I posted this because not very many of my friends get to see how I look in my full attire. Some of them were very curious.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Bishop Attire
I posted this because not very many of my friends get to see how I look in my full attire. Some of them were very curious.
Monday, March 30, 2009
What is your model of the church?
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
What Constitutes Peace
This topic is something that is somewhat controversial when first looked at, but I promise you by the end you will be asking why. Why is this such a big deal to me and to others? Why did I allow this to go so far? It is okay to ask those questions, as long as you remember the answer in your next conversations, actions, and thoughts.
All religions have different laws. Those of us who are religious allow these laws to dictate and judge who we are and what we do. The most controversial set, for the United States, is the Ten Commandments or also known as Decalogue. We watched last year as different court houses and state house yards were fighting to keep monuments up with these Ten Commandments listed.
Now I want to make one thing very clear, we live in a country of religious freedom. With that said, contrary to popular belief not all religious follow the "Ten Commandments". The ones that do are Jewish, Orthodox, Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, and most other Christians. There area a lot of other religions in the U.S. who don't follow all ten of these.
I want to give a quick refresher on them based off the Jewish (Talmudic) source
1. I am the Lord your God
2. You shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make for yourself an idol
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
5. Honor your father and mother
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Now depending on your religious beliefs, from the one's stated above, these will be in a different numbering order. Again, another fine example of how we as religions must find a way to vary from one another. Heaven forbid if we even agree on the exact numbers of what we all believe in! Though I digress.
You would think that following these 10 simple laws would be easy to do. If you think that you are wrong. Years later, we have the New Testament which states that Christ says all of the laws of old are gone with him. Now I find it a bit funny that we have "Christ" saying no more old laws, and yet so many want to continue to cling to these ten. Most other religions were willing to throw out the dietary laws instantly, but not these ten. Why is that?
Here is your answer. Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence." This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it. "Love others as well as you love yourself." "These two commands are pegs, everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."
Now, I want to summarize that into the easiest terms you ever heard. Love your God and treat others as you want to be treated. These are the 2 laws/commands/Decalogue that we are to follow. If you follow them, all of the previous laws will follow in naturally. Think of it! If you love your God you won't use his name wrongly and you won't want to worship another. You will also remember to keep the Sabbath holy by honoring your God.
With treating others like how you want to be treated is even easy. You wouldn't kill someone else. You won't steal from them or take from them what they have earned. You won't lie about them. You won't have an affair with someone else if you are in a relationship.
I didn't touch one of the ten commandments for a reason, "Honor your father and mother". I saved it for last because I believe that this law is not fully explained or understood. If you were to divide the Ten Commandments by Heaven and Earth value you have 4/6 ratio. That means 4 commandments for God and 6 for Earth actions. I believe that is not suppose to be the case. I find that the fifth commandment is actually a blending line. It is designed to actually stand for both Heaven and Earth.
"Honor your father and mother" means both your Earthly parents who gave physical birth to you and your Heavenly parents who gave Spiritual birth to you. God the Father and Queen of Heaven/Holy Spirit/Goddess or any other name that you wish to use to describe the mother.
Now where I'm going with this is simple. If we take the time, no matter what religious views you have, to honor the basic foundation of the two commandments given to us our world would be better. "Do what thou wilt as long as it harms none". This is the Golden rule. Also, what all religious people tend to forget is the first commandment states "I am the Lord your God". This means whoever you interpret God to be to you personally, not who another religious leader says he is.
When we finally take the time to realize that we must each follow "Honor your God" and "Love others as you would yourself" we would stop violence on all levels. We would know the real meaning of peace. This is what ministers should be preaching, not hell, damnation, and sin (which I will cover sin another day).
In Faith,
†Isaac
All religions have different laws. Those of us who are religious allow these laws to dictate and judge who we are and what we do. The most controversial set, for the United States, is the Ten Commandments or also known as Decalogue. We watched last year as different court houses and state house yards were fighting to keep monuments up with these Ten Commandments listed.
Now I want to make one thing very clear, we live in a country of religious freedom. With that said, contrary to popular belief not all religious follow the "Ten Commandments". The ones that do are Jewish, Orthodox, Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, and most other Christians. There area a lot of other religions in the U.S. who don't follow all ten of these.
I want to give a quick refresher on them based off the Jewish (Talmudic) source
1. I am the Lord your God
2. You shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make for yourself an idol
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
5. Honor your father and mother
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Now depending on your religious beliefs, from the one's stated above, these will be in a different numbering order. Again, another fine example of how we as religions must find a way to vary from one another. Heaven forbid if we even agree on the exact numbers of what we all believe in! Though I digress.
You would think that following these 10 simple laws would be easy to do. If you think that you are wrong. Years later, we have the New Testament which states that Christ says all of the laws of old are gone with him. Now I find it a bit funny that we have "Christ" saying no more old laws, and yet so many want to continue to cling to these ten. Most other religions were willing to throw out the dietary laws instantly, but not these ten. Why is that?
Here is your answer. Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence." This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it. "Love others as well as you love yourself." "These two commands are pegs, everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."
Now, I want to summarize that into the easiest terms you ever heard. Love your God and treat others as you want to be treated. These are the 2 laws/commands/Decalogue that we are to follow. If you follow them, all of the previous laws will follow in naturally. Think of it! If you love your God you won't use his name wrongly and you won't want to worship another. You will also remember to keep the Sabbath holy by honoring your God.
With treating others like how you want to be treated is even easy. You wouldn't kill someone else. You won't steal from them or take from them what they have earned. You won't lie about them. You won't have an affair with someone else if you are in a relationship.
I didn't touch one of the ten commandments for a reason, "Honor your father and mother". I saved it for last because I believe that this law is not fully explained or understood. If you were to divide the Ten Commandments by Heaven and Earth value you have 4/6 ratio. That means 4 commandments for God and 6 for Earth actions. I believe that is not suppose to be the case. I find that the fifth commandment is actually a blending line. It is designed to actually stand for both Heaven and Earth.
"Honor your father and mother" means both your Earthly parents who gave physical birth to you and your Heavenly parents who gave Spiritual birth to you. God the Father and Queen of Heaven/Holy Spirit/Goddess or any other name that you wish to use to describe the mother.
Now where I'm going with this is simple. If we take the time, no matter what religious views you have, to honor the basic foundation of the two commandments given to us our world would be better. "Do what thou wilt as long as it harms none". This is the Golden rule. Also, what all religious people tend to forget is the first commandment states "I am the Lord your God". This means whoever you interpret God to be to you personally, not who another religious leader says he is.
When we finally take the time to realize that we must each follow "Honor your God" and "Love others as you would yourself" we would stop violence on all levels. We would know the real meaning of peace. This is what ministers should be preaching, not hell, damnation, and sin (which I will cover sin another day).
In Faith,
†Isaac
Sunday, March 8, 2009
If your heart had eyes to see
This one is a little different coming from me. I want to point something out to all of my friends that are having difficulty in their life right now. You are fighting a battle, actually everyone is. We are not aware of it, because we are sleeping or even blind to it. I didn’t realize how true this really is until I read and meditated on it.
On of my closest friends tells me at least once a week that she feels that she has to “prepare for battle”. I tell her every time that she will never see “battle”. Well, today (tonight to be exact) I’m going to say that I am wrong. She is in battle now, just as everyone else is. We live our life day in and day out with schedules and meetings and bills, but for what? What does it all mean? Who placed these task, these obstacles if you will, in our way?
These are battles. We fight to find a good job to make good pay, to pay rent, to have a place to live, to support ourselves and our families. And at the end of the day, we are exhausted as if we have battled a war in Iraq or any other war. Is this how life is suppose to be?
I have the answer to that. The answer is simply put, NO. We are not suppose to be battling to survive, we are suppose to be taking control of our destinies and living our life’s purpose. I know that this sounds like a fantasy more than reality, so I am going to brake it down for you.
Imagine if you will that you are Jack of Jack & the Beanstalk. You are down on your luck, you have nothing left but your cow. You take Betsy (your cow) for sale, only to be tricked into accepting “magic beans”. Now this doesn’t sound familiar to you yet but it should. The magic beans are nothing more than contracts from credit card companies, wireless phone providers, and other crap that we get sucked into daily that we believe is going to make our lives better.
Now you come home all excited because you believe these “magic beans” are going to save you and your family. Instantly you run outside and you plant these “magic beans”, but you notice after a few months that all you have is a huge “beanstalk”. This “beanstalk” is troubles and woes. It didn’t make anything easier, now you have a larger mess to clean up you have to cut this thing down, chop it up, haul it off for waste. You are still suffering from your financial issues, your contracts have added their “hidden fees” that you didn’t see. You have an interest rate of 21.9% on that credit card or personal loan that you thought was going to save you.
But Jack, that’s you, decides to wake up and see how far the “beanstalk” really goes. He decides to play into the myth of it all. “Perhaps the beanstalk goes to a magic kingdom with lots of food for me and my family”, Jack says. So you climb up the “beanstalk” more alert than you have ever been in your life. Your heart has eyes to see everything going on around you. You are anxious, scared, and excited all at the same time. When you reach the top you see riches beyond your wildest dreams.
Why riches? Because you have taken your life into your own hands. You have fought back have decided to let your heart see what is really going on. You have decided to think outside the box of what those contracts really wanted you to see. But it isn’t over yet, you are discovered trying to take the riches by the evil giants (corporate companies). They don’t want you to fight back. They want you to pay that 21.9% interest and late fees and over the limit fees. How dare you think of going against the grain and being a free thinker. As the giant is running towards Jack he climbs down the “beanstalk” just in time to find an ax. The giant is still pretty high up on the stalk. You cut the “beanstalk and cause the giant to fall dying from the impact.
When that giant fell, you fought back. You battled to save your family and yourself. Your heart had eyes and you were awake to see the reality around you. “Wow, I never should have taken those magic beans.” or should you’ve? In doing so you have learned something new about yourself and became stronger. You just have to remember to keep your heart’s eyes open now is all. You must know what is around you and learn that this life is a battle. There are several things that want us to fail, but your personal God/your higher self wants you to win.
This is just a small “myth” to help you really see something that may be affecting you personally. Perhaps love is your real issue. If that is the case, think of the Little Mermaid. The sea witch didn’t want to see Arial happy either, but Sebastian tried only because Arial kept fighting to win. Good always over comes evil, but sometimes it is hard to see what evil really is. When we open our heart’s eyes we are able to see good and evil. We are able to win our battles and life becomes everything and more we wanted it to be. And it is simple to start doing too, just a quick prayer or meditation and you can begin seeing things a whole lot better.
I want to say Thank you to author John Eldredge who wrote a little on this topic in his book “Waking The Dead”. It allowed me to have a new perspective to help my friends help themselves who are “preparing for battle”.
In Faith,
+Isaac
On of my closest friends tells me at least once a week that she feels that she has to “prepare for battle”. I tell her every time that she will never see “battle”. Well, today (tonight to be exact) I’m going to say that I am wrong. She is in battle now, just as everyone else is. We live our life day in and day out with schedules and meetings and bills, but for what? What does it all mean? Who placed these task, these obstacles if you will, in our way?
These are battles. We fight to find a good job to make good pay, to pay rent, to have a place to live, to support ourselves and our families. And at the end of the day, we are exhausted as if we have battled a war in Iraq or any other war. Is this how life is suppose to be?
I have the answer to that. The answer is simply put, NO. We are not suppose to be battling to survive, we are suppose to be taking control of our destinies and living our life’s purpose. I know that this sounds like a fantasy more than reality, so I am going to brake it down for you.
Imagine if you will that you are Jack of Jack & the Beanstalk. You are down on your luck, you have nothing left but your cow. You take Betsy (your cow) for sale, only to be tricked into accepting “magic beans”. Now this doesn’t sound familiar to you yet but it should. The magic beans are nothing more than contracts from credit card companies, wireless phone providers, and other crap that we get sucked into daily that we believe is going to make our lives better.
Now you come home all excited because you believe these “magic beans” are going to save you and your family. Instantly you run outside and you plant these “magic beans”, but you notice after a few months that all you have is a huge “beanstalk”. This “beanstalk” is troubles and woes. It didn’t make anything easier, now you have a larger mess to clean up you have to cut this thing down, chop it up, haul it off for waste. You are still suffering from your financial issues, your contracts have added their “hidden fees” that you didn’t see. You have an interest rate of 21.9% on that credit card or personal loan that you thought was going to save you.
But Jack, that’s you, decides to wake up and see how far the “beanstalk” really goes. He decides to play into the myth of it all. “Perhaps the beanstalk goes to a magic kingdom with lots of food for me and my family”, Jack says. So you climb up the “beanstalk” more alert than you have ever been in your life. Your heart has eyes to see everything going on around you. You are anxious, scared, and excited all at the same time. When you reach the top you see riches beyond your wildest dreams.
Why riches? Because you have taken your life into your own hands. You have fought back have decided to let your heart see what is really going on. You have decided to think outside the box of what those contracts really wanted you to see. But it isn’t over yet, you are discovered trying to take the riches by the evil giants (corporate companies). They don’t want you to fight back. They want you to pay that 21.9% interest and late fees and over the limit fees. How dare you think of going against the grain and being a free thinker. As the giant is running towards Jack he climbs down the “beanstalk” just in time to find an ax. The giant is still pretty high up on the stalk. You cut the “beanstalk and cause the giant to fall dying from the impact.
When that giant fell, you fought back. You battled to save your family and yourself. Your heart had eyes and you were awake to see the reality around you. “Wow, I never should have taken those magic beans.” or should you’ve? In doing so you have learned something new about yourself and became stronger. You just have to remember to keep your heart’s eyes open now is all. You must know what is around you and learn that this life is a battle. There are several things that want us to fail, but your personal God/your higher self wants you to win.
This is just a small “myth” to help you really see something that may be affecting you personally. Perhaps love is your real issue. If that is the case, think of the Little Mermaid. The sea witch didn’t want to see Arial happy either, but Sebastian tried only because Arial kept fighting to win. Good always over comes evil, but sometimes it is hard to see what evil really is. When we open our heart’s eyes we are able to see good and evil. We are able to win our battles and life becomes everything and more we wanted it to be. And it is simple to start doing too, just a quick prayer or meditation and you can begin seeing things a whole lot better.
I want to say Thank you to author John Eldredge who wrote a little on this topic in his book “Waking The Dead”. It allowed me to have a new perspective to help my friends help themselves who are “preparing for battle”.
In Faith,
+Isaac
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Call To Action
Today I have the distinct pleasure of being able to attend Governor Strickland's Faith-based Luncheon. It was great with around 700 leaders from the Faith-based community. There is one think that I did notice more than anything else though. The majority was Christians. I understand that Christianity is the leading religion of the U.S., but I was disappointed that others were willing to be properly represented better. I sat and listened countless times to the word "Jesus" and the "New Testament".
What upset me even more was the fact that those who are of other faiths really didn't get much of a chance to speak. We did hear Ms. Usha Aswath play the Saraswati veena, and she was fantastic. There was a speech from a man on behalf of Imam Farooq Aboelzahab, who regrettable was unable to attend, to represent Islam. We had 2 Rabbis speaking towards the end. The music before and after was Christian. 7 out of 10 speakers were Christian based. There were no one representing Pagans, Buddhist, Taoist, Hinduist, or any other religions.
This was suppose to be an open forum for Interfaith dialogue, which we did promote at our table. We had a few different religions sitting there discussing our work and how important it is to us.
Where am I getting at with this, right? I am wanting to take this time to go beyond the message of today's luncheon. I am asking, no calling, all minority religions to action. It is time that we allow the Divine spark to encompass our Spirit and bring us forward. We for too long stand in the shadows of Christianity and fear to be the beacon we are. When called to ministry, we are all called the same way, through God. God the Universe, God the Light, God the Alpha & Omega, God the Allah, God the consort of the Goddess, or any other God that you personally identify with. We are in a time of Spiritual healing and a time when we must build bridges and lead our groups by being the beacon of light they know we are able to be.
There are several books that talk about how to be a good minister or religious leader. We could spend years comparing them. All of them give the same message though, live your life for God, share the joy and love of the All, and keep your flock/group in the best of intentions. All of these involve hard work and dedication. Ministry is not a joke or a kewl title to have. Ministry involves serious devotion. Those who are called know why we are called through personal and tedious discernment. I believe that too often we forget why we are called. Working in our field opens us to so much hatred, animosity, and discrimination. As we progress further sometimes we allow these darkness es to take over our light and dim it. What must be remembered is, our light is a gift from God and no one or thing has the "power" to weaken it. We must stand strong and unite together to bring about faith and healing that we need today.
I want to make this clear. I am calling and challenging all other minority religious leaders to action. Stand strong and unite to bring about change. Let us be heard and show the goodness that we can do to help Ohio, the United States, and the World.
Keep Faith & Allow your Light to shine for all!
+Isaac
What upset me even more was the fact that those who are of other faiths really didn't get much of a chance to speak. We did hear Ms. Usha Aswath play the Saraswati veena, and she was fantastic. There was a speech from a man on behalf of Imam Farooq Aboelzahab, who regrettable was unable to attend, to represent Islam. We had 2 Rabbis speaking towards the end. The music before and after was Christian. 7 out of 10 speakers were Christian based. There were no one representing Pagans, Buddhist, Taoist, Hinduist, or any other religions.
This was suppose to be an open forum for Interfaith dialogue, which we did promote at our table. We had a few different religions sitting there discussing our work and how important it is to us.
Where am I getting at with this, right? I am wanting to take this time to go beyond the message of today's luncheon. I am asking, no calling, all minority religions to action. It is time that we allow the Divine spark to encompass our Spirit and bring us forward. We for too long stand in the shadows of Christianity and fear to be the beacon we are. When called to ministry, we are all called the same way, through God. God the Universe, God the Light, God the Alpha & Omega, God the Allah, God the consort of the Goddess, or any other God that you personally identify with. We are in a time of Spiritual healing and a time when we must build bridges and lead our groups by being the beacon of light they know we are able to be.
There are several books that talk about how to be a good minister or religious leader. We could spend years comparing them. All of them give the same message though, live your life for God, share the joy and love of the All, and keep your flock/group in the best of intentions. All of these involve hard work and dedication. Ministry is not a joke or a kewl title to have. Ministry involves serious devotion. Those who are called know why we are called through personal and tedious discernment. I believe that too often we forget why we are called. Working in our field opens us to so much hatred, animosity, and discrimination. As we progress further sometimes we allow these darkness es to take over our light and dim it. What must be remembered is, our light is a gift from God and no one or thing has the "power" to weaken it. We must stand strong and unite together to bring about faith and healing that we need today.
I want to make this clear. I am calling and challenging all other minority religious leaders to action. Stand strong and unite to bring about change. Let us be heard and show the goodness that we can do to help Ohio, the United States, and the World.
Keep Faith & Allow your Light to shine for all!
+Isaac
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