1. Say grace. Many people, including me, begin most new years resolving to eat better. This is a good goal, but it can sometimes cause us to think about food as sinful and mealtimes as a scene of temptation or deprivation.
Saying grace before meals reminds us that above all food is a gift. It's a reminder that we are nourished and cared for by divine and human hands: by the cosmic forces that turn the planet and the seasons, and by the labor of bakers and bumblebees. Our meals depend on the work of the men and women working night shifts in a cannery or stocking shelves at the bodega.
I don't think I'll ever pray visibly in restaurants; it feels artificial to me, like something out of Norman Rockwell. But I love saying grace with friends and family who pray. And this year I resolve to remember to pause for a second before eating a lunchtime energy bar at my desk to remind myself: Yes, even this is grace. And to remind myself to say thank you.
2. Pray without ceasing.
I inherited my grandma's prayer book, and I keep it by my bed. I never met my grandmother -- she died long before I was born -- but it's meaningful to me that over half a century ago, when she was struggling with mental illness and the aftermath of a painful divorce, she sought comfort in prayer.
I love my grandma's prayer book, but I rarely use it. Most mornings I'm caffeinating against the clock as I rush off to my first class or meeting of the day, and realistically I know that's unlikely to change. This year, instead of setting aside a designated prayer time, I'm resolving to remember the apostle Paul's injunction to "Pray without ceasing," and I'm going to try to make prayer, rather than worry, my default inner monologue. I'm likely to break that resolution every day, but every day I can keep bringing myself back.
Sometimes my inner life seems like an endlessly scrolling to-do list. My resolution this year is to turn this dreary soliloquy into a psalm of gratitude and desire. My mantra will be that old Gospel song from back in the days of landlines:
Jesus is on mainline.
Call him up and tell him what you want.
The line ain't never busy!
3. Pay God first. It would be easy for all my money to go to paying off my student loans and supporting my 20-year-old car. It would be even easier for all of my money to go to buying boots I don't need and filling up my Christmas Kindle with the complete works of Agatha Christie.
Financial experts say to "pay yourself first" -- to put some of your paycheck in savings before you do anything else with it. This year, as an experiment, I'm resolving to pay God first and myself second. I've been inspired (or guilt-tripped!) into this by Peter Singer. This fall I assigned his classic article "What Should a Billionaire Give -- And What Should You?" to my students at Yale, and many of us were persuaded that we could be giving more. Singer argues that if everyone who could gave 5 percent to 15 percent of his or her income, world poverty could be eradicated.
I'm also inspired by the ancient biblical practice of giving God the first fruits of the harvest (not just the leftovers). Giving is not just a part of faith, it is the core of faith. As it says in the book of James, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God ... is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress."
There is plenty of distress to go around these days! And in these crazy economic times, giving is more necessary than ever -- not just for those who need money, but for those who give it. Like saying grace before meals, paying God first reminds us that everything we have is a gift, and it belongs to whoever needs it.
Follow Briallen Hopper on Twitter: www.twitter.com/briallenhopper
1. Repent of sins . Well let's keep it real...slow down the sinning and try not to be a reason for dishonoring God or harming another person.
2. Do a "Tebow" and not be adhered to proclaim Jesus in front of "other men" In the end, you'll have to stand in front of God and not the people that censored your beliefs about Jesus. We're not talking fanaticism but a heatlthy no fear of saying in mixed company,"I love Jesus".
3. Preach the Gospel. Everyone- good or bad- has a testimony share. Folks nowadays eat up the testimonies of reality show characters ; it's usually about unhappiness and dysfunction. People still are seeking hope; the best hope is to tell them that a great future awaits them...if they change for the better. Cetatsinly the Gospel is of greater value than reality shows that reveal this reality: without Jesus in the home unhappiness is the expected norm.
There is no evidence, outside the bible, that jesus ever existed and if one reads the bible, he comes off as petty, inconsistent and frequently irrational. Why would someone who can multiply loaves and fishes, encounter a non-productive fig tree that he himself as god created, and then decide to destroy it rather than make it fruitful? The bible is clearly a book of bronze age fables, and those who consider it their pathway to truth are deluding themselves, but that is the nature of all religion.
especially if the information is not relevant to what this article is about.....
but to each his own....and taking the bible literally is not a necessary part of
believing in God.....don't generalize religious people into one category..
that would be a good place to start.....
http://www.truechristianityevangelism.org/hell.html
http://www.truechristianityevangelism.org/koranhell.html
Try starting with reading Matthew 10:16, "be innocent, as harmless as doves", then read or listen to all the "New Testament" to confirm that is its message.
You can get a free download of the King James on the net or a commercial copy from $15 to $50 depending on CD collection (best) or DVD (next best) or MP3CD or tapes.
How have you improved the world, what do you intend to do to help people become "as harmless, as innocent as doves" ? Tell me about your "good works".
Why would you think it is a waste of time to encourage others to live up to the highest moral standards?
Are you wasting your time trying to discourage me from doing my "good works"?
You certainly post like you're on Soma.
2 - Do something. Anything. All the time. Work. Play. Relax. Think. Help. Two hands accomplishing absolutely anything will always win out over 10,000 hands clasped in prayer.
3 - Choose the recipients of your kindness thoughtfully, and then give. You time, energy, resources. (One for instance) The homeless person outside the grocery store wont be helped by anyone's new stained glass window installation, or payroll for clergy, but they might be able to use some of your groceries. - Keep some MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat) in your car for traffic stops.
2. If the "mainline" to Jesus is never busy, then why do millions of prayers go unanswered everyday?
3. So does your God still expect to be paid as he does in Numbers 31, with gold, cattle, prisoners of war and slave women?
"From the soldiers who fought in the battle, set apart as tribute for the LORD one out of every five hundred, whether people, cattle, donkeys or sheep. Take this tribute from their half share and give it to Eleazar the priest as the LORD’s part." (Num. 31:28-29)
Come on, Briallen. You seem like a very bright woman. I should think your students at Yale would appreciate a little more teaching and a little less preaching.
Numbers
31:14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
31:15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
31:16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
31:17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
But I must ask, as a non-Christian myself, why the hate?
"Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." (John 16:24)
It doesn't say, "ask, and most of the time the answer will be no."
That whole "sometimes the answer is 'No'" apology, while right out of the 5th grade level Christian apologetics manual, it is supported in no wise by the words ascribed to the Jesus character.
While repeating it endlessly will certainly help a modern, wannabe god believer square a lack of successful requests for divine intervention with the laws of statistical probability, there's no actual theology to back it.
"I will not die an unlived live.
I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid, more accessible,
to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom, goes on as fruit."
- Dawna Markova
1. Say thank you. There's no sky-daddy to thank for all the good things in your life (and bad, by the way - theodicy is a thorn in the side of every religionisÂÂt). If you were sick and got better - thank a doctor. If you enjoyed your high standard of living, your computer, your microwave, a vaccine - thank a scientist. If you enjoyed a good book or a great piece of music - thank the artist. Give credit to hard working and visionary human beings, where it belongs.
2. THINK without ceasing. Rote mumbling and incessant incantatioÂÂns will change exactly nothing in the world. Your skepticismÂÂ, critical thinking, and imaginativÂÂe creativity ill accomplish far more than pious words uttered without thinking.
3. Give to OTHERS first. Kind of funny that the author is actually endorsing giving to others, but phrases it as "Give to God." Just cut out the phoney middle-manÂÂ. Give to others not out of desire for approval or fear of damnation, but because all human beings are precious and wonderful. Do good for goodness' sake, not for god's.
F/F.
Now go read any article in the gay and lesbian community section and the comments from Christians to see the real hate on Huff Post.
I'm not a Christian, but I respect your rights to worship in peace and tell others of your religion without ridicule (or harassment).
When believers use the "bitter" or "angry" card, it's usually an attempt to kill the messengers, but, of course, the message does not die.
Good atheists are hard to find - the ones that actually live as if God doesn't exist instead of trying to convince everyone that he doesn't. I don't believe in aliens, though others do, but I don't waste a minute trying to convince them otherwise.
2. Stop leading your life according to the myths of Bronze Age goat herders.
3. Encourage every theist you meet to do likewise.
2. Stop trying to obliterate a belief/delusion that has been an impulse of the human race since the beginning of recorded history.
3. Encourage every atheist you meet to stop acting like evangelicals and mind their own business.
Have you ever read all the Holy Scriptures with enough of an unbiased, open mind to be able to give it a fair evaluation ?
Have you ever personally accomplished more good than the average of all Christian do-gooders ?