Christianity has long endowed the natural world with sacred meaning. Every day, material existence food and drink, life and death, humans and animals, Earth and sky is recalled in countless rituals and stories as the primary medium through which God relates to humankind and the wider Earth community.

Christianity’s central ritual is a group meal that remembers the saving death of Jesus by celebrating the good gifts of creation eating bread and drinking wine. Its central symbol is a wooden cross two pieces of lumber lashed together as the means and site of Jesus’ crucifixion. Its central belief focuses on the body namely, that God became flesh in Jesus and thereby becomes a mortal, breathing life-form who experiences life’s joy and suffering.

And Christianity’s primary sacred document, the Bible, is rich with ecological imagery that stretches from the cosmic potter fashioning the first man from dust to the tree of life yielding its fruit to Earth’s inhabitants. Christianity, then, is a “deep green” or “earthen” religion because it binds God to the created order and thereby values the natural world as a holy place.

In Finding God in the Singing River, I take up the question of Christianity’s earthen identity by way of a nature-based retrieval of the Holy Spirit as the green face of God in the world. The Holy Spirit reveals herself in the biblical literature as a physical, earthly being who labors to sustain humankind and other beings’ solidarity with one another. The natural world the body of God, as it were is best understood as the primary mode of God’s presence among us today.

Without a deeply felt spiritual bond with the Earth community as the enfleshment of God’s presence, it is difficult for Christians and other people of faith to develop long-term, sustainable relationships with the good creation God has made. A partial turn to valorizing nature as sacred ground was made in post-Vatican II papal encyclicals and bishops’ pastorals where the created order is understood sacramentally as the dwelling place of God’s goodness. But a residual anthropocentric bias in contemporary Catholic thought namely, that the end of creation is human flourishing has prevented a full biocentric turn to ascribing holiness or sacred value to the created order.

In the earthen theology I propose, Christianity’s “animist” identity is reawakened through the ancient ideas of incarnation and spirit the Bible teaches that while God is beyond all things, God is radically enfleshed within all things. Apart from a thoroughgoing deep green reawakening of Christianity’s central teachings, it will be impossible to experience a spiritually charged connection to the land that is our common home and common destiny. Without this connection, the prospects of saving our planet, and thereby saving ourselves, are not good.

It’s elemental, my dear

While Christianity’s primordial identity is fundamentally nature-centered and body-loving, this thesis has historically been at odds with a residual Platonist tendency within Christian theology to emphasize spirit or mind as superior to matter or body. But rather than prioritizing the spiritual over the earthly, Scripture figures the Holy Spirit as a carnal, creaturely life-form always already interpenetrated by the material world. Indeed, the Bible is awash with imagery of the Holy Spirit borrowed directly from the natural world. The four traditional elements of natural, embodied life earth, air, water and fire are constitutive of the Holy Spirit’s biblical reality as an enfleshed being who ministers to God’s creation.

As earth, the Holy Spirit is both the divine bird with an olive branch in its mouth that brings peace and renewal to a broken world, and a fruit bearer such as a tree or vine that yields the virtues of love, joy and peace in the life of the disciple. As a bird or a flowering tree, the Holy Spirit is a living being who shares a common physical reality with all other beings. Far from being the “immaterial substance” defined by the canonical theological lexicon, the Holy Spirit is imagined in the Bible as a material, earthen life-form who mediates God’s power to other Earth creatures through her physical presence.

As air, the Holy Spirit is both the vivifying breath that animates all living things and the prophetic wind that brings salvation and new life to those it indwells. The nouns for the Holy Spirit in the biblical texts rach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek mean “breath,” “air” or “wind.” Literally, the Holy Spirit is pneumatic, a powerful air-driven reality analogous to a pneumatic drill or pump. The Holy Spirit is God’s all-encompassing, aerial presence in the life-giving atmosphere that envelops and sustains the whole Earth. As such, the Holy Spirit escapes the horizon of human activity and cannot be contained by human constraints. The Spirit is divine wind the breath of God that blows where she wills, driven by her own elemental power and independent from human attempts to control her, refreshing and renew-ing all broken members of the created order.

As the living water, the Spirit quickens and refreshes all who drink from her eternal springs. As physical and spiritual sustenance, the Holy Spirit is the liquid God who imbues all life-sustaining bodily fluids with flowing divine presence and power. Moreover, the water God flows and circulates within the soaking rains, dewy mists, thermal springs, seeping mud holes, ancient headwaters, swampy wetlands and teeming oceans that constitute the hydrospheric Earth. The Holy Spirit as water makes possible the wonderful succulence of life as we experience it on a liquid planet sustained by nurturing flow patterns.

Finally, as fire, the Holy Spirit is the bright flame that alternately judges evildoers and ignites the prophetic mission of the church. Fire is an expression of God’s austere power. On one level, it is biblically viewed as the element God uses to castigate human error. But it is also the symbol of God’s unifying presence in the fledgling Christian community where the divine pneuma the rushing wind of God is said to have filled the early church as its members became filled with the Spirit, symbolized by, as it says in Acts 2:3, “tongues of fire [that were] distributed and resting on each one” of the early church members. Aberrant, subversive and creatively destructive, God as fire scorches and roasts who and what she chooses apart from human intervention and design like the divine wind that blows where she wills.

God as Spirit is biblically defined according to the tropes of earth, wind, water and fire. The Earth’s bodies of water, communities of plants and animals, and eruptions of fire and wind share in the Holy Spirit’s very nature, as she is continually enfleshed through natural landscapes and biological populations. The Holy Spirit is an earthen reality God’s power in the land and sky that makes all things live and grow toward their natural ends. God is living in the ground, swimming through the oceans, circulating in the atmosphere. God is always afoot and underfoot as the quickening life force yearning to bring all denizens of our sacred Earth into fruition and well-being.

Idolatrous ecology

Pope John Paul II and many bishops as well as countless religious leaders from non-Catholic traditions have broken new ground in religious environmentalism by emphasizing the biblical creation story and the ethic of respect for life as central to a moral response to the ecological crisis. On New Year’s Day 1990, Pope John Paul II issued “The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility.” A year later, U.S. Catholic bishops promulgated

“Renewing the Earth” as a response to the crisis. These statements and others emphasize the goodness of God’s creation, and that Adam and Eve were made in God’s image in order to exercise dominion over the Earth in wisdom and love. Human sin, however, destroyed this divine ordering and creation has suffered as a result of human beings’ continued decisions to not live in harmony with the Creator’s plan. Pope John Paul and the bishops have regarded the environmental crisis as a moral crisis.

Catholic social teaching prioritizes human welfare as the bedrock norm for maintaining the well-being of creation. In his 1990 World Day of Peace address, Pope John Paul made this point in the language of a moral first principle: “Respect for life, and above all for the dignity of the human person, is the ultimate guiding norm for any sound economic, industrial or scientific progress.” The pope and bishops contended that locating human need at the center of environmental policy-making results in a ripple-like effect in the extension of moral regard for non-human creatures.

The logic is that once the needs of the human community are secured, human beings will be empowered to reach out in justice and compassion to the wider biotic community. At the World Day of Peace in 1999, the pope makes a similar point: “Placing human well-being at the center of concern for the environment is actually the surest way of safeguarding creation; this in fact stimulates the responsibility of the individual with regard to natural resources and their judicious use.”

It is understandable why they place human dignity at the center of environmental well-being. On apparent biblical grounds and in light of the environmentally degraded state of most human populations, it is natural to posit the restoration of human dignity as the keystone value necessary for building a morally just social and ecological order. It is assumed that making human flourishing the center of environmental concern will have a green halo effect on other beings.

‘Ecological without being ecocentric’

Catholic social teaching has another reason for assigning, relative to the whole of the natural order, supreme value to human well-being: It protects Christian ecology from erasing the distinctions between humans and others in the manner of creation spirituality. This anxiety with this type of spirituality is given full expression in the bishops’ 1991 pastoral statement, which calls for a love for creation that is “ecological without being ecocentric.” The bishops warn, “We can and must care for the Earth without mistaking it for the ultimate object of our devotion.”

This statement clarifies the difference between “ecological theology,” which preserves the hierarchical order that separates Creator and creation, and “ecocentric theology,” which runs the risk of overly venerating nature as an object of worship, according to the pope and bishops. If there is excessive dialogue with nonreligious environmentalism, mainstream Protestant and Catholic theology worries that Christianity will disintegrate into a neopagan reverence for earthen well-being that blurs the distinctions between God, humans and others which some Christians deem necessary for a proper and ordered relationship with creation. In a word, the charge against deep green theology is idolatry, that is, bestowing undue reverence on the creation that diminishes God’s status as the supreme bearer of absolute value. But how well-grounded is this charge?

Human dignity the primary focus of classical Catholic doctrine is best secured by maintaining the health of biologically diverse species linked together through intricate feeding relationships. Correspondingly, practical decisions about resource allocations and the like should focus on ensuring the dynamism and vitality of the energy cycle, not on the particular needs of individual participants within the cycle, including individual human needs. In conversation with conservation biology from a religious perspective, we humans should see ourselves as equal citizens of the biotic order, rather than as overlords of creation who possess more value than other beings.

Critics regard this subordination of human concerns to the welfare of the whole as a dangerous flattening of important differences, even a kind of ecofascism in which human interests are now located in or subordinated to the wider orbit of ecosystemic interests. The point is not that human happiness is unim-portant in green systems theology, but rather without the well-being of the whole as the paramount concern, attention to human needs and in-terests is not possible. Frankly, if the worldwide system of energy flow patterns collapses due to ecocatastrophe of our own making, then our discussions about whether human beings have more value than other beings will seem academic at best and, at worst, contributory to the very mind-set that gave rise to the collapse in the first place.

Home of God’s presence

If earthen theology seeks to shift the center of gravity toward ecosystem well-being rather than human flourishing as such, does this make it a type of paganism or idolatry that dare not speak its name? I think not. The witness of Scripture and tradition is to the world as the abode of divinity, the habitation of life-giving Spirit, the home of God’s presence where the rhythms and vitalities of everyday life are sacred. All life is sacred because the Earth is a natural system alive with God’s presence, which supports the well-being of all created things.

God’s gift to all beings is this highly complex, biologically diverse Earth where life itself is celebrated in all its fecundity and passion. Sacredness inheres in the God-given capacity of plants and animals to stock and replenish the food chain on which we all depend. God as Spirit is the green force in the Earth who animates the living food chains that make possible the flow of energy for all of us.

It is not blasphemous, therefore, to say that nature is sacred. It is not mistaken to find God’s presence in all things. To speak in animistic terms, it is not wrong to re-envision Christianity as continuous with the worldviews of first peoples who bore witness to and experienced divinity everywhere who saw and felt the Spirit alive in every rock, tree, animal and body of water they encountered. God is holy, and all God made participates in that holiness. Thus, when we labor to protect and nurture God’s good creation, we invest all things with inherent, supreme value as a loving extension of God’s bounty and compassion.

Sacred, then, is the ground we stand on. Holy is the Earth where we are planted. Discovering the natural world as holy ground has the potential to vivify our primordial sense of belonging to the life-web that our kind and others need for daily sustenance and future well-being. This perspective signals a revaluation and continuation of characteristic Christian themes that celebrate the important connection between human beings and the natural order that sustains them.

Christians speak of the embodiment of God in Jesus 2,000 years ago, but now the entire life-web is the incarnation of God’s presence through the Spirit on a daily basis. Christians speak of the miracle of the Eucharist, in which bread and wine become Christ’s flesh and blood, but now the whole Earth is a living sacrament full of the divine life through the agency of the Spirit who animates and unifies all things. Christians speak of the power of the written word of God, in which God’s voice can be heard by the discerning reader, but now all of nature is the book of God through which one can see God’s face and listen to God’s speech in the laughter of a bubbling stream, the rush of an icy wind on a winter’s day, the scream of a red-tailed hawk as it seizes its prey and the silent movement of a monarch butterfly flitting from one milkweed plant to another.

In the warmth of the sun, the shelter of the encircling sky, the strength of the great oceans and the fecundity of the good land, we have everything we need to recover our kinship with the Holy Spirit and the Earth.

Mark I. Wallace is an associate professor of religion at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. This article was written for Science & Theology News.

Comments Off

Numerous betting fans may recently have heard of the slogan “offshore sports betting”, though many of them may not be altogether assured what that indicates. An overseas gaming website in essence performs out of the dominion of a distinct state but alternatively it could be an web based sports betting internet site which should have their computer servers inside the borders of a state in which on-line betting is not presently unlawful. Succinctly then, it can be defined as a sports gambling facility which runs outside of the dominion of the nation of the customer. Machine-accessible sports wagering world wide web sites are governed via three federations. These are designated OSGA (the Offshore Gaming Association), IGC (Interactive Gaming Council) and the Fidelity Trust Gaming Association FTGA.

The OSGA are a self-governing watch-dog authority which keeps tabs on the modern offshore gaming trade, they intend to provide gaming devotees a simple way to to identify reputable web based enterprises to play betting games on, without concern. It endeavors to maintain betting fanatic’s rights, additionally they don’t charge any membership charges.

The OSGA is a professional and non-biased third party agency which conveys unbiased judgments, advised by customer feedback, unprejudiced analysis, discussions, insider prompts also supplies inside intelligence.

The Interactive Gaming Council are a nonprofit organization. The organization has been founded to provide a platform for concerned individuals to talk through the latest issues also to improve relevant matters in the international web-based gambling industry, to ensure just and also responsible industry standards and patterns that improve buyer certainty in web based wagering merchandise and services, and also to assist as the industry’s inclusive practise counselor and it also offers a data center.

The Interactive Gaming Council have developed a reputation for upholding reliability, consistency and in addition plausibility because of its exacting criteria, and also its appeal to businesses of proper practise. The Interactive Gaming Council regularises overseas sports betting by utilising a distinctive 10-step code of behavior and in addition bills betting business enterprises fees to show their logo. Disappointed betting buffs may, if they demand to, report any of their conflicts of opinion to the IGC.

The FTGA has been established in an attempt to create a standard which will improve the actions of internet betting websites. The IGC suggest that by affiliating only with reputable internet sites, they can perfect a union of the fairest and most expert internet betting companies internationally.

So, in concise terms there are councils which manage the behavior of machine-accessible sports gambling and which should hopefully assist to assuage a few of the insecurities experienced by some betters. Internet sports gaming web sites are today actually secure, now that individual details shouldn’t be required and also the remuneration and the odds are consistently equivalent to a normal Vegas-style stake. These websites lower the traveling expenditure, but retain the ethos of a Vegas-style gaming web site, only nowadays you are enabled to game in your own house.

Celtics set NBA finals as target

Comments Off | Lees verder »

Have you ever wondered about some act or behavior in which you engaged and said, “The devil made me do it?” Why do many people blame Satan for their shortcomings? Why does the devil wind up taking the blame for the things some people do, especially in our time?

Perhaps it is due to ignorance of the devil’s limited power. Satan surely had delegated authority to afflict man, (Job 1:12), as does any created free-will being, including man himself. He simply made a career of it as some men do. However, when Satan was active, man could resist him under most circumstances, (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9).

One of his principal weapons was deception. If he could deceive man into believing falsehood, he didn’t need to do much else to accomplish his wicked ends. He knew man, being deceived would efficiently and effectively take care of all the details.

Something Changed

The devil is no longer tormenting the world with his diabolical schemes. His presence in the world ended centuries ago. His demise along with his minions was foretold in the Scriptures. As the time closed in on him, even he knew that his time was short. (Revelation 12:10)

As to the predictions for his demise, Jesus saw Satan falling from heaven swiftly as lightening, (Luke 10:18). This did not mean that Satan was literally in heaven. To the contrary, it meant that he would swiftly fall from his own place of authority and dominion.

The same language is used of the city of Capernaum who refused to repent at Jesus’ message. “And you Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which we done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day,” (Matthew 11:23; Luke 10:15). Likewise, Satan would be defeated, fall from his place of power and be cast into the lack of fire.

Satan’s Power Strengthened Through the Old Covenant

Satan’s power was strengthened through the Old Covenant because it could not take away sin, (Hebrews 10:4). Thus, it was his purpose to accuse the saints of the Old Covenant before God and demand their condemnation, (Zechariah 3:1-5).

God promised a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, in which he would be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds he would no longer remember. (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:12, 13). Thus the New Covenant rendered the Old Covenant obsolete with the latter vanishing. Satan could no longer accuse brethren because of sin.

John who alludes to Satan as the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night, saw his remaining time as short. The devil, knowing that his defeat was imminent attempted a last ditch effort to destroy the church. “Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time, (Revelation 12:12)

Paul Predicts Satan’s Imminent Defeat

Satan’s defeat came swiftly. Paul wrote, The Lord God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly, (Romans 16:20). The message of the gospels, the epistles and Revelation all saw Satan’s imminent demise. Through death, Jesus dealt a death blow to Satan. Jesus could not be held by death, –the enemy Satan used to keep man enslaved to a destiny of destruction.

Jesus’ defeat of death and subsequent resurrection allows Him to reign at God’s right hand. Likewise, he empowers saints to reign by dying and rising with him through baptism and entrance into a new life in Him, (Romans 6:3, 4; Ephesians 1:3). Being raised from the dead, they now live in righteousness forgiven by God through the power of the life of Jesus Christ.

John’s Revelation message speaks of events shortly to come to pass, (Revelation 1:1, 3; 12:10; 22:6, 10, 12). Thus Satan’s defeat and ultimate end of being cast into the lake of fire happened within a short time after John wrote the book.

There is no devil to torment and accuse man today. Satan’s defeat and demise occurred almost 2000 years ago. Jesus and righteousness now reign forever. Evil exists in the world today, because men of their own choice choose evil. They have no one to blame but themselves. The ultimate evil is to choose disobedience. Those who do so will follow Satan to the lake of fire.

Copyright (c) 2006 by William Bell, Jr. All rights reserved.

William Bell is a speaker on Covenant Eschatology and author of “The Re-Examination” a study of fulfilled eschatology. For futher studies visit: http://www.allthingsfulfilled.com

Comments Off

Fresh elaborate GPS measurements conducted on the 14-15th September have demonstrated that Mont Blanc measures 4810.9 metres. Mount Blanc is covered by a dense icecap which has grown bigger by 2.1 m in exactly two years furthermore more suprisingly the bulk of the ice has just about doubled . At least that is according to the professionals.

The volume of ice was figured for the first time in 2000. It worked out to be 14500 metres cubed higher than 4750 metres. It equaled merely 13600 cubic metres in 2002 possibly owing to the warmth with + temperatures even at 5000 meters alt.. Moreover the ice cap has just about doubled up since then and at present amounts to 23000 meters cubed.

Chamonix Mont Blanc’s illustrious local weather forecaster Anita Barham said the growth in the scale of the ice cap is one of the counter intuitive consequences of climate change: Snowfall hasn’t expanded overall in the Alps but with global warming we’re having added warm westerly winds which bring in rain at lower altitudes however in summer this means significant snow that falls higher up than 4000 meters height hence the volume of the ice-cap is growing. Contrast this to the situation during wintertime when the snow crystals are very cold and are transported by the wind so do not settle down on the crest.

Chamonix is not just renowned for Monte Bianco it is also a well renowned skiing field and alpinism mecca with lot’s of ski deals and self catering chalets to be rented. Furthermore at only 1 hour from Geneva it is unbeatable for a ski weekend.

Comments Off

A newcomer to the world of investments in the notion of “Virtual Real Estate Investing“. Everything from using the internet as an avenue to make more money in real estate to online games such as SecondLife seem to be included in the popular definition of this term.

In order to figure out the truth of the matter, I sought out Bryan Ellis, whose experience in the fledgling industry is truly impressive.

When I began using the term virtual real estate investing in the late 1990s, I did so because I saw clear parallels between the strategies used for profiting from physical real estate and those that would create income in the online world, said Ellis.

An example of the similar nature of “virtual” and “physical” real estate Bryan Ellis likes to point out is the methods of making a profit from domain names compared to physical real estate. He points out that control of a domain name or even a specific web page is much like controlling a real estate property ” those assets can be monetized in similar ways: By selling them for a profit, by leasing them, by offering advertising, etc.

The similarities really are obvious. After all, if you own a valuable piece of real estate, it’s “valuable” because other people are interested in that specific piece of property. Likewise, if you own a desirable domain name, others will find value in it because it serves their purposes. Regardless of the type of asset, you can sell or lease or use any number of strategies to turn the assets into cash.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing, Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.

Comments Off

Some might get the mistaken notion that I’m blind to the sins of Israel, but I’m not and call upon Israelis to lead holy lives in the Holy Land and speak out against their various sins as strongly as I do against our American and British peoples’ sins, hoping to help avert divine judgment and national disaster, defeat and deportation. This TOUGH LOVE article is one example of pleading with Judah for Zion’s sake:

What Jew isn’t familiar with the Talmudic saying: “Whoever saves a single life, saves a whole world?” What Jew can’t empathize with those who have no voice, who are considered less than human, and, through no fault of their own, are marked for liquidation? Yet the Gentilized “Jewish” State of Israel has permitted the “whole world” to be destroyed almost TWO MILLION times!

Apparently, too many Israelis have forgotten these things. Efrat, a pro-life organization, testifies that close to TWO MILLION innocent children have lost their lives in Israel since 1948! Evil can harden a heart. The big bucks that the abortion industry grinds out can cause some to put cash before conscience. Whereas some may be unaware of how truly abhorrent abortions are, an abortionist sees the child sacrifices offered to the bloodthirsty god called “Choice.” An abortionist is without excuse. They’ve repeatedly taken innocent Jewish life with premeditation. Abortionists have purposely stopped the heartbeat and brainwaves of countless victims of Choice. They’ve cruelly extinguished the light of Jewish stars (that our father Avraham hoped for) in the evil spirit of pharaoh, Haman and Hitler.

The cult of Choice is the worst symptom evident in society of the Hellenist disease. It sacrifices children upon the hedonistic altars of convenience and irresponsibility in an immoral and idolatrous way. It disguises itself as progressive and enlightened, but it is actually a dark throwback to the pagan rituals performed in the Valley of Hinnom: the holocaust of children that the prophet Jeremiah condemned (Jeremiah 7:31).

“They have acted shamefully. They have done abhorrent things - Yet they do not feel shame, and they cannot be made to blush. Assuredly, they shall fall among the falling” (Jeremiah 6:15). Where is a Jewish leader like King Josiah who recognized the seriousness of his nation’s deadly sins and did all that he could to avert divine judgment?

Will Israel repent of despising their inheritance by surrendering it to sworn enemies? Will Israel act now to stop the pagan practice of aborting their future? Or must Israel fall before Germany and Jerusalem suffer EU occupation?

Comments Off

One thing which programmers know all to well is that those who will be using the software that the design will in fact always want more. Usually this occurs at the first face-to-face meeting with the end user or company providing such solutions to that end user. Those who are working closely with these programmers need to stay within bounds to prevent the cost over runs that often occur, yet also discuss possible futures and uses of the decision making software.

Scalability is very important, as there will always be future needs. One question, which often needs to be asked is: How many criteria can your system take? This is because more systems maybe developed along the way and further criteria, due to “Feature Creep” and thus will need to be added to serve the users “wants, needs and desires.”

Users and programmers who fail to ask such questions will find themselves with implementation delays, unworkable systems and software, which becomes obsolete rather quickly. This serves neither the programmers deigning the system or the user, company or agency, which intends to have a bullet proof system, one which is truly able to render good decisions based on the most important of data. We see all too often millions of dollars spent on artificial intelligent software systems, which serves no real purpose for the user and actually complicates the process and is more often then not, completely ignored. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Comments Off

The Snake Charmers. part 2. Psychics, Mediums, and other liers. The question today is, Does God acknowledge the existence of such people in the Bible? The answer is yes, over and over again. Exo 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

Deu 18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Psychics and Mediums, are some of the most notable liers in this society today. we see them on television ,in the news papers, internet and on radio. Deceivers all, some are even lieing to themselves thinking that they really are Psychics. Most of these people are just phoneys, looking for easy money. These are easy to spot. The ones we must be wary of are the real demon filled people with the power to actually predict and contact the dead, as was the case in scripture. This is called “Divination” which means; Used in Scripture of false systems of ascertaining the divine will, such as are allied to idolatry: as necromancy, which evoked the dead (1Sa_28:8); prognostication by arrows. Act 16:16-18 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:

The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.

And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved,{Why was Paul grieved? Because the woman was a witch.Posessed by a demon.} turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. Eze 13:6-8 They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.

Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith it; albeit I have not spoken?

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD. How many today can see these people, working, lieing wonders and deception, calling out a person from the audience, telling them that one leg is shorter than another, speaking different types of illness on, healthy people and then miraculously healing them from something they didn’t have. Saying they are sent by God and not even knowing the truth in scripture? Calling on those who are desperately seeking a cure from cancer, aids, heart problems, speaking lieing words, that their healing has just been approved by God, months later they are dead. “and the LORD hath not sent them:” The snake charmers, taking up offerings before the service and again at the end of the service, running it as thou it were a circus. God has not sent these people, to heal you or to take your money. Where are they? Are they at the Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Insain Assylems, healing all manner of desiese and illness? No. There no where to be found. The reason many are not healed today, is because we as Christians have lost bits and pieces of our faith in God. Ministers wont teach the Gifts of the Spirit because they themselves, either don’t understand or don’t believe in miraculous healings from the word of God. They say, well it was for the Deciples time, its not for us. We cant do those things the Bible states, its just not for our time. How many here today even know what the gifts of the Spirit are? How many here today really know how to pray? How many here today know how to pray for a healing? If you don’t know, let me inlightin you into the word of God. As far as the Spiritual gifts not being for us; Rom 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.Rom 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 1Co 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 1Co 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

What are the Gifts? 1Co 12:8-10. Word of wisdom; Word of knowledge;

Faith {This is a special type of Faith} Gifts of healing; Working of miracles; Prophecy; Discerning of spirits; Divers kinds of tongues; Interpretation of tongues. 9 Gifts from the Spirit of God and these snake Charmers have none. We, as believers, cannot be denighed these Gifts today because of this next verse . 1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

Now what about praying for a healing, or just praying? James 5:13-15, Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

Many state that this next verse is for the lost,sins”And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”

but this cannot be, because of the last part of the verse, “and if he have committed sins” Their interpretation is wrong. This commandment is for the saved and not the lost. Lets go back and look at James again and what is said, 1.”Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.” You must pray for yourself first to be delivered from the illness. If your healing doesn’t come, go to step 2. 2. “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church” 3.”let them pray over him” steps. 3, 4,& 5. Are Commandments to the Elders of the Church. 4.”anointing him with oil” 5.”in the name of the Lord”

In steps 3 thru 5, there must be Faith among all the Elders praying or there will be no healing. Next we see another commandment in the healing process, lets read.

Act 3:16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. What is the key here? “And his name through faith in his name” Mat 6:9-13 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Luke 11:4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. This is how to pray. Now what about the snake charmers, have they known the way of healing, have they known the way of God, Have they know the way of Deliverance? Have they read, 1st. Corinthians, James, Luke, Matthew? Or are some of these Television Evangelist, only looking to build themselves a kingdom on this earth with other peoples suffering? With witchcraft comes a warning from God

1Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. So be careful about, what you watch, hear,see or even donate to, it may not be of God. ars

Source: www.isnare.com

Comments Off

Following the direction of Project Green Microsoft Business Solutions renamed its products: Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon and MS CRM into Microsoft Dynamics GP, Nav, Ax, Sl, CRM. Microsoft Dynamics will be supposedly final product of the Project Green, when user will have access to all the business components through similar interface. At this point (fall of 2005) we do not know exactly how interface will look like, but some directions could be predicted.

• Microsoft Outlook interface. In September 2005 Microsoft released Small Business Accounting, entry level accounting application, written from scratch. Obviously now it is not a time to reinvent the wheel/create new accounting package… however if you are Microsoft… Microsoft has its users and professionals legions who are very comfortable in Microsoft Office products and who spend a lot of computer time in MS Outlook. Small Business Accounting allows users to create and synchronize accounting documents in MS Outlook (not all of them, but the innovation way is clear - user should be able to work with business application from MS Outlook). This might be very good argument against non-Microsoft systems: Oracle eBusiness/Financials, PeopleSoft, IBM Lotus Notes/Domino, JD Edwards - who do not have simple unification for user interface

• MS SQL Server db platform. If you look at such products as Great Plains Software Dynamics - it was intended for multiplatform databases. Now it is on MS SQL Server only. Also - the way of Navision - it was designed on its own C/Side database platform, which was solid rock. Now Navision is available on MS SQL Server

• Microsoft Business Portal. Microsoft Dynamics GP is simplifying its user interface (still being Microsoft Dexterity application) to look like Microsoft Office/Outlook interface. At the same time Microsoft is moving more functionality to Microsoft Business Portal: Employee self service, Fixed Assets, Customer Order Management (former eOrder). Microsoft Business Portal will have open SDK, available for C#.Net programmer - and Microsoft Business Portal is .Net application. Probably in the future all the proprietary customization tools, such as Microsoft Dexterity will be replaced with Microsoft Visual Studio.

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Comments Off

Swami Vivekananda presented the talk, Real Religion at the World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893. With this speech, he introduced Vedanta (AKA Hinduism) to the West. It is more than 100 years later and the Christian West continues to struggle with the world’s religions. This is a brief opportunity to comment on Vivekananda’s speech.

“Religion does not consist in doctrines or dogmas.” What simple and wise words. However, the religion of the West, Christianity, is devoted to its doctrines and dogmas. Doctrines about Christianity as the exclusive path to salvation are the roots of Christian evangelization and, sadly, of Christian intolerance. Such intolerance extends to the ends of the earth. The Catholic hierarchy, for example, sets its gaze upon every religious tradition and judges. The proselytizing view of the Catholic Church and all of Christianity, peruses its own house. In Catholicism, for example, Catholic theologians who dare to present theological arguments for salvation in religions other than Christianity are silenced, taken from teaching positions, indexed.

I agree with Vivekananda. Doctrine is not the same as the experience to which doctrine points. God-realization cannot be achieved by reading doctrines or encyclicals. The Christian Testament points to a reality that must be experienced. The purpose of the Gospels, for example, is to encourage faithful to embark on a journey home to God and to portray the unfathomable source of pure love that is God. But, the words are not the journey. “The raft is not the shore.” If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

This does not mean that doctrines, dogma, sacred texts are disposable and without real spiritual value. I merely suggest that the source of strife among the peoples of the world is inordinate reliance upon religious teachings at the expense of emphasis upon an experience of God and the consequent comprehension of the interrelationship among all people and the cosmos.

For religious leaders in any religious traditions, why is it so incomprehensible to agree with Vivekananda: “As soon as a man stands up and says he is right or his church is right and all others are wrong, he himself all wrong.” Of course, in order to be consistent, I suppose I must admit that I could be wrong.

Sandi Fults has a Master’s degree in Systematic Theology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. She also attended the graduate Middle Eastern Studies program at the University of Texas at Austin. Her area of specialization is Interreligious Dialogue and the world’s religions, with emphasis on the South Asian Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions. She is convinced that interreligious dialogue is a way to peace.

Comments Off