It's simple-start a writing group!

Creating a writing group is the easy part, but creating a functioning and beneficial writing group can be quite a task.

Writing groups are age-old sessions where writers obtain helpful evaluations for their works. Nowadays, though, writing groups seem to be a fad, and for many a status symbol reassuring them of their writerdom. Don't create a writing group simply for the sake of saying, "I belong to a writing group". Create or join a group because of the numerous benefits that come along with them. Continue

For some reason, music has been one of the most misunderstood facets of the controversy between good and evil. It is one of those areas that just doesn’t seem to get onto most people’s moral radar. The majority are content to let natural inclination be their guide and perhaps some do so innocently enough, having never given it much thought nor having been exposed to proper instruction on the topic.

Those that become aware of the issues and advocate changes publicly, soon find themselves embroiled in an all-out war of opinion, personal tastes, strawman arguments, and worse. Without proper understanding and biblically-based guidance, members and church leaders are left to fend for themselves.

Most Seventh-day Adventists (along with most other Christians, for that matter) would agree that the moral fabric of society has deteriorated with accelerating rapidity over the past 100 or so years. Thinking Christians readily recognize that the popular music of this era serves as both an indicator of as well as a powerful agent of change in contributing towards this decline.

It is a fact widely ignored, though never without danger, that error rarely appears for what it really is. It is by mingling with or attaching itself to truth that it gains acceptance. The eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil caused the ruin of our first parents, and the acceptance of a mingling of good and evil is the ruin of men and women today. The mind that depends upon the judgment of others is certain, sooner or later, to be misled. (Ellen G, White, Education , p. 230).

I have found ten reasons why this Hollywood production should not be seen.

1. Based on the reviews which I have read and had related to me, it is not faithful to the Bible account.
1. It is a glorification of Mary (very Catholic in this). In nearly every review, it is Mary that is mentioned along with Jesus.
2. It invents scenes that are not in the Bible (Mary's flashbacks, and Veronica, for examples).
3. It does not take into account the additional light from the Spirit of Prophecy insights.
2. It is a gross and complete mischaracterization of the death of Christ.
1. It cannot depict the wrath of God against sin. Christ's death is not only about the wrath of man against God, but the wrath of God against sin. This is not about a man who died a horrible first death, but about God's Son, who suffered the second death.
2. It is a false representation of Jesus. NO human can correctly portray Christ with His looks of genuine love, sorrow, compassion, forgiveness, peace, humility, etc. The “jesus” this movie portrays is the “jesus” invented by Satan to prepare the masses to accept him when he counterfeits Christ's coming. This is an impure, unclean, imperfect “jesus” that could be acceptable only by those who do not know the real Jesus.
3. It cannot begin to reveal the real suffering of Christ, which was not physical, but primarily the suffering of love from a broken heart. It can not portray the real suffering of Christ and His Father at the separation sin caused between them. It cannot reveal the anguish of Christ as He sees Satan taking control of those He is dying to save. It cannot show the pain that Jesus experienced whenever He witnessed sin, the pain even He never fully concealed.
4. It can not portray the depth of passion and hate of the Jewish leadership nor the frenzy of the mob, whipped up by Satanic beings in human form.
5. It can not properly portray the followers of Jesus with the full emotions of utter disillusionment, surprise, disappointment, and depression.
6. It can not depict the terror and guilt of the multitudes as the earthquake strikes, nor the judgments of God against the city of Jerusalem as the lightening flashes moved from Calvary to Jerusalem.
7. It does not portray the searching of Scripture that the death of Christ engendered, nor does the movie, create a thirst for Bible study.
3. It appeals to the “feelings” of the viewers.
1. Viewers may confuse a sense of sympathy for Jesus for a genuine religious experience built on faith. Jesus warned the women weeping for Him, “Weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children” (Luke 23:28).
2. Viewers may also confuse an emotional high, with tears, for a genuine surrender of the life to Jesus. When the high wears off, as it will, viewers ever after may seek further emotional highs and consider nothing less than this to be a genuine experience. Viewers may be less responsive to the genuine gospel story and consider it boring, since it doesn't stimulate the senses in a sensational (and harmful) way (see #7 below).
4. It confuses the external appearance for internal reality.

On March 22, the Fourth Department issued a 3 to 2 decision in Matter of Nancy E.H. and Sheila M.S., holding that 2 unmarried adults may jointly adopt a child who is the biological child of neither of them.

In Matter of Jacob (86 NY2d 651), the New York Court of Appeals held that the unmarried partner of a child's biological parent has standing to adopt the child under Domestic Relations Law §110. The Court of Appeals expressly left unanswered the question decided by the Fourth Department today.

Petitioners in this adoption proceeding are professional women in their forties who seek to adopt a child born in Cambodia on May 20, 1998. Petitioners have resided together since 1981 in a committed relationship, and publicly demonstrated their commitment by participating in a "Commitment Ceremony" recognized by the Episcopal Church and by registering as domestic partners in the City of Rochester. In 1996 petitioners became the adoptive parents of another child in separate proceedings when that child was an infant.

A Husband Shopping Center has just opened where a woman may go to choose a husband from among many men. Continue