Tag Archives: Believers in God

by Guestspeaker | 2023/04/28 · 4:59 pm

4 Reasons to Pursue Humility

People like people to obey human teachings, this over spiritual teachings or those presented in the Bible. For that, people find it much more important to stick to what their church community teaches them. As a result, they do not have to take responsibility for choosing a particular doctrine themselves.

Many people forget that it takes a form of humility to accept Biblical Truth for what it is and to start living according to Biblical teachings instead of going along with the majority of people who have joined some majority church.

As believers in God, we should rather seek what we really want. Do we want to follow Christ or rather follow a church?

We should dare not to go for the easy answers, whereby church fathers say we do not have to think about it much, because we would not understand. For centuries many churches have presented their answers to take, without wanting to let you wonder and question them. Coming closer to important times it shall become even more important to question everything, and certainly the church and faith.

Coming to faith requires humility to admit scriptural knowledge and daring to set aside dogmas proposed by men.

Marcus Ampe

Our culture constantly tells us to build our self-esteem and think highly of ourselves.

Yet the Bible urges us to do the opposite. To pursue humility. It’s actually a glorious pursuit. And we have plenty of reasons to be humble. Here are a few:

We can’t control anything. We like to think we are in control. We make plans, write out our lists, book our flights, mark our calendars. Yet we can’t control a single thing.

Come now, you who say,

“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”

— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say,

“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4:13–15

We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We don’t know what the next hour will bring. Or the next 5 minutes for that matter. One little artery in our brain could burst. We could get a phone call with news that will alter our lives permanently. I don’t live in fear of the unknown, but it is humbling to contemplate our lack of control over our lives.

We are only here for a tiny blip of time.

“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

This is humbling. We are nothing great. In the blink of an eye we’ll be gone. We can’t keep our own hearts beating or maintain our breathing. We can’t keep ourselves alive. We can exercise and eat well, and that has some value, but it won’t add a single hour to our lives. God has determined the number of our days.

We are limited in our self-knowledge.

“Know thyself”

said a philosopher. We can know a lot about ourselves, yet there is much we don’t. We can’t fully know our own hearts and motives. We can’t fully know our own weaknesses and sins or see them as others can. Proverbs 12:15 says,

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

So often my first reaction to correction is to think the other person is wrong and that I’m right — right in my own eyes. That’s why we need brothers and sisters to help us, as it says in Psalm 141:5:

“Let a righteous man strike me — it is a kindness; let him rebuke me — it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it.”

It is a kindness when a brother or sister points out a sin or weakness. In our pride we are tempted to “refuse it.” But a humble person receives correction because he knows he is limited in self-knowledge.

Pride has terrible consequences; humility brings blessing. Proverbs 18:12 says,

“Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”

I’d rather have honor than destruction. So I must guard against pride, which is always lurking in my heart.

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (JA 4:6).

I don’t enjoy it when people oppose me, but definitely don’t want God opposing me. Really good reason to be humble.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” (PR 11:2).

Destruction, the opposition of God, disgrace — pride has serious consequences.

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (LK 14:11).

Humility will keep us from sin. A humble person knows he has fallen in the past in many ways and is capable of any sin. A humble person knows that if God doesn’t deliver him from temptation and evil, he is helpless to stand against it. A humble person doesn’t think that he is strong enough to expose himself to sin and not be affected, so he flees temptation. A humble person knows that God is working in him, yet he isn’t perfected yet.

These are but a few of many reasons to pursue humility. May we all seek to be lowly in spirit, like the most humble man who ever walked the earth, our Savior.

Mark Altrogge has been senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Indiana, Pennsylvania, since 1982. He has written hundreds of songs for worship, including “I Stand in Awe” and “I’m Forever Grateful.” Mark and his wife, Kristi, have four sons and one daughter. Find out more on his blog, The Blazing Center.

Preceding

Don’t Harden Your Heart

Willing to be little

Humility

I is for Incompleteness

Learning from ourselves

Your Life: Habit or Freedom?

The Grace of Humility

More on Grace and Spiritual Fruit – Abide in Me, and I in you

Spiritual growth expansion of self-awareness

Additional reading

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Proclaiming: a task given to Christians

Christians get their title by their baptism in the Body of Christ (the Church). By receiving that title normally they are supposed to recognise Jesus Christ as the Messiah and to be willing to follow him.

In this world we do find lots of people who call themselves Christian but do not follow Christ and often even do not keep to the teachings and ordinances of their so called church or denomination. We may find lots of people who say they are a Christian but who live contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Their lives are rooted in the world. They keep to heathen festivals and when they worship some one it are a three-headed god and saints, instead of keeping to the only One True God of Israel, the God of Jesus. By living a contrary life Jehovah God will not know them and they will not be saved. There are people that go to churches that teach doctrines contrary to the Bible and by continuing to go to them they are distancing themselves from the Only True God.

A lot of christians do not mind to keep their faith for themselves, not sharing it with others. They forget that the Nazarene master teacher Jesus wants his followers to help connect all people to the life-giving message of him. Jesus wants as many as possible to experience God and having them to find freedom, have them to discover purpose and to make a difference in our world.

Jesus wants us to say on each day

“Give thanks to Jehovah; praise Him and proclaim His name! Celebrate His works among the peoples – make his deeds known. Tell the nations how glorious how great He is and declare that His Name is exalted. {Isaiah 12:4}

All people should come to know that authority has been given to Jesus (in heaven and on earth) and therefore we should not hesitate to proclaim the message of the Good News, and should also make disciples of^[f] all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything Jesus has commanded his disciples. {Matthew 28: 18-20}

¹⁵Jesus said to them, “Go everywhere in the world, and ·tell [preach; proclaim] the ·Good News [Gospel] to ·everyone [all creation]. ¹⁶Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, but anyone who does not believe will be ·punished [condemned]. ¹⁷And those who believe will be able to do these things as ·proof [signs]: They will use my name to ·force [drive; cast] out demons. They will speak in new ·languages [tongues]. ¹⁸They will pick up snakes and drink poison without being hurt. They will ·touch [lay hands on] the sick, and the sick will ·be healed [recover].” {Mark 16:15-18 EXB}

Believers in Christ and his God should not be afraid of the badness which may surround them. They should show that they might be stronger than it when trusting in the Most High God. Not by our own means can we do things but we must count on the power of the Holy Spirit (God’s Force).

It is no difference than in the time of Jesus Christ. There is no reason at all to think there has to be done no preaching any more. The opposite, today it is even of more utmost importance than in the time of Christ Jesus. When Jesus was walking around in the planes of Jerusalem and Galilee he could perhaps encounter much more believers in the Only One true God than we can today in our regions. Today, around us are much more unbelievers and worshippers of binary, trinary and other multiple godheads, than in the region where Christ walked around.

Today there is also a much more hostile environment for those who want to worship the Only One True God, Jehovah. Already by hearing the Name of God lots of people raise their voice.

Let us take at heart what Jesus said to his disciples:

⁵Jesus sent out these twelve men with the following ·order [instructions]: “Don’t go ·to [^Lon the way/road of] the ·Gentiles [non-Jewish people] or ·to [^Lenter] any town where the Samaritans live. ⁶But go to the ·people of Israel, who are like lost sheep [^Llost sheep of the house of Israel]. ⁷When you go, ·preach [announce; proclaim] this: ‘The kingdom of heaven is ·near [at hand].’ ⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead to life again, ·heal [^Lcleanse] ·those who have skin diseases [^Tthe lepers; see 8:2], and ·force demons out of people [^Lcast out demons]. ·I give you these powers freely, so help other people freely [^LFreely you have received, freely give]. ⁹Don’t ·carry [or acquire] any money ·with you [^Lin your belts]—gold or silver or copper. ¹⁰Don’t carry a ·bag [traveler’s bag; or beggar’s purse] or ·extra clothes [^Ltwo tunics] or sandals or a ·walking stick [staff]. Workers ·should be given what they need [deserve to be supported; ^Ldeserve their food/sustenance].

¹¹“When you enter a city or town, ·find [seek out] some ·worthy [honorable; respected] person there and stay in that home until you leave. ¹²When you enter that home, ·give it your blessing [^Lgreet it; ^Ctypically, “Peace be with you”; see Luke 10:5]. ¹³If the ·people there welcome you [^Lhouse is worthy], let your peace ·stay there [^Lcome upon it]. But if ·they don’t welcome you [^Lit is not worthy], ·take back the peace you wished for them [^Llet your peace return to you]. ¹⁴And if ·a home or town [^Lanyone] refuses to welcome you or ·listen to you [heed your words/message], leave that ·place [^Lhome or town] and shake its dust off your feet [^Cin protest and as a warning of judgment]. ¹⁵I tell you the truth, on the judgment day it will be ·better [more bearable/tolerable] for the ·towns [^Lland] of Sodom and Gomorrah [^Cevil cities destroyed by God; Gen. 19] than for the people of that town. {Matthew 10:5-15 EXB}

Preceding

To proclaim the day of vengeance

Not all christians are followers of a Greco-Roman culture

Additional reading

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Adar 6, Matan Torah remembering the giving of Torah

In the people of God their year 2448 (1313 BCE), on the 6th (or 7th) day of the third month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar, Sivan, after Moshe was called up at the mountain of Sinai, God told his chosen one what to tell to the people. With the Shemoth or Exodus from Egypt only three months in the past, the Jews arrive at Mount Sinai to hear a terrible noise and to see flashing lights. They saw a mountain which was been touched and burned with fire and to blackness and to darkness and to tempest.

“Now all of the people were seeing the thunder-sounds, the flashing-torches, the shofar sound, and the mountain smoking; when the people saw, they faltered and stood far off.”
(Exodus 20:15 SB)

“The people stood far off, and Moshe approached the fog where God was.”
(Exodus 20:18 SB)

Moshe having entered into the thick ‘darkness’ of the clouds, came to hear the Voice of God, the Most High Divine Creator. God spoke to Moshe

“… Say thus to the Children of Israel: You yourselves have seen that it was from the heavens that I spoke with you.”
(Exodus 20:19 SB)

V11p133004 Torah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There God gave to the Children of Israel what is by most Christians known as the “Ten commandments” but would be better referred to as the (literal translation) ““The Ten Sayings” or Decalogue. These Sayings including more than ten actual mitzvahs. Later Jeshua would tell that he has come not to take that Law away, like so many christians think, but to explain it and to fulfil it.

“Do not suppose that I came to tear-down the law or the prophets; I did not come to tear-down, but to fulfil.”
(Matthew 5:17 MLV)

“But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one serif of the law to fall short.”
(Luke 16:17 MLV)

“Now I am saying this: the law, which happened four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not invalidate a covenant* validated beforehand by God in reference to Christ so as to do-away-with the promise.”
(Galatians 3:17 MLV)

Many thousand years ago God found it time that what He wanted people would know very well what He expected from them. He wanted to make it clear to them what His expectations were.
He made it clear what He wanted man to keep to.

For those who doubt it, or use graven images in their worship places God made it clear He does not like such things.

“You are not to make beside me gods of silver, gods of gold you are not to make for yourselves!”
(Exodus 20:20 SB)

No body, who wants to be a child of God, may have more than One God before him or may become unequally yoked with unbelievers and take part in pagan rites and pagan festivals (like Halloween, Christmas, Easter, just to call a few).

It was on Sivan 2 that the Almighty God tells Moshe that He not only wants to give the Jews the Torah, but also wants to make them His chosen, set apart or holy nation, who will follow His commandments. The Jews wholeheartedly agree, replying,

“All God wishes we will do.”

On the third day of the month Moses relays the Jews’ answer to God and then returns to the Jews to tell them that he will be the messenger for the Ten Sayings; that what God told him up high on the mountain.

This weekend, Adar 6, 5777, we remember the giving of Torah and this transitional moment in our history — a moment known as Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah). No longer were we merely the descendants of a great man named Abraham, or simply a Middle-Eastern people known as the Israelites. We had now become God’s people, chosen to learn His Torah and keep its laws. It’s a moment we celebrate every year on the festival of Shavuot, and this year will take place from May 30–June 1.

The Torah and Talmudic sources describe the delivery of the Ten Commandments as a unique experience — complete with thunder, lightning and a smoking mountaintop — and an event of historic significance. Yet the Talmudic account itself actually makes it quite difficult to understand what was so earth-shattering about

“the giving of the Torah.”

It was not that people did not yet know God’s Will. A significant body of legislation and moral lore was already in existence long before the historic event described as “the giving of the Torah.” Indeed, even without the Talmudic tradition it would seem that all of the Ten Commandments given at Sinai are either philosophical axioms (e.g., monotheism), moral imperatives and ideals (e.g., do not murder, do not steal, honour your father and mother, do not covet), or previously received mandates (e.g., the Sabbath). In other words, not the sort of material that would seem to warrant a divine revelation — and certainly not one of such grandeur.

But we should know that it was no simple handing over a book of lore … God gave man the basic rules to live by, the Ten Commandments.

Please do understand, though the name of the event — the Giving of the Torah — implies that the entire Torah was given that day, this is not the case. In fact, only the Ten Commandments were taught to us that day, and even they were only transmitted verbally. The physical luchot—the tablets — were not given for another 40 days.

Nevertheless, the name remains, as it marks the day the Elohim began the process of giving us the Torah. In that light we should remember this weekend which great gift we were given so that it would be much easier for us to know how to keep in line with God’s desires.

First we were taught the Ten Commandments. Then, Moses stayed on Mount Sinai to learn from God, for 40 days. We too can take such 40 days to meditate and wonder about our relationship with the Most High. You can call it a time of reflection. Also Jeshua took such a time to think about what God wanted from him and his followers. He too had gone in the desert for 40 days to contemplate. Jeshua also took time to cogitate and was not afraid to deny the requests from others to denounce God or to test God. Also God’s people had to wait such a long time before they saw Moshe back. Though they proved not to be as strong as Moshe and Jeshua, Jesus Christ, who thought it most important to do the Will of God and not his own will. Though it is clearly impossible for Moshe to have learned ‘all 385 commandments’, he did learn the rules they are based on, and so it is considered as if he actually learned them. On stone tablets the basic 10 sayings cover most rules. The rest of the Torah was communicated in stages throughout the Jews’ 40-year sojourn in the desert.

In short we could say

The Ten Commandments

Believe in Only One God.
Do not believe in other deities.
Do not take God’s name in vain.
Keep Shabbat.
Honour your parents.
Don’t murder.
Don’t commit adultery.
Don’t kidnap.
Don’t give false testimony.
Don’t covet another’s possessions.

The Ten Commandments, In SVG (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This our the basic rules for man to follow. The 4 first ones you could consider laws believers in God should follow, but the 5th until the 10th commandment form the basic rules for all people, who should take care to be able to live with each other in the best and most peaceful conditions. By obeying those given ethic laws for humanity man should be able to live in peace.

Although Matan Torah is known as the time when God gave us His Torah to study and keep, there were a few Israelites who had kept the entire Torah of their own volition before Matan Torah.

Now the moment had come that the Elohim Hashem Jehovah asked man to take the act of making a conscious choice or decision. It had become time man had to show for Whom he wanted to stand. From the beginning of times God had given man freedom to act or judge on one’s own. Now it is time for man to show that he has the ability or power to discern what is responsible or socially appropriate.

Man has to make the choice how he is going to behave in a community. He has to choose the position he is going to take opposite others and how he is going to treat them.

Before Matan Torah, those who observed Torah did so entirely of their own accord. It was their own choice and we can not tell in what way they wanted to do it. We can only guess how they saw it as a matter of having a good relationship with the Divine Creator.

Probably their connection to God, therefore, was only as deep as their understanding and feeling. Like today people who come into the faith cannot know yet all what they have to keep to and have to go on a path of learning to come to know what God really wants from them.

The Title page of Mishnah Torah by Moshe ben Maimon haRambam, published in Venice in 1575 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For us tonight having Matan Torah in our mind, we look at the time the Elohim connected His Essence to the Torah and gave it to mankind and as such also to us. Each of us has the own responsibility now to decide to accept that given Torah or to deny it. Each of us should see how The Law of God is our safeguarding but also our inner set apart (holy) contact with the Most High. When we observe the Torah, therefore, we are connected to God’s essence, no matter who we are and how much we understand or feel. {Likutei Sichot, vol. 28, pp. 11-12.}

Fear may have seized those at the fields before the mountain of Sinai, but we should not be in fear, because “God has visited his people!” and given His instructions so that they could live according to the Wishes of God. We should know that in every place where God’s Name is recorded He will come to us and will bless us.

“Moshe said to the people: Do not be afraid! For it is to test you that God has come, to have awe of him be upon you, so that you do not sin.”
(Exodus 20:17 SB)

“A slaughter-site of soil, you are to make for me, you are to slaughter upon it your offerings-up, your sacrifices of shalom, your sheep and your oxen! At every place where I cause my name to be recalled I will come to you and bless you.”
(Exodus 20:21 SB)

“I will make a great nation of you and will give-you-blessing and will make your name great. Be a blessing!”
(Genesis 12:2 SB)

“So are they to put my name upon the Children of Israel, that I myself may bless them.”
(Numbers 6:27 SB)

Moshe wrote down the Words of God and that way even today we can read what God wants from His creatures.

“Now Moshe wrote down all the words of YHWH. He started-early in the morning, building a slaughter-site beneath the mountain and twelve standing-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.”
(Exodus 24:4 SB)

Moses repeated the commandments to the people, detail by a Carolingian book illuminator circa 840 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Preceding articles

Our life depending on faith

God’s wisdom for the believer brings peace

Mishmash of a legal code but importance of mitzvah or commandments

Written by inspiration of God for our admonition, to whom it shall be imputed if they believe

Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion

29. Laws that Value People

Responsibilities of Parenthood for sharing the Word of God

Luther’s misunderstanding

Additional reading

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Not missing your appointment in 2017

Soon we will turn over the page of the dark year 2016.

These past days and the coming days lots of people had very important gatherings they would not like to miss. This time of season it are days of appointments which have us looking forward to pleasant cosy being together moments.

In the new year, people shall again make and keep lots of different appointments that they would never miss. For many the people are so important, they would never cancel. The circumstance may also be so pressing that those meetings cannot be put off.

The need so urgent, we cannot afford to overlook it. The desire so great, it cannot be denied or postponed. {Don’t Trade Away God’s Help Today}

But what about the most important meeting of the year, the season or even of the day?

Lots of Christians say this is the season of the year and that they are celebrating the birth of their god. Those Christians also say the bible is the word of their god, though most of those Christians do not read that Word of God. For sure then they would perhaps not worship Jesus as their god and would not take part in the heathen Christmas events.

Many Christians far too quickly dismiss their daily appointment with the God of the universe as soon as life gets a little busy. The other appointments stack up, and our time to sit with the Most High and heavenly Father of our Saviour, seems to fade away so quickly and easily. Not many of those Christians who have Jesus as their god know his words or know the Words of his heavenly Father. Though those Words are very important and each follower of Christ should know them very well.

Perhaps it is

Arrogance, because we don’t think we need God’s help and wisdom enough to consistently ask him for it (James 1:5). Apathy, because we’ve let other things drown out the call to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). {Don’t Trade Away God’s Help Today}

book-1209805_6401 Not many people do know why and how important it is to come to read the Bible. Many have no idea how to start doing it. At my first series I look on this matter “Reading the Holy Scriptures“. In it I try to show how reading the Bible is a way of hearing God’s Word and a way to let us be strengthened. It is a way to allow ourselves to grow whilst we are guided by the One Who knows everything. He is the Omnipotent Who is pervasive, extensive, omnipresent and willing to help us at any moment of the day and night. He is the Most Trustworthy Supreme Being Who is prepared to be there for us whenever we need Him. He is the One Who can tell us how to prepare for life and is willing to show us what to do and how to serve Him. We can turn to the Bible in times of sadness, joy, worry or bereavement and receive comfort from Gods word.

Too many are not aware how easy it is to have the most super guidebook in the world and the most intense appointment with the Most High Person in this world. We may wonder why so many Christians miss such an appointment regularly. Because their God has asked them to remember Him and to take time for Him. He told them to take a Sabbath, a day of rest to give and share it with Him. But we do not see many accepting that invitation or going to that appointment.

Many Christian churches are running empty today. There are not many worship places where Christians are really worshipping the Most High Elohim. We may find lots of churches where false gods are worshipped, but also they are having difficulties to keep their members. Many Christian even have no place for God on the day that they say would be especially for Him. At Christmas most energy is put in the cooking and preparing for the festivities and the presents. But there is no place for many Christians and not much thought about the Most High Present, namely the Saviour Jesus Christ. That child in the mangler is mostly forgotten or a detail in their life which is consumed by all the material things around them.

Moshe had given a task, like Jeshua also has given a task to his followers. They told the task of the leader is to remove that Din and bring everlasting Chesed and Rachamim to us. We should do away with all wrong traditions, all heathen connections. Believers in, and lovers of God should be different than atheists. Their way of life should be pure and according to the wishes of the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, and to know those wishes God has given the best manual for life: the Bible, the Book of books. We should read it, making time to have close and fine words with the One who we should love and honour as the most Important One.

Taking up the Bible is taking up and keeping your appointment with God. Do not forget to meet Him and His Word in 2017.

Please come to find following articles on Immanuel Verbondskind:

Best to read and study the Bible
How to Read the Bible
How to Read the Bible (sequel 1)
How to Read the Bible (sequel 2)
Making time for God is crucial
How to Read the Bible (sequel 3)
and find sequels 4 and 5 later, in the New Year

***

Wishing you a happy and blessed spiritual New Year

***

Did you come to read already our Vision and mission. Have a look at our page: Our Vision and mission.

Find additionally

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My tales will be beautiful!

In life we are confronted lots of times with troubles, fear and pain. Our pain is often nothing compared to the pains and sufferings of others. As believers in Jesus and his heavenly Father, the Only One True God of gods, we do know what we may expect in the near future, so we should not worry about this world but should be more concerned about the world to come and for what is in store for us and those around us.

Let us talk about the roses and the beautiful things lying in front of us.

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Preceding articles:

Fear in your own heart or outside of it

For those Christians who say they are the Victim

Christians remaining hidden not sharing the gospel

How To Get Started In Sharing Your Faith As a Christian

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Additional reading

If there is bitterness in the heart

Emotional pain and emotional deadness

Evil in this world not bringing us down

Dying or not

Trouble is coming

End of the Bottom Line

A small trouble is like a pebble

She who sows thistles will reap prickles

Do not be so busy adding up your troubles

Do the appropriate for a friend

A Breath for tomorrow

Shelter in the morning

Luck

Rejoice even though bound to grieve

From pain to purpose

Hope by faith and free gift

1 Corinthians 15 Hope in action

May reading the Bible provoke us into action to set our feet on the narrow way

You God hold the future

God is my refuge and my fortress in Him I will trust

Songs in the night Worship God only

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Further reading

Pain

Pain 2

Hurting

Pain is everywhere

Pain can Dance – Tulsi Shrestha

Pain Collectors

The Agony

Not Dead yet

Day 285 – Positives

Pain and Beauty

Familiars.

Fear Of Failure

to whatever the future holds…

I Get It Now

Despite Everything: Part 2

Ugly Truth

What can I say?

Art: Open Eyes

Day 5: Dear God

Use Your Words…No, Not Those.

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Related articles

Breath Of Life

Our Father’s Arms

Recovering a Truer Christianity

You Are Loved

You Are Loved

Lazarus Saturday (2016)

Belonging

More Than You Can Handle

UBER CHRONICLES: Anxiety; the demon you feed or the illusion you overcome.

Purplerays

” Let others talk
about Thorns.
I will tell the Tales of Rose petals. ”

– Shahab Rahimi

Photo & text credit: Rumi, Saadi, Hafiz (Poems and Quotes) https://www.facebook.com/RumiSaadiHafiz

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Positive thoughts, Quotations or Citations, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Spiritual affairs

Tagged as Believers in Christ, Believers in God, Fear, Pain, Shahab Rahimi, Suffering, Troubles

by Marcus Ampe | 2016/04/03 · 1:26 pm

Bringers of agony, Trained in Belgium and Syria

These days the west came to understand how seriously Islamic State group wants to launch “enormous and spectacular attacks,” as jihadis broaden their focus to target Western lifestyles.

The heart of Europe was severely hurt on the 22nd of March with up to 35 deaths and 396 wounded (as registered on the 31st of March).

The Paris and Brussels attacks have rightly caused outrage across the globe. However, while millions in the West took to social media to share their grief, there are numerous attacks across the world that go largely unreported in the mainstream media are which are forgotten or not remembered by lots of Westerners.

The “black flag of jihad” as used by jihadist militants since around the late 1990s

Ardennes (in ‘darker’ green)

Our regions do know that IS is no longer content to simply radicalise people through propaganda, but is “trying to build bigger attacks.” for several months now that rebel group is also trying to bring jihadis trained in Syria into northern Europe to launch strikes, helped by those who are trained in West Flanders and in the Belgian Ardennes.

On 21 March, the Kurds celebrated the biggest cultural event of their year, Newroz or New Year, but once again they too were under attack by Turkey but also by groups of their own, namely the PKK.

Pro-Assad media hails recapture of ancient city as ‘strategic victory’ but others allege collusion between Damascus and retreating militants

A Syrian soldier looks at graffiti in Palmyra reading: “The Islamic State is staying’ (AFP)

The ruins of Palmyra in 2010

The dramatic recapture of the ancient city of Palmyra by the Syrian army and its allies on Sunday prompted some commentators in the Arabic-language media to declare the beginning of the end for the Islamic State (IS) group, while others predicted a long and drawn out battle to come with regional and global consequences. {- See more at: Middle East eye}

Four days after the Brussels attacks the terrorists showed they were not at all only focussing on fakir Christians. At least 41 people were killed and 105 wounded when a teenage ISIS suicide bomber blew himself up at a small soccer stadium in the Iraqi city of Iskanderiyah, less than 30 miles south of Baghdad. The attack targeted the crowd watching an amateur soccer match on Friday evening in the mixed Sunni and Shiite town, and the city’s mayor, who was presenting awards to the soccer players at the time of the bombing, was among those killed. The BBC also reports that 17 of the dead were boys between the ages of 10 and 16. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack using its social media channels, according to the Site extremist monitoring group.

epaselect PAKISTAN SUICIDE BOMB BLAST AFTERMATH On Sunday the 27th of March Pakistan got its share also with a bombing that killed 72 people and injured more than 350 at a crowded park on Easter Sunday. Though the violent Pakistani Taliban offshoot known as Jamaat-ul-Ahrar — which boasted that it targeted Christians in a crowded park in Lahore — once publicly declared support for ISIS, but has hit more Muslims and Hindy people than Christians.

Now it’s the subject of an intensive crackdown in the world’s second-most populous and only nuclear-armed Muslim nation. On dealing with the threat of Islamic State, Obama said he had invited participating nations to work on improving intelligence-sharing to prevent terrorist attacks.

“At our session on ISIL this afternoon there was widespread agreement that defeating terrorist groups like ISIL requires more information sharing,”

Obama said on Friday April 1, using an acronym for the militant group.

Pakistan, a country long considered an al Qaeda stronghold, feels more and more also the negative pressure of that group and similar related groups which want to govern lots of people, telling them what they can or not can do.

Those “cowardly” suicide attacks shall continue. And with them we can see the Biblical prophesies of having the religions coming up against religions, after the period when the people living in the land of Euphrates and Tigris would have fought against each other (Iran & Iraq).

Whilst US President Barack Obama called for a world without nuclear weapons yesterday after arriving in France for a Nato summit, where he won French endorsement of his new Afghanistan strategy, we should be fully aware that the war on terror continues and shall bring forth some other serious attacks form underground people or different cells which sprout up like ulcers.

It are those rebels who misuse the name of God and try to get religious people against each other. Believers in God should be very careful not to fall in the trap and going to one or another religious group. In Belgium, Holland, France and some other Western countries we can see movements from right as wall as extreme left wing organisations defiling the Muslim community.

Flag of Taliban (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For sure the Western states do have to get a grip on rising violence by al Qaeda and Taliban militants driven from power in 2001 but never completely defeated. But Christians should be careful not to be carried away by hatred and should abstain from any violent action. They also should show their love for those who are different than them and who have an other faith than them, but who also sincerely believe in the Divine Creator.

We always should remember that those who rape and sell children, kill innocent people, burn Koran‘s, mosques and bring terror on so many places are all doing things which are against Koran teaching and as such against real Muslim faith.

They are not only misusing and defiling the Name of God, but they are bringing discredit to all those believers who belong to the Islam.

***

Attacks targeting civilians linked to or inspired by ISIS Since January 2015, outside Iraq and Syria.
Circles represent number of deaths of confirmed ISIS-related attacks.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for several explosions causing many deaths and severely wounded, creating lots of horror and pain

Preceding / Voorgaande

Tears for Belgium

A darker and stranger place

In tijden van gemeenschappelijk verdriet

Belangrijke onderbreking

Hoe te reageren op aanslagen in Brussel

Find also to read:

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Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Being and Feeling, Crimes & Atrocities, Headlines - News, Lifestyle

Tagged as Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Arabic-language media, Barack Obama, Belgian Ardennes, Belgium, Believers in God, Biblical prophesies, Brussels attacks, Christians, Daesh (ISIS or Islamic State), Defiling Name of God, Europe, France, Hatred, Holland, ISIS = Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Iskanderiyah, Islamic State (IS), Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Jihadis, Koran teaching, Kurds; PKK, Misusing Name of God, Muslim community, Muslim faith, Muslim nation, Nato summit, Newroz or New Year, Northern Europe, Palmyra, Paris attacks, Propaganda, Radicalisation, Rebel groups, Social media, Suicide attacks, Suicide bomber, Taliban militants, Terror, Terrorist attacks, Terrorists, to Discredit, to Radicalise, Turkey, Violence, Violent action, West Flanders, Western lifestyles

by Guestspeaker | 2016/02/04 · 7:41 am

The Mountain: Radical Love

In our second reposting from the paraphrased chronological harmony of the four gospels, by Frank Boulet we look once more at the central message of Jesus which is simply this:

Love God by loving people, even your enemies.

with From Guestwriters we do want to spread this message of love and want to get enough people to see how we do have to control ourselves first before we can try to get a better world.

Our aim is also that those who come along our site, shall make the effort to read the appropriate Bible text and shall take time to meditate on the material.

Insofar as they convey that message, these meditations may be helpful as an introduction to the complete texts of the New Testament, or for daily devotional reading.

Those who call themselves Christian always should remember that they have to be followers of Christ longing for God’s Spirit to feed them. They cannot be called Christian when they do not keep to the laws and teachings Christ adhered to.

The spirit that God wants reflected to the world by your life is revealed in the law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. {The Mountain: God’s Word}

As believers in Christ we do have to be believers in the One True God and become children of Him.

In order to live as God’s child, you must be faithful to the essential spirit of God’s word. {The Mountain: God’s Word}

It was on a mountain that Jesus began giving examples of the spirit of God’s Word. From that sermon on the mountain we should get to know that our faith needs those works Jesus spoke about.

As a Christians we should not only have a good relationship with Christ Jesus, but also with God and God His creatures.

If you’re about to worship God in any way, and you remember an unsettled dispute with another person, first go & make peace with that person, and then return to worship God. {The Mountain: Anger}

As a Christian we should follow Christ’s teachings and God’s commandments.

God’s law says, do not engage in sexual cheating (meaning sexual relations are to be enjoyed only with your husband or wife). {The Mountain: Sexual Cheating}

This means we have to be faithful to the partner we have chosen to share our life with. That faithfulness demands control and requires acts of love. The keeping our minds focused on the right persons is one of the works we do have to do. Because we should know that we may not even look with lust at a woman, because for God that is considered the same as sexual cheating in your heart!

We also should be careful which words we use and what sort of promises we make.

It has also been said, ‘Do not break your promise to God.’

But I say, do not even make promises to God.

Yes we are told not to promise by heaven, by the earth, by Jerusalem, not even by your own head, because it’s sinful to try to add emphasis to your promises in that way.

We should not do the wrong things but the right things and as such

Instead of promising to do what God says, just do what God says. {The Mountain: Promises to God}

We also may not seek revenge against any other person, which again shall demand control of ourselves and not getting into anger which would bring us to do wrong.

Jesus gives an indication how in our relation to others we should care for them and even be willing to go with them.

If a soldier demands that you carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles.

Whenever another person asks you for something, give it to him.

Whenever another person wants to borrow something, lend it to him.

Matthew 5:38-42

Also to love your enemies we shall need to be stronger than the first reaction most people get against their enemies or to those they hate.

Jesus concluded:

Instead of being like everybody else, God wants you to love perfectly — just as God himself loves perfectly. (Matthew 5:43-48) {The Mountain: Loving Enemies}

Living for God in this life means you need to have different goals than most people.

For instance, you must love your enemies. {The Mountain: Radical Love}

We should remember

things essential to gain all of God’s blessings:

• Admitting + Mourning self-inflicted spiritual poverty.
• Regretting your self-inflicted separation from God.
• Desiring to live God’s way
• Expecting & accepting trouble living God’s way will bring in this life.

Living for yourself in this life will never lead to God’s blessings in the next life:

Then the author says:

• goal in this life to be rich => poor in the next life.
• goal in this life to be full => hungry in the next life.
• goal in this life to be happy => sad in the next life.
• goal in this life for other people to speak well of you => no one will speak well of you in the next life.

But with death we have paid for our sins and then there comes an end to our life. When we die it shall be too late to do anything. there shall be no “next life”, except the life we shall continue to live on this earth in this system of things when we have done wrong and do not repent, or after Armageddon and the judgement when we shall be rejected or receive the entrance to God’s Kingdom, being able to live in the restored ‘Garden of Eden‘, the paradise, God’s Kingdom.

It is here, now or never that we shall have to do and make it. Several parables of Christ show us how for many it will be too late for them to change anything for their entrance in the Kingdom of God … they just shall miss it … because they have not done the required works to be saved.

Preceding articles

Illusion of control

First man’s task still counting today

He who knows himself, is kind to others

Luther’s misunderstanding

January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works

Our life depending on faith

Romans 4 and the Sacraments

Is Justification a process?

Letter to the Romans, chapter 3

Letter to the Romans, chapter 4

Additional comments to the 3rd Letter to the Romans

Additional comments to the Letter to the Romans 4

Comments to James remarks, about Faith and works

The Mountain: Radical Obedience

Restitution

Also of interest

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Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Being and Feeling, Crimes & Atrocities, Lifestyle, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs, Social affairs

Tagged as Anger, Being Christian, Believer in Christ, Believer in God, Believers in Christ, Believers in God, Blessings, Christian, Christians, Control, Dispute, Enemies, Faith, Faith and works, Faith life, Faithfulness, Focus, Focus on worhtly things, Following God's commandments, God's children, God's commandments, God’s Word, Jesus, Justification by works, Kingdom of God, Laws of God, Living for God, Love acts, Lust, Making promises, Man' spirit, Man's promises, Meditate, Meditations, Mountain sermon, One God, Only True God, Parables, Promises to God, Relationship with God, Relationship with Jesus Christ, Relationship with others, Revenge, Salvation, Sexual cheating, Sexual relations, Showing faith, Teachings of Christ, Teachings of Jesus, Teachings of prophets, the Way to Kingdom of God, to be Faithful to partner, to Love enemies, to Love God, to Love people, Works of faith, Wrong, Wrongdoing

by Guestspeaker | 2015/11/22 · 9:50 am

Listening for the Language of Peace

As-Salaam Aliakum.

It is not because some lunatics or some power horny people want to get their lust for power fulfilled and therefore use terror to achieve their goal, that a full community has to be penalised with the idea that all Muslims would agree with what ISIS or Al Qaeda is doing.

As in Christendom not at all Muslims look op with owe to those ‘crusaders‘ who misuse the name of Allah.

Many Muslims are moderate believers who honour Allah, trying to live according to His Laws and who do know that lovers of Allah have to respect the creatures He allows to live on this earth. They also know that sharing the love is a much mightier weapon than the man-made weapons which literally kill, but never can kill the connection with the Most High divine Creator, when a person has an intimate relation with the God of gods.

Jews, Christians and Muslims who love God should show to others that Allah is a God of love. They too, who know they are created by the Most High Almighty God, should share the love God wants us to bring forth to all around us, so that we can conquer them by our love, the Sword of God, and not by the sword of man.

*

To remember

often heard Muslim greeting “As-Salaam Aliakum” = Peace Be Unto You! > in a world that doesn’t understand the language of peace

Wa-Aliakum Salaam = shared in response

barber Mo = devoted Muslim + highly intelligent + deeply peace giving spiritual man

online activities of typed out words, posted banners, shared videos profess a great divide between our brother and us… our sister… according to way we dress, worship, or seek meaning and purpose

language of a person of peace = not to have a linguistic barrier restricting from culture, religion, our nationality

language of peace = built upon power + significance of our relationships to the other = language of communal embrace!

+

Preceding articles

Christians at War? Christians using violence?

Of old and new ideas to sustain power and to feel good by loving to be connected and worship something

Don’t be Muslim

The Existence of Evil

Getting fate in your change to positiveness

How to Find the Meaning of Life and Reach a State of Peace

What I Hope For Is What You Hope For

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Additional reading:

Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother

Certainty in a troubled world

A world with or without religion

Because men choose to go their own way

Our way of life

A world in denial

The famine of the word

Gaza in Bible Prophecy

Hamas the modern Philistines

Propaganda war and ISIS

ISIS cannot be presenters of the real Islam

Wrong ideas about religious terrorism

Do Al-Qaeda, Islamic State, ISIS and ISIL belong to true Islam

Not true or True Catholicism and True Islam

Religion, fundamentalism and murder

Condemning QSIS or the self-claimed Islamic state ruler, al- Baghdadi their extremist ideologies and to clarify the true teachings of Islam

ISIL will find no safe haven

Islamic State forcing the West to provide means for Kurdistan

Christian clergyman defiling book which did not belong to him

Being Charlie 11

Do we have to be an anarchist to react

Peace Takes You

End Times

The Conclusion of the System of Things

Signs of the times

Signs of the Last Days

Zion, Flames, Terror, Signs and Games of Peace

Syrian capital facing total destruction in the coming months

Swallowing up Crimea, who is next

The Rapture Wars

Dealing With the “Silence” of God

What Jesus Did – Misleading around the Messiah and the final assessment

The days are coming

Babylon is fallen

How do we know the coming of Jesus is very near?

Secret or public return of Jesus

Preaching Christ Is Not Enough

In a world which knows no peace sharing blessed hope

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Related articles

I am a Muslim, and I, too, am an American.

Muslim Suicide Bomber Bursts into Tears Before Carrying Out Mission

Muslim youth warned against extremist and terrorist groups

Eid celebrations: Muslims urged to educate youth against IS, Boko Haram et al

Video Shows Muslim Leader Admitting the True Purpose of the Muslim Refugees

Looking into the future?

New Audio Recording Features Al Qaeda Leader Calling for ‘Lone Wolf’ Attacks in the West

How ISIS Got Its Flag

Dr. Ben Carson’s jihad against a Muslim President

Muslim migrants threw 12 Christians overboard to their deaths because they were not praying to Allah when they asked God for help when their dinghy suffered a puncture

Just Wondering...

Peace and Islam As-Salaam Aliakum. So often I think we hear these words today and the hairs on the back of our necks rise as images from Paris, Syria, and Iraq flash in our minds. Is this not a Muslim greeting?!

Wa-Aliakum Salaam. I hear it shared in response while I sit in the barber’s chair at my local neighborhood men’s barber shop. Mo has cut my hair for the last 6 years and we have developed an amazing relationship. We’ve spoke about his family, his kids and there schooling, his 5-year-old son (now 8 years old) who is dealing with Leukemia. I passed along comfort and gave financially to his family while I told him of my prayers for him when he went through a massive heart attack a little over a year ago. And yes, we have deep discussions about faith, Jesus, and the stories of scripture both in the Bible…

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Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Being and Feeling, Crimes & Atrocities, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs

Tagged as Al Qaeda, Allah, As-Salaam Aliakum, Believers in Allah, Believers in God, Communal embrace, Crusaders, God of love, Greeting, Honouring Allah, In Allah's name, ISIS = Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Love, Lovers of Allah, Most High, Muslims, Peace Language, Sword of love, Weapon-violence, Weapons

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