Pleasures and Treasures.

If the members of our Churches continue to indulge in excessive pleasures like overseas holidays, luxury cars, and holiday houses while claiming to support the poor and marginalized in our world then we will have to look elsewhere for change. 

They rationalize their pleasures and appropriate the goodness of God while doing nothing to help the poor and needy even in their own congregations.

They are dishonest and corrupt.

They may be nice people and they may look after their families and friends.

They may support charities. 

But the amount they give is small compared to the amount they spend on themselves.

Jesus said of them: 

"'For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax-collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?'"  Matthew 5:46,47 (NRSV)

"Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you?'"  Luke 6:46 (NRSV)

"'"This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."'"  Matthew 15:8 (NRSV)

"'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'"  Matthew 6:21 (NRSV)

So have a heart that loves all people.

Help them and pray for them.

Pray for others to overcome their fears.

And you will have treasure in Heaven.

  

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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Lies.

Joseph Goebbels said: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

And this is what Satanists in our world are doing.

Disregarding any vestiges of truth they merely keep repeating their lies.

They will say: "You are dead to God", "You have fallen from grace", "You are cut off from God", "You are damned", "You are guilty", "You are evil".....

All these things are hidden in their music.

And they are lies.

But they keep on repeating them anyway.

The truth is:

God does not punish us.

God punishes no one.

Therefore there can be no death, no fall, no cut off, no damnation, no hell.

God loves us unconditionally.

Like a Father.

And a father does not condemn his children.

He helps them.

He protects them.

He provides for them.

So do not believe their wicked lies no matter how often they repeat them.

God loves you.

And He will not condemn.

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Kill.

"But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves 'This is the heir, let us kill him and get his inheritance.'"  Matthew 21:38 (NTSV)

The impulse to kill is inspired by jealousy.

And jealousy is fear. 

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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New Growth.

"'The seed would sprout and grow, he doesn't know how.'" Mark 4:27 (NRSV)

The Traditional Churches are dying.

Their members have given up and their congregations are dwindling.

But within the mainstream Churches there is new growth.

Many Churches are turning to the ideas of Progressive Christianity as a source of hope.

Even if the leadership is still mired in Orthodox theology their parishioners are embracing progressive ideas.

And this is not surprising because Progressive Christianity satisfies the intellect without abandoning faith.

Progressive Christianity replaces negative doctrines with positive doctrines.

It does not expect you to believe the unbelievable.

But it maintains a belief in a holistic God.

A God who is wholly benevolent.

A God who is Love.

This is the seed that was planted by God.

And it grows, we do not know how.

[Scripture quotation (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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God is Alive!

On April 8 1966 Time Magazine asked the question "Is God Dead?"

The article within spoke about modern theologians writing God out of the picture.

But it was almost 100 years earlier that Friedrich Nietzsche wrote "God is dead" in his book about science.

He said God is dead and mankind must find an alternative formula to live by.

Neither of these is true.

Science may have moved humankind's minds away from the Divine but that does not mean it is not there.

God is alive! 

And living in Heaven.

   

We can contact God through prayer.

In the Modern Era science may have moved people to disbelieve in God.

But in the Post-Modern Era it has become apparent that science does not have all the answers.

Theoretical physics for example is becoming more and more metaphysical as it searches for answers to perplexing anomalies.

Pseudo-religions like drugs and magic are reasserting right-brain imaginative thinking.

As we enter the Age of Aquarius the time has come for a new revelation from God.

And this is manifesting through progressive religious ideas.

Ideas that harmonize science and religion.

Ideas that balance left-brain rational and right-brain imaginative thinking.

And you can tune into this light from God through study and contemplation.

God is alive!    

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Happiness.

I read a survey on the Internet which rated all the countries of the world in order of happiness.

Finland was the world's happiest country.

And the top ten was dominated by Scandinavian countries.

The U.S.A. and the U.K. were 18th and 19th.

The unhappiest countries were mostly in Africa, particularly areas affected by war.

Australia was 10th behind Canada and New Zealand.

It is significant that the Scandinavian countries were the happiest because they have the world's best welfare systems so people felt secure.

Rich countries with poor social safety nets rated much lower on the list.  

 

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Masturbation.

The only reference to masturbation in the Bible is the story of Onan in Genesis 38.

Onan was said to have "spilled his seed on the ground whenever he went into his brothers wife."  Genesis 38:9 (NRSV)   

But this was not the reason why Onan was said to have displeased God.

What displeased God was the fact that by doing this he was failing to "perform the duty of a brother-in-law" to Tamar whose husband had died.  Genesis 38:8 (NRSV)

It was the custom of the time that a man would marry his brother's widow if the brother died and sire children in his brother's name.

So there is no objection to masturbation in the Bible.

This is good news because all men masturbate and anyone who says he doesn't is a liar.

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]    

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