Currently Reading . . .

[PANBACCHA]

INFINITUDE is a story about a young man in search of the meaning to life and about a mysterious man, Clifford Bias, a renowned psychic medium, who discloses the secret of life after death to him. It is a story of mysticism, mystery and love.

Since time immemorial everyone had asked the same question: 'Where has my loved one gone?' 'Is there life after death?' 'Is there a purpose to life. And if so, then what of it?' A young man from the streets of New York City determined to find the answers to these questions began an incredible trek. And what he found behind the veil and brought back will enlighten a grief-broken world and change its perceptions forever. "We are more than names, properties, country and flags," he stated. "We are an integral part of the greater whole that has no beginning or end. We are an inversion of infinitude." But readers beware! The journey takes one through a riveting and powerful scenario of urban existence that knew no god or law. And the author employs a most descriptive power making his readers smell and hear the stench and noise of a time that once existed.

INFINITUDE

-at- Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Borders.com, & UK booksites

Edited April 14, 2006 by PANBACCHA

[Godchaser]

Currently Reading...Mind Siege "The Battle For Truth In the New Millennium" Author: Tim Lahaye

[rrcanna]

Currently Reading...Mind Siege "The Battle For Truth In the New Millennium" Author: Tim Lahaye

Don't think I'd've told that.

[Godchaser]

Currently Reading...Mind Siege "The Battle For Truth In the New Millennium" Author: Tim Lahaye

Don't think I'd've told that.

Pretty interesting book actually.

Edited April 14, 2006 by ChristSoldier

[rrcanna]

Currently Reading...Mind Siege "The Battle For Truth In the New Millennium" Author: Tim Lahaye

Don't think I'd've told that.

Pretty interesting book actually.

Yeah, I can see how you'd like it.

[Jason ON]

Finished Elder Gods last night (didn't like it as much as I normally like David Eddings), and started The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. And by start, I mean I put my bookmark on chapter 1 page 1.

[emalpaiz]

I just started "Jesus and the Lost Goddess" (ISBN 1-4000-4594-0) by Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy.

I am also re-reading "The Inner Life of Krishnamurti" (ISBN0-8356-0781-X) by Aryel Sanat.

It would seem that both books are not related, but in reality they are. Both deal with the concept of "perennial philosophy."

Edited May 2, 2006 by emalpaiz

[Decline]

I just finished rereading "Illusions; The adventures of a reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach.

[revwayne62]

You know . . . I started this thread and I haven't been here to tell you what I've been reading. Well . . . let's see . . . there are several books I've started . . . (does that count? LOL) . . .

I'm in the middle of the 'Prophet' series by Rev. Kirby Hensley. The next book I'm going to read is "A Still, Small Voice: A Psychic's Guide to Awakening Intuition" by Echo Bodine. After that . . . don't know. Lots of books I want to read. I still have to get the Star Wars series . . . I have a few more philosophy books to read, but . . . at some point I will. LOL

Have a great day.

May the Force be with you

[Jason ON]

I've been reading Legends II for about a week now. As well as The World is Flat. I pick up one or the other, depending on my mood.

[No Day But Today]

I just finished "A Year Of Absence" by Jessica Redmond, gotta say it was a really good book. Its a true story. The women in the book are military wives whose husbands have been deployed to Iraq and it follows how the wives cope with their hubbies deployments. I loved it, could not put it down.

[Budog the dude]

A course In Miracles.

Let Today Be A Holiday. 365 Ways To Co-Create With God.

What Is Enlightenment Magazine.

Roger "Doc".

[Happy Quilter]

I just finished rereading "Illusions; The adventures of a reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach.

I really liked Illusions, my favorite by RB.

Currently reading St Mary Magdalene: the Gnostic Tradition of the Holy Bride by Tau Malachi. I also have a new book which I should be starting soon, Process & Reality by Alfred Whitehead.

[Decline]

I just finished reading -Wicked "The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire. Very entertaining. I will probably try out another one of his books. If anyone here is familiar with his work and has a suggestion on which one I should read next, I would appreciate the advice.

[Bishop Randy]

I read books by Tony Bushby who has well researched and well documented early church history. His main website is http://www.thebiblefraud.com His other books are,"The Secret in the Bible", and "The Crucifixion of Truth". I believe he has written a book about reincarnation or NDE, but I have studied that so long ago I need not study any more 'bout it. For the most part the secret in the bible covers the Greater Mystery of the Egyptian Pyramid Initiates.

There are conspiracy theorists and there religious theorists and there are scientific theorists. Which are you? My God, how far has man truly fallen into darkness. We have the Vatican to thank.

For Truth's sake,

Bishop Randy

[maxx]

I just finished Dan Brown's Angels and Demons which was not a prequel to The DaVinci Code. It's more like the first in a series with the same iconographer acting as detective. The story starts off with the murder of a CERN scientist and involves the possible resurrection of the Illuminati. It would make a more exciting movie than TDC since it has more murder and racing about Rome looking for signposts in the sculpture.

As for the spreading of darkness mentioned in a previous post, the Bible was compiled before there was a Vatican City and there have been plenty of darkness spreaders outside the catholic church. At least they don't take the Bible literally and don't foist pseudoscience on the public.

[revbruce]

Just finished "Why the Christian Right is Wrong" by Robin Meyers. It's based on a speech he gave at the University of Oklahoma. I'll include the text here as it's short and a very good read IMO.

As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor.

Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian.

We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value -- I mean what are we talking about? Because we don't get to

make them up as we go along, especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does.

Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:

1. When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not

moral, but immoral.

2. When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.

3. When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.

4. When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

5. When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.

6. When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.

7. When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called "enemy combatants" of the rules of the Geneva convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.

8. When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, or with the terrorists -- and then launch a war which enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helping us to

kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.

9. When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.

10. When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn't matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have done something immoral.

11. When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.

12. When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the kingdom, you are doing something immoral.

13. When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth which is God's gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth

belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.

14. When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.

15. When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a "compassionate conservative," using the word which is the essence of all religious faith-compassion, and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.

16. When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a doctor, even if she doesn't have a penny in her pocket, you are doing something immoral.

17. When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.

I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I'm tired of people saying that I can't support the troops but oppose the war.

I heard that when I was your age--when the Vietnam war was raging. We knew that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong--the only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power?

This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you--young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them. It's your country to take back. It's your faith to take back.

It's your future to take back.

Don't be afraid to speak out. Don't back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut. Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real Muslims, and real Hindus, and real

Buddhists--so do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious.

Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.

And war -- war is the greatest failure of the human race -- and thus the greatest failure of faith. There's an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed? How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died?

What if they gave a war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find out.

[Rev. Shannon]

I am reading "The Devil Wears Prada" the book the movie is based on. Not intellectual reading, but that is why I picked it up. Sometimes it is refreshing to give the ole' knoggin a break ya know! I am actually also reading a book on Meditation and a couple of other spiritual books for my more intellectual selections!

Happy Reading everyone!

Rev. Shannon

[Rev. Shannon]

Well I finished my book, "The Devil Wears Prada" and now I can't wait to watch the movie! It was funny and cute. I liked it, it made me feel like maybe my job isn't so bad! Good quick read!

On to "Decipher" by Stel Pavlou, borrowed and recommended by a person I work with! We will see how it goes!

Happy Reading

Rev. Shannon

[Jason ON]

I read Guilty Pleasures a couple of weeks ago. The mystery was alright, but it seemed like a romance novel with a private detective/supernatural feel. My cousin gave it to me. She said it was great. It was okay.

Right now I'm reading The Fifth Sorceress. Again, it's merely okay. I'm nearly 400 pages in and it's just finally getting interesting. The main character is a not someone I can relate too. He's headstrong, stupid and never ever thinks about anything before acting. The writing isn't great either. In the matter of a paragraph the author changes different charactor's points of view. Not to mention the fact that the author is probably very very conservative christian as his ideas very closely follow the ideas of the early catholic church. Such as: women magicians are inherently evil, men are inherently good, there is a Chosen One who needs to fulfill a prohecy and his blood is the purest on the planet, the women magicians use a pentangle as their symbol, they also consort with batlike-winged men and are all addicted to "depraved sexual acts", as well as other similarities.