Most Commented Religion & Spirituality Blogs (1,491)

Crom, as the Chronicles of Conan tell us, is a God who does not often listen to prayers. But he rewards valor and likes good gifts. So today I lept from a tree and strangled a horned Hart of fierce disposition after some mighty combat. I lay the freshly slain Hart at the alter of Crom and with it's blood make offering with a soft prayer that the hateful worshipers of the false God who speak so darkly of the followers of other religions should vanish from CS land. I limp home hopeful Mighty Crom believes my deed was valiant enough so that my request is considered.




A sacrifice to Crom

Written by Peter Amsterdam Saturday, 01 November 2014

Recently I came across a familiar Bible verse, which I’ve read, heard, and even quoted hundreds of times, but when meditating on it, thinking of its practical application and the enormity of the consequences of ignoring it, I more fully realized its importance.

Matthew 6:14–15 says, “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”1

There’s no wiggle room within these verses. Whether we do or don’t forgive others has a direct effect on our own relationship with God.

A bit later, the apostle Peter asked the obvious question: “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who wrongs me? Up to seven times?”

“Not just seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.”2

That’s 490 times. Jesus used a pretty big number to emphasize that there isn't any point where we can feel justified to stop forgiving someone.

To further drive this home, He used some other very large numbers in the story of a king who wanted to settle his accounts with his servants or subjects:

One man owed the king ten thousand talents. A talent is 2,000 ounces (125 pounds, 57 kg), so this man owed the king 20 million ounces of what was probably either gold or silver. If it was silver, that would be equivalent to about US$ 400 million today; if it was gold, then it would be worth about US$ 25 billion. Either way, that was an enormous debt. Because the man couldn’t pay, the king ordered that he and his wife and children and all that he had be sold. The man implores the king to have patience, and out of pity, the king not only grants him a delay but pardons his debt altogether.

Sadly, the forgiven servant later finds one of his fellow servants who owes him a hundred denarii—one denarius is estimated to be worth about US$ 20 today, which means the fellow servant’s debt would be about US$ 2,000—in any case, a much smaller sum than his own debt, which he had been released from. Nonetheless, the forgiven servant has his colleague imprisoned for being behind in his repayments.

When the king hears of it, he summons the forgiven servant and says:
“You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” In anger, the master has him thrown into jail as well.

Jesus ends this story with an alarming statement: “This is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you as well, if you do not forgive your brethren.”3

Forgiving doesn't mean the other person was in the right, nor does it mean that the loss or harm caused by their actions is undone. It simply means that rather than focusing on who’s right and who’s wrong, you leave that in God’s hands, along with the repercussion of the person’s actions. You take the high road and forgive.

All of us sin, and each of us falls short of the glory of God.4 Like the unforgiving servant, we each owe a huge debt to God—a debt so large that none of us can ever repay it. Through Jesus, God forgives that debt; but He also calls us to forgive others in like manner.

Looking at it from the point of view that if we don’t forgive others when they've offended us, God won’t forgive us when we sin against Him can be disconcerting.

The good part is, we can also see it as a promise: if we forgive others, God will forgive us.5 If we show mercy, then mercy will be shown to us. If we forgive, we will be forgiven.

Love is more important than anything else. It is what ties everything completely together.”6

1. ESV
2. See Matthew 18:21–22.
3. See Matthew 18:23–35.
4. See Romans 3:23.
5. See Mark 11:25.
6. Colossians 3:12–14 CEV


Activated TFI

Written by Michael Sharp September 2014

Victor was a carabinero, or police officer, stationed at the remote Chilean customs compound known as Los Libertadores, high in the Andes on the border with Argentina. Since Victor had received special training in mountain rescue work, he was usually assigned to dangerous areas like this one. He enjoyed the mountains, but missed his family.

It was July 3—the heart of winter in the southern hemisphere—and a snowstorm raged outside. With winds of 100 kilometers (over 60 miles) per hour and the temperature at -15°C (5°F) before the windchill factor, Victor and the 57 other people in the camp were bunkered in for the night.

Suddenly, Victor heard a deep rumbling and instinctively looked at his watch. It was 8:38 pm. Since small tremors are common in that part of Chile, Victor didn’t think much of it at first, but the shaking grew stronger. Then the lights went out.

Seconds later, the roof collapsed and Victor found himself trapped between a wall and a large piece of furniture. The temperature around him dropped quickly, and Victor wondered how he would ever come out of this alive.

As Victor would find out later, the high winds had caused an avalanche at the top of a nearby peak and sent a mountain of snow down on the customs complex.

Victor managed to pry himself free from the rubble and dig his way out of the snow. Once outside, he realized that the other buildings around had also collapsed.

Then Victor heard a child’s cry and he dug through the wreckage until he found a baby girl. The child was wearing only a diaper and a T-shirt, but was otherwise unharmed. Victor quickly put her inside his warm police coat, where she could receive warmth from his chest.

With no heat and almost no shelter, unless help came soon, the survivors would all freeze to death. Before the avalanche, the camp’s only means of communication with the rest of the world had been a two-way radio, and now it was damaged beyond repair. Victor quickly realized that it might be days before anyone would even know of their predicament. Their only hope was for someone to walk to the nearest neighbor, a ski lodge about two kilometers away, and organize a rescue.

Victor asked for volunteers to go with him. No one came forward, so he set off alone, carrying the baby under his coat.

Eight hours later, Victor stumbled into the lodge, exhausted.

After turning the child over to others and then getting a hot shower and a quick meal, he was ready to lead one of the three rescue teams. As a result of his actions, 31 people were saved.

As I listened to Victor tell his story some months later, one important detail was missing. I asked about it, but Victor kept evading the question.

The next day Victor’s wife showed me her scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the avalanche and how Victor received a hero’s commendation from the president of Chile.

At last I persuaded Victor’s wife to reveal his secret. “He doesn’t talk about this,” she explained, “because he thinks people will say he’s crazy...”

“As Victor was walking through the blizzard, a bright light appeared off to one side, almost like a streetlight. But as Victor trudged through the deep snow, it moved with him and it lit the way, more like a spotlight than a streetlight. The light led Victor straight to the lodge. Many times along the way, Victor sank so deep into snowdrifts that he couldn't free himself, but each time he felt someone grab him from behind, pull him up, and set him on his way again.

“And there’s one more thing. The light that guided him was no ordinary light. When Victor looked directly into it, instead of radiating from some sort of bulb, the light was coming from Jesus’ face.”

*Michael Sharp is an English teacher in Colombia and a member of the Family International.


Activated TFI

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus,a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night and said to him,
"Rabbi,we know that you are a teacher come from
God;for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."
Jesus answered and said to him,"Most assuredly,I say to you,unless one is born again,he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Nicodemus said to Him,"How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again.' (John 3:1-7)

Hope that this verse will
help you all with ur spiritual life n god bless
you all..

Apart from humans, all other species live their life without God, then why do humans only need God?

If believing in God brings good changes in us then it is good to believe in God, But there are more ideological conflicts among those who believe in God than among those who do not believe in God.
Everyone says that God is one but they have created different religions by giving different names to God. And they are fighting each other because of religious differences.
The reason behind most of the wars in the world is theological differences.

If you look deeply into all the Holy Books, they all have the same meaning and purpose. The only differences are in the language and some rules due to the environment of that place.

As long as we give importance only to 'words', there will be more differences among us humans, when we start giving importance to the 'meaning' then unity among us humans will increase.

So, I'm surprised that I wasn't hungry today. Instead my stomach felt sour, as if I ate something that didn't agree with me. Which, I drank some Turmeric Ginger tea, and it nixed that straight away.

I don't get it. I was expecting this to be much more difficult than it is. I can't tell you how many water fast/liquid fast video's I've seen on YouTube, and people are saying day three is the hardest. It's said that, if you can get past day 3, you're on easy street.

Oh well, shit. Saving money on food will be a cake-walk then. Hell!

The truth is actually more complicated, but I will simplify it. We actually know the future, every part of it. Each of us knows our future but also pieces of the future of those around us. It's just that we forgot it. And there is a well-founded reason why "we don't know our future / we don't remember it". The reason is that: 1 knowing the future gives power. The power to change it but also responsibilities among others. 2 God has a plan for us, a path that we must follow. And if we knew / if we remembered the future as it is, with good and bad. We would accept the good parts with love, joy, impatience. But the bad parts, we will fear them, we will avoid them, and we will want to change them. Without caring about responsibility, repercussions, God's will or etc. We will want to change what does not suit us and that's it. And here...we generally complain that life is unfair...well, if we knew the future we would be unfair too. Because as I said, we will want to accept the good parts and change the bad ones. That is why we are not allowed to remember the future. And that's why sometimes we have that "deja-vu", those are escapes of the memory that struggles to remember. But it is not allowed to us because that is the only way we will follow exactly the path we are meant to follow. As she is, with good and bad. We are on the path we are meant to follow.

Enough

Seventh heaven pls

I wouldn't normally post this for fear of being accused of being provocative. Not that I am actually afraid of that particular accusation, but I am not particularly inviting it either. There are loads of videos like this around, and loads promoting the opposite point of view, but I just found this one entertaining. I suppose I like the personality of the presenter.

And if watching it saves just one person, that would justify it.

I don’t know if this is a case of cause and effect, or one of mere correlation or even coincidence, but I have noticed that the people here with the most fervent religious views, the ones who take it too far, are also among the most unpleasant, vindictive and malicious people here. Is their extreme religiosity a screen, behind which they can hide their obnoxious characters, I wonder.

Hide it from themselves as much as from others?