Category: Religion and Theology

respond to this discussion:
Story-Tuning My Life Within a Specific Relationship
The Me I see NOW is gradually being transformed into the Me I want to see in my life. As I continue to seek the Lord, he is helping me to recognize and adjust my shortcomings and downfalls by the power of the Holy Spirit. According to Ortberg 2010, “The only way to become the person God made you to be is to live with the Spirit of God flowing through you like a river of Living Water” (p. 39).
Languishing
a) spiritual: Before doing anything else in the morning, I pray to God for about forty-five minutes, yet my relationship with my eldest son needs improvement.
b) emotionally/mentally: When faced with challenges anxiety begins to creep up within me, it affects how I think, and I overindulge in eating chocolate cakes or cookies. The Bible gives us clear instructions on how we must confront anxiety and manage stress through prayer. (Philippians 4:6-7, NIV). According to Pettit 2008, “We are all emotional beings, the sooner we can our emotions, it only then can we have a heart that can listen” (p. 130).
c) Physical: I have been working out five days a week, trying to get this overweight body back in shape. (I Corinthians 6: 19, NIV) informs us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, so I must nourish my body with healthy things.
The Me I Want to Be SOON, in sixty days is a person who has the faith as small as a mustard seed and believes that every mountain I encounter will be leveled. As I am called to serve my risen Savior, my Guiding Purpose Statement (GPS) I am committed to becoming a better housewife and mother.
a) A person who is filled with love, empathy, and the compassion of Christ when interacting with family and people. Being able to extend grace to others without being judgmental. When communicating with others remember the “Home Rule, treat others how they need to be treated, not how you need to be treated” (Rosenberg & Silvert, 2021, p. 150).
b) A person who can forgive without any residue of holding grudges. According to Issler, “The journey toward forgiving another involves much more than a simplistic decision to “forgive and forget” (p. 164). God is the one who transforms our hearts to be able to forgive.
c) A person who doesn’t get anxious or afraid to step out on faith, and accomplish the task God has planned, knowing that God is in full control of the outcome. Remove myself out of the way and allow the Lord to step in to accomplish His will in my life.
d) Allow my confidence to rise high in Christ, and let go of insecurity, and self-doubting. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13, NIV) Remove the things that would distract me from experiencing God’s best life. According to Becker 2016, “Subtracting unneeded stuff multiplies opportunities to pursue things you care about” (p. 12).
The Me I Want to see SOON is a person who is walking in humility, patience, and with the peace of the Lord resting and ruling in my heart. So, when people see me, they encounter a reflection of Jesus Christ.

***INITIAL POST IS 250 words and replies are 150 each ***
The discussion boards provide you the opportunity to describe what you are learning and learn to engage with others in fair, precise ways. Each discussion board targets a specific feature in that week’s material.
Parameters: You must write one initial response of 250-300 words to one of the two prompts. Two references are required. Three replies of 150-200 words are also required. Two replies should be on the topic opposite of the one you chose in the initial thread. The other reply can be a response to either prompt. Two references are required for each reply post. Further instructions are located in the document above. 
Prompt 1: In light of the videos provided this week, describe some ways writings from Ancient Near Eastern peoples (e.g. Egyptians, Hittites, Babylonians) can help us understand a biblical text.
Prompt 2: How should we evaluate the stories of violence in the Old Testament, particularly the events surrounding the conquest of Canaan (Joshua, Judges)?

Are targetted assassinations moral ?
Was Ehud morally right right to kill Eglon?
Was Jael right to kill Sisera?
Are they heroes? 
Answer the above questions with your OPINION. Base your opinion only by information that is contained in this lecture. Please reference information in this lecture when answering the question.
600 words of content. No cover page or references needed. 

Explain the relationship between Christianity and
history. Does it exist? What is a distinctly Christian approach, specifically
to your chosen research topic?
Research Topic:
What
specific economic challenges did post-war economic instability and the Great
Depression present to Germany, and how did Adolf Hitler strategically leverage
these conditions to consolidate power through policies such as rearmament,
public works programs, and propaganda?
To help you formulate your thread, consider the
History Department’s statement of biblical principles:
·     
God is comprehensively
sovereign over the nations. (Acts 17:26)
·     
Jesus Christ is
central in human history. (Colossians 1: 16–17, Ephesians 1:10)
·     
God has established
order, intelligence, and truth in the universe and history. (Isaiah 42:5, John
1:1, John 1:14, Acts 17:25 & 28, Romans 11:36)
·     
Commitment to
objectivity and honesty is essential to historical investigation. (Proverbs
12:19)
·     
The Bible provides
principles of ethics that guide our evaluation of people and nations. (Exodus
20:1–17)
·     
Man is an image-bearer
of God, yet fallen and sinful. (Genesis 1:27, Romans 1:18–32)
·     
The historian must be
dedicated to a reasoned and investigated reconstruction of primary sources.
(Luke 1:1–4)
·     
The Bible teaches all
men to recognize their human limitations. (Psalm 90, Psalm 139)
·     
History illustrates
the brevity of life and the reality of eternity to come. (Ecclesiastes 3:11,
James 4:13–15, Psalm 39:4–6)

Due on Fri. May 10. 10-15 pages in length, double-spaced. Proper citation
of sources and bibliography MUST BE PROVIDED. In this assignment, each student shall First (1) describe in writing their own position(s) which they have formulated for ethical decision-making in light of what they have learned and experienced in the course. Careful and coherent arguments in support of each student’s own thinking must be presented. Then two (2) students will apply their own ethical judgements and arguments to an ethical issue or problem which interest them. 
The topic that you will be writing about is the ethical implications of surveillance technology, particularly focusing on facial recognition software used by government and law enforcement. This topic taps into significant ethical debates surrounding privacy, security, and civil liberties. The ethics of when it is ethical for government agencies to use facial recognition technology (if it is ethical at all)

Love,D.J.2000. A pastoral encounter of care and hermeneutics page 429-440
Jordan, M. 1991. Prayer and meditation in pastoral care and counseling Du Plessis, A.L.2016. The Lord’s prayer as a paradigm in restorative justice in brokenness

Power and status are significant issues in every community that have the potential to promote unity or disunity.  Your Signature Assignment represents a case study to allow students to demonstrate honed reading and interpretation skills, and examine the use of power and status within a particular context. 
For this assignment we are using the following definitions.
Worth: value in God’s eyes.
Status: value in relation to social position.
Relationship: how we interact with one another given worth and status.
Instructions
As a way to become aware of how prevalent issues of status are in scripture use the Worth and Status worksheet to identify a sampling of areas in which status is highlighted in the New Testament. Articulate what the underlying story, or principle, is that shapes how these passages view status, worth and relationships.

The initial post must be at least 270 words!!!!, the 3 reply posts must be as accurate as possible 
Articles
Bhandar. (2017). New NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh battles racism in Canadian politics with love. The Conversation. https://search.proquest.com/wire-feeds/jagmeet-singh-battles-racism-canadian-politics/docview/1944359267/se-2?accountid=142373
Singh, A. K. (2000). The universal ideal of Sikhism. Global Dialogue. Nicosia, 2(1), 99-108. https://search.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/universal-ideal-sikhism/docview/211509026/se-2?accountid=142373
Zabeen, K. (2020). Disruptive garb: Gender production and millennial Sikh fashion enterprises in Canada. Religions, 11(4), 160. https://search.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/disruptive-garb-gender-production-millennial-sikh/docview/2385989788/se-2?accountid=142373
Video
Gill, R. S. (2016, November 15). The oneness of God and the diversity of religions: A Sikh perspective [Video]. California Lutheran University. https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/phillips_lectures/15/
Using the readings and video, answer the following:
How are the moral and religious attitudes of Sikhism evident in the conduct of Jagmeet Singh as he contends with harassment? Furthermore, how does the “online values-based fashion” of “Sikh chic” contend with norms within the Sikh community?
SIKHISM
– RELIGION AND SOCIETY  |  SPIRITUAL REALITY IN SOCIO-POLITICAL CONTEXT
It
is evident that we live in an economico-politically driven type of
society, – especially when it comes to the Western world, and especially when
it comes to the NorthAmerican segment of the Western world. Obviously – or, maybe, not so obviously? – the real power, the economical/corporate
power, gets to select, structure, establish its instruments of action in the
social milieu: the structures of political power. This type of ‘social recipe’ moves our human reality, quite obviously, farther
and farther from what used to be, – from what it, actually, must be
– its actual center: spirituality. This ‘divorce’ from the spiritual center of Life, – conveniently presented as a
form/symptom of progress – has many consequences, at many levels.
Trouble is, once we step into this matrix of ‘progress’ and allow ourselves to
be mesmerized and seduced by it, big majority of these consequences become
invisible: our senses meant to perceive them get atrophied and the matrix
becomes the actual, perfect reality.
One of the regrettable consequences of this phenomenon – much more damaging
than it seems – is the inverting, the subversion, the overthrowing of the actual,
natural scale of human values in favour of a strategically/politically
created, artificial one, meant to re-direct the real human
sense of value: meant to turn the free human sense of value into
a directed one. We become characters in a script that is not written by us – not even with us being
aware. In this context/script, the political values seem essential and the spiritual
values seem peripheral. Our sense of ‘central’, ‘essential’ is being pushed
from the spiritual horizon towards the political reality: “ ‘It is 6.oo o’clock
in the afternoon and this is what we want you to think’ – CNN”. Once the spiritual center lost, the human being can be fed anything – any image
of reality, any sense of truth, any pattern of thinking etc: this is how the
matrix exists.
In
this situation, one of the most natural phenomena – and most evident, in many
aspects – immediately noticeable in the human society is a clash between the
spiritual values and the political ones: a clash between a spiritual
sense of reality and a politically-driven strategy of manipulating
our sense of reality.
VERY
IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND: This phenomenon is being ‘interfaced’ by the smoky
image and idea of a clash between religions: the sense of tension, the
sense of clash is being deviated from its real context – spiritual ÷ political
– towards a scenario that serves well the political agenda, – the pretended
clash between religions. Of course, this has a deeper effect: the instillation of the idea that religion,
in its biasness, rigidity and exclusivity, tends to naturally be a conflictual
phenomenon, obsolete, disconnected from the actual reality etc, a
perpetual source of tension and an unbearable burden for the
progressive, contemporary world.
Of course, once we take the pill of clash between religions we become
unable to see the real clash, – the one between spirituality
and politics. 

how does kierkegaard’s social critique in The present age express a moden crisis of meaning? Relating this to the ideas in Sickness unto Death, how does he see this crisis as distinctly existential? Speak to the following topics: 1. reflective age 2. the public 3. inauthentic/authentic self
Class material: Basic writings of existentialism.
Answer should include a direct reference to ideas and examples from our course readings, supported by citations from the texts.

Start by reading through the master’s thesis in religion document to get an overview of the subject. Read through the introduction document afterwards. 
You must write about the results, analysis, discussion and conclusion of the study. Follow the introduction document to see what needs to be written.
The transcriptions of the interviews are included as attached files. Have signed them if they are from the state or a religious organization. 
Please theme the interviews in the output based on the questions and which organization they are from.
Please refer to previous text in the analysis and discussion. Also stated in the introduction document, 
Finally, write an abstract for the entire essay.
Write if you have questions or concerns.