How’d They Know?

Paul Connors – [noun]: A person who is constantly high ‘How will you be defined in the dictionary?’ at QuizGalaxy.com

Prophetic?

Via

Some prayer leaders have alerted me in an email that London might be in for a serious flood. And really soon. They think the whale entering London’s harbour last month was a sign, as was the fire in London that I was privy to see from the airport. I noticed that LondonPrayer.net have posted the same information. They would have the skinny if the waters start rising over London. I know many of them and THEY ARE NOT LOONEYS thus i have giving space for them here.

Reminds me of when Prague flooded. In 2002, we were doing a prayer walk around the city and one of the girls in our group, Martina, saw a strong image of floodwaters rising up. That was 6 weeks before the flood came to Prague, exactly as she saw it. She also had a dream about the flood only 3 days before the flood hit. I blogged it here.

Technorati Tags: london, Christianity

Catholic Town

A FORMER marine who was raised by nuns and made a fortune selling pizza has embarked on a £230m plan to build the first town in America to be run according to strict Catholic principles.

Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will be banned in the new Florida town of Ave Maria, which has begun to take shape on former vegetable farms 90 miles northwest of Miami.

NI_MPU(‘middle’);

Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino’s Pizza chain, has stirred protests from civil rights activists by declaring that Ave Maria’s pharmacies will not be allowed to sell condoms or birth control pills. The town’s cable television network will carry no X-rated channels.

The town will be centred around a 100ft tall oratory and the first Catholic university to be built in America for 40 years. The university’s president, Nicholas J Healy, has said future students should “help rebuild the city of God” in a country suffering from “catastrophic cultural collapse

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Quebec priests challenge same-sex stand

In an unusual public dissent with their leaders, 19 Quebec Roman Catholic priests published yesterday an open letter taking issue with the church’s opposition to both same-sex marriage and the ordination of active gays into the priesthood.

Does the church “have the last word on the mysteries of political, social, family and sexual life?” the 980-word letter asks. “In these matters, the official teaching of the Church has shown itself more than once to be wrong.”

Full Story

Technorati Tags : Christianity, Catholic Church,

California Dreamin’

Congratulations Matt Kenseth on winning the Auto Club 500 at the California Speedway. Junior finished in eleventh place which moved him up to fifth in the season standings after two races.

Much to my kids excitement, Hilary and Haly Duff waved the green flag.

Technorati Tags : NASCAR

Irrelevance

Last night we had dinner with some friends. During conversation they told us about a mutual friend who has basically been excommunicated from our old church. For the sake of the privacy of everyone involved I won’t go into specifics. However, knowing the situation like I do, I can say that the level of hypocrisy behind this is unbelievable.

I guess part of what troubles me so much about this is that despite some conflicts we’ve had, I used to have a deep respect for the pastor of this church. However, after hearing this story, that respect is gone.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them (Romans 10:14 NIV)?

How are people supposed to live a more Godly life when the church will not allow them to hear the message of God? If someone is living in a lifestyle that is contrary to what God would want the answer is not to shun them but to welcome them right where they are. Exposing them to the teachings of God and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through their hearts. After all, isn’t that what Jesus did?

The truth of the matter is that organized Christianity as we know it will continue to slip deeper into irrelevance. The church has become a social club for the few, not a place of refuge for everyone. As those who make the few uncomfortable are arbitrarily shunned, the many will turn their back on the church.

Right now I can’t help but think that is a good thing.

Technorati Tags : Christianity

Quitting Church, Cold Turkey

This is where I found myself, absolutley naked. Overnight, I went from overcommitted and overinvolved to doing nothing. I went suddenly from respected and needed to shunned and avoided. From an abundance of relationships, I’m left with a few that I could count on one hand.

I know it sounds like we must have done something scandalous, but the truth is this was the result of deciding to leave. We were ready to set down our position, but nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to be disreputed among the people you have ministered to for years.

When you finally stand there completely naked, it is tempting to try to grab something to cover yourself with, to find some ministry to get involved in, some purpose to validate your worth.

My journey may not live up to what others expect, but that’s okay. It’s my journey, and I plan to continue sharing about it. I am not doing. I am becoming. This is most important for now–that I become what God intends me to be.

Via

Technorati Tags : Christianity

New Feed URL

Here

MBLOG

One of my favourite new discoveries in the blogosphere is the blog of Canadian musician Matthew Good. Though I’ve never been a big fan of his music (sorry Matt), I appreciate his ideas and political commentary. His post today on preparing for an upcoming acoustic tour was interesting.

It’s been ten years since I took a stage alone with just a guitar in my hands. I have to admit that after everything that has happened since, preparing for it has been like wandering the streets of some once familiar neighborhood, now ploughed over and beset with characterless developments. After a decade of traversing Canada from coast to coast, I am finding that these songs have become my breadcrumbs.

Stalking the halls of my parent’s house this past week with a guitar strapped to me has certainly exposed where I have spent the majority of my musical capital over the last decade. Unlike those that labour to perfect the nuances of various guitar-playing styles, I have spent my time focusing on how the building bricks of songs can be conned, coaxed, and conjoined. It has left me a rhythm guitar player, and one that this week wishes that he had spent more time learning how to flat-pick. The songs themselves, I remind myself, are the basis, but when faced with only a single instrument to rely on I am occasionally flummoxed, convinced that an hour of strumming is going to put people to sleep (I’ll bring an alarm clock just in case).

Technorati Tags : Matthew+Good

Fish Can’t Fly

Via

Taking a secular point of view, FISH CAN’T FLY explores the lives of Gay men and women of faith as they recall their journeys to put their sexuality and spirituality in harmony. While the whole concept of changing ones’ sexual orientation may be viewed with a high level of skepticism, ridicule and even humor by the larger GLBT community, these are the stories of those who have tried.

Finding that their strong religious convictions and faith seemed to be used against them, these are the personal stories of people who have participated in “ex-gay” ministries and found in fact that they did not provide a “cure“…. the answers seemed to come from within. The stories they recall are sad, frightening, poignant and yet surprisingly inspiring and enlightening. With less of a focus on the “ex-gay” movement, the film is more about the telling of stories behind the debate and the role religion can play in one’s life. During our lives, each of us embarks on a journey to find our place in the world. Being Gay can make that process more difficult….being Gay and having strong religious convictions can make it doubly hard.

At one point, a psychologist was talking about the effect of these reparation ex-gay programs — you know, the ones that are intended to make gay people straight. This doctor likened these programs to a covert form of sexual abuse. He said that when sexual molestation happens to a young child, it is because the adult is forcing his or her sexuality upon the child. The adult is, in essence, saying that his/her sexuality is more of a priority than that of the child’s — it’s overt sexual abuse. Covert sexual abuse is when you are told that your sexuality is not natural, and must be either transformed or never acted upon — because it’s “God’s will.”

Technorati Tags : Christianity, Homosexualtiy