Greatest single cause of atheism

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is
christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips
and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
[intro track to War of Ages album Fire from the Tomb]

Popularized by the 1995 dc Talk track “What if I stumble?
Brennan Manning

How I treat a brother or sister from day to day,
how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street,
how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike,
how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life
than the antiabortion sticker on the bumper of my car.
Ragamuffin GospelBrennan Manning

In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift.  If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.
[Abba's Child]
Brennan Manning
 
“When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes.
I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged,
I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good,
I feel guilty about not feeling guilty.
I am trusting and suspicious.
I am honest and I still play games.
Aristotle said I am a rational animal;
I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.
Brennan Manning

To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark.
In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God’s grace means.
As Thomas Merton put it,
‘A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.
Brennan Manning

The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes.
It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches.
For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift.
[The Ragamuffin Gospel]
Brennan Manning

We should be astonished at the goodness of God,
stunned that he should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at his love,
bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.
Ragamuffin GospelBrennan Manning

Do you realize that in a profoundly human way – the God of Jesus loves you?
He loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness;
beyond fidelity and infidelity.
He loves you in the morning sun and the evening rain without caution, regret, boundary or breaking point.
No matter what’s gone down – He can’t stop loving you!

 Brennan Manning

 

Brennan Manning (Photo credit: Jordon)

Last Friday at the age of 79 the author, friar and contemplative Richard Francis Xavier (Brennan) Manning gave his last breath.
He was the man who said Jesus loved the people around him and that his Father was willing to take them all up in His Kingdom if they wanted to come to Him.
In his book "The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled Beat-Up and Burnt Out"  Manning takes aim at those “so-called Christians who disfigure the face of God, mutilate the gospel of grace, and intimidate others through fear.” He finds it unthinkable that the church rejects those who are accepted by Jesus. Jesus loves those whom the Father loves. If Jesus accepts sinners then God accepts sinners – and He does. How can any of us enter the Kingdom except that God accepts us in our sinful state? (Romans 5:8)

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Grootste oorzaak van atheïsme in de wereld zijn de Christenen

Jaap Marinus haalt denkelijk enkele woorden van Richard Francis Xavier (Brennan) Manning aan die vond dat de christenen de grootste oorzaak van atheïsme in de wereld van vandaag  zijn en wij kunnen hem geen ongelijk geven.

Als men ziet hoe de wereld reilt en zeilt valt het niet te verwonderen dat niet gelovigen vreemd opkijken naar mensen die beweren dat er dit of dat bestaat en dat die of diegene dit en dat gezegd heeft, maar er niets mee aanvangen. Lachwekkend wordt her wanneer er zulke gelovigen zijn die dan nog spreken over een hel waar mensen voor eeuwig zouden vervloekt worden en oneindige martelingen zouden moeten ondergaan, dat terwijl langs één kant zij al hun straf zouden gekregen hebben met de dood. Maar dat ter zijde gelaten, zijn diegenen die in zulke een martelplaats geloven dan toch niet bang dat zij er in zouden terecht komen. Dat blijkt namelijk uit velen hun levensstijl, welk in weinig overeen komt met de leer van diegene die zij beweren te volgen, namelijk Jezus Christus.

Brennan Manning vindt dat de grootste oorzaak van atheïsme in de wereld vandaag ligt aan het feit dat christenen die Jezus erkennen met hun lippen, naar buiten gaan en Hem ontkennen met hun levensstijl. Dat, is wat een ongelovige wereld, simpelweg ongelooflijk vindt. De man met een vlotte spraak die vond dat Redding er kwam door door genade door geloof. Hij geloofde dat er onder het ontelbaar aantal mensen die zich voor de troon en voor het Lam hij de hoer van de Kit-Kat ranch in Carson City Nevada zou zien, de vrouw die met tranen in de ogen hem vertelde dat ze geen ander werk kon vinden om haar twee-jarige zoon te ondersteunen. 

Afgelopen vrijdag gaf op 79-jarige leeftijd de auteur, frater en contemplatieve Richard Francis Xavier (Brennan) Manning zijn laatste adem.

Hij was de man die zei dat Jezus hield van de mensen om hem heen en dat zijn vader bereid was om ze allemaal op te nemen in Zijn Koninkrijk als ze naar Hem wilden komen.


In zijn boek "The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled Beat-Up and Burnt Out" streeft  Manning er naar die "zogenaamde christenen die het aangezicht van God ontsieren, het evangelie van genade verminken, en anderen intimideren door angst." op hun plaats te zetten. Hij vindt het ondenkbaar dat de kerk hen verwerpt die door Jezus worden geaccepteerd. Jezus houdt van degenen die de Vader liefheeft. Als Jezus zondaars aanvaardt dan accepteert God zondaars - en Hij doet dat wel degelijk. Hoe kan iemand van ons het Koninkrijk binnentreden, behalve wanneer God ons in onze zondige staat aanvaardt ? (Romeinen 5:08)

De kloof tussen vrome woorden vanaf de kansel op zondagochtend en het gekonkel dat bij VatiLeaks aan het licht kwam, is natuurlijk wel heel groot. Dat de paus mede daarom de RKK wil hervormen is een logische stap. Maar in hoeverre is dit door te trekken naar jouw en mijn leven? Paus Franciscus zei: “Als priesters en gelovigen niet consistent zijn in wat ze zeggen en wat ze doen, tussen hun woorden en hun daden, dan ondermijnt dat de geloofwaardigheid van de kerk. Men moet in onze acties zien wat men uit onze monden hoort.” (bron)

Lees verder over dat atheïsme en de Christen houding in:

Christenen zijn de grootste oorzaak van atheïsme

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  Now I can’t say I agree with everything Brennan has to say, however I can honestly say that Ragamuffin Gospel gave me the direction I needed, the tools I needed and the breath of life into the Gospel that I needed, and it all happened just when I was getting tired of the same old Church routines.
  
• Remembering Brennan ManningHis books reveal just how indescribably much we are loved and pursued by Jesus -  who loves each of us as we are and not as we (or anyone else thinks) we should be.  Of course, that love, which pursues us with such "relentless tenderness", never leaves us where we are - it draws us toward Jesus.  Drawing people toward Jesus was the life's work of Brennan Manning. 

• A Post About Grace
  Brennan was a monk for a time. He spent time among the poor, hauling water pails with donkeys; he spent time in prison, just so he could sympathize. He struggled with alcoholism throughout his life. He wrote about (and believed in) the matchless grace of God, running out to meet him constantly.

• Brennan Manning

History of the acceptance of a three-in-one God

The faithful Jewish people and prophets of the Old Testament never accepted a three-in-one God. It is true that the unfaithful among the Israelites often borrowed pagan gods, pagan customs, and pagan concepts (including Baal and Astarte) and added them to their God-given religion. But there is no record (scriptural or secular) of a trinity concept even among them.

God His People had, like we should have only one God in heaven who was and is the only one Who should be worshipped. The Elohim Hashem is the Creator of everything Who gave His Name to be honoured and showed His works on earth as in heaven.

He has been the Creator of everything and be willing to receive all of His creation as His beloved ones. Every human person should be His child, respecting Him as the Only One God.

Adam and Eve very well knew Who their Creator was but doubted at a certain moment His position. They learned their lesson when it was to late. Their children where brought up with that knowledge and also their grandchildren got to know the reason why they only should believe in that One God.

In time human people grew away from the Creator of all things and later they even started to believe they could create things themselves.

The Hebrews got in their tribes people who were very close to the Creator and who showed them the way to God. God saw their honesty and their belief and promised many things which came in fulfilment except the few things still to happen.

Judaism is monotheistic and personal and from the tribe of king David, a very devote Jew was born, who became a master teacher and got several followers. Those followers, at the beginning mainly Jews believed the words of their rabbi Jeshua, who later became better known as Jesus from Nazareth, being the Christos or Christ Jesus.

English: Jesus Christ - detail from Deesis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Also gentiles or non-Jews came to the faith in this young man, who died for the sins of many, and believed that the Father, Jehovah God had resurrected him. Many saw in this wonder and the actions he had done the proof that he was the Messiah. As son of God they respected him and saw him in the work God had done for the earth. This son of man, son of Adam, son of Abraham, son of David and son of Joseph and Miriam (Mary/Maria) attracted more people to come closer to God.

In the Roman Empire there were many gods honoured by the gentiles and it looked very attractive to keep certain attitudes going. But the apostles soon saw false teachings spreading around and warned that people had to be very careful. From the very beginning, of course, Christians not only believed in God in the sense in which the Jews did, but they also believed in Jesus Christ. But they did not believe in him as a 'god son', that idea became only introduced many centuries later.

The first followers of Christ became a Jewish sect called The Way which professed monotheism in the same terms as did the Jews. As the Hellinistic teachings influenced certain Jewish teachings the followers of Christ did not escape of those influences either. In the fourth century the false teachings brought more confusion and with the upheld gentile traditions or pagan rituals looked more attractive to many Christians like the movement became more known.

"Speculative thought began to analyze the divine nature until in the 4th century an elaborate theory of a threefoldness in God appears. In this Nicene or Athanasian form of thought God is said to consist of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all equally eternal, powerful and glorious." - Encyclopedia Americana, 1944, v. 6, p. 619, "Christianity".

During the fourth century Egypt was going to give to the church the Arian heresy, the Athanasian orthodoxy, and the monastic piety of St. Antony and St. Pachomius, which spread with irresistible force over Christendom.

The worst figure for Christianity was Constantine (C., Flavius Valerius Constantinus) who during the decline period of the Roman Realm was the Big Emperor (306–337 C. T.) and tried to merge Christianity with particular pagan customs and doctrines. He undertook the first steps to make this merger religion as the official state religion. Accordingly Greece became a part of Christendom. He moved the capital of the realm of Rome to Byzantium, which he named in honour of himself Constantinople.
It was Constantine who decreed (March 7, 321) dies Solis—day of the sun, “Sunday”—as the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2] and that day would be later taken on by a great deal of the Christian community as the new day of rest instead of the Sabbath.

Read more about this in:

1. First Century of Christianity
2. Position and power
3. Raising digression
4. Hellenistic influences
5. Politics and power first priority #1
6. Politics and power first priority #2
7. Politics and power first priority #3 Elevation of Mary and the Holy Spirit
8. The History of the Development of the Trinity Doctrine
9. How did the Trinity Doctrine Develop
10. Altered to fit a Trinity
11. Preexistence in the Divine purpose and Trinity

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Humanitarian crisis in Syria

Everyday we get horrible picture in our living room brought in from the Syria by the visual media. The so called 'Father of the country' even fires scuds at his own people.
Hafez al-Assad. Taken sometime before April 1987. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The industrialist capitalist countries look at it and do not much against the continued violence taking place. There is no oil to fetch like in Iraq and Syria has not much to offer to the West, so why bother?

How long shall the world allow those atrocities take place?

*

At the end of March the Samaritan Fund made a significant donation to an Emergency Appeal by the UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to help relieve the current humanitarian crisis in Syria. This is in addition to the donation made in January to the UNICEF emergency appeal for children in Syria. The DEC appeal provides a grim summary of life in that troubled country: 

Two years of war have had a devastating impact on many Syrian families and have left more than four million people in need of aid. In many parts of the country the health system has effectively collapsed, water supplies have been cut and food is in short supply. In addition, over one million people have now fled to the neighbouring countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. Refugees are arriving at camps which are already stretched to capacity, and many families are living in crude shelters they have built themselves, with host families in overcrowded conditions, or in partially finished buildings.

The Samaritan Fund is also able to forward donations from ecclesias and brethren and sisters wishing to support this appeal. Donations should be sent to our Treasurer, Brother Ken Smith, Westhaven House, Arleston Way, Shirley, Solihull, West Mids., B90 4LH, with a note earmarking it for the DEC Crisis Appeal for Syria.

 Neville Moss (Secretary)

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8 fears caused by the fear of Man

Robin Hughes

Is this a major struggle we have as a Community?
Fear of Man

Idolatry. When we care about what man thinks more than what God thinks, we turn people into idols that we worship—seeking to please them in order to earn their approval or respect.

Ineffectiveness. When we fear man we neglect God’s calling for us and we lose focus on executing the tasks in front of us because we’re too preoccupied with what others are thinking.

Lack of love. When we’re overly concerned with “getting it right,” we turn people into projects to accomplish. We withhold our compassion and grow reserved and calculating in our pursuit of people.

Fakeness. If you’re overly motivated by the opinions of others, you won’t act like yourself. You’ll be a chameleon, adapting yourself to any situation for the sole purpose of fitting in.

Apathy. Fear man and you’ll quit taking risks because of the potential for embarrassment in failure. If an endeavor is unlikely to succeed, you’ll never take the chance. In other words, you’ll never do much of anything.

Dishonesty. It’s tough to speak truth into someone’s life because the truth can be painful. If we fear somebody’s response, however, necessary words will remain unsaid because we care more about ourselves (being liked) than we do about the person (seeing Jesus work in their life). This negligence always creates more long-term damage than the hurt it avoids in the present.

Isolation. Fear of man won’t let you delegate anything because others might not do a good job (or they might do a better job), which could reflect poorly on your performance and reputation. Fear of man compels you to control everything—even if that means going it alone.

Decision Paralysis. When we live out of fear rather than out of the convictions God has given us, we spin in circles unable to move forward.

http://theresurgence.com/2010/06/08/8-snares-set-by-fear-of-man

Also what can we do about this?

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Fear Yourself (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Training for the kingdom

Part of the responsibility of the ecclesia, Stephen DeMarco thinks, is to facilitate everyone to grow in their various talents and part of that is to give them responsibilities and see how they do and then mentor them.

Its rather like the three servants who were given 10, 5, and 1 talents to invest for their master. Part of the growing is preaching and reaching new disciples. part is the growing of the brethrens' talents, and so on. If we are inhibiting good growth then we are putting a stumbling block in front of them. Then we will like the servant who buried his one talent.

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En Soma: One Body

En Soma: Cleveland

Young Adult Unity Summit Do you pray for unity? Do you think it is a vital part of our faith?
 Do you want to become active in bridging gaps between ecclesias?
 Are you a brother or sister between the ages of 18 and 30?

 If you answered yes to these questions, Cleveland is the place to be this spring! En Soma ("One Body," from 1 Corinthians 10:17) is a weekend summit for young adults within the Christadelphian/CGAF community who want to promote unity within the Body of Christ.

English: folio 150 recto of the codex, with the beginning of the 1. Epistle to the Corrinthians (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When: May 17-19, 2013 Where: Church Of The Blessed Hope, 7450 Wilson Mills Road, Chesterland, OH 44026

Speakers: Bre. Kyle Tucker, John Mannell, Scott Tennant, and Alan Guist

Friday evening’s activities will begin at 7 pm. After pizza, devotion, and social time, participants will be directed to their host families’ homes. Study sessions will take place on Saturday, after which we will enjoy dinner and devotion. We plan to conclude with lunch following the Sunday morning worship service. Information and registration can be found at ensoma.weebly.com.

 Please register by May 1. Contact Sis. Livi Jones at livijones@ymail.com with any questions.
We hope to see you this May for an uplifting and productive weekend!

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