‘I Once Was Lost’ is a Christian comedy about the humor, havoc and heartaches that come along with dating when you refuse to compromise your faith. In Episode #1, Elaine explores the possibilities of internet dating at the insistence of her close friend, roommate and serial dater, Lauren. WWW.IONCEWASLOSTTHESERIES.COM www.facebook.com www.twitter.com This series features music by: Lecrae, Sho Baraka and Trip Lee. Visit: www.reachrecords.com for more information on these and other faith based Hip Hop and R&B artists. Produced by Elaine Alaniz Written by: Nikki Chiemelu & Elaine Alaniz Developed by: Nikki Chiemelu Directed & Edited by: Joe Medina copyright 2010 Nahum 17 Productions, LLC. Video Rating: 4 / 5
In this culture it is accepted and encouraged to be emotionally and physically intimate with someone WHILE getting to know them and BEFORE any type of commitment. If your goal is marriage, this video explains a better, safer, and more efficient way to cultivate a meaning relationship. Divorce statistics: www.divorcerate.org Music: Prince Ea “Different Girl” Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/torahcents Twitter: www.twitter.com/torahcents
Sunday at Church turns out to be anything but a peaceful afternoon as Lauren scouts for a new man while Elaine comes across some vicious pastor groupies. WWW.IONCEWASLOSTTHESERIES.COM www.facebook.com www.twitter.com Created & Produced by: Elaine Alaniz Written by: Nikki Chiemelu & Elaine Alaniz Developed by: Nikki Chiemelu Directed by: Joe Medina Edited by: Scott Marett This episode featured music by: Lecrae “Live Free.”. Visit: www.reachrecords.com & Dwayne Tryumf “Proverbs 31 Woman” Visit www.tryumf.co.uk. For more information on these and other faith based Hip Hop and R&B artists that were featured on the show please visit WWW.IONCEWASLOSTTHESERIES.COM and click on “the music” tab. copyright 2010 Nahum 17 Productions, LLC. Video Rating: 5 / 5
Ladies, one of the major qualities you should look for in a guy is his value for the presence of God. This video explains why. Dont go for the guy that has the bling and the material things, go for the one who knows and loves God. Video Rating: 4 / 5
I Once Was Lost Real, funny, crazy but always true to heart, ‘I Once Was Lost’ takes on a topic that so many of us deal with in our everyday lives but rarely see presented on screen: dating as a Christian. As a young, single professional living in the big city, Elaine wants the same thing every other young Christian woman wants: someone to share her life with and someone who shares her beliefs. You’d think that wouldn’t be too hard to find, right? Think again. As Elaine navigates her way through the dating world, she soon discovers that trying to find Mr. Right while staying on the right path is easier said than done. From Speedo-wearing religion hoppers to kleptomaniacs to wanna-be Christian rock stars with delusions of grandeur, Elaine soon realizes that dating in the Christian world is more complicated and far crazier than she ever imagined. Despite all of the disastrous dating mishaps, Elaine is still determined not to compromise her faith for love and prove that in order to find “The One,” you don’t have to lose yourself in the process. Originally touted as Sex and the City goes to church, IOWL has become much more than that one-liner implies. Given its strong Christian themes, humor, and music, which has become an integral and popular part of the series, IOWL is a hit among women and men alike among broad demographics. Episodes 1-8 is available on YouTube, Hulu, Facebook, and FunnyorDie.com Episodes 9 coming soon! Created & Written By: Elaine Alaniz Developed …
Where does dating belong in the church? Should Christians date? What does the Bible have to say? Video Rating: 4 / 5
I have come to a conclusion; there is a difference between religion and spirituality. People that are religious say that they are spiritual. Many times the words are thrown about interchangeably. However, there is a difference. Religion is an idealized set of beliefs. With religion everyone has to ascribe to those beliefs or they are not a part of that religion. Spirituality is personal with universal concepts, Universal in that all can ascribe to those beliefs and they work without impartiality to race or condition. Religion is objective, meaning others agree to dogma and rules. Spirituality is subjective; it is subject to the internal beliefs, moods and emotions of the individual.
Jesus was teaching spiritual principles, but man for its own reasons made Christianity about Jesus rather than what he was attempting to teach. Jesus was attempting to teach us to connect to a universal consciousness not some all powerful being that watched over us like a guard dog ready to bite us and punish us when we did some wrong determined by man. Jesus teachings were to lead man into discovering his greater existence in the universe. Man unfortunately for centuries have believed that the world we live in is the entire universe. Man has believed what we experience with our five senses is all there is to the universe. Even though there is much evidence to the contrary, man persists in his limited view of his existence. Religion is an aid in the persistence of limiting thought.
In the NIV bible, John 4:24 Jesus states, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
This is one of the scriptures that Jesus makes a statement that is meant to be universal in nature. Man has now defined what a worshiper is and the consequences when he does not fit the definition. Did Jesus intend his teaching to separate man or to unite? Religion says we all have to fit a definition of worshiper. Jesus had principles that taught us HOW to worship.
John 7:16 Jesus answered, “my teaching in not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”
This scripture is spoken figuratively by Jesus. He says …HIM who sent me. Can God be a person, or did Jesus mean a universal force? What is God’s will and how do you choose it? Who decides your choice? Who decides where his teachings come from? Religion believes they have answered those questions and they have answered them for anyone that believes in the ascribed dogma. Jesus was giving us formulas to find out for ourselves. How does one know that the teachings of Jesus come from God? When they search for the meaning for themselves. When that person goes inside and starts to ask the hard questions.
John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Religion made this scripture and statement about the man. Figuratively Jesus was saying that he can teach us how to recognize our eternal selves. If we follow his TEACHINGS he can give us the knowledge.
One of the most destructive verses to mankind and his universality is John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
This one verse man has taken literally from Jesus. He meant that through his teachings man would be enlightened. Religion made it about THE MAN Jesus rather than about the universal enlightenment of man. Religion has separated mankind from its understanding of his place in the universe for thousands of years. We have within us a vast reservoir of knowledge. We have to be brave enough to step outside the accepted NORMS of religion to discover that knowledge. That is what the teachings of Jesus was about. Not the dogmatic rants of self proclaimed disciples. Does a teacher TELL you how to think? Or is a teacher to give you a foundation on which to build?
It is time for us to wake up. We have gotten lost in religion. Our purpose is much greater and our knowledge more vast than any religious thought will allow us to perceive. Religion controls through fear and misinformation, giving us concepts of a vengeful God and hell. We should open our minds to the eternal wisdom of our souls. Not to the finite rants of preachers. We all have infinite abilities that Jesus alluded to in the scripture. You have to be brave enough to investigate for yourself and strong enough to stand up to thousands of years of ignorance. Spirituality is personal and liberating. Religion is bastion of fearful and confining thought.
I am a teacher by trade. I am developing spiritually and enjoy writing and putting my thoughts down in my blog. My gift is to take difficult concepts and make them understandable. come by my blog and see. I also podcast my articles and use video and images to illustrate and give deeper insight on the subject. Reginalc is me @ http://reginaldc.me
THE BREWING POT (Rebuild Egypt): www.facebook.com WE ARE ALL KHALED SAID: www.facebook.com HELP HERE: www.freeegyptnow.org LIVE FEED english.aljazeera.net Producer/Director/Writer: Tamer Shaaban The world has heard Egypt’s call for help, and now we are responding. We need our nations to respond equally. Today, it doesn’t matter what race, ethnicity, gender, or religion you are. Today we are all Egyptian, today we are all human beings. The Egyptian people have fought for their freedom but their government won’t set them free. This video is a testament that we are all people fighting for a free Egypt and a free world. Today we make our voice heard. Individually we’re a whisper, Together we’re deafening. We call for peace and ask our leaders to do the same. A very special thanks to the 50+ people who contributed and helped make this video possible. Sources Song: “London” — by James Newton Howard FPShorts www.filmparlor.net www.facebook.com Reuters www.youtube.com CNN www.cnn.com Aljazeera http The Atlantic theatlantic.tumblr.com National Press news.nationalpost.com Boston.com www.boston.com Reddit User: Latenightcabdriving www.reddit.com Video Rating: 4 / 5
If we go deep into the mind of this man on earth we come to the conclusion that this man on this earth has lost faith in God and he is following a religion in a formal way. Most of the religions and people in those religions have taken up their religions as political units and they have started to surpass the other religions. They are coming with new meanings of their texts and they are telling the people that their religions is telling something which is not available in texts of other religions. Similarly they are coming with stories which are in their mythologies and they are telling us that their prophets were more powerful than prophets in other religions.
In fact that this man has traveled centuries when he firstly declared that there is a God who had created this world, this universe and then this man on this earth. They gave all power to God and then they started worshiping and praying before that God. They had been on this path since centuries and we have seen that this man could not become religious nor he could completely had faith in God and left all his activities to God. We have seen that this man had been praying to God but he never left his own efforts. There had been prayers, but at the same time this man had been at work and we have noted that at most of the times this man had been believing in his own efforts and he was just having some help from the side of God. But he had been successful he never thanked God but had been boasting that he himself had been working hard and that is the reason, he could succeed.
The man had been believing in one of their religions on this earth and he had been hating the people in the other religions and it is on record that people in one religion had been trying to persuade others to join their religion and if they had been powerful they had been forcing conversion and it is also on record that the people who were not agreeing to convert were killed . It is also on record that that the religious places of one religions had been demolished and on those very places the rulers had been constructing religious places of their own religions, though no religious books allows such conversions and such demolitions. All these non-religious acts had been there which clearly means that this man had not been obeying the directions given to them by their prophets.
Today when the man has entered the age of science and technology, he has adopted a new way of life. If they are performing some religious ceremonies these are just formal and they try to establish that their religion is still alive. If we conduct a survey of police stations, the courts and the jails, we shall find people of all the religions and we shall find that they all had been committing crimes, sins and misconducts of the same type irrespective of their religions. When they people commit some crime, sin or misconduct they forget to which religion they belong. Similarly when they commit crimes, sins and misconducts, they forget that God is there and He shall be punishing them. It seems the people have got no real faith in God and in any religion because they had been violating all the norms set by God and by the religions and history is full of crimes, sins and misconducts. No religion and even God could not set this man right. Some wise people, some intellectuals and scholars had been writing down explanations of religious texts and some had been writing books on art of living and we have noted that instead of original texts, the people are liking these new books and new philosophy of life. They are trying to follow this new philosophy and they have started saying that old religions are making us fundamentalists and the present age does not like people who are fundamentalists. There is war between these two sets of people and one has turned terrorists and the other has turned rioter and they both are killing the people of the other wing. The whole world has become Kurkshetra and nobody on this earth is safe. No country is safe and that is the reason most of the time of the people is spent in attacking others and most of the time is spent in saving oneself. No body know that would be the next step of this man on this earth when he shall not be believing in God and in religion.
