Death is Nothing at all

Death is nothing at all

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other

That we are still

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way you always used

Put no difference into your tone

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes we always enjoyed together

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was

Let it be spoken without effort

Without the ghost of a shadow in it

Life means all that it ever meant

It is the same as it ever was

There is absolute unbroken continuity

What is death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind

Because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval

Somewhere very near

Just around the corner

All is well.

Nothing is past; nothing is lost

One brief moment and all will be as it was before 

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

Death is nothing at all

Canon Henry Scott-Holland

1910

If I knew then what I know now

Almost every night on the news we watch our inexperienced politicians blunder about on the world stage, making our problems worse and getting us involved in situations that don’t concern us.

Watch this clip below and see another well meaning but naive young man saying things he will probably regret

The Fourth Step: Made a fearless and moral inventory of ourselves

I'm going to step on some toes when I say this. I do not believe that we are born into original sin or that we have a sin nature. Yes, we all sin. But the Arabic translation of the word "sin" simply means a mistake. We are all in a developmental process. To say that we are miserable sinners contradicts the nature of God. If we are made in the image and likeness of God, we cannot be sinners by nature.

As a musician, I know that all instrumentalists make mistakes. But that does not make everyone a miserable musician any more than stating that we are horrible sinners.

Instead, we all possess the ability to rise to the highest level of achievement. Now we do all fall short of the glory of God, meaning that we don't shine with the splendor that belongs only to the divine. But that does not mean that we are miserable sinners. All of us are on a path.

However, we all make mistakes. The fourth step, "made a fearless and moral inventory of ourselves," is critical in the growth process.

As I look back on my life, I have clear memories of my errors. I chose to live in isolation due to fear of contact; I withdrew into an abyss of isolation; and I have treated others unfairly out of my pain.

However, I know that with God's help and the help of other spiritual seekers, I can and have been learning a far more productive way to live.

Dear readers, please share your views on this.

I'm Barbara altman. Raised in an alcoholic home, I became depressed and riddled with anxiety at an early age. One of the purposes in my life is to convey hope to those who have suffered from depression and I hope to do this in my writings and in speaking engagements. For more information, refer to http://WWw.depressiontorecovery.com

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A miserable sinner is going to be barbecued through all eternity

In an article titled 'Intelligent Design Theory: Why it Matters', Jay Richards says, "If we are nothing more than the sum of chance, impersonal law and environment, then we are not free and responsible individuals, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights . Because we are not free we are not responsible; so, paradoxically we can do whatever we want."

Let us delve into this thought a little more closely. While many thinkers believed in the absolute power of the forces of nature which were thought to control the destiny of man entirely, the Sophists of the ancient Greece held that "man is the measure of all things", that he is not wholly the slave of the Fates but can shape his own destiny among his fellows.

Plato insisted upon freedom as a necessary basis for the good life. He would have men to follow their passions, free also to control them and build a higher life by overcoming evil. Aristotle also believed in the freedom of man and held that morality was a matter of free choice - "Virtue as well as evil lies in our power". The Stoics, on the other hand, held that everything in the universe has its beginning and source in the will of God. Yet they gave man the degree of freedom to obey or disobey the moral law. Man may give himself up to his passions and become their slaves, or may conquer them and become free.

The idea of the soul's freedom was also entertained by some of the early Christian thinkers. Others, such as St. Augustine, held that mankind was free with Adam but lost that freedom through Adam's sin. This is the doctrine of the "original sin" by which Adam's sin was believed to have been transmitted to all his descendants. So man is a sinner by birth and can get his salvation only through Divine Grace. Those who will not accept the offer of grace through Jesus Christ are destined to suffer eternal punishment.

Somehow when I read all this, I am very much struck by the over-emphasis on the idea of sin, vicarious atonement and salvation through a particular prophet. This has been the single-most reason why the initiative of the importance of effort in the realization of the self has been taken away from man's spiritual quest. Men get into the way of thinking that because they are sinners, they are helpless.

Final illumination comes through the grace of God. Think of Light. Light is there and to the extent we become pure, to that extent light shines in us. There is too much talk of sin and hell-fire in some form of institutional Christianity, and too little dwelling on the Light. These days many young people do not take seriously the ideas of heaven and hell. If the theory of predestination is true, there is little meaning in moral and spiritual initiative and effort.

All popular conceptions of religion have some idea of an omnipotent Fate. But the central theme of Absolute fatalism is that it assigns no place at all to individual initiative. Very much akin to fatalism is the doctrine of predestination, which to some means, "God's unchangeable decision from eternity of all that is to be". In this scheme, human life is reduced almost to a puppet show.

However, as distinct from this school of thought, there are others who grant an amount of free will to man and find this freedom compatible with Divine omniscience and goodness.

I have seen people hampered in life by false theology as well as by false astrology. People lose initiative by believing in astrological calculations, many of which in the long run prove to be wrong. Many blame the stars and the planets and the signs of the zodiac, and hold them responsible for all their failures. "The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves", says Shakespeare. By removing the fault that is in ourselves we can change our destinies.

Kindly readers of this article may please leave a comment in "rating" for my self-analysis. Thank you.

Bhaskar Banerjee runs iBongo Inc. as a Business Development Manager for iBongo Inc. and manages a recently developed website http://www.Rajasthan.iBongo.com He is dedicated and works hard to ensure success.

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For Once in Your Life

For once in your life, why don't you do something positive for a change.

Far too many of us waste time on negative activities such as moaning, whinging, excessive drinking, smoking and even taking drugs. We often use stress or our poor lot in life as justification but deep down we all know that this is not good enough.

Why don't you participate in a positive activity? RIGHT NOW.

You could go for a walk on the fresh air. Better still, go somewhere nice (like the countryside, near the sea or to a famous oudoor landmark) and go for a walk in the fresh air.

You could visit your local library, choose a book that appeals to you and read it.

Why not get in touch with some old friends, arrange to meet, catch up and reminsce

Take up a new activity. What about golf? It is enjoyable, good exercise (carry your clubs) readily available for most people and is a great way to make new friends.

Do some work for charity. There are thousands of good causes in the world and they all need volunteers.

I recommend cycling. It is cheap, enjoyable, good exercise, readily available and there are thousands of miles of suitable paths to explore, often alongside rivers and canals. I particularly recommend cycling along some of the paths which were created from disused railway lines which can be found everywhere. On a summers day you can even enjoy a well earned drink in one of the many pubs you will find (often called The Railway, for obvious reasons) along the way.

Learn a foreign language, join a dance class, take up pottery, set up a website or do some DIY. 

There must be something you'd like to try.

Whatever it is, I promise you will enjoy it, feel better for it and it will make a pleasant change from incessant whinging and whining.

DO IT NOW.

GO ON.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

For more wealth building tips - personal and financial CLICK HERE Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_M_Williams

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Do the Beatitudes teach that Christian believers must be poor?

Do the Beatitudes teach that Christian believers must be poor to get into Heaven?
One of the most common misunderstandings about what the Bible says about money is the idea that Jesus advocated poverty for believers, based on the words "blessed are the poor."

The statement, "blessed are the poor," occurs in the Beatitudes in both Matthew in "the Sermon on the Mount" and in Luke in "the Sermon on the Plain." The statement by Jesus, "blessed are the poor," is a much more radical statement than most of us have ever realized.

In the original Greek, both Matthew and Luke use the word "ptochos." English Bibles translate the Greek word "ptochos" as "poor." Greek has another word for "poor," "penes." Penes referred to people who had to work hard for a living, often struggling to make ends meet. In contrast, a "ptochos" was someone who was utterly destitute and cut off from all family and social ties. In other words, a "ptochos" was a beggar.

In the advanced agrarian society in which Jesus lived, the "penes" were the peasant farmers and artisans struggling to earn a living in an unjust and oppressive system. The "ptochos" were the degraded and expendable people living at the very lowest levels of the society. The "ptochos" were unwanted, displaced, and rejected.

Both Matthew and Luke use the word "ptochos" to claim that the Kingdom of God belongs to the beggars, the destitute, and the expendables.

As soon as the phrase, "blessed are the poor," is disconnected from the vision of the Kingdom of God, it becomes a prime target for a makeover into the idea that Jesus was advocating poverty.

When I think back to my own Sunday school education about Jesus and money, I am both amazed and appalled by how often we were told that Jesus taught that God wanted us to be poor. If being rich was going to keep us out of Heaven, being poor was our best guarantee to get in.

The biggest mistake my Sunday School made is the most typical Christian misunderstanding of the Beatitudes. It confused description with prescription. We didn't understand that Jesus was describing his vision of life under the Kingdom of God. We thought that we had to be poor in order to be blessed. We missed that Jesus was saying that even the poorest of the poor would receive God's blessing. That is the radical statement. We thought he was prescribing required behavior to get into Heaven. We thought God wanted us to be poor. In fact, Jesus was describing his vision of life on Earth without poverty.

Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D. What if most of what you believe about Jesus and money is not true? Don't let Bible study lessons based on mistranslations and biblical urban legends fill you with guilt and confusion about money. I have written a book about 8 sayings of Jesus, Going Broke With Jesus:How Heroic Stories Intended To Liberate The Poor Become Biblical Urban Legends About The Evils Of Money to show how often Christian teaching misunderstands the true intentions of what Jesus said about money. Get your copy at www.GoingBrokeWithJesus.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kalinda_Rose_Stevenson,_PhD

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