Normal 0 A friend of mine recently had bi-pass surgery.  Little did I know that they were going in for not one but four bi-passes.  I didn't even know what day they were going in.  However, the day of the surgery, I had a nightmare that they were standing outside of the en-fenced yard yelling to be let in.  Also I was having horrible nightmares that that same person was being chased by demons, and I was trying desperately to help them in the dream.  I can tell you that I didn't feel well rested at all the next morning and was concerned for this person.  I called them.  I was told that they had just come out of surgery by the person's spouse.  For a week, I worried and fretted over their well being, knowing deep down that that which created all things would take care of the situation and that my friend would be fine.  We must have faith in time of trouble.  We must have faith in the face of adversity.  It is negativity that kills us, not the positive.

To give you some clues what types of negatives kill us:
 stress causes heart attack, strokes, and anxiety attacks, diabetes, teeth grinding, digestive problems, headaches....

• can be caused by the lack of money,
• can be caused by lack of skills to get a job to get money,
• adversity in whatever form it takes causes stress

You can defeat stress twelve easy steps to get rid of stress.

Depression kills in more ways than one, it drives people to

• can be caused by lack of faith in yourself or others,
• can be caused by in what you believe in or rather thought you believed in,
• can be caused by feeling under being appreciated,
• can be caused by feeling alone whether we are or aren't,
• can be caused by feeling overworked,
• many things cause depression

Bigotry and predgiduce kills.  They are only a form of hate and fear.
Iraqi cleric wants gays killed in "most severe way"
Bigotry Against Muslims in Pittsburgh
Hatred and bigotry kills society
Children of gay couples speak out

Many things contribute to anger, stress, and depression.  It is easy to point fingers at were the source lies.  The real source is lays withing ones--own self.  You have to be willing to pull yourself up out of the dirt, the mud, the cesspool, and clean yourself up.  You must have faith in yourself, in others even when they don't have faith in themselves.  You must be willing to allow others to reach out to you and help you up when you aren't strong enough to do it yourself.  Not everyone can pull themselves over that ledge and back to safety by themselves.  Not everyone is strong enough to do that.  It is up to the strong to help the weak or they might just wither away and die.

I'm even guilty of loosing faith, but I pulled myself up by the root of the hair with the help of the almighty.  I was lucky.  I was strong enough.  I pulled myself up over that ledge. I had a heart to heart with myself.  I told myself that the world doesn't revolve around myself, and it won't make a bit of difference other than a few tears if I am are gone, however, imagine the smiles that I can make by sticking around.

A year ago, my kids were taken from me in court, because I have Aspersers, ADHD, and suffer pitmal/pitman seizures.  They didn't prove that I was an endangerment like the law demands, so legally they shouldn't have been able to take the kids from me.  However it did happen.  My children are in the hands of the very man who beat me for eight years and even tried to kill me just days before Christmas.

I was angry with the Divine for allowing this to happen.  I swore wraths of profanity against that which created us, and I was wrong for doing so.  Every step we take is a test of our servitude.  Every adversity is not set out to destroy us but is to show that which made us how strong we are and if we have learned enough to allow us into his/her/its kingdom.  Ask yourself this, would I want someone in my house that will destroy it, who won't defend it to the death/  I wouldn't.  If you believe the bible--and even if you don't, the God that is depicted in the bible first ever created angel and his favorite of angels (Lucifer/Devil) having defied God when asked to worship his creation man, who was supposedly made in the image of God.  However, Lucifer said that he would not bow down to an inferior being that man should bow before him because he was made first and was man's superior.  God grew angry at Lucifer and at all who sided with Lucifer.  He/she/it cast Lucifer and his/her/its followers out of heaven.  However, God didn't destroy Lucifer.  Christ later speaks of how all will be forgiven that follow God.  Is it possible that God is hoping for Lucifer to change his/her/its mind?

I read Revelations.  Everyone has his or her rendentation of what the bible says and what it really means.  I've even heard people say that it speaks very clearly of the things that will happen.  I dispute this.  If it were clear, then it wouldn't have twenty million different dipictations of what it is trying to reveal to us.  I'm sorry to say, for me the bible is just one heck of a historical teaching method placed forth and written by the hands of man trying to teach one group of people's belief in God.  What I find funny is the fact that Christians say that it is from the Hebrews and Jews, yet they won't recognize the Jewish writings in their teachings.  If the teachings that the Christians are from the Hebrew and Jewish text, then the Christian should be eager to be involved in the Jewish and Hebrew thoughts as well.  They don't have to believe every last notation, but it would be a good idea to learn a little about the books that are or are not found in the bible.

For those interested in the Tanach you should follow this link-- Sacred Texts--The Tanach

For those interested in the Koran  you should follow this link-- Sacred Texts--The Koran--Translated by J.M. Rodwell [1876]

It isn't important what your faith is.  It is only important that you believe that something greater than you is out there, something good, loving, strong, and devoted to wanting to love and save all of his/her/ its children.

The Buddhist Idea of heaven and hell is much different than that of the Christian faith, yet they still believe that there is such a place in one form or another if you must get technical.  According to Buddhism, one cannot live in heaven eternally, nor will one stay in hell indefinitely.  Life goes on, with its form changing continuously... Sacred texts--THE CONCEPT OF BIRTH AND DEATH

THE universe, according to the Buddhists, is in a constant state of change.  They will there enjoy five hundred years of freedom from the sufferings of life in a state of mindless vacancy; but since they will not tread the path of the Nirvâna, evil desires must afterwards arise, and they must be born subsequently in hell. No wise man, therefore, would willingly go to that heaven. 

Sacred Texts--THE BUDDHIST UNIVERSE  The Buddhist "hells" (in Sanskrit, niliya or naraka), the prisons of the lost, are in some cases situated under the region inhabited by man. Twenty thousand yojanas (280,000 miles) below the Jambu continent is one called the Avichi naraka, or the "Hell of un-intermitted torments." The Yama naraka is halfway between. Others are among fabled mountains, or on the shores of a great sea. In Chinese books they are called by a common name ti-yü, "earth-prisons.

Tao have their own idea of heaven and hell---Hell and heaven are in your own heart. Unless heaven reside within you, the mere reading or reciting of sacred books profiteth nothing." Then looking around in the Middle Hall he added: "You have a rare gem in your house; for when I entered I saw the radiance of a holy light. Where do you keep your treasure?"

The host answered: "In this poor dwelling there is nothing worthy the name of a treasure."

The priest then took Wan Teh-Hsü by the hand and led him to the place where the Kan Ying P'ien lay, saying: "This holy book is the treasure. All the holy men of the three religions selected and compiled it to point out the way of virtue on which every one should walk. If a man disciplines himself according to its instructions, the truth will shine forth in all

[1. The six domains are those of (1) the gods, (2) human beings, (3) animals, (4) asuras or fighting demons, (5) hungry ghosts, and (6) denizens of hell. The three paths are lust, wrath, and greed. The three paths and the six domains constitute the wheel of Samsara.]

its glory, and every letter in the sacred writing will emit rays of divine light. But if you recite the sacred text with a secret desire for profit or reward, selfishness will darken its native glory, and the writing will show no illumination. To my vision the glorification of the holy book is perfect. Its saintly atmosphere has ascended to heaven, resulting in an harmonious blending of your heart with the will of the Lord on High. Your immortality is assured and I bless you. But keeping in sight the heavenly station that awaits you, you must continue to exercise still more self-control in your dealings with your fellow men. Be diligent and fail not to fulfill the work so auspiciously begun."

Even the Egyptians speak of heaven and hell
from Sacred-Texts.com--IN the scene that illustrates the FIRST DIVISION of the Tuat, which is passed through by the Sun-god during the FIRST HOUR of the night, we see that the centre of the middle section is divided lengthwise into two parts by a river which flows along it. In the upper part is the boat of the dead Sun-god AF, who is in the form of a rain-headed man; he wears a disk upon his head, and stands within a shrine in the SEKTET boat, i.e., the boat in which the god travels from noon to sunset. In front of the shrine in the boat stand the three deities, AP-UAT, SA, and the "Lady of the Boat," who wears on her head a disk and horns. Behind the shrine stand five gods, each having the head of a man; the names of the first four are HERU-HEKENU, KA-SHU, i.e., the "double of Shu," NEHES, i.e., the "Look-out," and HU, and the fifth is the Steersman KHERP. On the high prow of the Sektet boat hangs an object which is said to be a carpet by some, and a reed mat by others, and on the side, near the curve of the prow, is an utchat. In front of the boat march:-- 1. The two goddesses MAAT, the one representing the South of Egypt, and the other the North. 2. The god NEKENT-F, who holds a spear, or knife, in his left hand. 3. The god KHENTI AMENTET, bearded, and in mummy form, and wearing the White Crown and the Menat. 4. The god SEKHET, or as it is written here SEKHMET, lioness-headed. 5. The god SEHETCH-UR, ram-headed. the second UT-METU-TEM, the third UT-METU-KHEPERA, and the fourth UT-METU-ASAR. 7. The leader of the company, who is called TCHA-UNNUT; by his side is a serpent, called SA (?), that stands on his tail. 6. Four Terms, the first of which is called UT-METU-RA,---click this link to read more

These are just some of the things written in other peoples/cultures text. Just because we have different names for our religious views doesn't mean that the other person is wrong or right. It doesn't make us wrong or right either. The similarities to me show that they could be equally wrong or right. The similarities only show me that maybe the differences we placed there on purpose for whatever reason. Man can be good, and man can be evil.

No one was there when Joseph Smith was supposedly told to write the book of Mormon, but he wrote it. There is no proof that man didn't write an of these doctrines to detoured the rest of man from the truth. Humans are like sheep.

They believe that which they hear.

They trust their friends over strangers.

Why, because they know them.

But what if your best friend was messing with your wife and someone tried to tell you.
Would you believe them even if they were telling the truth if you didn't know this person at all. Most likely not.  We are creatures of habit.

We have to be familiar with who we are talking to before we trust them. Most of the time the person has to have proof that what they say is true, but it is easy to falsify the truth.

It is easy to place false blame on others. In the days of the Salem witch trials, many women and men lost their lives, and they weren't even witches.
The following are all documented incidents in the killings of "witches." ONLY incidents relating to witchcraft accusations have been included. Bear in mind that this is assuredly not all of them. Interestingly, it is possible to document that of all the trials, only one set (in 1390 Milan) involved women tried for practicing rites led by the pagan Goddess Diana. The bulk of the trials between 1400 and 1700 involved diabolism, Luciferianism, and acts relating to the Devil. Before 1400, the majority of trials were focused on the use of magics to harm others, to practice treasonous divination and spells against a monarch. It is therefore a reasonable assumption to make that the trials and persecutions of the "Burning Times" were not aimed at actual practicing "pagans," but rather at a whole other class of people. Some were guilty. Most were probably innocent and Christian. A few were "Satanists," most were not. Some were just senile. Or too ugly. Or too pretty. Or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. (click on this link if you want to learn more.)
Even in the face of adversity these people did not loose faith.  Most of them died for their faith.   Many stood accused of something that they never believed in or practiced.  Do you think that it is over?  Think again. 
(CNN) -- A woman in rural Papua New Guinea was bound and gagged, tied to a log and set ablaze on a pile of tires this year, possibly because villagers suspected her of being a witch, police said Thursday.
Her death adds to a growing list of men and women who have been accused of sorcery and then tortured or killed in the South Pacific island nation, where traditional beliefs hold sway in many regions. 
This may have happened in Papua New Guinea, but does that mean it can't happen here in our own back yard. No, and it doesn't have to be a witch that is being hunted down. Predgiduce is predgiduce. It is created by the fear of what you don't know of something or someone. Straight men are fearful gay men. Straight women are fearful of lesbian women. These people are different, yet the Divine created them. We have to have faith that the divine created them for a reason. The Divine would not have allowed them to have been born onto this world if he/she/it didn't have a use or reason for them. You must have faith in The Divine and all of his creations that each and every one of them have a useful purpose on this earth and anywhere else in this or any other cosmos that there is.

 FAITH--That is our word for the day.  This World Is Made For Love And Peace.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blessing Be Upon You and All that Is Yours,

Reverend Kate Conner

For a kind heart and a sympathetic ear call me on keen.

3.55/minute 1-800-ASK-KEEN, extension 03871327

available from 8 AM- 8 PM Pacific timeAn Inspirational Word On Love And Life