Moderate Christian Blog Aggregator

Sri Lanka Religion Forum
www.srilanka-story.blogspot.com

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.
-Acts 17:27-28

Being in the presence of God is one of those things that, until experienced, can only be guessed at or speculated over. It is a precious and poignant place of regeneration and relationship. It is the place that the believer, once having experienced it, wishes to reside forever. It is the bomb,

I can remember times I was so focused on what I wanted and how I could get it, that I was blinded to the fact that God was answering my prayer in a better, but different, way than I expected. In fact I would say that most of my great breakthroughs were delivered by God in a way I was not expecting at all. He seems to get a kick out of doing that. Getting often involves taking something with force

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Cape Town Lawyer
The poor state of the South African economy affects all aspects of life, including divorces.

Although over the last ten years there has been a marked increase in the divorce rate, the divorce rate figures released recently have shown a steep decline. Couples can no longer afford to get divorced from a financial viewpoint. One of the inevitable consequences of any divorce is that after the divorce each party will

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Thursday.
The high court declined to hear an appeal by Canadian airlines of a decision by the Canadian Transportation Agency that people who are “functionally disabled by obesity” deserve to have two seats for one fare.

The airlines had lost an appeal at the Federal Court of

Residents reject letter of permission from Religious Affairs department.

JAKARTA, September 25 (Compass Direct News) – Residents in North Jakarta have ordered the pastor of a small congregation to cease holding services in his home, despite a letter of permission issued by the Religious Affairs department.

On Sept. 12 village officials in South Rawa Badak, Koja district called a meeting with pastor Syaiful Hamzah and his

Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in Congress said there could be no legislation to bail out the U.S. auto industry until the Big Three Detroit automakers develop a plan showing how much money they need and how the money would be spent.
“Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a hastily called news conference in the Capitol.

Recipe Courtesy Alton Brown

1 cup butter, plus more for greasing pan
1 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound powdered sugar
Directions
Microwave butter and peanut butter for 2 minutes on high. Stir and microwave on high for 2 more minutes. Add vanilla and powdered sugar to peanut butter mixture and stir to combine with a wooden spoon. Pour into a buttered 8 by 8-inch pan lined with waxed paper.

1620 - The Mayflower reached Provincetown, MA. The ship discharged the Pilgrims at Plymouth, MA, on December 26, 1620.

1694 - French author and philosopher Jean Francois Voltaire was born. At age 65 he spent only three days writing “Candide.”

1783 - The first successful flight was made in a hot air balloon. The pilots, Francois Pilatre de Rosier and Francois Laurent, Marquis d’Arlandes,

Local community is often seen as synonymous with the local church, and the local church is often seen as synonymous with "that church over there on the hill."  For liturgy to truly be meaningful in a local community I think pastors, lay persons, and congregations need to begin to think of the local church as all the churches in a local community.  In other words, the local church is the grouping of the handful (maybe dozens) of churches that are down the road from each other, down the block

The photograph above is entitled Toronto Subway 1 and is by Ryan at Metrix X. It is used in accordance with his Creative Commons license.

This virus simply refuses to go away. Today, every last one of us is sick in some way. I feel okay, although not up for strenuous stuff, but I still have a sore throat and a

Many churches will be celebrating Thanksgiving services in the coming weeks, including The Plant.  For our service this Sunday I created this responsive reading of Psalm 136.  Just download the attachment.  Let me know if you use it!  The text follows below.

Text of the Reading:

Responsive Reading for Thanksgiving Service (Psalm 136)

Leader 1:      

Welcome to the second episode of me trying to convert my car to run on water. I know it has been a long time since the first episode, but we have encountered some obstacles, the biggest one being that my team-mate and I don't have as much time to work on the project as we would like. So rather than knocking it out in a few weeks, like so people do, we spend a few hours every month or so. But hey, I got patience, I can wait. And now that gas prices are so much lower, I am in no rush at all. ;)