Bloggers for Christ and Bloggers for Peace

A few years ago it was a hype to find Bloggers for Christ. Today we do not hear much about such bloggers any more. But recently I encountered “Bloggers For Peace” which did remind me of some years back when we were eager to reform the world. We had enormous aspirations and thought we could do something to change the world.

A Peace movement did not start like a small mustard seed, but it looked more like a dynamite or cluster-bomb bringing lots of groups in movement.

Bloggers for Christ becoming part of the world

The Bloggers for Christ a few years ago, and those still in the running, wanted to offer a  place where people would get to know Christ Jesus, the Messiah and the bringer of peace. They wanted also to offer a place where others could find like minded people to to discuss, encourage and to proclaim the Gospel, trying to bring the Good News of the coming Kingdom where there would be peace and no pain or any trouble at all.

Those Bloggers for Christ started using techniques to get as many people as possible. They and their communities like many churches have discovered a winning formula. They found out:

If you use everything from Halloween to the Super Bowl to connect with people, your church will grow. You’ll need decent pot lucks and stuff – that’s a given. Then work very hard to provide great stuff for the kids.

By taking on all those heathen festivals and worldly events many lost the connection with the Holy Scriptures and became trapped in what the Master Teacher Jesus and his apostles called ‘being of the world’. They preferred to be of the world instead of being of Christ and being a child of God in His realm.

A house of cards

Many of those Bloggers of Christ have constructed a nice following and some got some mega churches. The people in those mega churches also do seem to have a lot of fun. They enjoy themselves and chant a lot but also cry often a lot of gibberish, so called ‘speaking in tongues’. When I look at them I do not see the fire of God burning in their eyes. I also do not feel Jesus in their heart. More questionably I also do not feel the peace nor Christian love or Agapé in them.

Jehovah and His Word, the Holy Scriptures or Bible (Old and New Testament)

Of all those people in those mega churches how many would stand strong in difficult times? How many do really get or got to know what is really written in the 66 Books which make up the Bible? In how many hearts did those words of the Holy Scripture find a place to grow and bring forth fruit? And how many of those who remain after a while and in more difficult times, would continue to remain if the church were persecuted?

The answer is: It’s just a house of cards – even if you teach and preach the right stuff.

Programs and human teaching have replaced the kind of real experience of the presence of God that He desires for us. The world has created a “form of religion” but have “rejected the power thereof”. They even created virtual churches.

The hope and peace movement of the church

In Jesus his time there were already people who thought the Messiah would come to liberate them from the Romans. They had expected that Jesus if he was the promised Messiah, that he would overthrown the invaders and was going to give back Jerusalem to the people of God. They expected a revolt and a taking up of the weapons against the occupying forces.

Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Jews of the 1° Century CE were mistaken. Jesus was a man of peace. His teachings were all about loving each other, even loving your enemy. It was a call to be ready for every body in need, even when it was some one you hated or some one neglected or rejected by the worldly community. The followers of the Jewish master teacher Jeshua, Jesus Christ, had to put on a psychological armour, which would protect them against harm but give them wings to do good.

The rabbi Jesus had demanded that people would unite and call for peace, being a good example to others so that they also could be won to follow the lord.

Jesus was the first man who brought the call to the whole world to love each other. Just love one another, burst forth in joy, was what he desired so that all could love in a reborn world and live in an Ocean of Peace.

Not turn our back on each other

If we have love we will not turn our back on each other, close our hearts to children, or ignore human pain and suffering.

Every human being is created in the likeness of the Creator God. The Divine Creator wanted the human beings as one big family be part of the whole universe in which they could name the things and take care of it (nature: plants and animals).

God implanted the possibility in every being to know the Creator . And the creation got to know what is good and what is bad. But the Creator has also given each individual the free choice to decide which way to go. Everybody is personally responsible but also personal accountable for his deeds.

Each of us, believing in God or not believing in God, believing in gods or believing in materials or events, do have an ‘instinct’ do have a conscience, We all have to square out the things with our own conscience. We can not accuse somebody else of the things we do. In many religions they created a figure which they can blame. So do also many Christians, who blame a demon figure Satan for their mistakes. They only forget that according to the Holy Scriptures satan is not a person as such but a state of action. Satan means adversary, and any person who goes against Gods rules is called such an adversary or Satan (like Peter was called Satan by Jesus). But naturally it is so much easier to have a scapegoat. Instead of creating a whipping boy in a place of doom where people would so claimed to be tortured for ever they better read the Bible and find that God is a God of love who would not give such an extra penalty after they received already one severe punishment for what they have done wrong in life, namely the death.

Not standing still at the side line

We are all liable to punishment and most of us either did something against the laws of the ruling parties or against the Laws of God. But it is useless to go mock on the dock. We all have to work at ourselves. Believing or not, we do have to create a right attitude in our selves.

Jesus did require action from his followers. As man of flesh and blood did he not take any violent action against his opposer, but kept preaching peace. And that is also what he wants from us.

If you want to take Jesus as god (which he is not according to the Word of God), if you want to see in him the son of God, like I and many other non-trinitarian Christians do, or if you do not believe in the God Creator, just take the wisdom from that wise man who was born in 4bCE and learn from his teachings.

Mahatma Gandhi spinning yarn, in the late 1920s

Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi, the pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India, who was called was also called Bapu (“Father”) in India, said as a man of nonviolent resistance that in case all those who call themselves Christian would follow the teachings of Christ Jesus, there would be much more peace in the world and war would fast be gone.

Afraid of a man

Many people are afraid to read the writings about that man from Nazareth. They are afraid to become connected with persons who call that Jesus their god, are afraid because they also think he is God. There are even several people who deny the existence of Jesus, though there are many more documents about him than about Pythagoras, Plato or there is much more written about him than Napoleon or Hitler, but nobody would deny the existence of those persons.

You could wonder why they are so afraid of the words of that teacher who brought into existence a very broad movement of all sort of followers, from the Jewish sect The Way until many different denominations in Christendom.

The actions of that master teacher and miracle worker in the Middle East were so special we can not pass that figure. His teachings are still valuable today, for Christians as well as non-Christians.
Strangely enough many non-Christians would take up any books from Buddhists, Hindus, paganists and any other religions and read those and quote from them, but would not dare to read the Bible, a Book of Books full of wisdom or dare to quote from those Holy Scriptures.

Goodness of human nature

Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi had both a mature philosophy and committed themselves to truthfulness, temperance and chastity. Jesus was many times tempted (while God can not be tempted), and was brought many times in situations where he could defile others, speak against them or even defend himself heavily, but he did not take any violent action and stayed calm (so difficult to do). Both also believed that in every person there is goodness. Both throughout their life searched for insights and tried to make themselves pure, honest and to stay humble. They showed compassion for all forms of life and found it important to come to vows for self-discipline.

Jesus and Mahatma taught mutual tolerance among people of different creeds. They both pointed out that the Kingdom of God should not be looked far away from the ‘self’.

Jesus taught also obedience to the rulers of the country, though he also said we had to be careful what they wanted to impose to others. That what went against the Law of God was not to be followed. And people had to abandon earthly richness to get more spiritual richness. For Jesus the spiritual life was the most important and should be the life we are working for and aiming at.

Overthrowing unjust rule

In 1908 Leo Tolstoy wrote A Letter to a Hindu, which said that only by using love as a weapon through passive resistance could the Indian people overthrow colonial rule. Today not much is changed. The best weapon Jesus and Tolstoy presented is that one of Love.

The world after Jesus Christ has seen other people who also hated violence and preached non-resistance. We can learn from them.

Notions of nonviolence can also found in other religions than Christianity, like in Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. In those religions we also do find the same idea which Jesus taught, that we should show kindness and non-violence towards all living things including animals. We as being part of the creation or universe should respect all living beings as a unity. We should come to see that we are just tenants in this world. As a renter we should have the belief that all living things are connected and handle accordingly.

Steps to take

Believing in gods or not, we all are part of the universe and have to find a way to live together in it.

To be able to live peacefully with each other it would mean that we have to come to terms with each other and find possibilities to accept the way of living of the other and to find ways not to interfere or upset others by our way of living.

To be able to live with each other we do have to accept the differences in each of the human beings and respect their way of thinking which can be totally different than ours.

We should aim at abolishing or minmising the use of violence in human affairs. I with Bloggers for Peace want to embrace the sum of all devours for realizing a lasting, or if possible ­a perpetual, peace among peoples, in the belief that such peace is historically possible. Therefore sometimes nonviolent actions should be undertaken to make others sensible of the need to come to a peaceful and just world.

I am conscious that I always shall belong to a minority, with my ideas of world-formation, religious ideas, humanitarian aims, but it is not because I belong to a minority that this group should be silent or ignored.  You also could join that minority and make it grow.

Some would call us sects or  movements of small minorities convinced that the individual ethic of “negative actions” (nonresistance, sufferance) can be transmitted to the collective arena.

Writing for a cause

We can not ignore the things which happen around us. Incidents will occur in our life that prod us to write for a cause. You also should feel the need to take up the pen and paper.  This writing may be to right about what is going wrong, educate and inform, help others avoid a situation that’s happened to you or to others.

We can all stay individual writers with a solo voice in the darkness. But I do think it would be better if we would join hand and start making a chain. Creating a chain of reactions to which more people shall have to listen because they shall not be able any more to avoid noticing the writings and the cries.

You may do this as an individual writer. Or you may work with a group, helping them in various ways with your writing talents. Keep in mind that you have to be willing to write simply because you want to share and help others.

To be effective

There is much to talk to give people an idea of what is going wrong in this world and how we can change it for the better so that there would be less stress on people and so less pressure to defend oneself or to call for violent actions.

By showing through examples and facts the arguments that prove our point, and by offering overview articles or deeper thoughts on a particular subject we can help others see another side to a topic.

Bloggers For Peace should want to appeal to people’s emotions, not in a maudlin or insincere way, but in a manner that enables them to relate to other people or situations. Therefore it is not bad for some of those writers to recall something similar they or a friend encountered and thus understand better what they’re trying to say.

We are all different people and should keep our own peculiarities and interests. From each different viewpoint each writer can write from his or her own heart, keeping in mind which people they want to attract their attention with their writing or speech. So we all shall have a different tone of writing, a different tone for a humour essay than a grant or investigative report. What is important that every writing is sincere from the personal heart, well informed and trying to bring information as correct as possible.

A Blogger for peace should certainly check their facts. Whether they’re writing articles, grant proposals, booklets, a speech — in fact, for any project — they shall have to make sure their facts and figures are accurate. We must resist the path of fabrication and manipulation. We must get our facts right. We must convince our ‘clients’ to do the same. Most of all, we have to know when to walk away from a bad situation, regardless of financial incentive. Bloggers For Peace their aim should not be financial gaining but look for more spiritual richness.
They always have to remember not simply to write “off the top of their head” with emotion rather than accuracy. They’ll lose credibility quickly this way, and that is something we can not permit. The cause is to important. Too many people are involved in the consequences of a cause left abandoned.

We do not have to be professional writers. Each individual can have their say in the community. Each voice is valuable. And we should let the world know that each voice in this world has the right to speak and has the right to be respected. Those who have the “power of the pen” and a keyboard connected to the Internet should know the good and the bad of their possibilities to connect with many. Bloggers for peace should use their writing not for the good of their own ego, but for the best of the community they are living in.

Aim of Bloggers For Peace

The Aim of Bloggers For Peace should be to reach out to people around the world to do good, to comfort, and encourage in the hope to create a better place for living, where there is no violence, no hate, no jealousy, no envy, but brotherly love and the will to share with as many as possible in a beautiful clean environment.

We all should want to encourage people to keep investigating and to do something about the problems in the world. We should all try to make an eye opener.

Not bringing the lightening and noise of bomb-fire but the beauty of peaceful fireworks.

Reason to Unite

On voice on its own can perhaps do not much. More voice brought together sound stronger and have a further reach.

Joining Hands

Those who are interested to write about the nonsense of war, the absurdities of weaponry, the reasons why to do the best we can to keep up human rights, to write about unjust situations in this world, they should bring their writings in the sight of other writers and as many readers as possible.

By joining forces they can spread the news, they can let other writers about the same subjects be know to others, and they can take care that  links to other articles about those valuable subjects would be spread around like minded and reach other interested people.

By linking to articles of other writers about similar subjects, different thoughts can be presented to the own and other readers, so that they can think more about it and hear the different voices and opinions from the different writers.

On the net you may find many “Writing for a Cause” competitions, but I am not calling for a competition. Better is it to join hand to be equally effective not competing one against the other but working together for the one goal, a peaceful righteous world.

We should not wait longer to let the world know it is high time to take care of nature but also of the inner soul. It is time to let those who prefer the voice of weapons know that there is a much better way without harming others, to have a bright colourful world full of happiness instead of pain and sorrow.

Let join force!

Let us together join forces to seek, pursue, and offer peace!

Bloggers For Peace starters

Most of the Peace Movement groups of the 1960ies and 70ies have disappeared are have become small local movements with nearly no influence.

Kozo with Everyday Gurus started a call for making a difference. In an effort to actively do something to create more peace in the world in 2013, Kozo and other blogwriters are going to dedicate a number of their posts specifically to peace. They invite you to join the Bloggers For Peace (B4Peace).

You can find bloggers4peace.wordpress.com who with Kozo and  Cheri Speak ask that you help spread peace each day wherever you are, however you can. Write, re-post, share, like, follow, and spread the message because as a wise woman once said,

“If we have no Peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  ~ Mother Teresa

All you have to do to participate (and we hope you will) is…

On my page: Bloggers For Peace you can read more about the necessity of the peace-movement and find out how you can bring in your useful bit.

Kozo & Cheri asks that you… please add the link to their post as a “related Article” in all of your B4Peace posts so that we have one place to retrieve the pings so we can post your links to the B4Peace FaceBook and Pinterest pages as well as add it to our #B4Peace Tweets! This will not only further spread the message of peace, but will also increase traffic to your Blog.

It is a pity the links to Kozo & Cheri their blog on some of my other pages did, after some days, not give any backlink on their place and not on the other linked webpages. So linking to that place only could generate more readers to their blog, but would not bring any reader from theirs to one of mine, which is a shame, and I do hope would not be their intention. (It even can be that they did not get to know that there were links placed to their site on the other websites.)  It proofs that such a linking only would not work. Also other B4Peace bloggers would not get to know that a new blog would be written or that an other blogger joined the movement. And I do hope it can become a movement over the borders of the continents.

Personally I would also ad, that those Bloggers For Peace better give a list of other B4Peace writers, like I placed on in the right column. (In case you would like to be added let me know.) Linking to each other makes it also easier to find related articles to link to.

By “Following” each other they shall also be able to get to know when one or the other writes a new article and shall give opportunities to react or to spread that message further by linking to it or by reblogging it (A much better way to spread the peace message than only having backlinks in one place.).

Please do find some dreamers to start with:

1. Bloggers For Peace (Cheri Speak & Kozo)
2. We Can Make a Difference–Right Here, Right Now
3. Kozo & Cheri asks that you…
4. Spread the Peace on Facebook
5. Steve Strother on Blogging For Peace
6. B4Peace — February
7. Bloggers for Peace March Challenge: Forgiveness
8. Teaching Children Peace – A Bloggers for Peace post
9. The Missing Peace
10. Quick Tip: Take Up the Gauntlet
11. Inner Peace and World Peace
12. Let There Be Peace on Earth
13. The Universe Is All of Us
14. The “Pursuit” of Happiness
15. Living Life to the Fullest
16. 7 Random Acts of Peace for Random Acts of Kindness Week
17. B4Peace by a “World Traveler who is Spiritual”
18. The Peace Garden
19. Happy Birthday to a Warrior for Peace
20. Professions for Peace musings on life, love and peace
21. Irresistable Shares: Bloggers for Peace…
22. When It Comes To Time
23. The Sea of Humanity
24. Monthly Peace Challenge: Giveaway!
25. Key To Peace
26. Forgiveness Brings Peace
27. Train Up A Child
28. The Plane Crash that Killed a Million People
29. Connecting to “The Other” — A Daily Prompt
30. A Woman’s Peace

Please do also find:

1. Writers for a cause
2. Volunteer Opportunities!
3. Moving Toward World Peace, by Sandra Harrison Kay
4. Terry Rose Supports Doctors Without Borders
5. Human Rights Causes
6. 6 Impossible-ossible Things
7. Our Hearts’ Vision – B4Peace
8. Powerless – a Bloggers for Peace post

To start Blogging for a cause:

1. What speechwriters can learn from Boston’s news coverage The priority to get the facts right should be as paramount to speechwriters as it is journalists.
2. Cause and Effect Essay
3. Writing Cause or Effect Essays
4. How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay
5. How To: Write an Article About Your Cause
6. How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay
7. How to Write Effectively For a Cause
8. Write What You Want to Write!
9. Whether to Be Rich, Enriched, or Enriching…
10. Cause and effect essay writing tips

Additional articles on following subjects:

Faith:

1. To mean, to think, outing your opinion, conviction, belief – Menen, mening, overtuiging, opinie, geloof
2. Concerning Faith and the Gospel
3. Good in people
4. Bible Basic Intro
5. Concerning Faith and the Gospel
6. Bible Word of God, inspired and infallible
7. What’s church for, anyway?
8. Getting to know the Truth
9. Belief of the things that God has promised

About God and gods:

1. Not sure there exist a God
2. God of gods
3. Hashem השם, Hebrew for “the Name”
4. Attributes to God, titles ascribed to Him or Names given to JHWH, the God of gods.
5. Only One God
6. God is One
7. The Trinity – The truth
8. How did the Trinity Doctrine Develop
9. How do trinitarians equate divine nature
10. History of the acceptance of a three-in-one God
11. The Great Trinity debate
12. Newton not believing in the Holy Trinity
13. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #1 Creator and His Prophets
14. Full authority belongs to God
15. TD Jakes Breaks Down the Trinity, Addresses Being Called a ‘Heretic’
16. Believing in God the rewarder
17. Incomplete without the mind of God
18. Is God hiding His face when He is seemingly silent?
19. The professor, God, Faith and the student

About Jesus:

1. Who was Jesus? Video
2. Who is Jesus #1 Introduction
3. Who is Jesus Christ? #1 What does the Bible say
4. Who is Jesus #2 Jesus Christ, man who died
5. Who is Jesus #4 Clear statements that our heavenly Father is his “God”
6. Who is Jesus #6 Jesus prays to God
7. Who is Jesus #7 Also. Trust in God; trust also in me
8. Who is Jesus #8 Father greater than Jesus
9. Who is Jesus #9 100% or not
10. Who is Jesus #10 Jesus was tempted in every way
11. Who is Jesus #11 What do famous people say about Him
12. Who is Jesus #12 Conclusion
13. On the Nature of Christ
14. Jesus as fully human
15. The Anointed begotten Son of God
16. Reasons That Jesus Was Not God
17. Preexistence in the Divine purpose and Trinity
18. Altered to fit a Trinity
19. Hellenistic influences
20. Jesus begotten Son of God #18 Believing in inhuman or human person
21. Da Vinci Code: Was Jesus Human or Divine?
22. Jesus’ answers about God
23. Creator and Blogger God 2 Image and likeness
24. The task given to us to love each other
25. Our Relationship with God, Jesus and each other
26. One Mediator
27. Was Jesus Religious
28. How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
29. Mission Son of God perceived as failure

Expectations:

1. For those who have not the rudiments of an historical sense
2. Choices to make in suffering
3. Certainty in a troubled world
4. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
5. We are ourselve responsible
6. Wrath kills the foolish man, and envy consumes the covetous one
7. Kingdom of God what will it be like
8. Biblepower to change
9. Importuning for suffering hearts
10. Fearing the right person
11. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
12. Liberal and evangelical Christians
13. Like-mindedness and Christians
14. When there Seems no future in suffering
15. Doctrine and Conduct Cause and Effect
16. Commitment to Christian unity
17. United people under Christ
18. True riches
19. Commitment to Christian unity
20. Solving all the problems that come to us

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• And do everything with Love… (sheanwages.wordpress.com)
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  +
  the Westboro’s of the world are starting to give the true church a bad reputation and the ones that aren’t associated with that behavior don’t know enough to combat or defend the remarks clearly pointed at all of us.
  +
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  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. ( II Corinthians 5:20-21) (ESV)
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