I had a dream once where I died, it was a long, long ago, sometime I’m guessing in the late 1800s, I was a bank robber. I was a tall strong man who wore glasses. I stepped out of a Lutheran Church, walked down some steps and then down a walkway and nearby was a man seated on a bench, when I got passed him he shot me in the back three times and I died. He was a bounty hunter. I woke up. I thought it strange how I knew I was bank robber and that I was leaving a Luthern Church and the man who shot me a bounty hunter. Until I had this dream I used to have back pains right where the bullets landed but since the dream the pain has not appeared. I believe this was my earlier life and that would explain why I am not a tall strong man today and why I could not stay in heaven.

Strangely I have always remembered before I was born. I was in a wonderful place where there was perfect peace that is indescribable. Looking down I saw awful things, fighting and murder and such, I can’t recall all the details but I do remember the last thing I saw was a mushroom cloud bellowing up. An older man with white hair, beard and mustache (who in my younger years I believed was Jesus) came to me and said, “It’s time to go.” I felt like I knew it was coming but I was hoping it wouldn’t happen. I just could not believe after seeing all this, I would be sent there, I was distressed so much that my inside shook and tears flowed from my eyes. Understanding my pain, the older man wanting to reassure me that I would be okay put his hand on my shoulder and said, “You will be Okay.” You figure, hey, I was born in America, it hasn’t been perfect but its been okay. I spent 14 years in the Navy and never fired a gun.

When I was very little we used to have this red and white encyclopaedia set called the book of knowledge. When I would take my nap everyday I liked to look at the pictures. Sometimes when I went to take my nap I didn’t have one to look at, so I would pray to God and one would appear, when I opened it I would see that same mushroom cloud bellowing up into the sky and then it would stop and a red X would be painted over it. I had this happen about six times, but wasn’t counting so I don’t really know how many times. I was very little, before I was in kindergarten, I was psychic then. I always knew that the phone was going to ring and I always knew who was calling.

I’ve read the bible and book of Revelations several times; belonged to many churches, been baptized three times and been to several alter calls. I’m thinking it was around 1988, but one day I woke up and really began to question things. Who condemned me that I should need salvation? All of a sudden the idea that I would go to hell for not finding salvation became ludicrous and I realised that it was I who condemned me for believing something that is completely stupid. So I decided to throw out everything that I ever believed and start over. First I decided that there was a God, there had to be, looking at all of creation and its perfection, perfection cannot come by accident – and nature is more than perfect, it is art above anything we could create if we tried, no, it could not be an accident, there must be a God. So I began to study ALL religions.

I’ve read almost every scripture I could find, studied most all religions and doctrines. Hindu, Buddhism, Confucius, Indian, etc. I settled on the Gnostic religion believing the church was in aposticy.

The Gnostics believed that there were two gods. The false god was created but did not know there was anything created before it and thought it was god and created us, but we did not live and the true God had mercy and came down and breathed into us the breath of life, thus we are the only animal on this earth having a living soul. A living soul capable of great things but trapped into a carnal body. Jesus’s life, teaching and death was all about freeing our living soul. The old testament would reference both the true and false god and get the two mixed up which would explain why we have a god who would claim to be jealous and tell us to kill innocent women and children. Then I had this dream in 1996:

Now I have the truth, but it is such a little piece of truth with a million questions. I’ve prayed for further explanation for years and not received an answer, I finally decided that if I did know how we are taken like a ball of clay and made unto God, or what that even means and what is the false god and the true God? If I knew all these answers I could then tell which church was true and which church was false. I could tell which religion was false, and what one was true. I could even know what system of beliefs was right or wrong. MAYBE I’m just not supposed to know that, because there are people who very much love God and try to do His will and want to believe that they are, what would happen if I came along and told them they were wrong? Does it matter, beliefs are nothing more than strings of ones and zeros that we put together in the back of our head. When we stand before the judgment we may receive a reward for our belief in God not our belief about God but MOSTLY we will be judged according to our works.

It is now 2009 and by 2012 The Aztec Pahana is to return with the missing corner to signal the beginning of the new brotherhood; is this Jesus?

During my life I have made several attempts at suicide and thought about it much when my feelings get hurt because I know there’s a better place to be, I remember being there and all I want to do is go back there. I’ve just turned 50 today, having lived a half a century and decided it’s time to stop being a cry baby and sit down and figure out what this is all about. If you could help, I started a new group. I Remember Before I Was Born

~Roger The Okcitykid~

Making Of The Mud

Gray skies are blue
Lightning is frightening too
When rainbows are no where to be found
This is when the world is flat
Rather than round
I want to turn the light on
But I can’t find the switch

Is there really something on the other side of tomorrow
or have we borrowed it all away
and Jesus are you really coming
do you really exist
and what is God who stands and watches his creation
crash and burn in its own greed
from whence is our seed
actually I dreampt that a false god created us
this might explain the fuss

The storm makes mud
That the Lord will take
and make unto himself

By:  Roger Harkness

03/04/09

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I wrote this poem today.  I felt a little depressed today, not real bad, just tired.  Putting in a lot of overtime and we’re working hard taking contracts from other states.  Usually when I feel bad it is time to write a poem, it makes me feel better.  I usually don’t know what I will write until I start writing and then a poem comes out and I will usually discover something new.

Based on my studies of the Gnostic religion I had a dream that we were created by the false god but the true God will take us as if we were a ball of clay and make us unto himself.

Our current state looks hopeless as a storm appears to be coming and it doesn’t look like we will be able to stop it.  A storm makes mud and God will take us from the mud as if we were a ball of clay and make us unto himself.

If the true God had created us to begin with we might not have been so ignorant, but because of our selfish self destructiveness we take ourselves apart so the true God can recreate us the way we should be, to support life rather than destroy it.  So that’s what this is all about.  Now you may not believe this, but that’s alright, this is my religion and I believe it.

http://www.peacefulvet.info

http://www.peacefulvet.info/testimony.html

http://www.peacefulvet.info/mybeliefs.html

http://www.peacefulvet.info/poetry

I get a lot of email (not just junk mail – we all get that, gmail is very good about filtering that out).? I spend hours daily going thru my mail and am never able to read it all.? Most recently I have started to receive email from people wishing to convert me to Christian (once they discover I am not) and Muslim.? I even get email from one individual who wants us all to believe that the Catholic Church is really evil.? While he does offer a lot of factual news articles, well, I’m sorry.? While it may be true that one church might be better or worse than others, or one religion worse or better than others, it is not my place to judge this and I won’t go there, I find such things a waste of my productive time and because he has no option to unsubscribe from his list, I will have to add him to my spam list.

To you who are religious like myself but might belong to a religion unlike me, feel free to share, it’s ok, I’m curious, I like to learn, and even to evangelize may be apart of your religion and that’s ok too, I don’t mind, but be careful not to try to convince me that you have the corner on truth, I assure you, YOU DON’T.

****

I have read the bible, I have also read all the Gnostic scriptures, the teachings of Confucius, the Hopi legends, Jewish Apocrypha not included in the bible and about half of the Koran.? Next I plan to tackle the book of the dead, Egyptian scriptures. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof , for correction, and for training in righteousness,”

**** – You should not say that my testimony or beliefs cannot be found in the bible.? I can remember being told that the Catholic’s teaching about purgatory was not scriptural and that’s what I told a Catholic Priest one day who was happy to show it to me in the bible.

The KKK uses scriptures to justify their actions and the early settlers actually quoted scriptures as they were throwing Indians into the fire.? Hitler was scriptural too and so was Bush in his decision in attacking Iraq.

You see, you can make that bible say almost anything you want, you just have to find the right scriptures.

But I’m not going to waste my time or yours throwing scriptures back and forth trying to prove something.? Because the real word of God is in the heart not on a piece of paper.

You ask your heart, was we all born on this earth to die and go to hell unless we are saved?? If you tell me that your heart agrees with that, then I think you’re lying to me or you have manipulated you’re own heart to accept beliefs that it could not.

With all due respect, that usually
happens when a person follows hearsay, what was heard
in church rather than what was read in God’s word.

****, you didn’t read my testimony.? But I’ll tell you what, I’ll shorten it for you.

For the longest time I searched for salvation, I joined several churches, been baptized a couple times. I was looking for truth or true salvation.? I spent many years, Pentecostal, Bible Churches, Catholic and the last was Mormon.? One day I woke up and asked myself, who condemned me?? Who made me believe that if I wasn’t saved I would go to hell, that’s nuts. What kind of God would create something just to send it to hell?? So I discarded all of my beliefs and started over and I studied all the major religions and decided that Gnosticism was the most true and it was then that I had this dream:

THE DREAM

With out question, thought or prayer
For no reason what-so-ever I had this dream one night
I saw nothing, but only heard a voice
A?voice that was both male and female.
“It is true that the body is made by the false god
But the false god also creates the soul
This continues to happen
But God takes you and makes you unto himself
As if you were a ball of clay
And makes you His own
This process takes time.”
I woke up

**** – To understand this dream a little more you’d have to have an understanding of Gnosticism.? But no matter, because this dream is actually saying that Gnosticism is wrong.? And you know what, I don’t know a single religion that believes what’s in that dream, and you know something else, I don’t know of any religion that teaches that we came from heaven (that’s in my testimony) except Mormonism.? But they teach that you can’t remember, but I do remember.

So I have my beliefs that I didn’t just make up nor did anybody teach them to me and I’m all alone without a church or religion, but you know what, I don’t care.? And I’m not going to try to prove to you or anybody else my beliefs, because I don’t have to, I don’t doubt what I believe.

Like you, my father believed I was being deceived and I disowned him because of it and he died shortly after and I felt a little bad about it.? But you know my dad did a lot of bad things in his lifetime.? You know what, he never said he was sorry.? Two words “I’m sorry.”? would have fixed a whole lot of hurt, but he believed he didn’t have to because conveniently Jesus died for his sins so he didn’t have to.? I think he will discover that he was mistaken.? I figure he will be sent down here again to try it again to see if he gets it right, and that don’t mean to live a perfect life, but say “I’m sorry.”

So now that you know a little bit more about what I believe, you can believe it to or disbelieve it, that’s up to you.? But you are not going to make me disbelieve what I believe even if I’m the only person in the world who believes it.

Sincerely,

Roger

*******************************

So what do I know. I know that salvation is a process and that I’m not going to hell and that’s all I know.

So what is the true God and the false god and does the life and death of Jesus have anything to do with this process, I DON’T KNOW!

So I don’t know a lot and have lots of questions, I do have some ideas and let me explain here and now, religion is faith in things unseen, things that cannot be proven, or unproven, so all you people who spend your days trying to disprove or prove religion, it disappoints me that I live in a world that is so ignorant – but good luck with that, you who have so little faith that you must defend it and you who have no faith and must justify it.? You both have much to learn.? Learn to be confident in your own beliefs rather than steal your confidence from the destruction of others, this is disappointing.

But I will share this one idea I do have, as I believe it does have the backing of logic. I believe that the God that created the earth, the birds, trees, flowers, the fish and the bees and all other living things on this earth is not the same god who created us. And this is why I believe this. All other life is a part of a natural order that sustains each other on this earth maintaining this earth for a very long time. However, we are different. We go against the natural order on this earth and may very well be someday it’s destruction. We create great things like no other animal on this earth and some scriptures actually refer to us as gods. Some have argued with me that we are just like all the other animals on this earth and while I think that is a very nice idea, they miss the obvious and do not recognize how we are so much different than all the other animals on this earth. That being said, that’s what I believe and if you wish to discuss this with me further, you are more than welcome.

From The Mailbox – Salina sends:

Islamic Finance appeal growing in face of credit crisis

The global credit crisis presents the $1 trillion Islamic finance industry with an opportunity to expand its appeal beyond Muslim investors, as a haven from speculative excess.

The message may have particular resonance in the West after the crumbling of the U.S. mortgage market left banks holding hundreds of billions of dollars of nearly worthless credit instruments tied to home loans by a web of complex structures.

While conventional banks worldwide are nursing losses of more than $400 billion from the credit crisis, Islamic banks are virtually unscathed. And they are playing up the contrast to scalded shareholders, bondholders and borrowers and fearful depositors.

“It’s very much a return to old-fashioned conservative lending,” said David Testa, chief executive of Gatehouse Bank, which began operations in April as the fifth Islamic bank in Britain.

“The current global market condition has given Islamic finance a great opportunity to show what it can do – help to fill the liquidity gap,” he said.

Investors traumatized by the credit crisis could seek comfort from the stricter rules imposed on lending by Islamic law, which bans some of the structures and financing methods that quickly unraveled during the U.S. mortgage crisis.

Testa said that Islamic finance practices were more fiscally conservative, with direct participation by investors in plans that do not involve parking assets in off-balance-sheet vehicles.

Islamic finance is based on Shariah, or Islamic law. It requires that gains be derived from ethical and socially responsible investments and discourages interest-based banking and investments in sectors like pork, gambling and pornography.

The Asian Development Bank estimates that Islamic assets globally have a combined value of about $1 trillion, with annual growth of 10 percent to 15 percent a year. Al-Rajhi Bank of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Finance House are the two biggest Islamic banks in the Gulf region. In Malaysia, the largest Islamic lender is Maybank Islamic, a subsidiary of Malayan Banking.

The jump in popularity of Islamic finance is drawing the interest of companies outside the Middle East.

City Developments, one of the largest developers in Southeast Asia, said last week that it could issue Islamic debt and sell hotels to enhance its ability to make acquisitions.

The Islamic finance industry, which was nearly nonexistent 30 years ago, has certain distinguishing features that make it less risky, analysts say.

Islamic bonds, or sukuk, replace coupons with payments backed by the performance of tangible assets. Islamic law prohibits the payment of interest and requires transactions to be linked to assets, thus deterring the kind of complexities prevalent in conventional financing operations.

Debashis Dey, the Dubai-based head of capital markets at the law firm Clifford Chance, said that although the Islamic finance industry was adapting conventional products to make them compliant with Shariah, it was a long way from sophisticated products like collateralized debt obligations.

But while Islamic products are coming into favor, analysts say market commentators and intermediaries may be too zealous in promoting the merits of Islamic finance as a safe product.

Mohamed Damak of Standard & Poor’s cited the case of the boom in real estate financing in the Gulf mainly by Islamic banks in the past three years, amid soaring property prices.

“A correction of the real estate sector would impact Islamic banks involved in this business line. Islamic finance is not immune from risk,” he said.

Even as experts are weighing the degree of insularity that Islamic financing provides, there are differences in the way accounts are prepared and in how Shariah law is interpreted.

Banks in Britain differ in their accounting operations from banks in Bahrain, for example, which in turn differ from banks in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Dey, at Clifford Chance, said the lack of standardization posed a hurdle to growth, but others said that a cookie-cutter approach was not desirable and that regional differences would remain.

“Complete standardization may not happen – there will always be variants,” said Raj Maiden, managing director at Five Pillars in Singapore, who added that it was more important to tailor products according to the needs of each market.

While the debate rages on whether Islamic finance provides a safer bet or is merely a potential source of irrational exuberance, most agree the industry should make the most of the attention it is now receiving.

“If Islamic banks step up to the mark, then they will gain traction,” said Testa, of Gatehouse.

Source: International Herald Tribune
http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=IH0810-3694

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My Two Cents:
http://forum.khurram.ca/viewtopic.php?t=489
Posted: Mon 12 Jun 2006 1:04 pm Post subject: The Answer is Buried Under The Ice of Antarctica

I had a dream last night that I was a part of a crew employed by the government to uncover a structure under the ice of Antarctica that would contain the answer, led by a recently discovered prophesy that led the government and policy.

There is prophesy if Isreal excepted Jesus and there is prophesy if Isreal did not except Jesus and that was the key that led us to believe in this prophesy that took us to Antarctica, thus the reason for global warming.

The law required that you submit to the doctors treatment (I’m guessing we were ill from the global warming).

The alarm went off before I could find out what the answer was we were trying to uncover.

Strange dream. Last meeting I had with the mormon missionarys, I was explaining that I felt that the church had cracks in it (one major crack was its silence on global warming).

Is this dream in response to that, or just a creation of my mind to find peace with this – don’t really know. But because I remember this dream so vividly, it must be important.

My two cents: I predict that in ten years we will be raising a different flag. I don’t know if it will be Asian or Arab, I suspect a little of both. But it won’t Russia or China or even communist at all. We will be ruled by religion and I believe it will be an Islamic religion. I base this on a dream I had that keeps coming back to me.

Posted: Mon 12 Jun 2006

I had a dream last night that I was a part of a crew employed by the government to uncover a structure under the ice of Antarctica that would contain the answer, led by a recently discovered prophesy that led the government and policy.

There is prophesy if Isreal accepted Jesus and there is prophesy if Isreal did not accept Jesus and that was the key that led us to believe in this prophesy that took us to Antarctica, thus the reason for global warming.

The law required that you submit to the doctors treatment (I’m guessing we were ill from the global warming).

The alarm went off before I could find out what the answer was we were trying to uncover.