Having survived the infamous 666 (I ate a very quiet and serene dinner at 6pm, not even an imp in evidence) I’m wondering how everyone else fared....Lots of Omen hype around here, with Pentecostals praying like mad to get through the day,etc.  Does the horrible Da Vinci code hoopla scare even the EVIL ONE away??  Tongue firmly lodged in cheek, getting the last garlic kernel swallowed, my love to all, Alana

Do you believe that life is predestined ?

Visu labu,

Bruno, I believe I was given free will as a method to allow me to eventually (this life or some next)improve as a human being.  I believe G-d knows all, so in that sense, yes, my life is predetermined in His/Her mind, or in a cosmic sense.  That is, perhaps, one explanation for deja vu.  Or more accurately, it explains why I sometimes know what people are going to say before they say it, or dream about things to come, because events ARE written and recorded somewhere else, or co-exist on some other plane, and I’ve been given a glimpse.  Our man-made construct of time is so inadequate, perhaps, to encapsulate all possible time schemata, so perhaps there are kind of wormholes that loop into one another and different lifetimes or time zones, and perhaps somehow that part of the brain that is sensitive to these leaps is activated, unknowingly by some factor, but I realize that I’m stretching your question into some related but unasked tangents....I love your questions, Bruno....peace, everyone

>Having survived the infamous 666 (I ate
>a very quiet and serene dinner at 6pm,
>not even an imp in evidence) I’m
>wondering how everyone else
>fared....Lots of Omen hype around here,
>with Pentecostals praying like mad to
>get through the day,etc.  Does the
>horrible Da Vinci code hoopla scare even
>the EVIL ONE away??  Tongue firmly
>lodged in cheek, getting the last
>garlic kernel swallowed, my love to
>all, Alana

Don’t sweat Alana! In Riga here also, many radio stations jakked about this 666. Too bad they don’t even know what they were talkig about.
The 666 has nothing to do with the time date etc but a person. Too bad some Pentecostals don’t know the Book!

Vilis, enjoying the relatively cool weather in Latvija.

You’re right, Rev. G, I think there’s much ignorance about many things religious, and I put myself in that category.  At least I try to continually read and educate myself, and did have a short but very formal religious education.  I must say, it wasn’t so much the school as the example my parents set that was the basis for my moral and ethical foundation.  By the way, have you read Tom Harpur’s The Pagan Christ? 

I heard that in Hell, Michigan, the town threw a sort of party.  The bald mayor wore plastic horns, there was music, and people sold tshirts.  And fundamentalists came to protest, on the general basis that “Hell isn’t a joke.”

sigh… God DID create a sense of humor, as well as a sense of irony as well as the ability to tell frivolous from real.  Too bad these protestors don’t celebrate those gifts.

Anita

Does anyone remember Pogo?  One of the cartoon characters said, very deadpan, “hell’s us’m”....gotta laugh…

I tried not to let 666 influence me negatively, but it ended up being a Murphy’s Law day for me, where anything and everything that could go wrong, will, does and did.  Maybe, subconsciously, I brought it upon myself; Latvians do tend to be a superstitious lot, so I’m told.

Shoulda’ just joined in the hoopla of the Hell Michigan group and partied it up with the bald mayor with the plastic horns--sounds like a hoot!

Irena

>Pentecostals praying like mad to
>get through the day,etc.  Does the
>horrible Da Vinci code hoopla scare even
>the EVIL ONE away?? 

Hey, I’m a Pentecostal and I hardly noticed the day. 666 is the identification of a man and also a system - and we’re already in it.

For the end of the outcome read the Manual. 
(psst - we win!)

Dzintra

Hmm..thought I’d posted in reply, but maybe had a little computer glitch.  In any case, perhaps I should have clarified and quoted some Pentacostal pamphlets I received urging people to redouble their prayer efforts on the 9th.  I’ve choreographed for a Pentacostal church’s Easter pageant, enjoyed the services I attended, both there and at another church, but resist the invitation to be born again...once was enough, at least in this lifetime....and yes, I have read the manual, the first time when my friend Lilita and I, both aged ten, earnestly studied both Old and New Testaments after ballet class, trying to see similarities, and understand why people made such a big deal over the differences!  We never understood why people couldn’t just agree to disagree, and of course at age 10 we were sure we had an idea if everyone thought like we did there would be peace on the planet...is it arrogance or just the naivete of youth?

>For the end of the outcome read the
>Manual. 
>(psst - we win!)

there is no end.

True enough!
There is a new beginning.
See Revelation.21.

sigh - hunting for the Bible - not going to make it easy, are you?

(btw, will you be at Draudzu dienas in MI this year?)

Anita

I have a feeling that the expectation is that we all have the Bible readily at hand at all times....as well as the Koran and numerous other sacred texts, of course!

(That was intended to be humorous.)

>sigh - hunting for the Bible - not
>going to make it easy, are you?
>
>(btw, will you be at Draudzu dienas in
>MI this year?)
>
>Anita
Much as I would like to be, I will not be at Draudzu dienas this year. I have taught at the last three, and this year I will not be there.
Living in Aussie land has advantages, but at times the distance is too much.
Hope you track down the Bible. You can of course acess the Bible in Latvian, online at
http://www.bibele.lv or in English at http://www.bible.gospelcom.net
Happy hunting!

>www.bibele.lv or in English at
>www.bible.gospelcom.net
>Happy hunting!

thanks! I have-OF COURSE-bookmarked the URL at double speed, so I can receive instant enlightenment at the press of a button!

:9