Brothers and sisters, this is just something I came across which focused my mind on the fact that even the word `religion`on its own can bring up anger and hate from all sorts of people. From those who have had a bad experience as a child. Perhaps been beaten by a nun or an Imam. Or sexually interfered with by some person held in authority by their family/community. These people though are impostors using something which is meant to do good for their own evil purposes. Like policemen that extort money from small business men saying its for extra protection from criminals!
When I lived the six years in the Philippines I saw so much good being done by people inspired by love for God. Couples for Christ, Singles for Christ and youth for Christ, to name but three.
As an artist I like to create from my root being, which is Love. Yet it is not always possible to start from this point, as time can bring circumstances into this world and our lives, which keep moving us from the awareness of truth, into a state of delusion. I believe I touched on this subject yesterday.
You have I am sure heard the saying money wont buy you love! Have you also heard the witty retort, `No but it will make being miserable more comfortable.`?
Money is power. That is a reality as far as the material world goes. People with big money control the Newspapers the media and they dont put anything contrary to their own agenda. No, of course its their selfish job to deride and mock all that go against them. People mock spiritual leaders because they don't want to have them leaving the flock of sheep that go to work to earn money to spend on goods and services that they are made to think they need. War can be a big money maker to those with the factories producing the weapons and uniforms. Arms manufacturers are not, `Not for Profit organisations!` The people who make money from conflicts dont just do it from the making of massacres. They also do it from the rebuilding of the devastation. How much debt did countries accrue due to the first and second world wars? I dont have the answer, but its the sort of thing my sons are learning at school. Or are they?
Conflict resolution during the war the worlds powers are not putting enough money into fighting.
People have been banging on about the war on poverty ever since I was a younster in the sixties and it was I believe a couple of christian students at Oxford university started it of, but the following is all I could quickly get of the internet.
Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations working in approximately 90 countries worldwide to find solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world.[1] In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives. Oxfam works directly with communities and seeks to influence the powerful, to ensure that poor people can improve their lives and livelihoods and have a say in decisions that affect them. Each organization (Affiliate) works together internationally to achieve a greater impact through collective efforts.
Oxfam was originally founded in Oxford, in 1942 as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief by a group of Quakers, social activists, and Oxford academics; this is now Oxfam Great Britain, still based in Oxford, Oxfordshire. It was one of several local committees formed in support of the National Famine Relief Committee. Their mission was to persuade the British government to allow food relief through the Allied blockade for the starving citizens of Axis occupation of Greece. The first overseas Oxfam was founded in Canada in 1963. The organisation changed its name to its telegraph address, OXFAM, in 1965.
So when I wrote `christian` thats like a big label with people under it who dont follow the way of Jesus Christ, but control lots of people to behave in a way that preserves the status quo of a first world/third world divide. So the heads of the different churches, like the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who dont have to, as it says in The Bible, `walk like jesus did.` In fact I believe the pope has a bullet proof car!
My two people who for me are great examples of how to be in walking in the light of Christ, are not christian. One was Gandi. The other it Thich Nhat Hanh, the veitnamese zen buddhist monk.
A christian monk wrote a book which I found enlightening, called.; `Christianity and zen` but dont ask me for... Oh, it could have been Thomas Merton. I have gone on long enough without posting and sharing with you my beloved brothers and sisters, photos of my latest art, which you are now the first after me to see. I worked out that God saw it even before me! Do you understand this?
The time is getting on and so I will put on here now a load of photos from one painting done for you all yesterday. I dedicate these to all who forgive and denounce all wrongs and love and strive for all good.
As you look down you will see where these came from the one, through me to you. Oh, from the one painting also!
Quote for today; The act of painting is about one heart telling another heart where he found salvation. Francisco Goya
ps I dont have `McDonalds in common with anyone. I dont have McDonalds. I have Love. So love and blessings to you and all you encounter. Also lastly, but not least. A couple of quotes for us via our sister Viv;
I've been saying for a couple of years now that people need to let God out of the Sunday morning box, that He doesn't want to just be with you for an hour or two on Sunday morning and then put back in His box to sit there until you have an emergency, but He wants to invade your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer
We must become the change we want to see.” - Mahatma Gandhi
― Pablo Picasso
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