http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/theres-something-fishy-about-jonah.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/theres-something-fishy-about-jonah.html Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:59:59 -0600
5And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish." 10When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

When I decided that this week I'd preach on the book of Jonah I immediately started to think of fish stories that I could introduce my reflection with, and the only one I could think of is one I fear I've already mentioned.

It concerns a guy going fishing at his favourite spot by the river, but when he gets there he realises that he's forgotten his bait, but he notices a lovely fat looking tree frog sunning himself on a lily pad, so he decides to stalk the frog and capture it and use it for bait. And he's just about to grab the frog when he realises that there's a brown snake alongside him who also has his eyes on the frog, and before he can do anything else, the snake has leapt forward and swallowed the frog whole!

Not thinking about what he was doing, but angry as hell at the snake, the guy leaps forward and grabs the snake around the throat and yanks the frog out of its mouth and drops the frog in his bait box. It's then that it really strikes him that he has an angry, snapping venomous snake in his hand that he can't simply pat on the head and let go.

Thinking quickly, he grabs his hip-flask with his free hand (which is full of whiskey), opens it, and pours a goodly amount into the open mouth of the snake. The snake goes limp and the fisherman places it on the ground and walks away to get on with his day's fishing.

About twenty minutes later he feels a tapping at his shoe. He looks down and sees it's the snake, with two more frogs!

It's not really a brilliant joke, but what was less brilliant really was my knee-jerk reaction to the mention of Jonah - thinking that I needed to come up with a fish story. I hear the word ‘Jonah' I think ‘fish', which really only reflects my historic failure to really grasp what the book is about!

For the fish in the book of Jonah is only mentioned in three of the forty-seven verses of the book, which is in itself a solid indication of the fact that the fish is a minor character in the drama, and hardly the central theme of the book!

I'm not going to beat myself up about this, as Jonah's under-water antics are indeed the only part of the prophet's career that are generally remembered in our culture.

I still remember being introduced to the story of the prophet as a child by means of a picture book that had an image of Jonah and his fishy friend on the front cover - a book that I seem to remember was entitled, "Jonah and the Great Big Fish!"

Moreover, the association of Jonah with his scaly friend has so penetrated Western history that the pair long ago became a part of a distinctively maritime lingua-franca! I have read, at least, that the term used by sailors of the under-water grave, "Davey Jones' Locker" does in fact go back to the book of Jonah!

Apparently there never was any famous underwater character named ‘Davey Jones' (the lead singer of The Monkeys included). The name is rather a bastardisation of the Western Indian words, ‘Duffy Jonah' (meaning ‘prophet Jonah'), which means that ‘Davey Jones' Locker' is in fact another reference to the fish!

Even so, as I say, the Book of Jonah is not really a book about fish (nor about whales for that matter [for those who feel a need to point out that if Jonah had been swallowed by a whale, a whale is not actually a fish, technically speaking]).

Let's just clear the deck (so to speak) of fish and whales - neither of which are really significant themes in the book of Jonah. But if the maritime adventure of Jonah is not the key theme of the book, what is it all about? That is the question!

Personally, I stopped seeing Jonah as a fish story once I gave my life to Christ as a teenager and joined a youth group, for it was there that I learned that the book of Jonah was not really a book about fish but was rather a book about priorities and about obedience, and about the importance of submitting ourselves to the will of God, even when God's plans for our lives conflict with our own personal agendas.

God had a plan for Jonah's life. Jonah had other plans. Jonah had to learn that in the end it is God's will that has to be done rather than your own. The book of Jonah, when seen from this perspective, is a challenge to each of us to submit ourselves to the will of God, lest we find ourselves thrown off a boat, drowning in the water, swallowed by a great fish, and spat out in the direction that submission to the will of God would have originally taken us anyway.

We might refer to this interpretation of the Book of Jonah as the pious interpretation, and there's obviously a lot of value in this ‘Thy will be done' application of this book, but in my view now, as an adult now, the pious interpretation of Jonah is as far removed from the central message of the book as is the maritime adventure theme!

In truth, I think it is very hard for us Sydney-siders of the 21st Century to grasp the central message of the Book of Jonah for one very simple reason: we just don't harbor any real hatred towards the Assyrians!

The Book of Jonah was written a long time ago in a culture far removed from our own, and the issue that upsets Jonah in the book and the issue that would have upset most of the original readers of the book was not simply that God had a plan for Jonah's life (in some a general sort of way) but that God called Jonah to prophesy in Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria, and both Jonah and the Book of Jonah's original readers hated Assyrians!

And the Jews didn't just hate the Assyrians because they looked different either. They hated the Assyrians because the Assyrians had a history of killing them!

Assyria was once the world's most fearsome superpower! From the middle of the tenth century B.C. right through to the end of the seventh, the Neo-Assyrian Empire dominated the Middle East, and, during the 8th century reign of Tiglath-Pileaser III most especially, their empire was vast - covering all of what is modern-day Iraq and Syria, and covering enormous chunks of what is today Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, and, of course, it covered all of Israel and Palestine!

And it was an Empire built on violence! That in itself is in no way unique, of course, as indeed all the world's empires have been built on violence, and yet the stories of the savagery of the Assyrian armies do seem particularly horrible.

Nineveh's military machine was renowned for being sadistic. If enemies resisted surrender during the siege of their city, once defeated, the whole population would be horribly mutilated and slaughtered. Their houses and towns would be torn down and burned, and the flayed skins of their corpses prominently displayed on stakes as a warning to others who might have been considering resistance.

After their battles, public amusement would be provided for the people of Nineveh via a victory procession wherein enemy survivors were led down the city streets by leashes attached to rings inserted through their lips, with the vanquished nobles wearing the decapitated heads of their princes hanging around their necks. And all of this fun was accompanied by music from bands of minstrels playing merry tunes! Oh, the people of Nineveh knew how to enjoy themselves!

And they enjoyed themselves like this for more than 300 years! It must have seemed as if the arrogant might of Nineveh would never fade and that their power-hungry god, Assur, was unbeatable. The Assyrian war-machine enjoyed so many bloody victories over their enemies in those 300 plus years between the 934 and 609 B.C., but none was remembered in the Bible more clearly and more bitterly than the sacking of Samaria and the destruction of Northern Israel in 721.

The Jews did not hate the Assyrians because they looked funny or ate strange foods or just didn't make an effort to mix in with the locals. They hated the Assyrians for far more obvious (and surely far more valid) reasons.

They hated them because the Assyrians had destroyed more than half of their country. They hated them because of the countless number of their kinsfolk who had been slaughtered, imprisoned, enslaved and/or humiliated by the Assyrians. And they hated the Assyrians because in 721 B.C. it seemed that their god, Assur, had been victorious over the God of Israel.

That day in 721 B.C. would forever be remembered by the people of Israel, not just as a day of mourning, but as a day of national humiliation. Their people had been butchered, half their country destroyed, and their temples desecrated.

It was all done by the Ninevites, and so Jonah hated the Ninevites as the readers of Jonah hated the Ninevites. And now God asks Jonah to go to Ninevah to preach to the people there, and call on them to repent! And Jonah did not want to go there. Why would he? The only Jews that went to Ninevah were dragged there in chains!

And yet it's not only because he hates their city and might well fear for his life in such a place, but most of all because he feared that if he went to Ninevah, God might use him to do something good for the people of Ninevah, and in as much as Jonah might have feared that the people of Nineveh might do him some evil, his far greater fear was that he (Jonah) might be for the people of Nineveh the instrument of some good!

National hatred of an enemy race is a terrible thing, but something we are all familiar with.

I remember being told of a Jewish man and a Chinese man who, amongst others, are sitting at a bar, slowly drinking away the night. There were plenty of others perched between these two at the bar but the Jewish guy kept looking over at the Chinese guy with a surly expression on his face and was mumbling curses at him that got increasingly louder with each beer he consumed!

Eventually the Jewish guy gets up and walks over to the Chinese guy and pours his beer over the poor guy's head! The Chinese guy says, "What's that for?" The Jewish guy says, "That's for Pearl Harbour! My uncle was killed at Pearl Harbour!" The Chinese guy says, "I'm Chinese. That was the Japanese, you fool!" The Jewish guy says, "Chinese, Japanese … what's the difference?" and he returns to his stool.

Two minutes later the Chinese guy walks over to the Jewish guy and pours the contents of his beer over the Jewish guy's head. "What's that for?" asks the Jewish guy. The Chinese guy says, "That's for the Titanic! My grandfather died on the Titanic!" The Jewish guy says, "What's that got to do with me?" The Chinese guy says, "Steinberg, Goldberg, iceberg … what's the difference?"

Humour can be an effective way of confronting racial prejudice. So can stories such as we find in the Book of Jonah.

The Book of Jonah is a book that is written with a purpose, and it's purpose is not to encourage us to submit ourselves to the will of God (as important as that is) any more than it is to chronicle an ancient yarn concerning ‘the one that got away!' It's purpose is in fact summed up very succinctly in the final verse of the book of Jonah (chapter 4, verse 11) which I will read to you, but not just yet!

Before I do read it, I want to raise the question with you, very briefly, as to who might have been the original audience that the Book of Jonah was addressed to?

For the book is set in the 8th century B.C., but most Biblical scholars assume that the book wasn't actually written till a great deal later - most probably in the post-exilic period, late in the 6th century.

If so, it is quite possible that it was published at around the same time that Ezra and Nehemiah were active in trying to rebuild the ancient city of Jerusalem - a city that had been lying in ruins since the Babylonians had destroyed it 50 years earlier.

And if you are familiar with the history of that time you will know that it was a time of great nationalistic fervour.

The Jews were returning to their homeland and they were rebuilding their ancient city and they were rebuilding their temple, and all of a sudden, for the first time in a great many years, it felt good to be a Jew again!

And leaders like Ezra and Nehemiah did a great deal to encourage the patriotic fervour of the returning Jews and to get them excited again about their city, about their religion and about their God.

And in the process of doing that the issue of racial purity became a sticking point for a lot of people, and indeed both those leaders - Ezra and Nehemiah - became very upset over the issue of inter-marriage between Jews and non-Jews.

Ezra indeed accused the men of mixing their ‘holy seed' with the people of the lands (Ezra 9:2) and he encouraged large numbers of Jewish men to divorce their foreign wives and to send them away, along with the children of their mixed marriages!

And I'm not saying that the Book of Jonah was written specifically as a response to the nationalistic ‘reforms' of Ezra (though a lot of scholars have suggested exactly that) but I am suggesting that at around the same time all that was happening, a little tract was certainly circulating that told a story of how God had called one of His prophets to minister in the land of the Assyrians, because the God of Israel loved and respected foreigners too - even the people of Nineveh!

In Jonah 4:11 - the final verse of the Book of Jonah - God says to Jonah "And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

Jonah is a remarkable book. Indeed, perhaps the only thing more remarkable than the book itself is the fact that our Jewish fathers and mothers, when it came time to put together the collection of books that have become known as our ‘Old Testament' recognised that this book - the Book of Jonah - deserved to be included too, as one of the inspired works of God!

It is a book that strikes at the heart of every manifestation of religious nationalism, as indeed it is a book that confronts religious arrogance in all its forms, for it a book that reminds us that the God of Israel, the God of the faithful and the God of the upright, is also the God of the Assyrian, of the unfaithful and of the not-so-upright too!

And that's why the Book of Jonah is a book our world needs to hear right now.
As our political leaders and media beaver away at dehumanising Arabs and Iranians and Muslim people in general, to prepare us for further bloodshed.
When being Christian has somehow once again become associated with being white!
And when refugees of all kinds are being treated with suspicion and contempt because of their strange foreign habits and strange foreign gods.

It's time to once again hear the message of the Book of Jonah.

"And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?" (Jonah 4:11)

--
'Fighting Father' Dave - Parish Priest, Community Worker, Professional boxer, Martial Arts master, Father of three. Dave's goal is to offer an alternative culture for young people, based on values of courage, integrity, self-discipline and teamwork. Visit http://www.fatherdave.org for more information.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/the-mystery-of-the-second-coming-of-jesus-christ.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/the-mystery-of-the-second-coming-of-jesus-christ.html Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:22:39 -0600 Long time ago, there were animals on Earth and no human being. One of the animals was the ape, the physical body of which can be compatible with humanoid souls that can enter it. The main humanoid souls that could have caused the ape to develop itself and gradually change into a human being without any physical impact on the ape originated from the Hellish world. They were demonical humanoid souls.
There are at least two kinds of souls capable of entering into a human body and living like people: Hellish humanoid souls and normal human souls. The physical body of the both looks externally identically, but the spiritual essence is different.
Because the Hellish humanoid soul is not fully restricted by the brain of its physical body, it can force the ape to develop itself: it will give it endeavor to only walk using legs, to get dressed, make a fire and so on.
However, in the beginning of our evolution Somebody supernatural had been present on our Earth as well, since I have seen how a very long time ago something was moving big and heavy stony blocks and it was shifting them without touching them. So the Somebody who was here the very long time ago could have built up the ancient giant buildings of stone like were pyramids and similarly.
As for the evolution of the ape and resulting human being, currently I am still not fully sure about what exactly made the ape develop itself into the human being, if it only was the influence of the Hellish humanoid souls or also some physical intervention of the Somebody mentioned above.
Now please forget everything what you have ever been taught, what you have ever read or heard, and then take a look around you. Do you see animals and us people? Do you see the giant difference? How come that other animals (except for the ape) did not change so much and did not undergo any such evolution, even though they had lived in the same environment all the time? Something pretty big had to happen!
Believe it or not, but many theories about the intervention of UFO and various religious explanations of our origin were founded by the Hellish people in order to make us confused and misinformed. The secret of mankind is only known to the demonical part of our population - to the incarnated Hellish humanoid souls. They know this secret and they keep it hidden from us by creating plenty of sick and wrong teachings about our history and purpose, which however must be missing the main information regarding this.
As far as Christianity is concerned, many of its propagators and leaders were the servants of Devil like in case of other religions, since it is Satan and his society that have secretly governed this world during a very long time already. By the way, many of its members live like if they were the best believers, pretending true faith and the best intentions.
Because they are very numerous and we normal people do not have the power to stop them, we have to hope in the intervention of someone, who is mightier than we: strong enough to overpower the demonical nation and at the same time having good intentions about us. And this should be the
Coming of him who we call Jesus Christ.
However, there are two facts that seem to contradict each other. On the one hand the Hellish people hunt the souls of those normal people, who are elected, in order to prevent the establishment of the Kingdom of God, to postpone the God's punishment and to get some wealth. On the other hand there are Invincible Beings, the Guardians of the Sanctuary of God, who are gathering all the truest prayers for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (or shortly for such a kind of God's intervention that will help the normal people against the Evil). It was clearly stated that their intervention will happen as soon as the last voice calling "Come!" will reach their ears. The fact that the souls of the elected were caught by the Hellish people was not discussed at all as if it did not have any influence upon what is called the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and could not prevent it. But when it will come to pass?
I remember that in the Sanctuary there was seen that the majority of the prayers have already sounded, but some were still supposed to sound. The Invincible Beings in the Sanctuary are waiting for all the voices, for all the people's true wishes to make what is called the Second Coming of Jesus Christ happen in order to strike on the Hellish world and its human servants to support the Good.
None of us knows the day when it will happen and the Hellish world does not know it either. It can be ten years from now, it can be hundred years from now, it can be thousand years from now. It will come to pass without any previous warning, which is what the Hellish people deserve, because they are insidious toward the normal people of this world, but no one is insidious toward them. Fortunately, it will change one day.
When considering the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we should not forget, that in view of the influence of the Hellish people upon the development of Christianity, it cannot be fully certain, that the true Jesus Christ - one of the figures of the Holy Council in the Land of Stars - was really born here on the Earth. But it is not so important if yes or no. What is important is that the true Jesus Christ, the Living Ideal, is in the Land of Stars and he will return to us even if he had never been here before. He will come over to us as soon as the last voice calling "Come!" will reach the ears of the Guardians of the Sanctuary of God.

--
Please visit http://www.spiritualknowledgebooks.net/ or http://www.pavelkastl.cz/ for additional information.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/i-had-a-dream.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/i-had-a-dream.html Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:35:00 -0600
In Acts chapter 11 we are told that Peter had a dream, and the thrust of these two dreams is remarkably similar!

In a bar in New York there are two guys sitting at opposite ends of the bar eyeing out each other as they sink a few beers. One guy is a Jewish American. The other guy is a Chinese American. After his third beer the Jewish guy takes what's left of his glass, walks over to the Chinese guy, and pours it over his head saying "That's for Pearl Harbour. My grandfather was killed at Pearl Harbour." "Pearl Harbour!" the Chinese guy says. "I'm Chinese. It was the Japanese that bombed Pearl Harbour." "Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese - all the same to me!" the Jewish guy says. The Chinese guy then takes his beer and pours it over the Jewish guy's head, saying, "That's for the Titanic. My great Uncle was killed when the Titanic went down." "The Titanic" says the Jewish guy, "what have I got to do with the sinking of the Titanic?" "Goldberg, Steinberg, Iceberg - all the same to me!" the man replies.

"Prejudice is the child of Ignorance" said William Hazlitt a couple of centuries ago. For the most part he is surely right, but not in some situations. Having just emerged from two weeks in Israel, I'd have to say that the prejudices that vibrate across that country are deep and complex - not a matter of simple ignorance. When I look at the way battle lines were drawn between different ethnic groups in New Testament times, the situation there is also complex.

The Jews of 1st century Palestine did not mix with the Greeks and the Romans. Why not? Partly because they (the Romans) were an unfriendly foreign power that had invaded their land. Partly because they represented a style of life that the Jews saw as idolatrous and self-seeking and that threatened to corrupt their youth. Partly because Biblical piety demanded that the Jews remain a separate people - distinct in appearance and in lifestyle from their neighbours. And partly, I suppose, because they just looked different.

Visit Israel today and you will likewise find a situation that is complex, yet the reality of prejudicial hatred and violence is everywhere. It was a good learning experience for me - being on the wrong end of prejudice. Being male, middle-class and white, I'm normally well ensconced on the comfortable side of racial tensions. Not so when I went to Israel. It was a first for me to feel looked down upon, to be threatened, kicked and spat upon, though I was always conscious of the fact that I was just a tourist. Others had to live with this every day.

If we had met the Apostle Paul before his conversion - when he was still known as 'Saul' - we would have found him hard to get on with. Well ... I suppose he would have had no dealings with us. Even so, if we caught a glance from him as he was passing by we would have felt him looking down his nose at us. He wouldn't have deemed us worthy of his conversation, let along his presence at a meal.

I imagine Peter to be naturally warmer than that. My guess is that Peter would have managed a smile for just about anyone - from his fellow Jews to Samaritan women! Even so, the early Peter would never have consented to sit down to have a meal with us, as he would not stain himself by coming under the same roof as us.

And it's not a case of simple prejudice based on ignorance. God Himself had given the people of Israel a variety of rituals with which they circumscribed their lives, and the whole point of those rituals was to make themselves different as a people.

To be 'holy' always meant to be 'separate' or 'different'. The Jews were self-consciously different. And they wanted to remain different because God wanted them to be different!

It was written: 'every male among you shall be circumcised'. That made them different.

It was written: you don't eat pork (Leviticus 11). That made them different too.

Indeed there were lots of things written that were designed to remind you that you, as a child of God, were different from the rest of the world - holy, pious, focused on God.

Of course this sense of thinking that you were different from others easily lends itself to thinking that you were better than others, which is where the critique of Jesus upon the whole system begins. According to the dream in Acts 10 and 11 though it appears that the entire system is to be abandoned! The actions runs as follows:

1. Peter has a dream of a great picnic where God is telling him to have a bite of all the things that he isn't supposed to eat. Peter has this dream three times!

2. As he finishes dreaming, representatives of Cornelius the Roman centurion come to his house and ask him to accompany them to meet Cornelius.

3. Peter goes with them, enters Cornelius' house, starts talking, and everybody starts speaking in tongues, reminiscent of the day of Pentecost!

4. Peter says, "These people have received the Holy Spirit just as we have", and so everybody gets baptised.

This is my summary of Acts 11, and Acts 11 is actually just a summary of Acts 10. This is a story that gets repeated over again in the book of Acts, presumably because it is important.

I think I'm right in saying that there is only one other story in the book of Acts that gets this sort of treatment. It's the story of Saul's experience on the road to Damascus - where he's thrown of his horse and blinded and where he hears Jesus speaking to him.

Ironically, in both cases, the truth that God brings to the men is roughly the same - that God does have a place in His heart and in His Kingdom for non-Jews.

What we need to understand is that this was the big issue in the first century church. This was why the early Paul (or 'Saul') and so many of his pious contemporaries hated the Christians.

It wasn't just because the Christians thought that Jesus was the Messiah. That might have been a sticking point for some, but within the Jewish faith there were then (as there are now) different beliefs about who was the Messiah.

It wasn't just about who the Messiah was. It was most fundamentally about the fact that the Christians were dissolving the dividing wall between Jew and non-Jew, and this was seen as a threat to the entire fabric of their faith and their society!

There might well have been room within Jewish society to accept different beliefs about different Messiahs. Look at the literature of 1st century Israel and you will see that different groups had different Messianic expectations. Most people were waiting for a warrior leader. Some were waiting for a priest. If you look at the Dead Sea Scrolls, it seems that the Qumran community, who were a group of Jewish monks, were expecting both!

1st century Judaism might well have been able to absorb within its ranks any number of godly Jews who recognised Jesus as the Messiah, and had not God given Peter this dream, and had not God struck down Saul and turned him into Paul, and had not God very deliberately forced the church to burst the bounds of any narrow ethnic exclusivism, then we might still be a small sect within the larger body of Judaism.

But it was not the will of God that his people should remained defined by any one ethnic group, just as it is not the will of God that we remain defined by any one social group, just as it is not the will of God that we be defined by any homogeneous unit that separates us from our fellow men and women.

On the contrary, as we read about God building the church in the book of Acts what we see is that He was very deliberately building a multi-coloured community where in Christ there was 'no Jew nor Greek nor Palestinian nor Arab, no rich or poor, no slave or free, no male or female, but where all are one, for all are in Christ as Christ is in all.'

Peter had a dream. Martin Luther King had a dream. Some of us find that this dream continues.

It took us some 2000 odd years, and it is taking the church longer than most, but we seem to be finally discovering that there is indeed no male nor female in Christ, but that women are in fact equally capable of ministry and service as are men. It turns out that "These people have received the Holy Spirit just as we did". By the grace of the Spirit of God some of us have discovered that, and so the dream continues.

For me the biggest personal spiritual breakthrough in the last ten years has been a realisation concerning my brothers and sisters who share a different sexual orientation to mine. By the grace of the Spirit of God I came to see that "many of these people had received the Holy Spirit just as I had". And so the dream continues.

For many of us here the Spirit of God is still at work expanding our vision and enlarging our hearts, helping us to realise that young people as well as old, uneducated as well as educated, working class as well as middle class, people of all types and colours and backgrounds are all one in Christ Jesus, indeed, that "these people have received the Holy Spirit just as we have".

It is a dangerous thing to dream. And it is certainly unsettling for the church leadership. Things would be so much easier if God restricted Himself to communicating with us only through the direct study of the Scriptures. Such a God would be a lot easier to contain and to predict. But it seems to be built in to the package, that if we are going to worship a living God, then we are going to have to put up with ongoing surprises.

And the surprises, I believe, keep coming in this same area - that God is continuing to open us up as a community to become the truly multi-coloured family that He always intended us to be. They tend to keep being in the area of pushing us beyond our comfort zones and moving us from 'me' to 'we' and from 'us and them' to just 'us'.

I must admit that spending a couple of weeks in Israel has deepened my perspective on these matters. I've now had the experience of being kicked and spat upon because I am different. This is not the way things are supposed to be. This is not the way that things one day will be. And God has very deliberately constructed the church so that it might be a sign to the world now of the fact that things don't have to be this way.

We are not there yet, but we can keep building and we can keep praying and we can keep dreaming, of that great feast when all peoples will come together and share together in the good things that God has given us, of that day when former slaves and former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of fellowship, of that day when every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

--
'Fighting Father' Dave - Parish Priest, Community Worker, Professional boxer, Martial Arts master, Father of three. Dave's goal is to offer an alternative culture for young people, based on values of courage, integrity, self-discipline and teamwork. He is available to help work your corner as you fight the good fight. Visit http://www.fatherdave.org for more information.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/prose-poetry-drama-a-variety-of-bengali-literature.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/prose-poetry-drama-a-variety-of-bengali-literature.html Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:18:58 -0600
Bengali literature has successfully pictured the various transformations happening in the society. From the Indian independence movement to the various social changes in the society, writers have mentioned them in their literary works. The vivid culture and traditions also find place in the various Bangla books and novels. Bengali Matrimony rituals and customs are also mentioned in various literary books. Writers have beautifully mentioned the distinctive Bengali matrimonial customs in their work.

The Old Bengali Literature:
The beginning works in Bengali dates back to around 10th century. These works generally comprise of mystic songs of Buddhist religion. The Buddhist seer-poets like Kukkuripada, Kamlipada, Chatilpada, Dhendhanpada, Kanhapada, Shantipada and Luipada. Their works are commonly called the Charyapada.

Middle Bengali literature:
In this period, the literature scripted in Bengali has influence of the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Even before his arrival, others contributed to the language's literary works. Lyrical poems were chiefly in the part of these period work. Translation of Bhagavata Purana and Krishna Kritana were also added to Bengali literature. It is in this period that Bengali translations of two greatest works in Sanskrit were done. The Ramayana and the Bhagavata helped in enriching the language. The translation of these two greatest works helped in reaching out the works to many who did not understood Sanskrit.

Another very interesting addition to Bengali literature in this period is the Mangal-Kavya. This is collection of poems praising the various Hindu deities. Most of these poems have origin in rural Bengal. These Hindu narrative poems are divided into Dharma Mangal, Manasa Mangal and Chandi Mangal.

Modern Bengali Literature:
The 19th Century was the period when many important contributions in Bengali Literature took place. Notable works were written in this period and it is right to say that this period was actually literary renaissance. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, social activist and scholar, translated Sanskrit works into Bengali, to reach out to the masses. His reforms on Bengali matrimony's old customs and rituals made a change in the social outlook. He wrote on many important social and religious issues.

Some of the notable writers and their literary works in this period are as follows:

1. Michael Madhusudan Dutt: He is a poet, known for his Bengali -epic poem, Meghnadh Bodh Kabyo, which means ‘The Slaying of Meghnadh'. His poetic style was like the English poet, Milton.

2. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay is well-known novelist and essayist from Bengal. His literary works have inspired writers and poets from other languages as well. His notable works are Durgeshnandini, Kapalkundala, Devi Chaudhurani and Devdas. The national song of India, Vande Mātāram, is a master work from him.

3. Rabindranath Tagore: He is a Nobel laureate, worldwide famous for his work Gitanjali, contributed significantly in changing the course of Bengali literature.

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Shipra writes on behalf of Jeevansathi.com, which is India's fastest growing Matrimonial website. Jeevansathi.com enables users to create and search corresponding matches for their respective profiles like Hindu Matrimonial, Hindi Matrimony wherein users can avail free registration and make initial contact with each other.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/feel-happy-and-content-by-the-act-of-giving-others.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/feel-happy-and-content-by-the-act-of-giving-others.html Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:59:30 -0600 Christmas is one such occasion we all love to celebrate. Being the birth day of Jesus Christ the day itself carries some extra significance with it. And so this special occasion adds up beauty and blessings both along with gifts. Christian gifts are one such collection of gifts which are specially made for this purpose but they excel out their importance for other purposes and other religions too. These include Jesus statues, sculptures, rosaries, holy water, Bible and other holy books. The main purpose of these gifts is to feel the presence of God and his blessings. Festivals are the time when we feel ourselves spiritual and thus love to get the caring touch of Him. It's a time when we say thanks to our All-in-All for all his gifts. Gifts always gives a lot of joy and happiness but if they bring some inner meaning with them which in turn helps in growing human values in us, then they are definitely better than the normal ones. The birth place of Jesus Christ is also considered as one of the most auspicious and sacred place in the history of travels. The place is known as holy land and the tours hence as holy land tours. This sacred place is also religious to some other communities like that of Jews and Muslims. Now-a-days anyone can visit this holy place with the help of the tour guidance. It not only helps in getting a close view and touch of the Almighty but also inform us a lot about that divine and sacred place too. These places helps the visitors to gain faith and trust on the Almighty and hence to again redesign their life with new hopes and rejuvenations. The pilgrims who used to visit these holy places gather a lot of information about the spirituality and God's existence which in turn actually influence and impress others also. It's a good way of feeling God's grace and kindness. Thus, these special gifts and tours are showering us with the love and kindness of God. As the main point is to feel God's closeness, places and gifts must not affect the actual underlying theme. Gifts really possess the power of changing one's mood and hence they must be used in the maximum possible way to calm and make happy someone. This divine and sacred feeling acts as a thrust to let people stop their ill thoughts and deeds and thus to turn towards God. So, whatever is the item, it should be full of positive hopes and must express love and importance.
If a gift is strengthening us with love, bond, importance, care, cooperation etc then it is definitely the best ever present to or for someone and so these special gifts are much more significant in their nature. Happiness and God's love are the only two things which matters and if some gifts and tours are serving this purpose, then we must give a glance to them before buying any ordinary stuff.



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To know more about Spiritual Gifts, Catholic Gifts and Spiritual Gifts Inventory visit http://www.theholylanddream.com/

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/john-the-baptist-meets-eminem.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/john-the-baptist-meets-eminem.html Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:06:59 -0600
Friends, the Yuletide season is upon us!

It seems to me that 2011 only just got going and yet here we are now, well and truly hurtling down the track towards Christmas!

And I suspect that it is slightly different for each of us - the trigger that brings us to that chilling realisation that indeed there are only 21 shopping days left before the furious shredding of gift-wrap begins - but I can tell you that I no longer pay much attention to the department stores, for indeed they would be putting up Christmas decorations at the conclusion of their Easter promotions if they could!

And I no longer judge the seasons by the arrival of Christmas cards from friends, as I find that the first cards are always sent by persons who are not real friends and who don't really believe in Christmas either (though I won't bother mentioning the name of the local politician whose card was the first to arrive on my desk as I suspect that most of you have also already received the same card from the same man)!

No, it's not the decorations nor the cards that herald the advent of the Christmas season for me, but rather the arrival of that uniquely unhygienic Yuletide figure, John the Baptist, who, courtesy of the lectionary, pushes his way to the front of the Christmas stage each year at about this time, announcing the coming of the Christ.

John is a figure who has always fascinated me: his rugged appearance, his no-nonsense style, and his wonderful disregard for what others thought about him - about the way he looked, about the way he spoke, and about the way he must have smelled.

And this is John's week - the week that for me marks the beginning of the Christmas season. And so I have been quietly pondering the Baptist this week, as I do each year at about this time, and he was very much in the back on my mind last Friday night when Ange and I attended the Eminem concert at the Sydney Football Stadium.

I suspect that most people here already know that I have been an avid Eminem fan for many years, but you might not have known that nearly three months ago, on the occasion Ange's birthday, I was gracious enough to buy her two tickets to the Eminem concert that took place last Friday night! It was gracious of me as I did not specify who the other ticket was for, and she might have taken her mum, but I was lucky and she took me!

And it occurred to me that night that attending an Eminem concert and attending an event with the Baptist - there would have been a lot of parallels between the events.

I appreciate that the similarities might be not immediately obvious to some, but both persons are prophetic figures in their own right, and both Eminem and the Baptist are persons who were much maligned and hated by broad sections of the establishment, and, what struck me particularly on the night was that if you had been somewhere back in the bleachers around the Jordan, listening to the Baptist, you would have had trouble hearing what he was saying too!

Moreover, seeing the Baptist would have been a phenomenon, like seeing Eminem was a phenomenon, and I'm guessing you didn't go to see the Baptist simply because what he said was so unique such that you couldn't hear a message like that anywhere else, but rather because he was unique, and hearing it all directly from him would have been an experience.

And I imagine that there would have been a lot of noise generated through the towns and villages leading up to one of the Baptist's appearances, similar to the chit-chat going around our Youth Centre in the lead-up to Eminem's Sydney appearance.

Is the Baptist appearing by himself or are there some support acts? Are you going? Are all the girls going? Are you telling your parents? My dad says John the Baptist is crazy and should be locked up!

And the problem, of course, with being a phenomenon like this is that the medium often overtakes the message. People get so obsessed with the messenger that the message itself gets lost, and that would have been a real danger, I suspect, for those who followed the Baptist.

It was a big problem for Jesus of course. Read the Gospels and you'll see that after three years of preaching and teaching what was it that the crowds (and even His own disciples) were expecting of Jesus …? An end to the Roman Occupation!

But ending the Roman occupation was not Jesus' message, and it wasn't John's message either, and we owe it to John, I think, to spend at least a few minutes today actually focusing on what his message was, and it was a message that I'd suggest can really be summed up in two words: STOP IT!

I appreciate, of course, that in our Gospel reading these two words are summed up in one word: ‘repent', but ‘repent' is a peculiarly religious word nowadays and so I'm opting for a secular equivalent: STOP IT!

Stop what you are doing and take a good look at yourselves! Stop the greed and the godlessness! Stop the violence and the exploitation! Stop it!

And indeed John's message is captured beautifully, I think, by the cartoon that Bob provided us with on the front of today's bulletin sheet, where you see masses of people succumbing to the mind-numbing materialism of the Christmas rush, overladen with useless gifts and tinsel, and there on the other side of a great divide is John crying out to them: ‘Stop it!'

It's a very simple message. John didn't offer any sophisticated analysis of why we do the selfish things we do - ‘I appreciate that you never would have become a tax-collector had your parents told you that they loved you …' - and that's not because there isn't a place for that. It just wasn't John's role. He was a prophet and not a therapist, and his message was accordingly very simple: Stop it! Stop taking money that you're not entitled to, stop using your position to exploit people. Just stop it!

I think in many ways that John's role is similar to the role I had the privilege of playing numerous times in introducing the choral performances of the Jubilate Singers that we hosted here at Holy Trinity over many years.

I was not the main event by any means or even a part of the main event, but I had the privilege a number of times of being the person who came out to introduce the main event by telling everyone to be quiet! I would tell people to stop talking and to focus on what lay ahead. I'd lay down a few rules, and then I'd introduce them to … the Messiah (well … to Susan the choir-mistress, but she was certainly the closet person we had).

The message, at any rate, is simple, and John's role as the herald to the Messiah is a straightforward one, and while we might find John uncouth and his message offensive, it is a message that we need to hear, perhaps most especially at this time of year as we get caught up in the intrigues of office politics and as we try to work out how to best appease all our relatives with the right invitations and the right presents going to the right people, and as we desperately try to satisfy the market-generated greed that comes to us from the lips of our children … STOP! Stop and take stock! Stop, for the King is coming and we're going to have to clean things up a bit before He gets here!

And of course I'm not pretending that all the evils of this world can suddenly be done away with by a few simple acts of repentance. As I often say, ‘every complex problem always has a simple answer and it's always the wrong answer'. Even so, the other side of that coin is that sometimes we like to make out that things are more complicated than they are in order to avoid having to take action.

I remember so many South Africans who used to say to me, ‘you can never end Apartheid. You don't understand. It's much more complicated than you outsiders realise'! And of course it wasn't all that complicated. They just had to stop it.

And I was thinking of that when I listened to the presentation about Bethlehem this morning - the prison-like walls around the city, the ongoing process of brutality and humiliation that the people of Bethlehem endure - and I'm sure that the issues are complicated, and I'm sure that the tensions between Jews and Palestinians are such that you can't just tear down the wall and call off the Occupation without all sorts of unforeseen effects, and yet I'm sure that if the Baptist were around today his message would once again be very straightforward: just stop it! Stop the brutality, stop the injustice. Stop it! Sometimes it is that simple. Sometimes in our own very private affairs and in international affairs too it is a simple case of just stopping it.

Stop it because the king is coming and we need to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. ‘Prepare the way for the Lord! Make his paths straight!' ‘The one who is coming after me is stronger than I am, and I am not worthy to bend down and untie his sandal straps. I baptized you with water, but it is he who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.'

As many of you will remember, I used to run off copies of my John the Baptist Christmas Greeting card each year at about this time. I haven't done this for a few years now, as they turned out to be more trouble than they were worth.

I did print off one card for today, which I'm happy to hand on to the first person who requests it from me after the service.

It's the colour version, with the friendly image of the Baptist on the front, who appears to be waving but is actually baptising someone. And on the front it says "Seasons Greetings in the words of John the Baptist …" and on the inside it has some of the Baptist's more memorable exhortations:

"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits that befit repentance. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." Merry Christmas!

As I say, these cards have been the cause of some trouble in the past. I sent one to the Bishop one year, thinking that he'd appreciate it. He didn't say anything in response but just looked at me strangely when I asked him later if he'd received it. I'm thinking I should send him an Eminem Christmas card this year (if I can find one) and keep him guessing.

For the truth is that such cards do not fit easily with the Christmas culture we are familiar with, just as the sobering message of the Baptist does not fit easily with the smug and self-satisfied airs that we often take on this time of year.

Indeed, it is hard to know where to put the Baptist as we arrange the Nativity scene, with Mary, meek and mild, and the gentle Joseph cradling the baby Jesus, surrounded by pious shepherds and docile animals. And yet the church throughout history has seen fit to ensure that we can't reach that tender scene without getting past the big hairy man with the stick first - John the Baptizer! That sacred space lies on the other side of an icy-cold dip in the Jordan, where we stop, take stock, and prepare ourselves for what lies ahead.

"The one who is coming after me is stronger than I am, and I am not worthy to bend down and untie his sandal straps. I baptized you with water, but it is he who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

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Dave's main website http://www.fatherdave.org is a resource of sermons, fight tips and social commentary. Father Dave's goal is to offer an alternative culture for young people, based on values of courage, integrity, self-discipline and teamwork.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/christ-is-king.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/christ-is-king.html Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:30:36 -0600
And welcome to the last Sunday of the Christian Year.

Yes, next Sunday we'll all be wishing a ‘Happy Advent' to one another as the ecclesiastical calendar kicks in for a fresh term but this Sunday is the last Sunday of the old year - a Sunday traditionally celebrated as the feast of "Christ the King", and so it seems appropriate that we have as our Gospel reading today a passage that depicts Christ as king, and doing what kings do - passing judgement on his subjects!

I say that this is ‘traditionally' the feast of ‘Christ the King' as if this has been the case since time immemorial, but in fact it is a tradition that goes back less than 100 - to Pope Pius IX.

Pius proclaimed this feast day in 1925, during that volatile period between the two World Wars - where we were all still counting the cost of the Great War, but where Adolf Hitler was coming to power in Germany and threatening to plunge planet earth back into global violence. Yet, at that stage, everything still hung in the balance. War may not have been inevitable, but the forces that would determine the future of world history didn't seem to have any immediate connection to the teachings of the church, and so it was at that point that Pius say fit to proclaim that it was Christ who would ultimately judge the world, regardless of what the world's political powers might do.

The parallels of that period with our own time seem almost uncanny to me!

I was watching a video this week that Father Elias urged me to look at. It was one I'd seen some time ago - an interview with former American General Wesley Clark where he talks about a confidential government plan he became aware of back in 2001 - a plan to take out seven countries in five years! And I won't bother listing all seven countries for you, but suffice it to say that with Libya now gone only Syria and Iran are left on the list!

And the prospect of war with Iran looms as something that could thrust our world into a period of darkness such as we have not seen in human history up to this point. And whether this happens or not, we appear to be in the grip of forces over which we have no control. And so it seems appropriate once again to proclaim that it is Christ's judgement on our world that is going to be the one that is ultimately going to count!

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels are with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be assembled in front of him, and he will separate them from each other as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."

I notice something very startling right away about Christ's judgement of the world - namely that it's not made on a national basis!

And I mean this in two senses:

Firstly, I mean that Christ is not doing what we do. He's not damning all Iranians to hell!

Have you ever noticed how before we go to war with a country we have to go through a process of dehumanising their inhabitants?

It seems that as human beings we are not good at killing people we think of as family men and women like ourselves, so we give them names - call them spiks or spooks or gooks or geeks or something similar. And along with the name-calling comes a sense of distance and suspicion as we come to think of these people as being agents of an axis of evil.

It wasn't that long ago that you'd meet someone and say, "and where abouts to you come from, brother?" and he'd say "Afghanistan" and you'd say, "Yeah, what's the weather like over there?"

Now as soon as you hear the word "Afghanistan" you take one step back and say "Oh" and you find yourself putting your hands in your pockets, just keeping one hand on your wallet. Can these people really be trusted?

As I say, when we see Christ pass judgement here in Matthew 25 it is not on a national or political or ethnic basis. It is not on the basis of colour. It is not a judgement between sheep and horses - between white-coloured and brown-coloured creatures - but between characters who, at a distance, all appear pretty much the same.

And this is different from what we do as we pass judgement on entire peoples and nations, and, even more significantly (from a Biblical point of view) it is different from what Jesus' hearers would have done, for these were people who saw God's judgement of the world as something that would take place totally along ethnic lines!

As far as Jesus' hearers are concerned, and as far as the whole Bible is concerned up to this point, it is the people of Israel who are the people of God, and so the judgement that the people of God are waiting for is one that will judge in favour of Israel over the rest of the world!

From a Biblical point of view this depiction of the judgement of the world, where all the nations seems to be being judged on an equal footing, is simply astounding - so much so that many scholars suggest that we probably would do best to interpret this image of judgement as being a judgement of the non-Jewish nations only!

We all know that it is the people of Israel who are the people of God in the Bible, and so it would just be too outrageous for Jesus to depict the judgment of the world in such a way that Jews and non-Jews were all being judged on an equal basis!

And so such scholars would suggest that when the passage begins by saying that "all the nations" are assembled before Christ, it means "all the non-Jewish nations" only - the understanding being that there is a secondary process of judgement for the people of Israel (a process that for some reason doesn't end up getting a mention)!

And personally I think that is a crazy way to read the text, and yet I am sympathetic with those who wish to avoid the obvious meaning of the passage because it is so radical! For what we are looking at here in Matthew 25 is a depiction of Christ's judgement of the world, where not only does ethnicity and nationhood seem to be irrelevant to the process, but religion seems to be irrelevant too!

This is too much, isn't it? I mean … we probably accept that we can't really consign all Iranians to hell on the basis of their ethnicity, but surely we can on the basis of their religion, can't we?

Isn't that the way it's supposed to work? Isn't that what we were taught when we entered the church - that all Christians go to Heaven and everybody else - Muslims and Hindus and Jews and most especially Atheists all go to ‘the other place'?

And yet here Jesus himself gives us a depiction of the final judgement - the only depiction of the final judgement that He ever gives us in fact - where all the nations, all all the peoples, all races and religions and creeds and kinds of people are there - and yet neither race nor religion (at least, as traditionally conceived) seem to figure as determining factors in the judgment!

Of course, to Jesus' hearers, to say that race doesn't matter and that religion doesn't matter are two ways of saying the same thing!

To be a Jew is to be a member of the people of God, and if being a Jew doesn't earn you any special favours on the day of judgement then being an Episcopalian certainly isn't going to work (nor being a Catholic nor a Baptist nor a Christian of any brand)!

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels are with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be assembled in front of him, and he will separate them from each other as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

He will put the sheep on his right but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me.'"

What follows from here is a scene of great confusion. The nations are divided up on an individual basis, or so it seems, and neither the sheep nor the goats understand why they have been given their particular designations!

I guess we might have anticipated that from the goats! They never understood God or Christ, though from their dialogue they evidently thought they had been doing the right thing. The real surprise, at any rate, is the sheep! These are people who evidently have God's own heart and exhibit this in lives of compassion, and yet they don't seem to be able to understand what's going on either, and if they can't work it out, what hope have any of us got?!

This is the other great slap in the face that I get from this passage (as if I hadn't received enough slaps already).

We think we understand people. We think we are able to neatly pigeon-hole them and categorise them as the good, the bad and the ugly, but we can't!

We just don't know people well enough to pass any sort of judgement on them. We struggle enough to understand ourselves!

We are like those farm-hands in the story that Jesus told in Matthew 13 where they notice the weeds growing alongside the wheat, so they ask their master whether they can rip out the weeds for the sake of the crop. But what does the master say? ‘No! Leave the wheat and the weeds alone because you can't tell the difference!' (vs.29).

It's remarkable, when you think about the series of parables that we've been looking at in the Gospel of Matthew this year, this issue of confusion keeps hitting you in the chin like a repeater-jab from the champ!
The labourers who worked all day in the field could not understand the basis upon which their pay was being worked out!
In the story of the great feast there was an enormous mix-up with the guest list and where one guy ended up being thrown out for reasons he just couldn't comprehend!
We had ten young girls left banging on the door of the bridegroom's house, not understanding why they weren't being allowed in.
We had a servant who buried his master's money, and it did not seem to occur to him that he'd done the wrong thing until it was all too late.

In each of these stories, the principal players keep getting it all wrong. They misunderstand the master. They don't grasp the way he operates. They do the wrong thing, without realizing it, and they keep ending up on the master's wrong side!

The Kingdom of Heaven is like that, so it seems. People keep getting Jesus wrong - the sheep as well as the goats, so it seems!

There is much this passage that is confusing. We do not understand Jesus, and we do not understand ourselves. And most significantly of all, we do not understand ourselves the way Jesus understands us!

There is much that is confusing in this passage. At the same time, there is certainly one thing in this passage that is abundantly clear, and it is this: that if we want to love Jesus, all we need to do is to show compassion - to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, stand with the persecuted, visit the sick, join hands with our sisters and brothers in prison, show respect to those who have been violated and abused, amd love those who need to be loved.

We live in volatile times. The prospect of a war with Iran chills me to the core - the violence, the bloodshed, and the process of the dehumanisation of Persian and Arab and Muslim people that would inevitably become a part of the dominant culture of this country - all of this chills me and nauseates me. And yet I believe (and want to proclaim today) that Christ is King - that the future lies with Him and that it is His judgement that is ultimately the one that is going to count!

He brings down the high and mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. He fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich empty away. He will bring final peace and justice to this world. And in the meantime, whatever it is that we do for the least of His brethren, we do to Him!

Dave's main website http://www.fatherdave.org is a resource of sermons, fight tips and social commentary. Father Dave's goal is to offer an alternative culture for young people, based on values of courage, integrity, self-discipline and teamwork.

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Dave's main website http://www.fatherdave.org is a resource of sermons, fight tips and social commentary. Father Dave's goal is to offer an alternative culture for young people, based on values of courage, integrity, self-discipline and teamwork.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/have-a-look-on-holy-gifts-perhaps-the-best-present-for-someone.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/have-a-look-on-holy-gifts-perhaps-the-best-present-for-someone.html Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:24:51 -0600 Holy land gifts are one such special bag of gifts which possess such special significance and inner importance with them. The word is related to the birth place of Jesus Christ which is known as holy land. Christmas being the most auspicious day of the Christian community is the best occasion to celebrate with these holy gifts. It's the best time to feel God's closeness and hence to be spiritual with our soul so as to get a better view of our own selves. These gifts mainly includes Jesus statues, sculptures, Holy water, rosaries, Holy books like Bibles etc to avail us with the divine touch of the Almighty. These gift items are mainly prepared for this occasion but may be given to followers of other communities or in any other occasions also. Let whatever be the religion and whoever is the follower, gifts always perform the same act of showering love and gesture to everyone. An occasion is the best moment for saying Thanks to God for all his love and care with a chance to have a look on our own deeds too. If a gift is helping us out to convert our negatives into positive for better living then it is a good way of feeling God. Apart from that there also exist different kinds of gifts which are not materialistic in nature but are of course the best one if given to somebody. These includes knowledge, wisdom, help, love, kindness, mercy etc which strengthens the inner part of a person to clear out his sins and ill thoughts into fresh and pure feeling of humanity. These are known as Spiritual gifts which helps us to regain our lost hope in the hardships of life so as to rejuvenate ourselves once again to fill up the gap of incompleteness and dissatisfactions. These also give us a feeling of being blessed by the Almighty. Even if not virtually seen, they sort out the purpose of grooming one's heart with all good thoughts. If a person turns happy and content towards life and god, then I think gifts and occasions are justifying their definitions.
Different religion possesses different ways to worship God and celebrate, but the underlying matter of feeling happy and let others happy is the same everywhere. Gifts act as a medium to enhance this feeling of love and kindness amongst everybody. And if they really signify out some extra meaning and importance to one's life, then these are definitely better than the ordinary showpieces. So, now onwards before buying, we must give a look to these holy and spiritual gifts.


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To know more about Holy Land Tours, Catholic Gifts and Christian Gifts visit http://www.theholylanddream.com/

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/give-a-try-to-blend-spirituality-and-gifts-in-the-same-cup-of-happiness.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/give-a-try-to-blend-spirituality-and-gifts-in-the-same-cup-of-happiness.html Thu, 24 Nov 2011 02:55:42 -0600 Everything has its own impact in its own special way. Similarly, spirituality also possesses its own importance in our life. Feeling the existence of God even if possible for a small period in this hectic world is a great achievement. And if in this heartiest feeling, we are adding beauty and impact both with some materialistic things like gifts then it strengthens the bond between the soul and God to a much higher level. There exist a bunch of spiritual gifts, not in the market just like the other materialistic gifts but in our own heart and mind to let us fill enriched with the good effects of it. Generally these are wisdom, knowledge, truth, help, generosity, kindness etc which are not at all visual in any way and hence cannot be given in hand to hand contact but if there is love for god, then can be definitely given through the bond between hearts. They actually strengthen our inner part and hence help us to rejuvenate ourselves from the negative towards positive of life. They help in our own improvement and self motivation to excel our inner beauty by improving the human values thereby helps in purifying ourselves from all kind of ills. So, they help in getting God's intimacy and joy with all our loved ones close to us during these celebrations. Apart from these, there also exist catholic gifts which include Jesus momentous, bibles, holy water, olive wood accessories etc. They find their extreme demands during the occasion of Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ to let people feel enthralled with the actual effects of these gifts and feel the importance of the Almighty. But these are something which really doesn't need any special time or day to present or accept from others. The main purpose is to feel relief and peace from core of the heart along with the feeling of God's nearness. Different cultures possess different ways of worshiping God and feeling spiritual or religious. But gifts can be given to anyone irrespective of cast and culture. Their main purpose, to let others feel happy and important is the ultimate goal one must have. Therefore, gifts also act as a bridge to connect our soul with the Almighty.
Reasons, mediums and procedures are all outer formalities and practical showoffs so as to start up the initial stage towards spiritualism and GOD's closeness. So, to get maximum benefit out of a piece of gift lies in the fact that a sacred and holy gift with a touch of God's blessing in it, helps us to move another step towards his pure love and kindness.

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To know more about Holy Land Tours, Catholic Gifts and Christian Gifts visit http://www.theholylanddream.com/

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/visiting-different-sacred-place-is-a-good-way-of-feeling-closeness-to-god.html http://www.articletrader.com/society/religion/visiting-different-sacred-place-is-a-good-way-of-feeling-closeness-to-god.html Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:00:38 -0600 In case of Christian community the birth place of Jesus is considered as the most sacred place in the whole world and hence is known as holy land. Every year a load bag of pilgrims used to visit this place to get showered with the love and gesture of Jesus Christ and to feel near him. These are known as holy land tours. This place is sacred not only to Christian religion but is of same importance for the Jews and Muslims too from their cultural point of view. Actually the main aim is to feel the existence and love of god in every bit of the place irrespective of the caste and community. Earlier, it was out of the thought of people to reach this holy place anytime if they wished to but now-a-days with all kind of modern facilities it is quite simple to touch the presence of Almighty in the sacred place during occasions or any other time of the year. It's a good way of feeling HIS kindness and hence is the best ever gift on its own to present or being presented by someone. The divine touch of that place helps the visitors to give a thought to stop the wrongs in their life and turn towards good and spiritualism with God's closeness. It not only gives mental calmness and peace but also helps to connect our sole with the Almighty by discarding the materialistic world outside. In relation to these tours, holy land gifts are also available. These includes Jesus crosses, Holy water, rosaries, Holy Bible, other religious books etc. All these gifts as a whole are a sign of love, bond, cooperation, help, knowledge etc to let people feel the very existence of God nearby him. Obviously these are the actual gifts, one must cherish to define and understand GOD seriously and lovingly. There should not be any discrimination among the pilgrims and pilgrimages regarding caste and religion or any other social bindings because God is for everyone and we all are children of the same Almighty. So, the best option is to worship Him with all our purest thoughts and deeds leaving every other ill behind.
These gifts and tours therefore act as a blessing from the God's side and hence give us a chance to feel near Him. It's a true saying that God is present within us and we really don't need to move here and there in search of Him. But to better understand and really devote our mind towards him, if we visit these sacred holy places, then it always acts as an extra advantage.



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To know more about Christian Gifts, Christian Pilgrimage and Christian Spiritual Gifts visit http://www.theholylanddream.com/

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>