Posts Tagged ‘christianity’
christianity
christianity
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Need Easy Christian Dating Personals
With the online world awash with so many Christian Dating Personals, there are certain sneaky people who are using this chance to cheat Christians off their hard earned cash. Whereas Dating Websites supply a great chance to meet honest Single Christians, not all these sites are worth the hype.
Lets explore certain features you must look for in a good Dating Website. These tips will come in handy, whether you wish to join a Dating website or you need to launch your own Website.
With your free membership, you should be able to browse for single Christians looking for partners. Its unfortunate that some Websites only offer paid membership and yet the majority of their profiles are not active.
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3. Stay clear off Websites that cant guarantee your privacy. There are some Christian Dating Websites that dont give you complete control over your name, email, etc . This may help you stay anonymous while exchanging conversation with other singles. When it comes to privacy, you check their privacy policy to make sure that your personal info is not being sold to 3rd party websites.
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If you've been looking out for a way to line up your own online Dating business which incorporates all the above functionalities, why don't you try our award winning internet dating software and script. Our highly rated software comes integrated with features like BBs, Instant Messenger, Audio and Video chat, PC-PC Talk, and plenty more.
About the Author
Check out christiandatingpersonals.info for more more information on a good Christian Dating personals.
easter sunday april
easter sunday april
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![Frank Sinatra The Columbia Years 1943 1952 The Complete Recordings Box]](http://www.thefirsteaster.com/images/e/120852879678_0.jpg)
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How many times has Easter Sunday occured on April 8th in the past 100 years?
I'm not sure, but to find out, list all of the years in the last 100 April 8 has fallen on a Sunday, then find out which ones have been the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Considering the numbers and odds, if I had to guess, I'd say maybe 3 or 4.
the easter season
the easter season
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A Different Flower for the easter season
Since this is the season of Passiontide, with Easter arriving in just a few days, I thought I would explore the merits of a beautiful flowering vine, Passiflora incarnata, or Passion Flower. This climbing vine can reach thirty feet and is found in most parts of the world, but not in Africa, and goes by many different names such as Maypop, Passion Flower, Apricot vine, Passionsblume, Purple Passion-flower, and Passion Vine. There are over 500 species of this plant. The flowers are typically white and purple but I have seen some pictures where the flowers are many different shades of red and pink, and even yellow.
There is an interesting history is associated with this flowering vine. Today the name is often used with romantic or sexual connotations. Actually Spanish Christian missionaries adopted this flower to symbolize the Passion of Jesus. The leaves' pointed tips represent the lance that pierced Jesus' side while He hung on the cross. The tendrils refer to the whips used in the scourging; the numerous filaments are said to symbolize the crown of thorns. The flower has a chalice, or cup-shaped, ovary representing the Holy Grail which was supposed to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper. There are ten petals and sepals that stand for the apostles; here is where I was always confused because there were twelve apostles. The apostles represented here do not include St. Peter, who denied Jesus, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. Three stigmas in the flower refer to the three nails; the five anthers represent the five wounds of Christ. Lastly the blue and white colors refer to Heaven and Purity. Because of this description by the missionaries, the flower also is known by Christ's crown, Christ's thorn, Christ's bouquet, crown of thorns, Jesus' passion and Mother of God's Star.
In areas of the world where Christianity is not predominant, people have called this vine and its flowers clock flower or clock plant, because the symmetrical arrangement of the flowers reminded them of a clock face. In Hawaii this is the flower they call lilikoi.
All parts of the vine can be used for treating multiple physical and emotional ailments. The primary use today is in skin care; the oil from the kernels and fruit is soothing to the skin. The oil can also be used as a carrier/base oil to dilute other essential oils. Flower parts have been used to heal bruises and wounds. The leaves and root are for easing aches and pains, nervous disorders, insomnia, digestive upsets and to expel intestinal worms. The fruit's juice is useful as a heart tonic and mild diuretic. The edible fruit is sweet and can be eaten fresh or cooked and made into jams and jellies. The extract is used to flavor food and drink. Flowers can be used in a similar manner. Young leaves are eaten in salads and cooked as a vegetable.
Passion Flower has been used for hundreds of years to ease many discomforts and symptoms of disease. Today medical science can provide supportive documentation of the effectiveness of passion flower when used, along with prescription medication, in treating nervous disorders, but not enough studies have been done to recommend its use in treating other conditions. Passion Flower is considered safe when taken in the amounts normally found in food. It is considered unsafe for use in pregnancy, because it could cause uterine contractions. If consumed in large amounts it is not thought to be safe; there are numerous side effects which could be serious – heart arrhythmias, impaired muscle movements and coordination, and phlebitis. It can also enhance the effects of some medicines, primarily sedatives. Therefore, check with your doctor if you are thinking of adding this to your diet!*
Whether you take Passion Flower for its medicinal value, or simply grow the vine because of its flowers, enjoy the beauty of the plant and contemplate the history and many names that have been associated with it. To all of you, a Happy and Blessed Easter from Peaceful Being.
*This article is intended to bring information to the reader and is not to be considered a recommendation or a substitute for proper medical treatment.
About the Author
The author is a registered nurse with 37+ years in the profession. Her interests include gardening, reading, and needlework. She also operates a web site called PeacefulBeing: the site is geared to natural and organic products. Items ranging from aromatherapy to bath and body products, scented candles, incense & potpourri, fragrance lamps/fuels are offered here, plus so much more. She would love to have you visit her site @ http://www.peacefulbeing.net
orthodox traditions
orthodox traditions
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What is tradition?
What is the meaning and significance lies in that word? Literally translated, the tradition is the "transfer", the transfer of sustainable value, acquisition or retention of history. Tradition - a spiritual legacy that is passed from generation to generation.
We are living through a time when traditions are destroyed and disappear with startling rapidity, as if the Cast Iron roller rolls across the globe, destroying its weight cultural and spiritual values of people, and turning people into some homogenous mass.
Orthodox Church - one of the most traditional in nature and form of religion, it preserves the integrity of the fact that the apostles had heard from Christ and handed over to the Church. In Orthodoxy, the content is inseparable from the form and the form itself is not the outer shell, and the symbolic language through which digested the contents of the above words. Images and rituals of the Orthodox Church - not legalized customs, not invented allegories, not mimic a dramatization of sacred events, and the mysterious language of the Church, the spiritual channels through which people connect with the metaphysical world. Orthodoxy is identical to itself in the aspect of time and history, it is not evolving, not progressing, not developing as from smallest to largest, from lowest to highest. It has received the fullness of life in the day of Pentecost, and stores it in its sacraments and rites, but stores are not as a memory, but as a continuation of Pentecost itself.
Many of the "okolotserkovnoy" intellectuals criticized the Church for its conservatism. They confuse the Church with secular institutions, which boils the human mind, human energy, which is seeking new forms, new expressions, new discoveries. In science, a man constantly striving to assert themselves. Life Church and the sacred is sacred. To understand her need to come into contact with it, must enter into it, and it means to live in its traditions. Churches are most alien to the spirit of rationalism and the dry abstractions of the dead, and she - being, which is apprehended only through being; it - the truth, which is open for those who seek the truth, and then becomes a self-evident, above all other evidence.
To better understand the importance of tradition, look at examples and comparisons to secular traditions, which, like all human, in many ways imperfect. Which class is most cherished its tradition, originally, customs and family honor? This estate was an aristocracy, which gave rise, as its highest manifestation, chivalry. Knight was supposed to dominate his life the traditions and rules, which are not only behavior but also the moral side of his life. Dishonorable act punishable by the general contempt, and in some cases, a shameful punishment: a knight, discredit themselves, or how vile, take off their clothes and broke his arms, deprived of his name and title, it was a bloodless death. The aristocracy was predominantly those classes which smacked of their traditions, customs of his family and honor family coat of arms, - the blood and lives.
Plebs not have traditions. They had nothing to store and transmit to their descendants. If poetry Knights (troubadours and minnesingers) was subject to strict canons, the poetry of the plebs - the townspeople and traders - has become largely a cult of flesh and mockery of traditions. Representations of buffoons, so the crowd favorite, is a parody and mockery of tradition and at the same time, over such notions as honor, chastity and fidelity. We do not want to say that the entire aristocracy of birth was the aristocracy of spirit. Despotism, who has appeared in such phenomena as serfdom - it's a different mentality. The destruction of the aristocracy in Russia started since PetraI, and ended the revolution. In Germany, nationalism made part of the German aristocracy to follow the crowd and indulge her tastes, and there the fall of the aristocracy paved the way for fascism.
History avenged himself: when the aristocrat ceases to be an aristocrat, he becomes a slave to the plebeian.
A revolution is a violent destruction of tradition. Her attack is directed primarily against the bearers of tradition. Revolution - a struggle with the Church as a guardian of spiritual traditions and, above all, to those who not only refused to change the faith, but did not want to change the very faith. As the church reformer, with the revolutionaries found a common language.
Reforms in the Church is also a series of mini-revolutions. People who do not have a deep spiritual - a mystical experience, do not understand what keeps the church liturgical treasures. They want to force the church to serve their own tastes, they want her to obediently followed the spirit of the time, the fashion, taste and ideas of the world as a prisoner, tied to the chariot of the victor. Thus, any autonomy and independence of the Church annoys them.
The tradition of the concept of not only historic, but also ethical. When we say "a man without traditions", we mean that this man was deprived of his strong moral and behavioral attitudes, that he has no sense of honor that would deter him, it is a cynic and a nihilist. When we say that a person deprived of traditions, we mean that he is cut off from the historical roots, that he does not belong to his people, and cannot represent anyone but himself. The higher the spiritual culture of man, the more treasures to Church tradition, which dates back to the apostles, and lives in the Church. Church - the revelation of the Holy Spirit, there is nothing imperfect, that it would be necessary to supplement, not false, that should have been eradicated, there is no mistake that should have been corrected.
Any reform is the substitution of jewels in the treasury of the Church with false stones, and forged metal. Any reform is the loss of the mystical depths of worship and the destruction of sacred symbols. If someone from modern writers would have wanted to reform and correct the Bible, mix the words of the prophets and apostles with their own writing, then the Bible would cease to be holy book, and would become a surrogate. The same is true reformers want to do with the church charter and liturgics.
In the fable says that cock finding the pearl, was upset that he can not swallow, and decided that it was an unnecessary thing. If the rooster knew how much work is for people to get the pearls, as then carefully store it, then he would have a blank deed, worthy of laughter.
We have a wonderful pearl, strung on the thread of tradition - this iconography, ancient chants, church language and the Julian calendar, in the rhythms and cycles, which is worship. What would this gentleman cock?
About the Author
Demian De Santos
orthodox catholic church
orthodox Catholic Church
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Church: Where Do We Go From Here!
Like everything else in this world, churches also go through change. When I joined a church in 1979 it was in the process of change. At the time it belonged to the Baptist Union and shortly after me joining the church resigned from the Baptist Union and changed from an Eldership led Church to a Pastor led Church.
Due to the fact that this was one of the significant events that happened to me as a young Christian and because there was so much for the ex-Baptist and myself to learn as a young Charismatic, I came to believe that "moving on" was what Christians do; God revealed new truth to us and then we left the old truth behind and moved on.
I clearly remember one significant meeting, when a group of leaders of that church declared: "When the cloud of truth moves on (referring to Moses being led by the cloud in the wilderness) they too would move on." I was right there saying yes I would be one of those. Since then I have moved on a number of times as promised, sadly the vast majority that were in that room that night, have not.
That's par for the course though, the church does move on and always when it does the movers criticise the stayers and the stayers are convinced and publish document after document that the movers are now in heresy.
It's been happening for almost 1000 years now:
1054 "The Great Schism" - Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches divide.
1519 Martin Luther starts "The Reformation" and the Lutheran Church
1534 King Henry VIII proclaims himself head of the Church of England
1559 John Knox starts the Presbyterian Church in Scotland
1581 Robert Browne and Robert Harrison start Congregational Churches in England
1608 John Smyth starts Baptist Churches
1650 George Fox is arrested; his movement is first called 'Quakers'
1784 John Wesley's 'Methodist Society' separates from the Church of England
1820 (approx.) Brethren churches and Exclusive Brethren churches started, mainly by Christians from the Church of England
1900 Pentecostal churches started in America
1960 (approx.) Independent Charismatic churches start in the U.K
More recently there has been the Emerging Church Movement and the House Church Movement.
The people in the emergent church like to call it a conversation. What those involved in the conversation mostly agree on is their disillusionment with the organized and institutional church and their support for the deconstruction of modern Christian worship, modern evangelism, and the nature of modern Christian community. The same pattern persists though, those that move on can't believe that people can't see the new truth and those that stay write the new movement off as reckless and heretical. Now with the introduction of internet there are just so many mean ways to discredit each other.
Recently, there has been an even wider spread rejection of religion and structure in the church. Many of these people just stopped going to church altogether, not rejecting God or Jesus, but just opposed to structure and the traditional interpretation of many of the scriptures in the Bible. I have seen a greater tolerance of other religions including Eastern philosophies and even new age developing. I know many people that while following the directive to pursue the Kingdom of God to some extent feel that they have out-grown church. To me it is a natural progression. Where does one go when you have rid yourself of the shackles of religion and form, but you are still pursuing spiritual truth?
Perhaps it's time to look up into the heaven as the wise men following a star did 2000 years ago. Astrologers tell us that in Moses' time it was the Age of Taurus, the bull, hence the Israelites worshipping a golden calf the first time Moses came down from the mountain. During Jesus' time until now it has been the age of Pisces, the fish, hence all the fish references in the New Testament and even fish symbols on people cars.
Apparently the planet is now moving into Aquarius. So this really is 'the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius' as the song from the controversial musical of the 60's, 'Hair,' so rightly said. This is the 'Water Carrier' and some people believe that this is what Jesus' was referring to in Luke 22:10 "Jesus replied, 'As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters" They say that he is referring to a new dispensation, a new age. To me this is a stretch, but not impossible that it is a reference to the New Age of Aquarius.
I did some research on the meaning of the Age of Aquarius and "stumbled" up this passage:
"The sign of Aquarius shows a man with two pitchers of water who is wisely combing these waters. The doctrine of the Age of Aquarius is thus termed the "Doctrine of the Synthesis", the synthesis of all authentic religions and systems of self-realization. In the Aquarian Age dogmatic types of Christianity will cease to be taught, and all dogmatic forms will disappear. In this age science will become religious, and religion will become scientific. Disagreements between science and religion will come to an end, and people will begin to comprehend that both spirit and matter are derived from the same source, and are only modifications of the One Universal Energy."
I find that very interesting!
Some of my friends and I have been researching Quantum Physics and String theory recently and have been trying to figure out what is the true nature of reality. My son brought a DVD home the other day of Rob Bell, a well know, fairly 'out of the box' Christian speaker, called Everything is Spiritual. In it he talks about Creation, the behaviour patterns of atoms and energy. As well as the fact that Scientists can now confirm 11 and more different dimensions as well as other very interesting discoveries and hypotheses. My friends and I have also been looking into other beliefs and religions to see if there is anything that can be learned from them, as well as making a point of not being judgemental of what others believe.
Perhaps the Age of Aquarius is already starting to take effect. I think there is a possible connection between Aquarius, the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012 and the 1000 years of Peace spoken about in Revelations. What with the New World Order looming in the natural world and the Age of Aquarius in the Heavens we are surely in for some extremely interesting times.
Keep your eyes and mind open!
About the Author