Most Commented Religion & Spirituality Blogs (1,491)

The 3rd eye is not only symbolic, as he says. The 3rd eye is the pineal gland which has shrunk to the size of a pea in today’s human being out of disuse and our focus on the material aspects of life. The pineal gland functions as a sensor to the spiritual-energetical world, which is the world of fine-matter, unlike this material or coarse-matter world we see with our five senses. Things of the finer-matter world include vibrations emitted from thoughts, feelings as well other electro-magnetic vibrations and finer energy sources. Certain types of meditations as well as food products, the proper mode of living, can aid in the reactivation of the so-called 3rd eye or pineal gland. The pineal gland is the center for the 7th sense in human beings and that being perception. It also functions as a so-called inner voice and has clairvoyant visionary capabilities.

A compilation Nov 03, 2015

We all have our safety zone, that range of circumstances that we’re comfortable with or the people that we’ve learned to interact with easily and without much conscious effort. The borders of that zone are often determined by our fears, and what we think will be acceptable to others in our behavior, and what exceeds comfortable levels of effort on our part.

The safety zone is nice and cozy. The problem is that if we allow it to govern our decisions, it can end up leaving little room for growth or development. It can stifle our experiencing all that life has to offer, and unless we continue to stretch ourselves, we can risk becoming complacent in heart, mind, and spirit.

The danger of our staying within our personal safety zone if the Lord is trying to broaden our horizons is that we can gradually be lulled into a mediocre existence where we don’t explore our potential. We can lose the ability to see how much more we can attain, to the point that we no longer take those exciting leaps of faith.

It’s uncomfortable to break through those boundaries and there are risks, because we don’t know what we’ll encounter. But the satisfaction, the fulfillment, and the excitement of facing new people, new ideas, and new opportunities is all part of what makes us deeper, purpose-driven individuals. We can never know our full potential unless we are willing to stretch beyond what we think are our limits.

Peter was telling me about a time when he visited a physical rehabilitation center and watched a man who was learning to walk again. The man had been taking only shuffling tiny steps, but the therapist had decided that it was time for him to do more. The man protested, fearful that it was impossible and that he would fall. However, with a therapist on either side, virtually forcing him to walk faster and faster, he realized that he really could do it. He never would have taken those steps of progress on his own.

The nature of the Lord is such that He sometimes disrupts our comfort zones and brings new challenges into our lives that force us to take a hard look at the limitations we’ve placed on ourselves, so that we can step outside them. As we do, we often find out that it’s not quite as unsettling as we had imagined, and many times we find a new world of opportunities and potential that we hadn’t previously thought was possible.—Maria Fontaine





Anchor TFI [Posted Video - "Decade of Deception" 9/11]

Self is what you are.
You are That Fathomlessness
in which experience and concepts appear.
Self is the Moment that has no coming or going.
It is the Heart, Atman, Emptiness.
It shines to Itself, by Itself, in Itself.

Self is what gives breath to Life.
You need not search for It, It is Here.
You are That through which you would search.
You are what you are looking for!
And That is All it is.

Only Self is.

“Man has ruled over women for millennia. He has been given every opportunity and chance and woman has been repressed continuously, has been crippled. She has not been allowed to compete with man shoulder to shoulder in life. That’s why we don’t know how many Gautam Buddhas on the women’s side did not get the opportunity to blossom. We don’t know how many Albert Einsteins have simply been denied any possibility for growth.

“It is a very strange thing that even dimensions like poetry, music, dance are dominated by men. The greatest dancers in the world have been men, not women. In fact, women should have been ahead of any male dancer. But one needs opportunity. One needs education, one needs training. If you bar the whole of womankind from education, training, discipline, you are making the whole society and the whole world poor, unnecessarily poor.

“My emphasis is to give respect to women – and equality is not against men. It is a world which belongs to you both and you both have to be together to make it as beautiful and as divine as possible. Man alone – you have been creating only wars. In three thousand years, five thousand wars…Is life just to fight? Is life just to kill, massacre, rape? Your whole history is full of murder and you call those murderers your great men.”

When the term “God” is mentioned, it seems it is generally assumed that everyone has a clear and common understanding of what it refers to.
But is this really so?
Could it be that there are significant differences in what different persons perceive as God?
I think that it is very important to closely examine the answer to this question in fairness to those who consider themselves to be atheists, and also theists, since these terms are both related to the notion of God.

We define ourselves as beings, that is, human beings. A being is a living entity, endowed with some type of life force which may be termed spirit. Each human being is said to have such a spirit (or soul). God is also normally perceived as a spirit.
A human is viewed as a being at the natural level whereas God is viewed as a being at a higher level, referred to as the Supernatural level.

I wonder if viewing a human being as an entity at the natural or human level and viewing God as an entity at a higher or supernatural level somehow seems to suggest that God may be viewed as a superhuman being. In other words, God is viewed as having human-like attributes, but at a higher or superhuman level. Essentially, this is an anthropomorphism.

In the Bible, the book of Genesis states that God created man in his own image. George Bernard Shaw said: “God created man in his own image and man has returned the compliment”. That is, man has created God in his own image, with human-like attributes.

Is it possible that one can have a direct apprehension of that spirit (or force) which religion (theology) refers to as God, without viewing it in terms of human or superhuman attributes, that is, natural or supernatural? One simply views it directly as some phenomenon and is contented to apprehend it at that level.

I think most persons would agree that there is some sort of order or principle in the working of the cosmos. Here on planet Earth, we experience the orderly changes in the seasons, and from day to night and vice versa, etc.. The Natural Sciences have revealed to us certain laws like the Law of Gravity, the Law of Conservation of Energy, etc., that are manifested in the operation of Planet Earth.

Perhaps having a direct awareness of this principle in action is having a realization of the very “essence” of what is commonly termed God. Scriptures or religious teachings attempt to put a “form” to this "essence" and view the essence and form as being synonymous and co-existing with each other. Both are essential from the religious perspective.

If a person has such a direct awareness, that is, of the “essence” without having an interest in the teachings or dogma of any religion, is such a person an atheist or “godless” - a term which, to many, has negative connotations such as evil-mindedness and an uncaring attitude towards others, etc.?

The commonly quoted statement “God is Love” seems to suggest that one should have a belief in and an acceptance of God as taught in religion in order to love others and to express that love in action.
However, does one need to believe in God as defined in the dogma of religion in order to love others and to have a caring attitude toward them and, more importantly, to express this attitude in action?

Some of the world's notable philanthropists are atheists. These include Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
I know of several well-to-do theists who profess a caring attitude toward others but do little or nothing to express it in action.

What do you think?

(Please note that I am aware of Proverbs 16:25)

by Power Point Paradise • February 3, 2015 •

During the early 16th Century idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.

Actually Luther was a very good Catholic! He loved to flagellate himself and suffer for Christ, pray long prayers. He was (brace yourself..) a Scorpio, most of whom have an deep religious interest. Good organisers, although a bit of control freaks, but that was good, as he really gave the Reformation form and direction, and took control when run away Reformists like Karlstadt went too far, and became too violent, causing the peasants uprising and iconoclasm.

The thirty year war was really a result of the stubborn Roman Popes, clergy and established order, who did not want to reform, but wanted to keep their cozy situation with lots of money and politics. Inspite of the counter reformation that cleaned the Popish church up a little bit, the Catholic church failed to latch onto the new winds of change that God caused through Luther.

The Reformation wasn’t the first schism either in the Church of Christ, as the Greek Orthodox and Rome split several times until around the year 1000 AD when it became permanent. Luther’s questions in the movie to his professor in Witenberg brings this out well.

It is an inspiring movie, and very timely, as many of us will have to stand up for what we believe “by the grace of God” and not recant. May Luther give us faith and courage to be brave like him in these Last Days. By God’s grace alone!
**
EARTH HAS NO SORROW THAT HEAVEN CANNOT HEAL.

His Word is always a comfort and the Voice of His Spirit is always an encouragement in the hour of greatest trial. "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us" (Rom.8:18). When you think about that, it helps you bear some of the things you have to go through now.
**

"Sorrow shall endure for a season, but joy cometh in the morning" Psalms 30:5

Keep your eyes on the Lord! Look forward to Heaven, and it will help you bear some of these burdens and trials that you're going through now when you realize these are only just for a moment! Now you see through a glass darkly, but soon it will all be clear and you'll understand. God's tomorrow is a beautiful place! You'll be with Jesus and all your loved ones, and no sorrow will be there, praise God!

"The tears shall be wiped away and the former things shall be no more in the glories of the ecstasies of the Kingdom to come!"

"It will be worth it all when we see Jesus!
Life's trials will seem so small, when we see Christ!
One glimpse of His dear face,
All sorrow will erase!
So bravely run the race,
'till we see Christ!"


PowerPointParadise TFI [Video Posted]

Hello there I am John 37 single in Champaign,IL USA I attend Unity Chuch in Urbana IL I have been trying to find a girlfriend while at Unity but it has never worked I have friends who say that church is the best place to find love but so far it never seems to find me. I often wonder what do I have to do in order to find love I am almost 40 and I want to be married before then but it has never happened what do I have to do....

When small children awake in the middle of the night, if they don't run to their parent' bedroom, they will at least call out for them. They want to know-without being able to express it-that they are not alone. One little guy, after being reassured by his parents that Jesus was with him, said he needed "a Jesus with some skin on!"

Are we so different? When the storms of life roll in and we find ourselves handling them alone, we look for assurance that God has not forsaken us. We know that's what the Bible says, yet we still want to run down the hall of God's "room" to make sure He is there. We have no shortage of promises in the Bible that He is, and yet we can't see Him in person. That's why the Bible encourages us to "walk by faith, not by sight" ( 2 Corinthians 5:7). Just as it is possible to love someone we have'n seen (1 Peter 1:8), so it is possible to trust someone we can't see.

During the storms of life, trust the promises of God.

Change... no one likes change, no matter how we complain, murmur, and grumble about conditions or something that we feel needs to be changed, or done about such and such. When something is done, we continue to murmur, complain, and grumble when it effects us in our comfort zones. But as long as the change does not come near our door of what we think is our area (s) of tranquility, we are content to complain, murmur, and grumble and find fault (s), or play the blame game, as to why such and such needs to be changed, or what should be done or should not have been done, or its not right the way a thing is done, and it should have been this way or another.
Yet, those who complain have no concrete strategies or creative ideas as to what or how a things should have been done, nor is there a volunteer to get it done for the sake of getting it done to bring about a positive change. No one seems to be the first to make the move toward change. There are those who enjoy complacency and mediocrity in the mist of their complaining and murmuring, as well as finding inner relief by complaining and murmuring... its chronic and habitual.

God teaches us that transformation occurs when there is a renewing of our minds, and there is a time and season for everything under the sun, which brings about change. Nothing stay the same, in the positive or negative movement and turning of life-cycles of change; our bodies change, our relationships change, our children change, our families change, our finances change, our friends change, our emotional and mental responses change, the times and seasons change from winter to spring, to summer to Fall… there is a time and season for all things under the heaven to make a change. Everything MUST, AND MAKES a change except, GOD.

All forms of change, whether large or small, or positive or negative are for the betterment of our well being, and our daily living when we surrender and accept, submit and co-operate with such experiences change brings.

Those who have ears to hear, listen to what God speaks about CHANGE that we experience in out life: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck (harvest) that which was planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down (tear/clear out) and a time to build up (restore); a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away (get rid of ), and a time to gather what has been throw away together (bring back again); a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time for peace. What profits do you have from the work that you do? I have seen the travail (pain), that God has given to the sons and daughters of men to be exercised in it. God has made every thing beautiful in His own time, also He has set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end…. That which has been is now, and that which is to be, has already been, and God requires that which is past."

THERE IS A TIME FOR CHANGE IN ALL THINGS!