Tapping into God's Strength by Waiting on HimJoey Cochran |
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Isaiah 40:31
says: “But they who wait for the Lord renew their strength; they shall
mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they
shall walk and not faint.”
If you’re like me you’ve had different responses at different times to these products. At one point you wrapped your hands on them anytime you found them. You got a euphoric inspiration from them. Then at other times these products exhausted you. You shunned them as superstitious, sentimental, or just flat out silly. Though we oscillate between euphorically or exhaustingly responding to “soaring eagle” merchandise, this is not how we should respond to the truths in this verse. These are truths that promote waiting on God. They teach strength and endurance. Let me show you how. Strength Have you done a lot of strengthening exercises? I work out a few times a week, and I always find that I am chipper on the days when I work out. I feel pep in my step and a eurphoric sensation that I can take on any task. It’s remarkable that God conveys that our waiting gives that same sensation. The practice of patience empowers us. It renews our strength. It’s kind of like a video game where the player is able to recover from attack by waiting and avoiding attacks. But it’s entirely different because we are not waiting from something we are waiting into something. We are waiting into the Lord. Our wait is a wait into the Lord that strengthens us. Why is that? Well Isaiah 40:28 clues us in. Look at the beginning of the verse: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the Ends of the earth.” This verse tells us who God is. He is everlasting and Creator. Thus, we derive strength from God because he is the one of unending strength. He outlasts all creation and is the source of all creation. All creation waits on him and depends upon him. Where creation has its start and stop, God doesn’t. So we can plug into God’s unending strength and be empowered by him. Endurance Humans are puny and weak without God’s strength. Life’s troubles exhaust us easily, and it’s meant to be that way. The curse of the fall led to toiling work. Our toil is because of our turning from God, and our toil reminds us to turn back to him. So when we are exhausted from all of life’s troubles, we need to turn to God. That state of being turned to him and looking to him is an act of waiting; it brings endurance from exhaustion. But we don’t just get exhausted from toil. We get exhausted from going, we get exhausted from not knowing, and we get exhausted from waiting. Toil is only part of it. To fully grip how to develop the endurance portrayed in Isaiah 40:31 we can again look at what Isaiah 40:28 conveys about the character of God. Isaiah 40:28 ends by telling us more about who God is: “He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” Now, when we look back at Isaiah 40:31, it makes more sense. Our endurance is borrowed from God’s endurance. Exhaustion from going is endured because God does not faint. Tapping into God’s tireless strength protects us from fainting. Furthermore, our exhaustion from not knowing what’s ahead is endured because God’s understanding is unending. We, then, trust that he knows what’s next for us. Soar Like Eagles Have you ever seen an eagle circling or soaring? They can hold their wingspan for a lengthy time and glide on the wind for what appears to be an interminable period. They look graceful, steady, and sure as they soar. Do those words describe your patience? Graceful. Steady. Sure. Is that the picture of how you wait for the Lord? My patience falls far short of that description. When I don’t know what’s going on, when I am weak, when I am exhausted, then I am much more likely to look like a spazzed dog chasing its tail rather than a strong, enduring eagle soaring on the wind. You know why? A dog is focused on his tail. Isaiah 40:28 and Isaiah 40:31 teach us to not be focused on ourselves but to refocus on who God is. Look at the enduring nature of God’s character and trust Him to provide strength and endurance through whatever toil or trial you face. Joey Cochran, a ThM graduate of Dallas Seminary, is the church planting intern at Redeemer Fellowship in St. Charles, Illinois under the supervision of pastor Joe Thorn. You can follow him at jtcochran.com or @joeycochran. |
Looked at by Marcus Ampe from a Christian viewpoint.
De wereld bekeken vanuit een Christelijke visie door Marcus Ampe
Wednesday 3 September 2014
Tapping into God's Strength by Waiting on Him
The world Having to face a collective failure
These last few days we not only have seen how ISIS or the fighters for IS destroyed the treasures of culture and unashamed pitiless killed thousands of innocent people and animals. In many countries at the south half of this world several tribes bring suffering to each other and make it that millions of peopel have to flee for the violence.
The West can only look how she is not able to bring a solution in those war-countries. It only can note a collective failure. It also does not manage to get a good working international refugee regime.
Without addressing these inadequacies and putting other policies and strategies in place, the World Food Programme and UNHCR also faces a crisis with a $186 million funding gap.
The UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday warned that funding difficulties, compounded by security and logistical problems, have forced cuts in food rations for nearly 800,000 refugees in Africa, threatening to worsen unacceptable levels of acute malnutrition, stunting and anaemia, particularly in children.
WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin and UN High Commissioner for
Refugees António Guterres, at a meeting with government representatives
in Geneva, made an urgent joint plea for US$186 million to allow WFP to
restore full rations and prevent further cuts elsewhere through December
2014. For its part, UNHCR needs US$39 million for nutrition support it
provides to malnourished and vulnerable refugees in Africa.
Supplies have been cut by at least 50 per cent for nearly 450,000 refugees in remote camps and other sites in the Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan. Another 338,000 refugees in Liberia, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Ghana, Mauritania and Uganda have seen their rations reduced by between five and 43 per cent.
In addition, a series of unexpected, temporary ration reductions has affected camps in several countries since early 2013 and into 2014, including in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon. Some cuts were also due to insecurity that affected deliveries.
A joint UNHCR-WFP report issued in conjunction with today's Geneva meeting says that refugees are among the world's most vulnerable people and warns that reductions in their minimum rations can have a devastating impact on already weakened populations.
Many refugees arrive in countries of exile already in urgent need of emergency nutritional care. Lacking any means to support themselves in many host countries, they remain totally dependent on international assistance – sometimes for years – until they can return home or find other solutions. Generally, WFP tries to provide 2,100 kilocalories per refugee per day.
Guterres warned that while a sustained 60 per cent reduction in rations would be catastrophic for refugees, even small cuts can spell disaster for undernourished people. The impact, especially on children, can be immediate and often irreversible. Undernutrition during a child's first 1,000 days from conception can have lifelong consequences, compromising both physical growth and mental development. Numerous studies have shown that this "stunting" leaves affected children at a severe social and economic disadvantage for the rest of their lives.
Even before the most recent ration cuts, refugees in many of the camps surveyed were already experiencing unacceptable levels of malnutrition, despite some progress over the past five years in improving nutrition standards. For example, a programme to prevent and treat micro-nutrient deficiencies has helped to slow or even reverse rising malnutrition rates and associated problems in some areas. But the current shortfall now threatens to negate even those hard-won gains.
Nutritional surveys conducted between 2011 and 2013 showed that stunting and anaemia among children was already at critical levels in the majority of the refugee sites. Only one of 92 surveyed camps, for example, met the agencies' goal of fewer than 20 per cent of refugee children suffering from anaemia. And fewer than 15 per cent of camps surveyed met the target of less than 20 per cent stunting among children. The surveys also showed that acute malnutrition levels among children under five years of age remain unacceptably high in more than 60 per cent of the sites.
Refugees hit by the food shortages are struggling to cope, posing a host of additional problems as they resort to what the report calls "negative coping strategies." These include an increase in school dropouts as refugee children seek work to help provide food for their families; exploitation and abuse of women refugees who venture out of camps in search of work; "survival sex" by women and girls trying to raise money to buy food; early marriage of young girls; increased stress and domestic violence within families; and increasing theft.
The end result, the report says, is a
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Please do find:
The West can only look how she is not able to bring a solution in those war-countries. It only can note a collective failure. It also does not manage to get a good working international refugee regime.
Without addressing these inadequacies and putting other policies and strategies in place, the World Food Programme and UNHCR also faces a crisis with a $186 million funding gap.
The UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday warned that funding difficulties, compounded by security and logistical problems, have forced cuts in food rations for nearly 800,000 refugees in Africa, threatening to worsen unacceptable levels of acute malnutrition, stunting and anaemia, particularly in children.
Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, the United States Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, addresses volunteers at the Earth Day Tri-Mission Community Project in Rome, Italy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
"Many refugees in Africa depend on WFP food to stay alive and are now suffering because of a shortage of funding," Cousin said. "So we are appealing to donor governments to help all refugees – half of whom are children – have enough food to be healthy and to build their own futures."Across Africa, 2.4 million refugees in some 200 sites in 22 countries depend on regular food aid from the World Food Programme. Currently, a third of those refugees have seen reductions in their rations, with refugees in Chad facing cuts as high as 60 per cent.
Supplies have been cut by at least 50 per cent for nearly 450,000 refugees in remote camps and other sites in the Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan. Another 338,000 refugees in Liberia, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Ghana, Mauritania and Uganda have seen their rations reduced by between five and 43 per cent.
In addition, a series of unexpected, temporary ration reductions has affected camps in several countries since early 2013 and into 2014, including in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon. Some cuts were also due to insecurity that affected deliveries.
"The number of crises around the world is far outpacing the level of funding for humanitarian operations, and vulnerable refugees in critical operations are falling through the cracks,"said Guterres.
"It is unacceptable in today's world of plenty for refugees to face chronic hunger or that their children drop out of school to help families survive,"he said, calling for a rethink on funding for displacement situations worldwide.
A joint UNHCR-WFP report issued in conjunction with today's Geneva meeting says that refugees are among the world's most vulnerable people and warns that reductions in their minimum rations can have a devastating impact on already weakened populations.
Many refugees arrive in countries of exile already in urgent need of emergency nutritional care. Lacking any means to support themselves in many host countries, they remain totally dependent on international assistance – sometimes for years – until they can return home or find other solutions. Generally, WFP tries to provide 2,100 kilocalories per refugee per day.
Guterres warned that while a sustained 60 per cent reduction in rations would be catastrophic for refugees, even small cuts can spell disaster for undernourished people. The impact, especially on children, can be immediate and often irreversible. Undernutrition during a child's first 1,000 days from conception can have lifelong consequences, compromising both physical growth and mental development. Numerous studies have shown that this "stunting" leaves affected children at a severe social and economic disadvantage for the rest of their lives.
Even before the most recent ration cuts, refugees in many of the camps surveyed were already experiencing unacceptable levels of malnutrition, despite some progress over the past five years in improving nutrition standards. For example, a programme to prevent and treat micro-nutrient deficiencies has helped to slow or even reverse rising malnutrition rates and associated problems in some areas. But the current shortfall now threatens to negate even those hard-won gains.
Nutritional surveys conducted between 2011 and 2013 showed that stunting and anaemia among children was already at critical levels in the majority of the refugee sites. Only one of 92 surveyed camps, for example, met the agencies' goal of fewer than 20 per cent of refugee children suffering from anaemia. And fewer than 15 per cent of camps surveyed met the target of less than 20 per cent stunting among children. The surveys also showed that acute malnutrition levels among children under five years of age remain unacceptably high in more than 60 per cent of the sites.
Refugees hit by the food shortages are struggling to cope, posing a host of additional problems as they resort to what the report calls "negative coping strategies." These include an increase in school dropouts as refugee children seek work to help provide food for their families; exploitation and abuse of women refugees who venture out of camps in search of work; "survival sex" by women and girls trying to raise money to buy food; early marriage of young girls; increased stress and domestic violence within families; and increasing theft.
The end result, the report says, is a
"vicious cycle of poverty, food insecurity, deterioration of nutritional status, increased risk of disease, and risky coping strategies. Therefore, improving livelihood opportunities and food security is paramount to break this vicious cycle, and ensuring that previous investments and advances in nutrition and food security are preserved."In addition to urging donor governments to fully fund the refugee food pipeline, WFP and UNHCR are also encouraging African governments to provide refugees with agricultural plots, grazing land, working rights and access to local markets to promote self-sufficiency among refugees. Given the unpredictability of funding, the agencies are also refining their methods of prioritizing those affected by possible cuts to ensure that the most vulnerable are identified and receive the help they need.
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Please do find:
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Related articles
- UN: Food rations for 800,000 African refugees slashed
- Heads of WFP & UNHCR issue urgent appeal as food shortages hit nearly 800,000 refugees in Africa.
- UN relief officials issue urgent appeal as food shortages hit 800,000 refugees in Africa
- Aid agencies seek assistance as food shortages hits 800,000 African refugees
- New thinking needed on food aid for refugees in Africa
- African refugees face cuts in rations as funding runs low - UN
- Food rations for 800,000 African refugees slashed: UN
- Starvation Real Threat in Central African Republic
- Food rations slashed for 800,000 African refugees: UN
- As food shortages hit 800,000 African refugees, UNHCR and WFP issue urgent appeal
Friday 29 August 2014
Anti-church movements and Humanism
Diderot the man who brought the encyclopaedia as work-instrument for free thought |
To get some anti-church reaction under way, sometimes the teachers were not afraid to present themselves as martyrs. In 1600 with the execution, or martyrdom to some, of Giordano Bruno for heresy by the Inquisition some consider it to be the beginning of the modern Freethought movement.
In its earliest roots the Freethought movement explicitly organized itself as anti-church, or more specifically anti-dogma and anti-hierarchy. “Free” “Thought” simply referred to thought free of the control religious institutions.
When you take Freethought to be a philosophical viewpoint that holds free opinions, it should be formed on the basis of free thinking, not bounded to dogma's but following logic, reason, and empiricism and not authority, tradition, or other dogmas. Freethought should then be build on an experience by which people also allow others to think freely and to pose questions and to give answers according to their own experiences in this life on earth.
We would expect from such a free thinker he or she also allow free thinking to the other, but recently we have seen many so called freethinkers and humanists who want to press their own ideas onto others and laugh with those who prefer to keep on the idea of there be existing a Supreme Divine Being, Creator of heaven and earth.
Those ‘freethinking’ people not always are so free thinking as they seem to pretend. More than once they also are anti religion people, though not always atheists or secular paganists.
What we would like to see of those practitioners of freethought or ‘freethinkers’ is that they stimulate interaction of thought. Freethought holds that individuals should not accept ideas proposed as truth without recourse to knowledge and reason. Freethinkers should strive to build their opinions on the basis of facts, scientific inquiry, and logical principles, independent of any logical fallacies or the intellectually limiting effects of authority, confirmation bias, cognitive bias, conventional wisdom, popular culture, prejudice, sectarianism, tradition, urban legend, and all other dogmas.
For a lot of freethinkers there is insufficient evidence to support the existence of supernatural phenomena and therefore to come to worship and having meetings for holding certain rites, having a formation of religion, would be considered wrong because it would give a sign of a believe upon insufficient evidence.
Toward the end of the 17th century in England the term ‘free-thinker emerged and was used to describe those who stood in opposition to the institution of the Church, and of literal belief in the Bible. Several people had started to examine the Bible and to compare it with the dogmatic teachings of the 'catholic' and traditional state church. They were convinced in what the Bible taught that each should examine the Word of God and could be formed by it. They believe god loved His people so much He was willing to give it enough information so that they could come to learn the Truth. God wants everybody to study His Word and to come to understand the world through consideration of god His Creation (nature, plants and animals).
In 1697 William Molyneux wrote a widely publicized letter to John Locke. 16 years later Anthony Collins wrote his ‘Discourse of Free-thinking,’ which gained substantial popularity. In France, the concept first appeared in publication in 1765 when Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond d’Alembert and Arouet de Voltaire, who disliked the Jews, not because of racial prejudice but because they seemed to him responsible for Christianity, included an article on ‘Libre-Penseur’ in their ‘Encyclopédie.’
The European freethought concepts spread so widely that even places as remote as the Jotunheimen, in Norway, had well-known freethinkers, such as Jo Gjende, by the 19th century
According Paul Chiariello one of the oldest still running Freethought publications is The Freethinker, first published in Britain in 1881.
In line with the reactionary origins of the movement, it’s founder, G. W. Foote, wrote of its purpose: “The Freethinker is an anti-Christian organ, and must therefore be chiefly aggressive. It will wage relentless war against superstition in general.”
However, the earliest roots of the Humanist movement identified itself as a religion. Like other secular movements, for instance Auguste Comte’s Religion of Humanity, historic Humanism in the US, with a capital ‘H’, was designed as a brand new naturalistic religion. This is clearly seen in a document created by many of the first leading Humanist thinkers, scientists and activists: the First Humanist Manifesto 1933. It states that:
Today man’s larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion.
The focus was on a broader definition of religion that included naturalistic and non-theistic worldviews. Religion was something to be re-thought and updated instead of countered.Please do find his ideas in: Is Humanism a Religion?
Related articles
- Women in Secularism: Interview with Susan Jacoby (skepchick.org)
At the time the Constitution was written, the majority of Americans were indeed, overwhelmingly, practicing Christians of various denominations. But the founders did not want to transform a people composed of many religious beliefs into a nation in which laws supported any one form of Christianity — or any religion. The Constitution does not say a word about Christ or any other deity. This was, in fact, a subject of considerable debate at state ratifying conventions. Attempts to amend the Constitution to acknowledge God or Jesus Christ as the source of all governmental power cropped up regularly, and were defeated, throughout the nineteenth century (most notably during the Civil War). These amendments would never have been proposed had the founders established a Christian nation in the first place; they were proposed precisely because the Constitution does not establish a Christian nation/government. Abraham Lincoln, when presented with a draft by Protestant ministers who wanted to add not only God but also Jesus Christ to the Constitution, replied cagily that he would “take such action upon it as my responsibility to my Maker and our country demands.” His wise action was to take no action at all. - Buddhism & Humanism: Two Sides of the Same Coin, Part 1 (appliedsentience.com)
Humanism is naturalistic and based in reasoned experience over dogma. So I’ll also be including various studies from secular science and philosophy, since without prophets and holy books these are the methods by which Humanists fill in the content of their worldview.
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Buddhism and Humanism share a deep common core unique to them compared to other religions and worldviews. To make this point I’ll start with Buddhism. Damien Keown in his pioneering work relating Buddhist and Western ethics makes this point for Buddhism explicitly. - Call for Papers: Women of Color Beyond Faith Anthology (freethoughtblogs.com)
Historically, women of color have been more religious than white women. According to the Pew Research Survey, at 87% and 85% respectively, African American and Latino women represent the largest and most committed group of believers in the United States. Women of color have long used the church as a vehicle for political organizing, coalition-building, social uplift, and personal growth. For many women of color, faith plays a huge role in therapeutic healing and emotional restoration. Bucking male dominated patriarchal institutions such as the Black Church, the Catholic Church, and Latino Pentecostal denominations, women of color have assumed leadership roles in faith-based movements. Progressive religious traditions have informed women’s resistance to and complicity with the dominant culture; often providing a means of redressing the effects of racism, white supremacy, segregation, and economic injustice. The absence of alternative secular spaces and sites of political agency in communities of color is directly related to race, class, income, wealth, and geographic inequities. Because of these - A 'church' for atheists? Yes, one is coming to Madison, with monthly services (host.madison.com)
“I’ve always missed going to church — the singing, the sermon, the volunteerism, the community,” said Kroth, 30, of Madison, a project manager for a construction firm. “But I couldn’t reconcile that with my views on religion.”
The solution came by way of an international movement to create church-like experiences for non-theists. The monthly gatherings, called Sunday Assemblies, adopt many aspects of religious worship services, just none of the God talk.
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“It’s fellowship without the dogma,” said Lavada Luening of West Allis, organizer of Sunday Assembly Milwaukee, which started in December. It has only a handful of core members, she said, but hasn’t done much publicity and is still building its infrastructure. The Madison founders said they don’t know how many participants to anticipate initially.
The first-ever Sunday Assembly was held about 18 months ago in London, launched by two British comedians, Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans. In a guest column in the New York Times, the two said they started Sunday Assembly “because the idea of meeting once a month to sing songs, hear great speakers and celebrate the incredible gift of life seems like a fun, and useful, thing to do.” - HumanistLife : A Humanism without the word 'spirituality' (humanistlife.org.uk)
When religious people call deep feeling spiritual, they connect it to supernatural or transcendent meaning. I could try to change that meaning, describing a purely naturalist usage for spirituality (after all its root traces back to the word for breath), but such usage conflicts with the way most understand the word.
Instead of departing from this widespread connotation of spirituality, I turn to other words more commonly understood to have secular connotations. Looking to other words also helps head off confusion when spirituality is used to refer to multiple distinct ideas that can be discussed separately (e.g. aspiration, respite, wonder, awe, a sense of connection to the universe and others, etc.).
- I Don't Believe in a God - What Should I Call Myself? (new.exchristian.net)
atholic, Born-Again, Reformed, Jew, Muslim, Shiite, Sunni, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist . . . . Religions give people labels. The downside can be tribalism, an assumption that insiders are better than outsiders, that they merit more compassion, integrity and generosity or even that violence toward “infidels” is acceptable. But the upside is that religious or spiritual labels offer a way of defining who we are. They remind adherents that our moral sense and quest for meaning are core parts of what it means to be human. They make it easier to convey a subset of our deepest values to other people, and even to ourselves. - Am I a Secular Pagan? by Heather Van De Sande (humanisticpaganism.com)
like any other group without a dogma or a central church handing down edicts, there is a whole gamut of individuals in the Pagan arena. For some, the rituals and ceremonies are much like LARPing; they don’t actually believe in the supernatural, it’s all just good fun. The gods and goddesses are merely metaphors. For others, it’s more about the respect for the planet and the understanding that we’re just another life form on it.
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The reason the big religions all do things like gather regularly, sing, make things, have holidays and rituals, is because it satisfies a need we have as human beings. I’m sure that whatever that need is, it has a non-supernatural explanation. But I don’t think we have to feel that just because we’re atheists that we shouldn’t do anything that’s *like* religion. As more people leave Big Religion behind, there are going to be more secular communities with “religious” aspects. - Freethought (pbmo.wordpress.com)
The web of transmissions and re-inventions of critical thought meanders from the Hellenistic Mediterranean, through repositories of knowledge and wisdom in Ireland and the Iranian civilizations (e.g. Khayyam and his unorthodox sufi ‘Rubaiyat’ poems), and in other civilizations, as the Chinese, (e.g. the seafaring Southern Sòng’s renaissance), and on through heretical thinkers of esoteric alchemy or astrology, to the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. French physician and writer Rabelais celebrated ‘rabelaisian’ freedom as well as good feasting and drinking (an expression and a symbol of freedom of the mind) in defiance of the hypocrisies of conformist orthodoxy in his utopian ‘Thelema Abbey,’ the devise of which was ‘Do What Thou Wilt': ‘So had Gargantua established it. In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed, ‘Do What Thou Wilt'; because free people … act virtuously and avoid vice. They call this honor.’ When the hero of his book, Pantagruel, journeys to the ‘Oracle of The Div(in)e Bottle,’ he learns the lesson of life in one simple word: ‘Trinch!,’ Drink! Enjoy the simple life, learn wisdom and knowledge, as a free human. Beyond puns, irony, and satire, Gargantua’s prologue metaphor instructs the reader to ‘break the bone and suck out the substance-full marrow’ (‘la substantifique moëlle’), the core of wisdom.
Are you religious, spiritual, or do you belong to a religion, having a faith or interfaith
Many people today feel they have stepped away from religion, and found a way
to feed their spirituality without a religion or faith practice.
Many practice 'out of religion' activities and are convinced they have nothing to do with 'a religion'. But....If they have certain things they believe in, If they use these
concepts to better themselves and others, and If their concepts lead
them closer to "the source"... is it not a religion or faith practice
for them?
You can also ask if spirituality is connected with only religious exercise.
All created in the image of God do have received intelligence and some instinct also knowing good and bad. Throughout history people looked for ways to form their minds. They created different systems to form the soul (spirit/pneuma/psyche/mind). In this way they also created rites or returning actions which were recognised by others and as such got them labelled under religious and spiritual groups. In their truest deepest form religion and spirituality may belong together.
Faith - is the demonstration of our spiritual beliefs even if it is a combination of various spiritualities
interfaith is the sharing of one's faith with others to gain an understanding of one's beliefs. When we look at "Interfaith" we may find a situation were the people present a willingness to overlook the borders of the different faithgroups. Those who consider themselves belonging to an interfaith are persons of goodwill who want to reconcile the various opinions, beliefs, faiths and sometimes invention of the wide variety of religions which have developed as a result of the lack of understanding of the true facts of our spirituality.
We do not need a religion to question ourselves , the reason why we are here or what we do have to do. When we do use our brains we shall come to an understanding that have in our soul (nephesh) the flesh and the inner soul (pneuma/psyche) our way of thinking which is the one which give more importance to the soul (ruach/breath/wind), the life-breath which keeps us alive. This knowledge having to give importance to psychological and spiritual development gives way to the liberty to look across the many borders set up by religious, non-religous and atheist people.
As explained in the several articles on Spirituality and Religosity on Stepping Toes, "Spirituality" requires no belief or faith, because it has the knowledge of its abilities and experience. Our mind can think and guide our body. Without a healthy mind we shall not be able to get a healthy body.
Today we see that some sort of cross-fertilisation is occurring within and between religions at this juncture of history.
according to Rev. Stephen Albert:
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Religion and its contribution to culture of peace (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
All created in the image of God do have received intelligence and some instinct also knowing good and bad. Throughout history people looked for ways to form their minds. They created different systems to form the soul (spirit/pneuma/psyche/mind). In this way they also created rites or returning actions which were recognised by others and as such got them labelled under religious and spiritual groups. In their truest deepest form religion and spirituality may belong together.
Faith - is the demonstration of our spiritual beliefs even if it is a combination of various spiritualities
interfaith is the sharing of one's faith with others to gain an understanding of one's beliefs. When we look at "Interfaith" we may find a situation were the people present a willingness to overlook the borders of the different faithgroups. Those who consider themselves belonging to an interfaith are persons of goodwill who want to reconcile the various opinions, beliefs, faiths and sometimes invention of the wide variety of religions which have developed as a result of the lack of understanding of the true facts of our spirituality.
His Religion and Hers (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
As explained in the several articles on Spirituality and Religosity on Stepping Toes, "Spirituality" requires no belief or faith, because it has the knowledge of its abilities and experience. Our mind can think and guide our body. Without a healthy mind we shall not be able to get a healthy body.
Today we see that some sort of cross-fertilisation is occurring within and between religions at this juncture of history.
As we are caught up with it and feel the energies of the process positively so we find ourselves sustained by what we are calling "spirituality", and exhilarating tone of life that is a vibrant reality for many - whether our lives are full of suffering and tragedy or just plain humdrum, or remarkably privileged amonst the gross inequalities of our lives. So our old religious homes are actually benefitting from this renewal rather than fading away and dying. There remains however the problems of fanaticism and desperation and exclusivism in religions. Can our spiritualities overcome our new fanaticisms and the continuing oppressive inequalities of our ancient political economies which seem to revive old types of wars of religion?writes George Armstrong.
according to Rev. Stephen Albert:
"Interfaith" is not a religion. It does not have a set of rules that require an adherent to act or perform one way or another. Those who call or involve themselves with Interfaith, may celebrate one or more religious traditions and they honor the many people who believe differently than they. The beauty of interfaith is that once you take the time to investigate the deeper beliefs of a religious group of people, the more they begin sounding just like you. Abigail and I just returned from the NAIN (North American Interfaith Network) conference in Detroit Michigan where 150 or so people from a variety of faiths celebrated the similarities and the differences of the many religions. They were not afraid to ask the "hard questions" and to more deeply interact with new friends and colleagues. For the last two years I have mentioned this yearly conference to this group and, besides us, only Laura Zinn has attended. By the way, her workshops were great and she is a great organizer and presenter. Mark your calendars now to attend the NAIN Connect from July 19-22, 2015 in Regina Saskatchewan Canada. Bring your interfaith friends or even those who believe their way is the only way (They won't come anyway). The events are fun, they feed us great and you will come away with a great respect for whatever you believe. Blessings.
WP Religion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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Additional literature:
- Religions and Mainliners
- What is faith and is it the only thing required
- Faith
- Soul
- Do not forget the important sign of belief
- Living in faith
- Science, belief, denial and visibility 1
- Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
- Ian Barbour connecting science and religion
- Religion and spirituality
- Looking for True Spirituality 1 Intro
- Looking for True Spirituality 2 Not restricted to an elite
- Looking for True Spirituality 3 Mind of Christ
- Looking for True Spirituality 4 Getting to Know the Mind of Christ
- Looking for True Spirituality 5 Fruitage of the Spirit
- Looking for True Spirituality 6 Spirituality and Prayer
- Looking for True Spirituality 7 Preaching of the Good News
- Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
- Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
- Experiencing God
- The Supreme Being God of gods
- Cosmos creator and human destiny
- Only One God
- God is One
- Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
- Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
- Preparedness to change
- Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience
- Being Religious and Spiritual 2 Religiosity and spiritual life
- Being Religious and Spiritual 3 Philosophers, Avicennism and the spiritual
- Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
- Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people
- Fruits of the spirit will prevent you from being either inactive or unfruit
- American atheists most religiously literate Americans
Related articles
- Bklyn Boro Pres Adams Leads Interfaith Rally Against Hate Attacks On Religious Communities (jpupdates.com)
“When any one group is assailed by the fabric of our society, then it’s torn to pieces,” said Ibrahim Kurtiuis of the United American Muslim Faith Mosque. “Hatred in any type of form will not be tolerated at all by our community or any community in the greatest city in the world.” - Minnesota Interfaith Group Changes Its Name to Become More Inclusive of Atheists (patheos.com)
When you mention the word “Interfaith” around atheists, you often hear a lot of pushback against the word itself. Even if an interfaith dialogue is supposed to represent a conversation between people of all different beliefs, I’ve heard atheists say something like, Atheism isn’t a faith, so “interfaith” excludes us by definition.
Well, a group in Minnesota has finally taken a positive step toward becoming more inclusive.
The St. Paul Interfaith Network in Minnesota hosts a monthly meeting called the “Interfaith Conversation Cafe” (ICC) where different groups come together to talk about whatever that month’s theme is.
- How Spiritual Can You Be Without Religion? (patheos.com)
New Age thinkers usually enter the ditch on the other side of the road: They idealize altered states of consciousness and draw specious connections between subjective experience and the spookier theories at the frontiers of physics. Here we are told that the Buddha and other contemplatives anticipated modern cosmology or quantum mechanics and that by transcending the sense of self, a person can realize his identity with the One Mind that gave birth to the cosmos.
In the end, we are left to choose between pseudo-spirituality and pseudo-science.
- Understanding the multi-faith initiative (elonpendulum.com)
One of the developmental goals of young adulthood is to clarify what our “religions” will be, what our deepest convictions are, and what we will do about any of them. So our priority is to help you discover, explore, more deeply understand, and take ownership of your faith. Whatever your tradition we aim to encourage your knowledge and practice. We won’t make you something you’re not. We want you to be a rooted and good at who you are and choose to be.
- Religion and devotion, prayer and meditation (lifesharerjuneluna.wordpress.com)
Spirituality is religion put into real form and applied practically. The Bible is a scared scripture. When we read it, its essence must be put into our hearts and minds, not our armpits. - HumanistLife : A Humanism without the word 'spirituality' (humanistlife.org.uk)
Can humanists be spiritual and/or use the term spiritual? Should humanists use the term? Is spirituality ‘the best word’ to describe our sense of deepest meaning? I will focus on the question of why I do not use the word, but I also want to state up front that humanists can use the term spirituality if they find it appropriate. I do not use it for two reasons. First, using other words helps me clearly communicate my humanism to non-humanists. Second, I find other words more moving. - Is Humanism a Religion? (appliedsentience.com)
Religion may be impossible to define, whether we ask ourselves what the word means or what specific things count as “religious.” In his classic text The Sociology of Religion, the famous sociologist Max Weber argued that “Definition can be attempted, if at all, only at the conclusion of the study” of religion. However, as Nicholas Wade points out, and does in his own book, The Faith Instinct, Weber never defines religion – even at the end!
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Just as the definition of “religion” varies greatly, there is a lot of variety in the content and form of Humanism. Humanism focuses mostly on a method, namely naturalism and reasoned experience, instead of a set of dogmas from holy books or prophets. So, given the fact that we all have different personal experiences and capacities to reason, the conclusions we come to can be expected to vary.
This has two effects. First, different groups use different definitions of religion. Second, different groups often have widely divergent Humanist worldviews. So even on inclusive definitions many Humanist groups simply are not religious. Historically, different Humanist groups have self-identified as religious and non-religious.
- Religion vs Spirituality (spreadmyvision.wordpress.com)
Man made religions are nothing but a group of cunning crafty peoples’ way of holding the reigns to others’ faith and hence their fates. No wonder loss of faith in religions is getting increasingly common among the youth today. - How do you define religion? (thoughtofvg.wordpress.com)
If one attempts to describe it in terms of belief in God, Buddhism wouldn’t be considered a religion and comparatively, Any organisation or collective group would be labelled a religion if the definition of “a group in which all members have similar moral beliefs and goals” were used. A more accurate definition would perhaps be found by comparing the world religions and by discussing what common concepts they share.
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Conclusively, we can see that what most religions have in common is spiritual awareness and goals, be there a God or not. Abrahamic fiaths have spiritual goals to become closer with God, Buddhism focusses on the journey to spiritual enlightenment and Hinduism acknowledges a spiritual link and awareness between all things in existence. It is therefore not belief in God that separates moral organisations from religions, but spirituality is what makes an organisation a religion.
Saturday 23 August 2014
Do you believe in One god
Please do find:
- God is one
- God of gods
- Only one God
- A God between many gods
- Seeing or not seeing and willingness to find God
- The Trinity - the Truth
- Christianity without the Trinity
- People Seeking for God 1 Looking for answers
- People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
- People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
- People Seeking for God 4 Biblical terms
- People Seeking for God 7 The Lord and lords
- The Bible and names in it
- Lord and owner
- Lord in place of the divine name
- Pluralis Majestatis in the Holy Scriptures
- Hellenistic influences
- Politics and power first priority #2
- Politics and power first priority #3 Elevation of Mary and the Holy Spirit
- The wrong hero
- On the Nature of Christ
- Why think that (1) … Jesus existed?
- Why think that (2) … Jesus claimed to be something special
- Why think that (3) … Jesus rose from the dead
- Why think that (4) … God would reveal himself in words
- Jesus begotten Son of God #13 Pre-existence excluding virginal birth of the Only One Transposed
- Jesus begotten Son of God #19 Compromising fact
- Nazarene Commentary Luke 3:1, 2 – Factual Data
- Nazarene Commentary Matthew 3:13-17 – Jesus Declared God’s Son at His Baptism
- Entrance of a king to question our position #1 Coming in the Name of the Lord
- Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
- Marriage of Jesus 2 Standard writings about Jesus
- Marriage of Jesus 5 Papyrus fragment in Egyptian Coptic
- Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
- Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant
- In the death of Christ, the son of God, is glorification
- 3 Reasons the Resurrection Matters
- A fact of History or just a fancy Story
- Philippians 1 – 2
- Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer
- TD Jakes Breaks Down the Trinity, Addresses Being Called a ‘Heretic’
- The Third Word: Scripture twisting is blasphemy
- Corruption in our translations !
- Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
- Science, belief, denial and visibility 1
- Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
- Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
- Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists
- Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one
- Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
- Building up the spirit of the soul
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- Gospel message 10
- How early are the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Trinity?
- Jesus
- THE THIRD GOD: The Revelation of the Holy Spirit
- My God is So High, You can't get Over Him....A Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Trinity
- myths about Yeshua
- The Importance of Knowing God's Name...
- The Begotten Son: How Jesus Helped the Jews Accept the Idea of Multiple Gods
- Discussing the Trinity
- The doctrine of the Trinity: one being and three persons
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