.... to Abram. God spoke to Abram, and told him that he would promise to bless him and make a great nation of him. Abram willingly decided to follow God to the city of Canaan. Abram not only traveled with his wife on this journey, but he also picked up his nephew, Lot. He lived his life in Canaan as a Nomad. Famine eventually struck the land of Canaan , forcing Abram and his family to move on to Egypt. In Egypt, Abram was fearful that the Egyptians would kill him and take his wife Sarai if they were to discover that the two were married. Abram attempted to cover this up .....

.... belief systems. This essay will first look at the dynamics of the sacred pipe ritual and offer some explanation into its religious significance, then draw some parallels to the more common sweat lodge ceremony. If a recurring spiritual theme appears in separate rituals, it can be considered evidence of a consistent, structured belief system. The use of smoking pipes in Native American cultures is a popular and very ancient practice. Direct predecessors of the modern pipe appear 1,500 years ago, and other less relevant pipes can be found as far back as 2,500 years ago. Th .....

.... Such indefinite notions are transformed into a distinct conception of a higher order than human beings, and yet somehow resembling them. As it may seem, humans have a metaphysical (speculative) need for a Supreme Being. God, as we call him. He is the eternal and infinite Spirit, Creator of the Universe, and the ultimate power. We present him with human characteristics in all concepts of God, which has led me to believe that it is not God who created man in His image, but man who creates God in his. Religion is one such need based on myth and spiritualism. People are taugh .....

.... one's spiritual self. (Pardue, page 228) Background Near the town of Kapilavastivu, today known as Nepal, lived King Suddhodhana and Queen Maya of the indigenous tribe known as the Shakyas. (Encyclopedia Americana, page 687) Queen Maya soon became pregnant and had a dream shortly before she gave birth. In this dream a beautiful, white elephant with six tusks entered her room and touched her side. This dream was soon interpreted by the wisest Brahmin, or Priest of Brahmanism, that she was to give birth to a son that would, if he were to remain in the castle, become .....

.... His adventure through life to show people the meaning of life. In this paper, I will give many reasons why people saw as a deviant, but in reality, why he was not. People in the days of had every reason to think was crazy and deviant. Look at how we view people in our society today who think they are the chosen one, who have been sent down from God or think they are some kind of God. Society looks at these people as crazy and as a threat to our everyday society. These people could just as easily be God's second son, but society sees these people just as they saw ba .....

.... at all. I think the despair we experience, and how we deal with it, is a test to show our true selves. The Lord does not make us suffer because of what we have done. Through suffering, we become better people and grow as an individual. You find your identity through terrible experiences. I have dealt with serious heartache and do believe that I have grown from it. I have learned how to react to certain situations and how to overcome them. I looked up the word "suffering" in the bible, I was directed to Psalms 73:21-26. It states, “When my heart was grieved and my spirit .....

.... rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Here Timothy is relating a charge given to him by Paul. As a story that is being told, it can be easily inferred that Paul had confronted opposition to the belief that scripture was in fact inspired by God, and therefore valid. Using literary criticism allows us to stay on the surface of what is being said, and not necessarily have to dig behind it to find the true meaning (we'll leave that to historical criticism) and therefore by looking at the .....

.... hell. The life of each Muslim is always within the community of the faithful, all are declared to be "brothers to each other," with he mission to "enjoin good and forbid evil." Within the community, Muslims are expected to establish social and economic justice. They are also expected to carry their message out to the rest of the world. In the early ic community, this meant the use of force in the form of jihad, or holy war. The object of jihad was to gain political control over societies and run them in accordance with the principles of . During the decades following the de .....