Martial Arts & Religion

[Hebrew Hammer]

mongolian marriage customs involves kidnapping a woman and raping her.

It's also still practiced in the Southern United States but only if she's a relative.

I believe that kidnapping and raping your bride was part of many cultures through out the dark and middle ages.

I'm pretty sure your father maybe Borat.

[Hebrew Hammer]

wat u talking about? YHWH forgave the jews like 500 times in the old testament.

The Jews, perhaps, but not their enemies.

[bawang]

my mother told me she dreamed that a black dog was chasing her, then she became pregnant. thats why she can never love me.

The Jews, perhaps, but not their enemies.

nineveh bro nineveh

and nabuchadnezzar

c i smrat i know many tings

[Scott R. Brown]

mongolian marriage customs involves kidnapping a woman and raping her.

That occurred back in the time of Genghis Khan. His mother was kidnapped and made a wife of his father. When his father died, his mother, being a minor wife from another tribe was abandoned by the tribe along with all of her children. Genghis Khan never forgave them.

While he did not kidnap his primary wife, she was kidnapped from him by another, stronger, tribe. He joined forces with another tribe, organized a raiding party and kidnapped her back.

This wife-napping is not unusual for small tribal groups. It introduces fresh DNA into the tribe in order to dilute inbreeding.

The Greeks did the same thing. Helen of Troy was kidnapped by the Trojans from Agamemnon's brother Menelaus.

The falling out between Agamemnon and Achilles occurred over two kidnapped women!

The Roman founding was sustained by the kidnapping of the Sabine women in order to become the wives of the Roman Founders.

Some American Indian Tribes also kidnapped wives from other tribes!

If you notice this all OLD Testament stuff...the Jews had it correct! Its such an interesting contrast between the Old Testament and the New, it makes you wonder if was indeed inspired by the same God. Jesus, a man of peace and forgiveness...the father, God, warlike, wrathful, and unforgiving.

That is why the New Testament/Covenant/Agreement is as NEW Agreement, as opposed to the Old Testament/Covenant/Agreement, which was the OLD Agreement!

Different Theology/Agreement/Covenant for a new time.

Think of it this way: the rules you expect your 5 year old to follow are different than the rules you expect your 15 year old to follow, which are different than the rules you expect your 21 year old to follow.

Different rules for different levels of maturity.

Read The Book of Romans.

[Hebrew Hammer]

my mother told me she dreamed that a black dog was chasing her, then she became pregnant. thats why she can never love me.



nineveh bro nineveh

and nabuchadnezzar

c i smrat i know many tings

What did you just call me???!

[Scott R. Brown]

my mother told me she dreamed that a black dog was chasing her, then she became pregnant. thats why she can never love me.



nineveh bro nineveh

and nabuchadnezzar

c i smrat i know many tings

God used the enemies of Israel in order to become object lessons for the Hebrews. He did not forgive them per se; he used them.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Forgiveness was always open to those that repented.
Of course repentance was/is not as easy as it may seem because with it comes full acceptance of all that one has done wrong AND the burden of living with that with FULL KNOWLEDGE of the pain one has caused.
Most would rather NOT repent under those circumstances.

[GeneChing]

I must confess that I like the name "King's Sword School of Martial Arts".

Christian values in martial arts
By Reuel John F. Lumawag
Friday, January 3, 2014

BEING a predominantly Christian nation, various denominations and institutions have found different ways to teach Christian values to their fellowmen. Be it through big acts in philanthropy by Christian businessmen or by simply through voluteerism by the youth of the church.

Martial artist and founder of the King's Sword School of Martial Arts and Values Roberto Nell Jone M. Astudillo III has discovered a unique way teaching Christian values, through martial arts.

He said it is a two-fold organization of martial arts and ministry. The school stands for the Word of God from Ephesians 6:17. The purpose is to reach the youth who do not have work, to teach them quality martial arts, train them to be champions in martial arts and in life, share the gospel with them, disciple them and teach them how to earn through teaching martial arts and how to use it to bring people to Jesus.

"We go to churches, schools, villages and youth gatherings to do demonstrations and share the gospel. We see many youth coming to Jesus and try to get them involved in a church," Astudillo said in his testimony.

He said in the classes he have the students memorize warrior scriptures and teach biblical principles and values.

"We teach the greatest self defense is knowing the Word of God. It will not only save you physically but also for eternity," Astudillo said.

Aside from the King's Sword School of Martial Arts and Values, he also established American Bushido Kai Association (Abka) Philippines in the same year.

He said he caught interest with Abka after the group, which originated from the United States of America, visited their church in late 2007.

"They are black belters in karate but their goal is to share the Gospel through martial arts. I asked if I could be a part of their group and they said the only requirement was to love Christ and want to be used by Him," he recalled in his testimony.

Astudillo said that he saw Abka's potential to be part of his ministry to reach out to the children and to teach them Christian values since its teachings were biblical based.

"My purpose in life now is so much more than martial arts. Martial arts is no longer my god but simply a tool God has restored to me to be used by the Lord to tell people about Jesus. I want to be like the apostle Paul who said, 'For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.' Philippians 1:21," Astudillo said.

Presently, he is planning for the activities of Abka and King's Sword this year. In February and March he will be having US-based martial artists to instruct and also an international tournament for February. He is currently the chief instructor for Abka-Philippines and King's Sword School of Martial Arts and King's Sword Demo Team. He is also a group fitness instructor, Powercycling instructor, and personal trainer at the MetroLifestyle Fitness Center & Spa.

He is married to Catherine Nabayra-Astudillo and they have one daughter Tashea Mae Nabayra. Just recently he went with his family together with his home church VCF Davao to Tacloban for relief operations.

He finished his elementary and secondary levels at Notre Dame of Kidapawan and finished his bachelor’s degree at MATS College of Technology in 1998 in BS in Aircraft Technology, with honors.

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on January 04, 2014.

Whereas the name "Monster X Camp" reminds me of one of those 80s slasher films

Man in Ministry Uses Martial Arts Techniques, Feats of Strength, and His Tragic Story to Break Into the Hearts of Many

Grapevine, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/02/2014 -- Inspiring people can immediately leave an impression upon stepping in a room or the stage. Coach Larry Clay of Monster X Camp aces every possible way in keeping people’s attention to him.

More than just Feats of Strength

Coach Larry is power and strength personified. Standing 6’8 and weighing more than 300 pounds, the Monster X Camp coach immediately attracts attention upon getting in front to start his inspirational messages. This attention stays once he showed off his strength. Bending steel bars or crumpling skillets with his bare hands becomes an attraction during his talks. Nevertheless, what makes him more inspirational is his personal story.

The Story that Tears Everyone’s Heart

Mostly, Larry Clay keynote messages in the All Works for Good Ministry include telling about his story. His story is extremely tragic and probably every bad event experienced by one person. According to Coach Larry, “My story is something that everyone may have experienced at one point in their lives. I’ve been abused physically and verbally, raped, fed drugs, neglected and starved. Beating the hell crap out of me in different ways possible is like living daily torture in hell.”

Listeners can’t keep themselves from crying or being surprised after hearing his history. They can’t believe that the over achiever coach had a rough time. Watch Coach Larry during one of his talks at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2b2PRLoBlA.

All Things Work for Good

“People think that my past is enough to mess me up,” he continues. “They know that I’ve made it in the athletics, martial arts field, music and business, so they are struck with disbelief after hearing my story. However, I want everyone to understand that our past doesn’t decide our fate.”

The motivational speaker emphasizes this point all the time in his talks. This also inspired Coach Larry to establish the All Things Work for Good Ministry, a group that urges everyone to go on walking the right path despite the heartaches, the bad decisions, and the wrong individuals who drag them back to the pits of darkness. “We encourage everyone to move on by thinking about the people who keep praying for them and survive to see their enemies’ heads roll after they get back on their feet. These enemies will always be there to derange them, but it’s important to remember that everything works for the good,” says Coach Larry.

Transparency is King

He continues, “People say that some stories are meant to hide inside our closets. However, I’m not ashamed of my story and I want it to serve as inspiration for everyone worrying about their future after experiencing such devastating issues. And I really love it when listeners come to me and say how much my transparency let them see how God has worked in their lives.”

To learn more about the ministry and find inspiration in meeting daily challenges, visit its website at http://www.allworksforgood.com/.

About Monster X Camp
Spearheaded by Coach Larry Clay, Monster X Camp is a martial arts school established in Grapevine, Texas. It devotes itself in promoting the holistic benefits of martial arts for people within its community. Every instructor shares the same passion in teaching everyone about self-defense while fostering an enjoyable learning environment for students.

Contact:
Office Address:
445 E. Northwest Hwy,
Grapevine, TX 76051
Email: coach@monsterxcamp.com
Website: http://www.monsterxcamp.com

[GeneChing]

..but amusing nonetheless.

KNIGHT: National Cathedral goes off the deep end with tai chi and yoga in the nave
Would Jesus have made a church into a gym for alternative religions or debate site on gay equality and gun control?
By Robert Knight Friday, January 17, 2014



The Washington National Cathedral was vandalized last week when paint was splattered inside two chapels. D.C. police charged Jia M. Tian with defacing of property. (Associated Press)

The Episcopal Church-run National Cathedral in Northwest Washington, D.C., has hosted many events in its storied history, from Martin Luther King’s final Sunday sermon before his assassination, to U.S. presidents’ state funerals.

Last week, it was the site of “Seeing Deeper,” a five-day exploration of “expansiveness, immediacy and insight.” Before we get into that, here’s a brief history.

In 1791, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who laid out the capital city, included space for a “a great church for national purposes.” The original site now houses the National Portrait Gallery.

A century later, on Jan. 6, 1893, Congress granted a charter signed by President Benjamin Harrison for the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia. The foundation stone was laid on Sept. 29, 1907, during a ceremony attended by President Theodore Roosevelt, and it took 83 years to complete the world’s sixth-largest cathedral.

In 1990, master sculptor Frederick Hart also completed his 20-year work on the Creation Sculptures, which adorn the main facade. The magnificent series includes Ex Nihilo (out of nothing), The Creation of Day, The Creation of Night, Adam, St. Peter and St. Paul.

Like the rest of the liberalized Episcopal Church, the cathedral is bleeding parishioners and donors, so it is now resorting to charging $10 for tours.

Less spiritually uplifting than the Creation Sculptures, but eerily appropriate, is the gargoyle in the shape of Darth Vader on the northwest tower. You can get a Darth Vader T-shirt in the online gift shop, which at one time was selling Darth Vader bobbleheads. Seriously.

Last week, the cathedral, which has already celebrated same-sex “weddings,” jumped the shark.

“You see a cathedral, but you don’t see anything being done with it. I’m trying to get this place back to its roots.”

So said the Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the cathedral, who is quickly turning the place for the nation’s most solemn occasions into Flip Wilson's Church of What’s Happening Now.

Don’t believe me? Try this snippet from The Washington Post:

“‘I want to skateboard down it — or have a paper-airplane contest,’ Mr. Hall, a tall, white-haired priest, said Monday as he watched about 100 people practice tai chi in the football-field-long, rectangular nave.”

That’s right. The nave — the heart of the church leading to the altar. They took out the seats to stage activities including yoga sessions during five days of “Seeing Deeper.” I wonder if they have given thought to renaming the nave as the “navel,” as in contemplating one’s own?

The cathedral’s website promised that “written prayers, yoga mats, zafu meditation cushions, poetry, and mandalas to draw and color” would be “available as reflection tools.”

For those unfamiliar with Eastern religions, you use a zafu during a zazen (sitting) meditation session. Mandalas are geometric patterns representing the cosmos, and are used in Hinduism, which has thousands of gods, or in Buddhism, which is godless.

I’ve been searching the New Testament for support of Mr. Hall’s assertion that the cathedral’s transformation into a multipurpose center with mandalas would fit into Jesus’ ministry, but so far, no luck.

Many great cathedrals now house heretics, but the physical majesty of these buildings at least preserves a sense of holy ground, where people can contemplate the awesomeness of God and the condition of their souls. Now, even that’s been compromised.

Of course, real ministry is found in the heart, not in particular structures. Jesus warned us not to confuse showy religious practices with true repentance and love for God. Although Jesus might feel more at home in humbler environs than a cathedral, He preached at times in the grandest building of His 33 years on Earth — the Temple in Jerusalem.

But can you envision Jesus of Nazareth converting a cathedral into a handy gym for alternative religions and “public-policy debates on topics including gay equality and gun control?”

Mr. Hall seems able to do so: “If I get people together and say, ‘Let’s talk about God,’ we’ll get an argument. But if I say, ‘Let’s all pray together and experience the divine together in our own way,’ people can enter that in a much more creative and less-judgmental way.”

Translation: Don’t let Jesus and the Bible get in the way. In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” That doesn’t leave much room for the kind of spiritual smorgasbord we’re seeing now in Western nations, especially across the pond.

As The Washington Post informs us, “Long ago, many European cathedrals removed their chairs and now commonly use their spaces for events ranging from corporate parties and arts-awards ceremonies to events that can attract youths, such as ‘rave masses,’ where drugs are forbidden, but loud music, dancing in bikinis, and light shows are encouraged.”

Please don’t bring this up at the National Cathedral’s next vestry meeting.

Robert Knight is senior fellow for the American Civil Rights Union and a columnist for The Washington Times.

[sanjuro_ronin]

It's quite the fascinating thing to watch the very gradual but obvious decline of orthodoxy in N.America.
To bend over backwards so much for either a "quick buck" or under the disguise of "liberal Christianity".
Sad too.
While I am very much against the ultra-conservative "pharisee" Christianity of some places in the US, the overly liberal isn't much better.

[David Jamieson]

Come on, it's the Nave. Not like they are changing babies on the altar or something. Besides, a church is supposed to be a communal gathering place and a place for questions and conversations, fellowship etc. Jesus was more concerned about it (the temple) being turned into a mall for commerce.

A church is only a building with doors. It is nothing without it's people. that's the bottom line and it is communal and should be used for all the normal doings of day to day life and as a place of worship. I have no problem with moms stretching out, kids reading books, tea and biscuit time. That's what a communal gathering place is for. A church should be a familiar and happy place to go and these activities support that.

Just my point of view.

[PalmStriker]

my mother told me she dreamed that a black dog was chasing her, then she became pregnant. thats why she can never love me.



nineveh bro nineveh

and nabuchadnezzar

c i smrat i know many tings

If you would start barking she may have a change of heart.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Come on, it's the Nave. Not like they are changing babies on the altar or something. Besides, a church is supposed to be a communal gathering place and a place for questions and conversations, fellowship etc. Jesus was more concerned about it (the temple) being turned into a mall for commerce.

A church is only a building with doors. It is nothing without it's people. that's the bottom line and it is communal and should be used for all the normal doings of day to day life and as a place of worship. I have no problem with moms stretching out, kids reading books, tea and biscuit time. That's what a communal gathering place is for. A church should be a familiar and happy place to go and these activities support that.

Just my point of view.

The church being a communal place and a sanctuary is all fine and quote correct, it should even be a sanctuary for ALL, regardless of religion.
BUT it should NOT be a place where other religions are preached.
It should not be a place where POV that are contrary to the religion of that church are condoned.

[David Jamieson]

The church being a communal place and a sanctuary is all fine and quote correct, it should even be a sanctuary for ALL, regardless of religion.
BUT it should NOT be a place where other religions are preached.
It should not be a place where POV that are contrary to the religion of that church are condoned.

It's a building with doors. When the Wiccans use the Nave, they pay their rent and there aren't anyone there but the wiccans, so what does it matter?
religion is words and ideas. Application of those is the work in my opinion. I can hear buddhist lectures, christian lectures, taoist, wiccan, neo-pagan etc. It all has something to take away.

What you are saying is akin to not teaching history in the science lab. It's a building.
When I use a toilet, is it no longer suitable to be used by someone else?
My personal opinion is that the real church, temple, is in the heart. Not in a pile of stones. If you look for it in the pile of stones, in my opinion, it will never be found.
We are each a temple. Some, empty with no services or spirit and others active and full of intention. Just my opinion.

[Kellen Bassette]

When I use a toilet, is it no longer suitable to be used by someone else?

I don't know, you tell me.

Interesting choice of analogy though.....