Hello, I am new here

[islandboy]

Thought you might find this interesting, I found it in today's paper. Titled  "Where's The Steeple". It seems churches are changing or evolving as the case may be from using traditional designs with steeples or domes, ornate architecture and stained glass to an no-frills exterior. Churches now days have changed to multipurpose centers, some with food courts, climbing walls, gyms, coffee bars and even at one Dallas church a bowling alley. Most have state-of-the-art sound and light systems. The Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. haswhat it calls biblical "discovery area's " for the children's ministry that includes an ark, a "Zaccheus tree", and a 35' long mist-spouting whale. The First St John Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, is building an expansion which includes a new sanctuary for its 4,500 worshipper's; a mortgage lending office; medical offices; and 40 classrooms for courses on SAT preparation, parenting and money management.  The Inspiring Body of Christ in Dallas, is building a new structure that includes a 70,000-gallon saltwater aquarium. The aquarium was inspired by Jesus's directive to be "fishers of men". The St John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church of Eu less, Texas, is trying to decide what they want to include in their buildings either to do remodeling or rebuild using columns, a decorative entry, arched windows and a dome in keeping with Greek Orthodox tradition.
The kicker is the last comment in the article. Designing a worship place really depends on the congregation's vision. "When you're dealing with GOD'S, money it's something you have to be comfortable with."
When I read this article it made me think of Jesus in the Temple with the money changers. What are we spending GOD'S MONEY ON
The millions of dollars of church money that goes for fancy decorations and offices for businesses that have nothing to do with worship and prayer is totally unbelievable. Think on how many people could be helped with all that cash.

[Soldier4Christ]

Amen! Many churches are becoming nothing more than social centers and very little if any of the word of God is being preached in them any more. I thank God that there are still some good Bible preaching churches out there.

[islandboy]

In the paper today  there was an article about churches and insurance in the gulf coast area. Insurance companies are dropping their policies do to hurricanes. If a church has a steeple it get dropped because steeples are dangerous in high winds. Churches also are high risk due to their stained glass windows and expensive objects.
Homeowners are losing insurance as well, do to higher then normal increases in rates for some and others are being just dropped due to risk in hurricane areas. Only going to be very rich and very poor people left here. Rich afford rates and poor don't have insurance anyways.


Debp, haven't found much about poisenous plants and fruit trees yet but will keep searching. Remember when I first came to Florida, newcomers were warned against using certain flowering bushes to roast hotdogs on, down at the beach and at home, because it could kill you. The poisen was in the branches. They might have that problem in your State too. Up in PA we used maple & oak & apple branches. Never had that problem.

[nChrist]

Hello Islandboy,

Sister, this makes no difference at all to me. We've had great fellowship, and that's the important thing. You're a sweet Christian, and we enjoy having you with us.

Love In Christ,
Tom

   

[islandboy]

Tom, thank you, your kind words of understanding they mean a lot to me. I enjoy our fellowship and joking around in coffee time in more ways than one. It is always the high-light of my day to stop by here and add a few tidbits of information on a range of different topic's, as well as, my life with a touch of humor. Puts a smile on my face reading the Lord's words and helping someone new feel welcome here and adding a song verse or worthy saying. This forum and website is saving grace to many people who take the time to visit or settle in and say hello.   

[nChrist]

Tom, thank you, your kind words of understanding they mean a lot to me. I enjoy our fellowship and joking around in coffee time in more ways than one. It is always the high-light of my day to stop by here and add a few tidbits of information on a range of different topic's, as well as, my life with a touch of humor. Puts a smile on my face reading the Lord's words and helping someone new feel welcome here and adding a song verse or worthy saying. This forum and website is saving grace to many people who take the time to visit or settle in and say hello.   

Hello Islandboy,

I share your thoughts and feelings. I'm disabled, and this is something that I can do. I'm positive that GOD is using all areas of Christians Unite, and the forum represents only about 4% of the work. Just the forum has over 12,000 guests every day, so we trust GOD to use what's posted here. GOD has promised in the Holy Bible that HIS WORD will never return void, so we know that GOD uses things in HIS way and HIS time. All of our moderators are volunteers, and we just give thanks that GOD is using us however HE will. I hope that all who post here feel the same way.

Love In Christ,
Tom

KEEP LOOKING UP!!

[islandboy]

I have another news story to share of something that is happening at Lake Trafford in Immokalee, Florida. It seems as the lake levels have been dropping due to the drought we are having, normally submerged areas have become dry. And ten canoes that have long be buried in the sand have been exposed. The largest canoe fragment is some 14 feet long. Some seem made from cypress others from pine. They are considered to possibly be more than 1,000 years old. They have been buried in anaerobic sediment--sediment without oxygen---where organisms that cause decomposition can't live. The dredging activity at the lake and natural wave action has helped to uncover the canoes. there are no plans to remove the canoes as if retrieved, in a year or two they would disintegrate. There is hope that the rains will come and cover them over so they can be preserved for hundreds or thosands of years to come. In the meantime researchers are trying to figure out who the canoes belonged to, as was it the Calusa Indians who dominated most of SW Florida, or was it another group. Not all tribal names are known. It may have been the Muspa (from the Marco area), or related Indians from around Lake Okeechobee.
In the spring and summer of 2000, a drought in north-central Florida lowered the water levels in Newnan's Lake, east of Gainesville, and archaeologists discovered 87  500-5,000 year old canoes. And Florida's oldest canoes were discovered in Volusia County, and are 6,000 years old.

[islandboy]

Thought I would go ahead and give you a short history of the Calusa Indians. It is said that when the Spaniards, led by Ponce de Leon, reached Florida in 1513, all of South Florida was dominated by the Calusa Indians, whose main base was possibly located at Mound Key in Estero Bay. They were found as far away as Lake Okeechobee, Miami, and the Keys, as they were hunter-gatherers that lived on the many fish and shellfish of the area estuaries and the Gulf of Mexico. They were also engineers in their own right who dug a series of canals, including a 2-mile long, 30-foot-wide canal from Pineland on Pine Island to Matlacha Pass. Although, they defeated Ponce de Leon in battle, and mortally wounded him in 1521, with 250 years of contact, the Calusa were wiped out by European diseases and war with Spaniards and other Indians.

[nChrist]

I wish there was a way to preserve one or more of these canoes, at least long enough to study them and maybe unlock some of their secrets. It would seem that they should at least try with one or several. Who knows what would be learned? Methods of construction, shaping, forming, and joining can tell much about the people who made them.

[Debp]

In the paper today  there was an article about churches and insurance in the gulf coast area. Insurance companies are dropping their policies do to hurricanes. If a church has a steeple it get dropped because steeples are dangerous in high winds. Churches also are high risk due to their stained glass windows and expensive objects.
Homeowners are losing insurance as well, do to higher then normal increases in rates for some and others are being just dropped due to risk in hurricane areas. Only going to be very rich and very poor people left here. Rich afford rates and poor don't have insurance anyways.


Debp, haven't found much about poisenous plants and fruit trees yet but will keep searching. Remember when I first came to Florida, newcomers were warned against using certain flowering bushes to roast hotdogs on, down at the beach and at home, because it could kill you. The poisen was in the branches. They might have that problem in your State too. Up in PA we used maple & oak & apple branches. Never had that problem.

Hi Islandboy, did an errand and am just on the computer late tonight.  Had to check stuff where I'm a moderator, too.   Don't worry about the plant info, maybe I can find out somewhere else on the internet.

During the 1994 earthquake here (a rather big one), the church I now attend had to remove four, large, heavy "steeples" because they could have fallen down and hurt people or damaged the building.  Several months ago, they replicated these steeples with a light weight material that looks like concrete....and put them back on top of the church.  Now the original steeples have been place at the driveways.

[islandboy]

Debp, If you find out anything about our plant question, let me know as you know I garden and would like to know as well.

Good news, that is if my pictures arrived by e-mail, I will be posting pictures of our clearing in the yard up on my website. It will be same story page "Road ", navigation on left side of page. http://sweedpatch.tripod.com  thats for those who don't know it.  Also putting up pictures of some of my other plants. Thought you might enjoy that.

Someone at Church, said to me "Thank goodness we have Jesus, or we would be doomed". To which I got really brave and said I don't agree with that statement. Now, lets break the question down and look at it from a different angle. If we did not have Jesus. Bear with me on this, this means no birth, no death on cross, no mention of Him, in the Bible. Nothing, no Jesus. ///  What would we have left?? We would still have Our Father In Heaven, you all know the words. Men & Women of old, Old Testament, did not have Jesus. There were people who devoted their lives to God. They tried their best to follow His commandments and when they died where did they go?
So to say, without Jesus we would be doomed is not quite correct.  But without Jesus, our struggle would be harder, for we would have a stern Father and no loving Son. One  last point on this is that when we forget about the three, and only think on the one, we lose the meaning. In other words when we focus our eyes on Jesus, (as we should), but forget about the Father, as some people do, the Father's words and commandments are sometimes forgotten as well. And in forgetting or laying them aside we lose the Holy Spirit, as well. For it is Him that helps us communicate with God the Father and Jesus the Son.
But, we have Jesus, and we are never lost to Him. Sometimes in life things happen be it our choice or at the hands of others that makes us feel like God does not care. But he cares so deeply for each one of us that in my warped little brain I sometimes think that the rain is God's tears. Tears directed at a world that has turned it's back on Him. If we need Him, he is only a prayer away. He waits with open arms for His children to repent and ask for forgiveness. I have found that I feel closer to Him when I pray out loud. I talk as if He is right next to me, sitting across the room or walking with me in my garden. If you have been away from Him for a time, the close feelings you crave to have again, need time to grow, like baby steps one at a time. Just never feel that God does not love you. We are like plants in a way. We start growing sending out roots and branches, feeling strong and on top of the world, then maybe something evil happens and we get stomped on really hard and it breaks our stem and  our leaves get mashed and we feel lost and alone thinking this is the end. But by some miracle perhaps a kind word or a hand reaching out to hold us up or prop us up with a stick, our roots again start to send the food we need to mend our broken parts and we start growing again. That my friend is how God works.
As we begin again, by praying and talking and reading our Bibles and studying His words, we begin to feel and know the LOVE  Of  The FATHER  FOR  HIS  CHILDREN.  And soon we begin to smile again and reach out to others with that helping hand of kindness.
(1 Girl  climbing down off soap box now)   

[Soldier4Christ]

Amen!

We have a lot of old churches in this area that have steeples especially in the smaller towns. All of these steeples also have pretty big crosses on the top of them. Many of these buildings date back to the 1800's. With this being in tornado alley and has become a very liberal state it became a big deal here. The churches started getting attacked over it with many people demanding the steeples come down. A Christian architect came up with a way to add in some sort of strapping system inside of them that makes them really safe. The entire roof comes off now and the whole building collapses before the steeple will snap off.

[nChrist]

Amen and Amen!

GOD'S GRACE was most certainly operative in the Old Testament, just in a different way that wasn't magnified 10,000 times by JESUS CHRIST and the CROSS.

It's also interesting to note that THE HOLY TRINITY has been operative for Eternity, just in different ways for different times and different purposes. Israel didn't know about the HOLY TRINITY, and some of this knowledge was a mystery not revealed to them. However, the HOLY TRINITY was still at work even in the Old Testament.

Today, we have a completed Holy Bible, and many of GOD'S most precious and powerful TRUTHS have been revealed to us. Obviously, the greatest event in the history of mankind is GOD'S GIFT of JESUS CHRIST. GOD was never happy with the offerings and sacrifices for sin in the Old Testament. GOD is perfectly happy with the spotless and HOLY BLOOD of JESUS CHRIST on the CROSS. Most of Israel still doesn't know about the HOLY TRINITY, but they will one day.

I'll just give THANKS for GOD'S GRACE and JESUS CHRIST! I look forward with great anticipation to the Promises of GOD and Eternity with JESUS CHRIST. Great Riches from GOD have been given to us. The Greatest of these riches is knowledge of GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, AND GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. It's MORE than just knowledge because we are INDWELT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD - HE lives in our hearts! We have access to GOD THE FATHER'S THRONE OF GRACE, and we WALK WITH THE KING OF KINGS because we are HIS adopted Children. We have been given an Eternal Inheritance and a Position in HIS Heavenly KINGDOM that's almost impossible for us to imagine. For us in this short life, it's simply a matter of yielding to HIS Will, accepting and giving THANKS for HIS GIFTS, becoming Strong in CHRIST, and awaiting the Glorious claiming of our Heavenly Citizenship. Along the way, we must remember that this world IS NOT our HOME!

Love In Christ,
Tom

   

[Debp]

One  last point on this is that when we forget about the three, and only think on the one, we lose the meaning. In other words when we focus our eyes on Jesus, (as we should), but forget about the Father, as some people do, the Father's words and commandments are sometimes forgotten as well. And in forgetting or laying them aside we lose the Holy Spirit, as well. For it is Him that helps us communicate with God the Father and Jesus the Son.

I agree...it's always important to remember each person of the Godhead.  Jesus, our Savior, Our loving Father and the blessed Holy Spirit.  Three but One God....God is able to do this.

A Christian architect came up with a way to add in some sort of strapping system inside of them that makes them really safe. The entire roof comes off now and the whole building collapses before the steeple will snap off.

That's good.  Also, they might check into the lightweight material like our church used.

[islandboy]

A few posts back I said I was going to put some pictures of my yard and area we cleared recently, on my website.  Well, it seems this week  someone got my e-mail address on Yahoo,  by mistake and  put out where it was picked up by another someone who sent me 800 spam messages. Now my provider it limiting my e-mails, thus the pictures sent to me are lost somewhere between here and there. Until I get this fixed, I can not get the pictures into my computer and up on the website. Please bear with me on this problem.