Most Viewed Religion & Spirituality Blogs (1,491)

Some people think that if you believe in a god then you are saved. What are you saved from I wonder? Perhaps it's better not to be saved and enjoy what you are doing. After all, who would want to exist in any possible after life and encounter people you hated in this current world.

Written by Marie Story January 2015

As the children of Israel were preparing to cross the Jordan River, Joshua sent the ark of the covenant ahead. He instructed the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”1

“Never been this way before”—I often feel that way! I run into a situation or a dilemma that’s all new to me, and I have no idea how to tackle it. Should I go or stay? Should I take this offer or turn it down?

Some decisions are easy to make. Sometimes the path ahead seems pretty straightforward, even if you’ve never taken it before. Other times, it can feel like there are potential dangers and pitfalls all around. Looking ahead can be exciting, but it can also be a little frightening because of the many unknowns.

As I write this, I’m facing a dilemma. I’ve been offered a job that seems pretty appealing. It’s work that I’d enjoy and the pay is good. But it would mean a major move to another city—when it feels like we’ve only just gotten settled where we are. It would mean putting other goals on hold and moving away from relatives and new friends. It’s exciting, in a way, but it’s also challenging, because I don’t know how things are going to turn out.

The children of Israel didn’t know how things were going to play out for them either. They knew there was a promised land ahead, but there was also the River Jordan blocking their way.

The Israelites hadn’t traveled that way before. That’s why they had to follow the ark, which represented God’s presence and His promises. By following the ark—by following God—they could walk confidently, knowing that they were headed in the right direction.

Sometimes, the way God leads doesn’t seem to make sense. Sometimes it can look downright crazy, like when He instructed Joshua to tell the priests who carried the ark of the covenant to “take a few steps into the river and stop there.”2

I imagine some of the people were more than a little anxious as they approached the flooded riverbanks. But we’re told that “as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away.”3 The priests stood in the middle of the dry riverbed while all the Israelites walked safely across.

I think this story offers a pretty awesome formula for making decisions. When you’re facing tough choices, when you “haven’t been this way before” and you’re dealing with brand-new challenges or seeming impossibilities, keep your eyes on Jesus. Only God knows what’s ahead, so it’s a good idea to follow His lead.

God cares about your problems and concerns and dilemmas just as much as He cared about His people stuck at the banks of the Jordan River. The Bible promises, “The Lord is kind, and as soon as he hears your cries for help, he will come … and he will guide you. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice saying, ‘This is the road! Now follow it.’”4

God’s Word contains solid promises that you can stand on and claim in prayer whenever you’re desperate for His answers and direction in your life. Then as you keep your eyes on Jesus and follow His lead, you’ll be able to march confidently into the future God has in store for you.

* * *

Some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.—Gilda Radner (1946–1989)

1. Joshua 3:3–4 NIV
2. Joshua 3:8 NLT
3. Joshua 3:15–16 NIV
4. Isaiah 30:19–21 CEV


Activated TFI [Video Posted - WINGS OF A DOVE - Dolly Parton]

John 8:1-11

8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around Him, and He sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. 7 When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Thank you in advance for reading and commenting

Ps: I wonder what Jesus did write on the ground???

Trump, published his response to a question about what to do with the terrorists killing non muslims, GRN.

My response to one blog that called us stupid about what choice we have but to think that peaceful muslims will kill us, since these terrorists do in fulfillment of Koran teachings. One blogger said: you can't both be right.

Most of us don't want to hear the truth. Wake up, the reality is: Shia and Sunni are killing not only them, but vowed to kill all of humanity. What are we going to do?

Well. ..if you think it doesn't affect you, think again.


(This was my response to one blog calling us stupid but she deleted it).

What's happening in Europe that will eventually happen globally is these killing provisions of the Koran is eliminating human as we know. Don't pretend to be ignorant and unaffected. It's global now. These muslims whom I have been telling you for so long has vowed to kill all of us non believers of your Koran. Now the reality is, they're not only killing us, but both factions of muslims Shia and Sunni are killing each other? Why? Beats the hell out of me.

Now you think we're really that stupid as you think that the world as a whole will let it happen? Think again. Trump already said in his speech published at the Global Research News. Read my thread on the forum, titled "GETTING RID OF ALL MUSLIMS OR THEM GETTING RID OF NON MUSLIMS".

It's still going as a continuation of "GERMANY SYMPHATETIC TO ALL SYRIAN REFUGEES".

It reached 1001 comments and viewed by over 15000, it was closed by the mods because it's too long but asked me to continue on another thread, which I did and still going. Anyone can still go and read on page one of the Current Events section of the forum.

So hear and listen, we're not Muslim haters or racist, we're just like you, want to survive. But since we're sworn in the name of your religion by these terrorists, to be killed, what would we do?

If we swore, or do the same thing (non muslims to kill you all), wouldn't you respond the same? What I don't understand is, if it's truly a peaceful religion as you peaceful muslims say, then why on earth are you killing each other plus us?

Behold, you call us stupid? I don't think so.

Or on the one hand you'd like us to: BOW TO YOU AND BE THANKFUL THAT WE'RE KILLED? You must think we're really stupid, well thanks to people like Trump who knows how to respond and the millions of people in Europe who now question Merkel and her blunder.

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!
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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.
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"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]

Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Matthew 2:2-3 KJV

"Death is not something to be feared, but rather anticipated. Of course, we are not to precipitate it ourselves, as suicide is surrender and defeat of the worst kind. But if each of us can have the patience to wait and die in God's time, when His time has come for us, that's the day we're going to be the most thankful. We're going to arrive in our heavenly home and see that it was really worth it all!--David Berg

"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." (1 Corinthians 15:26)--St Paul

"Death from this life is just graduation from this grade. It's our release, our graduation, our promotion. School is out! We've finished our schooling in this grade and we pass on to the next grade.--David Berg

"Even though we have so much to live for on this earth, there is even more to live for in the next life. Death does not cheat a person out of life; death enriches life.--C.L. Allen

"When Christ calls me Home I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school.--Adoniram Judson, first Christian missionary to Burma

"I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. (John 11:25,26)--Jesus

"Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all; out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that death cannot touch."-- Dwight L. Moody

"Because I live, ye shall live also."--Jesus, (John 14:19)

"I shall not live 'till I see God; and when I have seen Him, I shall never die.--John Donne

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.--2 Corinthians 5:1

"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.--Jesus, Matthew 22:32

"Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed" (Matthew 13:31). Just as the seed is the beginning of growth, so this life is the beginning but not the end. We continue living the moment our spirits are released from our bodies.--C.L. Allen

Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you" (John14:2). We do not enter the next life as strangers. We are expected and prepared for. We are eagerly desired.--C.L. Allen
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MAN'S BEST IS THE WORST POSSIBLE WITHOUT GOD!

God knows what He's doing! He's letting man go to the end of his rope just to show man he can't solve his own problems and he can't get along without God. Just like He did with Adam and Eve, He'll let man have his way and free will until he nearly wrecks the whole world! That's the only way He can work out His purpose and His illustrated message of the good and the bad as an everlasting example to us all!

But at the same time, He'll show how wonderful creations of His can be who are not compelled to worship Him but choose to do so voluntarily--us, His chosen people who have chosen Him. He'll bring out of that mess a people unto Himself that He can really love and show His love for! The final scene shines so bright against all that black background! And that's what we have to look forward to, the light at the end of the tunnel! Thank You, Lord! DM




PowerPointParadise TFI - Posted Video - Paul The Apostle (Bible History Documentary)

A Thanksgiving Day compilation NOVEMBER 27, 2014

Every day should be Thanksgiving Day—a time to thank God for all our many blessings. We should be thankful and treasure every moment of every day and constantly be praising and thanking God for it. Every day can be Christmas if the Spirit of Christmas lives in our hearts. Every day can be every holiday rolled into one when we make it so in our hearts and live it so through our actions.—David Brandt Berg

*

It was Thanksgiving Day and I was ten years old. I was in a welfare ward of a city hospital and was scheduled to undergo major orthopedic surgery the next day. I knew that I could only look forward to months of confinement, convalescence, and pain. My father was dead; my mother and I lived alone in a small apartment and we were on welfare. My mother was unable to visit me that day.

A young student nurse heard my sobbing and came over to me. She took the covers off my face and started wiping my tears. She told me how lonely she was, having to work that day and not being able to be with her family. She asked me whether I would have dinner with her. She brought two trays of food: sliced turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and ice cream for dessert. She talked to me and tried to calm my fears. Even though she was scheduled to go off duty at 4 P.M., she stayed on her own time until almost 11 P.M. She played games with me, talked to me and stayed with me until I finally fell asleep.

Many Thanksgivings have come and gone since I was ten, but one never passes without me remembering that particular one and my feelings of frustration, fear, loneliness, and the warmth and tenderness of the stranger that somehow made it all bearable.—Martin Ginsberg

*

A Thanksgiving Day editorial in the newspaper told of a schoolteacher who asked her class of first-graders to draw a picture of something they were thankful for. She thought of how little these children from poor neighborhoods actually had to be thankful for. But she knew that most of them would draw pictures of turkeys or tables with food. The teacher was taken aback with the picture Douglas handed in—a simple, childishly drawn hand.

But whose hand? The class was captivated by the abstract image. “I think it must be the hand of God that brings us food,” said one child.

“A farmer,” said another, “because he grows the turkeys.”

Finally when the others were at work, the teacher bent over Douglas’ desk and asked whose hand it was. “It’s your hand, teacher,” he mumbled.

She recalled that frequently at recess she had taken Douglas, a scrubby, forlorn child, by the hand. She often did that with the children. But it meant so much to Douglas. Perhaps this was everyone’s Thanksgiving, not for the material things given to us but for the chance, in whatever small way, to give to others.—Author unknown

*

I like the contented way the Pilgrims approached life. They did not allow their feelings or circumstances to determine whether or not they would exercise gratitude and thanksgiving. They believed that God was in control—“providence,” they called it. Following this belief to its logical conclusion, they responded to challenges with a perspective that said, “God has allowed this for our good.” They chose to believe—rightly so—that their dependence on a holy, faithful God was well placed and that even though much was against them, there was always much more for which to be grateful.—Barbara Rainey

*

As we enter Thanksgiving, we tend to focus on our blessings and giving thanks for God’s goodness. While that is certainly a good thing, it is not the best thing. The best thing is to turn Thanksgiving into Thanks-living. Regardless of the day or the situation, God wants us to be thankful. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)



Anchor TFI Online

A compilation January 13, 2015

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.—Psalm 62:1 (1)

Entering into the silence of God

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”

Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

“Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.—Matthew 15:22–28 (2)

*

I have always been impressed with the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21–28. How could this woman face the silence of Jesus when her need was so great? How could she stand firm while the living God was standing right in front of her? She could touch Him. She knew He had the power and authority to heal her daughter because she calls Him Lord and addresses Him as “Son of David.” Yet, Jesus remains silent.

What is extraordinary is how this unknown hero of the faith pushes into the silence. She ignores the words of the disciples. She forsakes the wisdom of humankind and pushes into the abyss of silence.… Without fear and with courage she looks behind the silence. Helmut Thielecke says, “The silence of God and of Jesus is not one of indifference. It is the silence of higher thoughts.”

The greatest silence in the history of humankind took place on Golgotha when God the Father remained silent as His Son cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” These words echoed and reverberated through the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys that surrounded Jerusalem. Slowly fading into deeper silence. But God lay hidden behind the silence, planning the demise of Satan, overcoming the inability of the Temple to forgive sin, and designing a plan to conquer sin and provide a way for humankind to know God personally. God raised His Son to life. A feat He planned to repeat for everyone who calls on the name of His Son.

Somehow, with eyes of faith, this Canaanite woman sees this God behind the silence as her only hope. She risks everything and pushes into the silence of God. She is rewarded. Her daughter is healed.—Craig Smith

1 ESV.

2 NIV.
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IF YOU WORK FOR HIM, HE'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU!

If you love Him and delight yourself in Him and work faithfully to try to love others and help them, He'll do anything for you, anything! He'll supply all your need according to His riches in glory! (Phi.4:19). He'll even give you the desires of your heart, anything you want! (Psa.37:4).--Not only whatever you need, but your wants as well! It's the Word of God, it's the promises of God and you have no excuse for not claiming those promises!

Most of God's blessings and rewards are dependent upon your obedience and worthiness, your doing a good job faithfully. The Lord doesn't reward you for loafing, the Lord rewards you for faithful good work. The minute you start obeying and working, God will do His part without fail! He will bless!

May God help you to have faith to believe God and His guarantees and be willing to obey Him and work at it, to do everything you can do, so that God can do the things you can't do. Are you a good and faithful servant? If so, God will take care of you! The good and faithful servants enter into the joy of their Lord! Here and now and there and then!




Anchor TFI Online

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. - Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Psalms 91:11 & Hebrews 1:14 KJV

By David Brant Berg

"One of these days you're going to a mansion that isn't going to cost you anything!--No upkeep, no expense, absolutely nothing except what it's already cost Jesus!--And it will be commensurate with your works on Earth, what you already paid for it down here.
*
"Heaven'll be our last move!--No baggage, no luggage, no hard journey, no packing, no long travel! It may be a long way, but it may be closer than you think!
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"You can't take it with you! Whatever you have there you will have already sent ahead in the way of souls won, victories won, battles won and rewards won for your service here!
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"Even in Heaven, the most perfect City in the World, there are going to be different levels, different classes, different stages, some very high, some very low.
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"Heaven is the most beautiful thing God has ever made, outside of women, God bless them!--And in fact He even uses you women to symbolise the City and He calls that City His Bride, the New Heaven, the New Jerusalem! How about that? He couldn't think of anything more beautiful to symbolise that City than you, you beautiful girls, so He called it His Bride! Why? Because His Bride's going to live there!
*
"It's not going to be that hard to be in Heaven, or the Heavenly City or the Millennium, but you're going to have something to do and something to keep you busy, and you'd be unhappy if you didn't. Wouldn't it be ridiculous after being so busy here if you wound up in Heaven with nothing to do but sit on a cloud playing a harp for a thousand years?--Much less all eternity! I think you'd really get bored.
*
"Being able to disappear and appear and go through walls and fly with the speed of thought isn't going to make you half as happy as to see those you witnessed to, "Hi there! Wow, didn't I meet you on the streets? Didn't I talk to you about Jesus? Wow! Here you are! Hallelujah!" That's going to be the biggest thrill of all!
*
"I've visited the future and I've seen the Heavenly City standing upon this Earth!--Beautiful, gorgeous, incomparable, almost indescribable, the most gorgeous sight you'll ever want to see! A beautiful pyramid-shaped City like the ancient Egyptian pyramids, only much more beautiful!--That Golden City like crystal gold, pyramid-shaped, 1500 miles wide! Think of it! And 1500 miles high!
*
"There're going to be animals in God's Heaven on Earth, a New Heaven and a New Earth! God's not going to have His Creation defeated. He put those animals here for pets and playthings and companions for you and your children, and you're still going to enjoy the animals.
*
"You can travel with the speed of thought! You just think you're on Jupiter and you're there, boom! You just think you're on Saturn and you're there, boom! You just think you're on the nearest star and you're there, boom! You don't have to have transporters, spaceships or speed of light or anything, you're just there like that! So we will have the might and the power of angels and the speed and the ability and we will be ruling and reigning spirits with resurrected bodies, but spiritual bodies which have enormous angelic powers like the angels of God, like Jesus when He was resurrected!
*
"But there'll be plenty of room on Earth then because right now, what is it?--Only one-fifth of the Earth's surface is land, right? Whereas then there will be no more sea, it'll all be land, seas will be gone.





PowerPointParadise TFI [Posted Video - "Angel" - Sarah McLachlan]

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:29-32

By Maria Fontaine August 28, 2012

When faced with a close friend moving away, some of us can find ourselves asking, “If God loves me so much, why does He allow my close friends to leave me? I really need that person in my life. Now that I don’t have them, I feel lost and not complete. Lord, why couldn’t You have worked things out a different way?”

Jesus’ disciples probably felt the same. After all, imagine their sense of loss when Jesus left them. Jesus, God’s Son, who had been with them day in and day out, teaching them to love, pouring into them, showing them how to interact in wisdom with others and carry on the mission, supporting them, helping them, listening to them, comforting them, being everything to them, sharing all that He was with them! How much greater a loss could there have been? They must have felt a heartrending sense of loss and uncertainty about how they could go on without Him.

I’m sure that those days in the upper room were times of deep soul-searching, trying to come to grips with the questions that must have weighed so heavily on their hearts. But when they looked to the Holy Spirit for their comfort, whom Jesus had told them He would send, they found the faith and courage to carry out what Jesus was depending on them to do. They knew they couldn’t fail Him even though He was gone from them physically and even though they felt the loss so intensely. With the Holy Spirit’s help, they found comfort and the anointing to carry on His work. Look what happened when His disciples started ministering to those who needed the love and life that Jesus had given them! The Spirit worked mightily through them. Through this they actually grew closer than ever to Jesus, because all that He had given to them began to grow and overflow on others through them.

Our friendships are mini versions of the same principle. When God allows the circle to be broken for a while—sometimes even until heaven—our friendships have the potential to start their own chain reaction that can touch and better many lives, and our own life many times over. The bond of friendship you have with someone is a manifestation of Jesus’ love—His Spirit flowing through you to them, and through them to you.

The greatest thing you can do to show your love for your friend is to make your life a living example of all that person means to you and all that your friendship has been worth. When you use all the beauty, goodness, kindness and lessons you learned together, it becomes a living testimony of your friendship that draws others in and causes that friendship to take on an even greater meaning.

The Lord gave some beautiful and comforting words about friendship, which I want to share with you.

Jesus says,

“That’s one reason why there is such powerful unity in heaven. All the bonds of friendship and love that you are creating on earth become an eternal joy for you in heaven. You’ll realize there that you never lost a single friend, but that each parting in the physical only brought others into connection, both with you and through you, to all the friends you have gained in this life.





Anchor TFI [Posted Video - True Friendship Never Ends]