Jan 18
2010I discovered over the weekend that the entire debate that was held back in 2007 is online at the organization that held it, Fix Point Foundation’s website.
You can watch it here
Jan 13
2010Texas is considering adding to the high school curriculum more emphasis on how religion influenced American History. Such as the founders’ faith and how Christianity impacted the early nation.
Over the past several months, much of the debate has centered on proposals highlighting the religious beliefs of the nation’s founding fathers. Some require that students “identify major intellectual, philosophical, political, and religious traditions that informed the American founding, including Judeo-Christian (especially biblical law);” explain the significance of religious holidays and observances such as Christmas, Easter, Ramadan, and the annual hajj; and describe religious motivation for immigration and influence on social movements, including the impact of the first and second Great Awakenings.
Of course there is opposition:
Texas Freedom Network, an organization of religious and community leaders advocating for church-state separation, fear students in public schools classrooms may learn that the United States favors one faith over other faiths.
“Some board members and the non-expert ideologues they appointed to a review panel have made it clear that they want students to learn that the founding fathers intended America to be an explicitly Christian nation with laws based on their own narrow interpretations of the Bible,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, according to The Associated Press.
But others argue that the proposed standards do not declare the United States to be a Christian nation. Rather, they provide understanding that the biblical world view of the founding fathers was a big influence in shaping the principles on which the nation was founded.
Nov 29
2009A good idea in my opinion based on the following stats:
new churches grow faster than established churches
have three to four times the conversion rate per attendee than do established churches.
are the best method for reaching each emerging new generation.
It is imperative that the churches become younger then they are. More and more of this generation avoids church. Either they don’t care for the atmosphere or they just don’t have a church.
A new church would have a different atmopshere I’d think. And a new church opens a new place for these people.
Jul 06
2009This will be extremely interesting to get a look at.
Discovered in a monastery in the Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago, the handwritten Codex Sinaiticus includes two books that are not part of the official New Testament and at least seven books that are not in the Old Testament.
The New Testament books are in a different order, and include numerous handwritten corrections — some made as much as 800 years after the texts were written, according to scholars who worked on the project of putting the Bible online. The changes range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences.
By the middle of the fourth century, when the Codex Sinaiticus was written, there was wide but not complete agreement on which books should be considered authoritative for Christian communities, according to the Web site where the Codex is posted.
The Bible comes from the Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai desert, where a scholar named Constantine Tischendorf recognized its significance in 1844 — and promptly took part of it, Garces explained.
“Constantine Tischendorf was in search for ancient manuscripts, so he appreciated the age and value of it,” Garces said.
He took a handful of pages to Germany to publish them, then returned in 1853 and in 1859 for more. On that last trip, he took 694 pages, which ended up in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The Soviet government decided to sell them in 1933 — to raise money to buy tractors and other agricultural equipment.
The British government bought the pages for £100,000, raising half the money from the public. Garces called that event one of the first fundraising campaigns in British history.
Film footage from the time shows crowds of people turning out to see the manuscript, which was considered a national treasure, he said.
Jun 02
2009I received this via email today…
MAGNOLIAS………..By Edna Ellison
I spent the week before my daughter’s June wedding running last-minute trips to the caterer, florist, tuxedo shop, and the church about forty miles away.
As happy as I was that Patsy was marrying a good Christian young man, I felt laden with responsibilities as I watched my budget dwindle . . So many details, so many bills, and so little time. My son Jack was away at college, but he said he would be there to walk his younger sister down the aisle, taking the place of his dad who had died a few years before. He teased Patsy, saying he’d wanted to give her away since she was about three years old!
To save money, I gathered blossoms from several friends who had large magnolia trees. Their luscious, creamy-white blooms and slick green leaves would make beautiful arrangements against the rich dark wood inside the church.
After the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding, we banked the podium area and choir loft with magnolias. As we left just before midnight , I felt tired but satisfied this would be the best wedding any bride had ever had! The music, the ceremony, the reception - and especially the flowers - would be remembered for years.
The big day arrived - the busiest day of my life - and while her bridesmaids helped Patsy to dress, her fiancé Tim walked with me to the sanctuary to do a final check. When we opened the door and felt a rush of hot air, I almost fainted; and then I saw them - all the beautiful white flowers were black. Funeral black. An electrical storm during the night had knocked out the air conditioning system, and on that hot summer day, the flowers had wilted and died.
I panicked, knowing I didn’t have time to drive back to our hometown, gather more flowers, and return in time for the wedding.
Tim turned to me. ‘Edna, can you get more flowers? I’ll throw away these dead ones and put fresh flowers in these arrangements.’
I mumbled, ‘Sure,’ as he be-bopped down the hall to put on his cuff links.
Al one in the large sanctuary, I looked up at the dark wooden beams in the arched ceiling. ‘Lord, I prayed, ‘please help me. I don’t know anyone in this town. Help me find someone willing to give me flowers - in a hurry!’ I scurried out praying for four things: the blessing of white magnolias, courage to find them in an unfamiliar yard, safety from any dog that may bite my leg, and a nice person who would not get out a shotgun when I asked to cut his tree to shreds.
As I left the church, I saw magnolia trees in the distance. I approached a house…No dog in sight. I knocked on the door and an older man answered. So far so good. No shotgun. When I stated my plea the man beamed, ‘I’d be happy to!’
He climbed a stepladder and cut large boughs and handed them down to me. Minutes later, as I lifted the last armload into my car trunk, I said, ‘Sir, you’ve made the mother of a bride happy today.’
‘No, Ma’am,’ he said. ‘You don’t understand what’s happening here.’
‘What?’ I asked.
‘You see, my wife of sixty-seven years died on Monday. On Tuesday I received friends at the funeral home, and on Wednesday . . . He paused. I saw tears welling up in his eyes.. ‘On Wednesday I buried her.’ He looked away. ‘On Thursday most of my out-of-town relatives went back home, and on Friday - yesterday - my children left.’
I nodded.
‘This morning,’ he continued, ‘I was sitting in my den crying out loud. I miss her so much. For the last sixteen years, as her health got worse, she needed me. But now n obody needs me. This morning I cried, ‘Who needs an eighty-six-year-old wore-out man? Nobody!’ I began to cry louder. ‘Nobody needs me!’ About that time, you knocked, and said, ‘Sir, I need you.’
I stood with my mouth open.
He asked, ‘Are you an angel? The way the light shone around your head into my dark living room…’
I assured him I was no angel.
He smiled. ‘Do you know what I was thinking when I handed you those magnolias?’
‘No.’
‘I decided I’m needed. My flowers are needed. Why, I might have a flower ministry! I could give them to everyone! Some caskets at the funeral home have no flowers. People need flowers at times like that and I have lots of them. They’re all over the backyard! I can give them to
hospitals, churches - all sorts of places. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to serve the Lord until the day He calls me home!’
I drove back to the church, filled with wonder. On Patsy’s wedding day, if anyone had asked me to encourage someone who was hurting, I would have said, ‘Forget it! It’s my only daughter’s wedding, for goodness’ sake! There is no way I can minister to anyone today.’
But God found a way - Through dead flowers.
‘Life is not the way it’s supposed to be. It’s the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.’
If you have missed knowing me, you have missed nothing.. If you have missed some of my emails, you may have missed a laugh.. But, if you have missed knowing my LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST, you have missed everything in the world.
May God’s blessings be upon you.
THIS IS SO TRUE, BEING NEEDED IS SO UPLIFTING TO EACH OF US.
This story is far too beautiful not to send along its way to others …
Happiness is…..knowing He loves you…no matter what
May 31
2009If anyone hasn’t read Black, Red, and White by Ted Dekker, you should rush out and buy them and read them. These are excellent books. In them Thomas Hunter is alive in our present day. But when he sleeps he is on another world. A world set far in the future but in a Medieval setting. Something has happened in the time between that caused this. He tries to find out by searching for the cause in the future world. While in the present fights against a terrorist threatening to wipe out humanity with a new virus.
This is a great Trilogy and there is more book set in this setting. The Lost Books and the Paradise Books. You can see the books over to the right in the I recommend box from Amazon.
May 30
2009The San Diego County has backed down from shutting down a home Bible study after receiving a flood of complaints from people concerned that the county is attempting to “muzzle religious expression.”
“No one respects the right to free religious expression more than I do, and no one would find the infringement of such rights more abhorrent,” said county Chief Administrative Officer Walt Ekard said in a statement Friday.
Ekard said dozens of e-mail and calls have come in to his office as media reports revealed that a county employee told a local couple they could not hold their weekly Bible study without a permit.
The employee labeled their Bible study a “religious assembly.”
In a warning letter, Pastor David Jones and his wife, Mary, were ordered to “cease/stop religious assembly on parcel or obtain major use permit.”
The Joneses, along with dozens of others, argue that their right to hold Bible studies is protected by the U.S. Constitution.
May 29
2009Lets take a look at the First Amendment.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Ok let’s look at the first part: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. In Britian at the time, there was religious tests on who could serve in the government and who could attend universities. If you were not a member of the Church of England you could not do either. And tax money went to the Church of England for their expenses. And in some places, you could find yourself in jail if you were not a member. How did you prove your membership? Attend one communion for the year.
Next is or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; That’s pretty clear. The government has no power over what the person believes or does not believe concerning God. And it cannot prevent someone from worshipping as they see fit because the government doesn’t like it. The government is quite simply to keep its nose out of a person’s religious beliefs.
Third we have or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; The government cannot stop someone or the media from criticizing the government. Frankly that’s the only kind of speech that the government would be afraid of. And thus the government must keep its hands off the person’s views or the media. It cannot pass laws that dictate what people can and cannot say.
Fourth we have or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,People can come together and talk to each other without fear of the government coming and telling them they cannot. At the same time, the assembly has to be peaceful so its not a mob to come together and lynch someone. People are allowed to freely communicate with one another as a group in peace.
Finally, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. We have the right to inform the government when they are doing something wrong. We cannot be thrown in jail for doing it. And we cannot be killed.
So San Diego, do you want to be part of the United States or do you want to be part of China?
May 29
2009Here’s some more on the San Diego Anti-Bible Study attack
A local pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, who then threatened them with escalating fines if they continued to hold Bible studies in their home, 10News reported.
Attorney Dean Broyles of The Western Center For Law & Policy was shocked with what happened to the pastor and his wife.Broyles said, “The county asked, ‘Do you have a regular meeting in your home?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you say amen?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you pray?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you say praise the Lord?’ ‘Yes.’”
The county employee notified the couple that the small Bible study, with an average of 15 people attending, was in violation of County regulations, according to Broyles.
How about those questions? Isn’t there a problem with that criteria? Shouldn’t there be some OUTRAGE? HELLO ACLU ARE YOU THERE? Or the Separation of Church and State organization? Where are you now?
May 29
2009A pastor and his wife held weekly Bible study at their home for five years with about 15 people attending. There was no problems until recently when San Diego found out about it and demanded that he get a major use permit in order to continue to hold the weekly Bible Study.They had “to cease/stop religious assembly on parcel or obtain major use permit.”
So when did San Diego become part of China?
The Administration Citation and Cease and Desist Order violate the “Jones’ right to assemble peaceably and privately in their home for the purpose of religious worship,” stated WCLP president Dean R. Broyles in a letter sent on behalf of the Joneses to the County Tuesday.
The letter alleges the County is discriminating against religious activity because it doesn’t require a permit for secular assemblies such as cub scout meetings, friends gathering each week to watch sports on TV, book clubs, sewing clubs, or poker nights in residential zones.
Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association, defended the Bible study meeting on Thursday, urging supporters to sign a petition to the San Diego County Board that calls the County’s actions “anti-Christian.”
“I am upset that you would shut down a home Bible study of 15 people and yet allow similar secular events,” reads the petition. “Your actions appear to have an anti-Christian slant and should cease immediately.”
Oh and where exactly is the ACLU in all of this? Probably rubbing their hands together in glee.
