Worshipping God In Truth - Lesson 4

There are many who think it really doesn't matter what we believe or do in religion, just as long as we are sincere and follow our conscience. But if it doesn't really matter what you believe, then it doesn't matter if you even believe at all. This is absurd. This philosophy exalts our conscience above the word of God. This makes our conscience our only guide and ignores what God says in the Bible. This philosophy originated with man and not with God. This is telling God we are going to worship Him the way we choose and we don't really care what He has to say. Every man then becomes his own authority thereby eliminating the authority of God, the Bible. This attitude must greatly hurt the one who gave His life for us.

Many people want to do what they think best and what seems right to them. We are warned not to do this in Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." According to what God says we can loose our soul by doing what seems right in our own eyes. God's word is no longer our guide, but it has been replaced with creed books, disciplines, manuals, confessions, etc. Men want to do things their way and as it seems right in their own eyes.

The philosophy of doing what seems right in our eyes has vastly altered the way people attempt to worship God. They rationalize that God will accept it. People can rationalize away just about anything they want if they work at it hard and long enough, and because of this people worship God in ignorance. Just as the apostle Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17:23 (KJV), "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship."

The average person in religious matters takes many things for granted. He finds religious groups practicing something and he decides what the majority does must be right and acceptable to God. The Bible says the majority of people are going to be eternally lost. Jesus says in Matthew 7:l3-14, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." So we don't want to depend on the majority to determine what is right for us and follow them. If we do we will also end up being lost in the eternal fires of Hell.

Many people never stop to ask, is it scriptural and is this what God wants? They believe that just any kind of worship they give will be acceptable to God. The main reason for all the religious division that we see in the world today is man will not accept God's word as final authority. Man is going to do it his own way. The Bible contains our only instructions on how to please God so we can go to heaven.

God has always told man how He is to be worshipped. He will only accept that which is in harmony with His prescribed will. God instructs us how to worship Him acceptably through His word in the Bible. In Ephesians 5:17 we read, "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." It is wise to know what the will of the Lord is so we can do it and be pleasing to Him.

In every age God has specified how He is to be worshipped. He says to us in 2 Peter 1:3, "As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us." God in the New Testament has given to us all things we need to know that pertain to life and godliness so we can worship Him acceptably, in spirit and in truth. God has always made it plain and emphatic that the only worship that is acceptable to Him is only that which is in accordance with His will.

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Courtesy of  http://www.bible.ca/interactive/worship-4-in-truth.htm

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/

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

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

God, Cellphones, Quarterly Earnings and the Search for the Common Good

  

"Our life together can be better." That's the opening sentence of an important new book by Jim Wallis called On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned About Serving the Common Good. Wallis, in addition to being CEO of the D.C.-based Christian ministry Sojourners, is one of our most compelling thinkers and writers -- not just on religion and spirituality but on American public life as well. He's also, I'm happy to say, a longtime and frequent contributor to HuffPost. And for those of you in the New York area, on Friday I'll be taking part in a conversation with him, moderated by our religion editor Paul Raushenbush, at NYU's Brennan Center for Justice from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.

 

Wallis wrote On God's Side while taking a three-month sabbatical last year, in the midst of the 2012 election -- a break that allowed him to get a broader perspective on what was going on in American public life. "Sitting back and watching the deluge of insults and accusations that feeds our political system, I witnessed the worst of us as a nation," he wrote last week on HuffPost. "And I came to the conclusion that it's time to reframe our priorities."

 

According to Wallis, we have traded "the idea of public servants for the false idols of power and privilege." And "we have lost something as a nation when we can no longer look at one another as people, as Americans."

 

So he wrote the book to get at "the root of what I believe is the answer to our current state of unrest." And this is what he concluded:

It is not about right and left -- or merely about partisan politics -- but rather about the quality of our life together. It's about moving beyond the political ideologies that have both polarized and paralyzed us, by regaining a moral compass for both our public and personal lives -- by reclaiming an ancient yet urgently timely idea: the common good.

 

The book draws inspiration from Abraham Lincoln's famous line: "[M]y concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side..." Wallis calls this "probably the most important thing about religion ever said by an American president." For Wallis, the key to being on God's side is a focus on the common good. "That old but always new ethic simply says we must care for more than just ourselves, or just our own group," he writes. "We must care for our neighbor as well, and for the health of the life we share with one another. It echoes a very basic tenet of Christian and other faiths -- love your neighbor as yourself -- still the most transformational ethic in history."

 

But, as Wallis saw vividly during his sabbatical, that doesn't seem to be the direction things are currently headed in our country. Instead of strengthening our commitment to equality, social justice, and our sense of unity as a nation, our public and political discourse is breaking us apart.

 

The question is, where is change going to come from? Much of Wallis' book focuses on the fact that it's unlikely to come from Washington.

 

"There is a war going on today in our nation's political discourse," he writes.

We've lost our civility, the ability to have public discussion that isn't harsh or dismissive but respectful and genuinely open to dialogue and disagreement. We've also lost our ability to really listen to one another. We've lost our capacity for political compromise, for actually finding solutions instead of just continually blaming each other for problems.

 

The problem is that it's hard to see Washington changing any time soon, or, at least, it's hard to see change coming from inside Washington. Our political life right now seems stagnant, stalemated -- like the trench-warfare battle lines of World War I. Small battles and skirmishes are won or lost -- and are covered with breathless import by the media -- but the scope of what passes for solutions grows ever smaller.

 

I'm definitely not suggesting we should give up on politics, or let our leaders off the hook, or disengage in any way -- and neither is Wallis. But right now the debate in Washington isn't just shrinking bit by bit, it's disappearing faster than the polar ice cap. Otto von Bismarck famously said, "Politics is the art of the possible" -- but in our politics, achieving the possible is seen not as art but as capitulation.

 

So when I interview Jim on Friday, I want to ask him about avenues for pursuing the common good outside of Washington. Just as the incentives in politics have veered toward fundraising, the incentives in business have come to be dominated by quarterly earnings and short-term growth. But even though both the public and private sectors are off course, it's more likely that the private sector -- which includes not just businesses but non-profits and individuals committed to making a difference -- will be able to course-correct more rapidly.

 

So what would it mean to pursue the common good in the business world? In 1890, Alfred Marshall, one of the founders of modern capitalism, coined the term "economic chivalry," and wrote that the "desire of men for approval of their own conscience and for the esteem of others is an economic force of the first order of importance." That's still as true today as it was then. But the question is, what is it that gives a person "the esteem of others" and thus the "approval of their own conscience?" We can't change our general need for the approval of others and ourselves, but what we approve of -- what we think of as success -- can change. In a word: incentives. If our collective definition of success is simply greater quarterly earnings at all costs, then that's the route to approval that people will pursue. But how can we widen the definition of success to include the notion of the common good?

 

One of the costs of that short-term pursuit of success defined simply as money and power is often our health and well-being. Right now, stress costs American businesses $300 billion a year. But thankfully more and more companies are realizing that not only are healthy profits and healthy employees not exclusive, they go hand in hand. According to the iOpener Institute, increasing happiness in the workplace can reduce the cost of sick leave by 19 percent and the cost of employee turnover by 46 percent, and increase productivity by 12 percent. This is why around one-quarter of all large U.S. businesses currently offer some sort of stress reduction program.

 

One way to encourage the other three-quarters would be to provide stronger incentives. For instance, during earnings calls, the all-important Wall Street analysts whom CEOs and directors are always trying to impress with ever bigger quarterly profits could ask about what the CEO is doing to ensure the health and well-being of his or her employees. It would give the analysts a better idea of the company's long-term financial health, as well.

 

One way to shift toward that longer-term perspective is by disconnecting from the noise and distraction of our ever-wired world. I'm interested in hearing Jim's perspective on the role of technology in the fraying of the common good.

 

In On God's Side, he writes: "...let's be honest, cellphones have become the 'significant other' for lots of people today. Many spend more time with them each day -- thumbing away on the keyboards or having long conversations from anywhere and everywhere -- than with any person in their lives."

 

So how do we rebuild the common good when we're disconnected to those closest to us, and, very often, even from ourselves? How do we take advantage of all the many obvious benefits of technology and social media while minimizing the increasingly obvious costs? While encouraging meaningful debate in Washington is certainly a great thing, the answers to these questions are also vital to the question of whether we can rebuild the common good.

 

If you're in New York on Friday, I hope you'll join us for the discussion. RSVP Here. If you're not, we'll post highlights from our conversation here on HuffPost.

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