Fear Is Just A Lie - Mike Donehey (Tenth Avenue North) - Video Journal

Eating Orders on the rise in Teen boys - MSN

Eating Orders on the rise in Teen boys

This needs to be watched - males too obsess over the perfect body image


http://lifestyle.ca.msn.com/video/?cp-documentid=3aaa02ad-003c-417c-9e38-dbf962726c62

Time Is Energy (and the principle of Chronos and Kairos)

The Greeks (and therefore the New Testament) had two very distinct words for “time” .  One we are probably familiar with – Chronos. As in chronology, chronicles, chronic pain etc…

The other word , not so much. It is “Kairos” .

The simplest way to distinguish the meanings of these two words is probably the following example from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Greek Words:

Chronos marks quantity, kairos, quality

Chronos is the seconds and minutes of time - either long or short. Kairos is a portion of time, the "things and events of time" (Strong's Concordance).  The English word "moment" might be a good way to describe it.

I recently read a blog by a young mother who used these two words to distinguish “time”.  She had become frustrated when older women would constantly come up to her and say something like “Cherish this time with your children! Its over so fast”

To her this somehow conveyed that she was not doing a good enough job “cherishing” or enjoying this time in her life when she had young children.  She was so stressed out just trying to keep them fed, clean and generally safe that she was not always “feeling the cherishing” .   And so she felt like a failure, like she didn’t love her kids enough or didn’t appreciate all that she had.

 The older ladies I’m sure did not mean to make her feel this way but such is the translation that can occur between one person’s mouth and another’s ear.

I know a bit of what this young mother feels, as does my wife. We are parents of an adorable, incredible and wonderful 11 month old daughter.

But man, its hard.

Having a child changed our world completely. It takes you to a level of selflessness you never knew existed.  And you get tired – real tired.

In talking with friends in similar stages of life and those who have done it before, there is a consensus that this is indeed the most stressful and busy time in a person’s life. 

Feeling guilty about not “cherishing” the time you have with your kids is, ironically, a waste of time. Not to mention energy and emotion. 

What this young mother eventually realized ( and I think what the older ladies were really probably referring to all along) was that this is not about cherishing the every second of the CHRONOS so much as it is cherishing all of the KAIROS.

Those precious moments when you realize how fortunate you are, how awesome and kind your Creator is, how wonderfully and fearfully your spouse and child were made  - when all the beauty just leaves you gasping for air. 

" As a person with a mental illness, time is not always my problem.  In fact, it rarely is. My problem is energy. "

One more thing before I sign off this post.  As a person with a mental illness, time is not always my problem.  In fact, it rarely is. My problem is energy. 

I usually have the time – but I rarely have the energy to do all the things I think I should do, much less the things I want to do.This is hard for most people to understand, and even harder to explain.

It’s not good when other people began to think that you are actually just lazy or selfish, it’s even  worse when you yourself begin to believe it.

I'm sure people with a wide variety of illnesses can relate to this.

But what I have found is that this principle of time we have been discussing also applies to energy.

I don’t always plan ahead very much because the more pressure there is to have a good time, the less likely it is for me to actually have a good time. This, of course, can make others understandably frustrated at my apparent lack of commitment or interest and I often feel terrible about that.

You can just forget about yourself and try and fake it for your family and friends – but eventually they catch on ( especially your wife).  And, of course, you yourself eventually wear down.

Fortunately many of friends do understand this. One example is where a good friend asked me to be in his wedding party - a truly high honour! To my dismay I realized this was n't going to work very well though - I would just end up being a mess leading up to and during the wedding. So I explained this to him and he very graciously understood.

I was able instead to attend the wedding as a guest and put that precious "energy" into doing what I could to make his day very special.

So what I have learned, and my gracious, loving wife has too – is that we often enjoy our moments the most when they happen somewhat spontaneously or without a lot of pomp and ceremony. When in a “kairos” of time (or energy as the case may be) , all the beauty of life and God and family comes into focus.. and you can see clearly.

How sweet are those moments. How sweet is clarity.

Though I truly am thankful for every minute of life…. I really cherish those ones.

 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time (KAIROS), because the days are evil.

 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 

Ephesians 5: 15 - 17   

Iran court convicts Christian pastor convert to death (Youcef Nadarkhani )

Iran court convicts Christian pastor convert to death

A Christian pastor who converted from Islam is to be put to death for leaving Islam following the ruling of an Iranian court, it was reported today.

Youcef Nadarkhani, 34, was arrested more than two years ago on charges of apostasy, and has now been sentenced to death by an Iranian court for refusing to renounce his Christianity, according to the pastor's legal team.

The father-of-two had defied a request by the Gilan provincial court, in Rasht, Iran, to repent, and now faces death by hanging.


Mr Nadarkhani may be executed at any time without warning, as death sentences in Iran can be carried out immediately or dragged out for years.

If the execution goes ahead he would be the first Christian to be officially executed in Iran for religious reasons in 20 years.

The married father-of-two was detained in his home city of Rasht in October 2009, while attempting to register his church.

Supporters of the pastor say he was arrested after questioning the Muslim monopoly on the religious instruction of children in Iran.

Critics have said the execution could be seen as a form of defiance at
Western sanctions against Iran in the row over its nuclear agenda.

Jordan Sekulow, executive director of The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), told Fox News: 'This is defiance. They want to say they will carry out what they say they will do.

'The world needs to stand up and say that a man cannot be put to death because of his faith.


This one case is not just about one execution. We have been able to expose the system instead of just letting one man disappear, like so many other Christians have in the past.'

Church officials say there may be as many as 100,000 devoted Christians in the country and that Iran's leadership is concerned about the spread of Christianity.

Nadarkhani was initially charged with protesting, but charges against him were later changed to 'apostasy' - or abandoning Islam - and 'evangelising Muslims', which both carry the death sentence.

He was later tried and found guilty of apostasy in September 2010, and sentenced to death.


'The world needs to stand up and say that a man cannot be put to death because of his faith.'
In June this year the Supreme Court of Iran upheld the death sentence but asked the lower court in Rasht, which issued the initial sentence, to re-examine whether or not he had been a practising Muslim adult prior to converting to Christianity.

Nadarkhani told the court during his first hearing on Sunday that he had no intention of returning to Islam.

He said: 'Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?'

However, the court said that because Nadarkhani has Islamic ancestry, he therefore must 'recant his faith in Jesus Christ'.

When the court ordered him to 'return to the religion of your ancestors - Islam', Nadarkhani replied: 'I cannot.'


Jason DeMars, of advocacy group Present Truth Ministries, said: 'This law dictates what should be done with apostates, depending on what type of apostasy has been committed.'

Mr DeMar added that section 6.225 of Iran's controversial legislation says that if a person's parents were Muslims at the time they were trying to conceive a child, and that converts to another religion and renounces Islam, he or she would be a national apostate.

He said: 'The death sentence is the penalty for national apostate, but after the verdict is pronounced, he or she will be commanded to repent of what he or she has done

'If he refuses to repent, he will be killed.'

The written verdict of the Supreme Court's decision also included a provision for annulment of the death sentence if Mr Nadarkhani recanted his faith.

Although the court found that Mr Nadarkhani was not a practising Muslim adult, the court said he remained guilty of apostasy because he had Muslim ancestry.

Mr Nadarkhani's lawyer, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, told the court that the repeated demand for his client to recant his Christian faith violated Iranian law and its constitution.

The last Iranian Christian convert from Islam executed by the Iranian government was Assemblies of God Pastor Hossein Soodmand in 1990.

However, several other Christians, including at least six Protestant pastors, are reported to have been assassinated in Iran by unknown killers in recent years.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2105024/Christian-pastor-faces-execution-Iran-refusing-renounce-faith.html

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/22/iran-court-convicts-christian-pastor-convert-to-death/?test=latestnews

Property of Jesus - Bob Dylan

Go ahead and talk about him because he makes you doubt
Because he has denied himself the things that you can't live without
Laugh at him behind his back just like the others do
Remind him of what he used to be when he comes walking through.

He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone.

Stop your conversation when he passes on the street
Hope he falls upon himself, oh, won't that be sweet
Because he can't be exploited by superstition anymore
Because he can't be bribed or bought by the things that you adore.

He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone.

When the whip that's keeping you in line doesn't make him jump
Say he's hard-of-hearing, say that he's a chump
Say he's out of step with reality as you try to test his nerve
Because he doesn't pay tribute to the king that you serve.

He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone.

Say that he's a looser 'cause he got no common sense
Because he don't increase his worth at someone else's expense
Because he's not afraid of trying, say he's got no style 
'Cause he doesn't tell you jokes or fairy tales, say things that make you smile.

He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone.
You can laugh at salvation, you can play Olympic games
You think that when you rest at last you'll go back from where you came
But you're picked up quite a story and you've changed since the womb
What happened to the real you, you've been captured but by whom ?

He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone.