|
|
|
Believing in Jesus is NOT a Religion, and God is NOT a Christian
What are the major misconceptions by ignorant atheists [Less than 4% of the world population (www.adherents.com)]? The ‘fact’ that we are primarily body, and spirituality comes second is the first and most important mistake of all with the...
Fall of a Nation
Fall of a Nation by Anthony Smith Jeremiah 51:6-51:18 The Fall of a Nation, Babylon is Fallen. Is the United States , Spiritual Babylon ? Jer.51:6-18. I read an artical the other day, concerning the vast wealth of America and the massive...
What is Truth?
What is Truth? John 18:37-18:38 This sermon deals with the truth in the world, what truth is and what lies are. John 18:37-38 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born,...
When Compassion Leaves......
When compassion for all living creatures leaves the heart of man, the light of the discriminative faculty dies, the flower of free will fades, the aroma of virtue evaporates and life loses its true purpose. Ignored and unheeded, the soul, sinks...
Zombies of the Christian Reich
One of these days I am going to write a screenplay. This story will be titled, “Zombies of the Christian Reich.” I am offended by the far right thinking Christians that promote the ludicrous idea that this is a Christian Nation. Isn’t that...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Do People See Visions Anymore?
In the information age with hi-tech devices from computers to GPS tracking is it reasonable to believe that human beings can still experience a vision or an apparition?
Unless God has changed the way he does things it would seem that he has kept the lines open to men and women as usual. Should there be any doubt let me tell you a true story of a sequence of events in my own life. No one had more trouble believing these events than me; in fact I wouldn’t tell even my closest friends for over a year. Now I think so very differently.
Not only do I tell this story but I realize it is part of the reason the events took place, I am supposed to tell of it. Telling it is my very calling in life.
As a young man I spent many years wandering around the country. I can truthfully say there is but one state that I have not been in and that is Alaska. In the early sixties I landed in New Orleans where I went to work and hung out with a crowd of pretty wild young people. In the…City That Care Forgot, it was indeed easy to forget just about anything other than partying and having a good time. I imbibed in alcohol, psychedelic drugs, marijuana and a lot of foolish behavior. As the playing deepened to the stage where it seemed more like work I was growing increasingly more empty and exasperated. At this height of my partying I was experiencing a depth of despair. The best parties have to end.
I met a girl named Fran who lived near me in the wild and famous French Quarter of New Orleans. I only checked in with Fran when I was at my lowest or coming off a major drunk or high. I was drawn to her quiet sense of stability. She was the only moral girl I knew in the quarter and while I would have preferred she wasn’t moral I knew it kept her head clearer than most all the other girls I knew at the time. On one occasion I asked her why she was so different, so calm and so kind to me. Her reply was…I’m a Christian and it is Jesus Christ that makes me different. I scoffed at that. Nothing could have been so meaningless to me at that time, but Fran’s influence continued. One day she said I am going to have my church pray for you Michael because you are so troubled and you need the Lord. I cursed a bit and told her I could care less whether her church prayed or not. I told her I didn’t believe in God, the church or prayer. I kept partying as she and her church began praying. The result of those prayers was to be more than my wildest imagination.
Shortly after Fran and church began praying I found life began getting hard for me. I was still partying, boozing and drugging but it was getting harder. It seemed that now something was pricking my conscience and I started asking myself what the point of all this nonsense was. I felt heavy and dissatisfied with myself. I wouldn’t know for a long time that this is what the Bible calls coming under the conviction of Gods Holy Spirit. I hated the fact that as I partied I couldn’t keep from questioning. I hated it because when I engaged my sense of right and wrong something kept telling me I was living wrong. I thought it would pass but it was relentless. In a fledgling attempt to deal with it all I moved out of the quarter and moved to the uptown section of the city and started to slow down all the going out and fun seeking. One day while alone in my new garden district apartment I began to deeply ponder my life, my direction or more like the lack of it. It was during this deep moment of examination and reflection that I experienced something that was so powerful that I was afraid to share it with anyone for almost one full year. Since that time I have shared it with thousands of people in many places and it is part of a book I wrote many years later.
On that day I wandered from room to room asking myself some very pointed questions. I pondered my path, why was I living the way I was and where would I end up. The more I asked these kinds of questions the more I found myself hungering for some real answers. At some point I sat on the edge of my bed and asked three very serious questions. When I got to the third question I was thrust into an experience that I almost could not believe myself. I don’t argue with anyone about its veracity I just tell it. There is no argument to it and I could no more deny what happened than I could deny that my name is Michael. It wasn’t for years to come that I found a saying that I took to heart although I still do not know where it originated. A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.
The first question I asked was, are we all just the product of our environment and our upbringing. I quickly dismissed this as being any sort of real answer because I knew that I had a free will. I knew
people who were raised in ghettos and worse, which went on to live useful and productive lives. This wasn’t the answer.
The second question was, are we only the product of our genes. Must we cow to Mendel’s Law of The Third Generation. If granddad was suicidal I must be too. Must we follow a path designed by a mere combination of biological material? Again I knew this was not the answer because free volition and the ability to choose could overcome even these influences.
Environment and genetics were influences but not answers and I knew some people were using both as mere excuses for every degenerate activity they could conjure. Here then I arrived at a very positive negative.
For my third question I asked, is there really a God, could my brother have been wrong when he told me in no uncertain terms as a boy that parents only tell us of God so we will be good? Could there really be an ultimate being, the very creator of all things? At the very second I asked this question I felt a powerful presence enter the room. Everything stood still but this presence was as real and apparent as it would be if an old friend or my mother had entered. In a moment of time I had a hundred images of my past fly before me. I remembered the times I was cruising down the street trying to tune in some rock and roll on the radio. I remembered coming across Billy Graham speaking of how Christ had died for the sins of the world. I remembered to person who slipped a gospel tract into my hand as I sauntered down the street. I looked at it for a moment crumbled it up and threw it away. I remembered as a boy when the catholic priest would open his bible before he preached and read from the bible. It all stuck me as one single message a message I had chosen to deny thinking it had no meaning. It always seemed far fetched over simplified and pointless to me as I carried on in my real life like everyone else. Religion I was sure was for just a few old ladies and children who couldn’t think for themselves as yet. At that moment I knew I had been wrong.
In what I guess was a prayer I lifted my eyes toward the ceiling and said these words very slowly not just once but three times. God, I’m sorry I have ignored you all of these years and I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son. As I spoke those words two things happened in consecutive order. The first thing that happened was that I felt that presence all around me in the room enter me. It flowed in like a powerful but gentle stream of cool clear water; it literally took my breath away. The second thing that occurred simultaneously was that as I spoke those words ever so slowly peering up at the ceiling the face of Jesus Christ appeared to me. It was not a fading image but a clear brilliant and living face. It glowed with a light I still do not know how to best describe; it was beaming with uncreated light like nothing I have ever seen on this earth. I fell to the floor and wept like a baby. I felt that I had been in the dark all my life and some kind soul just stepped in and said, hey don’t you know there is a light switch here, and turned it on.
Most all of my life, I have believed that visions and apparitions were for ancient saints, liars and religious nuts. That being one of the reasons I chose not to tell anyone of the vision for a very long time. I did not want my friends calling me a nut, mush less a religious nut. But it was far from over.
Shortly after that experience I started to have dreams. I had three in one night at the very beginning. I saw the past in one dream the present in the next and the future in the third. Eight days after the things I saw in the third dream happened to the letter. Since then I have had hundreds of dreams some of the immediate future some more long rang but none that have ever been false. In over thirty years since not one dream or vision has ever been wrong.
Do people see visions anymore? Yes, and they will with increasing frequency. It is promised in the Bible that as we approach the second coming of Christ that men and women alike will begin to see and hear from God in a renewed fashion that will be without precedent in any preceding generation. The Prophet Joel describes this in Joel 2:28. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dreams, your young men shall see visions:
About the Author
Rev Bresciani is from New Orleans La and the author of…Hook line and Sinker or What Has Your Church Been Teaching You, PublishAmerica 2005 and…An American Prophet and His Message, Questions and Answers on the Second Coming of Christ, Xulon Press 2005. His website is
http://americanprophet.org
|
|
|
|
|
| Religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Religion may be defined as the presence of a belief in the sacred or the holy. ... The development of religion is therefore the course of religions aligning ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| religion online |
| Full texts by religious scholars. Topics include Bible, Theology, Ethics, Church and Society, Communication, Cultural Studies, Homiletics, Missions, ... |
| www.religion-online.org |
|
| Religion and Spirituality in the Yahoo! Directory |
| Yahoo! reviewed these sites and found them related to Religion and Spirituality. |
| dir.yahoo.com |
|
| Yahoo! - Document Not Found |
| Document Not Found. The document you requested was not found. The category you are trying to reach may have moved. To find a relocated category, ... |
| dir.yahoo.com |
|
| Virtual Religion Index |
| has moved! It is now located at. http://virtualreligion.net/vri/. Note the change of domain & Please notify the source of the link that landed you here. ... |
| religion.rutgers.edu |
|
| Religious News and Information |
| The latest news and coverage from the world of religion. From across the globe to here in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Time covers the most pertinent news ... |
| www.latimes.com |
|
| World Religions Religion Statistics Geography Church Statistics |
| Resources for research into world religions, large and (very) small. Includes links to websites, research papers, statistics, and specialized search ... |
| www.adherents.com |
|
| BBC - Religion & Ethics |
| News, features and weekly summary about religion in the UK. Includes information about religions, ethics issues, and BBC religious TV and radio programming. |
| www.bbc.co.uk |
|
| BBC - Religion & Ethics - Religions |
| An introduction to many of the religions of the world. Includes Jainism, Shinto, Sikhism, Rastafari, Paganism, and many others. |
| www.bbc.co.uk |
|
| Open Directory - Society: Religion and Spirituality |
| Kids and Teens: People and Society: Religion and Spirituality (307) ... World Religions and 101 Cults - Contains descriptions and personal commentary of ... |
| dmoz.org |
|
| Google Directory - Society > Religion and Spirituality |
| Kids and Teens > People and Society > Religion and Spirituality (347) ... Contains descriptions and personal commentary of religions, cults, sects, ... |
| www.google.com |
|
| Promoting religious understanding, tolerance and freedom. |
| Conflicts, evolution, science & religion evaluating each other ... "Study of the world's religions will lead to an understanding of religious diversity; ... |
| www.religioustolerance.org |
|
| Religious Studies Page |
| Gene Thursby's extensive collection of information and links for the study and interpretation of religions. Categories include religious traditions, ... |
| www.clas.ufl.edu |
|
| Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Religion |
| Religion blog: DMN writers and editors explore issues of faith, spirituality and values ... Religion links: Alphabetical list of religious and spiritual ... |
| www.dallasnews.com |
|
| Free Religion Ecards, Religion Greeting Cards, Religion Greetings ... |
| More of Religion ... Home : Religion Greetings ... Food And Drink | Gifts | Invitations | Kids | Love | Music | Pets | Religion | Specials | Sports | Stay ... |
| cards.123greetings.com |
|
| Religion -- Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Most evangelicals now live in China, South Korea, India, Africa and Latin America, where they are transforming their religion. In various ways, they are ... |
| www.philly.com |
|
| Religion | The WWW Virtual Library |
| Religions and belief systems (ancient and contemporary), religious history, mythology, ethics and humanism. this resource in English is indexed under: ... |
| vlib.org |
|
| Religion - washingtonpost.com |
| We explore matters of faith and religion on the first Sunday of each month. ... Religion Online Chats. Thursday, Nov. 16, 11 a.m. ET: Faiths Condemn Gay Sex ... |
| www.washingtonpost.com |
|
| allAfrica.com: Religion |
| All over Africa, religion is big business. In East Africa, I am particularly impressed by the rate of its growth in Uganda. Uganda is also the country in ... |
| allafrica.com |
|
| Error: Invalid story key (C3,20061205,,612040318,AR). |
| Obituaries · -- Death Notices · Schools · Detroit History. Nation/World. Nation/World · Politics/Gov · -- Election · Health · Religion · Technology. Sports ... |
| detnews.com |
|
|