

We all have to have dreams

Dreams (Photo credit: hufse)

Without dreams we are nothing. As a child we bring our aspirations to live in our dreams. We are convinced that we have the right to dream whatever we want. In our dreams we any place ourselves in any role we want. We are also convinced the dreams are totally ours. In our mind and our soul we want to sojourn and create our own world. We claim it to be our individual right to dream as big as we want.

Who cares if it never amounts to anything ? But who knows ? It doesn’t take away our right to do so one little iota.

Claim your great individuality.

Why is it that so many adults do not want to give way to their dreams any more? why do so many adults laugh with the dreams of others, and mainly with the people who would love to share their dreams with others. On this platform we do hope to present dreams of many people. For us all the writers who join us may dream as if they’ll live forever. Live as if they’ll die today.

Here we do not mind dreaming aloud. Here we want to give a voice to the many dreams of people somewhere on this globe. We want to say to all that they should believe in the power of their dreams and should strive to get their dreams becoming true. The people joined here together may have dreams of which others think they never can become true …. but when everybody would think this way, it is unfeasible we shall never see the seeds of making something grow. The writers over here may believe in peace and unity between all folks. It may look utopian, but by holding strong on the dream they want to spread the message of those dreams and bring inner peace to many all over the world.

Who knows where such dreams may lead to? Who knows where such belief leads to?

If there is no peace in the future it is because not enough people wanted it. It is that simple.

It will happen. Make no mistake. No way to avoid it. It is a cycle and for those who believe in the Divine Creator, they received the assurance of that world-peace and can count on the prophecies coming true, even when they still shall have to face the third World War and an other thousands year before the end goal shall be reached.

Lubok-style cover of a Russian dream book. The book is solemnly named The Dream-Book, or an Interpretation of Dreams by Sundry Egyptian and Indian Savants and Astronomers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For those who chased several dreams which never succeeded, they shall also be able to say they enjoyed them and perhaps they still have  fantastic memories by them.

We may never give up dreaming, and we better take more efforts in sharing our dreams and living them to come true.

Oh so many people have become frightened to dream. Perhaps we should accept that dreaming requires courage.

A courage to strive towards a mirage, to build castles, to go to many worlds, and a courage to trust the ones who are willing to give you a hand on their voyage or to trust that whatever you may find when you finally get there, that it will be worthwhile.
After all, although reality can never match our dreams, neither can a dream ever fully describe the complex and unpredictable reality.

Some of the writers in this club of guest-writers may have fought for their dreams in World War II, in the 1968 upraising or in some other contestations or in one of the many worlds which killed so many people. Also much  younger voices we would love to see here, because they are the future. As such people who could have been at actions like Occupy Wall Street the  Arab Awakening or Arab Spring might join us in the future. They had their voices going loud on the marches for peace, power and freedom. They marked recent decades but saw many dreams scattered and saw how the world present a backdrop for today’s human conditions of stress, anxiety, insecurity and turmoil.

There are as many civil wars and wars between nations. From the individual perspective, the cry for peace is heralded as respite from the turbulence of today’s hectic lifestyle. In the past four to five decades we have lived in such a way as to create challenging situations in our lives and create even more havoc as we try to solve the resulting problems. {Peace In Troubled Times}

World Peace Flag of the Universal Peace Congress. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today in certain countries we may not see so many “No War” “Make peace” stickers as we saw in the time of the Vietnam War. but we might still see somewhere a popular bumper sticker that states, “Peace begins within,” and a hymn that is sung in thousands of churches world-wide on Sundays, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”

Yes, peace begins within the heart and mind of every person. Until we reignite the flame of peace, love and unity there can be no lasting peace in individuals, among people and nations of the world. {Peace In Troubled Times}

Those who have had or still have so many dreams of friendship and peace should dare to give their dreams a voice. We all should ask ourselves whether or not we have lived responsibly in recent decades and if we really tried enough to change something in the world around ourselves.

On this platform we would love to give a voice to all who are interested to dare to out themselves and to give a voice to their dreams, prepared to spawn national and international debates. With the widely reported impending consequences of global warming, catastrophes of war and economic collapses, the outlook may be bleak. but we do believe whenever each individual would like to take up the figurative ‘arms’ and do something against our ‘pollution‘ (in a broad sense) we shall be able to make turning points.

When we are with many we may give some impact and create some fertile ground for the human condition as they are fed in large daily doses at breakfast, dinner and all throughout the day. Conditions of fear, stress, anger, frustration, rage, insecurity and strife are the results of the negative thoughts and the materialism of this world, but the humbleness, the brotherly-love and the sincere care for nature, can bring solutions by which future generations can continue to build a better world.

When we conform to the world we allow the dictates of the world and its appearances to control our lives. The real of man is spiritual and divine, not the ego driven personality that responds to the whims and fancies of every Tom, Dick and Harry. Stress and conflict occur when the inner spiritual self and its outer personality self are in opposing viewpoints.

Frankl theorizes that mans search for meaning is a primary force in his life which is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone. Our greatness as human beings lies in our ability to change our minds and the conditions of our lives. What is so great about living in a free, democratic country is that it affords us the privilege of freedom to be all we want to be. Individually we must desire freedom and make the choice for freedom as we live our life. The great author and self help guru, Stuart Wilde, teaches that we should “Concentrate on ourselves and leave the world alone. As we strengthen ourselves we save all of humanity, because we are all linked to one another.” {Peace In Troubled Times}

By getting to know ourselves better and by allowing others to know us better as well and to share our love for others, we can reach even more if we do not leave the world but would embrace it as if it is the thing we love most and we do care as our little baby. Fostering as a little child we should educate it and show it the different ways it can go.

It is true that we must desire a change from the stress and turbulent lifestyle we live today.

We must dare to rise up, declare, pursue and claim peace for ourselves. This will impact the lives of family and friends and spread out to our communities and our world. The pursuit of peace is perhaps the most followed path to spiritual enlightenment. A peaceful disposition calms the rough and tossed seas of turbulence, strife, fear and discontent. {Peace In Troubled Times}

We should join hands and not stand still, but walk together hand-in-hand, radiating out to touch the lives of others and willing to transform our world.

Individually transformed lives will create a mass consciousness of peace and there will be peace on earth, beginning with every one of us. {Peace In Troubled Times}

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

***

Become a co-author of “From Guest-writers” and join the Bloggers for peace
and find 5 Steps to Peaceful Resolution, plus
7 Random Acts of Peace for Random Acts of Kindness Week
striving for happiness
regardless of material conditions, relationship status, or past history,
Re-hydrating Your Spirit,
sharing the miracles of everyday life to inspire, instruct, and supporting others and ourselves,
as one big family of this universe.
Friends and Enemies: The Malleable Keys to Peace

We Can Make a Difference–Right Here, Right Now
Letting others know that
The Universe Is All of Us

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Additional reading:

1. Live …
2. Be happy that the thorn bush has roses
3. Feed Your Faith Daily
4. A Living Faith #8 Change
5. In A World of Balance There Is Peace and Justice
6. Memories are important
7. Courage is fear that has said its prayers
8. Justififiable anger or just anarchism
9. The Y generation in conflict with itself
10. Violence or an other way to win
11. I want to be a better man than the one I’ve become.
12. Reflection for today…The Roots of Peace -Thich Nhat Hanh
13. Reflection for today…Compassion Is The Key To Enlightenment -Buddha
14. Reflection for today…Invite Peace
15. Reflection for today…Compassion Is The Key To Enlightenment
16. 1st Qtr-2011 World Peace Card Meditations
17. Next World Peace Card Meditations
18. There’s More to Life Than Being Happy
19. An Artist For Peace
20. Pass the Peace Post
21. Exercise for Spiritual Fitness
22. Steve Strother on Blogging For Peace
23. Bloggers for Peace March Challenge: Forgiveness
24. Teaching Children Peace – A Bloggers for Peace post
25. The Missing Peace
26. Let There Be Peace on Earth
27. The Peace Garden
28. The “Pursuit” of Happiness
29. Living Life to the Fullest
30. Professions for Peace musings on life, love and peace
31. Happy Birthday to a Warrior for Peace
32. Let us watch carefully the decent of mankind into the situation we see around us today
33. By counting our blessings we not only feel good, but we multiply our good

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• Dreams (crossfittoddler.com)
  I was friends with dragons, and I could fly, and I had magic powers, and I was immortal. I was always either saving the world or ruling it with a wise but firm hand (it was amazing how quickly things fell apart when left unattended). My dreams had no beginning and no end – once I sketched out a world in my mind, I’d land myself in the middle of some situation and watch it unfold, inevitably falling asleep before it was over. They didn’t need to: the fun lay in the no-holds-barred freedom of creation itself.
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  For an adult, dreaming can be one of the scariest things in the world.  It helps to remember that if a five-year-old can do it, you can do it, too.
• Dream Big, It’s Important (robertjrgraham.com)
  As children, we all had our own big, crazy dreams for the future. Some may have wanted to become the first astronauts to land on Mars, while others wanted to end all wars and achieve true world peace. But where have those big dreams gone? As we grew older, looked at those old dreams and dismiss them, believing that they’re unattainable or that they were just products of a child’s naïve fantasies. The sad thing is that these days, even the children seem to be afraid to dream big. Research has shown that only 10% of Americans actually set a goal in public school, and this is actually closely related to the very low percentage of rich people in America. People seem to have forgotten the importance of dreaming big, which can be summarized into three key points
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  What is it that you would like to accomplish? That’s the question I would like you to ask yourself if you have not already done so.
• Dreams (stillsortingthisout.wordpress.com)
  One day this dream that my brain categorised as “good” will one day mean nothing to me and be shifted into the “neutral” section of dreams. The kind that you dream about, and wake up (if by chance you remember it) and feel nothing about.
• What are dreams to us? (oceanelacroix.wordpress.com)
  We all have one and your dream is different from mine the same way that it is different from someone else’s. So what are they? Are they something we find inspiring and a reason to live, or is it something that we just call foolish and childish? An impossible fantasy or a rocky road?How many of us have grown up hearing people laugh at our dreams? And how many of us have had people support?