Fun Christmas Activities for Kids
Christmas is a fun time for kids. There are so many activities that are ideal for kids during Christmastime. Try these fun activities with your kids to enjoy Christmas just a bit more. These activities can make your holidays even more special!
Make handmade Christmas ornaments with your kids. There are so many great Christmas ornaments you can make. "Google" salt dough ornaments and you'll find an easy recipe to make lots of inexpensive ornaments that even young kids can make with a bit of supervision.
Try making garlands of popcorn and alternating cranberries for an old fashioned touch. Handmade ornaments are wonderful for your Christmas tree as you can use them each year and remember the special times your kids made them.
Participate in the church's Christmas pageant. This is a fun activity for many kids. The Christmas pageant is a kids activity that occurs in many churches and is a free activity. Quite often every child is "cast" in a part - no child is excluded from the pageant. You'll get some beautiful pictures of your kid acting in the Christmas pageant and some happy memories for them. This also teaches them about the birth of baby Jesus and his mother Mary.
Choose a charity and do something good for others. This is an excellent choice during Christmastime to teach your kids compassion and goodwill for others in your community. Older kids can help choose a charity and be more involved - but even younger kids will enjoy knowing they are helping needy families, animals or another society concern. There are many charities looking for help. Try contacting your local United Way chapter or church for suggestions.
History of the Religious use of Mushrooms
Since at least 5,000 B.C., people have used "spiritual mushrooms" in their religious rituals. The San Peoples of Tassili in southeast Algeria left behind cave paintings illustrating dancing, masked medicine men with mushrooms in their hands. It's believed the mushrooms were of the consciousness-altering variety.
The area of Tassili is today an arid and desolate mountainous region of the Sahara desert but in the day of the cave painters, it had a habitable savannah-like climate with cattle, crocodiles and other large animals. Cultural ties of the San Peoples are evidenced across the Sahara region from Chad to Egypt, and perhaps in extension all the way to Greece.
Jumping forward 3,400 years in time to Greece, 1,600 B.C., we find the Eleusinian Mysteries. Continuous for an astounding two millennia, the Eleusinian Mystery initiation was the most important spiritual ceremony of ancient Europe. Scholars believe the Mysteries involved use of consciousness-altering mushrooms. With well-known participants like Plato and Aristotle, its influence on western civilization cannot be denied.
Later Vikings are known to have consumed limited amounts of the today much feared poisonous species Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). Ironically, they appear to have used it to overcome fear through religious rituals in which they danced and ate mushrooms before fearlessly going into battle.
It may not have been an admirable type of spirituality practiced by this warrior culture but it was none-the-less part of their religious practices whatever we may think of them. Siberian shamans are also said to have used Fly agaric in their spiritual practices to help them talk to their gods.
Fly agaric is even put forth as the source of "soma," a juice described in ancient Vedic texts as bestowing divine qualities on the consumer, including immortality. Convincing arguments linking Fly agaric to Soma are presented by R. Gordon Wasser in his book Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. His theory, although not proven, hasnt been disproven either.
(Please note: Fly agaric is poisonous. It can also be easily confused with other more deadly species. Consumption is strongly discouraged.)
On the other side of the ocean from Europe, the Mixtec culture likewise employed mind-altering mushrooms in their spiritual ceremonies, as recorded in the Mixtec Codex (13th-15th century). Their Gods were frequently engraved with mushrooms in hand.
Although Mixtecs themselves told white anthropologists they used spiritual mushrooms in their religious rituals, western scientists still doubted them in characteristic condescending manner.
William Safford, an American botanist, believed the supposed mushrooms were actually nothing but peyote buttons. Other western scholars, meanwhile, insisted that the "spiritual mushrooms" of the Mixtec people really were mind-altering mushrooms.
This debate carried on until amateur anthropologist Robert Weitlaner was invited to observe a Mixtec religious ceremony in the early 1930's and witnessed the use of mushrooms firsthand.
Then in 1953, mycologist R. Gordon Wasson and his wife Valentina Povlovna as the first westerners became honored participants in a mushroom ceremony - Velada - performed by shaman Don Aurelio. Wasson published his account of the Velada in Life Magazine, 1957. His article initiated the broader public awareness of spiritual mushrooms.
Out of 60 Psilocybe species, 25 are known to contain the mind-altering compounds psilocin (unstable) and psilocybin (stable). The two species Psilocybin caerulescens and Psilocybin mexicana are believed to be the ones used by the Mixtec. Although Psilocybin cubensis is now more common even in America, it is believed to have arrived with the Europeans.
Spiritual mushrooms have been illegal in most of the world since the 1970's because of their potential misuse as recreational drugs. Only in The Netherlands were fresh Psilocybe allowed to be sold until less than a year ago.
But after a 17-year old French tourist killed herself by jumping off a bridge after consuming Psilocybe mushrooms, the Dutch parliament voted to ban all sale of so called "magic mushrooms." The ban took effect on December 1, 2008. The use of consciousness-altering mushrooms in spiritual practices is now officially history.
Dr. Markho Rafael has worked with natural health products since 1996, today specializing in medicinal mushrooms. He does not support the use of consciousness-altering mushrooms. The article on this page is for entertainment only. Click to visit site for more free mushroom articles, or for medicinal mushroom products. Note: Absolutely no magic mushroom products, please do not inquire.
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How to Tell Right from Wrong
"Morality is herd instinct in the individual."- Friedrich Nietzsche"Can you tell right from wrong?" This is the kind of question we ask our children, but do we ourselves have a ready answer to it? We use this question to determine whether someone who commits a crime is more or less guilty depending on their intent and state of mind. The question assumes that right and wrong are real and tangible constants, and moreover that the human mind is capable of recognising them for what they are.
All tribes operate according to a set of rules - however rudimentary or unspoken. These are its morals, and they extend to each of its members, but they have no effect beyond the close-knit community of the tribe. Like medieval knights, constrained to treat each other according to the laws of chivalry but free to abuse the peasants at will, members of a tribe look out for themselves and for their own, but have no interest in the moral codes of other rival tribes. Such a morality is fundamentally amoral, since it treats "right" and "wrong" as subjective and inconstant. To this extent, tribes are inherently amoral.
Whatever we may choose to think of our own powers of self-determination, the groups to which we belong have a lot to do with how we see the world. We conform to the same social and presentational norms as those shared by other members of the group, and we subliminally accept that our standards for dress, politeness, register in addressing others and so on are all conditioned according to some objective moral constant. We measure the way we feel about others in terms of how closely they conform to this imagined norm, and the illusion is perpetuated by the fact that it is accepted by all members of the group. Any exchange of views within the group requires that all parties espouse the same fundamental moral views - evidence of a shared mindset which we might label "groupthink".
That this supposed norm is a myth should now be clear, but it is nonetheless the kernel around which groups form and operate. In order to maintain the distinction between those who are members of the group and those who are not certain rules must be laid down, and at the heart of these there must exist the illusion of an absolute. The reasons why any group adopts a particular moral code may seem logical, but they are in fact merely convenient. We judge others not according to the standards of their group, but of our own, and those who do not conform to the arbitrary standards upon which we insist are rejected as adversaries hostile to our way of life.
There are such objective constants as "right" and "wrong" that transcend all we do and think - I am not denying that. What I do deny is that it is possible for any tribe to define them without missing some of the nuance and complexity which they require. Our regulations, therefore, are not predicated on right and wrong but on arbitrary definitions thereof. The claim that our laws are righteous, moreover, elevates them to the status of something to be worshiped, making the lawyers the high priests in a religion which elevates arbitrary definition to the status of fundamental truth. In the end it must be up to the individual to define for himself what is right and what is wrong, and it is his prerogative to do this whatever the tribe might argue to the contrary.
John Berling Hardy helps people free themselves from the grand illusion perpetrated by the players. For more of his writings please visit
God Will Meet Your Needs
I just celebrated a birthday. One of those milestone birthdays that gets lots of attention. You know, as I look back over these years, I can see one thing that stands out so clearly over all the many years and through the many places I've been - the faithfulness of God. I think back to a time when as a child of eight years old, I realized I was lost and needed a Savior, and I committed my heart to Jesus Christ.
Only a few short years later I felt a clear calling from God to work towards a lifetime of service as a missionary. I hardly knew anything about missions at the time, except that missionaries told others about Jesus and the Bible. At that time I was 10 years old and I turned my life over to the Lord.
Like most teenagers, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to be or what I wanted to do when I grew up. However, one thing that I did always know was that God was watching out for me and that he had a plan for my life.
At college I met a great guy and we fell in love. We decided to serve in the mission field after we were married. That was an exciting time in our lives, going off to do something totally new and uncertain. Despite the excitement that we had, things in Africa were often quite challenging.
There were personal struggles, challenges with being away from family and friends, and the political situation did not always seem stable. Through it all God was faithful to us without fail. Everything we needed, whether it be food or clothes for our new born, was provided to use even though it had seemed impossible.
After leaving Africa we came back to the U.S. and then headed off to France. Through all of the situations that we have been in and all the challenges that were involved, God has always taken care of us and supplied all of our needs.
God brought us back to the States, and we have been in Hanover over fifteen years. And in those fifteen years, God has been just as faithful on this side of the ocean as He was on the other side. He is good, my friend. He meets every need.
It reminds me of the song lyrics, "Great is Thy faithfulness, O God, my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me." As I look back on my life and see the things that He has done for me an my family I can certainly say, "Great is Thy faithfulness!
Dr. Ann Shorb is a in Hanover, Pennsylvania. She provides for a wide variety of issues including depression, marital issues, family issues, stress, ADHD, anxiety, grief and much more.
categories: god's protection,missions,missionaries,christian faith,god,bible,faith,prayer,salvation,christian,christianity,religion
The Secrets Of Halloween
Halloween - the festival that all children love! A time when kids have the chance to get free candies that are offered by their neighbors, namely "Trick or Treat". It's a well-known custom that is favored by every single child.
Halloween may be children's favorite festival of the year, but don't forget that adults were also once children themselves. The old-fashioned treats may revive their nicest memories of that special night. Hundred of years have passed by since people first invented the concept of this festival. Back then, rituals of the pagans were still privately practiced and have not yet been tied to the Church.
Who knows when and where Halloween began exactly? Many different versions of its origin had been created over time, including one that is, surprisingly, to celebrate good harvest in an old Celtic festival. People believed that Halloween was a time when the dead would rise, instilling fear and spreading diseases to not only the living, but also to crops. One could say that this is where all those atypical Halloween scares came from!
Apart from this tale, people also believed that the custom of Halloween, trick or treating, came from the Middle Ages. At that time, poor people would visit houses to find donors and pray for their deceased families and friends in return for food.
If you think about it, we may possibly be able to see a shadow of those food in the sweet range of candies now given out to costumed children nowadays!
Occasionally, there are people who suggest new perspectives to the mystic festival that takes place during nighttime. Many believe that it came from England or Ireland. Somehow, to many Halloween-lovers, the history of the tradition isn't what is most important.
What stays true is the fact that Halloween is loved by both adults and children. The dressing-up is definitely the most fascinating aspect. Frankenstein, vampires, Casper, zombies, you name it. They may just be the next one standing at your front door.
However, you should always remember that beneath those horrible costumes are just lovely kids who want to enjoy their childhoods. It is delightful to recall your good times on your old Halloween nights.
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Online Christian Degree and Your Career
In the 21st century, more and more people who value spirit based education are seeking online christian degrees.
But what are the benefits and advantages of this type of christian distance learning?
First, an online education focused Christian degree gives you the chance to work at your own own speed using your owned education style. It also offers the opportunity to, like a traditional university, ask questions and receive feed back as well.
Going to church is incredibly valuable for many reasons. When you go to church you will be exposed to many different teachings of your religions and even more importantly you will become part of a community of like-minded believers.
There are a multitude of different majors when you study for a Christian degree - from church leadership and christian counseling, to Christian education.
This element of religion is incredibly important. The community aspects of church are critical to religion and are critical to your growth.
When you go for your christian degree online, there are many other good points as well. However, to make the most use out of them, you should do a couple of things. To begin with, you should be aware that this can be a complicated process for which there is no obvious answer.
You need to learn the teachings of your religion from a historical and in depth perspective and the best way to do this is to immerse yourself in learning about the Bible. It is through this learning that you will gain deep appreciation for your religion. Accredited online christian college degrees can help with this.
What are some of the top christian degrees? Popular Christian degrees include: divinity, organizational management in Christian Leadership, Christian Ministries, Christian Education.
After earning your degree, you are qualified to enter the workforce or ministry with broader options than those who study a concentrated curriculum. You are also qualified to go on to earn a masters degree.
Those who take the time to earn a bachelors degree will see the benefits immediately upon entering the work force. Earning a bachelors degree produces one of the greatest financial gains on an educational investment.
Advance Your Career! Find and school info now.
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Prophecy, Predictions and 2012 Doomsday Survival
You may have noticed increasing stories in the press, online and across the TV about impending doom come 2012. A simple search online will return thousands of links, and stacks of information giving you 2012 Doomsday survival tips and predictions relating to this upcoming date.
With December 21 being the most likely date, many theories exist. There are fundamentalists for the environment claiming global warming will swell, though the most commonly discussed claims suggest it is related to the end of the Mesoamerican calendar. The date of the winter solstice, a time when the earth will be perfectly aligned with a black hole deep within the Milky Way galaxy and the date of the end of the ancient Mayan civilization calendar.
There are many claims as to what this time has in store for the planet; each as weird and wonderful as the one preceding it. These include a planetary collision between the Earth and another Planet, though the most widely discussed, and first raised ideas concerns something called a Geomagnetic reversal.The shifting of the earth's poles and its magnetic fields will result in natural disasters and catastrophes, such as hurricanes, massive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, much like what happened millions of years ago with the last magnetic shift.
While worrisome, 2012 Doomsday survival tips as well as predictions are being discussed together, in order to help with the recovery of the human race in the event of worldwide disaster. It is thought to be the end of an era, the end of days, the day of disaster.
As a first measure, people are advised to head for the mountains, construct solid concrete bunkers in which to live, and be prepared to rough it for quite some time.It is also said that many areas currently seemingly okay, will be rendered useless in the disasters; North America, South America, and Europe to suggest just three.
But humanity can be started again. Survivors will need to be stockpiling provisions already, and already building the bunkers. Those wishing to restart life on earth from a human perspective are also being advised to gather as many academic materials, thesis, conversations, musical work, innovations and anything that will be useful in the rebuilding and reeducating process. 2012 doomsday survival is not only possible, but is being planned by individuals and governments throughout the planet.
There are those that do not necessarily believe that Armageddon will be the ultimate result however, with many people suggesting signs are indicative of humanity undergoing a positive physical and spiritual transformation. Perhaps 2012 doomsday survival tips and predictions will not be needed after all?
Are you prepared for doomsday in 2012? Natural disasters, worldwide pandemic, asteroid impact. Find out all the predictions and how to prepare for . A doomsday that is foretold in the Mayan calendar and ancient Chinese oracles, all pointing to one date, a date foretold as the end of the world. Don't start praying until you read this eye-opening new report, .
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