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Today you take the step of consecrating the very special relationship you have been building . . . and in this step you change forever the direction of your individual life paths.
Today you begin your journey together, weaving the strands of your different lives into a strong thread that will be your guide, no matter how stimulating or strenuous your common path. Take time - even in the midst of all the excitement of these days - take time to acknowledge the blessing that you have been given, for love such as yours does not come to every person, nor does it make itself known every day.
Cherish the blessing that is your love.
Honor the gift that is the trust you show one for the other as you literally place your life into your loved one’s hands.
I pray that as your marriage unfolds you will come to each day with love and devotion in your hearts. That laughter and joy will always reside in your home.
May you live with quiet grace and gentle faith; your home blessed with wide-flung doors to welcome family and friends that the love you build together may be shared with the wider world. Above all, I pray that, at the end of your life’s journey, you will look at one another and know that you have loved deeply, cared fully and grown wise in the soft light of God’s love.
About the Author
Maureen Killoran is an ordained Unitarian minister who has performed over 300 weddings and services of union. After 20 years as a parish minister, she is now joyfully working as a life coach and performing creative and unique weddings in Western North Carolina. Visit her at www.spiritquest.ws, or subscribe to her free e-zine, SEEDS OF CHANGE.
A man sits upon a step. It leads to nowhere. Once it led to the
most famous place in America. It was the Capitol. But, alas they
feared not the Lord, but put Him out of all their ways. Thus,
the epitaph is: How blinded we were? We prepared for a calamity,
but who can be prepared for the wrath of Almighty God? The
answer, no one.
That surely would be our final statement after the judgment
falls upon a secular nation called America. The once polished
stone shining in the world is now a faint glimmer of what it
used to be. Gone are the people that feared the Lord and ordered
their conversation aright. Gone are the congressman who stood
bravely against the attempts of ungodly sorts to turn away
anything that gives to God credit, glory, or obedience. Now, the
love, turning colder, shakes it head and says…”How blinded we
were”.
The distance cries are in the tens of thousands. These are the
innocent ones that were murdered in their life arrival. These
are the ones that were torn asunder by instruments of torture
preventing a life to live. These are those who aborted remains
are tossed as refuse upon the scrap heap of history. No one
mourns them. No one cares. No one protests anymore. Gone, simply
vanished in the daily lives of the america that once stood
proudly for life. Now, it vanquishes this life with death and
blood. Those who did protest were looked upon as the culprits.
These, they said were the ones “to blame for this chaos”. Thus
the evil became good and good became evil.
Along the streets another Sodom arrives. It is the day of pride.
Once upon a time another city called Gomorrah was as this one
was. Now it is gone, the victim of its own pride and sin. They
feared not the Lord God who made them. With these who have gone
this pathway before, this Sodom doesn’t see the danger. It
thrives in a place called America, in a Town that has bravely
stood against such evils in the past, now it embraces this as
good. Sodom has another day to be proud and do its own evil or
another day to repent. But how long? The sand is running out of
Eternities clock, then those who do such things will face the
Lord God who made them. Then their pride will wilt as lettuce in
the noon day sun. Their courage will be as women in birth pangs
and their teeth will be grinding away in pain. For thus the Lord
warned them, but this is America, we are safe here. But the
voice winds down to a whisper and says “or so we thought, how
blinded we were”.
In the church the minister is looking around. It is full he
reminds himself. All is good. We are financially blessed,
spiritually mature, and living as saints. Yet, in the mist of
deception, a shadow stirs in the corner. Yet another victim is
seen listening to this voice. It tells them ” God is good, he
doesn’t bother with your sins. Your rich and in need of nothing,
just look how good you are doing.” The shadow slinks away to
another victim as the preacher preaches on. Gone are the days of
annointed preaching. “Preaching it as it is” the old timers
would say. “Hell fire and brimstone”, “the gospel nuggets given
out” another would say. The gospel today is filled with living
the good life, making it big, having money and riches. Enjoying
the good life. As one preacher said “don’t tell me you can have
joy without money. Money is the thing that brings joy, it is
better than the Holy Spirit”. Thus the deceptive mirror is
turned inward and no one sees. The rich and in need of nothing
crowd has just grown again. The church is full, the message is
soothing, and the disciples are multiplying. The problem is, no
one knows what the gospel is anymore. The epitaph is being read
in eternity….”woe to those who are rich, woe to those who are
blinded with the world, woe to those who love the world and its
things”…For they will surely say, “how blinded we were”.
Yet, amidst all the chaos of the end time schedule. There is a
fire burning in the depths of a few. These are those who love is
not of the world, nor of its things. These are those who know
the gospel message and share it. These are those who know the
Lord God. These are those who follow Yeshua HaMassiach in
Hebrew, the Lord Jesus Christ in English. The heart is burning,
the love is overwhelming, the dedication is to the death. Their
love is steeped in Him who gave Himself for them. They were the
sinners saved by grace, the lost who were found, and the
wanderers who finally found a home. These are those who trust in
the Lord…Surely they will say….”this is our God, we have
waited for Him, this is the Lord, He will save us”….The
Watchman….Evang. Dana G Smith©2005 How blinded?
Perhaps you have heard of the famine in the Western regions of Africa. There has been some press, not a lot, as we here in the United States grapple with our own issues, particularly our involvement in Iraq.
But a famine does exist, affecting several countries, including Niger, a place the United Nations has called the second poorest country in the world. On its website, Concern, an Irish-based relief organization initiated to assist with the Biafran famine in 1968, offered poignant information regarding the plight of the Niger nation. In a country of 12 million people, 6 million are affected directly by the lack of food, 3.6 million are at risk, and of that 3.6 million, 800,000 are children. What drought, locust infestation and lack of enough seeds to plant new crops translates into is people barely surviving on eating a bowl of thin millet soup every other day. Most of us living in the United States have no way, intellectual or experiential, to even begin to hold on to this information long enough to grasp it, or understand it.
Organized relief efforts are underway, including by Concern, and have been all summer. Beyond worldwide awareness, the main issue has been creation of a distribution process once the food arrives. How do you feed 800,000-3.6 million people who need nourishment now in an equitable fashion ?
Although not dealing with famine conditions, the disciples ran up against food distribution issues in remote Bethsaida after a long day of preaching and teaching with Jesus. They were all for sending the crowd away to let them fend for themselves in the surrounding villages. Jesus disagreed. “But he said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish-unless we are to go and buy food for all these people,’ for there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, ‘Make them sit down in companies, about fifty each.’ And they did so, and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. and all ate and were satisfied. And they took up what was left over, twelve baskets of broken pieces.” Despite their initial reticence and subsequent confusion over Jesus’ directions, the disciples figure it out, follow through and get the job done with great success. The crowd appears to have responded well and were grateful.
It’s quite easy to judge the disciples as incompetent, as easy as it is to exonerate ourselves from any direct responsibility to understand or help a country so distant and foreign from our own. It is easy to smile about the befuddlement of these future leaders, and equally easy to settle our own consciousness with the belief that we have very little to share if we try to spread it out among so many people. But in our human dilemmas, God’s directions, albeit not always printed on the side of a box ready to be read off in order, are usually available if we pay attention. In the Biblical account, Jesus basically told the disciples to divide the people into smaller groups, ask them to sit down and then proceed after asking God’s blessing.
The concern contingent has moved forward in their task in much the same way. Having a larger crowd to assist, they have begun with 6,000 grateful people, and along with other agencies, will continue to move among the crowds until all are able to eat and be satisfied, no doubt also welcoming God’s blessing.
About The Author
Cory L. Kemp
As an ordained minister, I have worked in educational ministries in several congregations, as well as pastoring a church in the Midwest. My writing has focused on nonfiction essays, and I have recently submitted a theological memoir for publication. Creating Women Ministries is an adventure born of a blended love of God and writing, a website dedicated to encouraging theological dialogue, particularly among women, through workshops, journaling and personal spiritual development. Our site can be found at: www.creatingwomenministries.com. We can be reached by email at: creatingwomen@irun.com.
This is perhaps the most often asked question heard in
connection with the second coming, at least for Americans. It a
reasonable question for any North American to ask, but it is far
from easy to answer. I would be remiss if I were to say that the
Bible expressly names America in any passage from Genesis to
Revelation. That some passages may refer to America is very
possible but not provable and that is the very kind of
conjecture I will not entertain.
Naturally all the events surrounding the second coming of Christ
are global or universal in nature so they necessarily include
the United States. That the antichrist rules America for the
same short period he rules the rest of the world is covered in
Revelation 13:7. How he gets this powerful and fiercely
independent nation to cow to his will is probably the more
interesting question to try to answer.
Some people believe that America will be forced to comply with
antichrist after an invasion of our shores by a great Eurasian
pact of nations. Mostly, the invasion idea stems from the vision
of George Washington. In that vision it is said that Washington
told this story to his aide who in turn told it to someone else
just before he died at about the time of the civil war.
Washington was told that three great calamities would befall the
nation. Starting with the revolutionary war, following that the
civil war and finally some future war where America would be
invaded. My learned opinion of this vision is, “who knows?”
That America would require force to he pushed into the rule of
the antichrist is easy to believe but the force in question
could be of a different nature. The remaining two views of how
the United States is forced into the final pact of nations are
probably more tenable.
The antichrist does not act alone but he is aided by one the
scripture refers to as the false prophet. Rev. 16:13. 19:20.
20:10 We know little about who this person is today, hut what is
known about him is that he doesn’t come from the same region,
country and perhaps even the same hemisphere as the antichrist.
The antichrist rises up from out of the sea according to Rev.
13:1.
The false prophet rises up out of the land. Rev. 13:1 1-16. The
antichrist rules from the revived Roman Empire or The European
Union. Where the false prophet is stationed exactly is not known
but some think it will be America. This of course is
speculative, even though it is very possible. The false prophet
will probably not be connected to any religion, but it is most
likely he will be a political figure or a minister of science.
What he is may he uncertain, but the influence he wields over
the world is not. He is able to produce signs in the heavens and
draw fire down from heaven at will. Whether he does this
supernaturally through the aide of the devil or engages some
star wars type pyrotechnical display is also not known.
What is known is that his antics are very successful in
persuading the people on earth to give antichrist both credence
and rule. Some biblical scholars have thought that he could come
from America and while this is not known for sure, it gives rise
to the idea that America will he assuaged to join with
antichrist by his direct influence. But again, while it is very
possible, it is still only conjectural at this time. A third and
perhaps a far more likely scenario is that America will undergo
a collapse of all of its markets and financial institutions.
Following a collapse, a desperate nation may seek to join with
antichrist’s emerging economic systems that will be so
successful throughout much of the rest of the world at that
time. Not long ago I asked some people the question, what do you
think would be the most disastrous thing that could happen to
America and what would change its nature significantly, an all
out invasion of our shores or a complete and pervasive financial
collapse? The majority answered that it obviously would be the
collapse of our economy.
America is in the long stretch of the good times. We have many
years between us and the dust bowl days and the stock market
crash of twenty nine. World War Two is also far behind and the
post war boom has become a post war glut. Any people that might
decide to invade the shores of this powerful and fiercely proud
nation would be in great peril. But take away what Americans
really love, their affluence, money and material blessings and
you could make them dance to just about any tune. This is the
theorem that when applied to the question of how America joins
the great evil new world order is the most believable, if not
the most likely.
If the compunction to have more, drives a few to fraud, robbery
and murder, then what will the lack of almost all consumer goods
do to this nation? If history teaches us anything, the answer to
this question is not a pretty one.
Rev Bresciani is the author of two popular Christian books, one
on the second coming of Christ. He has hundreds of articles
published both online and in print. Visit the website at
www.americanprophet.com
Arguably the most bizarre command of Christ is found in
Matthew 5:29-30, where he tells us to pluck out our eyes or
cut off our hands if they cause us to sin. “It is better to enter
heaven blind and lame,” he says, “than to have a healthy
body and be cast into hell.”
This passage is often quoted as proof that Jesus never
meant for us to take him literally. To be honest, we’ve never
plucked out an eye or cut off a hand ourselves, and we know
of no saint who ever did. We have heard of a few mental
patients who did, however!
So maybe Jesus did not mean for it to be taken literally…
and if he did not mean for us to take that literally, then
maybe he didn’t mean for us to take anything else he said
literally either.
No way! We cannot accept that line of reasoning. If Jesus is
really the Son of God, then trying to make him conform to our
finite wisdom is blasphemy.
Let’s start with the mental patients. If you or I cut a hand off,
wouldn’t we be committed to a mental hospital too? So what
if the hand choppers aren’t all crazy?
And is it really true that people who are widely recognised
as being sane have never cut off a hand or plucked out an
eye? Check the medical records of any hospital and you’ll
find that amputations and organ removals are
commonplace. Life threatening conditions like gangrene or
cancer often lead people to take such extreme steps.
A railway worker in outback Australia was bitten on the hand
by a deadly brown snake. He had no hope of getting to a
hospital before the poison killed him. So he grabbed an axe
and chopped off his own hand. He was not locked up. In
fact, he was commended for his courage. Obviously he
showed good sense too. The loss of a hand was of lower
priority than life itself.
Try this experiment. Get a very sharp pocket knife and put it
in your pocket or purse for one day, with the understanding
that you will cut your hand off (or maybe just put a big gash
in it) before you will let it lead you into sin. Just do it for one
day. And see if you don’t think very seriously about everything
that you do that day.
With a knife in your pocket, you begin to confront the
seriousness of sin. It is so easy to make spiritually fatal
decisions without thinking about their consequences.
Physical threats are usually visible and immediate, so we
tend to act more quickly to avoid them. A chopped off hand
(or even the threat of it) might be just what we need to get
things back into correct perspective.
The whole context of Christ’s command was to show us
that, if physical life is worth such drastic action, then spiritual
life is worth even more. Most of us would lack the courage to
do what that railway worker did to save his physical life. But
we should be much more motivated if we thought that our
failure to act would mean eternal death. And in either case
we should be able to recognise the good sense of such an
action even if we lack the courage to do so ourselves.
Muslims practise such ‘atrocities’ as cutting off the hands of
thieves; and Jews teach “an eye for an eye”. America
actually executes dozens of people each year in the name of
morality. All Jesus asks is that we show this same kind of
discipline on our selves. Is that so bizarre?
And now for the loophole you’ve all been hoping for.
(Though, to be honest, if you don’t go through the stage of
being willing to cut off your hand or pluck out your eye, you
may not qualify for the loophole.)
Obviously it is not your hand or your eyes that actually cause
you to sin. Cutting a thief’s hand off does not stop the greed
that caused the theft in the first place.
What we need to think more seriously about is a ‘heart’
transplant! Jesus said “Where your treasure is, there will
your heart be.” (Matthew 6:21) And he says to forsake our
treasure if we want to be his disciple. (Luke 14:33) Paul
says the love of money is the root of all evil. (I Timothy 6:10)
So this is what we must cut out.
As extreme as amputation may be, most people would
rather lose an arm or leg than give up their wealth and their
source of income. But Jesus says to pick up that axe and
hack away at the real causes of sin in your life. We think he
is quite literal about forsaking the root of all evil.
Smash your pride. Pluck out your emotionalism. Cut off your
visible means of support. So that you can begin (right now!)
to live by faith in the eternal kingdom of heaven.
(See also the article “The Root of All Evil”.)
Dave McKay, and his wife Cherry, are co-founders of the
Jesus Christian communities, in Australia, England, Kenya,
and the U.S. The community is dedicated to at least
trying to literally obey the various teachings of Jesus.
Visit their website at http://www.jesuschristians.com or email
Dave at : fold@idl.net.au
ABOUT GOD
In determining why Christianity seems to have done so much harm
in society (the crusades, the inquisition etc), one has to
distinguish between people who have a relationship with Christ,
and the institution which calls itself Christian. An institution
can never be Christian.
Suffering comes about mostly because of the gift God gave us,
“free will”, which is the gift that allows us to choose whether
to love, or hate, which if the latter is chosen could cause much
suffering. Without free will, however, we could not really love
voluntarily. And without voluntary love, you just become a robot
who cannot possibly love. Also with free will, God chooses to
limit Himself as to His power as well as to His foreknowledge of
an individual’s future, although He does know the over-all
beneficial future of society. As I say, most suffering is caused
by our use of free will, but some suffering is also caused by
creation limitations, and spiritual warfare (because you can’t
see this really taking place, doesn’t mean it’s actually not
taking place). But this free will is also somewhat limited for
the individual in that one’s free will is greatly influenced by
generation after generation of free will decisions made by their
ancestors. And from looking at the world around us, one can see
that many of these decisions went in the wrong direction.
But then how do you know that there really is a God overseeing
all this? It’s in the creation. It’s illogical to assume that
chance really created rationality, so since we were actually
created with a desire for meaningfulness, which is a part of
rationality and a creator is always greater than his creation,
our creator must be greater in personhood (a God) than we are.
And our physical smallness compared to what’s out there in the
universe should be no criteria for our importance to God. After
all, we do have rationality. Another arguement for God’s
existence is that we being imperfect as we all know, but
continually striving for perfection, must have developed this
idea of perfection from someplace, and the most logical place
that we developed this from seems to be from a higher power (a
God, for instance). And finally, can you imagine a planet
spinning around the universe in perfect unison allowing human
life to evolve as it has for as long as it has without
completely breaking up with all its earthquakes and volcanoes
taking place without a God being in control.
So if there is a God, why doesn’t He seem to answer prayer? This
is a difficult question to answer, but it’s probably due to the
consequences of sin and spiritual warfare taking place around
us, although in our prayers one can experience God being with us
to comfort and heal us in any of the suffering we’re
encountering. The basic function of prayer, however, is to build
a faith relationship between God and ourselves, and petitionary
prayer is only a small part of this faith relationship. But with
petitionary prayer being the crux of the problem as to whether
prayer works or not, you can never scientifically prove that
petitionary prayer really works, because there are so many
interconnected variables to look at in God’s scheme of things.
Sometimes prayer seems to work, and sometimes it doesn’t, but
here you have to realize our loving God has a much broader
perspective as to what is really needed for society’s
betterment, than we do while we’re here on earth. And as I said
above, you also have to take into account the consequences of
sin, and spiritual warfare
ABOUT JESUS CHRIST
Who is Jesus Christ? According to Christians, Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. He is also our Savior in that He saved us from
our sin by suffering and dying on the cross and being raised
from the dead. He was God’s sacrifice for us. It was like
perfection saving imperfection. But we actually have to believe
in all this so that we can then become wrapped up in our belief,
or Jesus Christ, just like a Christmas package, so that when God
looks at us, all that He can see is His Son (perfection), or
Himself as if He were looking into a mirror. Now how do we know
all this? By reading the Gospels. But how do we know that the
Gospels are really trustworthy. To go into this, you have to
look at the Gospels, not as the literal Word of God, but as
historical documents. In doing this, you have to ask certain
questions about these documents . 1) Do the documents portray
eyewitness accounts. The Gospels do. 2) Do the documents contain
irrelevant material not pertinent to the eyewitness accounts?
Yes, they do. 3) Do the Gospels contain self-damaging material?
Yes, they do. For example,the boldness of some of the women
during this time period, and the statement Jesus made from the
cross when He cried out” My God, My God, Why have You forsaken
Me?” 4) Do all 4 Gospels have a consistency as well as a
divergency in perspectives? Yes, they do. 5) Do the Gospels
increase their legendary exaggeration? No, they don’t, even
though they do have some supernatural events in them. 6) Is
there any indication that the writers of the Gospels have an
ulterior motive for writing them? No, there isn’t. In fact they
could have faced persecution for writing them. 7) Can outside
sources from that time authenticate the Gospels? Yes, they can
and do. 
Do archeological findings substantiate many of the
Biblical events related to us in the Gospels? Yes, they do. And
9) Were there many opponents of the Gospels at the time that
could disprove the Gospels, but couldn’t? Yes, there were. These
are all questions that should be asked to determine whether a
document has historical merit or not. And if the answers are all
in the affirmative, except for questions 5 and 6, then the
document has historical authenticity. In this case from the
answers given above, the Gospels appear to be authentic
historical documents and can be used as historical evidence for
the life of Jesus Christ. But there still seem to be many
historical discrepencies within the Gospels. This actually can
be explained away by realizing that the Gospels were never
intended to be a biographical sketch of Jesus Christ, although
there was much biographical material contained therein. The
purpose of the Gospels was really to convey a message of
salvation for the readers. In doing this, the discrepencies then
become irrelevent. And finally the authorship and date that the
Gospels were written are not essential elements to the
credibility as to what the Gospels actually say, although from
the Book of Acts it does seem to say that at least the first
three Gospels were written before 60 AD, and that the authorship
of Luke is almost a certainty, whereas the authorship of the
other Gospels are closer to a certainty than not. But the bottom
line is that there is enough historical authenticity in the
Gospels to make them worth-while reading.
As I say, in general, the Gospels are historically reliable, but
how about the resurrection? Here too, you have enough historical
criteria to indicate that the resurrection actually took place.
For instance, 1) There are 5 independent sources to indicate
that the event took place (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and
Paul),with each giving individual eyewitness accounts of the
occasion. 2) Jesus’s tomb was empty with His burial clothes
neatly folded inside the tomb. This could have been easily
checked out at the time by those opposed to the story. 3) The
church’s sudden growth a few weeks after the resurrection. 4)
The resurrection accounts also have many irrevelant material and
some self-damaging material (such as the role of women in the
event) that are common to early eyewitness based accounts. 5)
There is a total lack of theological reflection in the narrative
which is not true for most legendary accounts. 6) The conversion
of Paul is unexplained without the resurrection. 7)Paul lists
over 500 witnesses to the resurrection (1 Cor 15) who could
always be cross-examined. The transformation of the Disciples
which was a miracle considering their character before the
resurrection. And 9) There is no motive for the authors to
fabricate the story. They had nothing to gain, and everything to
lose (their lives). Now does the resurrection prove that Jesus
was also God Incarnate? No it doesn’t, but if you can take the
Gospels as reliable historical documents, you find that Jesus
does make such statements in them as, “I and the Father are
one”, “If you see Me, you see the Father”, and “He who believes
in Me, believes in the Father who sent Me”. This seems to show
that Jesus really believed that He was God incarnate. And if the
Gospels were fabricated, wouldn’t the story have ended
differently before the crucifixion?