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Let me count the ways.....
I was raised in a traditional northern baptist church. My father was episcopal and my mother was Lutheran. I am good with God, and believe in the power of prayer, yet I haven't attended church for 50 years.
Sometimes I think I want to, but there are things that hold me back. Just this week, a couple of nice men from the local baptist church stopped to invite us to Easter services. I'm tempted, but I know what I'm like.
If I went and liked the atmosphere, I'd probably start volunteering for a bunch of stuff...child care? Sure. Food pantry? Sure. Sunday school? Sure. I don't want to get involved. I'm retired. The next thing I know, I'd be hip deep in mud in someplace in Africa.
Your choice.
Though I would warn you. Any attack on the Body of Christ is an attack on Christ himself.
Or it could be that we don't like organized religion despite being believers. Maybe we have been burned by a church, felt unwelcome or whatever. Maybe we read our Bible daily and feel no need to attend church. Not all believers who don't attend stay away because they are living a sinful life.
So, you're a lone ranger Christian? Have you considered meeting informally with other believers? At someone's house or maybe a coffee shop?
Or it could be that we don't like organized religion despite being believers. Maybe we have been burned by a church, felt unwelcome or whatever. Maybe we read our Bible daily and feel no need to attend church. Not all believers who don't attend stay away because they are living a sinful life.
Well said. I don't like organized religion of the variety I've been in and that includes a good array of different types of Christian denominations. I am part of the body of Christ, and I have Christian fellowship outside of organized religion. I feel no compulsion to fill a pew at a set time and I don't have any desire to hear a man stand in a pulpit droning on and on about how singul and guilty everyone else is because I already know everyone is guilty of sin and in a battle with a sin nature, temptations of the flesh and the world and sentenced death. Also, I don't want to hear the same person standing on a platform facing a captive audience - there is something about that that seems wrong to me. I guess it is because I do not believe in "clergy and laity" since Jesus Christ is our high priest. That is also the big problem I have with Catholicism -- the "ordination of priests". Also, I do not want to listen to any political stuff coming from the pastor. But I will just leave it at that for now.
How so. I've actually never seen this accusation proven. Of course attention to Passover has been diluted over time.
Everyone out looking for boiled eggs is not pagan in any way. It's a tradition.
With hebrew roots I might add.
Sorry, I disagree....
"If we pause to reflect upon the symbolism of the foods, rituals and festivities of the spring, we can gain a valuable perspective into the energy, mystery and magic available to us at these times. With this awareness, we can drop into our own hearts and find the medicine we each need, creating new and personal rituals with ancient tools and deep meaning.
While I am not a practicing Christian, Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays, and I am flooded with joyful memories of Polish and American Easter customs of my childhood. As with most of today’s popular holidays, each of these have clear roots in paganism and time-honored earth worshipping practices. What I have shared below is based on my personal experience working with plant shamanism, earth based spirituality and my upbringing in Poland and the US as a Roman Catholic.
The Pagan Roots of Easter
Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, but before Christianity the Spring Equinox represented the return of the sun God from the underworld – the rebirth of light, life and creation. The two vernal equinoxes (the only two times a year when there is a perfect balance between light and dark, day and night) were auspicious and potent occasions, celebrated by people whose lives depended on the fertility of the earth. Civilizations worldwide created rituals and celebrations to tip the balance into a fertile spring, a time of renewal, regeneration and resurrection.
Today, we celebrate Easter on the Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox — the date of this celebration alone is deeply rooted in the earth-based traditions that follow the cycles of nature.
Sacred symbolism
The symbols associated with Easter – the egg and the bunny or hare, are also ancient pre-Christian symbols of fertility, birth, creation and the Goddess.
The rabbit is connected to fertility – and spring is a time of creation, sex and birth. Our ancestors lived so close to the earth that their lives depended on animals procreating, bees fertilizing their fruit trees, essentially relying on all of nature to have sex!
The egg is a powerful and ancient symbol as well, and thus when used in rituals such as egg painting, it becomes a tool for magic and transformation. Symbolizing the universe, we can imagine the shell as the crust of the earth, the magma as the egg white, and the yolk the core. The egg represents life, and has a long history of ritualistic and shamanic use around the world. Adding the symbols of color to the eggs specifies the power given to them – the Druids were said to dye eggs red, like menstrual blood, and bury them in the newly plowed fields in late winter to draw life force energy into the land and encourage fertility and abundance. Following the traditional origins of painting eggs, we discover a sacred and magical ritual of transformation and manifestation.
Pysanky – Painted Egg Talismans
While today many people dye eggs in rainbow colors, the tradition of egg painting was once more elaborate and the process was in fact a prayer and magical rite involving “writing” sacred symbols and prayers onto the egg.
Still practiced in my home country of Poland and in Eastern Europe, the ancient art of “Pysanky” (meaning “to write” in Ukrainian) dates back to 1300 BC. The symbols that are traditionally inscribed are rooted in the Trypillian culture, a matriarchal society that worshiped mother earth and flourished six thousand years ago in Eastern Europe.
The budding tree, the bird, the sun, the stars — these are the types of symbols we find on the pysanky. One of the most notable ancient symbols found on all traditional designs is the unending line, which denotes the cyclical nature of life. Other examples include the circle, cross, dots, matriarchal symbols, wheat, fir tree, horse, stag, horns and bear’s paws.
The process of “writing” on the eggs involves pouring heated beeswax through a pencil like copper cylinder. Where the wax covers the egg, the color is preserved. The egg is dipped numerous times into various colors, and new designs are added each time a color is applied. The result is an egg covered in black beeswax. At the end, you bring the egg close to the flame of the candle, gently wiping the melting wax away, and revealing a beautiful, intricate multi colored pattern. Photo by Marysia M.
By evening candlelight, people would inscribe their wishes, dreams and hopes as symbols onto the egg. It was often a solitary ritual that lasted many hours. As someone who makes pysanky myself, I can attest to the meditative trance one falls into while staring at the flame, the melting wax, and drawing designs on a delicate egg held cupped in my warm hand.
The tools used are no strangers to cunning folk. The egg, representing creation and the universe; the flame of the fire representing transformation and alchemy, the beeswax, a product of the sacred bee, made of the pollen of flowers which have been grown by the sun. When we paint the eggs, our prayers take form in a sacred ritual. It is truly an alchemical process. The symbolism is layered – each pysanka has a trinity of symbols: the symbol of the egg and tools, the symbols of the colors chosen, and the symbols of the designs.
The result is a sacred egg, said to have curative and talismanic powers. Once incorporated into the Christian tradition, the pysanky were said to symbolize the rebirth of man. My intuition says that they always have held this power and more. Drawing upon the sacred elements and powers of nature, we as humans have the power to create ourselves, our universe and call in the energies most appropriate for our current rebirth.
Egg Painting Ritual
Choose an evening when you are alone with your prayers and intentions for the spring. Feel the new you that you are calling into being, and choose symbols that represent the energies that will assist your transformation.
Use a white wax crayon, a pencil or purchase the tools for pysanky online. Draw the symbols most sacred to you. Choose a color that strengthens your intention. Traditionally, these are the symbols of the colors used:
Green – new life, new growth, hope
Red – passion, energy, transformation
White – purity, innocence, birth
Yellow – happiness, community, youth
Orange – strength, endurance, sexuality
Black – darkness, the void.
Blue – the heavens, air, peace and vision
When your egg is complete, hold it in your hands close to your mouth and whisper your prayers into it.
Rub your body with it, envisioning it pulling old energy out of your body like a magnet.
Go into nature and bury it in the ground, asking the Earth to receive this egg, your prayers, and to nourish your dreams into fruition.
Know that it is done.
And so it is. Blessed be!
Marysia Miernowska"
"If we pause to reflect upon the symbolism of the foods, rituals and festivities of the spring, we can gain a valuable perspective into the energy, mystery and magic available to us at these times. With this awareness, we can drop into our own hearts and find the medicine we each need, creating new and personal rituals with ancient tools and deep meaning.
While I am not a practicing Christian, Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays, and I am flooded with joyful memories of Polish and American Easter customs of my childhood. As with most of today’s popular holidays, each of these have clear roots in paganism and time-honored earth worshipping practices. What I have shared below is based on my personal experience working with plant shamanism, earth based spirituality and my upbringing in Poland and the US as a Roman Catholic.
The Pagan Roots of Easter
Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, but before Christianity the Spring Equinox represented the return of the sun God from the underworld – the rebirth of light, life and creation. The two vernal equinoxes (the only two times a year when there is a perfect balance between light and dark, day and night) were auspicious and potent occasions, celebrated by people whose lives depended on the fertility of the earth. Civilizations worldwide created rituals and celebrations to tip the balance into a fertile spring, a time of renewal, regeneration and resurrection.
Today, we celebrate Easter on the Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox — the date of this celebration alone is deeply rooted in the earth-based traditions that follow the cycles of nature.
Sacred symbolism
The symbols associated with Easter – the egg and the bunny or hare, are also ancient pre-Christian symbols of fertility, birth, creation and the Goddess.
The rabbit is connected to fertility – and spring is a time of creation, sex and birth. Our ancestors lived so close to the earth that their lives depended on animals procreating, bees fertilizing their fruit trees, essentially relying on all of nature to have sex!
The egg is a powerful and ancient symbol as well, and thus when used in rituals such as egg painting, it becomes a tool for magic and transformation. Symbolizing the universe, we can imagine the shell as the crust of the earth, the magma as the egg white, and the yolk the core. The egg represents life, and has a long history of ritualistic and shamanic use around the world. Adding the symbols of color to the eggs specifies the power given to them – the Druids were said to dye eggs red, like menstrual blood, and bury them in the newly plowed fields in late winter to draw life force energy into the land and encourage fertility and abundance. Following the traditional origins of painting eggs, we discover a sacred and magical ritual of transformation and manifestation.
Pysanky – Painted Egg Talismans
While today many people dye eggs in rainbow colors, the tradition of egg painting was once more elaborate and the process was in fact a prayer and magical rite involving “writing” sacred symbols and prayers onto the egg.
Still practiced in my home country of Poland and in Eastern Europe, the ancient art of “Pysanky” (meaning “to write” in Ukrainian) dates back to 1300 BC. The symbols that are traditionally inscribed are rooted in the Trypillian culture, a matriarchal society that worshiped mother earth and flourished six thousand years ago in Eastern Europe.
The budding tree, the bird, the sun, the stars — these are the types of symbols we find on the pysanky. One of the most notable ancient symbols found on all traditional designs is the unending line, which denotes the cyclical nature of life. Other examples include the circle, cross, dots, matriarchal symbols, wheat, fir tree, horse, stag, horns and bear’s paws.
The process of “writing” on the eggs involves pouring heated beeswax through a pencil like copper cylinder. Where the wax covers the egg, the color is preserved. The egg is dipped numerous times into various colors, and new designs are added each time a color is applied. The result is an egg covered in black beeswax. At the end, you bring the egg close to the flame of the candle, gently wiping the melting wax away, and revealing a beautiful, intricate multi colored pattern.
Photo by Marysia M.
By evening candlelight, people would inscribe their wishes, dreams and hopes as symbols onto the egg. It was often a solitary ritual that lasted many hours. As someone who makes pysanky myself, I can attest to the meditative trance one falls into while staring at the flame, the melting wax, and drawing designs on a delicate egg held cupped in my warm hand.
The tools used are no strangers to cunning folk. The egg, representing creation and the universe; the flame of the fire representing transformation and alchemy, the beeswax, a product of the sacred bee, made of the pollen of flowers which have been grown by the sun. When we paint the eggs, our prayers take form in a sacred ritual. It is truly an alchemical process. The symbolism is layered – each pysanka has a trinity of symbols: the symbol of the egg and tools, the symbols of the colors chosen, and the symbols of the designs.
The result is a sacred egg, said to have curative and talismanic powers. Once incorporated into the Christian tradition, the pysanky were said to symbolize the rebirth of man. My intuition says that they always have held this power and more. Drawing upon the sacred elements and powers of nature, we as humans have the power to create ourselves, our universe and call in the energies most appropriate for our current rebirth.
Egg Painting Ritual
Choose an evening when you are alone with your prayers and intentions for the spring. Feel the new you that you are calling into being, and choose symbols that represent the energies that will assist your transformation.
Use a white wax crayon, a pencil or purchase the tools for pysanky online. Draw the symbols most sacred to you. Choose a color that strengthens your intention. Traditionally, these are the symbols of the colors used:
Green – new life, new growth, hope
Red – passion, energy, transformation
White – purity, innocence, birth
Yellow – happiness, community, youth
Orange – strength, endurance, sexuality
Black – darkness, the void.
Blue – the heavens, air, peace and vision
When your egg is complete, hold it in your hands close to your mouth and whisper your prayers into it.
Rub your body with it, envisioning it pulling old energy out of your body like a magnet.
Go into nature and bury it in the ground, asking the Earth to receive this egg, your prayers, and to nourish your dreams into fruition.
Know that it is done.
And so it is. Blessed be!
Marysia Miernowska"
I was just talking about plain old boiled eggs.
The egg you descibed, no thanks.
And besides, you can imagine having boys in the house.
They could careless if the eggs are painted. You'll have a hard enough time keeping them from eating them before you get the paints ready.
Or it could be that we don't like organized religion despite being believers. Maybe we have been burned by a church, felt unwelcome or whatever. Maybe we read our Bible daily and feel no need to attend church. Not all believers who don't attend stay away because they are living a sinful life.
I agree with you, I was just making a general statement. I have been hurt by my church- so, I can relate.
I believe it is important for followers of Jesus to do things that institutional churches are often quite good at helping members do, like fellowship with believers in study and worship, observe the Lord's supper, refine and encourage one another and come together to do missionary work.
That does not mean, of course, that it's impossible to do those things without a physical church campus. E.g. home churches, etc., since the church is its members, not the building or administrative architecture.
It is my opinion that most or all Christians need fellowship to get the most of their life and to be encouraged and aided in their walk. We live in very individualistic times and I get that, but Jesus wanted believers to help build each other up. We are the body of Christ, corporately (1 Cor 12), and there is tremendous learning and blessing and fulfillment to be found through being a part of a body of believers.
"and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." Hebrews 10
"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Colossians 3
Anyway, that's my opinion. I hope everyone has a blessed week.
This for Amos 3:3 believers that like to keep it 100% real.
Reason 1
Obey Hebrews 10:25
I have no problem with that.
The book is the book.
Reason 2
We need each other.
The problem with that is why do John 8:31 people need John 8:44 people ? 2 Cor. 6.
If God is talking in John 15:12 he's also talking in 2 Cor. 6.
Why does a John 3:5 believer need a John 3:5 mocker ?
Why does a Hebrews 4 believer need a Hebrews 4 mocker ?
Why does a 2 Timothy 3:16 believer need a 2 Timothy 3:16 mocker ?
Why does a 2 Peter 1:20-21 believer need a 2 Peter 1:20-21 mocker ?
Why does a 1 Peter 3:3 believer need a 1 Peter 3:3 mocker ?
Why does a 1 Timothy 2:9-14 believer need a 1 Timothy 2:9-14 mocker ?
Why does a Romans 6:1 believer need a Romans 6:1 mocker ?
John 8:44 people say let's put aside our minor theology differences and come together
in love.
When did many faiths in Jesus become church in Jesus Christ ? Ephesians 4:5
When did the bible become 10% democracy in Christianity ? 2 Peter 1:20-21
Who hearing the Holy Spirit today without the bible ? John 6:63.
Who hearing what God saying today without the bible ? Romans 10:17
What's a big shot talking without the bible backing it up ? Psalms 8:4
What's expertise in God without all the bible ? 2 Timothy 3:16
What's expertise in God with any democracy ? 2 Peter 1:20-21
When did God praise our common sense ? Jeremiah 17:9
When did God praise our self wise lifestyle ? Jeremiah 10:23
When did God praise our intuition or gut feeling on things ? Acts 17:28
What bible mocker can talk about self righteousness ? Isaiah 64:6
When did faith justify exaggeration ? Romans 12:3
What did an overflow life void out modesty with wealth ? Luke 12:15
When did gifts determine what the baptism of repentance is ? Romans 11:29
When did the move of God with tongues justify unruly tongues ? 1 Cor. 14
When did oneness in Christ void out submission of a wife to her husband ? Ephesians 5:22-23
When did grace void out repentance ? Romans 6:1
When did repentance void out grace ? Ephesians 2:8
When did 1 bible verse void out another bible verse ? 2 Timothy 2:15
When did democracy void out church government ? 2 Peter 1:20-21
When did abolished law void out Hebrews 4 ? John 8:32
When did confession of wrong void out John 3:5 ? John 8:32
When did inperfection void out Romans 6:1 ?
When did never perfect void out 1 John 1:7:-9 ?
When did John 14:1 void out John 5:39 ?
When did Romans 2:1 void out 1 Thess. 5:12 ?
When did Hebrews 10:25 void out 2 Cor. 6 ?
When did stewardship justify gun rights like the world ? Romans 12:17
When did prophecy justify women pastors ? 1 Timothy 2:9-14
When did marriage and parenting ambitions justify raising them on poverty income ? 1 Tim. 5:8
When did visions justify having mortgages on property like the world ? 1 Timothy 6
When did knocking and seeking justify asking a work boss for a raise ? Luke 3:14
When did good intentions justify inferiority ? 1 John 2:27
When did good intentions justify ignorance ? 2 Timothy 2:15
When did a hero publisher justify grammar edit bibles ? Revelation 22:18-19
When did a church leader calling justify people being independent from bishops to be
under in church government ? Romans 13:1
When did tithing justify giving to the wrong ministries ? Galations 1:8-9
When did loyalty justify being under the wrong ministries ? Matthew 15:14
When did short cuts justify what's not too strict ? Matthew 5:17-20
When can a 24/7 life exist without the bible ? Psalms 119:105
When did counsel come in God without the bible ? John 14:26
This for Amos 3:3 believers that like to keep it 100% real only.
Well said. I don't like organized religion of the variety I've been in and that includes a good array of different types of Christian denominations. I am part of the body of Christ, and I have Christian fellowship outside of organized religion. I feel no compulsion to fill a pew at a set time and I don't have any desire to hear a man stand in a pulpit droning on and on about how singul and guilty everyone else is because I already know everyone is guilty of sin and in a battle with a sin nature, temptations of the flesh and the world and sentenced death. Also, I don't want to hear the same person standing on a platform facing a captive audience - there is something about that that seems wrong to me. I guess it is because I do not believe in "clergy and laity" since Jesus Christ is our high priest. That is also the big problem I have with Catholicism -- the "ordination of priests". Also, I do not want to listen to any political stuff coming from the pastor. But I will just leave it at that for now.
Been there, done that....Peace
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Why People Tell Us To Go To Church ?
Been there, done that....Peace
