Tag Archives: Facebook

Are you a newsflash nightingale?

There are some of those people who reach for their smartphones as soon as they wake up to see if someone has sent them a message and to see what their news apps have to say for news.

Do you turn to your news apps as soon as you wake up, or do you prefer a leisurely read of the papers over Sunday brunch?

Or are you someone who still wishes to peruse the paper newspaper over breakfast?

Do you feel overwhelmed by news in the digital age, or do you relish the chance to sample a variety of news and features throughout the day?

So much is happening in this world that we cannot follow it all closely. But it is almost impossible to go through all the news sources to get a clear picture of the main issues that should concern us. It is also not possible to have our own news aggregator, though such online platform or software device that collects news stories and other information as that information is published and would organise that information for us in a specific manner, would be very practical.

Gathering news from all over the world is not a cheap business. It would also become too costly to have subscriptions to a multitude of daily and weekly newspapers and magazines.

But do you know, that for those who are curious about what is happening in the world, we provide a news platform so that everyone can freely get an overview of the day’s events. We try to present  some views from all sorts of ‘political’ directions and from different newspapers to give a broad aspect of information that can be compared with the different ideas. The editor in charge of this blog and of Some View on the World, Marcus Ampe, is convinced that one should be able to juxtapose several opinions, thus creating a dialogue but also allowing everyone to form their own opinion.

With Some view on the World, a variety of news reports are presented, with some reports perhaps being reported a little later, because we feel it is necessary to be able to check them for truth each time, so that no false reporting would be sent further into the world through our fault. So do not expect to find regular “Breaking News”, because such news can not always be directly verified. We also do not look to social media to stay up with breaking news, and have a critical and suspicious eye for such social media. You will be able to notice on Some View on the World, that it calls on a whole team of reporters to uncover news events and present them to you.
Furthermore, we will not shy away from putting forward our personal views on certain events. Here we then admit that this will be from a Christian point of view, which we also inform our readers about. Regularly, therefore, we will make room to approach or address some spiritual aspects more deeply.
The difference with our other spiritual or religious websites, like our Ecclesial website, is that on Some View on the World, we are rather more responsive to current events and will further provide responses to church articles that are out there at the time published on other channels and brought forward by other denominations, a.o. shedding light on people their religious life.

We further admit that for news coverage, a choice is made from what touched us during the course of the day as we recorded talking points, watched news broadcasts on television, had conversations, and so on.

We may be of the old breed and therefore not followers of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or Picodash as they are also very time-consuming, this is while we are convinced that instead of engaging with social media, we can use our time more usefully. Because our time is very limited – provided, we experience every day that we lack time.

Instead of continuing to publish on the slow opening Blogspot, “Our World” has been transferred (at the end of 2021) to WordPress so that a person now can easily access the website through Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer or Edge, hoping that now a faster loading site shall attract more visitors because no one wants a page that takes more than 30 seconds loading.

Whatever your style of gathering news, we hope we can charm you into signing up to follow our news blog Some view on the World.

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To be honest, we are convinced that our work can still be a useful contribution to getting people thinking here and there.

If you also appreciate what we are doing here and on our other websites, it shall always be appreciated by us when you would not mind letting others know about our existence.

Furthermore, you can also always indicate your appreciation of texts and mark them with the “Like” button.

Gossip is free and anyone can create it. There is no talent required other than to have no respect for facts and truth. Quality content is usually more costly because it takes time and expertise to create. A lot of time and energy is invested in publishing our articles here and on our other websites. Both time and expertise however cost money.

To cover our costs, you can also help us move forward. Indeed, financial contributions are also always welcome.
Deposits can be made to the Belgian bank account, for example, BE37 9730 6618 2528, BIC ARSPBE 22

 

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Preceding

  1. Do you still look out for your morning or evening paper
  2. Lots of news demanding attention
  3. Mountains of information, disinformation and breaking away
  4. The Age of Disinformation
  5. Mass Media’s Deception Causing Division
  6. Do Governments and Nations Lie?
  7. Seasonal Writing
  8. Holiday season and BBC being questioned
  9. Holiday time reading time
  10. Consequences of our digital environment
  11. Facts: Why they matter and how to check them
  12. Readers, likes and comments
  13. What 2022 brought to us and looking forward to 2023
  14. Invitation to the news platform that brings a view of the world

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Additional reading

  1. Study Guide: Definition of Journalism
  2. Why social media presence matters in journalism
  3. The Ever-Evolving Industry of Journalism: its Quest to Survive in a Digital World
  4. Traditional News Turns into The Journalism We Know Now
  5. The news that travels the fastest and the farthest
  6. What do we know about the future of journalism?
  7. Mississippi journalists discuss the evolution of daily newspapers
  8. Joseph Pulitzer’s Retirement Speech & The Traits of Journalism
  9. Newspapers: Dying or Changing
  10. Journal for and from bothered citizens
  11. Eyes on pages and messages on social media
  12. Presenting views from different sources
  13. 2022 towards its end
  14. Entering the last month of the year 2022
  15. Thoughts tinged with triviality
  16. To protect our democratic system #1 Danger of fake and malicious social media accounts
  17. Gossip and fake news, opposite fact checking and facts presenting
  18. Texts, writers, accesibility and willingness
  19. Changing screens

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Related

  1. Four reasons game dynamics are vital for networked journalism
  2. Toward A Free and Accurate Media
  3. The economics of news – a critique
  4. Google for Media Day: Using the internet for news gathering and storytelling
  5. University Newsgathering
  6. Networking and newsgathering: Breaking stories via social media.
  7. BBC News Moves to Broadcasting House After Dramatic Over Spend
  8. Why Twitter is essential for Journalists
  9. “Why Journalism?”
  10. Newsgathering: The Inside Story
  11. Print Publishing: Yesterday’s News?
  12. Finding myself with Immersion Journalism
  13. Making the News: Behind the Scenes
  14. Network News Anchors: Please quit commenting on stories…
  15. Press Coverage of DOJ Lacks in Analysis and Objectivity
  16. Online newsgathering, Illuminati, Media and Truth
  17. Why (basically) unlimited Twitter lists are amazing
  18. Free press? The problem with the DOJ’s ‘new’ rules
  19. LUTV Reporter Log VI
  20. News Gathering.
  21. Why amateur corporate newsletters generally fail
  22. Mobile Newsgathering and News Consumption
  23. Journalism and Politics
  24. The Journalist as a Hunter-Gatherer
  25. Patch me in
  26. 10 News Outlets to Test Drones for Journalism – Bloomberg
  27. Journo tips: Newsgathering
  28. Winning the Internet
  29. The three most effective things to tweet
  30. Where News Comes From
  31. Supporting Writers & Readers on Giving Tuesday
  32. Use your Eyes!
  33. When spurious ‘hacking’ claims chill journalism
  34. Story Sources
  35. The Case for DailyMe
  36. Twitter is a taxi (and newspapers are Metro Transit)
  37. All About the Buzz
  38. New Newsrooms
  39. There have been some very interesting initiatives to bring news events in the picture and to inform the public in a serious way > Hash Internship > Back in 2014, two driving factors led to us creating Hash – firstly, Twitter’s lack of a logged-out experience left a vast amount of awesome content inaccessible to a large audience. Secondly, the online news industry had long been an overwhelming and frustrating place – we wanted to create something that would let people catch up on important events quickly. Hash was our answer: aggregating tweets about the day’s most topical stories in a simple, visual way.
  40. Follow The Leaders: Mozilla, New York Times And Washington Post Collaborate

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Filed under Announcement, Cultural affairs, Headlines - News, Lifestyle, World affairs

De wereld is minder koud dan je zou denken

Vast en zeker zijn er mensen die klaar staan om daar te helpen waar nodig. Om die reden is het ook nodig de slechte kanten van het leven kenbaar te maken en te wijzen op dingen die verkeerd gaan in de maatschappij, zodat mensen er op kunnen reageren.

Het maakt deel uit van de liefde voor een ander, om naar buiten te durven treden en om wantoestanden bloot te leggen én er iets aan te doen!

Just thinking about it

Een tijdje geleden hielpen we hier in onze kerk een man die op straat leefde om terug te keren naar het land waar hij vandaan kwam. Hij was 72 jaar oud en leefde op straat tijdens de wintermaanden. Over het algemeen kon hij wel overnachten in een opvang en kreeg hij eten en drinken van de lokale handelaars.

Nadat deze man uiteindelijk terugkeerde naar zijn land had ik het idee om ook de mensen van onze streek op de hoogte te brengen door een bericht te zetten op de site van onze kerk en dit dan te delen via Facebook. Ongeacht het feit dat we ongeveer een gemiddelde hebben van 25 bezoekers per dag op onze site, steeg het bezoekersaantal op de dag van de plaatsing tot 1500 bezoekers. Het artikel zelf werd een aantal keren gedeeld en er kwamen verschillende commentaren op het artikel waarvan de meeste positief.

Wat…

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Filed under Activisme & Vredeswerk, Levensstijl, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Positieve gedachten, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Voelen en Welzijn

Don’t Get Vaccinated, It’s Dangerous

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Preceding

Pan 1- Past Pandemics

Mountains of information, disinformation and breaking away

Vaccinations and anti-vaxers

Consequences of our digital environment

Facts: Why they matter and how to check them

Too Many People Are Dying Right Now 

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Additional reading

  1. More care needed for older getting population
  2. Disinformation evolving threat
  3. Here is the truth or the lie
  4. Conspiracy theories in plenty-fold
  5. 💬 Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 
  6. Fact-Checking: Information Today
  7. Media Literacy
  8. Fourth wave of COVID-19 a pandemic of the unvaccinated

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Related

  1. Difficult Conversations – Open Letter to the Anti-Vaxxers
  2. Anti-Coders (#SegregationInAction)
  3. Anti-vaxxers are undermining our success at curbing virus
  4. Predictable Outcomes and Other Things
  5. Pro-COVID Republicans Help USA Stay Viral
  6. Pricing of choice
  7. Covid ‘protest’ straight from agitation playbook
  8. Former ‘The View’ Co-Host Jedediah Bila Returns For Virtual Debate Over Vaccines
  9. Subvert the dominant paradigm
  10. Orban: It’ll Be ‘Jab or Death’ for Anti-Vaxxers
  11. ABC Amplifies Anti-vaxxers
  12. Kelly, GOP leadership on the wrong side of good public health
  13. The fourth wave: how can Australia avoid another Covid outbreak as it reopens to the world? | Health | The Guardian
  14. COVID misinformation spreading about Aboriginal community lockdown
  15. Truly Cold
  16. My Body My Choice: Polarization and Outrage, But Who Is Pulling The Strings?
  17. Truly Stupid
  18. Trump stoked Covid in red states – but there are blue anti-vaxxers too | Robert Reich | The Guardian
  19. Freedom for whom?
  20. Dispatch from the slaughterhouse
  21. November 29, 2021 Set an Example
  22. An Amped Up Don Jr. Thinks Americans Should Be Rioting Against Vaccine Mandates
  23. Calling bluffs by Susan Grimsdell
  24. Red States, It’s Time to Get Vaccinated
  25. A Pandemic Worst Practices and Declaring War on Fauci Limerick 1.1
  26. Getting the needle!
  27. Vaccine: The Battle and the Lesson

Social Media@ NYUPraha

The COVID-19 pandemic. It has been almost two years since the death toll has started to surge millions of people around the world. With the uncertainty around the emergence of a new virus, the demand for information naturally increased. There was not only a rapid exchange of information that allowed citizens to make informed decisions, but also a widespread of disinformation and misinformation – about the virus, its origins, effective prevention and treatment measures, and the legitimacy of the vaccines – both intended and unintended to harm. In this shift from the public to the digital sphere were social media and its paramount role in creating an “infodemic.”

During the pandemic (and the infodemic), there has been government control over surveillance, censorship, and the free flow of information. In addition to this, the value of social media has been highlighted by political leaders, who have strategically…

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Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Headlines - News, Health affairs, Lifestyle, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Social affairs, Welfare matters

Facebookvrienden

Vandaag hadden wij de verjaardagskalender vast om weer eens een kruisje te zetten achter iemands naam, daar deze is ‘heen gegaan’. Opvallen hoe langzaam aan namen zonder een kruisje achter zeldzamer worden.

Gerard Hoogers vindt dat vandaag Facebook meer iets is voor de oudjes. Maar dan vragen wij ons af welke oudjes dat mogen zijn. Van onze oorlog en na-oorlogse generatie hebben wij meestal geen idee meer waar de schoolmakkers van de jaren 50, 60 en 70 van vorige eeuw zijn. Wij hebben namelijk alle contact en zelfs dikwijls al de namen vergeten of kennen enkel de meisjesnaam terwijl die meiden wie weet al jaren de naam van hun man hebben aangenomen.

Ook al mogen de Boomchildren een Facebookaccount hebben, valt het op dat ze er meestal niet veel mee doen. Maar het is een handig hebbeding om met de kinderen en kleinkinderen in contact te blijven alsook via Messenger regelmatig eens videogesprekken te voeren.

En zoals Gerard Hoogers vermoedelijk mocht ondervinden proberen velen van onze generatie tijdens hun pensioen toch oude vrienden op te zoeken, om soms op een verkeerde persoon met de zelfde naam te botsen of op iemand te botsen van 40 jaar of meer geleden die even de vriendschap aanvaard en dan toch onverwacht snel afbreekt.
Tijd maakt dat een mens heel wat veranderd kan zijn, maar ook kan het gerust dat sommigen met dat vroegere verleden niet meer geconfronteerd willen worden.

Of de uitspraak “Misschien als ik ouder ben en meer thuis zit, gekluisterd aan mijn laptop evenals mijn facebookvrienden wordt het weer gezellig.” waarheid zal kunnen worden betwijfelen wij wel. Wij kunnen slechts hopen.

GERARDHOOGERS

Friends,Foto NYPL

110, Verrek ik ben een vriend kwijt! Wie weet ik niet. Zij of hij is met stille trom vertrokken. Anders dan in de boeken van J.J. Voskuil en Frida Vogels wordt tegenwoordig nooit meer de vriendschap formeel opgezegd. Zoals Herman van Gunsteren ooit schreef in het boekje ‘Stoppen, u kunt het, u wilt het, u doet het niet’ laten we vaak organisaties, mensen of gewoontes heel langzaam in een hoekje sterven. Stoppen is niet voor iedereen een kernkwaliteit.
De Facebookvriend blijft apart. Ooit dacht ik een oude vriend terug gevonden te hebben. Het was mijn kortste vriendschap op Facebook. Het liep anders af.

Het tijdperk Facebook is een beetje voorbij. Jongeren accountslapen er en zitten op Instagram of Tiktok of een ander sociaal medium dat mij is ontgaan of voor mij stil wordt gehouden. Facebook is er voor de oudjes. Moet ik ook weg? Wees gerust ik blijf…

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Filed under Levensstijl, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Voelen en Welzijn

Mens of Consumens: Wat is tegenwoordig nog sociaal?

Wie kan er de verantwoordelijkheid dragen voor het asociaal gedrag van velen van vandaag? Is de hele samenleving daar verantwoordelijk voor, waarbij men nu de weerslag vindt van de kinderjuffen en leerkrachten die de laatste twintig jaar geen opmerkingen meer mochten maken naar de kinderen of hen niet meer mochten berispen als die kinderen iets fout deden?

All of the Above

In een tijd van social media en een egocentrische levensstijl hoe sociaal zijn mensen dan nog? Dit vraag ik mij dagelijks af als ik zie hoe de kloof tussen mensen groeit door het overmatig labelen.

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Filed under Educatieve aangelegenheden, Kennis en Wijsheid, Levensstijl, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Voelen en Welzijn

Spirituality

For many of the older generation, it looks so weird. We regretting not having had such social media as there is today. We, thinking we still would have had contacts with so many whom we liked very much in the past.

At the same time we notice how so many of the new generation are glued to their smartphone and boast about their many friends on Facebook, but in a way are even more lonely than we, who saw already so many of our peers being carried to the grave.

Also, so many of those youngsters seem to have the spirit of life, because the spiritual does not exist in them.

The 50 year old poet

I was born in the Sixties

grew up in the Seventies

fell in love in the Eighties

got married in the Nineties

had a family in the Noughties,

then things got strange,

made friends I never met

over a thing called the Internet,

lost touch with reality

and became another fatality

in a world void of spirituality.

pine trees under cloudy sky Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Lifestyle, Poetry - Poems, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs

Jezus volgen bevrijdt van faalangst en prestatiedruk

In onze huidige maatschappij wordt er langs vele kanten druk geoefend op de mens.

Veel mensen worstelen ermee dat ze zich niet aanvaard of begrepen voelen. Er ligt een grote druk op onze schouders om te presteren. Faalangst ligt op de loer. Oh zo dikwijls gaan wij onszelf vergelijken met anderen en vinden ons dat niet goed genoeg. Wij lijken niet de toppen te bereiken die wij graag zouden bereiken.

Wij zien in deze wereld hoe mensen zich anders trachten voor te doen op de sociale media. De ‘vriend’ of Facebook lijkt op Facebook een andere persoon te zijn dan diegene die we in het echt kennen. Wat wij ook kunnen zien is dat dikwijls personen om zelf overeind te blijven, een ander in niet enkel in hun gedachten onder uit  halen maar ook in hun woorden ze omlaag trachten te halen.

Wanneer heb je het lef om je fouten toe te geven, zodat ze niet als een last op je schouders blijven liggen?
Wanneer heb je de ruimte om een ander te vergeven, zodat je niet door wrok wordt opgeslokt?

Zij die zich Christen voelen moeten zich de natuur van Christus aanmeten. Als Christus moeten zij open staan voor iedereen,ongeacht hun aard, ras of overtuiging. Dezer dagen zien wij hoe in vele West Europese landen hiertegenover gezondigd wordt en hoe velen zich keren tegen de vele vluchtelingen. Velen hebben vergeten wat eigen christen zijn inhoudt.

Velen voelen zich door anderen belaagd of in de hoek geduwd. Zij zien dat anderen plaatsen innemen die zij zelf graag hadden ingenomen of die hen ongerust maken omdat zij zich dan in een minderheid of benadeeld voelen.

Wij moeten open staan dat anderen worden geholpen en soms ook dingen krijgen die wij zelf niet hebben. Steeds moeten wij opletten dat jaloersheid ons niet overvalt.

Regelmatig doordat wij zien dat anderen dingen krijgen die ons niet lijken toe te komen, voelen wij ons mislukt. Dat gevoelen haalt ons nog verder naar beneden en doet ons verhinderen nieuwe of andere stappen te ondernemen. Het laat ons nog meer twijfelen aan ons zelf.

Om faalangst te vermijden kunnen wij best kijken naar die eenvoudige man die enkele eeuwen geleden zijn arbeiders familie verliet om rond te trekken en mensen er van te overtuigen dat er Iemand is Die ons vooruit trekt en Die ons het meest ideale leven kan bezorgen. Die arbeiderszoon was er van overtuigd dat de Oude Geschriften vol met wijsheid stonden die wij voor ons leven kunnen gebruiken. Hij ging daar dan ook verder op in en verklaarde vele van die geschriften. Hij was een meester verteller en een zeer groot leraar. Velen werden ook door zijn vertellingen aangetrokken alsook door de vele mirakelen die hij deed. Anderen werden hierdoor nijdiger op hem en gingen zelfs zo ver in hun na-ijver dat zij hem wilden doden en er ook voor zorgden dat die leermeester aan een paal werd opgehangen, zoals moordenaars om het leven werden gebracht als straf.

Ook al werd hij verguisd ging die Nazareense man voort en werd hij niet ontmoedigd om het Goede Nieuws te blijven verkondigen. zo een kleine twee duizend jaar geleden waren er ook vissers die zich geroepen voelden om deze man te volgen; Zij zagen ook hoe hij regelmatig beschimpt en bespot werd, maar hoe hij zich daar niets van leek aan te trekken. Zij nochtans waren meer dan eens bevreesd om te laten zien dat zij met hem betrokken waren of voor wat zij geloofden te uiten. tot dat zij kracht van de Heilige Geest kregen. Dan voelden zij zich gesterkt en durfden zij in vele talen spreken.

Jezus was dan al weg. Hij was niet letterlijk bij hen, maar toch voelden zij Jezus zeer nabij. En dat is wat wij ook horen aan te voelen. Dat Jezus dicht bij ons is als wij hem in ons hart willen toe laten. Dichtbij Jezus, daar is die ruimte te vinden die ons rust in ons leven kan geven. In jouw eigen omgeving zou het in de kring van gelovigen moeten zijn dat je samen met hen Jezus aanwezig voelt. Zij die problemen hebben op het werk of zich verstoten voelen in de maatschappij, moeten juist daar in gemeentelijke kring, de ecclesia, zich opgenomen voelen door broeders en zusters in Christus. Juist in de gemeente zou je uiteindelijk de veroordeling voorbij moeten kunnen komen.

Wij horen dat vele mensen in hun geloofsgemeenschap niet echt die verbondenheid voelen. In vele kerken is er helemaal geen persoonsgebonden verwantschap met Christus voelbaar. Christenen moeten in wezen familieleden van Christus alsook van God zijn. Men moet in een geloofsgemeenschap deel uitmaken van dat groter geheel wat wij het Lichaam van Christus noemen. Daar moet verbondenheid zijn. Daar mag er geen plaats zijn voor na-ijver, jaloersheid of haat.

In meerdere kerkgemeenschappen zien wij dat men niet snel klaar staat om anderen op te vangen. Ook merken wij dat in meerdere kerken er geen verlegenheid meer heerst om vies op te kijken naar anderen, kwaad te spreken over anderen of te roddelen. Voor vele dingen is er zelfs geen schaamte meer.

Willen we vruchtbaar leven met Jezus, dan moet dat onkruid eruit en moet er ruimte gemaakt worden voor het volgen van Jezus.

Ware christenen moeten al de moeite doen om in Jezus zijn voetsporen te stappen en als het ware als hem te worden. Één met Christus zijn houdt in gelijkaardig als hem te zijn. Zo mag er dan in onze persoonlijkheid geen plaats meer zijn voor het slechte of voor datgene wat God niet wil. Zoals Jezus de Wil van God deed moeten wij ook er toe komen om volledig de Wil van God te doen.

Hoe meer wij er aan werken om zoals Christus te worden zullen wij merken dat vele angsten zullen gaan verdwijnen. De prestatiedruk die uitgaat van deze materialistische wereld zullen wij niet meer zo gaan voelen, daar wij zullen beseffen dat dit leven en deze tijd maar een tijdelijk gebeuren zijn. Het is vergankelijk terwijl wij kunnen uitkijken naar iets onvergankelijks. Dat onvergankelijke berustend op de hoop die gegeven wordt in de geschriften zal ook iets zijn waar wij naar zullen kunnen uitkijken in vertrouwen, want op God kunnen wij rekenen, terwijl wij niet op elke mens kunnen rekenen.

Door het schild van Christus aan te trekken zullen wij voldoende gewapend zijn om de tegenstanders van God aan te kunnen. Door op God te vertrouwen en ons in Zijn handen te geven zullen wij er op aankunnen dat wij onder Zijn hoede ons werk naar best vermogen zullen kunnen verwezenlijken en dat wij er dan ook niet voor beschaamd hoeven te zijn. Wij zullen tevreden zijn met de riemen die wij gekregen hebben om er mee te roeien. Wij zullen dan ook die riemen durven te gebruiken en verder de stroom opwaarts durven gaan.

Laat ons in Jezus en zijn hemelse Vader vertrouwen en ons in hun handen leggen. Met Jezus hebben wij de beste voorspreker bij God en zullen daarom niet hoeven te vrezen.

er is helemaal geen reden voor controle verlies wanneer jijzelf over jezelf de controle wil geven aan Hem die Jezus ook volde, de Enige Ware God, de Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

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Voorgaande

Goed Nieuws brengen met en door voorbeeld

Voor Katholieken ook een jaarthema rond barmhartigheid

De aanduiding door Paulus en Jacobus van de werken die wij horen te doen

Kom binnen en zet u

Wie luistert, ontwikkelt de gave van het spreken

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Aanverwante lectuur

  1. Fragiliteit en actie #8 Eerste Wetsvoorziening
  2. Valse profeten en leraren als roofzuchtige wolven in schaapskleren #1 Stromen van gelovigen
  3. Valse profeten en leraren als roofzuchtige wolven in schaapskleren #4 Ambitieuze mannen, verdraaide woorden en akkoorden met wereldleiders
  4. De familie Palache, Joden en Ontroerende onzin
  5. Jehovah kan hem staande houden
  6. Christenen die het juiste hart hebben om anderen te roepen om naar God te komen
  7. God liefhebben en Bekommeren om je medemensen
  8. Verzoening en Broederschap 7 Eén zijn
  9. Missionaire hermeneutiek 5/5
  10. Paulus en Jakobus hulle skryf oor geloof en werke

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Gerelateerd

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  3. Persoonlijke & Zakelijke Oplossingen
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  5. Een beetje verloren
  6. Faalangst
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  9. Week 9: Rosanne slaagt op het Faal Festival
  10. Week 3: Nienke krijgt stoom uit haar oren
  11. geheel vrijwillig
  12. Ben jij een eeuwige twijfelaar?
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  14. Zie jezelf in een nieuw licht
  15. De Nazarener
  16. Bewijs!
  17. Wat kan mense aan ons doen?

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Filed under Activisme & Vredeswerk, Geestelijke aangelegenheden, Gezondheid, Levensstijl, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Positieve gedachten, Religieuze aangelegenheden, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Voelen en Welzijn

The Anti-Reformation in Todays Evangelical Church

TheWeeFlea.com

It was welcome back to Britain with a bang today…..lots of things to catch up on and then a most distressing and disturbing conversation on Facebook.  I share one part of it with you because to me it profoundly illustrates why the church in the UK (and probably the US) is in so much trouble…and I mean the evangelical church.

On the one hand we do have the legalists and moralists – and that is an ever-present danger – but in reaction to that we often end up with the opposite extreme – a form of evangelical liberalism which, whilst it retains all the right language about God and the Gospel, actually ends up with a different God and a different Gospel – which is, as Paul says, really no Gospel at all.

Background

A friend posted a comment about Transgender which declared his frustration and disappointment as a Christian…

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Filed under Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs

Moeten Christenen over zich heen laten walsen

Flirters met de Christelijke cultuur

De predikant/pastor Gereformeerde Kerk (vrijgemaakt) Matthijs Haak die op jonge leeftijd heet ervaren dat God er is en daarom ook zelf voor de Hem heeft gekozen, kijkt in zijn artikelen op de geloofsbeleving van onze maatschappij. Hij beweert sinds ongeveer 1993/4 in de ban van Jezus te zijn, maar ziet nog steeds in hem zijn god, in plaats de woorden van God aan te nemen dat het Gods zoon is. Maar hij geeft wel toe dat Jezus volgen voor hem betekent dat de (op Jezus gerichte) gemeente centraal staat.
Hij ziet in dat wij in een tijd gekomen zijn waar het gaat over identiteit, normen en waarden. Deze worden heen en weer geschud. Voor Christenen is er echter een belangrijk gegeven dat zij niet mogen verwaarlozen. Hij schrijft

Een christen dankt God voor het goede in een cultuur. Maar in de eerste plaats richt een christen zich op Christus. Hij zegt dat hij alleen de weg naar de Vader is (Johannes 14). {De (af)goden van onze tijd}

Een grote meerderheid van Christenen neemt Jezus echter nog steeds als hun god en zien in Jezus dezelfde persoon als de Vader, wat het voor hen ook moeilijk maakt en Jezus niet de weg naar God maakt, zoals het volgens de Bijbel is en voor alle Christenen zou moeten zijn.

Verder schrijft de predikant:

First book printed in slovenian language - Cat...

First book printed in slovenian language – Catechismus from 1550/51 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wat geeft deze tijd veel kansen en (geloofs)ruimte om dat nieuws te laten zien en daarvan te getuigen. De Catechismus heeft als polemiek de strijd tegen Rome (Catechismus 34 en 35). Het toneel is veranderd maar de strijd blijft: afgoden, beelden, eigenzinnige manieren om (God) te vereren zitten wijd verspreid en diep in onze tijd en cultuur. Jezus helpt ons om van hem te getuigen en het goede te doen in onze samenleving, op de plek waar Jezus je roept (1 Petrus). {De (af)goden van onze tijd}

In zeer veel christelijke kerken, tegenwoordig zelfs in zeer veel protestantse kerken, kan men afgodenbeelden vinden; Men vindt er kruisbeelden, beelden van Bijbelse figuren en zogenaamde heiligen die er ook worden aanbeden. Hij mag het eigenzinnige manieren noemen om God te vereren, die diep verspreid en verankerd zitten in de westerse cultuur. Maar naar de eindtijd nadert moet men inzien dat die Keltische gebondenheid of die heidense tradities verwerpelijk zijn voor de ogen van God en dat wij er ons moeten van ontdoen.

In deze tijden gaan, zoals in de bijbel voorspeld, heel wat geestelijke groepen – verenigingen of kerken – zich keren tegen elkaar. Meerdere geloofsgroepen gaan heftig tegen elkaar in en sommige groepen beweren een religieuze oorlog te voeren in naam van de Allerhoogste Allah of God. Hierdoor gaan anderen zich verzetten tegen Allah of God alsook tegen ware gelovigen van die ene Ware God.

Zogenaamd Islamieten slagen er in om het Islamitisch geloof zwart te maken en iedereen bang te maken voor elke Moslim die zich uiterlijk als Moslim wil definiëren. Hier bij kan men wel stellen dat de Moslim veel te laks is geweest en veel te laat is gaan duidelijk maken tegen anders gelovigen dat ISIS of Daesh geen ware Islamieten zijn en zelfs de satan of tegenstanders van God zijn.

Het zijn verscheidene geloofsgroepen die ver afgedwaald zijn van het geven van glorie en eer aan de Allerhoogste Schepper van hemel en aarde. Nochtans is Hij de enige die al die glorie verdient. Niet aan enig mens of enige geloofsgemeenschap maar aan de Ene Ware GodJehovah – horen wij Zijn Naam alle eer te geven, om Zijn liefde en trouw (Psalm 115:1).

Predikant Haak schrijft

niet ons, HEER. Niet ons. Nee. Want het is al zoveel over ons gegaan: over onze strijd, ons onvermogen te geloven, onze tekorten, onze inspanning en geweldige resultaten – en noem maar op. Nu richten we de blik op God. Op God alleen. Hij gaat het maken. In die toonsoort, met die verwachting, eindigen de Psalmen. {Alle eer aan God. Preek Psalm 115}

Zelfs niet aan Christus komt alle eer toe. Indien God de offergave van Jezus niet aanvaard had, stonden wij nergens. Zonder de aanvaarding van Jezus dood als losgeld voor onze zonden zouden wij nog steeds niet vrijgekocht zijn van de vloek des doods voor de beleden zonden.

Elke ware gelovige in de Schepper van hemel en aarde zou moeten zeggen

Nu richten we de blik op God. Op God alleen. Hij gaat het maken. In die toonsoort, met die verwachting, eindigen de Psalmen. {Alle eer aan God. Preek Psalm 115}

Maar christenen moeten als volgelingen ook hun ogen gericht houden op hem die hen is voorgegaan: de Joodse Nazareen, die zijn leven voor ons heeft gegeven na een voorbeeldfunctie waargenomen te hebben hier op aarde. Hij heeft God geopenbaard en de Weg naar God getoond.

Tegenwoordig zien wij heel wat mensen die zelf voor god willen spelen. Zij dwingen hun god ook in hun straatjes en willen wel dat hij hun dilemma’s zal oplossen en steeds bij hen zal zijn wanneer zij maar willen. Maar dan is het wel die god die zich zal moeten aanpassen aan hen.  Doch, zullen zij tot het besef moeten komen dat Dé God niet door een mens in een hoekje kan geduwd worden of gevormd worden. God is het die de mensen vormt. Hij is het die hen wijsheid geeft en kracht. Maar dan moeten zij die zulke dingen (gaven) van God willen ontvangen zich ook bereid tonen om zich door God te laten vormen. Zij moeten God in hun hart toelaten.

Als je God God laat zijn, weet je je gekend en hoef je je voor God en een ander niet anders voor te doen dan hoe je bent. En dan maakt God je ook tot een zegen in heel je leven (vers 12, 13 en 17 en 18). {Alle eer aan God. Preek Psalm 115}

schrijft de dominee terecht.

Het wordt hoog tijd dat mensen zich eens afvragen wie hun heer eigenlijk is. Men kan best zich eens afvragen “wie/wat beheerst mij?” alsook eens stellen “Waar doe ik het voor?” of “Waar leef ik voor?

Onze tijd hier op aarde is beperkt. Wij kunnen hem zo laten voorbij gaan en van niets aantrekken dan alleen ons zelf. Maar wat betreft het gene wat er rondom ons gebeurd? Moeten wij er onze ogen en oren voor sluiten? Moeten wij doen alsof onze neus bloedt?

Horen wij onze stem niet te laten horen als er iets verkeerd aan de gang is?

Om een voorbeeld aan te halen. Deze weken lag de Belgische Ecclesia der Vrije Christadelphians weer onder vuur. Op het net waren verschrikkelijke leugens over hen verteld. Moesten zij dit zo maar ter zijde laten liggen, of waren zij in hun recht om er op te reageren, zoals zij op hun interne Facebook account ook hun leden op de hoogte brachten van de valse beschuldigingen en van de oneerlijke figuren die van de ecclesia leden geld trachtten af te dwingen. Vreemd genoeg waren er enkele personen die vonden dat zulks niet in het openbaar mocht gebracht worden. Misschien vergaten zij dat zij op een gesloten Facebook account, als vriend toegelaten waren, zulke waarschuwingsberichten en interne nota’s van de ecclesia konden lezen. Ons inzien is het de verantwoordelijkheid van de ouderlingen om hun gemeenteleden te waarschuwen voor gevaren en zodoende was zulk een nieuwsverspreiding belangrijk voor eenieders veiligheid en om een duidelijk beeld te scheppen wat er omging en verspreid werd in de media.

Maar ook buiten het gemeenteleven is het belangrijk om op nieuwsberichten te reageren of om valse beschuldigingen te ontkrachten.

In vele landen kunnen wij zien dat politici flirten met de christelijke cultuur terwijl ze ondertussen de barmhartigheid als kernwaarde van die cultuur met voeten treden (ND, 20 februari). {Zet Jezus niet in voor culturele doeleinden} Ook gebruiken ze het als dekmantel om zich te verzetten tegen anders gelovigen en om aan populariteit te winnen bij de meer conservatieve christelijke gelovigen. Zij zijn er bewust van dat meerdere christenen een heilige angst hebben voor de moslim cultuur. Hier weten zij dan ook handig op in te spelen vooral daar zij beseffen dat velen geen benul hebben van die andere cultuur, noch van een degelijk woord besef. Zo wordt bijvoorbeeld een ‘burkini‘ door velen op dezelfde voet geplaatst als een ‘burka‘, al hoewel zij totaal iets anders zijn.

Inquisitie verhoor met foltering

Vele Christenen ontkennen al het vroeger geweld van zogenaamde christenen, die zoals Daesh (of Islamitische Staat) nu, ook in hun tijd de kans zagen om in naam van geloof, te verkrachten en op rooftocht te gaan. Anderen maakten gebruik van hun geloof om weer andere van het eigen christelijk geloof uit te schakelen, omdat ze te veel macht of geld hadden. Zo heeft de inquisitie heel wat mensen onterecht van het leven beroofd. Christenen mogen dat verleden niet ontkennen of negeren, alsook moeten zij ook zien wat er vandaag nog steeds in Afrika gebeurt alsook in het Midden Oosten waar ook niet steeds alles kosher verloopt voor de bekering tot het christelijk geloof.

Haak schrijft

Christelijke bezinning kan zich alleen maar richten op het evangelie. Dat vertelt dat uitgerekend God zelf zich in Jezus liet terroriseren en afslachten. In dat licht kunnen christenen zich er niet vanaf maken met de gedachte dat zij geen terroristen zijn. Zij hebben zich iets anders af te vragen: of zij werkelijk zonder geweld of dwang zijn. Dat is helaas niet zo. Ik denk dan bijvoorbeeld aan de opluchting die in 2013 bleek toen de wet op de smalende godslastering werd afgeschaft ten gunste van de vrijheid van meningsuiting. Het debat daarover gaf blijk van een gevoel van bevrijding van een christelijk, wettelijk vastgelegd dwangmiddel. {Christendom niet vredelievender dan islam}

Press Freedom Index 2013, rangschikking van landen naar persvrijheid gepubliceerd door Verslaggevers Zonder Grenzen

Vandaag de dag zien wij dat velen gesprekspunten uit de weg willen gaan door bepaalde zaken niet te willen aankaarten. Men gaat zelfs zo ver vandaag dat men het grondwettelijk recht van meningsuiting, dé basisgarantie van een samenleving, wil gaan ondermijnen, ook al is het de cruciale voorwaarde en waarborg voor godsdienstvrijheid, persvrijheid, academische vrijheid en de vrijheid van elke individuele burger om kritiek te mogen uiten of om een eigen geloof er te mogen op na houden.

Het is niet omdat wij Christus willen navolgen dat iedereen die man moet navolgen of het zelfde moet geloven als wij. Maar andersom ook. Niet omdat anderen er anders over denken moet onze gedachte niet de mond gesnoerd worden. Wat sommigen wel trachten te doen.

Tegen tegenspraak kan men of mag men niets hebben. Dat maakt deel uit van het democratisch proces. Dit betekent echter niet dat wij alles zo maar moeten laten zeggen over ons of over een ander. Elk onrecht moet bestreden worden en alles moet deel kunnen uitmaken van een open en fair debat. Debat en tegenspraak zijn een inherent deel van een democratie. En wij in onze westerse maatschappij moeten er zorg voor dragen dat deze lang bevochten warden en vrijheden niet opnieuw ingedijkt worden. Want indien wij niet opletten gaan wij daar wel weer toe.

Vandaag zien wij bepaalde groepering het recht in eigen handen nemen en zien wij dat zij de anderen het zwijgen willen opleggen. Meerderen zijn er van overtuigd dat zij het bij het rechte eind hebben en dat de ander zich naar hen hoort te schikken. In plaats van ruimte te laten voor allebei of voor meerdere vormen, met het besef dat wij heden ten dagen in een multiculturele samenleving moeten aarden.

In meerdere landen zien wij dat politici gretig gebruik maken van de angst door onwetendheid van de mensen, om nog meer verdeeldheid te zaaien, en om meerdere beperkingen door te voeren, die uiteindelijk later als een boemerang op henzelf ook terecht zal komen.

Niet enkel valt er een radicalisme op islamitisch vlak vast te stellen. Het Christelijk radicalisme was in Noord Amerika al een hele tijd voor kopzorgen aan het zorgen. Indien wij niet opletten zal dit ook verder in Europa gaan uitgroeien zoals de wortels van citroenmelisse zich vlak onder het grondoppervlak verder uitbreiden.

Diegenen die echter enige kritiek geeft met de vinger wijzen, helpen ook mee om tot beknotting van de vrijheid van spreken. Op allerlei platformen worden de lelijkste woorden naar elkaar toe gesproken of beter gezegd, dikwijls zelfs geschreeuwd.

Terwijl wij elkaar ‘stenigen’ op Twitter, is verbinding nodig in onze maatschappij. {Zet Jezus niet in voor culturele doeleinden}

Kan men wekelijk gaan zeggen

Juist nu de angst voor de opkomende (politieke) islam het maatschappelijke debat beheerst, realiseren christenen zich dat zij een uniek getuigenis hebben. {Zet Jezus niet in voor culturele doeleinden}

Is het wel zo dat Christenen wel beseffen dat Jezus niet allereerst van hen is, maar een geschenk aan ons?

… zo lief had God de wereld dat Hij zijn enige zoon gaf. {Zet Jezus niet in voor culturele doeleinden}

Het grootste deel van de Christenen aanvaard nog steeds niet dat God Zijn enige zoon gaf, maar willen geloven dat God naar de aarde kwam om te doen alsof hij verleid werd en om te doen alsof Hij door mensen kon gedood worden. Het komt er op aan dat meerderen zullen komen in te zien dat er eerst en vooral slechts één Ware God is, de God van Israël. Die God van Abraham, Isaak, Jakob, Jezus en zijn leerlingen is één eeuwig alleswetend Geestelijk Wezen dat een vredelievende wereld wil zien onder Zijn schepselen.

Joden, christenen en moslims zouden allen die Ene Ware God moeten aanbidden en zouden zichzelf niet als vijanden maar als broeders in het geloof moeten aanschouwen.

Zij die beweren Christen te zijn zullen ook moeten beseffen dat er meerdere manieren kunnen zijn om het geloof te belijden en dat er zodoende ook meerdere geloofsgroepen kunnen zijn die zoals onderdelen van een lichaam zeer verschillend kunnen zijn, maar toch deel uit maken van dat ene lichaam van Christus. Van hen die zich dan ook Christen noemen verwachten wij dan ook dat zich als volgeling van Christus zullen gedragen.

Als christenen dat geloof dat Jezus hen heeft voorgedaan leven, zullen zij altijd en overal tot zegen zijn en zal God hen ook tot een gave maken. Ook al zal men er dan moge over vals spreken, zullen zij indien zij op een waardige manier daar tegen in gaan en bewijzen dat het leugens zijn die over hen verteld worden, zullen zij er ook in slagen om de waarheid aan het licht te brengen en zullen anderen hun ogen hierdoor open kunnen gaan., waardoor van het slechte er toch noch iets goeds kan uit komen.

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Voorgaand

Republikeins congreslid boycot paus wegens klimaat

Het gevaar om niets te doen tegen de oorzaak en de kwaal

Politici handig gebruik makend van immigranten en jihad angst

Religieuze feesten in mei 2016

Respect for all

Fatsoensnormen Online

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Aanverwant

  1. Religie en samenleving één geheel
  2. Werk maken van Godsdienstvrijheid
  3. Europese kerkleiders steunen bouw moskeeën
  4. Christendom meest vervolgde godsdienst
  5. Staat Europa voor vrijheid van godsdienst
  6. Motie over Godsdienstvrijheid
  7. Gezin in postmoderne samenleving meer in verdrukking
  8. Voor- en nadelen van internetspiritualiteit
  9. Stichters van de Nieuwe Wereld en Godsdienstvrijheid
  10. China langzaam naar wettelijke status religie
  11. Bij de opheffing van de Vereniging voor Bijbelstudie
  12. Russische Hooggerechtshof oordeelt tegen Jehovah’s Getuigen en religieuze vrijheid
  13. Spanje verstrengt Godsdienstwet
  14. Overdracht van mening te vrijwaren
  15. Europa berispt de godsdienstvrijheid beperkers
  16. Waar staat Obama tegenover religieuze vrijheid
  17. Noodzaak om geweld tegen moslims ook in kaart te brengen
  18. Pakistaanse schoolhandboeken voeden op tot Discriminatie
  19. Kardinaal Danneeels te gast in ‘De Keien van de Wetstraat
  20. Angst voor ouderwetse regels en verlies van christenen
  21. Koran tegenover veel oudere Heilige Geschriften
  22. Focussen op Christus
  23. Door Christus’ dood kunt u worden aangenomen als een kind van God
  24. Kerkshoppen: “Arrogant tegenover kerklidmaatschap”
  25. Een vergadering omtrent aan te houden gedrag en te houden handelingen
  26. Vertraging door ongehoorde moeilijkheden
  27. Lam van God #1 Sprekers voor God
  28. Vertrouwen, Geloof, Roepen en Toeschrijving aan Jehovah #3 Stem van God #5 Meditatie en transformatie
  29. Vertrouwen, Geloof, Roepen en Toeschrijving aan Jehovah #18 Volbrenging
  30. De Falende mens #1 Voor en na zondvloed
  31. 2015 het jaar dat ISIS duidelijk maakte dat het ook in Europa is – Vervolg 2
  32. Fundamentalisme en religie #6 Versplintering
  33. Mens en leed
  34. Wrok verwerpen
  35. Belang van rechtvaardigheid gekend bij Nederlanders

 

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Verder verwant

  1. Het Democratisch deficit
  2. Vrede is de vijand van onze vrijheid
  3. Het Oost-Europees Anti-Populisme is openlijke terugkeer naar de dictatuur
  4. #Nationalisme is een reactie op ongewenste prikkels
  5. Ook in het Oost-Blok haat men ons
  6. #Democratie of #oligarchie?
  7. Gewoon
  8. Statenloosheid is beter voor de samenleving (& economie)
  9. Wat er mis is met het concept natiestaat
  10. Zwemles Zwitserse moslimmeisjes verplicht
  11. ‘Christendom is meer dan paasei’, zo stelt dagblad @Trouw terecht, maar is de waarheid is multi-interpretabel #religie #vrijheidvangodsdienst @gertjansegers
  12. Een heel nuttige herinnering van staatsrechtelijke beginselen door Erik Jurgens @volkskrant #godsdienstvrijheid #kledingvoorschriften
  13. Het verband tussen én het geheim van de scheiding van kerk en staat als de formalisering van de begrippen tolerantie en verdraagzaamheid in ons land en de betekenis hiervan voor de groeiende aanhang van de islam alhier
  14. Laffe EU staat niet principieel achter Turkse #persvrijheid, zo stelt een Volkskrant-opiniebijdrage terecht vast @eu
  15. Amerikanen zijn nu ook de weg kwijt als een Democraat zijn hele leven politiek al blijkt te wisselen @volkskrant #a-politiekpoliticus #wegmethetbestel
  16. De florerende antidemocratie in Nederland
  17. Asielopvang – suggesties
  18. A Paris, la révolution égyptienne sort du silence et défie la répression
  19. Bientôt il sera trop tard !
  20. Démocratie directe: Fausse bonne idée?

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Filed under Activisme & Vredeswerk, Culturele aangelegenheden, Geschiedenis, Juridische aangelegenheden, Kennis en Wijsheid, Levensstijl, Misdaden & Wreedheden, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Nieuwsgebeurtenissen - Journaal, Politieke aangelegenheden, Religieuze aangelegenheden, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Voelen en Welzijn, Wereld aangelegenheden

What makes you following Christ and Facebook Groups

When we look at the world around us we do find an incredible amount of people who are flying each other in the hairs about controversial versions about their religion and faith.

After the Nazarene master teacher had experienced all of his trials on earth, his impalement and resurrection, we find one of his close friends writing words from above – a final message from Jesus his Father’s side in Heaven to those who are to follow him. Somehow we come to see that the curses in Eden on the earth and mankind are reversed by the end of Revelation and that the dreams and visions in the book of Daniel are confirmed and expanded upon.

  • Many of the signs and symbols in Revelation are in fact used in the rest of Scripture so you will find them de-mystified! This means that the message of the book becomes accessible and valuable to you as the Lord Jesus intended his servants to find it. {Revelation Steps}
Who Would Jesus Bomb?

Who Would Jesus Bomb? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In recent times we have heard a lot about religious groups fighting against each other. All the news about bombings or terror acts, are not exactly a sign for us that there would be soon a condition of real peace. On several Facebook platforms one can find people calling each-other names and using a language which may belong to small frustrated kids and uneducated poor of mind adolescents, though seemingly it would be adults using such ordinary and awful words. Often those speaking at those many platforms or Groups do a lot of damage to the religious group they think they are defending. By their attitude they do so much damage to those groups because can come to believe that those Muslims and Christians are really such hate mongers.

It makes many wonder who might be those who follow the prophet Jesus and those who follow the prophet Muhammad. There are even guys who say the other have no right to claim Jesus, one part saying because he is a Christian and belongs to the Christians only, the other part saying he is a Muslim and belongs to the Muslims. Both groups seemingly to forget that the Nazarene Jesus his real name is Jeshua and was a devout Jew (belonging to the Essenes like his mother Miriam/Mary/Miryam/Maria) and not a Christian.

When those claiming that man from God use such abominable language one may wonder how they can call that man, who was s preacher of peace, as their example and their name bearer?

The Nazarene preacher also asked his followers to unite and to have peaceful fellowship, companionship, and a sense of belonging. One would think those claiming to be Christians to become part of a family, which works together, and looks after all members’ needs: spiritually, materially, and socially (1 Cor 12). When looking at what goes on on many Facebook Groups we do get the opposite impression. Instead of finding people who show their love for each-other and want to help each-other in building up their faith, we can find quarrelling (even nearly fighting) people who do not seem interested in forming a Christian family where it is a place of fun, friendship, and (as with all families) falling-out-and-making-up-again! It more often looks like one enters a battlefield.

Looking at those Groups we only can wonder what makes some of those people calling themselves Christian or Muslim. We also wonder what their real intention might be at such forums; If they think to converse others with the way they are speaking they are totally on the wrong site of the road, and do have no idea about preaching and trying to win people for their camp.

Hearing them speak it also seems to turn more around their own ego and we can not get the impression they ever would like to convince the other what the first and foremost benefit of following Jesus might be, because they concentrate most on blowing fire and showing their hate for the other. Perhaps they think it shall be of a personal benefit for them by threatening other thinkers and other believers!

Clearly lots of those on several Facebook Groups their life is not about surrender to a God-focused life, with all the sense of purpose that brings (1 Cor 10:31). But for outsiders and we should let insiders also know that, this allows Christians to recognise and, in a sense, embrace the futility of life (Ecc 2:11) but also how people behave, how they act and speak, should give others an impression how much they want to be a child of God and in how far they do succeed to become really under that Most High God His Wings.

Let us remember

Peace and forgiveness. Life can be troubling, and Jesus offers us safe harbour, forgiveness of sins, and certainty in an uncertain world (Psa 103:12, Isa 43:25, Col 1:13-14). {Weighing the costs and benefits of discipleship}

And let us know exactly where the boundaries of human decency are and how a person of God, be it a Jew, Christian or Muslim must stand and how to behave.

As human beings created in the image of God we should show to be a worthy image of That Most High Elohim. In case Christ would have still been in his grave he would probably would have turned around many times.

We should be aware how important it is to show others in which way we want to be under Christ and want to be under God. As human beings living in a mixed world, an amalgam of people of all sorts of races and ideas, we should know that there have to be certain rules and regulations to provide a sense of security and a way for living together in peace.
When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive, offering a generous 7 times, Jesus’ response would have taken him aback I expect (490 times – Matt 18:22). Clearly, this wasn’t a quota of forgiveness – Jesus’ point is that our capacity to forgive should be without limit, just like God’s (Isa 43:25-26, 1 John 1:9). And to forgive so much there has to be a place for an open mind too, and today there are too many who show they are only willing to have a very limited mind with only place for their thought and no other visions.

When looking at several Christian Facebook Groups we can only question where where does all the teaching of that master teacher Jesus Christ leaves those so called Christians in living out their Christianity?

Are boundaries useful at all in terms of our fellowship, worship, and services? There is certainly some guidance in the Bible to suggest that boundaries can be useful in some of these areas – but where we choose to set them may be more a product of our cultural context than absolute ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. {Boundaryless God}

English: Copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/w...

Worldreligion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Please read also:

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Preceding

Daring to speak in multicultural environment

Several Christians fail to recognise the Chosen ones of God and are not taking on a Christian attitude

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Additional reading

  1. Are you looking for answers and Are you looking for God
  2. Notification and news feed for Facebook users

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Further reading

  1. Gods & religion
  2. Good Without God, or Elite Background
  3. Islamic State Answers Pope Francis: Ours Is a Religious War and We Hate You
  4. 10,000 church members leave the Church of Denmark in 3 months amid atheist
  5. ISIS wing claims responsibility for Minnesota mall attack in U.S.
  6. Assholes are Overrated
  7. Chechnya’s Jewish community is angry at Israel… but doesn’t seem to exist
  8. The Storms of Life
  9. no one can answer, but the Lord
  10. The Olympic Trials of Life…By Faith And Not By Sight by Ciera Rankin
  11. In All Things, Give Thanks
  12. After the Storm
  13. He Lifts Me
  14. Gladness in trials
  15. The list of wars
  16. Revelation: The Sixth Trumpet.
  17. Is a Religious War in Europe Imminent?
  18. Iraq: Suicide Bomber Strikes At Crowd at Prophet Mohammad’s Grandson Event (Arbaeen) — Islamic State Suspected
  19. Contention 62 (Eleventh Contentions)
  20. Honor Authority…
  21. The Whole Truth (Almost)
  22. Can we not be civil and simply disagree?
  23. Bias, and Disagreeing with Something
  24. How to respectfully talk about deep disagreements
  25. What, we agree? Compatible issues in a disagreeable world
  26. The more ignorant a person is the more his disagreement increases
  27. Reflections on ‘Why I am not an Atheist’
  28. How Should I View Others Who Serve the Lord Differently Than I Do? – CCC Discover

+++

 

18 Comments

Filed under Knowledge & Wisdom, Lifestyle, Religious affairs, World affairs

From Guestwriters 2016 in review

English: The logo of the blogging software Wor...

Each day million articles are published, looking to find a reading eye. Every day thousands of new articles appear on WordPress. In 2016 one hundred seventeen billion nine hundred thirteen million one hundred forty-eight thousand three hundred fifty seven words got published on WordPress. {Automattic WordPress year-in-review-2016}

2016 in view

The year that David Bowie and Prince passed away, like several very well known figures of the arts world, it looked like some people who made it in their life did not want to stay here any longer. It was also the year of lots of terrorism and political correctness, where those who are different than the mainstream (disabled, transgender, refugees, extreme religious and non religious groups, jihad fighters,) got lots of attention.
In the United States of America Obama Care which at last had become a reality came back under threat. North America saw in Boston in November, the Disability Policy Consortium accepted proposals and held a Disability Intersectionality Summit. Presentations included topics on the intersections of being undocumented, being LGBTQ+, being a person of colour, having mental health disabilities, on #DisabilityTooWhite – the hashtag and movement around the the disability community’s failure to represent racially diverse voices – and more. Lots of things came on the American roller-coaster, having Michigan banned non-emergency restraint and seclusion for disabled students and Georgia’s governor speaking in favour of Employment First policies for disabled people in Georgia.

2016 Nice attack.png

Route of the attacker from west to east at the Promenade des Anglais, Nice

With the 15th anniversary of 9/11 the jihadi‘s made sure they would not be forgotten; ISIS/ISIL and BokoHaram being the new strongholders. In Europe the fear took so many people that politicians saw the opportunity to fuel the extreme right and come with absurd laws, like banning burkini‘s. All the fearmongering having fueled by the March 22 suicide bombings at Brussel’s Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station, leaving around 35 victims dead and 360 seriously injured, ISIS claiming responsibility.
America also got its portion of  ISIS-madness with a gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State opens fire at gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49, injuring 53 – one of the bigger mass shootings in the U.S.A.. September 17 a terror bomb in Chelsea, New York injured 29 people. Lots of Americans got so frightened of Muslim people, looking at them if they all would be terrorist, though they under their own white Christian population had more victims by weapon violence this year than by terrorism. Several times the world could see how racism is still a big problem in the States and how police can not keep themselves in control when arresting black people. (African American Alton Sterling shot by Louisiana police in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile shot by police in St Paul Black on July 6; American Keith Lamont Scott September 20)
The Islamic militants for sure where very active all over the world. Some events called for more attention worldwide, having foreigners also under the victims or by being considered the country’s worse terror attack for the year, like at a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where a fighter killed 20 hostages and 2 police on July 1. The next day (July 2) a large lorry bomb in Baghdad killing at least 125 people and wounding 150, Islamic State claiming once more responsibility.  On December 11 a bombing at a chapel in Cairo, Egypt, killed 25 and wounded 45. December 19 again a truck was used to kill many people, like in Nice on the 14th of July now the target was a Christmas market in Berlin killing 12, injuring 48.

Terroranschlag-Berlin-Breitscheidplatz-2016 (2) (31731061626) (square crop).jpg

Aftermath of the 2016 Berlin attack

In the States of America on January 17 the Fourth Democratic presidential candidates debate showed how Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed over healthcare and gun control in Charleston, South Carolina, and gave us an idea that though perhaps the best candidate of all Bernie Sanders would not going to make it to president elect. Two days later Sarah Palin officially endorsed Donald Trump‘s presidential bid at a Trump rally in Ames, Iowa. What nobody thought possible occurred when this man made it to the preselections, then to the selection to finally become what nobody would ever dreamed possible, him becoming president elect. November 8 Republican Donald Trump became elected President of The United States of America, defeating democrat Hillary Clinton despite Clinton winning 2.9 million more votes. Europe fell on its back for the second time, the first one having been the vote for the Brexit (June 23), who nobody had thought would come through. These two unexpected events show clearly how careful we must be when we think it not necessary to spend time on such personalities and situations.

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Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

For that reason we should much more react on what is going on on ecological level. The Paris Agreement on climate change signed in New York (on April 22) binding 195 nations to an increase in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C is only the beginning of a long road to run. Global warming is not only blamed the cause of many people having to flee for the rising water-level. On August 1 there was an anthrax outbreak in the Russian district Yamalo-Nenets, Siberia killing one and infecting 8 others, also killing 2,300 reindeer. Indian government declared levels of air pollution in Delhi an emergency situation, closing schools and construction sites on November 6.

Though 2016 seemed to be the year that people where more concerned about the whereabouts and the look of their friends on Facebook and Twitter. Social media being the major interest gainer of the year. Most people more concerned about their outfit, fashion, style and strangely enough books and films again.

Astronaut Scott Kelly

Astronaut Scott Kelly

Lots of people running with their heads in the skies did not notice that US astronauts Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to earth, on March the 2nd, after nearly a year (340 days), setting an ISS record. For the earthly matters it became time that the U.S.A. did something positive to restore the relations between them and Cuba. March 20 Barack Obama became the first US President to visit Cuba since 1928, arriving for a 2 day tour.

The ‘Big Joke of the year’ (in April) was to see how many politicians who said something had to be done against fraud and how people had to pay honestly their taxes, their names could be found on the 11.5 million confidential documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca , the Panama Papers exposing widespread illegal activities including fraud, kleptocracy, tax evasion and the violation of international sanctions by the world’s elite in the world’s largest ever data leak.

On April 11 UN-backed ceasefire came into effect in Yemen conflict between Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and government forces.

June 7 with a car bomb attack on a police bus in central Istanbul killing 11 was just a beginning of a whole series of bombings in Turkey of which there is no clarity if they are orchestrated by some political forces to have Erdogan in an even stronger dictatorial position. June 28 presented again a suicide bombings and gun attacks, at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport killing 42 and wounding more than 200. We have no idea if the coup d’etat was something set up by Erdogan himself. It gave him way to hold a big clean up and to get rid of all those who stood in his way.

In Colombia more than 50 years of conflict came in its last stadium, the governement and Farc rebels signing a ceasefire agreement on June the  23rd, followed by many talks to have the rebels not being sued.

2016 for this platform

WordPress Administration

WordPress Administration (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Of the 595,795,035 posts written on WordPress we only presented a mere 358 articles, hoping our humble little site could catch some interest by the many people who are scanning the worldwide internet for something interesting to read. From our tiny country not having any funds, not having serious backing and not able to afford much money on writers, designers or even having our own publishing space, just using the private limited funds of the editor and responsible publisher Mr. Marcus Ampe, we sincerely try to find some interesting literature on the net and present it to our readers and visitors. Because not having much GBites we are limited in re-blogging because pictorial content eats our internet data space, but when a must read is found with lots of photos we still do hope to be able to discuss it or to present it in one of our articles.

English: Stats on Cross-ideological Blogging

Stats on Cross-ideological Blogging (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We must confess that we did not catch many readers for the many work-hours we invest searching for additional and further reading material. Luckily this was the first year we did not very angry letters of people being onerous that we included their article in the listing. In 2016 for the first time we even got a letter thanking us for having brought 1000 readers to someone’s site. Though we put a lot of work in creating all the links in the articles and in the accompanying list of interesting articles, to our sense or liking not enough people make use of those links and referential titles. For that reason from now on we shall perhaps start putting less url-backgroundlinks to words or tags, but still shall continue to try to offer you a list of noteworthy article by other bloggers.

It is a pity we only could find 7 782 views of only 4 827 visitors coming along.
Officially opened to the public on 2014/03/2 we got 1 847 visitors the first year and 2 764 visitors in 2015, so we may be satisfied it is a line going upwards. Though published from Belgium in the European Union, our ‘home-country’ only delivered 269 views. The United States being at the top with giving us 3745 views, followed by the United Kingdom delivering 852 views and our northern neighbours the Netherlands offering us 532 views may encourage us to continue.

The home page caught 2 118 views, followed by 349 for the About page. Of the articles “Religious celebrations in May 2016” got the most views (only 103) and got only 4 likes.

People naturally have to find us. 1 437 do so by using search machines, whilst 783 use the WordPress facilities. 155 come along by Facebook. But we too are happy to find other WordPress users referring to us and bringing readers to our site. Naturally our own authors or own sites like our ecclesia site (9 views), the Belgian Biblestudents and the Bijbelvorsers (each 8) and Stepping Toes (7), but non connected writers like ridzerdvandijk.wordpress.com with 8 views and sneakytwistedlittlewildheart.wordpress.com (good for 6), entering the promissedland (5), discoveronething (5), eternalhunt (5) and some others bringing us each 4 or less viewers.

U.S. advertisement for the 11th edition from t...

U.S. advertisement for the 11th edition from the May 1913 issue of National Geographic Magazine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The most used search terms were ‘hoopvolle slogans’ and ‘bezinningsteksten zelfkritiek’ with each 3 hits.
We ourselves brought 110 readers to our other site “Our World” and for for other sources Wikipedia got 56 readers from us, whilst the Collins dictionary got 21 and the very good Encyclopaedia Britannica only 18 views. Abortion and crime rates by wordlifeandlight managed to get 6 views from us and Lizaborstlap received also 6 visitors, as far as we can see from our statistics.

imageThis last person who has always been a person with a to-do list is also one of the people who wanted to share some writing on this platform. But there were many days when she became a slave to her lists and she had to face that things don’t always happen as planned and that she would feel like a failure if she wasn’t able to cross out all the tasks that she allocated to a specific day.{a goal should scare you a little and excite you a Lot!}

She may perhaps had to become, like us, more specific and to be realistic in what she can (and can’t) achieve in one day; but we did want to reach so much and sometimes got frustrated not seeing our accomplishment for the day.

We are still looking for authors who would not mind to write about lifestyle, interior design, fashion, cooking, family life, gardening, nature and ecological matters and some persons who would not mind tackling the history and people who would love to write about education and health. There are so many subjects not covered yet by people who can tell more about it than we can.

From the end of 2016 onwards we added two viewpoints, namely two comparators, on one site the Muslim world and on the other site the Judaic world and traditions.

English: Monkeys Blogging Español: Simios blog...

English: Monkeys Blogging Español: Simios bloggeando (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We do know that certain subjects are not tackled here. Marcus Ampe would love to find some one talking about family matters, family life being one of the cornerstones of our society. To his regret he must also establish that in 2016 not enough regard was given to ecological matters. Man having to live in surroundings which are too polluted and which are filled with buildings and cars, but not given the freedom to have enough green to bring enlightenment and fresh air to people. It is really getting time that more people warn others about us, man, to take care of mother earth, before it is too late.

Whilst on WordPress in general 112 million posts were liked, we did not have many likes. 8 billion e-mails were send on WordPress, but in those there are not counted the very many e-mails we got in our own e-mail box, instead of reacting on the blog articles themselves. This is a pity, because other readers can not read the reactions and oh so often we have to reply to very similar questions, which is more time consuming than having a reply which can be read by thousands on the internet.

For 2017 may we hope that if there are even more articles written on the internet than the 595,795,035 posted on WordPress in 2016 and the huge amount of comments, making it up to 457,596,906 comments on WordPress, you shall be able to  find some very interesting articles and comments here too.

Donald Trump enters the Oscar De LA Renta Fash...

Donald Trump enters the Oscar De LA Renta Fashion Show, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 2016 we saw that it is possible that those with the biggest mouth and do not mind trampling over many can get their cause. 2016 may have been a disastrous year on several issues and lots of important issues where not even mentioned or got not the right attention. For this new year we love to repeat our call to get more people daring to come out for the poor and the maltreated. We also once more want to ask people to wake up the majority of the population who still keeps their eyes closed for what is really going on in this world. There is a need of more people who are willing to stand up to preserve and encourage the progress of humanity while resisting the forces that threaten to turn it backwards.

We have to be very cautious for what certain people try to do with their nation but also with the world. As citizen we should be aware that politicians are nothing without their people and that folks if they really want can be much stronger than those politicians, who dare to look away from the citizen who needs help and encouragement. Those who call themselves Christian should be there to give a hand to all that need help, not forgetting nature, plants and animals who do not have a voice. therefore we do hope to find more blogs tackling their problem, and would love to have an author on ecology writing for us from this year onwards.

Without you reader we are nothing and can do nothing. We thank you for being here with us and for the followers we are grateful and do hope we can please you with a varied menu.

Wishing everyone a great 2017.

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Preceding article

2014 in review

In 2015 finishing our first year: From Guestwriters 2015 in review

Pokémon craziness

2016 Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Children of Men

Max Lucado: I Had a Dream That Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Reached a Truce

Leaders in disguise

Looking at man’s closest friend

Looking at an American nightmare

The twist of politics and expression

Tribes Redux

Darkest just before dawn

Bruxelles Ma Belle

Mountains of information, disinformation and breaking away

Women in France running with naked bosom all right but with covered bosom penalised

An American Embassy to the Eternal Capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem

Humanity Quote for Pax Populi

When will it stop

Not limiting others but sharing peace with all

Not missing your appointment in 2017

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Additional reading

  1. EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) asylum seekers and Eastern neighbours
  2. At the closing hours of 2016 #1 Looking down at terror
  3. At the closing hours of 2016 #2 Low but also highlights
  4. Suffering brothers and sisters in Malawi, Mozambique and surrounding areas
  5. Not much interest for English articles
  6. From Bibles and other religious writings and those who witness for Jehovah
  7. 2016 American Bible survey
  8. On April 21 brother Nelson, in the world better known as Prince was lost
  9. Social media, sympathy & shocks
  10. Foreign workers and immigrants
  11. A stain of shame for the European Union
  12. Voted against their system
  13. A sleeper cell of militants was said directing attackers sent back to France from Islamic State’s de-facto capital in Raqqa, Syria
  14. Daesh hits heart of Europe
  15. Islamism Rises from Europe’s Secularism
  16. March 22 2016, attacks in Brussels at airport and metro
  17. A Black day for Belgium – Brussels Airport ravage
  18. Knife-trust in democratic sore back
  19. For those who call the Brussels Airport attacks a fake or a conspiracy of the government
  20. Terrorist attacks in brussels
  21. Silence, devotion, Salafists, quietists, weaponry, bombings, books, writers and terrorists
  22. US President, Barack Obama Condemns The Outrageous Brussels Attacks
  23. What Associated Press released on Wednesday 23 March 2016
  24. Mediterranean bloodshed
  25. Nice attack, terror everywhere and coup attempt in Turkey
  26. Is Europe going to become a dictatorial bastion
  27. French showing to the whole world their fear and weakness
  28. On French beach French police forces woman to undress in public
  29. France and the Burkini
  30. Secularism in France becoming dangerous for freedom of religion
  31. Christians, secularism, morals and values
  32. Listening to the lessons of the Bible and looking for ways to please God
  33. Where’s the Outrage Over Nun Beachwear? – The Daily Beast
  34. You are what you wear
  35. Does Banning Face Veils Help Us Fight Terrorism?
  36. Jews the next scapegoat for Donald Trump
  37. The American clouds of Anti-Semitism
  38. Blinded crying blue murder having being made afraid by a bugaboo
  39. The clean sweeper of the whole caboodle
  40. Trump has been buffetted by accusations of miscunduct
  41. Fearmongering succeeded and got the bugaboo a victory
  42. Are United States of America citizens going to show their senses
  43. When so desperate to hold onto power
  44. Some quotes Americans should remember when going to the ballot office
  45. Brexit and British business
  46. Brexit No. 2 Blow-up
  47. Nigel Farage called Donald Trump’s victory ‘bigger than Brexit’
  48. A strong and wise fighter who keeps believing in America
  49. Bosphorus bloodshed
  50. Belgian aftershock from the Turkish coup d’état

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Other WordPress bloggers looking back at 2016

  1. 2016 Year In Review (by Hunter Bonner)
  2. 16 things i learned in 2016
  3. 2016 was lighting candles to mourn, but it was also carrying torches high
  4. 2016: Year in Review (by Angela Classen)
  5. Hasta La Vista 2016!
  6. Top 10 Moments of 2016
  7. 2016 in Review (by Pastor Zach)
  8. A year in review
  9. 2016 in Review: Your Favorites, My Favorites
  10. 2016 Review (by Pliable)
  11. Tater’s 2016 In Review
  12. Best and worst reads of 2016
  13. Reflections and Resolutions for 2017
  14. 2016 Year in review book tag
  15. V’s Reading Year in Review: 2016
  16. 2016 Recap and 2017 Goals
  17. A Look Back at 2016
  18. 2016 in Review (by amanda)
  19. 2016 in review (by Katrin Ilves)
  20. My 2016 Freelancing Report: 28 Pitches Disappeared into a Black Hole (but I’m okay with that)
  21. 2016 Year in Review (by Trip accomplice)
  22. Honorable Mentions 2016
  23. 16 in 2016: Results
  24. 2016 Year in Review (by Abby)
  25. Looking Back at 2016…
  26. 2016 in the books
  27. My 2016 in Books and Graphic Novels, Part 1 of 2
  28. 2016 in Review (by Sarah)
  29. Best and Worst of 2016
  30. Sara Reads No. 17
  31. Two Thousand and Sixteen
  32. So Long 2016!
  33. 2016: The Book Fight! Year in Review
  34. Year In Review: Variety Edition
  35. 216 of 2016
  36. 2016 Year in Review (by Becker)
  37. 2016 Year in Review: A Year in Outfits
  38. 2016 In Review (by Leigh)
  39. 2016; What a Year
  40. A Look Back at 2016 and a Peek Forward at 2017
  41. 2016: Year in Pictures
  42. 2016 Year in Review – The Five Most Thrilling Action Scenes
  43. Looking Back on 2016 (by sip of star)
  44. 2016: Year in Review (by James)
  45. 2016 Year In Review (by alex)
  46. My Top Ten Books from 2016
  47. Top Ten Blogs of 2016
  48. vCloud Air: 2016 Year in Review
  49. 2016: Running Year in Review
  50. 2016: My Year in Review (by lurking)
  51. Things that were not garbage even though 2016 was
  52. Adelaide Etc in 201
  53. Looking at 2016
  54. Blogging Lessons of 2016
  55. 2017 New Year’s Resolutions
  56. 2016 in Review (by dgobs)
  57. 2016 – A Year in Review (by comics)
  58. 2016 in Review (by the Cappucino traveler)
  59. Highlights from 2016
  60. Life of Lizzie: 2016 In Review
  61. Top 10 Tuesday: Best Books of 2016
  62. 2016 Year in Review (by Library cancuck)
  63. The 2017 Post
  64. The best 15 posts of 2016
  65. 2016 Year in Review – Book Stats
  66. 2016 by the Numbers (by Melissa)
  67. Five 2016 singles that I find myself enjoying in 2016
  68. Happy 2017 From Still Chasing Fireflies!
  69. The Best Albums of 2016
  70. My 2016 in Books and Graphic Novels, Part 2 of 2
  71. 2016: Year in Review (by Natalieinne)
  72. 2016 in Books (by Stories)
  73. Year In Review: Kpop Edition
  74. 16 Things I Learned In 2016
  75. My Year In Re(ar)view
  76. 2016: Year in Review (by Kai)
  77. Foursquare/Swarm Year in Review
  78. What i learnt in 2016
  79. My Top Five Blog Posts of 2016 (and other highlights)
  80. Dear 2017 (by Sophia van Gent)
  81. Top Posts of 2016
  82. 2016 Year in Review (by Styled by Summer)
  83. The End Of Year Survey For 2016
  84. 2016 Year in Review (by Angela Chau)
  85. 2016 Year in Review (by LJT Reads)
  86. 2016: A Year in Review (by Zaweebie)
  87. 2016: A Bookish Retrospective
  88. 2016: A Review (by Jazmin)
  89. Goodbye 2016
  90. The scariest post I’ve ever written: my favorite reads in 2016
  91. 2016 Year in Review
  92. The Ups and Downs of 2016 – The Year in Review
  93. 2016, A Year in Review: a yer of ups and downs
  94. My Year In Review. Mom Fashion Style
  95. One of My Favorite Things
  96. 2016 Year In Review (by Ashley)
  97. 2016, By the Numbers
  98. Alt-Right 2016: The Current Year in Review
  99. Year in review: 2016 Top Ten Conspiracies
  100. 7 Global Health Breakthroughs: A Year in Review
  101. ABC s of 2016
  102. 2016 #DiversityJC – Ian’s Year-End Review
  103. 2016 Year in Review-it was interesting
  104. “Reflecting on 2016” part 2 = My Biggest Disappointments
  105. 9 Reasons Why 2016 Was Pretty Great
  106. Top 6 of 2016
  107. 2016 in review (by BamBam)
  108. 2016 Year In Review: The Good, The Bad And The Deaths
  109. Breakaway 2016 – A Year In Review
  110. Trump, Prince, and Queen Elizabeth: 2016’s most-read Wikipedia articles
  111. 2016: Sustainable Nano Year in Review
  112. Quiz of the Year Response!
  113. Hello 2017! (by spina squared)
  114. 2016 in Review: A Year on Staff
  115. Looking Back on 2016 (by Melissa Burgess)
  116. 2016 – A Moment a Month
  117. My Blog in 2016 (by MS.L. Wheeler)
  118. 2016 Year in Review (by Ingrid Racine)
  119. My Year in Books 2016
  120. Best Books of 2016 (by Gwen)
  121. 2016 in Review by Ellie Pelto)
  122. 22: Books I read last year
  123. Comics Update: My Current Lineup and 2016 Pros & Cons
  124. 2016 #DiversityJC – Doctor_PMS’s Year End Review
  125. Top Ten Books of 2016
  126. Top 16 of 2016
  127. 2016 in Film
  128. Reader’s Room Winter Challenge
  129. My Tweets in 2016 #MTBoS
  130. 16 great things from 2016
  131. Jim Ryan: Looking Back At The Year in Music
  132. New Year : Noob Year
  133. My One Word for 2017: Onward
  134. New Year Blog – Revising 2016, and Looking Forward to 2017
  135. 2016 Year in Books
  136. 2016 Law Review
  137. 2016 – A Year in Review (by Rob P)
  138. Softimage mailing 2016 year in review
  139. Top 8 of 2016: Art Highlights
  140. Rowls- 2016 year in review
  141. Faves of 2016: Nonfiction
  142. 2016 My Year in Review:  My Top Ten Personal Lessons/Observations
  143. Goodbye 2016 (by Allison Anti Quotidian)
  144. 2016 Year in Review (by Kialtho)
  145. A Year In Review
  146. My goals for 2017
  147. Yeah, 2017!
  148. 2016 Year In Review (It Sucked But I Read A Lot)
  149. Tart ISBI: Year in Review, 2016
  150. 2017 A Year of Light in Action
  151. fifty things that made my year, 2016
  152. You are (20)16 going on (20)17
  153. 2016: Amazing Year in Review
  154. Goodbye 2016
  155. 2016 Book Archive
  156. 2016: Stronger Together
  157. a year in the life
  158. 2016 Was interesting
  159. 2016 Costuming Year in Review
  160. Learn How to Better Engage Your Child with a Year in Review Activity
  161. The Obsessive Viewer Podcast – Ep 199 – 2016 Year in Review – Best and Worst Movies of the Year and Viewing Stats
  162. Looking back at 2016
  163. 2016 in Music: Shock and Awe
  164. Look back, leap forward
  165. Were You Ready To Close Your Book?
  166. 2017 (by Andrew Reynolds)
  167. 2016 In Review (by Aaron Mallett)
  168. My 2016 at the Movies, Part 1 of 2: The Year’s Least Best
  169. Ten Moments in GH music: 2016
  170. Anime of the Year: CJ Hitchcock’s Top 5 Anime of 2016
  171. 2016 Reflections
  172. Year in Review/Shit for 2017
  173. 2016 Year in Review (by Dan Guido)
  174. January 9: Warmer Weather Ahead, Looking Back At 2016
  175. 2017 – a year in review
  176. Annual Statement of Goals, 2017 Edition
  177. 2016 Reading Challenge – final report
  178. New Year, New baby, new outlook
  179. 2016 Beer in Review
  180. Happy 2017
  181. NFL Year in Review
  182. Tag – Year-end Superlative Tag
  183. Yearly Wrap-Up! || 2016
  184. 2016 in Books
  185. End of Year Survey; 2016
  186. 2016 Year In Review (by Run Wright)
  187. 2016 Year in Review (a crazy year for bad literature)
  188. Some Days in 2016
  189. Twenty-sixteen: that’s a wrap
  190. 2016 in review (by Mara Thang)
  191. My 2016 at the Movies, Part 2 of 2: The Year’s Least Worst
  192. 2016: A Yer in review (all in one)
  193. My Writing Year – 2016 In Review
  194. Endings & Beginnings
  195. 2016 Year In Review! (by circling around the sun)
  196. The year of many firsts
  197. Goodbye 2016 – Hello 2017
  198. 2016 – A Year In Review
  199. Two Years Gone By
  200. translate.wordpress.com in 2016
  201. Welcoming the light
  202. My Bookish Year 2016
  203. 2016 Pop Culture Year in Review
  204. Short stories I read and loved in 2016
  205. Set It Off: My Writing Goals for 2017
  206. Goodbye 2016
  207. 2016 By The Numbers
  208. 2016 In review (the Mic is the message)
  209. 2016 in Review (by Cindy)
  210. Erin Blogs 2016 in Review
  211. High Five For 2016!
  212. 2016 Round up
  213. 2016: Year in Reading
  214. 2016: looking back
  215. So That Was 2016..Year in Review
  216. 2016
  217. Year In Review – 2016 (by atop the clouds)

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Continued nostalgic Christmas memories

In Christmas in the 1950s we looked a first time at the way we and experienced the Winter holidays and enjoyed watching the movies.

When  had started sixth grade in Gretna, Louisiana to spend the next three years at the same “Grammar School” his life was common to those of his school mates.

Cover of one of the books of the Robert L. May...

Cover of one of the books of the Robert L. May story by Maxton Publishers, Inc. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Like in our country he had also real Christmas holidays, and had real Christmas programs at school. When we do hear our grand children and see what is done at schools for the Christmas holiday we do not see such nice activities like we had in school. Though, Today there are more people stressing that this is the Season of the Year, and several Christians are shouting that Christmas should be the Reason of the Season. But when they want to celebrate the birth of Christ, not much seems to remind people to that birth of the Jewish rabbi who is our saviour. On the streets and in the shops the so called Christmas songs do not really mention Jesus Christ but go on about reindeer, Santa(s), jingle bells and present, though not that special present or precious gift you could call Jesus Christ. The winter-related songs celebrate the climatic season, with all its snow, dressing up for the cold, sleighing, etc. and with the years all the pagan elements came more and more to the forefront, new mythical characters created, defined, and popularised by these songs; “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman” both introduced by Gene Autry a year apart (1949 and 1950 respectively).

In the previous century we gathered and special presentations were offered to sing carols.

remembers

We would sing Christmas carols, which included biblical songs. The school would give the children song sheets that showed the words to those biblical songs. Teachers were free to talk to their classes about their church lives. {120714 – Christmas Of Simpler Times}

Today lots of teachers are not allowed to speak about their religious life. They are not allowed to talk about Jesus Christ being the saviour. church live and talks about God are in many schools not authorised any more.

The kids have also nothing to share about church life, because most of them never go to church or just have some periods of church activity to prepare them for the first and/or second communion. they are not really interested in anything to do with church or with religion. The talk of the day is the new smartphone or any other new electronic gadget, plus laughing with one or the other posting on Facebook. Television lost grace in the hand of our grandchildren. The present generation does not watch so much television as we did or do, but have their eyes focused on the computer screen, watching al sorts of postings or games.

Most of my friends watched the same television programs. {120714 – Christmas Of Simpler Times}

writes

We didn’t have cable tv or dish types, so our selection was limited to traditional network programming. The programs were family oriented and were not restricted to “church and state” limitations.The Cleaver family went to church and Sunday School. Andy, Barney, Aunt Bea, Opie, and Gomer were shown in their church, even when Gomer might fall asleep and snore during the “Reverend’s” sermons.
The Christmas programs that were produced and shown by ABC, NBC, and CBS did not hide the fact that “Jesus was the reason for the season.” Television hosts did not omit “Jesus” from their discussions when they were talking about Christmas. Jesus was truly “God with us” during those programs. {120714 – Christmas Of Simpler Times}

Jesus nor God are the subject of this season. It is time that those who call themselves Christian and find that this should be a time to think about Christ Jesus, perhaps should do better to have others thinking about that special man who was sent by God for a specific reason.

In Belgium we listened, behind frosted windows, to songs like the one of Frank Sinatra who sung about the songs for you and me, but were told that this was all about that heathen character the Americans loved so much, because their country had become slave of consumption. Today we in Europe are not better off. Most people are slave of money and consumption. As in the previous article told, they even get so much stress that we have already time spend in the media about that ‘Christmas stress‘.

Of the time when every one falls in love there is not so much to see. In some American writings we hear that it is now fashionable to have a divorce around Christmas. Many have new years dreams of having some extramarital adventures with some delicious unknown and some even think it can be good fun to have some extra sex with somebody of their own gender. Those same gender relations are also promoted extra in this time of year. This week for example we had on television some gays who prepared meals for each other and talked every episode about the ‘Christmas kitsch’.

Merry Christmas (Bing Crosby album)

Merry Christmas (Bing Crosby album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the 1950ies and 1960ies from the States we got Andy Williams and Bing Crosby who be the must haves and must hears at the Winter holiday season. You may wonder what glow it is when snow would appear these days. But even the snow has given it up and Winter does not want to let see her face. Bing Crosby reminded people about what happened in Bethlehem and asked people to remember it not just in this particular season but the whole year through.

Judi Harbin remarked

Just as we cannot benefit from a wrapped gift under the Christmas tree until we open it, so gratitude can be seen as our way of opening the gift of God’s love intended by all the small and big positive events of our lives

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One of the Biggest Christmas hits in several families for years

“White christmas” by Bing Crosby (1942) Original

Later he made a more fluent, faster version, which I like more

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O Little Town Of Bethlehem – Bing Crosby

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Bing Crosby “The Secret Of Christmas”

“The Secret Of Christmas” was written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for Bing Crosby, and was first performed by Bing in the 1959 film, ‘Say One For Me’. Bing recorded “The Secret Of Christmas” with an arrangement by Frank DeVol for a single that year released by Columbia Records. Bing recorded the song again in 1964 for the album 12 Songs Of Christmas with Fred Waring and His Orchestra.

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It may well be that after World War II our families had to overcome the shocks of the Great War and the last atrocity which showed the cruelty of man and made it so much more important to focus on the better soul of mankind. Perhaps it was truly a much simpler time of Christmas in our nation’s not too distant history.

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Preceding articles

Solstice, Saturnalia and Christmas-stress

Christmas in the 1950s

The Proper Place of Excess

Looking for the consummation of presents

One can buy a lot in the supermarket, but not hope

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Additional reading

  1. Creator and Blogger God 11 Old and New Blog 1 Aimed at one man
  2. Objects around the birth and death of Jesus
  3. Our love for Jesus – A Christian Science perspective
  4. Isaiah 55-56, Revelation 11
  5. God’s wrath and sanctification

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Further reading and listening

  1. Celebrating 365 Days of Legends, Folklore & Spirituality for December 17 – 23 – Saturnalia
  2. Countdown to Christmas 17: Saturnalia
  3. War On Christmas Memes: Saturnalia
  4. Christmas: it’s all about money, not messiahs.
  5. Why Did He Come?
  6. What Really Happened?
  7. He Loves You So
  8. 10 Tips for Maintaining a Healthy, Happy, Glow Over Christmas and Into the New Year
  9. Cancer survivor supports others battling the disease with massive Christmas light display
  10. Giving money for Christmas: When and how to do it right
  11. Carols by Candlelight
  12. “Hush, now listen…”
  13. Hymn, ‘Mary, Did You Know?’
  14. Carol, ‘I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing on Christmas Day’
  15. Joy to the World, Not Just Another Christmas Carol
  16. Christmas Carol Day 17
  17. Jubilation
  18. Manifestation
  19. “For hate is strong and mocks the song”–A Civil war Christmas carol
  20. Celebrating Christmas as a Family
  21. Holiday Decoration: Celebrate Christmas in Style
  22. Dec 18: My somewhere peaceful is Christmas magic
  23. New trending GIF tagged 80s christmas vhs 1987…

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9 Comments

Filed under Audio, History, Lifestyle, Religious affairs, Video

The Culture of Excesses- Losing Humanity

Our society has put its eyes on material things and some like to find a good excuse to receive some more. The heathen festival at the end of the year, having received its misleading name Christmas, is full of pagan symbols and the majority of people who celebrate it with the excuse as the remembrance of the birth of Christ, which was in 4BCE, October 17, do not really have many remembrance elements for this Messiah, who gave his life for mankind.

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To remember

many things which I do not want

people just cannot get enough of what they have + want more > current culture of Consumerism = people know price of everything but value of nothing

‘citizens’ = equal partners in downward spiral of humanity

first citizens on earth + then consumers in traditional concept of market driven society.

race to own multiple profiles on various networking sites = most senseless thing that people of our generation especially youth are attracted to do

a person’s stature = judged by number of followers or friends s/he has on networking site

media both print + electronic = trashed ethical principle of ‘informing’ people of what’s happening around => become producer of news which has to be fed to consumers in typical market terminology

media = competing with ordinary citizens to get most likes + shares on social media => information at the heart of good governance = ignored

media has turned into retailers selling products in the guise of news through common people who are acting as sales and marketing agents

culture of excesses and consumerism = current culture of seeking materialistic pleasures or satisfaction<= tendency to attribute happiness to external materialistic sources

wild chase of things we do not want but yet seek created emptiness in our souls => to fill such emptiness = if we buy something new, maybe we will feel good = cognitive process based on a hollow logic = creates a cycle

feeling sad > purchase > repress our need to feel complete temporarily => not sustainable => coped up with another purchase

new purchase brings temporary satisfaction = makes us believe that what we need a constant dose of newer stuff in order to feel happy => begin journey of seeking happiness from external sources.

forgotten > key to happiness lies within ourselves

not even connected to ourselves  > understanding of self has degraded to superficial concepts such as looks, outwards personality

animalistic concepts of existence of God or supernatural power + focus on finding a divine connection which can flush out the negativity from our minds and instil only positive thoughts => connection can only be established with nature or higher self

first of all humans + then customers or consumers or whatever terminology one wants to ascribe to us = meant to act as cohesive unit since humanity demands us to live for each other = as long as we are secure within ourselves + this security provides us with confidence to be useful to others.

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Preceding articles

Learning that stuff is just stuff

Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth

Material gain to honour God

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

Stop and Think

One can buy a lot in the supermarket, but not hope

Looking for the consummation of presents

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Further reading

  1. Psychic Weather Week of December 14, 2015
  2. What You Need to Know
  3. Daily Devotional: “Half-Baked Prayers”

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MohnishBagree's Blog

How many things are there which I do not want, was once said by Socrates. But it seems that people just cannot get enough of what they have and want more. As the current culture of Consumerism perfectly justifies what Oscar Wilde mentioned, today people know the price of everything but the value of nothing. It would be wrong to blame the producers alone for the consumerist culture that we are leaving in. The ‘citizens’ are equal partners in this downward spiral of humanity. Why is it a downward spiral will be unfolded subsequently but for now let us focus on what has this consumerist tendency been doing and how. In addition to this, it is important to understand that we are first citizens on earth and then consumers in traditional concept of market driven society.

When will the charm of a new phone end? When will we be satisfied…

View original post 1,347 more words

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Economical affairs, Lifestyle, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Religious affairs

Het gevaar om niets te doen tegen de oorzaak en de kwaal

Al veel te lang hebben bepaalde groepen zich stil gehouden. Aan één kant de politici aan de ander kant de geloofsgroepen die zich volgeling van de profeet Mohammed noemen. Die Mohammedanen hebben stilzwijgend toegezien hoe bepaalde groepen in het Midden Oosten en in Afrika hun godsdienst in een kwaad daglicht stelden.

Adam Benjamin schrijft de Nederlandse regering hierover aan op in een Open brief aan het Kabinet en leidinggevend Nederland.

Hij kaart terecht het stilzwijgen van de regering aan omtrent vroegere aanslagen in de eigen contreien tegen Moslims en vraagt zich af waar  minister Ascher was om keiharde actie tegen discriminatie en uitsluiting op de arbeidsmarkt aan te kondigen?

Eveneens stelt hij vragen bij discriminatie en racial profiling bij de politie waar minister der Steur stil bleef of waar minister Hennis het leger en de marechaussee niet aanpakte.

Ook mogen wij de Nederlandse, Belgische en Franse regering niet vergeten die het nalieten om zich te roeren met de ongelijkheden die plaatsvonden in het Midden Oosten.

Waar was minister Koenders om keiharde actie tegen het racistische apartheidsregime in Israël aan te kondigen?

Alsook kan men vragen stellen bij de houding van onze regeringen bij een niet op gang gerakende afbouw van actieve oorlogsvoering.

Waar was minister Blok om keiharde actie tegen ghettovorming en afzondering aan te kondigen?

stelt Adam Benjamin. Tevens ons herinnerend dat zulk een gettovorming zich in meerdere Nederlandse, Belgische en Franse steden zich heeft voorgedaan doordat die mensen van vreemde origine geweigerd werden door de autochtone bevolking. Zelfs de kinderen van de allochtonen bleven aanschouwd worden als vreemdelingen, namelijk als Marokanen of Turken. Juist door die ontwijking van die mensen kon radicalisering in die groepen zich voordoen. Want zij konden zich nergens thuis voelen en nu was ar e een organisatie gekomen die hen wilde erkennen voor wat zij waren en zich bereid stelde om hen op te nemen als gelijke broeders en zusters.

Terecht mag dan ook de vraag gesteld worden waar Hans de Boer was om keiharde actie tegen de uitsluiting van Nederlanders uit minderheidsgroeperingen aan te kondigen?

U was allen stil. Niet slechts een minuut. Meer dan een week inmiddels.

Na de aanslagen in Parijs (ik sla die van Beiroet een dag eerder gemakshalve even over) is er behoorlijk wat discussie ontstaan. Roomblanke Nederlanders riepen op facebook op om moslims te vermoorden en twitter liep over van Wilders citerende bezorgdeburgers, die hun Korankennis uit Fitna gebruiken om te bewijzen dat iedere moslim een terrorist is. Discussie was niet altijd voldoende een uitlaatklep, getuige de vele foto’s op Facebook en Instagram van doodsverwensingen aan het adres van moslims die op lokale muren waren gekalkt door minder kunstzinnige landgenoten. Andere vormen van vernieling naar aanleiding van de aanslagen waren bekladding of verbranding van diverse moskeeën. {Open brief aan het Kabinet en leidinggevend Nederland}

Natuurlijk konden na de aanslagen van Parijs in januari en nu midden november de ministers, staatssecretarissen, directeuren en managers, zich niet meer stil houden alhoewel zij toch nog steeds onvoldoende krachtdadig optraden tegen diegenen die onze maatschappij trachten te destabiliseren door alle Moslims over één kam te scheren

The citizen masters (maire) of Amsterdam (Job ...

Burgemeesters van Amsterdam (Job Cohen links) en Rotterdam (Ahmed Aboutaleb rechts). (Foto credit: Wikipedia)

Toegegeven, premier Rutte liet in enkele interviews wel horen dat het oorlog is, dat deze aanslag een aanslag op onze democratie en onze wijze van leven was, maar dat werd al snel overschreeuwd door Ahmed Aboutaleb die om in gesprek te kunnen blijven met Leefbaar Rotterdam steeds rechtsere taal begint uit te slaan. Veel verder dan veroordelen van het gebeurde en betuigen van medeleven en organiseren van minuten stilte bent u allen niet gekomen. Dat is triest! Ons land, onze samenleving, geleid door personen die zwijgen als Wilders op Twitter zijn gelijk opeist, om sluiting van de grenzen roept en en passent vluchtelingen, moslims en terroristen over dezelfde kam scheert. {Open brief aan het Kabinet en leidinggevend Nederland}

Men zou verwacht hebben dat na de radicaal islamitische aanslagen in Parijs de Europese Unie de strijd tegen het terrorisme werkelijk zou opvoeren, zoals ze beloofd hadden. Maar al snel na de storm kwam weer de stilte en werd nogmaals de soep niet zo gegeten als ze heet was.

De strengere controles aan Europese grenzen om terroristen te onderscheppen bleken met de recente aanvallen precies een maat voor niets geweest te zijn. Er werd de schijn gegeven radicalisering van moslims te willen tegen te houden en te kunnen verminderen. Wel zag men dat men meer angst begon in te boezemen voor diegenen die wensten terug te keren van het Syrisch oorlogsgeweld.

Aan de wantoestanden van de vluchtelingen en aan het stopzetten van de reden om te gaan vluchten werd omzeggens niets gedaan. Het wapentransport, de mensenhandel (illegalen) en drugs en waardegoederen konden lekker gezellig bepaalde groepen veel geld opbrengen terwijl dezen niets inzaten met de penibele omstandigheden waarin bepaalde mensen geraakten of zelfs het leven gaven.

De EU buitengrenzen zo lek als een mandje gaf duidelijk te kennen dat er hier met visnetten werd gevist met enorme grote gaten en dat de mafiabazen niet te veel zorgen moesten maken hun goed renderend zaakje te moeten verliezen. Al de wapenfabrieken in Europa konden er ook op rekenen dat zij verder hun goederen konden leveren aan partijen die tegenover elkaar stonden. “Zo lang zij elkaar daar maar uitmoorden” moeten ze hier maar denken, kan het geen kwaad.

Alsmaar liet men een grote groep anderen bang maken voor een ‘Groot Gevaar’ dat op Europa zou afkomen. Vroeger kon men het Communistische gevaar voorschotelen, daarna het Gele Gevaar, maar nu had men nog iets beters gevonden in het Moslim Gevaar. Ook al is een heel part van de bevolking helemaal niet meer gelovig wil men ze met die angst voor een overheersend geloof toch nog bang maken.

Dat jihad eigenlijk iets sacraal is en niet bepaald een grijpbaar geweld omvat maar gaat over spirituele inspanningen voor de Allerhoogste, Allah, de Elohim Hashem Jehovah, worden zoals men de mensen bang maakte in de jaren 60 van vorige eeuw voor die Jehovah wordt nu die Allah Zijn volk als gevaar aanzien.

De slechte co-notatie die er gekomen is, is een gevolg van fundamentalistische groeperingen die zich eerst tegen Joden verzetten maar dan algemeen te keer gingen tegen diegenen die zij ongelovig beschouwen. Die fundamentalisten hebben het zelfs zo ver gedreven dat zij de wereld willen doen geloven dat zij als verkozenen van Allah, het recht en de plicht hebben om een Islamitische Staat te vormen.

De heimatlozen van hier kunnen in het aanbod van een eigen staat wel iets zien en zijn zo een makkelijke prooi voor ‘het goede doel’.

Een Rotterdammer in Calabrië schrijft:

Jonge gelovigen, en zeker jong bekeerde gelovigen of hen die het geloof van hun ouders herontdekken, lopen vrij eenvoudig het risico om te radicaliseren. Mijn oude geschiedenisleraar zei het al: bekeerlingen zijn altijd vurig. De priesteropleidingen van de katholieke kerk kennen het fenomeen en weten hoe ze ermee om moeten gaan omdat ze de religieuze manier van denken door en door kennen. Hulp aan radicaliserende gelovigen moet dan ook in de eerste plaats uit de geloofsgemeenschap komen. {Islamofobie is contraproduktief}

Zij die steeds verwijten krijgen dat zij niet deugen en dat zij moeten oprotten, worden als wilde beesten in een hoek geduwd en dan staat men verwonderd te kijken als deze agressief uit die hoek komen. Velen van hen worden in het geboorteland van hun ouders als vreemdelingen aanzien, maar hier ook. Hier zijn zij geboren en zouden hun eigen land moeten kunnen vinden. Maar dat wordt hen niet gegund. En nu is er die groep die alsmaar groter en sterker lijkt te worden die hen een land van melk en honing wil aanbieden waar mensen volgens de juiste waarden en normen zouden leven.

Van de politici krijgen die jongeren die op zoek zijn naar hun eigenheid en erkenning nauwelijks iets te horen, zodat bij hen het beeld kan ontstaan dat heel de natie tegen hen is.

Net als die juf op de basisschool die hem ingeprent heeft dat het toch niets met hem wordt. Net als die mentor op de middelbare school die hem heeft ingeprent dat zijn soort niet deugt. Net als Wilders die zegt dat voor hem een uitkering of de misdaad de enige vooruitzichten zijn. Alom aanwezige koude uitsluiting. Men moet Mohammed niet. {Open brief aan het Kabinet en leidinggevend Nederland}

Ondertussen blijvend media maar al te graag de Moslims in een slecht dag licht stellen en focussen zich ook op die jongeren die als een last voor onze samenleving onze voorsteden onveilig zouden maken. De negatieve spiraal raast maar door.

Dagelijks horen we het NOS journaal melden wat (zelfbenoemde) moslims nu weer hebben uitgevreten. Horen we RTL nieuws vragen hoe te voorkomen is dat terroristen in de vluchtelingenstroom Europa binnenkomen. Dagelijks horen we nieuwe generalisaties over moslims, terroristen, moordenaars en vluchtelingen. En u allen, u bent stil. Martin Luther King zei ooit:
’uiteindelijk zullen wij niet de woorden van onze vijanden herinneren, maar de stilte van onze vrienden.’
En uw stilte is oorverdovend. {Open brief aan het Kabinet en leidinggevend Nederland}

Zal men pas iets gaan doen als het kalf half verdronken is?

Adam Benjamin besluit

Wanneer gaat u nu eens iets doen? Of gaan we gewoon door met oorlogshandelingen, privacy inperkingen, ondersteuning van fascistische apartheid in het Midden Oosten en wegkijken bij discriminatie en onrecht? Er is werk aan de winkel! Deze periode zal waarschijnlijk als de 3e wereldoorlog in de geschiedenisboeken verschijnen. Het is van u afhankelijk hoe lang deze periode gaat duren!

Hopelijk vindt u het niet erg dat ik deze brief niet met mijn eigen naam onderteken. Ik wil mijn mailbox en mijn gemoedsrust de bedreigingen en scheldkannonades besparen. Vrijheid van meningsuiting is in Nederland gedevalueerd tot een grondrecht dat alleen aan de witte man is voorbehouden en helaas blijkt fatsoen tegelijk met Pim Fortuin vermoord te zijn… {Open brief aan het Kabinet en leidinggevend Nederland}

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Voorgaand

Waarom doen we niets aan de oorzaak?

Echte vooruitgang laat niemand achter

Dit kan gewoon echt niet meer

Fatsoensnormen Online

Onder­scheid maken – een repliek op Ayaan Hirsi Ali

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Lees ook

  1. Motie over Godsdienstvrijheid
  2. Noodzaak om geweld tegen moslims ook in kaart te brengen
  3. Pakistaanse schoolhandboeken voeden op tot Discriminatie
  4. Nieuwkomers, nieuwelingen, immigranten, allochtonen en import

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Verder aanvullend om te lezen

  1. Brussel ‘belooft’ de buitengrenzen beter te controleren… En ze willen ‘registreren’ (alweer datzelfde woord).
  2. Islamofobie is contraproduktief
  3. Valt de radicalisering van Israël nog te stoppen?
  4. Presentatie “Extremisme in het Midden Oosten”
  5. Islam eng of niet?
  6. Leugens (FB column voorjaar 2015)
  7. VS en EU graven eigen graf
  8. Irak en ISIS: houdt Obama stand?
  9. Er komen weer banen bij en ik weet waar !

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Filed under Activisme & Vredeswerk, Levensstijl, Misdaden & Wreedheden, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Religieuze aangelegenheden, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Voelen en Welzijn, Wereld aangelegenheden

A husband’s heartbreaking tribute to his wife killed in the Paris attacks

Antoine Leiris saw his love of his life, the mother of his son stolen away in the attack on the Bataclan in Paris. But he does not grant those Muslim fundamentalists his hatred.
His tribute to his wife on Facebook has been shared thousands of times since. Though shamefully his page was desactivated and he lost all the messages of encouragement.

  1. </div> ” data-mentions=”lemondefr CNN SPIEGELONLINE radio” data-you-follow=”false” data-follows-you=”false” data-you-block=”false”>

    Please help me facebook desactivate my page. I lost all my messages.

    He made a call to Nov 25

      • </div> ” data-mentions=”facebook” data-you-follow=”false” data-follows-you=”false” data-you-block=”false”>

        please help me. You desactivate my page. I lost all the love messages I’ve received from all around the world…

    Was it because notes of peace were send that they were silenced?

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    “Vous n’aurez pas ma haine”

    Vendredi soir vous avez volé la vie d’un être d’exception, l’amour de ma vie, la mère de mon fils mais vous n’aurez pas ma haine. Je ne sais pas qui vous êtes et je ne veux pas le savoir, vous êtes des âmes mortes. Si ce Dieu pour lequel vous tuez aveuglément nous a fait à son image, chaque balle dans le corps de ma femme aura été une blessure dans son coeur.

    Alors non je ne vous ferai pas ce cadeau de vous haïr. Vous l’avez bien cherché pourtant mais répondre à la haine par la colère ce serait céder à la même ignorance qui a fait de vous ce que vous êtes. Vous voulez que j’ai peur, que je regarde mes concitoyens avec un oeil méfiant, que je sacrifie ma liberté pour la sécurité. Perdu. Même joueur joue encore.

    Je l’ai vue ce matin. Enfin, après des nuits et des jours d’attente. Elle était aussi belle que lorsqu’elle est partie ce vendredi soir, aussi belle que lorsque j’en suis tombé éperdument amoureux il y a plus de 12 ans. Bien sûr je suis dévasté par le chagrin, je vous concède cette petite victoire, mais elle sera de courte durée. Je sais qu’elle nous accompagnera chaque jour et que nous nous retrouverons dans ce paradis des âmes libres auquel vous n’aurez jamais accès.

    Nous sommes deux, mon fils et moi, mais nous sommes plus fort que toutes les armées du monde. Je n’ai d’ailleurs pas plus de temps à vous consacrer, je dois rejoindre Melvil qui se réveille de sa sieste. Il a 17 mois à peine, il va manger son goûter comme tous les jours, puis nous allons jouer comme tous les jours et toute sa vie ce petit garçon vous fera l’affront d’être heureux et libre. Car non, vous n’aurez pas sa haine non plus.

    ***

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Filed under Activism and Peace Work, Being and Feeling, Crimes & Atrocities, Français - French texts, Headlines - News, Social affairs, Video

Fatsoensnormen Online

In deze wereld waar steeds meer aandacht wordt geschonken aan het eigen geluk, waarbij elk individu steeds maar meer voor zichzelf wilt en het ander niet lijkt te gunnen, is het belangrijk om ook andere stemmen te laten horen en om er de mensen op te wijzen dat wij terug meer deelzaam moeten worden.

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Hyves” = goed medium om vrienden en familie af en toe op de hoogte te houden van activiteiten + Voor culturele sector = prima medium om voorstellingen, evenementen, concerten e.d. te promoten

gebruik van Facebook = meer en meer een soort “open riool” > ongenuanceerde, denigrerende + zelfs dreigende taalgebruik van een hoop mensen.

  • tegenwoordig heel normaal om diverse mensen op het openbare web compleet de grond in te boren
  • Natuurlijk mag iedereen een mening hebben + als goed onderbouwd  > naar geluisterd
  • plaatsvervangende schaamte voor eigen gemeente => hoe er met bepaalde zaken om wordt gegaan
  • hele land vluchtelingenbeleid = probleem
  • tijdelijke crisisopvang (maximaal 3 dagen voor 50 mensen) => speciale raadsvergadering voor gepland =>  reacties op internet, (Facebook), niet mals.
  • problemen om opgelost en uitgepraat te worden
  • meningen meetellen > manier waarop > gescheld, geschoffeer + denigrerende teksten niet van de lucht => met ingehouden woede zitten lezen…
  • Mensen die hun huis en haard verlaten om hun kinderen een betere toekomstmogelijkheid te kunnen bieden weg van de oorlog in hun eigen land = net zo gemakkelijk voor “criminelen”, “gajes”, “asocialen” en “oermensen” uitgemaakt als moordenaar van Theo van Gogh.
  • ? onze “nette” samenleving die voor elkaar op wil komen?
  • gemeenteraad = bezweken onder druk van deze hooggespannen meningen en roeptoeters => opvang afgewezen

wijlen Thé Lau zei

Iedereen is van de wereld en de wereld is van iedereen!

Scattando Blog

Al vele jaren maak ik gebruik van Facebook, volgens mij was ik in Nederland één van de eerste toen de meeste mensen nog op “Hyves” zaten. Ik vind het een goed medium om je vrienden en familie af en toe op de hoogte te houden van je activiteiten, niet om elke 5 minuten te delen, daar is het ook niet voor bedoelt.

Voor de culturele sector is het een prima medium om je voorstellingen, evenementen, concerten en dergelijke op te promoten. Zeker nu tegenwoordig bijna iedereen op het medium zit. Ook als het nog niet mag zoals kinderen van 8 en 9, onverantwoord naar mijn mening, maar ok, wie ben ik om dit te bepalen voor de ouders. Dat moet iedereen zelf weten.

Maar de laatste tijd verbaas ik me meer en meer over het gebruik van Facebook door een hoop mensen, het wordt helaas meer en meer een soort…

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Filed under Activisme & Vredeswerk, Economische aangelegenheden, Levensstijl, Nederlandse teksten - Dutch writings, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs, Sociale Aangelegenheden, Voelen en Welzijn

Hoarding Relationships and Things

 

Preceding articles:

Material wealth, Submission and Heaven on earth

Learning that stuff is just stuff

Thought of the day: We want more, i want more, but why is that?

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2 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, Lifestyle, Re-Blogs and Great Blogs

Engagement in an actual two-way conversation with your deities

Today we can find lots of people who are not at all interested in The God sole Creator of Heaven and Earth or in gods, though often they create themselves many gods and worship lots of idols, mainly from the little screen which has become a huge screen in these days (some have measures like the cinema screen of our childhood).

Driver in a Mitsubishi Galant using a hand hel...

Driver in a Mitsubishi Galant using a hand held mobile phone violating New York State law. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A 32 year old single girl who lives alone with three cats, in the process of trying online dating pagan, and likes to think about ‘big’ questions occasionally, currently trying to learn to read the tarot, writes:

Everywhere you turn within Pagan circles these days it seems like you are surrounded by people who have a direct connection to their Gods. They seem to be in possession of their very own ‘Godphone’ (to steal a term I have seen floating about) and are God-bothered on a seemingly constant basis. {G is for Gods}

She is not talking about that strong ‘godly communication‘ we talked about in our previous article. Though the mobile phone may be the new god of many, and lots of them do hope to find with that electronic tool with many gadgets or applications to find the real god app of their life.

Lots of the youngsters put all their aspirations in that mobile phone or their i-pad and are willing to cue all night just to have the latest i-phone or Apple McIntosh gadget. Several i.t.-meetings have taken the place of the old Eucharist celebrations and today we do find high-masses especially for electronic wizards.

After some time many get the feeling they are standing in a becoming colder breeze or getting a ice cold shower, putting them in the Hitchcock thriller were the blood runs in the gutter, taking all their so called (Facebook) friends with it. They do not start wondering if their godphone collection has gone wrong but think they must be at fault.
For sure they must be doing something wrong. The Gods must be ignoring them for a reason,

or you are just not open enough, or maybe you’re on the wrong path.  This is obviously the experience of ‘real’ pagans, so maybe you just aren’t pagan enough. {G is for Gods}

Perhaps there lies the fact: “being not pagan enough”. So this could perhaps give some hope for the many people who felt disillusioned after their internet experience. Perhaps this will give them enough reason to look for other and better values than those that internet can offer them.

The pagan lady writes she is not in possession of a Godphone,

I am not God-bothered, and I can’t think of a single time when I engaged in an actual two-way conversation with my deities. Sure I get a feeling about things sometimes, I know they appreciate the incense I offer her for example, but it exactly that… a feeling. This doesn’t mean I am not pagan enough and it is actually a perfectly normal experience for a large number of Pagans.

Those pagans we would offer a better solution. If their gods are not such listening gods and not so much answering gods, why would they not try to come to find the real Supreme God of gods? Why going second hand when each of us has the opportunity to go first hand 5-star quality?

Many of those not satisfied with what their mobile can bring, are looking for something more sacred or divine. Divination is something they are interested in.

I have spent some time looking at different types and trying to find one that works for me. I’ve tried runes, the pendulum, crystal gazing and even tea leaf reading but I am always drawn back to the Tarot. I am beginning to think it must be for the artwork, as I seem to have little to no skill in reading them! {D is for Divination}

Often we notice people are going to look for it so far away, when it is easy to grab for in front of their nose.

I have had all sorts of advice about reading cards, not just Tarot but oracle as well, but they tend to come back to either ‘learn by rote’ or ‘trust your intuition’. Having tried both, and continuing to flip between the two, I can see that I have problems with both. {D is for Divination}

Japanese mobile phone keyboard

Japanese mobile phone keyboard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We would say, it is not in those cards you shall find the right answers. You may find and see lots of symbols in it and find word-games made up by human beings, but when taking up a Book of books, written down in very old times, they would be surprised what it all has to tell, also about things happening today. In that Book of books, short “the Bible” they and we can find the answer on many of our daily questions. With that best-seller we get the best guide and best manual for life we ever can get.

When looking at it and giving it more of your time, you shall come to notice that it has not to be a one way road to seeing letters forming words, words forming phrases and phrases forming ideas. By reading all that old stuff we shall get ideas for our life and find out that it is not only our reading effort but also our taking down information out of the book that shall bring us to a two way system of communication.

When we are prepared to listen we shall find answers and we shall get replies.

Paganists looking at their own pagan books may find that when they have tried reading from intuition they went blank. The 32 year old lady writes:

I don’t trust myself enough to just open up and ‘say what I see’ as it were. I am so worried about getting it wrong that I just can’t allow myself to go with it.

Communication Centre, Kimbolton - geograph.org...

Communication Centre, Kimbolton – geograph.org.uk – 1572042 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, that opening up is something which is necessary for everything, to see the good but also to see the bad. We are all created in the image of God and as such we also have the inner feeling of good and wrong. Since the fall of man, having eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil mankind, like the animals have their instinct, but they also received something more which is that inner feeling which gets deep down to them. Lots of people resist that inner feeling and that inner Voice. But as soon as a person wants to open him- or herself to that inner Voice he or she shall be able to come to hear the Voice of God. The Voice of the real God of gods, Who is a much better option than to go for all those other gods.

Go straight ahead to the Only True God of gods, the Most High Elohim, Hashem Jehovah!

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

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Articles of interest:

  1. Do you believe in One god
  2. God of gods
  3. Attributes to God
  4. God is one
  5. Does there have to be a Holy Trinity Mystery
  6. The Trinity – the truth
  7. Bible Word of God, inspired and infallible
  8. Incomplete without the mind of God
  9. God is positive
  10. Let us not forget it was God who chose us
  11. God Helper and Deliverer
  12. Jehovah my strenght
  13. Life with God (video)
  14. Faith because of the questions

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29 Comments

Filed under Being and Feeling, Knowledge & Wisdom, Lifestyle, Religious affairs, Spiritual affairs

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

Of old, people have been looking for reasons of their existence and how everything came into being. Because there were and are so many things people could not understand they created themselves super beings, called gods, overlooking to go beyond a manifold of gods finding the Most High Supreme Being.

English: religion - composition old bible book...

Religion – composition old bible books from Hungary (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Creating mysterious stories could sooth many minds. Many creation myths can be found and other gods than creating ones were also thought of by man. Around the worshipping of those gods came into existence that what we call religion. For many those religions gave some answers, although somewhat inaccurately and told people how to live and work, and they provided for many a nice and easy way for getting control over people by the stories they fabricated. As such we also find in Christendom leaders who love to control their God-fearing population.

Throughout history we can see that the worship system was used to control people and to create reasons to go against other people. Though to say

“religion has been the leading cause of war and death throughout human history.” {What has religion done for us?}

would be taking it to far. (Much more than one bridge too far.)

In this time several people also get a wrong idea about certain old books. There are even people who think the bible is only 2000 years old, like ‘counter creationist‘ gives the impression in his article “Why? just why?”. The biggest part of the book he is referring to (The Bible) is much older then the two millennia. He also seems to be very confused about the Nazarene man spoken in those books. He considers that man to be a god-man according to those books, which is contrary to everything what is written in that Book of books and Best-seller of all times, about that person, though he is called son of man and son of God. But “son of God” is totally something different than “god son“. We do agree many made that man into their god and made statues of him, where in front of them, they bow before and in certain countries is even food and clothes given to him and to his mother-statues in little chapels along the road.

In certain countries it even has become very dangerously around those religions; In that Old Book of books this is even prophesied. In it we can find it as one of the signs that the third and last World War will be coming. There is written that earthquakes and tsunamis would be more frequent and after children would rise against their parents, religions would come up against each other. Clearly we can see many religions fighting against other religions and in each religious group we can find many subdivisions which go against each other and even are prepared to kill for it.

1 September 2010. During Middle East negotiati...

1 September 2010. During Middle East negotiations, Mubarak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel look at their watches to see if it is officially sunset; during Ramadan, Muslims fast until sunset. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To say it is religion that causes the killing is totally wrong and goes beyond reality. To give one example, just for one country because we know those official cyphers, in Belgium in 2013 there were about 756 terrorist attacks. Of them there were only three by religious people. Of those religious people there was only one attack made on religious grounds, by a fundamentalist (by coincidence a Muslim fundamentalist). This means the majority was made on non-religious grounds by non-religious or atheist people. To generalise that all atheist would be terrorists would be the most stupid fault. Though we see such a thing happening in several countries, like in the United States where everybody shouts that all Muslims are terrorist and bad people.  In the same state we can see that certain people go very strongly, aggressively against people of an other faith or who do not believe the same than they. Several openly agree that they are willing to kill the other if he does not convert. The same aggression and oppression of threat for converting we see in the Middle East, but than for the Muslims.

This growing attitude

“when people disagree you have to either convert or kill them”

is an aggressive approach what led to many their wars, but when we look more closely we see that the main reason of such wars we more to have the power over people, to gain more wealth for oneself, to have a much bigger area or to create a bigger state. We can see that by the present fundamentalist groups like ISIS who do not mind burning symbols which by most Muslims are considered holy, like the Quran or mosques. Though they may not be burned ISIS does not hesitate to put fire on them.

Very few religions say: “you can believe what you want, but I think this is true”. No, they say: “believe what I do or burn for eternity.” This approach allowed rulers to keep control over their population, using the fear of punishment and the assertion that they are right and no-one else is. {What has religion done for us?}

Too many people forget that often religion is just an excuse to bring problems to others or to press ones own power unto others.

The times when people are shunned from families and relationships for having different beliefs. {What has religion done for us?}

is not what cause the majority of problems in relationships with family members or friends. Most problems of bringing cuts in family relations have nothing to do with religion. Just have a look at the many divorces. Where would you think you can find most divorces? In religious families or in families where there is no interest in God or in ethical laws? In what sort of schools can you find most problematic asocial behaviour? In religious or in non-religious state schools?

We can agree that the same as by atheist many may have found delusion, oppression and false hope in that what they believed. And please do not forget that atheists also believe a lot of things. And also by atheists there is much discussion and fighting going on about what they believe. Just have  a look at how atheists professors and scientist often go in heavy debates. In Belgium we can see that very much in the ones who believe in alternative medicine and those who say that is just bullshit and rubbish. Last week we could also see two medical groups in a television documentary about the illness of Lyme going against each other and calling each other names (really not worthy for decent educated people). Very often we can find ignorance by lots of people and mostly by persons who do not want to believe in a Higher Supreme Being. Today we also must say most people are not at all interested in the Most High God of gods and have their other gods from the sports world (mainly football and soccer) and from the moving pictures and television screen. But most of all the new god has become that more tiny screen which brings a majority of youngsters on their own created island of isolation. When you look around on the streets, you can see them walking by thousands, with their heads down and fingers (mostly dumb) going crazily fast from one side to the other of that little electronic tool.

Stephen Shaw captured it so nicely in one of his photographs and his article Format 15 were he writes:

Life is a constant war we are doomed to lose . Thus we worship  science and technology and strive towards new ways of enjoying and prolonging our life ( Cryogenics ,  vitamins , health and fitness , resurrection and downloading our souls ). The mobile phone is like the new Deity people staring into its virtual light on a daily basis like they are memorised by a newfound idol. all reality and dullness of their real life is forgotten as they live their ideal fantasy life through this ever satisfying god who grants their every wish , albeit it be only in their minds. {Format 15}

As usual we can find people looking for ways to escape the earth-life reality and to create for themselves a better life than they really have; As such you may find many presenting themselves very differently on Facebook than they really are in really life. though many want to find more friends at the social media they also seem to get the same illusion like the other religions and finding themselves even more isolated and lonely than those believers in The God and who have their church community.

Many today are also calling out

The Era of the Gods is Over. Face the Truth. Not even the Gods are without Flaws.

Throughout history people have looked for finding reasons of life, ways of life, ways how to behave, ways to construct a better world. Many seem to forget that in those systems there were many irreligious people presenting their system as the best one and forcing it on others; For those who did have to seem to have forgotten the Marxist and Leninist systems, we shall ask them to look into the history books. Lots of people did not survive communist camps, but today there are still enough people form the communist countries alive, so please do talk with them and question about the non-religous solution which was offered as the solution.

Funny thing is that most strong voices against religion come from the United States of America who have a horrible fear of everything that may smell even a little bit of socialism or communism, though those system do not have to be as based as they believe. You see there too we come at the word belief and faith. Those American atheist have also their faith in certain systems. they too seem to forget that they “believe” in other things than gods or the God.

The Three Creators with “The big Struggle of Creation!” thinks:

Greeks (k)*new, where our leaders meet and find solutions. They also found good names we all admire. (* k added by us)

What they did not figure out, is why these individuals became gods. It’s because, they are people with a strong will, fighting for the Good Side. They hate fighting, but have to do it, because there is no other way to stop evil. They are willing to learn from good and evil and keep on learning and fighting, until they find solutions, until they find better ways. They are not perfect, they do not even try to be perfect. They simply know what’s good. {The Era of the Gods is Over. Face the Truth. Not even the Gods are without Flaws.}

If we look at the many gods of today, like George ClooneyTom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, just to name only of the most internationally known American actors, we can see that the media plays a very important role in creating idols and would be alike and figures were people want to dream of and have envy of. they are not any more good ones and they not have a good attitude. The opposite can be said of the stars of today. They have not what we would call an exemplary attitude, but do not mind to have an abundant life without borders and without scruples.

People of today prefer the free inhibited lifestyle were sex and fun comes in the first place and have nothing to do any more with real love. Lots of youngsters brag about the many girls they could get into their bed. Women just have become a trophy for many, but idem dito men for women, who have liberated themselves and even got solutions to have kids without the intervention of a male being, which many do not need any more.

People want to play for god themselves instead of having them be guided by something, somewhat or Some One Who they do not understand. Problem is that most people do not want to invest time to come to understand the Most High Being, Maker of haven and earth. they are fast to blame Him for everything what goes wrong in life, but to see all the good things around them and to accept God made them possible is too much asked.

Non-physical relationships can be a real pain to figure out. There aren’t any self-help books on them, and trying to get a communication style that works well can be challenging to say the least. {Gods: More Like People Than You Think}

writes Devo on Twisted Rope whose experiences have shown him that the gods man make themselves are a lot more like humans than we typically want to admit that they are. But that is just because man wants the gods to be like him and have to face the same difficulties like him.

Yeah, they may have more power in some ways than we do. But at the end of the day, they seem to have a lot of the same basic attributes that we do, and I feel like we should be taking a closer look at that. {Gods: More Like People Than You Think}

Lots of people do not feel happy because in the big world of many gods, idols, atheists, non-conformists, egoists, they feel lost and can not find any connection with their inner being nor with some outer-being. This makes them floating in the welter.

All created in the image of God have the possibility to hear the inner voice and to hear the calling of the Most High. We only have to open our ear.

And those atheists who think it are the religious who would make most war should reconsider who are the real religious people and what people would like to do when they have certain ethics and rules for a way of living. Be it Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Jews or religious of an other faith, when they are serious faithful we shall see they mostly will have a more peaceful character than those who do not want to keep to certain ethics. Luckilly by the atheists we may find also a lot of humanists and people who do find it very important to have human ethical rules and to keep to those ethic laws. They too shall try to avoid warmaking and propagate peace.

English: Copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/w...

Worldreligions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Please do find additional reading:

  1. Newsweek asks: How ignorant are you?
  2. Atheists, deists, and sleepers
  3. Being Religious and Spiritual 2 Religiosity and spiritual life
  4. Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists
  5. Epicurus’ Problem of Evil
  6. Economics and Degradation
  7. Evil Never Ceases
  8. Caricaturing and disapproving sceptics, religious critics and figured out ethics
  9. Subcutaneous power for humanity 5 Loneliness, Virtual and real friends
  10. A world with or without religion
  11. , Being Charlie 2, Being Charlie 3, Being Charlie 4, Being Charlie 5, Being Charlie 6,Being Charlie 7, Being Charlie 8, Being Charlie 9, Being Charlie 10, Being Charlie 11
  12. It’s beautiful to watch the spread of #JeSuisCharlie across the world,Where do we stand in the backdrop of Charlie Hebdo Massacre ?, Charlie Hebdo, offensive satire and why ‘Freedom of Speech’ needs more discussion
  13. Faith because of the questions
  14. Religion, fundamentalism and murder
  15. Religion…..why the competition?
  16. Shariah and child abuse – Is there a connection?
  17. Why is it that Christians don’t understand Muslims and Muslims do not understand Christians?
  18. Apartheid or Apartness #1 Suppression and Apartness
  19. Leaving the Old World to find better pastures
  20. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #2 Roots of Jewishness
  21. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #3 Of the earth or of God
  22. Collision course of socialist and capitalist worlds
  23. Robertson: God says U.S. will accept socialism
  24. Christian fundamentalism as dangerous as Muslim fundamentalism
  25. The imaginational war against Christmas
  26. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 4 Blasphemy and ridiculing faith in God
  27. Still Hope though Power generating long train of abuses
  28. Europe and much-vaunted bastions of multiculturalism becoming No God Zones
  29. 112314 – A Peculiar People
  30. Maker of most popular weapon asks for repentance
  31. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
  32. Science, 2013 word of the year, and Scepticism
  33. 2013 Lifestyle, religiously and spiritualy
  34. 2014 Religion
  35. Not many coming out with their community name
  36. Truth, doubt or blindness
  37. A Church without Faith!
  38. Inequality, Injustice, Sustainability and the Free World Charter
  39. Re-Creating Community
  40. Daniel Guérin: Three Problems of the Revolution (1958)
  41. The trigger of Aurora shooting
  42. Intellectual servility a curse of mankind

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  • Denial (todayssigns.wordpress.com)
    If you wonder about the importance of evidence to secular people, think about this: A whole world full of people waits out there, lurking to pull all kinds of shenanigans to get you converted to strange beliefs and practices they uphold, or to part with your money, without any kind of demonstrable evidence. The best they have is stories some unknown talebearer told that another unknown person wrote down. You get to choose from actual thousands of those doctrines in all their variations, but most people settle for the one chosen by their family in ages past.
    +
    Once a person attaches dissatisfaction with faith-based beliefs to failure of their messengers to be convincing, and then sees how that failure stems from absence of any kind of real evidence, the importance of evidence becomes clear and the search for evidence-based beliefs begins.
  • An imaginary interview with a Christian… (nytimes.com)
    Honestly, since so many of my friends aren’t religious or conservative, I’ve always taken for granted that being part of their lives meant accompanying them through life choices that belong to a different worldview than my own. (And I’m very grateful that they’ve accompanied and tolerated me.) My family has its share of divorces and second marriages; my friends’ romantic paths are varied; my closest friend from high school just exchanged vows with his longtime boyfriend. I’m going to a party celebrating them next month. If they asked me, I’d bring a cake.
  • Acts of Terrorism Very Rare Among US Muslims, Study Finds (voanews.com)
    After the September 11, 2001, attacks and more recent efforts by militant groups in Muslim countries to radicalize and recruit Muslims living in the West, there have been fears among U.S. authorities and the public of large-scale terrorist strikes on home soil.Such fears, however, have been largely unfounded, because Muslims in the United States have overwhelmingly ignored the calls to militancy, said Charles Kurzman, a researcher with the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security in North Carolina.

    “We have not seen mass radicalization of Muslims in the United States,” he said. “That’s worth taking note of.”
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    Although comparisons are tricky, other studies suggest that right-wing violence claimed more lives in the U.S. than terrorism committed in the name of Islam.

    There have been serious attacks, of course.  The 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas and the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon were carried out by Muslim U.S. citizens who claimed to be avenging American military actions overseas.

    And there were also failed attempts that came close to causing massive loss of life, but the study shows that these attempts were “rare and unsophisticated.”  In 2010, an SUV with propane and gasoline canisters and fireworks, parked in New York’s Times Square, detonated but did not explode. The driver of the car, Faisal Shahzad, had received bombmaking training in Pakistan’s Waziristan region.

    Authorities say large-scale attacks have been prevented because of the extensive security apparatus that was set up nationwide in response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

  • Boston Marathon bomber wanted to terrorize US (rep-am.com)
    As he planted a backpack containing a bomb near a group of children, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev made a coldblooded decision aimed at punishing America for its wars in Muslim countries, a federal prosecutor told the jury during closing arguments Monday at Tsarnaev’s death penalty trial.
  • Muslim Coalition Denounces ISIS for Steven Sotloff’s Murder (pr.com)
    The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), a coalition of several national and local organizations, today condemns a terrorist and anti-Islam group for a video purporting to show the gruesome beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff.The murder of innocent civilians is immoral, illegal, barbaric, and in direct contravention of the major tenets of Islam and Islamic law. No cause or purpose is served by this heinous act other than a clear manifestation of this group’s cruel and un-Islamic nature.

    “We are outraged that we once again find ourselves in the position to condemn this organization that calls itself the ‘Islamic State’, also known by the acronym ISIS, for killing Mr. Sotloff, especially so soon after its members murdered journalist James Foley,” said Oussama Jammal, USCMO secretary general.

  • DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson remarks on the Quran’s ‘quintessentially American values’ (freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com)
    Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was honored by the Muslim Public Affairs Council last week for “for his dedication to and personal investment in engagement with Muslim American communities across the United States” and this happened during his post-award remarks:
  • Is an independent Kurdistan still possible? (blogs.timesofisrael.com)
    We in the west might have missed a golden opportunity  to back and help establish a new democratic state in the Middle East with strong ties to America and European democracies. It could be a Muslim state set up along the same lines as Israel. Both peoples have had similar experiences with the larger Sunni and Shia populations that inhabit the Muslim world.
  • Construction disputes taking longer to resolve (resene.com.au)
    Internationally, construction disputes are taking longer to resolve, according to UK-based consultancy company EC Harris.The company released the results from a study at the end of last month (May 24), which compared the trend across different regions around the world including the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia.

    Titled ‘Global construction disputes: A Longer Resolution’, the report was the third of its kind undertaken by the London consultancy with research help from ARCADIS Construction Claims Consulting.

    One of the main findings showed that construction disputes in 2012 averaged more than a year in length, which is 20 per cent longer than those in 2011.

    The average length of a dispute was 12.8 months, which was up from 10.6 months in 2011, and 9.1 months in 2010.

  • The Wider Ramifications of the Ukraine Crisis (payvand.com)
    The Ukraine crisis, as well as the broader deterioration in relations between Russia on the one hand and America and Europe on the other, is not taking place in a void. Many momentous events are happening simultaneously, including growing conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim World, increased tension between China and several of its neighbors, and the rise of India and certain other non-Western nations. The reaction of the world outside the West and the former Soviet Union to the crisis in Ukraine has been remarkably evasive. Although Syria and Venezuela have expressed their support for Russia, many other non-Western states have adopted a more neutral stance. Several Middle Eastern governments actually seem impatient with the Ukrainian crisis for diverting Western attention from the severe crises of their region. This issue just is not as significant for them as it is for countries closer to the conflict zone. Nor do they have any desire to get dragged into it.

    Nevertheless, the Ukraine crisis may have wider ramifications. In mid-2014, Russia reacted to European moves to reduce petroleum imports from Russia by signing a deal to redirect petroleum exports to China-reportedly at a very low price. The longer the crisis between Russia and the West continues, the more likely are European-Russian economic ties likely to fray and Russia to become increasingly dependent economically-and perhaps politically-on China.

  • Recognizing and promoting religious bigots against Islam and Muslims (angryarab.blogspot.com)
    It is just amazing how much Zionist US media love to promote anyone who harbors hatred for Islam and Muslims, qua Muslims.  If this woman says about Jews what she says about Muslims, she would be shunned and people would picket all her speaking engagements.  But she speaks against Islam (as a religion) and against Muslims, and that does not in any way cause people to condemn her bigotry.
  • Christophobia, a gift to the Church?
    I believe many pockets of Christianity throughout America today still suffers from this illusion. But there is hope today in the very movement that many take as a grave attack on the faith. The modern day power grab for control over the culture has come dressed in the garb of Christophobia, i.e., that irrational and pervasive fear that if Christians have a voice in the public square the Constitution will burst into flames, civil liberties vanish, women made slaves, gays imprisoned, sea levels will rise, and 7-day young earth creationism will reign in every science classroom.
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    The Christophobia of our age is an invitation—no, a demand!—that all who would claim the name ‘Christian’ be truly conformed to the image of Christ. Those who follow Christ in this world were given the daunting promise by Christ Himself that they would suffer persecution in this world. It was a badge of honor for those apostles, prophets, martyrs and saints who came before and who faced down the challenge of their oppressors and won their own souls.

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Filed under Lifestyle, Religious affairs

May we have doubts

Not all of us are sure about all things. Lots of matters may bring questions onto our mind.

Some may say doubt originates in a double minded person. Others say it is because a person is not enough believing in God. Others say he is not believing in Christ. Several Christians look at a doubter as a person not trusting Jesus.

Is this really so. Are we less better than other Christians when we have questions about certain matters? No, not at all.
Is doubt a sign of lacking faith? Perhaps. But it can be that you really do your best to walk in faith.
Is it because you do not believe in Jesus his victory over circumstances and trials? Perhaps, but not necessary so.

Is it because you cannot see the victory in your life you are seeking? Did you try already to check if you are really looking for the right victory?

Have you ever tried to think that what you would love to have and to see for yourself might not be in God His Will?

We are all human beings with our limitations and ‘malfunctions’.  We all have our little problems and as such we should know that every house carries its own cross.

Having all those difficulties coming over us, no wonder that we sometimes worry and question of we are doing it right or if we are following the right coarse.

In the Holy Scriptures we are advised to question everything. This means that God does understand that we more than once shall have questions with what we hear or read, and that is good, because we should question all those sayings.

For many life is an ongoing cycle of wandering and restoration. And though many would wish it were otherwise, this makes many sometimes going to and fro, coming close to God and at other moments being far away from God. Though some may desire to never depart from God, they keep losing track. Also for Jesus it seems for many Christians often difficult to keep feeling him nearby. On many occasions confronted with the realities of life we may have lots of doubts about many things.

The reality of our sinful human condition makes it so that we also have periods where our relationship with other human beings, with Christ and/or with God is disturbed a lot.

In our technological age of communication it looks like many have lost the good communication with the Most High Divine Creator.

James Paulgaard, a fellow traveller on the journey of life, also sees some problems of this time and age. He writes:

For centuries, up until the Sixties, the Church was perfectly designed for our culture. When a group of immigrants settled in a new area, one of the first things that they did was to build a church in the centre of the community. People valued going to church as a good thing. It made people into good citizens. Encouraging the Christian faith was seen as a valuable in our society at the time. There were benefits to going to church. You could build your network of social and business contacts and perhaps even meet your future spouse there. The church was perfectly designed to develop people in that environment into followers of Jesus. {Following Jesus on His Mission: Doing the Simple Things}

Today people have found other networks which they do find more important.

Choluteca Bridge

This bridge was a well-designed and fully functional bridge, but in 1998 Hurricane Mitch dumped 36 inches of rain on the area in just a few days and amidst all the other damage caused by the hurricane, the deluge of water carved a new channel for the river around the bridge and the bridge now spans dry ground. It is a perfectly designed bridge that doesn’t work anymore because the river moved. (Photo from the article: Following Jesus on His Mission: Doing the Simple Things)

Now, being part of a Christian Church is no longer seen as a desirable by our culture. Encouraging the Christian faith is no longer valued by our society. People do not need the church for social or business contacts or to find a spouse. We have websites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Plenty of Fish for all those things. A church that was perfectly designed to make disciples in the world of sixty years ago and older struggles to engage with the mission of Jesus Christ in the world of today because the river has moved. {Following Jesus on His Mission: Doing the Simple Things}

When you follow the articles on Our World and perhaps form your newspapers or journals on television, you are probably aware how bad the state of church attendance is. All over the industrialised countries we do find a secularized community. In some countries there may still be a solid core of people continue to value faith; but a growing core do not. { find a.o. Reginald Bibby, A New Day: The Resilience and Restructuring of Religion in Canada (Lethbridge: Project Canada Books, 2012), 5, 10, 34.}

Lots of people got to hear from their preachers that Jesus is God because no human being is ever able to follow God’s Will. Because of that lie, people have no trust in that Jesus any more and do find it rubbish that at other moments priests or pastors say they have to take the armour of Christ and become like Christ. That then would mean they  had to become like God, which is something impossible.

And in case it is impossible fro any human being to follow the Will of God, what use would it than be to even try, if no man ever could succeed.

Lots of people do forget that Jesus was a man who lived some two thousand years ago. He was a real person, others could see and not fall death (In the Bible is written that people cannot see God and live). That man, born in an Essene family from the tribe of king David, had to learn everything. People should know that God knows everything but this Jesus did not. He also had to disappoint those who wanted to know where they would be seated with him in God’s Kingdom. In case Jesus was God he could have told them because he would have known, but Jesus did not know it and had also to disappoint those who wanted to know when he would come back. Jesus always wanted to do the will of his heavenly Father and did not want to lie, like his heavenly Father does not tell lies. Not knowing when the end times or Last Days of this time system would fall, Jesus could not tell them, nor us, when he would be coming back.

In the Gospels we also can see that Jesus at moments had doubts and even wondered why God had abandoned him. So, in case Jesus dares already to ask God why He had left him, why should not such thoughts may or could come up in our minds.
What is important is how we cope with such thoughts. How we cope with our questioning God? And how we dare to question God.

We may ask God lots of things, but we have to do it in a proper manner. We also may request Him things, but we should know that God knows best for us.

Jesus has already done the hard work of living a perfect human life, dying on the cross and rising from the dead to reconcile all of creation to God. Jesus is the one doing the supernatural work of drawing people close to him and planting faith in their hearts.

as Greg Finke, {Joining Jesus on His Mission: How to Be an Everyday Missionary (Tyler TX: Tenth Power Publishing, 2014), 42-43} and James Paulgaard  {Following Jesus on His Mission: Doing the Simple Things} puts it.

English: A statue of Jesus Christ at a church ...

A statue of Jesus Christ at a church in India. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jesus paved the path to God; He restored the relation between God and man and has become our mediator, now sitting at the right hand of God (notice: not on God’s throne).

The problem of today is that most people do not know the real Jesus.

To help to find Jesus and to get to see better the importance of what he really did, dying for us all, whitewashing our sins, there has been started a new website. “Messiah for all” wants to show the world that Christ Jesus was and is there for the whole world. He does not want to miss any body. He gives everybody the opportunity to get to know him and to get to know the way to the Kingdom of God.

“Messiah for all” is there for you to help you find Jesus and to find he is worth all your trust and all your faith.

Please do find that site for you and me, and start reading: Are people allowed to have doubts

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Find additional reading:

  1. What’s church for, anyway?
  2. Obstacles to effective evangelism
  3. To be prepared and very well oiled
  4. Impediments in our way
  5. Evangelisation, local preaching opposite overseas evangelism
  6. Looking for Free Blogs and blogging
  7. Those who love Jesus
  8. Humbleness
  9. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God
  10. Humility and the Fear of the Lord
  11. No time for immorality

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  • Augustine on the Difference between Christianity and Platonism (booksontrial.wordpress.com)
    The difference between Platonism and Christianity is not merely a difference of interpretation, but the difference between perception/speculation on one side, and reality/true knowledge on the other. To use a Biblical imagery, there is a great gulf fixed between them. It is the difference between death and Life, between an inanimate object and a living being. Though philosophy may delight man with a magnificent picture of truth and beauty, it is nevertheless dead, and so the greatest philosophical ideas cannot be compared with the smallest life-giving word of God.
  • Most Blessed State of Being for Now (relijournal.com)
    A Christian is saying “I’ve got to be me” when the Holy Scriptures indicate we are to be crucified in Christ? I have to wonder how much spiritual damage was done to other by that worldly thinking. What “Christian” singers sing does not supercede the written Word of God. The Holy Bible does not indicate we have got to be “ourselves,” but it does state we are to be like Christ.
  • Living in the Wrong Time (histruthwillsetyoufree.wordpress.com)
    The best days are when I live in the present,  with my friend, the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ.  With Him, there is no room for Regret or Worry.
  • Evangelists Want to Convert Heathen Computers To Christianity, Create Army Of ‘Robot Pastors’ (addictinginfo.org)
    On Wednesday, Gizmodo’s Zoltan Istvan reminded us that, soon, the world will be full of “autonomous, self-aware super intelligences” created by humans. Obviously, some Christians see this as an opportunity to convert something to their religion.

    Evangelists told Gizmodo that these sciencey, autonomous computer brains probably can, and definitely should, be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.

  • Equal to Christ. Septuagesima 2015 (deprofundisclamaviadtedomine.wordpress.com)
    Jesus gave Himself for us to make us His own people who are zealous, eager, passionate about doing good works.  Christians have been born again so that they may live a new life of service to God in good works.
  • The Journey of Love and Commitment (vineandbranchworldministries.com)
    When we wonder about in life, do we ponder the meaning of the many gifts before us and offer praise and thanksgiving or do we literally take life for-granted.  Sanctification sets us apart and instills our hearts and spirit with the desire to follow the pattern Jesus gave.
  • Excuse My Scepticism (pastorcharleschipere.wordpress.com)
    In our Christian Faith, we are taught to believe rather than to be a doubting Thomas. We are taught to trust rather than mistrust. We are taught to give a person the benefit of the doubt before we dismiss them. But my journey of faith has had some encounters with reality leading me to embrace some sceptical attitude towards some things I have observed in the land of the living. Before I delve into my observations, please excuse my scepticism. But this scepticism does not take away my faith in God.
  • An Unfathomable Gift (connywithay.wordpress.com)
    “All other religions and sects teach that man has to perform many good works in order to gain bliss – salvation is dependent on man. The Christian faith is completely the opposite. It is God working salvation on behalf of man – salvation is dependent on God,” Jan Blonk writes in his book, The Unfathomable Gift: God’s Astonishing Grace.
  • The Other Side (culturalatheist.wordpress.com)
    Do you have a people or place that you have determined God is not present and the places and people are demonic and unclean?
  • The Call of God (mississippipep.wordpress.com)
    If God were human, how sick and tired He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our sanctification. We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.

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Filed under Being and Feeling, Religious affairs