stepstomarrow
When granddaughter, Jada, was born with leukemia, a donor-match was located and Jada made a miraculous recovery. In honor of her grandaughter's health, Jeanna has decided to walk across the country (in the dead of winter) to raise awareness and build support for the bone marrow registry (all that's required is a cheek swab). Follow Jeanna's remarkable journey as she travels the United States by foot.

The truth is a sadly lost commodity on the alter of sensationalism and group pandering. In an follow up article about the student who was supposedly suspended for drawing Jesus reveals the startling truths of the case.

"“It hurts me that they did this to my kid,’’ Chester Johnson, the boy’s father, said in an interview with the Globe. “They can’t mess with our religion. They owe us a small lump sum for this.""

- I think we're starting to get an idea about what the real interest in this case is: money.

"Hackett said the student, age 9, was never suspended and that neither he nor other students at the Maxham Elementary School were asked by the teacher to sketch something that reminded them of Christmas or any religious holiday, as the Gazette and other media reported and the father suggested, although his story changed as he explained it."

- How interesting. So nearly nothing about the way this story was portrayed was the least bit true. I'm saddened that so few others had the same skepticism that I had when I heard about this incident, and were so quick to jump on the Christan martyrdom train.

"“Religion had nothing to do with this at all, 100 percent nothing to do with it,’’ Hackett said, adding that Taunton is known as “The Christmas City""

- Much as I said.

"She said the drawing was seen as a potential cry for help when the student identified himself, rather than Jesus, on the cross, which prompted the teacher to alert the school’s principal and staff psychologist. As a result, the boy underwent a psychological evaluation."

- What! You mean he wasn't sent to the psychologist for being a Christian? But there so much anti-Christian sentiment in anti-Christian America where only a piddling 75%+ of the population identifies as Christian. Seriously people, we need to get away from these preposterous notions of "wars on Christmas" and interpreting supporting scientific fact and universal equality as being "anti-Christian."

---

I, admittedly, was also mistaken in my evaluation of this case, but I can honestly say that it made far more sense than what I was hearing from other reactionary replies. I will be taking this incident as exemplifying the fact that I need to research and verify the veracity of internet news claims - especially when they're sensational sounding - and I hope you will do the same.

                                        

Chains of sin are broken! We have overcome by the name and the blood of the lamb of god. Inspired by this song ^^ around 2:16: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDhIOpnyVZE I <3 Jesus Chirst

-Exdra

This year to my DeviantArt account I posted all the chapters of a retooled version of my first novel, entitled Saga Terra: Odysseus:

http://www.adrive.com/public/e6f01461de22c1920018ceb82a067703ecc6799744400972056d6b97b19fdb94.html

It's PG-13, just to warn the younger readers here.

A well presented post about the current trends of Holiday greetings...

http://crssafox.livejournal.com/682578.html

*Hugs*

Blessed Holidays one and all!

Swifty

Reverend Twiddy justifies his position on same-sex unions

I don't know the good Reverend Twiddy, nor am I aware of the context of this article (full text below) but the theme is repeated in countless scenarios by well-meaning Christians.

There are many people who won't invite their gay son or daughter into their house for a holiday dinner because they "might" bring their boyfriend/girlfriend of whom they disapprove because they are of the same sex. In their mind, allowing is the same as condoning, and in condoning, it's like a compromise of their beliefs.

If they live in a nation which allows same-sex marriage, it's as if they've somehow failed as Christians by not standing up forcefully enough against clearly-stated sin.

I see two possible ways of countering this, but neither seem to be very effective on their own. First, there is pointing out that 'Jesus ate with sinners' basically giving in to their assumption that same-sex relations are always against God's plan as is the celebrating of such in gay marriage. And the other, try to show biblically how being gay and being Christian are absolutely compatible. This second approach has 3 possible parts as I understand, but there may be more...

a. Show how past scriptures were used to condone slavery, treatment of women as property, condemn misogyny, etc., and how all of these have now been overturned though the seemingly-condemning scripture remains.

b. Show in Greek and Hebrew the lack of the terms gay and homosexual in biblical text, that they were added later by unscrupulous translators and show the actual context of each passage.

c. Show positive instances of biblical same-sex accounts, or the allowance of such: Centurion's pais, Philip and the eunuch, David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, natural-born eunuchs.

So what is the balance here? If you just want to argue scripture, it's not going to get very far with a lot of Christians who are taught how to stay steadfast in their beliefs, and are fearful and closed to anything which seems to counter it. If you just want to show the love of Jesus for tax-collectors and the two criminals who were crucified with Him, then you're admitting that being gay is a sin to shun when you come to God.

I know what changed MY mind, but it had more to do with years of consideration and observation than with any single instance.

( Read more... )

One of my friends posted this on Facebook:

School goes ballistic when 2nd-grader draws Jesus

Personally, I think the school overreacted, but I wonder what would have happened had the child drawn any other religious figure and the school reacted the same way. Would the teacher have been fired?

A recent article reminded me that Jesus was of Middle Eastern descent, and was most certainly not-Caucasian. This isn't significant in-and-of itself - Jesus's race certainly affects nothing about him - but I think we do ourselves a great injustice by portraying him in our likeness instead of as he really was. It's particularly relevant now as we've been seeing a dramatic increase in racial profiling and discrimination against Middle Eastern individuals due to our wars over there. I think, as a Western society, we should embrace this unfamiliar representation of Jesus in the hopes that it will begin to bridge the racial gaps that some of us still cling to.

Please offer prayers for my friends Darkwolfie who is suffering from a long running illness and has been in the hospital for at least two months now.

He and his wife Tashabear are in desperate need of them.

Dominus vobiscum

I CAN'T EXPLAIN THIS ONE. IT'S ARTY'S FAULT. HE MADE UP THE SONG AND STARTED SINGING IT WHILE WE WERE IN WAL-MART.

IT SERVES ME RIGHT FOR GOING INTO WAL-MART.

IF YOU ASK NICELY, HE'LL SING THE WHOLE THING FOR YOU. IT'S HORRIBLE. BYE BYE.

taste_buds
Holidays provide a built-in excuse for indulgent entertaining. This all-purpose foodie community covers everything from homemade hangover cures to dinner party menus. Need quick advice? Get five-minute snack suggestions, low-fat ingredient substitutes, and even measurement conversions. Delicious recipes garnished with humorous advice. Yum.

naturesbeauty
Always on the lookout for compelling images, we were delighted to discover this flourishing community of artists who share a love of nature. Honoring the subject with photographs, paintings, sketches, prose, poetry, and other creative works, you'll be simultaneously riveted to your monitor and inspired to run helter skelter towards the nearest wooded dale.

"The "Duh!" of a Disciple"

The image of 'the boat' and being aboard it is sort of a recurring theme with us :)

Sometimes the sea is calm, sometimes we're in a raging storm - this is both as a community and in our individual lives. I believe Jesus is in the boat with us. I believe He's with the lowly and the persecuted, just like He was during His 3 1/2 year ministry.

I don't think it's up to me or any one of us to decide who gets thrown overboard in our quest to stay afloat. Jesus has shown He's capable of getting everyone through the storm safely and back into calm seas, every last one aboard that boat, and aboard our boat, even ones we deem as 'not one of us' or who we think have no redeeming qualities. He truly loves everyone.

Houston becomes the first major US city to elect a lesbian mayor

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/houston-mayor-annise-parker-lesbian.html

On Miss Parker, seeing as how this is Texas, obviously the only other choice would've been to elect a steer j/k (apologies if that offends, it wasn't meant to)

But seriously, while I agree that her being elected is a step forward and I wouldn't have voted for or against her simply because she's a lesbian, I wonder how many, whether they realized it or not, voted for her because they wanted to see a lesbian in office. Voting for someone because they're (insert here) doesn't make any more sense than voting against someone because they're (insert same thing here)

The New Testament does record two ways for a person to enter Heaven (aka eternal life) and thus avoid Hell (aka punishment and eternal "death").

Matthew 19:16-17
And behold, a man came up to him [Jesus], saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?"
And he [Jesus] said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments."

The Greek text reveals more about what is going on than the English translation.

"agathon poieso" is the Greek translated into "good deed". "agathon" is a reference to morally good, upright, beneficial. "poieso" is a reference to making, crafting, performing, or accomplishing. The man was asking Jesus what deeds and aspects of the Mosaic Law, the moral definition of tasks, he must perform to earn eternal life.

"teresov" is the Greek translated into "keep". It means to keep, observe, obey, put into practice. But, the key aspect is not so much the root word but the grammar attributes. The word is in the imperative aorist active form. This means the phrase could be translated "start and keep keeping continually without ceasing".

The man was looking for the occassional thing to do. Jesus was saying if you want to enter Heaven by doing "good deeds", then you must keep keeping continually without ceasing. Fail once and you have failed the requirement.


Acts 16:30-31
Then he [jailer] brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

In this case, the jailer asks in a more general form, using the Greek, "poiein". It shares the same root meaning of an action or performing some task, but it is not qualified. The jailer simply is asking, what to do, not what deed.

The Greek "sotho" is translated into "saved". It means "rescued" and has the word picture of a person drowning at sea and needing someone to throw him a life preserver.

Paul and Silas respond by saying he must believe in Jesus. The Greek is "pisteuson". This means "be convinced of and trusting that leads to action". Probably the better translation would be "entrust". Much like a person when they deposit money with a bank, they entrust the bank - believe it will safeguard the money and act on that belief.


Two ways: (1) You can live a perfect moral life OR (2) you can entrust your life to Jesus.

To paraphrase Luther, "the law is for the proud of heart and the gospel for the broken of heart".

The Law shows that every one of us has fallen short of God's perfect standard. It is impossible for us to come into God's presence by doing good deeds. We need to be saved. Stop thinking you are "good enough" or that you can bribe a perfect judge with your so-called good deeds.

Instead, repent and entrust your life to Jesus. Depend on Him, who did live the perfect life and did meet God's perfect standard. Call out to Him for mercy and be confident that He hears and responds to all who call upon Him for salvation.

i found this good video about the topic of people fighting about christmas. I'd thought i share it with yall.

I was thinking about why there is happiness.In an effort to answer this, I considered some of the things that usually make people happy:

-Friends
-Family
-Significant other
-Accomplishments
-Stuff
-Helping others
-Being healthy
-Various forms of physical pleasure

Many of these and others have common threads which bind them together. As such, we can generalize what makes us happy into four categories:

-Things that keep up from suffering.
-Things that give us a sense of purpose.
-Things that allow us to share the first two things with others.
-Physical pleasure.

I think we can generalize this even further, and simply roll all of this into one category described as "satiating a need or want." From this it follows that happiness is the result of satisfying a need or want, and conversely, sadness is the result of not satisfying a need or want.

We can now easily see the wisdom in such adages as "Learn to want what you have," for if we have all we want, and want all we have, we should be in a state of perpetual happiness. Perhaps this is what heaven, or heaven-esque places are like. You could, of course, take it further, because if you have things that you want it is possible to become unhappy if you ever are deprived of those things. So, what if there was nothing you wanted or needed? Then you would inherently have everything you wanted/needed, and it could not be taken away. I have to admit, however, that that seems like a perplexing interpretation of heaven, as it would seem to necessitate not needing anyone, including the ones we love and god. But who knows?

We are, by our very nature, incapable of being free of all needs or wants, as it would result in our nearly immediate demise. We are mortal being, and thus require upkeep not to parish. We also have an innate desire for companionship and for mating. As such, we cannot escape happiness or sadness while we live.

I am satisfied with this explanation of why there is happiness and sadness - namely, that it is inherent to our nature - but the greater question still looms, why do we need/want at all? Why are we mortal instead of immortal?