JRHS Writing BLOG

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Three fourths of Pastor Ingram

In lesson three of Pastor Ingram’s teaching, he went over the different types of primary and motivational gifts and hot to find them. There are a variety of gifts, some include discernment, helps, prophecy, teaching, mercy and wisdom. It is hard to examine yourself and to help, you can ask a friend and if evaluate the way you treat others. In different situations over a period of time. This will give you a good look at yourself and help you find that special gift that God has given you. For example, I have the gift of service and helps. I feel so proud of myself when I serve others. On the otherhand my sister has the gift of giving. I (The III) also have a gift and that is Help. My (Ben M) gift is teaching. all our gifts are different, but yet we all impact the people around us under the same bases, which is to serve God and please him by doing our spiritual gifts properly.

It is possible to abuse our spiritual gift, which was covered in part four. The gifts should be used to glorify God, but some people use it for negative purposes, such as glorifying yourself. Abusing your gift(s) is twisting something that God gave you for a special purpose. This is also why it is important to understand what your spiritual gift is because you do not have to know what your gift is, or even know that you have one, in order to abuse it.

For example, somebody with the spiritual gift of leadership can use his or her gift to lead a church or an organization to glorify God, but they could also use it in a was that is non-pleasing to God. many leaders have abused their leadership, leaders such as Hitler and Stalin obviously have the gift of leadership, yet they led their countries to wars. 

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Discovering Our Gifts

We’re students who care about discovering and developing our spiritual gifts. We’re excited to see how the Lord can use us as tools (like paint brushes) to paint a beautiful Kingdom for the Lord. Through the study taught by Pastor Chip Ingram, we’ve been able to learn about the various gifts spoken of in the Bible. We were then able to apply ourselves to the gift which best fit our personalities and characters. This is an exciting journey to uncover the gifts God embodied inside us when we were crafted by Him before we were even born.

Cali:

In Pastor Chip Ingram’s second lesson, he taught the many different types of spiritual gifts. He focused on the description of each, using Biblical reference to uphold his opinion and thoughts of the gifts. Each gift was analyzed in a way to which we, as students, could apply one or more of them to our own lives. Thus, this was helpful in determining the spiritual gifts God has given us. One great example he used was a party or reception where a waiter came out and dropped a whole platter of meals. The person with the gift of service immediately began clearing up the mess and helping in a physical and tangible way. The person with the gift of teaching gave a good reason why what he was doing that made him trip and fall could have been avoided, and thus teaching a better way to avoid trouble. The person with the gift of giving decided that the place needed some touch ups anyway so he determined to give money to repair the rug and facility. Furthermore, the person with the gift of mercy was compassionate on the person, and tried to ease his/her embarrassment for their own relief of anxiety. There are a couple more, but these are just some to give an idea of how the different gifts work together for the good of the Kingdom of God. One, singular gift can’t do everything, that’s not how God designed it. His design was to be a network.

Then as I listened to Pastor Chip Ingram’s third lesson, he described the different primary and motivational gifts, and it became very clear which one was given to me. I determined without a doubt that my primary gift is that of mercy. The strong confirmation came to me from my previous conversations with my mother, and others who know me very well. They often told me of the traits of mercy that I execute throughout my life. I always misunderstood the implication of mercy, thinking my gift was of some other name. This is what is called my primary motivational gift. Other gifts such as helps, wisdom, and discernment are displayed in my life within the context of mercy. It’s been so exciting to learn about these gifts and to apply them to my life. I do not wish, by any means, to boast about them in sharing with you, the reader. My primary goal in publicizing my gifts are to express the joy I have in discovering them, knowing God can use them in me more effectively now that I’m aware of their presence in my life!

The fourth lesson by Pastor Chip Ingram regarding spiritual gifts was focused on the warning called: Beware of Spiritual Gift Abuse. This section consisted of four major cautions. The first was to beware of the person who claims the saying, “…Thus says the Lord.” This is not to say that this saying is of little value, but rather that it can be misused. Another warning concerned people who say “follow my formula and I guarantee you will receive [the following]…” 1st Corinthians 12:6 states that, “there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” Although there are many methods of which God ministers to his people, they all remain under the authority of the Lord God and he works them… not the person who has the gift. Another warning is that person who says there is a “universal evidence gift” that determines whether or not someone is a Christian. This is not true and no where in the Bible does it state that a person may attain salvation by a spiritual gift. It is by grace through faith alone. 1st Corinthians 12:29-30 asks many questions regarding whether all have the gift of teaching, prophesy, miracles, healing, etc. The answer is no, everyone has a different gift. To say that there’s one, universally, ultimate gift and that if someone doesn’t have it, he/she isn’t a Christian is false teaching. The fourth “beware” is to focus on the gift more than the bestower of the gifts. In other words, do not get caught up in the acts of healing, miracles, prophesy, and encouragement that God, the bestower of all gifts, is robbed of his due glory. He deserves all the praise and glory for the gifts he gives and the fruit of them.

Loveroflife:

The angle from which Chip Ingram comes at the topic of spiritual gifts is different from most that I have ever heard of. Instead of a person having the “gift” of healing, they have the gift of compassion and healing is a by product that God sometimes chooses to move in to prove the authenticity of both himself and his servant.

One idea that he put forth was that every Christian is like a painting tool. Some are meant to paint major walls in no time flat, while others are intended to draw intricate details. Both are extremely important in order to finish the “whole picture”, but if the roller tried to do the brushes job or vise verse, they would fail terribly at it. Using this terminology, someone such as Billy Graham would be considered a roller, because he has the ability to affect vast numbers of people. Graham however lacks the calling to deal one on one day to day with the tiny details of a persons lives. Dis is intended to neither party because they operate in cohesion with each other. If we had only one or the other we would either have thousands of very shallow Christians, or dozens of extremely deep Christians. Utilizing both characters God is able to affect the entire world on both a shallow and a deep plain.

You see, there has been no one (Bible times included) who without fail healed EVERYONE that they came into contact with. Even Jesus sometimes did not heal people (What I mean by this is that he did not try to either). God chose when he would heal someone to authenticate Jesus or not, Jesus however was perfectly in-tune with the will of his father, and therefore he knew when the mercy of God was reaching out to someone, and he made himself the vessel of that mercy. This means that when we are using the gift that God gave us, he will sometimes choose to manifest himself in different ways according to the circumstance, and his will for the situation.

Personally, I believe that my motivational gift is prophecy. When I see that a situation is wrong, I dig to the root in order to correct it. Sometimes God has chosen to speak through me, but that is simply a manifestation of God through my gift.

In my life I have seen an incredible abuse of “spiritual authority”. The fourth part to Pastor Chip’s message that our class watched spoke directly to this issue. According to him, there are ten different most common warning flags that can hail an abuse of authority from a mile off. One of these is that a person says that they can guarantee a certain spiritual privilege or gift if you follow “their” formula. This causes incredible peer pressure often causing people to bow to their own will giving them a self gratifying pleasure that is a result of your “submission” to their authority. A few years ago, I was at a church service in at certain church. At the time my family was having some financial difficulties, and this specific teacher was supposed to have the gift of spiritual blessing that released financial freedom. For the sake of space I will skip a few details, but the short of it is, my own father was pressured by those in authority over him to pay an incredible sum of money so that God’s hands would be untied to free him financially. When he succumbed to this pressure, the freedom never came, and the sum he had given up was now a part of the hole he had been entrenched in. At the time this happened, I was too young to understand, but now I realize that I should have seen the flag and alerted my father. We as the body of Christ must learn to recognize the authority of Christ and the authority of Man. I think that if we study cases like this, and the teachings of such men as Chip Ingram we can learn to interpret where true authority lies.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci:

Lesson 2

I think that knowing and developing your spiritual gift is very important in God’s View.
This is because God gave us spiritual gifts with the intention that we use them. It is irresponsible of
people to knowingly not use them. Spiritual gifts should be valued and excercised on a regular basis. If
a person doesn’t know what their spiritual gift is then they should put a lot of effort into discovering
what it is. A person who isn’t sure can find out by asking people that know them what qualities
they see in that person. Using these qualities you can see in what ways you are gifted. If you are still
unsure then you could even practice using each of the gifts and see which one fits with you the best.
After you discover your gift then you should develop it by finding other people who have that gift also and by studying in the
Bible what God’s original intention for that gift was. But be careful you don’t misuse your gift!

Lesson 3

When a person finds out what their primary motivational gift is the next step is to put it into use.
Your primary motivational gift can express itself through a variety of ministry gifts. Some of these
gifts include: prophecy, apostleship, evangelism, teaching, gifts of healing, tongues, and administration.
The next part is the manifestation of your ministry gifts through works. These include: words of wisdom, words
of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. So, once you
discover your motivational gift then you can develop it by learning about it and then finally deploy it by using
it often.

Lesson 4

Once you know and start to use your gift, you must be very careful that you don’t misuse it.
It is important to make sure you don’t do this because it might turn someone off of Christianity. And it will
give them a wrong impression of how spiritual gifts are supposed to be used. If someone you know is misusing a gift then you should prasy
about how to speak to them about it. 

The Spiritual Gifts

in pastor Ingram’s second speech he talked about how he put spiritual gifts into different categories and there was three of them. in the three you had the main gift that was in which the other two minor gifts helped and allowed you to carry out the main gift that you were meant to follow. we have both heard about different spiritual gifts, but the way he arranged the categories threw into sharp relief the differences between the gifts and how unique each gift was. He also made a point of saying that every gift has its significance even if it is not immediately evident.  He also made it clear that it is important to fully utilize your spiritual gift even if you don’t like it.
The III and Ben

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Find Your Spiritual Gifts: Part 2

Everyone is born with spiritual gifts. The first thing you need to do is find out what your gift is. Sometimes people do not find out what their gifts are until someone else tells them. To find out your gift, you need to know there are seven spiritual gifts that you can find in the Bible.Romans 12, tells you what the gifts are. They include prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy. When you know your gift, you need to improve and keep your gift by using it.

When a gift is used, it is a testimony to the surrounding people that you are a Christian. If they get curious, they will ask you how this came to be. A testimony is usually put into a format without meaning it to be. Ignorance (clueless) is the first thing mentioned, not knowing how to deal (confusion) comes after. Then, Christ (discovery) comes into the picture and you are empowered by the faith you have in Him.

Medieval Europe

The following paragraphs are intended be informative pieces of information about a few of the countries that we will be visiting

Medieval Germany and Czechoslovakia


In Humanities class as Jesse Remington, we were just studying the middle ages in which the Holy Roman Empire was in power. The empire expanded from eastern France to western Russia, and from northern Italy to northern Germany. The chief territory of the Empire were the Germanic tribes and kingdoms that were loosely allied with each other through the empire. This is the area into which we are traveling for our Europe trip, so I believe it is important to have a better understanding of their history in order to understand their culture today.

In 1405, Czechoslovakia had a man dwelling there who was to be the first man to call for reform in the Roman Catholic Church. His name was John Huss, and he believed that neither did the pope have power to forgive sins nor the right to wage war. For his “insolence” he was burned at the stake. It would be barely more than one hundred years before anyone would follow in his footsteps, but the fate of empires were sealed by the burning of this one man.

In 1517, a monk turned theologian became in-dignified at the Pope for his over usage of indulgences, and exploitation of the mindless people of his age. He posted a paper on his local bulletin board and challenged debaters to come. Many of his ideas were based off of the ideas Huss had outspoken a hundred years before, but this time, the world would be completely transformed forever. His name was Martin Luther.

Modern Czech
When World War One was finally ending, Czechoslovakia declared it’s independence from the Austrian Empire. For the first time in centuries it was a nation on its own. Even as an independent state, it had incredible inherent problems to deal with. Most importantly was the fact that neither German or Slavs were given a large representation in the government. The Czechs took control and used the power for themselves. Then when World War Two began, Czechoslovakia was inducted into Hitler’s regime. Then upon Hitler’s fall, the Soviet Union of Russia took over. They were just as cruel as the Nazis had been, but they were not repelled until the fall of the USSR in 1989. Finally, after almost 100 years of conflict, in the year 1993 the country split into what is now the independent states of “The Czech Republic” ( the capitol, Prague, of which we will be visiting), and the “Republic of Slovakia”.

Monday, March 19, 2007

What’s Your Gift?

Spiritual Gifts: How to Discover Your Primary Spiritual Gift

In the first session, Chip Ingram talks about the spiritual gifts that are given by God. Using a paintbrush analogy, he explains how everyone has a unique spiritual gift. There are various kinds of paintbrushes. There are small, delicate brushes, and there are brushes with big and broad strokes, and there are even rollers out there. We cannot paint a wide wall with a small and delicate brush. Also, we cannot paint a small and detailed object with a roller. All the brushes are useful, and none of them are worse than others. They all have pros and cons. Moving on, Chip Ingram gives definitions of teaching, leadership, and gift of mercy. People who are good at teaching ask, “What can I give to meet the need?” People who have great leadership skills ask, “What is the goal and how can it be accomplished?” People who are merciful think, “How can I make people feel better?”

Everybody has a different gift, and in order to discover our gift, we can consider how we respond to certain situations. Do I enjoy studying and teaching? Do I have an ability to coordinate people’s plans and efficiently lead them? Or do I first think about what I should do to make people who are embarrassed feel better? I believe these are only few examples. However, by asking ourselves questions and observing ourselves, we will eventually see where God is leading us, and do what is needed to be done correctly.
~Vivvy

In the second segment of the sermon series, Pastor Chip Ingram discussed the seven motivational spiritual gifts. He described spiritual gifts as a “divine endowment for service” and firmly believed that every believer has one primary motivational spiritual gift that when used correctly bring fulfillment and fruitfulness. The seven motivational spiritual gifts are prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy. Pastor Chip Ingram described each gift in detail and asked at the end of each description for his congregation to circle “yes” “no” or “maybe” as they considered what their primary motivational spiritual gift might be.

After listening to the first two sermons, I am still unsure of my primary motivational spiritual gift. As Pastor Chip Ingram described each gift, I listened intently, considering if each might be my gift. For many, I circled “maybe.” Nevertheless, I now have a better understanding of the gifts that God bestows on believers and the importance of using them to serve Him.
~Elizabeth

Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition

Spiritual Gifts: You’re a Masterpiece in the Making

Chip Ingram, a pastor who led this session starts out by talking about a television show called “Extreme Make Over”. Every week, usually a family that is going through hardships is chosen by the show, and the “make over” team of this show reconstructs the family’s house. When they reveal the “extreme make over”, everybody in that place, including the construction teams, neighbors, and of course the family, either burst into tears or cry out with joy. Even people in front of the TV start to feel the emotions from that moment, and see the absolutely beautiful smiles of people.

Using this show as an example, the pastor says that God’s desire is to perform an extreme make over to everyone. God has given spiritual gifts to each and every one of us, and with these gifts, we can walk in the good works that God prepared for us. Chip Ingram also addresses that these spiritual gifts represent the victory of Jesus, and the failure of Satan. People always seek for change in their lives, and will for an “extreme make over”. However, God already has plans for an extreme make over. What we need to do is to learn how to discover our primary spiritual gifts that we have given and use them properly.
~Vivvy

In his sermon series Your Divine Design, Pastor Chip Ingram discussed the spiritual gifts bestowed on believers by God. In the first segment of the series, he described the extreme makeover that God does in those that accept His gift of salvation. This first discussion was essential in understanding that God has prepared each believer to do His work. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God has a plan to use us to further His kingdom; the extreme makeover is only the first step. Pastor Chip Ingram also emphasized the importance of keeping belief and behavior in line. Finally, God equips every believer (no exceptions) with a spiritual gift. These gifts are the tools for the transformation of the world around us. Furthermore, Pastor Chip Ingram suggests that spiritual gifts are evidence that Christ has had victory and Satan has no more power in you.
~Elizabeth

Sunday, March 18, 2007

The fall of the Holy Roman Empire

The actual end of the empire came in several steps. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which gave territories almost complete sovereignty, even allowing them to form independent alliances with other states, the Empire was only a mere collection of largely independent states. By the rise of Louis XIV of France, the Holy Roman Empire had lost all power in major European politics. The Habsburg emperors relied more on their role as Austrian archdukes than as emperors when challenged by Prussia, portions of which were part of the Empire. Throughout the 18th century, the Habsburgs were involved in multiple European conflicts. From 1792 and on, revolutionary France was occasionally at war with parts of the Empire. The Empire was formally dissolved on August 6, 1806 when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II resigned, following a military defeat by the French Army under Napoleon. Napoleon reorganized much of the empire into the Confederation of the Rhine. This ended the “First Reich. Francis II’s family continued to be called Austrian emperors until 1918. In fact, the Habsburg Emperors of Austria, however nostalgically and sentimentally, considered themselves, as the lawful heirs of the Holy Roman monarchs, to be themselves the final continuation of the Holy Roman Imperial line, their dynasty dying out with the ousting of Karl I in 1918. Germany itself would not become one unified state until 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War.

-pitu

Saturday, March 17, 2007

The Pearl of the Danube

Have you ever heard of a famous waltz, “By the Beautiful Blue Danube”, by Johann Strauss? That “beautiful blue Danube” is the river that divides Budapest, Hungary. It is the longest river in the European Union and Europe’s second longest river. It flows through not only Hungary, but also other countries such as Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine. Among these places, Budapest, Hungary is called “the Pearl of the Danube” because of the most beautiful scenery of the river.

The beautiful scenery is not the only significance of Danube River. It is also a source of drinking water, an important transport route, and fishing. In Germany, almost thirty percent of the water for certain areas comes from purified water of Danube. It is an important transport route because it connects the Black Sea with the industrial centers of Western Europe. The significance of fishing has enormously declined, but there are still some active fishermen at certain points of Danube, and the Danube Delta has an important industry.

Stare Mestro

What time is it in Stare Mestro (must be some kind of cool clock there!)?

Stare Mestro means ‘Old Town’, in Prague, Czech Republic which was the original town for settlement. In this area tourists tend to go see The Old Town Square. The square’s center is the home to Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake for his beliefs and now hold a statue for remembrance. According to ancient records, the city had around 13 gates, and a huge water-fence. The supports and embankment of the Stare Mesto were made untouchable.
The people of Prague use this town for very special occasions. The Old Town Square has celebrations, consisting of New Years, Christmas and Easter. Sometimes hockey and the famous football (soccer), are shown on huge screens, hung around the square, which crowds of fans come to see.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Town%2C_Prague

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Girly Gifts

Intro:
All of us are made in God’s image, because of our sin we are in need of an extreme makeover. We can see Jesus’ love in the way he cared for the little children and the people that were disliked. He changed them and can recreate us if we believe and want him to. He wants everyone to see his grace and mercy through his masterpieces, us. Before he changes us we are dead in our sins. When we become alive, the Holy Spirit takes over and Jesus begins his extreme makeover on us. The change of a life filled with abuse to a life filled with love. The process doesn’t take place over night, rather over time as God continues to refine us and make over our lives and make our spiritual gifts useful in His Kingdom. We are Jesus’ Extreme Makeover.

Kallee’s Krazy Kollaborations:
Pastor Chip Ingram taught on the types and uses of spiritual gifts.  He lectured on six spiritual gifts; Prophesy, Leadership, Exhortation, Service, Mercy and Teaching.  Each one of these gifts are equally important and useful in the body of Christ.  He emphasized the importance of each individual to determine what gift God bestowed upon them.  Subsequently, once a spiritual gift is found, it must be used.  He allegorized Christians with different spiritual gifts to paintbrushes of various sizes and textures.  His point was to say that a roller couldn’t paint the detail needed to make a defined picture, but yet a small brush designed for intricate detail couldn’t paint a background for a mural.  In the same way, Christians with the spiritual gift of mercy should use that gift primarily rather than trying to take on great amounts of leadership or prophesy, etc.  God knew what he was doing when he designed his creation and he made each individual with a purpose in his kingdom.

Crissy’s Charismatic Couplets:
In the first part of this lecture, we have discussed how God is an extreme makeover. He builds up the community in the church, using the hearts of men. He gives each of us gifts to fullfill what need to be done. I am learning hoe God takes us from one situation and totally remakes us into a crafted piece. “For we are God’s masterpiece. he has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10) Everyone is a part of his workmanship. you, me and others who want to be committed to him, and be used in the process of making a new and better community.

I am excited about this because I know that Jesus loves me and will use me for a good and fulfilling purpose in life. having a spiritual gift gives me the strength and courage to move on, understanding that I’m not alone because God will be with me in an situation; whether it is easy or difficult. When given a spiritually gift you go through the process of being personally recreated, a change that will change your life.

Julia’s Jigantic Jurisdictions:
The most interesting thing that I have learned is that each person is given a spiritual gift at the time of their salvation. Now a lot of people don’t think they have a spritual gift but that definitely does not mean it’s not there. It is each individual’s responsibility to find and use this gift to the best of their ability. If we reject these gifts then we will not be rewarded and will have to face the dire consequences of our inaction. We must use our gifts! (It’s like if someone gave you a Wal-Mart for your birthday and you never used it, don’t be stupid).

Vanessa’s Vivacious Volumes:
All of us are in need of an extreme makeover. God is the only one able to perform this miracle. To have this makeover we must really want it. It does not matter who you are or what you did because God can change your life. There are many examples of this, usually from people you least expect. Some of these can be seen in the New Hampshire Teen Challenge.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Austrian Facts… want some trivia?

The Hungarian capital is Budapest which consists of two cities divided by the Danube River.  These two cities are Buda, which lies on the west bank and Pest, which lies on the east bank.

The population of the Czech Republic holds one of the lowest percentages of religion in the Europian Union.  According to the 2001 census, almost 60% of the Czech Republic’spopulation are atheist, agnostic, non-organized believer, etc.  About 30% of the people claim to be Roman Catholic and only about 3% claim to be Protestants.  According to 2005 Eurobarometer, about 30% believed in no higher power, spirit, god, etc.  Half the population believed in some kind of life source or spirit, and only 19% belived in a god. 
Our small school will be visiting this country, could our love for Jesus and our mission to share his love to others influence this population?  I think so!  Let’s begin praying for the Czech Republic and for the people we will come into contact with during our tour!
(Source of information was found @: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Republic)

Three great and famous composers from Vienna were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Johannes Brahms. 

A Place of Interest: The Josefplatz is a city-center public square in Vienna.  Within its perimeter stands a full-size statue of Joseph II, the Holy Roman Emperor, on a horse. 

Bohemia

Bohemia is a region in the western part of the Czech Republic. It covers 20,734 square miles and has about 7 million people. It is a saucer shaped plateau, ringed by hills and mountains. The word Bohemia comes from the word Boii. The Boii were a Celtic tribe that were the 1st inhabitants of the region. In AD 1158, Emperor Frederick I, the Holy Roman Emperor, gave the title of king to the duke of Bohemia. The political and cultural peak of Bohemia was reached during the 1300’s when Charles IV ruled as king of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor.

Homosexuality: Is it Moral?

One of the largest arguments of our time is over the morality of homosexuality.  It is all over the news, and in our every day lives which causes violent reactions on both sides.  Recently, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff expressed that he believed homosexuality was immoral.  There are however many reputable men and women maliciously attacking him for such a public stance.

This issue is not only a matter of morality, but it is also a matter of design.
From a secular point of view, the Atheists (more specifically Darwinists) believe in what is called “natural selection"(Davis 8).  This is the process in which the strong survive and the weak do not (don’t jump to conclusions please). In this course of events, those who are able to reproduce are able to live on.  If this is true, then in the earliest of times, homosexual creatures would have died out for lack of seed to carry on.  Therefore, the idea that one can be ‘born” gay/lesbian is not probable.
 
From a moral Biblical perspective, there can be only one conclusion; homosexuality is a sin (violation) against God and one’s self.  The Apostle Paul wrote that sexual sin is the worst because it is against your own body (1Cor 6:18). 

There are numerous biblical texts in which homosexuality is condemned as sin.  For example, it is among the reasons why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed (Genesis).  However, before anyone offended by what this article is saying, please realize that I am not playing favorites, and I do not intend to single out homosexuals as the only perpetrators of sin.  Homosexuality is a sexual sin, but it is by no means alone in that category.  Jesus said in the Bible, “I tell you the truth, if a man even LOOKS at a woman lustfully, he has already committed ADULTERY with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Paul goes on to write “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male [or female] prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God”(1Cor 6:9). Therefore, I am not saying that homosexuals are the only guilty party, for in truth I believe that virtually EVERYONE is guilty as charged when it comes to sexual sin.
 
It is my thought that all Americans need to repent for their sins (sexual sin in this particular case) and call on the mercy of God.  Those who call themselves “straight” should by no means condemn those who do not, for let he who has yet to sin cast the first stone!  But, those who call themselves homosexual must repent and seek the forgiveness of a God who is passionately seeking their good.  

Work Cited

Davis, Percival & Kenyon, Dean H. “Of Pandas and People”. Haughton Publishing Company, Texas 2004.

Glockenspiel, the Bell Tower in Munich

There are many sights to see in Germany, the most common of these is in Munich, the capital of Germany. Built as part of the Munich City Hall, lies a famous bell tower. Many visitors climb this 85 meter tall tower on nice, clear days to see the Alps and the surrounding towns. It is known for the architecture and the re-enactment of Germany’s history from the life size figures of the Glockenspiel, which lies approximately 55 meters high.









The Glockenspiel was built by Georg von Hauberrisser in the 1860s and was completed in 1904. It opened in 1874, but the city council complained it was to small, so Hauberrisser went back to work. When he worked on the tower for the second time, he decided to add in the famous clock with its Glockenspiel. The Glockenspiel performs 4 times a day, everyday at 11am, noon, 5pm and 9pm. At the first three re-enactments are of a tournament that was held in 1568 to celebrate a royal marriage and Cooper’s Dance. The Cooper’s Dance dates back to the 17 century and was danced to celebrate the end of the plague. The last performance of the day is shorter, but more magical than the others. The clock is lit with lights and 43 bells of the clock play a lullaby, while the little monk, the symbol of the city, is led to his bed by the night watchman of Munich and the angel of peace.