Faith Quotations

By Adonis7 alexander7

 So many throughout the world are in mourning the loss of the spiritually-gifted musical artist, entertainer and humanitarian, Michael Jackson. His extraordinary career, angelic voice and legacy, attempted to move the world in harmony for so many years. With his deep interest in world peace and unity, he embodied the human spirit of greatness. All over the world, across all continents and across all boundaries of race and prejudice, Michael Jackson was that bridge that aimed to unite all of humanity.

Spiritually, as human beings, it is understood that we are responsive, sentient and sentimental. We have certain feelings that accompany the loss of a loved one that we call grief and mourning. Because we are psychologically attached to another within our hearts and minds, there is the pain that is formed from the detachment of their passing.

When someone moves on to physical death, initially there is a certain shock and disbelief of what has happened. There may be a tremendous sense of doubt and uncertainty that is rather overwhelming in facing what has happened. The denial of this shocking event is to be realized and not merely analyzed. We must learn to feel what is taking place within us without the slightest intent of changing or escaping the sorrow. Only then such emotional pain can dissolve without leaving any emotional scars.

Psychologically, there are various ways to cope with such an event, but to cope is not compassion. Coping is a subtle form of managing the hurt instead of understanding its sting. When there is mere coping, we may feel a sense of relief that accompanies all the heartache and discontentment without resolution. But it is compassion that brings wholeness and health.

Spiritually, in such an event in ones life, it is an opportune time to discover so much about oneself. The pain that is created comes not from the person that is gone but from within ones own lack of understanding what death is.

For our own well-being, we must understand the whole coming to terms with such sorrow. Not to accept it but to understand it. We must see how such grief comes into being and what brings it to an end. This means, it is vital to let the whole process of sorrow manifest within us. We must let however we feel be expressed without any intent of accepting, denying or justifying. Let not the slightest desire of moving away from the grief entertain ones thoughts so that there is no escape from the agony. Only then will you discover the total freedom from the depths of sorrow.

The tragedy and the loss have to be understood in its fullest expression. Usually, talking with others who have gone through the same thing may offer a certain comfort. But comfort is but a temporary solution and not the understanding that frees the mind of all such suffering.

In spirituality, it is suggested that we express ourselves however we feel is necessary. Whether it is to be still, cry or scream. Their may be feelings of guilt and anger associated with the other person that may become a part of our dismay that compels us. With all the various things that arise within us, we must listen and fully experience the pain, sorrow and heartbreak.

As death is a part of life, there is nothing to accept or deny. It is a fact of life. Understand, we may grieve but we may not grieve forever. We may cry and even weep. But, knowing the root of such pain losses its hold on us as a thing that is really momentary. There is a certain freedom in understanding as long as we see that all things are temporary.

Spiritually, we discover the importance of letting such feelings flow naturally and effortlessly. We learn the meaning of letting the anguish and the sorrow surface in its entirety so the pain may be understood in full. Through such understanding, the sorrow and the grief is extinguished and not suppressed in the unconscious. In truth, we are healed knowing that this too shall pass.

So, when we are completely free of all sorrow, we can live instead of just existing. In this intelligence, there is spiritual aliveness in which we discover we are beyond all sorrow and death. Seeing the truth of this, we become one with the earth and the whole universe. When the root of sorrow ends, we are filled with this universal love and joy beyond the heavens.

Adonis Alexander is author of this article on Spirituality.

Find more information about Michael jackson here.

A Listing Of Spiritual Quotes From Great Leaders

What to Bear in Mind When Truth and Facts Vary

By Paul Graden

 Living the spiritual life presents loads of exciting moments. It also provides us with faith crisies, as the facts we grasp don’t always line up with the truth we live through. To affectively maneuver through these hard crisies, we must comprehend the difference between truth and facts, as well as how they have an affect on each other.

Definitions:

Facts

Facts are what we discern in the physical dominion.

At the nuptials at Cana, Jesus watched the servants pour water into half a dozen stone water jars (John 2). The fact in the natural was that water was what existed at that time.

Another day, Jesus visited Bethany to call on friends. He was confronted with a very grave fact, his friend Lazarus was deceased (John 11)!

Moses was faced with the fact that he had led the People out into the wasteland and they had no water to drink (Exodus 15). After 3 days, they located some water, but it was bitter and could not be used. The people were complaining. The facts were very real and precarious!

Isaac was going through one of the most terrible famines of his lifetime (Genesis 26). Yet, the fact was that his family needed food. He geared up to transport his family to Egypt, where he could resettle and sow crops.

One day, Peter and John were travelling to the Temple. As they went through the gate named “Beautiful”, they were faced by a man who had been unable to walk since birth - about forty years (Acts 3)!

In 1 Kings 17, Elijah is led by God to take a trip. He had no food or water. As he obeyed God’s command he encountered a brook, where he was able to drink. Still, he had no food, a fact he could not dispense with…

Truth:

Truth is best defined by the Bible itself:

John 17:17: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth”.

Psalm 119:160: “The sum of Your word is truth”

Truth is found in God’s Word, the Bible. Whatever God proclaims is truth, even when it disagrees with well-known facts. In God’s order, truth is superior to facts.

Let’s look back at the experiences listed above and how the truth affected the facts:

The marriage at Cana was captivated as the water in the stone jugs was changed to wine. The fact was that water was placed in the jugs. Nevertheless, as the servants followed Jesus’ command and dipped into the water, they poured out wine! The facts had to fall into line with the truth of Jesus’ directions!

At Bethany, Jesus called Lazarus from his grave. The fact, Lazarus was deceased, surrendered to the truth of God’s command and Lazarus lived!

As Moses inquired about no water after three days, God showed him a tree and told Moses to throw it into the poisonous water. As that tree landed in the water, the water became purified and the Israelites were able to consume it. Once more, the facts were transformed by the truth!

God instructed Isaac not to go to Egypt, in the face of the famine. Isaac followed God’s Word and planted crops during a famine! As the truth overrode the facts, Isaac received a one hundred fold return from those seeds.

Peter and John knew some truth. They were intimate with that by the stripes of Jesus we are healed (1 Peter 2:24). With that statement from God in mind, they told the paralysed man to get up and walk. As the truth overcame the facts, the man walked away, carrying his bed, for the first time in his life.

Elijah was dealing with the fact that he had no food. Still, he had acted upon God’s Word. Soon, ravens started feeding him! This continued day by day until the brook he was drinking from dried up. Subsequently God led him to a widow for food. The fact was that she and her son had no food, save for a tiny amount of flour for bread and they reconciled themselves to the fact that they would shortly expire from hunger. Elijah told her God’s command - give him some of the bread! She and her son were to consume some as well. Elijah went on to inform her that God’s Word was that the flour would not come to an end until the drought was completed. As a consequence that’s precisely what happened as the truth transformed the facts.

The truth always overrides the facts. Nevertheless, there is a connection between the two that is important to comprehend: faith.

While presented with a serious fact, we must decide to trust God’s Word instead. Find God’s promises and opt to have faith in them over the facts. That is the instigation of the conduit of faith. The subsequently part is to act upon the truth!

The servants at the marriage at Cana chose to act upon Jesus’ words. Their very lives might have been at risk had they given water to their master. In spite of that, they still chose to obey…

Lazarus may have been completely contented in Paradise. Yet, he chose to follow Jesus and start out of that burial place. By the way, the men who pushed away the stone from the burial place also chose to trust the truth and obey Jesus’ command.

Moses acted by slinging the tree into the poisonous water and instructing the people to drink. Did he look foolish hurling a tree into the water? What would have happened if somebody drank afterward and became sick or died? Nonetheless, regardless of the risk, he chose to listen to the truth.

Isaac believed the truth to the point that he placed his own life, and his family’s, at risk by staying in Israel for the duration of a famine. He also acted upon the truth by planting a crop during a famine.

The lame man, who had never walked beforehand, had to get up and walk. He could have looked at his limp legs and made excuses not to, however he chose to listen to God’s Word.

Elijah accepted God’s Word and headed to the stream. He also acted upon God’s Word by taking a major serving of the bread that the widow had prepared to feed himself.

I’m reminded of God’s command to Joshua in Joshua, chapter 1. He tells Joshua to be brave in obeying the truth of God’s Word. This bravery marked Joshua’s life and brought him accomplishment, as the truth of God’s Word changed the facts he was confronted with.

Sadly, the Church is packed of non-acting believers. They declare that they believe God’s Word, but are too scared to act. Thus, the facts linger unaffected. The staggering thing is that they blame God for this! Still, the mistake is not with God. It is with the lack of action.

As James declared, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). The Greek word translated “works” here is more fittingly translated “corresponding action”.

In other words, if you will not perform what you exclaim you trust, the entire process that God established (truth overcoming facts) is derailed and the facts remain.

My question then is, what will you do when confronted with your next terrible fact? If you desire to believe God and act upon His Word, a miracle awaits you.

The creator, Dr. Paul Graden, is the initiator of The Joseph Gate. The Joseph Gate is a free web site with intensive guidance in Biblical insights to find out the meanings of dreams.

Energy Healing 101: Pranic, Tantric And Reiki

By Roberto Garabell

 You have probably come across exotic-sounding terms such as chakra, prana, aura, and tantra in your course of reading books on spirituality, sex, and healing in the New Age literature section of the bookstore. But whats the real scoop behind these exotic vocabularies?

Are All Energy Healings the Same?

Chakra or energy center is a term used in Pranic healing, an ancient Hindu system of energy healing. Prana means life energy. Aura is another terminology traced to Pranic healing. Aura is a non-physical body that consists of energy, which exists along with our physical body. The aura that covers our body is said to have seven layers pertaining to the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of an individual as manifested by energy. Studying the color and thickness of auras give ideas on the state of health of individuals. Six colors are associated with aura and interpreted into six personalities. These colors are all present in an individual but one or two are more pronounced.

Green ambitious achiever

Blue spiritual peacemaker

White unconventional chameleon

Red activist

Orange creative communicator

Violet - psychic

Although Tantra is popularly associated with the peculiar practice of sex and spirituality, it is another method of energy healing. It comes from the word tan which means to spread or expand. The concept of connectedness is a recurring theme in Tantric writings on sex and spirituality. As a method of healing, spirituality and sex figure prominently. It is presupposed that the union of man and woman can reach spiritual levels during orgasm, which removes the body and mind off collected impurities. These impurities being negative energies can in turn manifest as physical illnesses.

Unlike Pranic and Tantric healings, which have Hindu origins, Reiki originated from Japan. It is relatively younger than Pranic and Tantric healings having been rediscovered in the early 1900s. Reiki stands for universal energy, an energy brought forth by higher intelligence. Students of Reiki are taught how to tap this energy to heal physical, emotional, and mental illnesses.

Although Pranic, Tantra, and Reiki are all systems of energy healing, they differ in the type of energy tapped for healing: life energy, sexual energy, and universal energy respectively.

The concepts of the connectedness of mind, body, and spirit; the connection of individuals to all living and nonliving things around them and to the universe; and how energy impacts physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being are some of the salient similarities of these three healing methods.

Why Do People Turn to Energy Healing?

Pranic, Tantric, and Reiki are considered alternative methods of healing. In spite of the availability and relative accessibility of modern medicine, how come more and more people are being drawned to them? Here are some possible reasons:

Energy healing worked where modern medicine failed.

For several reasons both explainable and unexplainable, modern medical treatment failed to heal ailments and conditions in several if not many persons. Research or data may not be able to support this statement. But for the families of the dying as well as for the dying patient, they would take the risk of using alternative methods ranging from herbals and organics, faith healers, witch doctors, and New Age healing techniques just to be get well.

People perceive modern medicine to be isolating.

Medical treatments are oftentimes focused on the disease and its causative agent, which can make a patient feel isolated and treated like a mere host of the disease. Although recent developments in hospital practice are gradually promoting the holistic treatment of a patient, the perception still persists. Unlike in energy healing, since energy and spirituality are intimately linked, the patient feels that all aspects of his health are being attended to.

Energy healing is non-obtrusive and natural thus it is safer.

Repeated surgical procedures are physically and emotionally traumatic for most patients. It is but a logical and attractive option to both patient and families to look for less stressful health interventions. Moreover, with the rising popularity of New Age religions, going natural is the way to go.

Energy healing is a good way of relieving stress.

Meditation is part and parcel of energy healing methods and this is an added come-on for highly stressed people. Moreover, sophisticated equipment is not required thus it becomes all the more convenient for students and future students of energy healing.

The battle between alternative healing and mainstream medicine continues as both present the benefits of their approach. But in the final analysis, what matters is the restoration of good health.

This article is submitted by Julius. He is an avid blogger who has written a lot of articles including Music Can Be a Happiness Drug and Maslows Hierarchy of Human Needs Visit Energy Healing 101: Pranic, Tantric And Reiki.

quotes on faith

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