God Bless you abundantly, Judy

News
Sri Lanka: Incident Report, April 2009
Gang breaks in to Church and steals documents
Methodist Church Sri lanka
Pepiliyana, Dehiwela (Colombo District)

5th April 2009 (rev. Surangika Fernando –minister of the church
whsfernando@yahoo.com
An unidentified gang broke in through the back door and windows of this 150 year old church during the night. The intruders looted valuable musical instruments, Bibles, Hymn Books and other documents including Baptism and important records. The attackers took away all church documents and records from the church office. They were seen leaving the scene during the early hours of the morning in a white coloured van.
Although items of value were also taken, church sources say the deliberate removal of church records and documents which are of no monetary value indicate the motive was not robbery. The incident occurred beginning of the Holy week the same night after the church celebrated Palm Sunday with a traditional procession. The Boralasgamuwa Police are investigating.

Rev Surangika Fernando (minister incharge)
Methodist church
Papiliyana
Borelesgamuwa
Sri Lanka
0094 777099524 / 0094 112716327
whsfernando@yahoo.com
SUNDAY TIMES Sri lanka
Sunday April 12, 2009

News
________________________________________
Church attack : Baptism and important records stolen
An unidentified gang stormed a Methodist church in Pepiliyana, Dehiwala earlier this week and forcibly removed musical equipment, computers and vital documents such as baptism and very important records, police and church officials said.
The incident occurred early on Monday morning, a day after the church had held a traditional procession to mark Palm Sunday. The Pastor Rev. Surangika Fernando told The Sunday Times that this was the first such incident in the 150 year history of the church.

The church at Pepiliyana. Pic. by Berty Mendis
“We have no known enemies whosoever, and the villagers have a good relationship with the church. This unprovoked attack comes as a surprise and we suspect the burglars were from outside the area,” Pastor Fernando said.
The intruders had broken in after damaging the doors and windows of the church and had later looted the place of whatever equipment that was available.
“The intruders apparently intended to show it was a robbery, but that is not the case. It appears they were after something else, which is a mystery to all of us. Why do they need baptism and marriage records? It is of no importance to any one except to the parishioners,” Pastor Fernando said.
This is the latest in a series of incidents where Christian churches and prayer halls have been targeted in and around the Homagama, Piliyandala and Kottawa areas. A spokesperson for the Boralesgamuwa police said investigations were continuing and it was suspected the attack was carried out by persons from outside the area.

Melissa

GBU ^^

The question is whether folds were formed when the rocks were solid or unconsolidated. Other Christian geologists I know have pointed out that Snelling uses selective evidence in his study, as other parts of the same layers show very clear signs of solid-state deformation.

The way to see how solid rocks can bend is to take rocks and put them in a press in an engineering laboratory and see how they behave under stress. That has been done many times, and indeed you can do all sorts of things to rocks by putting pressure on them. In Earth’s crust, this results in the folds and faults that make up much of the world’s major mountain belts. These rocks show many signs of solid-state deformation.

If one applies the same sorts of pressure to layers of unconsolidated sediments (sand, silt, clay, etc.) the results are very different. Instead of getting folded layers of rocks, one gets chaos, with blobs of material distorting and either sinking or rising, depending on density. This is called soft-sediment deformation, and is readily distinguishable in the field from solid-rock deformation.

What is observed on a massive scale in the Earth’s crust (with some exceptions) is deformation of solid rocks, not soft-sediment deformation. If the bulk of the sedimentary rocks were laid down by Noah’s flood (and the Bible does not say that they were) then soft-sediment deformation on a massive scale should be a dominant feature of the sedimentary rocks, and it isn’t.

The “all sediments must have been laid down rapidly and while being soft” argument is not consistent with laboratory and field studies, and should not be used as Christian apologetics.

With respect,
Kevin N (Christian geologist)

The ABC Nightline debate with Pastor Mark and Annie Lobert versus Deepak Chopra and Carlton Pearson is up online. If anyone is interested, check this out.

The Five Fold Ministry Ireland are a World Revivalists and Christian Healing, front-line outreach team who by the Grace of God are continuously, consistantly followed by miracles, signs and wonders. They come not with empty words but in the Power and Anointing of Our Living God, Jesus Christ.

But although every single meeting manifested a tremendous move of the Holy Spirit, likewise, in every single outreach without exception, always the first step of an approx eighty step operations plan is: to coordinate intercessory prayer to bind the strong man before we barge into his home ground to plunder the kingdom of darkness for Jesus.

Praying Gods blessings on you, your family and your ministry.
Your brother in Christ.
Harry
http://www.myspace.com/fivefoldministryireland

I would never advise anyone with a heart and mind for God to place themselves in a position of a god in the life of another, which is really what the Complementarian view does as my understanding of it, yes complements the role of the female, but artificially builds her up just to continue to give her just as little in her God-given identity, authority, creation and purpose as does the traditional. It is without the outright negative tones often found accompanying the traditional view (sugar-coated) regarding women (and yes allows for her to do a bit more) but patronizing and limiting against the will, design and purpose of God all the same.

I say, if this is about God first, then let it be about him and not men, not tradition and not any other thing that would detract and take away from exactly who He tells us he is.

Check my site out, perhaps even consider my book if you really want to consider a different interpretation based upon a literal read of the garden word without gender bias. It doesn’t go easy and the cover is pink (you know us girls!) but it does speak truth. The garden word is in fact quite amazing, we forfeit much by way of ego, pride and arrogance, but it is not the will of God. In fact the accurate interpretation of 3:16 is so simple it boggles the mind given the history of the church in these areas.

God is a good God, he supplies all of our needs and He has already given graciously to both the male and the female in the garden. Gender was never the point, only a demonstrated show of righteousness was.

Think about it, what attribute of a male would have benefitted him more in the garden? His masculine strength just to pluck and pick up fruit? His natural aggressive inclinations in a garden with peaceful animals and no physical enemies? And what about Eve, what dinner was there for her to cook, what clothes for her to make and mend, how many church chicken dinners did she have to serve? Not taking anything away from the sister, but the Proverbs 31 woman, in the picture of her that we have, would have literally been bored stiff!

But it was never about these things, only we make it about this. The garden was nothing less or more than a testing ground for the humans to demonstrate righteousness in the garden, not perfection (only God is Perfect) but righteousness. Specifically, the garden was about the word as given by God and righteous confession due and made payable before God by faulty, fallen humans.

Yet despite the false picture painted of her, is was Eve alone who made a garden confession in 3:13 even honored by God. Adam unfortunately lodged confession by way of accusation alone (Genesis 3:12) and it did not please God.

Hence we have a punished Adam who received the death pronouncement and an Eve, who suffered consequences from the fall of course, but who even by God was rewarded in name and title even after the fall by God. (Eve=life-giver/”mother of all living” is a spiritual title which an Adam (a name denoting shame, humiliation and a man of low-degree) who would even physically father children in the earth, did not also respectively earn from God. Nothing about a fallen, un-confessed Adam spoke to life. But why? The church certainly won’t teach you.

Let me say, that I believe an un-confessedd Adam was the true human culprit in the garden is not a blanket indictment against all males in the earth unlike the way the females, down from generations, have been treated. This was true in the life of a fallen, un-confessed Adam only. The garden issue was about a show of righteousness only. They both fell, yet only one made right confession before God. There are many other aspects to consider but this is just a bit in a nutshell. Yet the point is, we are supposed to learn from both individuals according to their garden experiences in such a way that transcends the issue of gender.

As a God-fearing man, you wouldn’t withhold making the garden confession of sin in your life just because it was the female Eve who alone made confession of sin before God in the garden, would you? Of course not. In fact, according to Christian teachings, when are we ever taught to expect deliverance or elevation by God when we refuse to make right confession of sin and thumb an arrogant finger up to God instead? But the church teaches that for Adam this was indeed the case. That God rewarded a proud, arrogant and fallen man with proven disdain for making confession and for exalting truth (among a host of other things). Well, now, what are we saying about God in doing this? We must study the word and exalt God first and only in order to rightly divide.

Before I go I will say this as well given your pending marital status, the church will kill your marriage if you let them. Now this is not true of all churches, but regardless of where you are, be led by the Holy Spirit in learning first, and don’t let anyone off who is content to give you fuzzy answers not lining up with the whole of word but only the mind of men. If you have questions demand proof in the word. Always call your own self and actions into account first and respond from a place of love – not pride, not arrogance, not status and not position.

Nothing that a church rightly teaches about women and marriage should be pushing your wife away. Because even if she is still able to muster that good ole’ Christian smile and wave, there is likely a storm brewing within. You wouldn’t take a knife to her so why allow the church to do it? Yes dear brother, I have been given more than my share of issues in this, I do get a raw as times, but if I did not love the church I would simply just walk away. I am putting meat on the table here, because a good Christian marriage is not for anyone still on the milk.

You do have women who are able to deal with this word as is, but there are many more like me who vomit every time. Assuming that we are God’s children, and if it was truly a right interpretation based upon this word from God, why would this be happening? Why would the Christian church pertaining to marriage and women be in the state that it is today? Why would I, someone with enough love to nurture a rock, be in the state that even I am today as a wife and a female called of God?

God would not by-pass your mind, only the enemy seeks to do that. The whole of the Bible, the very word of God does not even line up with what the church teaches about the garden. Nothing about the actions and positions taken by Christ regarding the call and position of women is in agreement with the church’s teaching about the garden. Complementarianism? Jesus would reject anything first lacking in truth and ultimately still predicated upon pride and the faulty mind of men.

It seems I am done. Peace and love.