Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening (Devotional) - Saturday, April 27, 2013

Morning

"God, even our own God."
Psalm 67:6

It is strange how little use we make of the spiritual blessings which God gives us, but it is stranger still how little use we make of God himself. Though he is "our own God," we apply ourselves but little to him, and ask but little of him. How seldom do we ask counsel at the hands of the Lord! How often do we go about our business, without seeking his guidance! In our troubles how constantly do we strive to bear our burdens ourselves, instead of casting them upon the Lord, that he may sustain us! This is not because we may not, for the Lord seems to say, "I am thine, soul, come and make use of me as thou wilt; thou mayst freely come to my store, and the oftener the more welcome." It is our own fault if we make not free with the riches of our God. Then, since thou hast such a friend, and he invites thee, draw from him daily. Never want whilst thou hast a God to go to; never fear or faint whilst thou hast God to help thee; go to thy treasure and take whatever thou needest--there is all that thou canst want. Learn the divine skill of making God all things to thee. He can supply thee with all, or, better still, he can be to thee instead of all. Let me urge thee, then, to make use of thy God. Make use of him in prayer. Go to him often, because he is thy God. O, wilt thou fail to use so great a privilege? Fly to him, tell him all thy wants. Use him constantly by faith at all times. If some dark providence has beclouded thee, use thy God as a "sun;" if some strong enemy has beset thee, find in Jehovah a "shield," for he is a sun and shield to his people. If thou hast lost thy way in the mazes of life, use him as a "guide," for he will direct thee. Whatever thou art, and wherever thou art, remember God is just what thou wantest, and just where thou wantest, and that he can do all thou wantest.

Evening

"The Lord is King forever and ever."
Psalm 10:16

Jesus Christ is no despotic claimant of divine right, but he is really and truly the Lord's anointed! "It hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell." God hath given to him all power and all authority. As the Son of man, he is now head over all things to his church, and he reigns over heaven, and earth, and hell, with the keys of life and death at his girdle. Certain princes have delighted to call themselves kings by the popular will, and certainly our Lord Jesus Christ is such in his church. If it could be put to the vote whether he should be King in the church, every believing heart would crown him. O that we could crown him more gloriously than we do! We would count no expense to be wasted that could glorify Christ. Suffering would be pleasure, and loss would be gain, if thereby we could surround his brow with brighter crowns, and make him more glorious in the eyes of men and angels. Yes, he shall reign. Long live the King! All hail to thee, King Jesus! Go forth, ye virgin souls who love your Lord, bow at his feet, strew his way with the lilies of your love, and the roses of your gratitude: "Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all." Moreover, our Lord Jesus is King in Zion by right of conquest: he has taken and carried by storm the hearts of his people, and has slain their enemies who held them in cruel bondage. In the Red Sea of his own blood, our Redeemer has drowned the Pharaoh of our sins: shall he not be King in Jeshurun? He has delivered us from the iron yoke and heavy curse of the law: shall not the Liberator be crowned? We are his portion, whom he has taken out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword and with his bow: who shall snatch his conquest from his hand? All hail, King Jesus! we gladly own thy gentle sway! Rule in our hearts forever, thou lovely Prince of Peace.

Pastor Shirley Ceasar- I remember Momma

Can't Even Walk by Shirley Caesar

IT WASN'T EASY - CECE WINANS LIVE

My Redeemer Lives

Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening - Devotional - Friday, April 26, 2013

Morning

"This do in remembrance of me."
1 Corinthians 11:24

It seems then, that Christians may forget Christ! There could be no need for this loving exhortation, if there were not a fearful supposition that our memories might prove treacherous. Nor is this a bare supposition: it is, alas! too well confirmed in our experience, not as a possibility, but as a lamentable fact. It appears almost impossible that those who have been redeemed by the blood of the dying Lamb, and loved with an everlasting love by the eternal Son of God, should forget that gracious Saviour; but, if startling to the ear, it is, alas! too apparent to the eye to allow us to deny the crime. Forget him who never forgot us! Forget him who poured his blood forth for our sins! Forget him who loved us even to the death! Can it be possible? Yes, it is not only possible, but conscience confesses that it is too sadly a fault with all of us, that we suffer him to be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night. He whom we should make the abiding tenant of our memories is but a visitor therein. The cross where one would think that memory would linger, and unmindfulness would be an unknown intruder, is desecrated by the feet of forgetfulness. Does not your conscience say that this is true? Do you not find yourselves forgetful of Jesus? Some creature steals away your heart, and you are unmindful of him upon whom your affection ought to be set. Some earthly business engrosses your attention when you should fix your eye steadily upon the cross. It is the incessant turmoil of the world, the constant attraction of earthly things which takes away the soul from Christ. While memory too well preserves a poisonous weed, it suffereth the rose of Sharon to wither. Let us charge ourselves to bind a heavenly forget-me-not about our hearts for Jesus our Beloved, and, whatever else we let slip, let us hold fast to him.
 

 

Evening

"Blessed is he that watcheth."
Revelation 16:15

"We die daily," said the apostle. This was the life of the early Christians; they went everywhere with their lives in their hands. We are not in this day called to pass through the same fearful persecutions: if we were, the Lord would give us grace to bear the test; but the tests of Christian life, at the present moment, though outwardly not so terrible, are yet more likely to overcome us than even those of the fiery age. We have to bear the sneer of the world--that is little; its blandishments, its soft words, its oily speeches, its fawning, its hypocrisy, are far worse. Our danger is lest we grow rich and become proud, lest we give ourselves up to the fashions of this present evil world, and lose our faith. Or if wealth be not the trial, worldly care is quite as mischievous. If we cannot be torn in pieces by the roaring lion, if we may be hugged to death by the bear, the devil little cares which it is, so long as he destroys our love to Christ, and our confidence in him. I fear me that the Christian church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft and silken days than in those rougher times. We must be awake now, for we traverse the enchanted ground, and are most likely to fall asleep to our own undoing, unless our faith in Jesus be a reality, and our love to Jesus a vehement flame. Many in these days of easy profession are likely to prove tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true-born children of the living God. Christian, do not think that these are times in which you can dispense with watchfulness or with holy ardour; you need these things more than ever, and may God the eternal Spirit display his omnipotence in you, that you may be able to say, in all these softer things, as well as in the rougher, "We are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

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http://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/morning-and-evening/ 

Do you know the answer to this equation?

Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening (Devotional) - Tuesday, April 23, 2013

 

 

Morning

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."
Romans 8:37

We go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to the law for power to fight our sins. Paul thus rebukes us, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Take your sins to Christ's cross, for the old man can only be crucified there: we are crucified with him. The only weapon to fight sin with is the spear which pierced the side of Jesus. To give an illustration--you want to overcome an angry temper; how do you go to work? It is very possible you have never tried the right way of going to Jesus with it. How did I get salvation? I came to Jesus just as I was, and I trusted him to save me. I must kill my angry temper in the same way. It is the only way in which I can ever kill it. I must go to the cross with it, and say to Jesus, "Lord, I trust thee to deliver me from it." This is the only way to give it a death-blow. Are you covetous? Do you feel the world entangle you? You may struggle against this evil so long as you please, but if it be your besetting sin, you will never be delivered from it in any way but by the blood of Jesus. Take it to Christ. Tell him, "Lord, I have trusted thee, and thy name is Jesus, for thou dost save thy people from their sins: Lord, this is one of my sins; save me from it!" Ordinances are nothing without Christ as a means of mortification. Your prayers, and your repentances, and your tears--the whole of them put together--are worth nothing apart from him. "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good;" or helpless saints either. You must be conquerors through him who hath loved you, if conquerors at all. Our laurels must grow among his olives in Gethsemane.
 

 

Evening

"Lo, in the midst of the throne ... stood a Lamb as it had been slain."
Revelation 5:6

Why should our exalted Lord appear in his wounds in glory? The wounds of Jesus are his glories, his jewels, his sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is passing fair because he is "white and ruddy:" white with innocence, and ruddy with his own blood. We see him as the lily of matchless purity, and as the rose crimsoned with his own gore. Christ is lovely upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea, but oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as he that did hang upon the cross. There we beheld all his beauties in perfection, all his attributes developed, all his love drawn out, all his character expressed. Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more fair in our eyes than all the splendour and pomp of kings. The thorny crown is more than an imperial diadem. It is true that he bears not now the sceptre of reed, but there was a glory in it that never flashed from sceptre of gold. Jesus wears the appearance of a slain Lamb as his court dress in which he wooed our souls, and redeemed them by his complete atonement. Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ: they are the trophies of his love and of his victory. He has divided the spoil with the strong. He has redeemed for himself a great multitude whom no man can number, and these scars are the memorials of the fight. Ah! if Christ thus loves to retain the thought of his sufferings for his people, how precious should his wounds be to us!

"Behold how every wound of his

A precious balm distils,

Which heals the scars that sin had made,

And cures all mortal ills.

"Those wounds are mouths that preach his grace;

The ensigns of his love;

The seals of our expected bliss

In paradise above."

Life Is Too Short To Worry

 

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure."

- Hellen Keller

Can Your Child Be Too Religious?

Religion can be a source of comfort that improves well-being. But some kinds of religiosity could be a sign of deeper mental health issues.

Seeing their kids more eager to pray than play video games, most parents would shout, “Hallelujah” or whatever their expression of joy. And they should. Research shows that religion can be a positive force in the lives of children, just as can be for adults. “Religion,” says Bill Hathaway, a clinical psychologist of religion and Dean of the School of Psychology and Counseling at Regent University, “is related to the child having a higher sense of self esteem, better academic adjustment and lower rates of substance abuse and delinquent or criminal behavior.”

So if your child is immersed in scripture after school and prays regularly throughout the day, you may breathe a sigh of relief. She’s such a good girl. My boy is okay.

Or maybe not. Your child’s devotion may be a great thing, but there are some kids whose religious observances require a deeper look. For these children, an overzealous practice of their family faith — or even another faith — may be a sign of an underlying mental health issue or a coping mechanism for dealing with unaddressed trauma or stress.

(MORE: How Faith and Health Go Hand in Hand)

Therapists in private practice report that they are seeing children and teens across a range of faiths whose religious practice can be problematic. The amount of time they spend praying, or in other acts of spiritual practice, is not as important, they say, as the quality of this devotion, and whether it helps the children or instead isolates them and undermines their schoolwork and relationships. Children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), for example, may rigidly repeat holy verses, say Hail Mary’s or focus on other rituals less out of a deeper sense of faith but more as an expression of their disorder. “It looks positive but could be negative,” says Stephanie Mihalas, a UCLA professor and licensed clinical psychologist.

Such ritualistic behavior, she says, may also reflect a child’s way of coping with anxiety, and in reality could be no more spiritual than fanatical hand washing or dreading to walk on cracks. “These kids fear that if they don’t obey their religious rules perfectly,” explains Carole Lierberman, MD, a psychiatrist in Beverly Hills, “God will punish them.”

(MORE: Religion’s Secret to Happiness: It’s Friends, Not Faith)

Some children suffer from scrupulosity, a form of OCD that involves a feeling of guilt and shame. Sufferers obsessively worry that they have committed blasphemy, been impure or otherwise sinned. They tend to focus on certain rules or rituals rather than the whole of their faith. They worry that God will never forgive them. And this can signal the onset of depression or anxiety, says John Duffy, a Chicago area clinical psychologist specializing in adolescents. “Kids who have made ‘mistakes’ with sex or drug use,” he says, “may have trouble forgiving themselves.”

Such fastidiousness to religious practices may not seem so harmful, but extreme behavior such as delusions or hallucinations may be a sign of serious mental illness. Seeing and hearing things that are not there can be symptoms of manic-depressive, bipolar disorder, or early onset schizophrenia. But parents may be less attuned to such unhealthy behavior when it occurs under the guise of faith.

(MORE: The Biology of Belief)

It’s not unusual that children in families where marital discord, harsh discipline, abuse, or addiction are present, perform rituals for protection. If they know their parents approve of religion, says Lieberman, “they try to be good little children and stay below the radar of the family chaos or parents’ rage.” Or, as Mihalas has seen, some children push their already observant parents to be even stricter, fearing that catastrophe will strike otherwise.

When does religiosity raise these red flags? The crucial test focuses on how the kids are functioning in the rest of their lives. Are they doing well at school, playing sports or music, socializing with friends? If so, then their faith is probably a source of strength and resilience. If, however, the religious practices and rituals seem to be overtaking their daily lives, and displacing their normal activities, experts suggest taking steps to understand what’s triggering the focus on faith. To guide the discussion, here’s what they recommend:

Model a healthy balance between religion and life

Show them in your own behavior, suggests Mihalas, how religion can co-exist with enjoying life.

If your child switches to a different style of religion, be tolerant

If your children are doing well in other areas of their life, don’t panic, says Hathaway. Unless you feel strongly that they are morally wrong, take this shift in stride.

Be alert to a sudden and pervasive shift in religious practice

Talk to your child about it. Ask her what her religion means to her. Ask him what he is getting out of it, how it makes him feel.

If you feel your child needs help, find a therapist comfortable with religion

Before engaging a therapist, ask about his or her comfort level with devout religious practice.

Religious families need not worry that therapy will draw their child away from their faith, Hathaway says. He recalls one girl struggling with anorexia who felt that she could never be “good enough” to satisfy the harsh, judgmental God of her imagination. After psychological treatment that included a spiritual element, she not only recovered from her anorexia, she developed a more positive view of God, of other people and herself. Instead of being weighed down by guilt and anxiety, her spiritual life became a comfort and joy. And that’s the role that religion should have for people of faith.
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Courtesy of Francine Russo and written for for Time
http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/28/can-your-child-be-too-religious/

Breathe by Michael W. Smith

Scriptures Relating to Flags/Banners

Scriptures of Flags (Banners)

Psalm 20:5 - “We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.”

Song of Songs 2:4 -  “He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.”

Song of Songs 6:4 -  “You are beautiful, my darling as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, majestic as troops with banners.

Exodus 17:15  - “Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.
 

1 Corinthians 1:27 -  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty KJV

Psalms 149:3 -  Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. KJV

Psalms 150:4 -  Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. KJV

Psalms 60:4 - Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. KJV

Song of Solomon 2:4 -  He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. KJV



THE WEAPON OF PRAISE: Psalm 150

“Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATHE PRAISE THE LORD. Praise the Lord.

When we give praise to the Lord, we are in a spiritual battle. We may be totally unaware of it, but the battle is there! This is my favorite army position. As we are giving praise and worship to the Lord, we become so delighted in his presence and his greatness, that we usually are unaware of the spiritual battle going on. Don’t be fooled. This isn’t just a pretty scene of colorful, fun looking flags. This is a battle. While we exalt Jesus, we tear down the enemy’s camp at the same time. However our focus should always be on the Lord our God while we worship!

When a shout was given out from the army of Joshua the walls of Jericho fell. David killed Golitith with a mere stone! Samspson had supernatural strength with his uncut hair. Though there was no power in the yell, stone or hair itself, they became mighty weapons. A stone on it’s own has no power, but add faith with it and it becomes a massive destructive weapon. Dangerous enough to kill the enemy! That is like worship flags and accessories. There is no power in the flags themselves, however the power comes in what we proclaim with them as we use them. Then they become destructive weapons, which disable the enemy!

Flag Color Symbols

It has been my experience that each colour has a specific meaning. May I suggest that you be sensitive to the Holy Spirits leading, as you prepare to worship through flagging. He will guide you as to what colour to use, depending on what the Holy Spirit chooses to communicate through you and the flags. So please prayerfully consider your colour choice. Below, I have listed several colours and their meaning.

Gold - Glory, Deity, Godhead, Divine Light

Silver - Word of God, Righteousness, Wisdom

Royal Blue - Priesthood, Holy Spirit, Truth

Red - Blood of Jesus, Cleansing, Atonement, War, Life

Green - Praise, Mercy, Prosperity, New Beginning, Healing

Purple - Royalty, Kingship, Power, Majesty, Kingdom Authority Fuchsia Pink - Joy, Compassion, Passion for Jesus, Bridegrooms Heart

White - Purity

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Courtesy of Touching Heaven

Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate: Forgiveness Heals But It's Often Not An Easy Thing To Give

Watch Atonement on PBS. See more from Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate.

In the new PBS film Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate, acclaimed writer, producer and director Helen Whitney explores a compelling range of stories, from personal betrayal to global reconciliation after genocide.


Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate provides an intimate look into the spontaneous outpouring of forgiveness: from the Amish families for the 2006 shooting of their children in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania; the struggle of '60s radicals to cope with the serious consequences of their violent acts of protest; the shattering of a family after the mother abandons them, only to return seeking forgiveness; the legacy and divisiveness of apartheid and the aftermath of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in South Africa; the penitential journey of a modern-day Germany, confronting the horrific acts of the Holocaust; and the riveting stories of survivors of the unimaginably, brutal Rwandan genocide.

Once a uniquely religious word, forgiveness now is changing and there is no consensus about what it is and what it is becoming. However you define forgiveness, its power is real — and never more so when it struggles with the unforgivable. Inevitably, as Whitney reveals, its new role in the world raises serious and complex questions: why is forgiveness in the air today; what does that say about us and the times we live in; what are its power, its limitations and in some instances its dangers; has it been cheapened or deepened... or both?


                                      "If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive."
                                                             –Mother Teresa

People across the globe, from all cultures and traditions, embrace love and forgiveness in daily life. These values are universally viewed as central to the fabric of humanity. Yet, the emerging global community has few institutions dedicated to deepening the understanding and spreading the application of these values. In this context, the Fetzer Institute pursues a unique role—working to investigate, activate, and celebrate the power of love and forgiveness as a practical force for good in today’s world.

The Fetzer Institute launched The Campaign for Love and Forgiveness in 2006 as an experiment in capacity building and community building at the grassroots level. The campaign has touched thousands of people by inviting them to bring love and forgiveness to the center of individual and community life.

Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate is designed to encourage contemplation and spark conversation. The Institute invites viewers to engage with additional resources developed by The Campaign for Love and Forgiveness including curriculum-based conversations and activities.


Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate is written, produced and directed by Helen Whitney. Executive producers are Paul Dietrich and Ian Watson. WETA executive producers are Dalton Delan and David S. Thompson.

• Download the Conversations About Forgiveness Facilitator Guide (6.1 MB) for information, suggestions, and tools for facilitating conversations about forgiveness in your community, organization, or school. For more Forgiveness video:

• Filmmaker Helen Whitney discusses her latest project, Forgiveness: A Time to Love and A Time to Hate.

• Helen Whitney discusses her hopes for Forgiveness: A Time to Love and A Time to Hate.

• Author Terri Jentz tells her personal story of being savagely attacked while camping as a college student, her search for her attacker and justice, and, ultimately, her journey from denial and depression to righteous anger and health.

• 1960's anti-war activist Kathy Power talks about her surrender to authorities after decades on the run, her imprisonment and search for forgiveness from the Schroeder family.

• Hear the story of Dan Glick and his former wife Liesbeth Gerritsen, whose family is torn apart by Liesbeth's decision to leave to start a new life thousands of miles away. Her family grapples with the idea of Forgiveness.

• The Rwandan genocide of 1994 is examined through first-hand witness testimony. It brings up the question, can forgiveness can be legislated by a natio

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Courtesy of http://www.pbs.org/programs/forgiveness/

A Reminder of The Dangers of Dating Online

Watch More News Videos at ABC | Technology News | Celebrity News

 

 

ChristianMingle Date Rape Victims Sought by California Cops

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN (@GoldmanRussell)
Feb. 18, 2013

A suspected rapist accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met on ChristianMingle.com may have used the dating site to prey on women while he traveled across the country, California police said today.

Sean Patrick Banks, 37, a former Navy sailor, used a fake name to contact a woman who he allegedly raped in November, cops in La Mesa, Calif., said. Investigators believe that he used additional aliases to contact other women on the popular website and police hope that if there are additional victims they will recognize Banks.

Banks lives in Del Mar, Calif., and is currently unemployed but previously "travelled frequently around various spots in the U.S." for work, widening the search for potential victims from Southern California to across the country, said La Mesa Police spokesman Lt. Matt Nicholass.

"We're looking to see if there are any other victims," Nicholass told ABCNews.com. "We're trying to locate other victims who recognize him by his face, because they may not know his real name is Sean."

Cops accuse Banks of posing on the site as "Rylan Butterwood" and "Rylan Harbough."

His alleged use of fake names complicated police efforts to track him down after a La Mesa woman accused him of rape at her home in November on their first face-to-face date.

"La Mesa police tried to identify him for a couple of months," Nicholass said, adding that a break in the case came after ChristianMingle.com turned over computer records that helped cops identify Banks.

Banks was charged with two counts of rape and pleaded not guilty. He posted bond of $500,000 and was released. Calls to several numbers associated with Banks were not returned. Authorities did not know if he had obtained an attorney.

"We continue to assist the La Mesa police department with its investigation in every way possible. The safety and security of our members is extremely important to us," ChristianMingle.com said in a statement through spokeswoman Arielle Schechtman. "In addition to having experts manually review all profile content and photos, we have developed several proprietary, automated tools to ensure the highest possible level of safety and privacy for our communities." 
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Courtesy of  http://abcnews.go.com/US/christianmingle-date-rape-victims-sought-california-cops/story?id=18531150#.UWtLUUp4_8h

Crisis and Faith: How Losing Almost Everything Can Help You See What Matters

 

Martin Spinelli
Author, 'After the Crash'

My 4-year-old son Lio had been in a coma for more than a week. While his bed was about to be changed, I maneuvered myself around all the tubes and wires and slid my hand under his back up to his head. With my other arm under his knees, I carefully lifted him up onto my lap and sat down in the vinyl-covered chair beside his bed. I wasn't expecting his skin to be so warm and I let myself feel a bit comforted.

After seeing me hold him, his grandmother (my mother) wrote in her diary that the sight of Lio draped in my arms reminded her of one of the most well-known Easter images: The Pietà, that famous Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding Jesus after the after the crucifixion. She finished by saying, "Lio will come back to us too."

In the past I've often found words like this a bit difficult to take in. It's almost as if that most famous Christian miracle, like the miracle I was praying for (that Lio would defy the doctors and cheat death himself), could be undone or made impossible by speaking about it in such an obvious way. Maybe this is more my problem than it is my mother's. But her attempts to describe the indescribable have caused me a crisis of faith because I know that words are slippery things that often suggest the opposite of what they say on the surface. But sometimes in life crises are really second chances in disguise.

My crisis began 10 days earlier. It was going to be the most important day of my career: I was scheduled to give the keynote address at a huge international media conference in Sunderland, in the north of England. I had worked all my life that moment: I had published journal articles and written reviews; I made ambitious and challenging radio for the BBC and for NPR stations; my work was in museums; and I had just traded in my good academic gig in New York for an even better one at a university in the U.K. I felt like I was at the top of my game, I was driven and striving, with this constant itch to be forever notching up more lines on my résumé.

As it happened, I never got the chance to deliver my amazing talk on new ways of making radio. Instead, I was met at my hotel by two policemen who lacked the usual swagger and who were struggling to look me in the eye. They told me that there had been an accident on the highway and that my wife Sasha had been killed and that our son Lio was very near death in a hospital in London. I collapsed into the chair behind me and, as I struggled to process what I'd just been told, the person I'd been all my adult life simply died too -- and died quickly.

Three hours later I was by Lio's side in pediatric intensive care. The space was dark and windowless, lit mostly by the small red LEDs of medical equipment. There, surrounded by a halo of computer screens, I found my only child with a fractured skull, severe brain damage and a horribly shattered left leg. It was suggested that I consider donating his organs. Doctors told me he would likely not make it and told me that the best, the absolute best-case scenario that I should allow myself to hope for was Lio one day attending a school for the severely mentally handicapped. Absolutely everything I'd ever wanted for my life and for my son's life had evaporated in a matter of hours.

But as I looked at him, bruised and battered as he was on his hospital bed, something began to fill the void. I don't know where it came from or how I came by it, but I was getting something. I had lost my wife, but at least -- at least in that moment -- I still had our little boy. As I stood there, my thumb wedged in his tiny clenched fist, I found myself saying, "I will face this. Nothing will stop me doing what needs to be done, saving Lio and getting him out of here. He will do it." Then I found myself seeing the rest of my life unfolding, and unfolding happily, pulling Lio back from this precipice. I had been burnt empty by fear, but this little meditation that I somehow stumbled onto was putting something back, and while the fear would swallow me again and again I would again and again fall back on a version of this little pep talk.

The next morning Lio was still with us. And with this simple fact in mind the tiny kernel of faith that I had nourished by his bedside all night long stirred and grew a little bit. Gradually, with infinitesimally small steps and in the face of some brutal and devastating setbacks, Lio got better over the next days: He was taken off of his respirator and breathed on his own, unaided, when I'd been told that this might never happen. His brain started regulating his body temperature on its own again. And his muscles, initially as tight as steel springs, began to loosen.

How and why these improvements happened, no one seemed sure, given, as the doctors were fond of saying, "the original nature of his injuries." I like to think that I had something to do with it. I almost never left his bedside. I would read to him from his favorite books. I would spin out for him over and over again the magical stories that his mother and I had invented about elves and dragons and a littler miller boy who lived in the Italian Alps, stories that had been a part of his bedtime routine since he was a toddler. I would trace little lines and circles with my fingers along his face and his limbs four times a day while special brain stimulating music was playing to him in headphones.

With each incremental movement he made in the right direction, I collected another piece of my heart. In those moments and through that closeness I discovered something. I came by a profound sense of meaning and a knowledge of what I was really meant to be: not a high-flying academic, but a father -- the best father I was capable of being. Where the old me was hounded by a non-stop restlessness, an ambition to always be achieving more and having more, there, in those quiet and anonymous moments at my unconscious son's side, I found my purpose. I felt a clarity that had eluded me my whole life. Sometimes today, if I get too distracted by more traditional ambitions, I push myself to remember that clarity.

The moment when I held Lio in my arms for the first time after the crash, the moment that my mother thought looked like The Pietà, will stay with me forever. As I held him warm and broken in my arms, something happened that even I wasn't expecting. He opened his eyes. Like a newborn baby doing it for the first time, he opened his eyes for me. I can't honestly say whether they were focused or not, but he did open his eyes. As I looked at him and (maybe) he looked at me, everything else in the world stopped and I stared transfixed for the first time in 10 days into the blue of his eyes. I was lost in simply their color. There it was, beyond any subjective hope, a sign that Lio was really and truly on his way out of a coma.

The word "rebirth" is certainly a bit worn out, clichéd at best and tedious at worst. But after what we've been through, I find myself making an effort to be more charitable with other people's words, not just my mother's. The crisis of the crash -- six years ago now -- changed me in ways that I'm still coming to grips with. Perhaps most importantly, faith, in both general and specific senses, is now something that I don't shy away from, that I don't seek to avoid either as a sensation or a topic of conversation. In fact, faith has become an odd kind of tether to those terrible early days in the hospital. It's a conduit to the purpose, meaning and love I found there in those dark moments by my son's bedside, days which remain, in the strangest of ways, the most contented of my life.
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Courtesy of  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-spinelli/crisis-and-faith-how-losing-almost-everything-can-help-you-see-what-matters_b_3040028.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

King's 'Birmingham Jail' Letter Response Arrives After 50 Years

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

By Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

(RNS) Fifty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged white church leaders to confront racism, an ecumenical network has responded to his "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

"We proclaim that, while our context today is different, the call is the same as in 1963 -- for followers of Christ to stand together, to work together, and to struggle together for justice," declared Christian Churches Together in the USA in a 20-page document.

The statement, which is linked to an April 14-15 ecumenical gathering in Birmingham, Ala., includes confessions from church bodies about their silence and slow pace in addressing racial injustice.

"The church must lead rather than follow in the march toward justice," it says.

In April 1963, King scribbled his letter on newspaper margins in a cell in Birmingham, responding to an open letter from eight white clergymen -- one Catholic priest, six Protestants and a rabbi -- who had called on the civil rights movement to opt for negotiations rather than demonstrations. King had been jailed for helping organize nonviolent protests.

In the letter King said that he was disappointed with white moderates who "see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist."

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," the Baptist preacher and civil rights icon wrote in one famous passage.

Five decades later, CCT leaders are releasing a response that elaborates on specific passages of King's letter, calling for partnerships to confront societal inequities in the nation's neighborhoods, schools and prisons.

"Sunday morning remains the most segregated time in our nation," they acknowledged.

Experts say it may be the first time an organization has directly answered King's letter.

Jonathan Rieder, author of the new book "Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a Nation," said many reporters initially ignored the letter.

The Christian Century, a prominent mainline Protestant magazine, published it and included an address for readers to send donations to King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he said.

"As far as most people know, this is the first institutional response that seems to be trying to answer the letter in some sense," said Rieder, a professor of sociology at Barnard College, Columbia University.

The Rev. Carlos Malave, executive director of CCT, said one of the key parts of the new document is its appendix, which includes confessions from several "families" of churches -- evangelical/Pentecostal, Catholic, historic Protestant and Orthodox.

"The churches are taking responsibility for their inability to really ... step up throughout the last few years to the challenge and the call that Dr. King and the letter places to the Christian leaders," he said.

The evangelicals' confession notes they have taken "far too long" to acknowledge and repent for "pervasive racism in our midst," and often do not understand structural racism. Catholics lamented that racism has hindered leadership development and "full participation in parish life." Historic Protestants confessed to "unwelcoming pews." And Orthodox Christians acknowledged slighting "the liturgy after the liturgy" that involves transforming society.

"It wasn't the historic African-American family that really called for the response," said the Rev. Stephen Thurston, president of the CCT subgroup of black denominational leaders. "It came out of the collaboration with other families and their real concern about a real transparent response to the King letter."

The Rev. Virgil Wood, a longtime Baptist minister who worked with King for 10 years on the SCLC's national board, gives the leaders credit for what they've done so far.

"It's an excellent start but it's only a start," he said, "because it does not address some of the critical things that now have to be done."

Wood said churches must now address the root causes of poverty and use King's principles to improve the global economy.

"I applaud the distance these groups are willing to go but there is no reconciliation without restitution and I don't hear the note of restitution being sounded enough," he added.

One of the catalysts for the document was CCT's meeting in Birmingham in 2011, when members visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and viewed the bars behind which King sat and wrote the letter.

The CCT will hold a symbolic signing of its response to King during a two-day symposium in Birmingham that includes speeches from clergy and civil rights leaders about "the way forward." It concludes on Monday (April 15), the day before the date placed on King's letter.

CCT leaders, including Evangelicals for Social Action founder Ron Sider, who chaired the committee that drafted the response, expect that their work to address King's call will continue after the anniversary.

"Our words will remain cheap and empty," Sider said in remarks he has prepared for the Birmingham program, "unless we allow God to move us to new, more vigorous action."
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 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/13/kings-birmingham-jail-letter-response-arrives-after-50-years_n_3077933.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

As a Christian, do you believe in out of body and near death experiences?

 

I died. I saw God … then I just woke up.”

That was how 87-year-old Laura Duterte Banzon described in Cebuano what she said was the most extraordinary experience in her life.

Banzon, then 26, was afflicted with acute pneumonia and was brought to Sacred Heart Hospital in Cebu City in 1952. Two days later, she died.

An hour after she was declared clinically dead, she roused back to life.

Her physician, Dr. Dayday Borbon, considered it a miracle when her patient recovered from her ailment and didn’t suffer any side effects during the 60 minutes that her heart didn’t beat.

A woman of faith, Banzon believed that the miracle that happened 61 years ago was simply a reminder that people should not question the existence of God. Her experience also made her a devotee of the Holy Child Jesus, whose feast day is held every third Sunday of January through Cebu City’s biggest and grandest celebration, the Sinulog.

Lifelessness

Banzon described her state of lifelessness in the hospital.

She saw herself lying on the bed while her family was crying. Then a narrow road that could barely fit a person appeared on the side of the window. It was long, steep and bright, but dark on the sides.

She followed the path and heard a voice telling her to sit beside him. “Sit to my right, daughter,” she was told.

The man was tall with deep-set brown eyes and was wearing a snowy robe with a blue-green shroud. She thought that man was St. Peter, but looking intently at his eyes, she felt his sacredness and thought she was seeing God.

Little angels flew across the cloudless white sky. All had tiny wings and were smiling. Some were playing while others were talking.

The man told her that they were children who died at a very young age.

No sun, moon or stars, but a garden of flowers with different colors as if these were plucked out from a painting. One thing she noticed: it was a very peaceful place.

The man told her that it was not her time yet. So she had to go back.

“An angel will escort you back,” the voice said.

Sto. Niño

Then she woke up. Her family was speechless.

The experience strengthened Banzon’s faith, especially on the Holy Child Jesus.

During the feast of the Sto. Niño, she would make sure she would join the foot processions, as well as the nine-day novena Masses.

But two years ago, she slipped inside her “sari-sari” store and suffered a leg fracture. She underwent surgery to replace a femur at Velez General Hospital. Her physician Dr. Alejandro Mediano, advised her to refrain from too much walking.

Her condition had stopped Banzon from joining the religious activities. She had to content herself with watching the live TV coverage of the procession and offering a prayer to the Sto. Niño.

Banzon lives with her husband, Manuel, 86, on F. Ramos Street in Cebu City. She has six children and 18 grandchildren.

The devotee said she tried to live a pious life.

“We will all meet God soon. That is why we should be good. We should feel ashamed if we remain sinful. We must be ready to meet Him,” she said.

Banzon said she was happy that God gave her 61 more years to enjoy life. Now, she is more than willing to meet him a second time. 

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 Courtesy of http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/342921/a-devotees-story-of-death-and-faith

Flag Ministry

Biblical Color Meaning in the Bible

"When God appeared unto Noah after the flood, and placed a rainbow in the sky, He did much more than shows him a phenomenon. 

In the seven colors, beginning with red and ending with purple, God was displaying a natural miracle that demonstrated the complete redemption of man". - Antipas/M. Stewart

This is a compilation of many interpretations of biblical colors meaning that I have collected over the last several years.  I hope that you find it biblical and authentic.  

From Genesis to Revelations the Word of God is full of symbolic (biblical) color meaning.  Using colors to express how we feel towards God in dramatic worship (with banners) can be very therapeutic and beneficial to us and a blessing to God's people. 

I have found that when we enjoy worshipping the Lord He enjoys receiving our worship.  Blessing and strengthening and uplifting the Body of Christ uplift and unify the Lord's work. 

I hope that you will be able to utilize the many color definitions.   I do know that God loves color. The colors that we see here on the earth realm are only a portion of what is in heaven. 

May you be blessed by what is here and I hope that it releases you into a deeper understand of the impact that color brings. 

Biblical Color Meaning In The Bible

Zephaniah 3:9,10

For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language that they all may call

 on the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord.  From beyond the rivers of

 Ethiopia My Worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering.

RED

Red:  symbolizes blood atonement; sacrifice of Christ's blood; covenant of grace; cleansing justification; sin, atonement; war; the wrath of God; judgment; death; love; life; the earth; redemption; sacrifice; consuming fire; the person of Jesus; the cross; refers to flesh. Isaiah: 1:18, Hebrew 9:14.

Red con not be formulated by mixing any other color together.  The Hebrew word "OUDEM" means "red clay".  It is the root word from the name Adam, Esau, and Edom; all speak of flesh.

Burgundy:  The Red earth; selfish; Covetous sin, copper and gold, washing by the word, righteousness, right standing.
Rose Pink:  Messiah, glory, Rose of Sharon, the Father's heavenly care over the Lilies of the Field-His children,

 Jesus loves me-this I know!  Symbolizes right relationships, heart of flesh, intimacy, child-like faith (Romans 3:25;

Rev. 19:8; Ez. 11:19; 1 Peter 5:5-6; Song 1:2; Matt. 18: 3-5.

Fuchsia: Joy, right relationships, compassion, heart of flesh, passion for Jesus, the Bridegroom's heart, koinonea. 
Plum:  Richness, abundance, infilling of the Holy Spirit

ORANGE

Gold or Yellow:  Symbolizes the Glory of God ; divine nature; holiness; eternal deity; the Godhead; Purification;
 majesty; righteousness; divine light; kingliness; trial by fire; mercy;  power; His Deity; Glory.     Revelations  3:18;  Revelations 4:4;  Mal: 3:3;  1 Peter: 1:7 

Yellow or gold is also primary.  It always speaks of trial and purging.  "That trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes,  though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ".(1 Peter 1:7)

Amber:  Glory of God, the Father's heavenly care, fiery passion, flaming throne of God,  the temple of God, wisdom.
Orange: Praise, Warfare, Passion, power, fire, harvest season, fruitfulness, joy
Bronze:  Judgment upon sin; fires of testing.
Brown:  Man as we are on earth.

GREEN

Green:  Praise, eternal life, vigor, prosperity, mercy, restoration, health, healing, new beginning, freshness, God's holy seed, harvest, sowing and reaping, immortality, fresh oil, new life, joy in hope.   Rom 12:12;  Ps. 23:2;  Gen. 1:30;  Lk. 23:31;  Rev. 22:2;  Ps. 92:14.

BLUE

Blue speaks to us of the eternal presence of YAHWEH.  The color of God's chosen nation, the people of Israel, blue dating back to the time of David.  We also note in Ezek. 1:26 that the restored throne of David which will rule supreme in all the earth, being God's throne, is spoken of as sapphire, which is blue.  Blue also speaks of healing. Matt. 9:21 M. Stewart 

Blue:  Symbolizes the heavenly realm; prayer; priesthood; authority; revealed God; grace; divinity; Holy Spirit; overcomer; revelation knowledge; the Truth; the Word of God; the Word; Messiah.

Light blue:  Heaven, Heavenly Ezek.:26
Turquoise (is a bluish-green):  River of God, sanctification, healing, life-giving flow of the Holy Spirit, the New Jerusalem.

PURPLE

Purple:  Symbolizes Jesus' royalty; believer's royalty; majesty; wealth; power; penitence; the name of God; kingdom authority; dominion, son-ship; the promises of God; inheritance; mediator; inheritance; priesthood.   Revelations 5:10,”And has made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth."

RAINBOW

Rainbow:  Symbolizes God's promises (Rev. 4:3) Covenant (Gen 9:13 and 16).

Noah looking at the rainbow saw seven steps (the number of spiritual perfection), beginning with flesh, going through trial, being guided by the Word of God, bringing forth immortality and priesthood; thus fulfilling Rev. 5:10, "and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." This is further emphasized in Ezekiel's glorious vision of the Cherubim, the immortalized host of God, as outlined in his first chapter.  (Colors of the rainbow)--Antipas, M. Stewart.

WHITE 

White: Symbolizes Creator; righteousness acquired through blood of Christ; Bride's garment; salvation; surrender; holiness, saints; angels, peace; triumph; victory; glory; joy; light.   Rev. 4:4, 6:2 

Iridescent:  Fruit of the Spirit (Rev. 4:3) Overcomer, Rainbow Promise, Precious Stones Rev. 21:7; Rev. 4:3; 2: 11:19.

Clear, Transparent:  Water Baptism, Wind, Holy Spirit, Born Again, Matt 3:11; John. 3:3; 5:7 Iridescent Crystal:  Cleansing Work of the Holy Spirit, blessings of God, sanctification, the Bride of Christ, Truth.

Black:  Righteous Judgment; Death; Death of old self; Famine; Mourning; Evil; Humiliation; Affliction; Calamity Primordial color of creation; Sign of humiliation. Lam. 4:8, Rev. 6:5, Jer. 8:21.

Color black in Scripture:  And I looked and behold a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand (rev 6:5). Their appearance is blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets; their skin is shriveled on their bones, it has become like wood (lamentations 4:8).

Black symbolizes death, punishment, famine, sin, affliction, death, repentance, bondage (John 3:19-20).    

Silver:  Symbolizes paid price for redemption; price of a soul; Word of God; strength; Spirit; Revelation; Grace; The Word of God; divinity; wisdom; purity; strengthened faith (Matt. 27: 3-8)

Cream:  healing.

Brazen: Christ the Healer

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Courtesy of Raised Praise