24 Oct 2003
PRINCIPLE – the source or origin of anything;
a general truth, a truth so broad and sweeping that
many other truths can be considered offshoots of it
PRAYER –
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and
for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life
in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight
of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto
the knowledge of the truth. I Tim 2:1-4
Protection of the unborn in NM, Ps 139:13-16
NM Legislature Special Session (starts Oct 27)
Supreme Court review of "one nation, under God"
Abq City Council Election, Oct 28
Christian Heritage Speech Competition, Nov 1
Unification Charter Election, Nov 4
Here's an inspirational praise from a youth in NM:
It is so awesome to have parents that are married.
God is so good to me. This is all I wanted - a complete
and loving family. God has richly blessed me with
everything that I wanted and more. This is like I am
in dreamland! [Praise God!]
Presidential Prayer Team - www.presidentialprayerteam.org
Presidential Prayer Kids - www.presidentialprayerkids.org
ENCOUNTER
Oct 21 – Creation Science Fellowship Meeting @ Faith Bible Church
www.swcp.com/creation
Oct 25 - Liturgical Dance Workshop, 255-2034
Oct 28 – Municipal Election, Abq City Council, www.rges.cc/elec_abq.htm
Nov 1 – Christian Heritage Speech Competition, Hope Christian School
www.rges.cc/chsc.htm
Nov 4 – Unification Charter Election
Ongoing
1st Thur, 8-9:30am - Rio Grande Pastor's Alliance, 821-1993
UNDERSTANDING
- And of the children of Issachar, which were men
that had understanding of the time, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads
of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.
I Chron 12:32
Supreme Court Reviewing Pledge
Help Needed for Legislators (Special Session)
Register to Vote
Municipal Election, Oct 28 - Candidate Forum
Liturgical Dance Workshop
Nancy Pearcey on Chan 32, Oct 29 & Nov 1
Christian Heritage Speech Competition, Nov 1
Unification Charter Election, Nov 4 (MAIL-IN BALLOTS ONLY)
Halloween History
Supreme Court Reviewing Pledge. Whatever happened to our Christian Heritage? In an age where science has more evidence supporting Creation than ever before in history, efforts continue to rid society of even the mention of God. The Supreme Court has agreed to review the phrase "one nation under God" from our pledge of allegiance. Their decision will have far reaching consequences. In the 1892 case of Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S., the Supreme Court concluded that only an "absurd" application of the Constitution would allow a restriction on Christianity: "No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state, or national, because this is a religious people…. This is a Christian nation." Please be in PRAYER for this important decision.
Help Needed for NM Legislators. If you can spare some time to help a conservative legislator during the special session (starts Oct 27), reply to this email. Conservative legislators will be identified with specific tasks that can be accomplished from your home.
Register to Vote. Change of address or new voters in the family (18th birthday)? Fill out a registration postcard and mail it in (no postage required). If you cannot get a form from your local party office or the city clerk, call 971-2053. Your church can be involved with voter registration.
Municipal Election, Oct 28 - Abq City Council, www.rges.cc/elec_abq.htm. Bulletin insert for your church available for download. Albuquerque Interfaith sponsored an excellent candidate forum at St Andrew Presbyterian on Oct 12. The forum opened with a Mariachi band. Students led the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish and English. About 150 people attended and almost all the candidates were present. Questions focused on public safety, planned growth strategy, and accountability. A voter guide was created with candidate responses. There were also representatives from APS who answered questions. It was refreshing to hear public officials explain what's being accomplished. Contact Abq Interfaith for more details, 268-3991. League of Women Voters - Voters Guide available at local libraries.
Liturgical Dance Workshop - Choreography! Create dances your congregation will love. Learn new approaches to choreography. Workshop leader - Keri Sutter, surgite@swcp.com, 255-2034, director of Surgite, a sacred dance company. Twenty four years' experience in liturgical dance. Workshop leader and choreographer throughout the US. Sat, Oct 25, 1-5, 1st Congregational United Church of Christ, 2801 Lomas NE (@ Girard), Abq. $50 per person, $10 discount to Sacred Dance Guild members and groups of four or more.
Nancy Pearcey on Chan 32, Oct 29 @ 9pm and Nov 1 @ 10:30pm. www.tijeras.org, www.arn.org/pearcey/nphome.htm
Christian Heritage Speech Competition. Grades 6-12, Sat, Nov 1. Topics and judging criteria are available at www.rges.cc/chsc.htm. Plan to attend the award ceremony at 4pm even if your kids are not participating. First place winners from each grade will give their speeches. Tribute to American Christian Heritage. Location: Hope Christian School, Louisiana & Paseo Del Norte, Abq.
Unification Charter Election - Nov 4. Contact County Clerk, 768-4085, if you do not receive a ballot in the mail. This is a MAIL-IN BALLOT only. Biblical principle of hierarchy of government, Ex 18:21: "You shall elect out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain: and you shall place these over them, as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens." We lose accountability as we discard levels of government. Acountablity is necessary due to the sin-nature of man. New-age philosophy disregards sin and claims man is basically good. Evolution philosophy claims man is getting better. Info at www.rges.cc/elec.htm. League of Women Voters - Voters Guide available at local libraries.
Halloween History. www.family.org/topics/a0017957.cfm We are annually drawn into discussion of the troublesome celebration of Halloween. Over and over we are told that it is a pagan holiday of the Druids. Debate is had on what stand Christians ought to take regarding it. Something almost never heard is that Halloween may actually be a Druid version of a far older observance from a time when humanity was unified in one population with one language, and commemorated – the Flood. Consider the following excerpt from The Flood in the Light of the Bible, Geology, and Archeology by Alfred M. Rehwinkel, M.A., B.D., LL.D. copyright 1951 by Concordia Publishing House, Thirteenth printing (1972).
<P>
But there is another tradition found with many peoples in widely separated areas in both ancient and modern times which bears witness to the historical fact of the flood, even to the extent of pointing to the season of the year in which this fearful cataclysm destroyed the human race. That season is the festival of the New Year, observed at the disappearance of the Pleiades at the end of October or the beginning of November. Urquhart, who reports these traditions, says that a new-year festival connected with, and determined by, the Pleiades seems to be one of the most universal of all customs. It is not only the fact that New Year’s Day was observed by so many people at about the same time which makes this significant, but that the observance of this event was always connected with the memory of the dead or was observed as a feast of the ancestors.
<P>
The natives of Australia observed this day at about the season mentioned. On this occasion they painted a white stripe over their arms, legs, and ribs, and dancing by the light of the fire appear like so many skeletons celebrating. The same custom is found among the savages of the Society Islands, where the closing of the old and the opening of the new year were celebrated about November. At the conclusion of this celebration each man, returning to his hut, was expected to offer a special prayer for the spirit of the departed relatives.
<P>
In the Fiji Islands a commemoration of the dead takes place toward the end of October.
In Peru the new year came at the beginning of November and was called Ayamarka, which signifies "carrying a corpse." The festival was celebrated in memory of the dead and was observed with songs and music and by placing food and drink upon the graves of the dead.
The Hindus celebrate their Durga, a festival of the dead, which originally was their New Year’s Day and was observed on the 17th day of November. The Persians called November Mordad, that is, the angel of death, and the feast of the dead, which took place at the same time as in Peru, was considered a New Year’s festival.
<P>
With the ancient Druids the night of the first of November, in which they annually celebrated the reconstruction of the world, was full of mystery. According to a custom connected with this event, the priestesses were obliged at this time to pull down and rebuild each year the roof of their temple as a symbol of the destruction and renovation of the world. If one of them, in bringing the material for the new roof, let fall her sacred burden, she was seized by her enraged companions and torn to pieces. On this same night the Druids extinguished the sacred fire, which was kept burning throughout the rest of the year; and at the signal all the fires in the community were put out, and it was believed that, in the complete darkness that followed throughout the land, the phantom spirits of those who had died during the preceding year were then carried by boats to the judgment seat of the god of the dead.
<P>
A strange relic of this Druidic festival has survived in our present Hallowe’en (Hallow Eve) on the last day of October and All Saints and All Souls Days on the first and second of November. In former years the relics were even more numerous – in the Hallowe’en torches of the Irish and the bonfires of the Scotch and Welsh, while in France it was customary to visit the cemeteries and graves of their ancestors at this time.
<P>
The Mexicans to this day observe a day of the dead in much the same way and at the same time. They still place food and drink upon the graves of the departed ancestors, as modern travelers in that country have observed. In Egypt the day of the dead was observed on the 17th day of Athyr, which corresponds to the 17th day of November. On this day the Egyptian priest would place an image of the god Osiris in a sacred ark and launch it into the sea until it was borne out of sight.
Now it must be admitted that the origin of these strange traditions is not as clearly traced as the Flood traditions, and yet there seems to be a connection between these strange events and that great event in the history of the human race.
<P>
The date of the festival corresponds to the date of the Flood if, as some hold, the year began in the fall of the year. There are others who question this. All these traditions have in common a remembrance of the dead, which seems to point to a major calamity of the human race. Then there are echoes of a perishing world and the rebuilding of another. Customs and traditions found so widely scattered and with so many people must have their origin in some great experience in the past history of man. There is no common experience of the human race which would so well account for these strange customs and traditions as the Flood. And we may therefore well agree with Urquhart, who in concluding his remarks on these traditions says: "Here the traditions not only unite in bearing down to our own times that awful cry of anguish which once shook earth and sky, but also fix upon the very month and the very day which the Scriptures have recorded."
RESOURCES
American Christian History Institute
Center for Reclaiming America
Center for the American Founding
Christian Assoc of Parent Educators
Early Church Fathers
Faith Facts
Family Research Council
Focus on the Family
Foundation for Biblical Government
Frontline Fellowship
Greater Southwest Council BSA
Presidential Prayer Team
Pilgrim Institute
Principle Approach International
Providence Foundation
Rio Grande Enrichment Studies
Summit Ministries
Tijeras Foundation
Vision America
Community Impact News is authored by:
Mark Burton, Foothills Fellowship, 294-0016
Pager 971-2053
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