Year: 2017 Page 1 of 8

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Twenty One

Last night was the Feast of Qawl, but because of a family emergency me and Megan couldn’t get to it.

But what is a Feast I hear you ask, well it’s a gathering held at the beginning of each Bahá’í month, and Bahá’ís will gather and “if this feast be held in the proper fashion”, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states, “ …find themselves spiritually restored, and endued with a power that is not of this world.

A Feast is split into three parts, spiritual, administrative and social. The spiritual part consists of a devotional in which prayers are read from the writings of The Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and `Abdu’l-Bahá.

The administrative part focus on the work the community is doing and allows the Local Spiritual Assembly (if the community has one) to hold consultation with the community so we can reflect on the goings on of the previous month.

And in the last part, the social, we enjoy refreshments and share cups of tea as we chat and basically be together in a way that strengthens the communities bonds.

As there is no clergy or priesthood within the Bahá’í Faith it is actually down to the community itself to organise the Feast and as such it means that each Feast is very different as it reflects the character of its organiser, especially in the devotional they create for it.

Essentially the Feast is the Bahá’í equivalent of a Sunday service for Christians.

Mood: Worried

Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 5

In My Ears: Ace of Spades by Mötorhead

Game Last Played: Carcassonne

Book Last Read: Ruinstorm by David Annadale

Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Bones

Current State of Projects: Plasma Obliterator started.

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Twenty

Bit of a hectic night tonight, so I am sharing a short prayer that is to me, extremely beautiful and makes me smile.

“O my God, O my Lord, O my Master! I beg Thee to forgive me for seeking any pleasure save Thy love, or any comfort except Thy nearness, or any delight besides Thy good-pleasure, or any existence other than communion with Thee.”

The Báb

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Nineteen

I have a new nephew and niece on their way so I thought I would share a prayer that I often say for them, and my other nephews and nieces who are already here!

“O Thou peerless Lord! Let this suckling babe be nursed from the breast of Thy loving-kindness, guard it within the cradle of Thy safety and protection and grant that it be reared in the arms of Thy tender affection.”

`Abdu’l-Bahá

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Eighteen

Most religions have a Qiblih, that is a location to which they turn when in prayer, and Bahá’ís are no different in this.

Our Qiblih is the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh in Bahjí near Acre in Israel, it is where the founder of our religion was laid to rest when he ascended to heaven.

The shrine and it’s gardens are on the UNs world heritage list, and one day I hope to have enough money to make the pilgrimage there.

Mood: Wired

Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 7

In My Ears: Groove is in the Heart by Dee Lite

Game Last Played: Carcassonne

Book Last Read: Ruinstorm by David Annadale

Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Big Bang Theory

Current State of Projects: Rhino almost finished.

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Seventeen

I am not a person who is able to be detached very much, but as a Bahá’í I do strive to be a person more detached from the physical things, and here is a prayer is use when I really need to be more detached.

“Say: God sufficeth all things above all things, and nothing in the heavens or in the earth but God sufficeth. Verily, He is in Himself the Knower, the Sustainer, the Omnipotent.”

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Sixteen

We Bahá’ís don’t have many temples, there are only nine temples in the world, one for each inhabited continent plus Central America and a single local temple.

They are called mašriqu-l-‘aḏkār (مشرق اﻻذكار) which means in Arabic “Dawning-place of the remembrances of God”. The teachings of our Faith means that one day these temples will be at the centre of a number of community facilities for the dedicated to scientific, educational and humanitarian pursuits, like schools and hospitals.

The first temple was built in Ashgabat in Turkmenistan but was later destroyed by the Soviet government. Since then we have built temples in Wilmette in the US, Kampala in Uganda, Sydney in Australia, Frankfurt in Germany, Panama City in Panama, Tiapapata in Samoa, Delhi in India, Santiago in Chile, and a local temple in Battambang in Cambodia.

These temples all follow a similar design philosophy with a nine sided circular shape, and a dome. We don’t display any pictures or statues and as sermons are forbidden in our temples we don’t have any pulpits or alters.

Our temples are open to people of all religions, and people can come and worship God without any restrictions. Only Bahá’í scriptures and prayers as well as those of other religions can be read or chanted in the temple, and we don’t play musical instruments inside.

And very importantly, no sermons can be delivered inside a Bahá’í temple and under no circumstances can there be any ritualistic ceremonies practised.

Experiments in Live Streaming/Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Fifteen

 

On Sunday we had our four weekly board games day, and we decided to have a go at live streaming the games, as I have mentioned, me and Graham want to live stream some games from Company of Legends.

So to try out the technology we gave it a shot on Sunday and below you can watch the results for yourself.

We have been doing dome other tests to see what we can do to make it look as good as possible and we are going to be doing a big test by live streaming a full game of Horus Heresy in the next couple of weeks.

I thought I had decided how we were going to do it, but I have been seeing other ideas that may look better, but its a case of doing more tests over the next few weeks and seeing how we can make this look as good as possible.

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge

I have previously mentioned that as a Bahá’í everyday I say the phrase Alláh-u-Abh‎‎á which is Arabic for God is the Most Glorious.

Now normally I use an app to help me keep track, but a few years ago, my wife Lindsay made me this set of prayer beads. They are based on a dream of Mirza Abbas Buzurg, Bahá’u’lláh’s father in which he saw his Son in a vast ocean and Bahá’u’lláh’s body was aglow lighting up all around him. And around him gathered a large amount of fish each of which clung to end of one of his hairs, and they followed him wherever he swam doing him no harm and not preventing him from swimming anywhere he wanted to.

When he awoke Mirza Buzurg who was a minister in the Persian Government summoned a soothsayer to him to interpret the dreams and his interpretation was as follows:

“O Minister, the endless ocean in which you saw your son is the world of creation. Your son will achieve mastery over this world. The multitude of fish are the people of the world and the turmoil that Bahá’u’lláh will generate among them. None will be able to prevent him doing whatever he wishes. Around him the people will gather and to him they will cling. They will be unable to harm him.”

Anyway these are my prayer beads, I love them and I don’t use them as often as I should.

What I am Modelling

I finished up a Daemon Prince of Khorne model that I built for my Blades of Khorne/Chaos army for Age of Sigmar. He will also find a role in my Chaos Marines army in 40k and as a HQ for Daemon allies for my 30k Word Bearers.

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Finished up a Daemon Prince of Khorne, my first ever Daemon of Chaos. This guy will be part of several armies, in 40k he will be in my Chaos Space Marines and Daemons, in Age of Sigmar he will be part of my Blades of Khorne army and in Heresy he will form part of the Daemon allies I am putting together for my Word Bearers. Lovely model to paint, really enjoyed the whole process. The only thing I would change is the armour colour, I did it in dark red to match my Khorne Mortals, but it doesn’t really pop considering he has red skin. #PaintingWarhammer #PaintingGamesWorkshop #ChaosDaemons #DaemonsofChaos #Chaos #BladesofKhorne #KhorneDaemons #Khorne #WordBearers #XVIILegion #XVIIthLegion #ChaosSpaceMarine #ChaosSpaceMarines #HereticAstartes #Warhammer #Warhammer40k #Warhammer40000 #WarhammerAgeofSigmar #WarhammerAoS #AoS #AgeofSigmar #HorusHeresy #TheHorusHeresy #Warhammer30k #Warhammer30000 #HardforHeresy #FullyPaintedIsForClosers

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I have now started and have almost finished a few units for my Ultramarines, a Praetor from the MKIV Commander Set and a squad of Tactical Support Marines armed with Volkite Chargers and a Rhino to go with them.

The infantry is nearly finished now whilst the Rhino has a long way to go still. The Preator I managed to finish up whilst I was writing this post.

What I am Reading

Despite saying I would I still have yet to pick up my book since my last update :-(.

I am however making good progress through Praetorian of Dorn and have almost finished it.

What I am Playing

On Sunday in our four weekly board games day we started off with Mars Attacks The Dice Game, followed by Carcassonne (which included the River, Abbot, the Spiel Promo tiles from 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, the Labyrinth and the Japanese Buildings), Pretending to Grownup, Ca$h ‘n Guns, Unspeakable Words Deluxe and Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice. I won’t go into detail about them as you can look above to watch the videos of us playing them.

What I am Backing

Not a thing at the minute, not a single thing.

I had hoped to back Ogre Miniatures Set 2, but sadly its not available for international backers :-(.

What I am Cooking

I have had a poor week pain wise and haven’t cooked anything this week, which has knocked my confidence quite a bit.

What I am Spending

I have spent a bit more money than I planned to this week, I started the week by buying some 90mm Oval Bases and a Lictor from Games Workshop this week and Roboute Guilliman from Forgeworld.

We also picked up a few bits for the podcast, a tripod for the second webcam which arrived this week, a USB sound card so we can plug the shotgun microphone into the laptop and a USB active repeater extension cable, these are for the video work we will be doing.

It doesn’t count as spending but one of my Secret Santa gifts arrived today, this one from The Board Game Group Secret Santa, it wasn’t wrapped and had no indication on it that it was a present, so I opened it and got a wonderful surprise in the form of 7 Wonders Duel Pantheon and Kingdomino!

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Fourteen

For today I wanted to talk about a Bahá’í belief that I previously mentioned a few days ago, progressive revelation.

We Bahá’ís believe that God is regular in revealing His will to mankind via Messengers/Prophets, and each messenger forms a new covenant and establishes a new religion.

This is quite different to other religions who often believe that their Messenger is the final one. We believe that religion is something that evolves and that each messengers will bring more revelations so that we better understand God than the previous religion.

The differences in the different religion are, we believe, the result of the different cultures and times in which the Messengers come to us. There are certain universal truths that are renewed by each messenger, but they also bring teachings that reflect the spiritual and material evolution of humanity of the time.

Bahá’u’lláh explained that the coming of a new Messenger is like the coming of spring in that it brings new life to the world, which has often come to neglect the teachings of the previous Messenger.

There isn’t a definitive list of the previous messengers of god, but Bahá’u’lláh and `Abdu’l-Bahá have mentioned that several prophets as Manifestations of God, which include Adam, Noah, Krishna, Moses, Abraham, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad, as well as obviously The Báb and Bahá’u’lláh.

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Thirteen

Today I discovered that the past few days posts have not been published in the website for some reason.

So I have had to take time to sort that out so today I am being lazy again and just sharing a prayer by Bahá’u’lláh which calls for unity to follow on from yesterday’s post about unity and oneness.

“O my God! O my God! Unite the hearts of Thy servants, and reveal to them Thy great purpose. May they follow Thy commandments and abide in Thy law. Help them, O God, in their endeavor, and grant them strength to serve Thee. O God! Leave them not to themselves, but guide their steps by the light of Thy knowledge, and cheer their hearts by Thy love. Verily, Thou art their Helper and their Lord.”

Bahá’í Blogging Challenge Day Twelve

Today has been a satisfying day, in which we played games and live streamed them.

But what I wanted to talk about today was the three onenesses, which are core principles of the Bahá’í faith. They are the oneness of God, the oneness of religion and the oneness of humanity.

So how do I explain them, well I will probably do so very badly but here goes.

Oneness of God

We Bahá’ís believe in a single unknowable God who is the source of all existence, a creator who created us to have the capacity to know and love him.

In our belief system, we believe that the beings worshiped as gods by other societies are all a reflection of this single Being, and rather than the differences being irreconcilable, we see them as simply aspects that are relevant to the time and culture in which they were revealed.

So to summarise that, there is one God, there has only ever been the one God and all people have worshiped that same God throughout history.

Oneness of Religion

We believe that there is only one religion, and that God has been progressively revealing that religion to mankind, depending on the needs of a society at a particular time and place which is why they have differences.

We believe that Bahá’u’lláh is the latest is in a long line of messengers which has included Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and others. We believe that denying any one of these messengers is to deny them all, this we accept Zoroaster as much as we accept the Báb and Krishna.

Oneness of Humanity

The Bahá’í teachings tell us that there is only one humanity and that all people, regardless of race, nation, gender, class, and caste are equal in the eyes of God.

`Abdu’l Bahá stated that “the paramount issue and question in the religious and political conditions of the world.” And Bahá’u’lláh wrote –

“Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship.”

The differences we see in people are superficial, like skin colour, or a result of differences in education or background.

It is a guiding principle of the Bahá’í faith that we wish to eliminate all forms of prejudice and discrimination be that racial or other forms like gender discrimination.

We believe in a principle called “Unity in Diversity”, which means that whilst mankind is essentially one people we should also celebrate the cultural diversity that makes us all different, it’s often likened to the flowers in a garden, where when different varieties and colours are added to a garden it enhances its beauty.

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