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An important consideration for numerous students is how to fill their “gap year” between school/college and uni, or even the year after graduating (which many students take now as their “gap year”). While travel is the common option, there are other choices to think about, such as volunteer work, or even to plunge yourself into church leadership training for 11 months with the organization DNA (dna-uk.org). This article explores in greater detail this latter option.

DNA provide placements in Christian churches, running from October to August. This is seen as a pragmatic experience, needing the participant to dwell within a Christian surrounding - either within your own church if you currently attend one, or a specified church if you are not presently a fellow member of a church. Your regular day will involve helping out with the day to day activities of the church, and to be trained by its fellow members in bible studies. The course promises faith in action, so those who enroll can anticipate a really practical experience of living their faith, and not merely the study of it.

More advantages of the studies include:-

• helping 18 year olds and older, as there’s no age limit
• training you for the workplace
• your growth in skills, understand and character
• offering an accredited programme via the National Open College Network

There are 3 types of course available : Track 1 is the predominant access point to DNA - it is the most complete DNA expereince. The vast majority of individuals select this as the best-fit pick for them. Track 2 is more appropriate to you if taking a complete “year-out” is not pragmatically achievable. This could be for issues like work or family commitments. Track 2 consequently provides some tractability. Track 3 proffers individuals the chance of joining us for as many particular training sessions or days as they want.

Time has come for registered medical practitioners to talk with their patients on religious issues and even pray for their speedy recovery. BBC reports say that the issue will come in the spotlight at the British Medical Association (BMA) annual representative meeting.

Cancer specialist Dr Bernadette Birtwhistle of the Christian Medical Fellowship voiced her opinion on this issue in a BBC interview. She focused on the prevailing trend of considering Christianity as something impractical and unnecessary. She also focused on how freedom of speech is throttled when employees are prohibited to discuss religion, spiritualism or the benefits of praying with their patients. However, a spokesperson of the Department of Health said that providing spiritual advice to patients comes within the purview of the NHS Chaplaincy Service.

Earlier this year, bank nurse Anand Rao was shown the pink slip when he told participants acting as patients in a workplace training exercise that they should keep their faith and look up to God for their answers. In another incident of practicing faith at the wrong place, a North Somerset nurse named Caroline Petrie faced the sack for offering to pray for an aged patient suffering from illness.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is the professional body for those involved in the management and development of people; Workplace Law Training is approved to offer programmes that meet the standards for Associate membership of the CIPD. Contact the experts there to find out about the range of accredited CIPD courses which can assist companies in training staff to be aware of the proper HR procedures for all kinds of workplace situations.

Jonathan Chamberlain, a partner at Wragge & Co, advises that employers wanting their staff to assume a strictly secular stance at workplace should have employment policy regulations in place that would discourage a worker from using his/her professional status to promote religious beliefs amongst the public.

It appeared to be a rather calm, ordinary night The sun quietly vanished as the stars took their flight They hung in their normal positions, way up in the sky But the heavens looked brighter and the stars didn’t know why Then they saw this marvelous light coming from afar It was held by mighty angels but it was just another star The biggest star asked the angel, “Who is this little stranger?” “And why does he glow so brightly, directly above that manger?” Right before the angel replied he flashed a beautiful smile “This star is really unique because it belongs to the Holy Christ child The star was created for this purpose; to announce the prophesied birth A joyful reminder to all creation, that God did visit the earth The child will be the Son of God and also the Son of Man A perfect gift of Love, bringing salvation in his hand” At this, the stars proudly rejoiced as the angels began to sing; “Glory to the omnipotent God and Happy Birthday to our King!” So take a moment to behold “The Star” during this christmas season And don’t just enjoy the holiday, let us celebrate the glorious reason.

www.originalpoetry.com/the-star-of-christmas

star:

Learning to create abundance in your life is about much more
than simply creating material wealth; it is about enriching your
Self as a whole. Abundance is for everyone, not just the limited
few that life appears to have smiled on.

Actually, we are surrounded by abundance. Nature is lavish, even
wasteful in its abundance. Anyone caring to look will find an
abundance of love, joy, money, and health is readily available
to everyone willing to accept them. If there is any lack in our
lives it’s not because there is not enough, but rather, because
we are limiting our intake. What we receive in life is
controlled by the limits we place on our emotions, behaviors,
thoughts and actions.

It is so hard for us to open the value controlling the flow of
abundance in our lives because there are many factors involved.
By the time we become aware of the fact that we create our own
limits, the beliefs and habits we’ve developed that produce
these limits are so ingrained they are very difficult to change.

Society also has its role to play. Since most of the world’s
governments have become capitalistic societies, it’s in their
best interest to promote conditions and belief systems that
produce large numbers of have-nots. Simple economics tells us
that in order for capitalism to thrive, there must be a large
supply meeting a large demand and you must have people who are
in debt to create a large enough demand to consume that large
supply. The simple reality is that the governments of the world
make their money from our poor health, debt, and our struggle to
“just get by.” Their abundance is dependant on our lack. But
this does not mean we have to accept these limits. While it’s
true that most people will never take advantage of it,
information about attracting wealth and prosperity is freely
available to anyone caring to look. And the law of attraction
says that the more you look, the more information you will
attract. What fills your life is what you focus on.

When you begin to understand laws of abundance, you begin to
understand that you are not constrained by the conditions of the
economy or the amount of your present income. Your ability to
increase your wealth, live in abundance, and have financial
freedom is all based on your understanding of the universal laws
that govern the flow of energy controlling your ability to turn
potential into reality.

Yet there is more to creating abundance than simply placing an
order and then sitting back to wait for its delivery. You have
to be giving something of value, adding to the flow, in order to
make this work. When this is the case people are more than
willing to pay for your contribution.

Wealth, money, success, love, and health are all forms of
energy. Being part of the flow means that you are a
participating member. Once you understand how to operate in the
flow of that energy, you learn to work with the Source of energy
and actively create your reality instead of simply letting
random thoughts create a chaotic existence for you.

Abundance is about living a healthy, vibrant life with a purpose
and experiencing the joy that comes from possessing a strong
sense of self.

The kingdom of God is the New World Order and according to prophecy Christ’s world government, will never end, will never end. “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:7)

Are we so faithless that we believe man has more zeal than did God? Compare Daniel 2:44, 45; Luke 1:32, 33 and Hebrews 12:26-28.

The scene of Daniel 7:14-27 is not a modern 21st century context, but that of ancient Rome, Israel and first century Christianity. For millennial futurists like Jeffrey, Lindsay, LaHaye, Hagee, Van Impe and others, they must remanufacture first century history today to find a place for their theories.

Their writings are filled with language of a new temple, new Rome, new Israel, etc. Only one problem, history does not cooperate. Russia, Iraq, the U.S. and even national Israel refuses to cooperate prophetically thus their horns and hoofs keep changing as history repeatedly fails them.

This plague has afflicted futurists since the close of the first century. Each time we begin outside of an imminent, at hand, shortly to come to pass time frame in the first century, doom and gloom is the result.

End-time prophecy does not bypass the first century. The apostles clearly saw their generation as the terminal one of Old Testament prophecy, (1 Corinthians 10:11) –meaning, the last days of Israel’s Old Covenant, (Hebrews 1:1, 2; 8:13). That time marked the soon appearing of Christ, a time those writers saw as occurring in a very little while, (Hebrews 10:25, 37)

William Bell is a speaker and author of the book “The Re-Examaination,” a study of Christ’s return in the first century.

For more studies on Covenant Eschatology, visit: http:http://www.allthingsfulfilled.com

In 1983, President Reagan wrote an essay for the “Human Life
Review” entitled, “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation.”
This brief writing of his pro-life philosophy was published in
book form a year later. It was expanded to approximately to 95
pages with lengthy afterwords by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop
and British essayist Malcolm Muggeridge. Reagan’s brief
composition is probably one of the better well-argued pro-life
essays ever written. It is also significant as it was the first
ever by a sitting President. It was President Reagan’s attempt
to awaken a nation to the implications of abortion. In this
short book, President Reagan gives an account on how important
the issue of abortion is to the “conscience of a nation.”

President Reagan’s essay is only 26 pages of the book, but it is
well structured. He believed that diminishing the life of the
unborn diminishes the value of all human life. He tackled the
pro-abortion “quality of life” argument and compared it to the
Dred Scott slavery issue. Reagan likened the pro-abortion
argument to slavery and drew parallels between the Roe vs. Wade
decision and the Dred Scot decision that divided America over a
century earlier. According to Reagan, the quality of life
argument is an argument for quality control of the population.

Reagan surmises that legalized abortion is a very slippery
slope. He says that unborn babies are being killed because they
are simply not wanted or come at an inconvenient time. He also
states that many are killed because they will be unable to lead
a “normal” life as the result of birth defects. Such babies are
considered to be of less value and thus denied human rights. He
claims this denial of human rights is accomplished by activist
judges who frame the interpretation of the US Constitution
through the lens of their own pro-abortion beliefs.

Reagan believes that the arbitrary evaluation of unborn lives
must stop. He states that this philosophy will lead to further
the crimes of infanticide and illustrates this by citing the
Indiana case of “Baby Doe.” Baby Doe was allowed to starve to
death because the child had Down’s syndrome. The essence of
Reagan’s argument is that no nation can survive and prosper when
a group of individuals look at a child and declare whether that
child has value as a human being. Reagan goes on to say,

“Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free
land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be
free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive
as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to
live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My
Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a
free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving
that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of
all human beings, the right without which no other rights have
any meaning.”

The pro-life movement will not be disappointed with Reagan’s
essay, and will conclude that it contains very powerful and
logical anti-abortion arguments.

As Christianity developed and came into contact with other cultural forms, it encountered many diverse challenges. Although the theological conflict certainly resulted in a better understanding of the meaning of Christ and a clearer presentation of Christian belief, it presented a serious threat to the very existence of Christianity. The challenge was in the arena of thought and it would either “make” or “break” Christianity. Gnosticism posed such a challenge.

Gnosticism was one of several sects existing during the early life of the Christian church. It denotes the teachings of a group of first and second century deviationists who were the scorned objects of many orthodox fathers. Gnosticism claimed to be a sure way to the knowledge, hence the vision, of God. It claimed that its rites, ceremonies, prescriptions, and its path to God were divinely inspired and transmitted to the elite esoteric through a mysterious tradition. Furthermore, it claimed, in essence, that its magical formulas offered an infallible means to salvation.

Gnosticism exerted a particular attraction upon the educated and sophisticated church Christians and threatened to overwhelm the primitive communities. The church increasingly came to think of the Gnostics as dangerous opponents of which there could be no peaceful co-existence. Nigg expresses it thusly: “There was no room for both to live peacefully side by side; one group had to yield to the other, especially since the Gnostics ‘claimed to form the true pneumatic (i.e. spiritual) church.’”

As I explained in an earlier article on Gnosticism, the basic doctrine of Gnosticism was that matter is essentially evil and spirit is essentially good. Since God could not be charged with the responsibility for the evil constitution of the world, the Gnostics differentiated the supreme God from the Creator of the world. Therefore, to account for evil matter, the Gnostics evolved a doctrine of emanations from God. These emanations flowed from God and each further from Him until finally there was one so distant from Him that it could touch matter. This emanation was the creator of the world.

It is not difficult to understand why the Christian church had serious problems with this doctrine. It tended to spiritualize God into a being who could not possibly have anything to do with the world. God’s presence was not in the world and neither did He participate in the world. Christ was thought to be the superior of emanations. He was attributed the decisive role in the cosmic process.

A group of Gnostics known as Docetists held the belief that Christ’s body had only been a phantom. The true Christ, they contended, has no bodily form which is why He was able to accomplish redemption.

The Cerinthian Gnostics held that Jesus was merely a man and was not born of a virgin but was the natural born son of Mary and Joseph. They did credit Him however, with being far beyond other men in justice, wisdom and prudence. These Gnostics further believed that Christ descended upon Jesus at the baptism and then He proclaimed the unknown Father and performed miracles. Understand that for these Cerinthian Gnostics Christ was impassable and separated from Jesus again before the Passion. Jesus then suffered and was raised again, but Christ remained impassable, since He was pneumatic. Jesus Christ is thus the bearer of the call who proclaims the Father who, up until that point was unknown (Foerster).

Pagels, in his book, The Gnostic Gospels, points out that some Valentinian Gnostics “even went so far as to claim that humanity created God and so, from its own inner potential, discovered for itself the revelation of truth.”

The Gnostic belief system then, simultaneously destroyed the divinity and humanness of Jesus; a doctrine central to the Christian faith. Not only did Gnosticism deny the incarnate Christ, but their ethics was in violation of traditional church views.

One branch of Gnosticism advocated strict asceticism, the extirpation of all sensuality to be as much like Christ as possible. Sexual intercourse was absolutely forbidden. These Gnostics opposed marital relationships as well, even for the purpose of procreation. The extreme antagonism toward the body was again founded upon their view of the evil character of matter. Evil was a physical quality.

According to Werner Forester (Gnosis), the antithetical ethic, unlimited freedom from all matter, was also practiced by some Gnostics. It directly glorified pleasure as a divine phenomenon. The most perfect among the Gnostics “freely practice everything that is forbidden…For they eat food that was offered to idols with indifference, and they are the first to arrive at any festival party of the Gentiles that takes place in honor of the idol…and some, who are immoderately given over to the desires of the flesh, say that they are repaying to the flesh what belongs to the flesh, and to the spirit what belongs to the spirit.” Lust was highly exalted as the bond between all created things. Sin was to be obliterated through sexual release.

As you can probably guess, Gnosticism was a system fused with ideas from the Orient, Greek and Christian philosophy. Cerinthus was one of the early proponents of this view. It was a religious phenomenon firmly grounded in a dualism between spirit and matter. Salvation was predicated on knowledge dispensed by an emanation from the supreme God. Christ was an appearance without a real human body or nature. Jesus was a human man like any other man.

Gnosticism threatened to undermine the essential foundations of Christianity. These foundations the church was bound and determined to protect even if only to preserve the human historical Jesus.

The Epistles of John forcefully attack the Gnostics and therefore express the antagonism existing between these opponents. In Part 2 we will explore John’s strong reaction to this great threat to the Christian faith.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach which can be reviewed on her site. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, though delayed in publication, is expected to be available early 2006.

You have an open invitation to visit us at AMEN Ministries: Your Soul’s Service Station for reviewing spiritual services being offered, obtain spiritual refreshing and soul edification, get your daily dose of humor, browse our newly expanded Stop & Shop Store and to visit our prayer sanctum for quiet time with God.

Blessings to all!