Tyler Texas is unique unlike most modest sized towns in Texas. This town has one of the largest Southern Baptist Churches in the state and gives more to the Southern Baptist Missions Board then almost all the other churches in the organization. This mega-church was one of the first to build a family life center in the country. A family life center is a large gymnasium with a basketball court, track and other physical fitness related activities. Green Acres has racketball courts, a bowling alley, weight gym, pool tables, video games, and many other activities. The church has around 15,000 members and is steadily growing. New building programs always loom in the background and the church remains a major political and business influence. More then a few families have joined this church to gain both political and business influence in the Smith County area.

Green Acres Baptist Church continuous to grow and many people look from the outside in wondering what is really going on behind the scenes. Who controls this machine and what are the micro agendas that go on in this christian community.

ALERT is a christian organization for boys which has a similarity to the Boy Scouts of America but goes a whole lot further. The organization moved its headquarters to a 2,200 acre complex that used to be owned by an East Texas Cult known as  the Worldwide Church of God which is also known as Armstronganism.

Garner Ted Armstrong the leader, was disfellowshipped from his father’s church (The Church of God International) and started up this church that has had over 40 different doctrinal changes since its founding. Once a very large organization with a huge media impact, Armstrongism has waned in recent years. It once had a yearly income reaching $200,000,000 million a year but is now down to several hundred thousand. Since Armstrong’s death there has been new leadership and new changes and many of the facilities they had once owned have been sold off, as for instance, the Big Sandy facility to the ALERT christian youth organization.

International ALERT Academy

The Air Land Emergency Resource Team (ALERT) is a unique training and service organization for young men who desire to achieve maturity and fruitfulness in service as Christian men. The training young men receive at ALERT equips them with the discipline, character, and skills necessary to meet the needs of people in crisis. These ALERT Responders will then be deployed to disaster-stricken areas such as those affected by hurricanes, tornados, floods, and mud slides. The Alert Campus is located near Big Sandy which is close to Tyler Texas. The Tyler Lindale area is known for several worldwide christian organization headquarters. The ALERT facility is another example of the magnetism the East Texas area has towards Christian related organizations.

 Keeping with the previous website developers theme we will ad content on wicca and other spirititual themes.

“I’ve not been able to write much for the website lately as i just can’t get the time and i’m contemplating in closing it down.  It has been fun for the short time that i have had this blog but just don’t have the time to keep it going at the moment.

I’m thinking of devoting more time to developing my photography and spending more time outdoors; i will probably come back to the internet and maybe create another spiritual based website that maybe based on a more visual front and probably learn some Photoshop.”

 So i would like to thank those people that have contributed with their comments on some of my posts – it was always a nice surprise to read them.

~ Dave

Ever since i moved into my mid-terraced house and noticed the sad and plain looking sun window above the front door, i wanted to put a nice piece of stained glass in there as a replacement as a nice focal point for the front of the house.

I was looking at getting a piece of stained glass done professionally, but was then scared off by some of the prices that i was being quoted.  My fiancee suggested that i have a go at doing it myself and seeing that i am ok at art i decided to give it a try; now i haven’t done any sort of stained glass work before and i looked at it with a daunting enthusiasm, and seeing that the piece of glass above my front door was 80 inches x 40 inches in size – it would be a big task.

I contemplated what sort of work i should do on the glass and wracked my brain for a few days thinking of what images i could paint, i decided on doing a stained glass image of Glastonbury Tor (seeing that it is my spiritual home) with a celtic knot border around it.  I chose to buy a solvent based glass paint made by Marabu and also used their stained glass black liner that you buy in a tube, i decided not to use lead strips as i wanted the stained glass work to have a more free-hand personal touch to it.

Well my progress so far via the image at the top of this post shows where i am at the moment, it has taken me about 2 weeks to finish applying all the black lining and to paint in the celtic knot border, i hit a bit of a dilemma the other night with how i should apply the paint for the mainly large area’s in the centre of the image, so i got a bit of advice from the ‘Stained Glass Town Square’ forum website and one kind person suggested that i either airbrush the paint on or use a small foam roller; i chose to use the foam roller and did a few test runs last night on a spare piece of glass and the effect came out perfect, there was no brush stroke-like smearing on the glass that i had a problem with whilst using a brush, so i think over the weekend i will get stuck into it and get more of the work done.

I will publish another post when the stained glass is finished and fitted above my front door; in the mean time if you also enjoy creating stained glass images then i would be glad to hear from you.

 Cheers ~ Dave

The dream that i had last night was another wierd one; i dreamt that i was back living at a house that myself, my mother and my two brothers lived in during my teens, i can clearly remember looking out of the kitchen window and seeing massive dark tornado’s swirling outside, i can remember debris encircling the tornado’s and the whisps of black clouds.

I then remember seeing my mother outside the house laughing as the tornado’s rage around her and i see myself struggling to get her back inside the house where we will be safe, from here i cannot remember much more of the dream, only the dark swirling clouds of the tornado outside – abit like an armageddon feeling.

It is a great piece of news and a moral booster for a country that has been ripped apart by terrorism and a break from the norm for the ordinary civilians that have to live within the macabre mix of daily terrorist violence.

I hope that the national football team will be treated as heroes and an inspirational hope for future peace in Iraq.

Well done Iraq – you deserve it!

Conservationists have expressed concern over the “senseless and tragic” killing of four mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The bodies of three females and one male were discovered by rangers earlier this week in the Virunga National Park.

Officials said the “executions” were not the work of poachers because they would have taken the bodies.

Since January, seven of the large apes in the region have been shot dead.

Source: BBC News – Concern over gorilla ‘executions’

Health chiefs have banned leisure centres across the country from handing out armbands to children – because they are too dangerous for them due to the risk of spreading bacteria or the danger of them having a puncture; now please tell me is this the most stupid thing to come out of PC Britain yet?

When i was a kid (what a pun) we had none of this politically correct bureaucratic rubbish going on and life was more simple and we were allowed to just get on with things without none of this red-tape rubbish!

The full, laughable story can be read via the Sky News website:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1276795,00.html

A 333,585 acre chunk of land near Weipa in the far north of Irwin’s home state of Queensland will be named after the popular television host and managed by his family, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.

The area includes habitats for the endangered northern quoll, a carnivorous marsupial, and the speartooth shark, as well as an important gallery of dry vine forests, Turnbull said.

Irwin, who spent part of the money he earned from his television show on animal conservation projects, was killed when a poisonous stingray barb pierced his chest as he swam on the Great Barrier Reef last September.

His family vowed to continue his conservation work.

”Steve was in awe of the prolific wildlife of the Wenlock and Ducie rivers bordering the reserve and he would have been proud to see the property protected as a wildlife reserve,” Irwin’s U.S.-born wife, Terri, said.

Prime Minister John Howard said the new park was an important addition to Australia’s national reserve system, ”and is a fitting tribute to a passionate environmentalist and a great Australian.”

What are Pagans? 

There are almost as many denominations to Paganism as there are to Christianity. Within Paganism, there are a large variety of beliefs, dieties, and concepts. However, we (much like Christianity) have certain core values and beliefs that are central to paganism. Some of our core beliefs include:

Respect For Nature A Belief in Harming None (including both yourself and others!) Belief in Deity or Deities (differs depending on denomination) Mutual Respect for All Life A Belief in “Magick”

While some pagans believe in only one Goddess, and one God, others may believe in ONLY a Goddess, or ONLY a God, or MANY different Gods and Goddesses. Also, some pagan paths are more centered on working “Magick” (the ability to make things happen using willpower and nature) than others. Generally speaking, pagans of all denominations are kind, caring individuals that believe that it is wrong to harm any living creature (including plants!). We believe in the law of three…which tells us that whatever actions we do to others, will be brought back upon us threefold. So if we do something bad to someone else, it will come back to us three times as bad.

Pagans are very earth-concious, and live in harmony with nature. They see nature as a living being, and want to treat her with kindness and respect. Pagans also come from all walks of life…there are rich pagans, poor pagans, black pagans, white pagans, indian pagans, old pagans, young pagans…you get the idea! In fact you have probably met many pagans on the street and didn’t know they were pagan! Most pagans do not actively show their religion, for fear of being outcast or ridiculed by friends or family. Some pagans even lose their jobs, or worse, just by admitting that they are pagan.

Pagans (including Wiccans, which is a denomination of Paganism) sometimes also refer to themselves at “witches”. This can really intimidate or scare Christians, as they imagine witches as being evil or cruel as history portrays them. This is absolutely not true, and is only a stereotype. Many Wiccans are reclaiming the word ‘witch’ as a word of power, believing that this word has been unfairly maligned. There are people who use the term ‘witch’ who follow a spiritual/religious/ethical path, but who are not specifically Wiccan.

The most common symbol for paganism is the pentacle. Pagans use this symbol much like Christians use a cross or crucifix. Unfortunately, this symbol is also one of the most misunderstood! What the pentacle symbolizes to pagans is the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, and the point at the top symbolizes Spirit, which is in everything around us. The circle around the 5 pointed star represents unity. While the pentacle HAS been used in Satanism, Satanists use the pentacle with the point facing DOWN. Pagans never use the pentacle in this manner…the point is always up! (See more information about this in the What we are NOT section.

Pagans generally celebrate 8 “sabbats”" (or holidays!) a year. These are covered more extenstively in our Holidays section. We also celebrate 12 “esbats” a year as well. An esbat is a celebration of the moon, usually when full. We celebrate the moon, because it is a symbol of the Goddess, and it carries her power with it.

Pagans also have “alters”, but these are not evil, archaic things. These are usually a simple table or stand where we place our important magickal items, such as incense, a chalice (which represents the goddess), an Athame (dagger) which symbolizes the god, salt to represent earth, incense to represent air, water, and a candle to represent fire. There may also be other items that a pagan may place on their alter to help them with their rituals.

Pagans do “rituals” at major sabbats, esbats, or sometimes for other reasons such as handfastings (pagan marriages), wiccanings (pagan baptising!), or other special occasions. Ritual usually only involves casting a circle, calling upon the diety, calling upon the 4 elements, and carrying out the ritual itself (such as thanking the diety for the harvest, etc). Now, mind you, rituals and ways of doing ritual vary greatly between denominations and individual pagans.

Some pagans do belong to a “coven”, which is a group of pagans who worship the same diety, and have the same purpose and mindset in doing magick. Although some pagans belong to covens, the majority of pagans are solitary, which means they work alone.

These are the basics of what paganism is. Obviously I cannot cover every topic on paganism without writing an entire book, but I hope that this article helps you to understand the truth of paganism.

About the Author:
Stephanie Davies is a 27 year old Missourian with a loving husband and an 8 year old son. She currently owns her own business, Mystickal Incense & More, and sells handmade candles, incense, bath & body products and more at http://www.mystickalincense.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com