Good evening to all of my readers! I hope all is well with all of you!
Today I started my first day of my summer classes for this year and the class I attended today is Philosophy 111 (Critical Thinking). I truly do feel as though I will really enjoy and benefit from this class, as it is a skill we all ought to have. I whole-heartedly believe that if people learned and practiced the skill of critical thinking our world, our economy, our communities, and our hearts would not be in shambles like we so often see or hear about. My friends, if you would just be so kind as to lend me but a few minutes of your precious time, I would like to try and convince you all to think!
In class, the professor was actually quite gifted in getting students into thought provoking debates. I found this in itself to be completely amazing, I mean what college student actually wants to be in a hot classroom for 3 hours on a beautiful summer day? I went into the class half expecting everybody to just sit there, apathetic to what was going on, only ritualistically taking down notes and daydreaming for the extent of the lecture. Me, being the timid type, kind of just sat back and listened, took notes, and thought about everything that was being said. If I had more courage, I would have been able to contribute quite a bit to one particular discussion I wanted to share with all of you tonight. Class was concluded today after an extensive discussion on the saying (which has become a way of life for many) "Ignorance is bliss".
This discussion was held primarily between two of my classmates. One young lass was arguing against the concept of ignorance being bliss, while one gentleman was arguing for the idea. Now let's think about this concept and our own lives for a moment. Do we either consciously or unconsciously avoid a subject because we know that we may be upset or displeased with the answer or the conclusion to that particular subject? For example, it may be the case for quite a few people these days that they put off looking at their credit card bills because they feel that if they see what they had spent, they may despair at the fact that they cannot possibly afford to pay back what they'd borrowed. In this situation, it may be true that ignorance is a means to achieve temporary feelings of bliss, but remember, this can only lead to temporary bliss and not last. This idea or concept which is adopted as a way or philosophy of life by so many can only lead to certain troubles and leads to no liberation from those troubles.
Consider now, my friends, how God or His word and His teachings are regarded these days. When you enter into your place of work, your school campus, or even your church or your own home, how openly can we speak of God without facing sure persecution? People have found a false sense of bliss by remaining ignorant to God. I attended a different church this past Sunday morning and the lack of interest, the lack of respect, and the overall complacency or apathy really shocked and disturbed me. If we can't even get excited about our Creator - who saved us without us even deserving to draw our next breath - in church, the house of God, how much more ignorant will we be to God in places where we can't even speak of Him? During the great debate during class, I took a side note of my own: "We naturally think ignorance equals bliss because it is an easy way out in a society that is lazy and morally unsound. Without Christ as the lamp to our feet as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it will utterly crush and destroy our world."
The Word of God also cautions us that we must not live in ignorance! We must educate ourselves not only in His teachings but in all things good and we must take them into practice, only this will lead to full, lasting bliss. Peter teaches in the book of Acts after God filled him with the Holy Spirit that it was by the ignorance of the people that Jesus was put to death. After Peter prays for a man who was lame (a man who suffered from paralysis), God healed the man of his paralysis and gave him strength so that he could stand and walk and rejoice. Acts 3: 14 - 26 tells us what Peter had to say to the people about their ignorance. "14) But you denied the Holy One and the Just and asked for a murder to be granted to you, 15) and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. 16) And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man (the man whom God healed through Peter's prayer over him) strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 17) Yet now, bretheren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18) But those things which God had foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19) Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20) and the He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before. Now I'm going to jump ahead 3 verses to Acts 3: 23 - 26: 23) And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet (Jesus) shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. 24) Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25) You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' 26) To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.
Acts chapter 3 really is quite an amazing chapter of the Bible. The Holy Spirit given by Jesus speaks through Peter and tells us that if we turn away from a life of ignorance and apathy we will find true bliss (verse 26 "To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.") If we just turn to God and give Him the time of day, it is promised that He will redeem us from our troubles. I don't know about you my friends but when I feel as though nothing is troubling me, I feel pretty amazingly blissful and it is promised to us all if we repent for our sins and living in ignorance and just chase after Him open heartedly! Bear with me everyone, I'm going to give you all one more passage from the book of Acts and then I'll wrap it all up.
Acts 17: 30 - 32 also cautions us not to live a life of ignorance or apathy if you will (because they are so closely related they might as well be brother and sister). In Acts 17, it is no longer Peter teaching with the Holy Spirit, but it is now Paul. Acts 17: 30 - 32 tells us: 30) Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31) because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man (Jesus) whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. 32) And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said 'We will hear you again on this matter.'"
It has been said that history repeats itself if we choose not to learn from it. By being ignorant and apathetic to learning, we continuously go in the same circles of turning to God and giving Him the glory and then feeling as though we have progressed to the point where God is no longer needed and then there is sure to be a downfall only to lead to people once again seeking after God. I strongly encourage you all to spend some time in prayer and reading God's word or at least picking up a book and learning about things that have transpired or watching the history channel. What you will be seeing on the history channel is what our future looks like, but with the "advancement" of humankind, the devastation and destruction only becomes more terrifying. Stand up for what you believe in and if you believe in God then you very well ought to educate yourself on who He is and who He wants us to be so that we can stand up for Him. Many will be against us in this age, but it is no different than shortly after the resurrection of Christ. Acts 17: 32 shows us clearly how history truly does repeat itself. "32) And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said 'We will hear you again on this matter.'" Even in these times, where Christ had just been taken up into Heaven not too long before, people mocked the people professing the word of God and the good news, but some did listen. We may be discouraged when we see how God is regarded in our society, but some want to hear more. Some people need to hear it and we need to go out and pray for and heal our emotionally and spiritually crippled brothers and sisters just as Peter prayed healing for the crippled man in Acts chapter 3 and he was healed by God's grace and love.
Since you are reading this right now, I'm assuming I've kept the attention of some of my readers and I am ever grateful for you all. I encourage any of you to comment or discuss these things with me. Thank you all very much for your continued support and kindness.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
The true pursuit of happiness
Welcome back to my blog, friends!
Tonight I am going to give you all some insight on what has been on my heart recently. The beginning of last week (Monday, May 28, 2012) I feel that God has blessed me and delivered me from an extensive period of almost total darkness. He opened my eyes and made me realize how I need to spend time every day in prayer and to study into His word and to surround myself with fellow believers and followers of Christ. Almost immediately I felt that the dark times were finally over and God has finally answered my prayers that I have been sending up there. I have been taking time each day to spill out my heart to the all loving, all knowing, all powerful God and I feel that He is working within me to help me to cope and become a better overall person.
This past Monday (June 4, 2012) I decided to take time to read some of God's word and I didn't know where to start. So what I did was I turned to a random page in the Bible and whatever book I opened to, I would start from the beginning of that book and I would start my reading there. By no coincidence, I opened up to the book of Job in the Old Testament. I read through the first seven chapters and I thought to myself "Gee, I really could have used this book before last Monday...! I'll continue reading". I had no idea that what I was reading would be exactly what I needed to hear within the next hours and days. The book of Job in a nutshell is about a man who was seen favored by God. Job had everything he could have asked for: a wife, children whom he loved, the respect of his neighbors, money, land, and he didn't take it for granted. Job gave thanks to God at any opportunity he could. One day, the Devil goes to God and implores that He thinks of Job. The Devil suggested that Job was only so "righteous" because he clearly was favored by God and had such an easy life. So after this, God allows the Devil to take literally everything Job had and also God allows him to inflict much physical harm on Job so long as he did not kill him.
During this time, Job curses his own life and he curses the day of his birth and goes through extensive suffering and mourning; yet he never curses the name of God and he never loses his faith in God. At the conclusion of the story, one of Job's companions ends up reminding him of all God's greatness and pretty much calls Job a fool for doubting God and by cursing his own life. God then came to Job and declared all that He has done and further reminded him that He is all powerful and He is the ultimate authority. After this, Job repents for the way he has been and for thinking himself righteous in the eyes of God and for thinking himself without fault. After this, God blessed Job with much more than he had originally started with, much more than he ever imagined possible.
Recently, my friends, I realized that my dark days don't seem to be completely over. What God has blessed me with seems to have left as quickly and unexpectedly as it has come. The only difference between now and before is this time I won't give up, I will continue to pray and to read the word of God. I have faith that God will bring me out of this and carry me to something much better than I could ever possibly imagine. Job 5:7 says that "Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward". What I gathered from this verse and the verses following is this: Even though man is born to trouble, God will stay faithful to those who remain faithful to Him even in troublesome times. Job 5:11 says "He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety". We all must go through our trials and hard times WILL come to each and every one of us, but we cannot let this discourage us and more importantly we cannot lose our faith in God because if we stay strong, the hard times lead only to something much better than we originally had. We learn in Job 11 that we must go to God with a heart ready to accept Him and His work. Worship Him and pray even in times of trouble and in that moment, forget your iniquities and let God heal you.
The word tells us in Job 22:21 - 23 "Now acquaint yourself with Him, and "be at peace; Thereby good will come to you. Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, And lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; you will remove iniquity far from your tents. I will continue at Job 22:25 - 30: "Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver; For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you and you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say, 'Exaltation will come!' Then He will save the humble person. He will even deliver one who is not innocent." My friends we need to acquaint ourselves with God, indulge in His word, continuously and vigorously pray, praise, worship and seek God and listen for His instructions. The most amazing thing about this all is verse 30: "He will even deliver one who is not innocent". The love God has for us becomes even more apparent in Job 23: 6-7: "Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. There the upright could reason with Him, And I would be delivered forever from my Judge." God offers us who are far from innocent a chance to be reconciled with Him and escape judgement EVEN in the Old Testament before the sacrifice Christ made for us.
I apologize for the length of this post, my friends, but this post contains an entire summary of the book of Job as well as my notes on the book. It is true that I have a lot on my mind and my heart right now. Discouragement and despair has taken over me, but through an examination of the book of Job, my burden feels much lighter. I will continue through these times, whether calm or rough waters, and I will continue to trust in the Almighty God. I hope that through my troubles, my readers can recall this post in troublesome times of their own. We can pull through any situation we are placed into if we put our trust in the right place. Stay strong, my friends and remember to unify with one another. We all need people to support us and that's why God places the people He does in our lives. Some will stay, others may not, but don't despair because God loves you more than you know and more than you deserve.
Tonight I am going to give you all some insight on what has been on my heart recently. The beginning of last week (Monday, May 28, 2012) I feel that God has blessed me and delivered me from an extensive period of almost total darkness. He opened my eyes and made me realize how I need to spend time every day in prayer and to study into His word and to surround myself with fellow believers and followers of Christ. Almost immediately I felt that the dark times were finally over and God has finally answered my prayers that I have been sending up there. I have been taking time each day to spill out my heart to the all loving, all knowing, all powerful God and I feel that He is working within me to help me to cope and become a better overall person.
This past Monday (June 4, 2012) I decided to take time to read some of God's word and I didn't know where to start. So what I did was I turned to a random page in the Bible and whatever book I opened to, I would start from the beginning of that book and I would start my reading there. By no coincidence, I opened up to the book of Job in the Old Testament. I read through the first seven chapters and I thought to myself "Gee, I really could have used this book before last Monday...! I'll continue reading". I had no idea that what I was reading would be exactly what I needed to hear within the next hours and days. The book of Job in a nutshell is about a man who was seen favored by God. Job had everything he could have asked for: a wife, children whom he loved, the respect of his neighbors, money, land, and he didn't take it for granted. Job gave thanks to God at any opportunity he could. One day, the Devil goes to God and implores that He thinks of Job. The Devil suggested that Job was only so "righteous" because he clearly was favored by God and had such an easy life. So after this, God allows the Devil to take literally everything Job had and also God allows him to inflict much physical harm on Job so long as he did not kill him.
During this time, Job curses his own life and he curses the day of his birth and goes through extensive suffering and mourning; yet he never curses the name of God and he never loses his faith in God. At the conclusion of the story, one of Job's companions ends up reminding him of all God's greatness and pretty much calls Job a fool for doubting God and by cursing his own life. God then came to Job and declared all that He has done and further reminded him that He is all powerful and He is the ultimate authority. After this, Job repents for the way he has been and for thinking himself righteous in the eyes of God and for thinking himself without fault. After this, God blessed Job with much more than he had originally started with, much more than he ever imagined possible.
Recently, my friends, I realized that my dark days don't seem to be completely over. What God has blessed me with seems to have left as quickly and unexpectedly as it has come. The only difference between now and before is this time I won't give up, I will continue to pray and to read the word of God. I have faith that God will bring me out of this and carry me to something much better than I could ever possibly imagine. Job 5:7 says that "Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward". What I gathered from this verse and the verses following is this: Even though man is born to trouble, God will stay faithful to those who remain faithful to Him even in troublesome times. Job 5:11 says "He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety". We all must go through our trials and hard times WILL come to each and every one of us, but we cannot let this discourage us and more importantly we cannot lose our faith in God because if we stay strong, the hard times lead only to something much better than we originally had. We learn in Job 11 that we must go to God with a heart ready to accept Him and His work. Worship Him and pray even in times of trouble and in that moment, forget your iniquities and let God heal you.
The word tells us in Job 22:21 - 23 "Now acquaint yourself with Him, and "be at peace; Thereby good will come to you. Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, And lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; you will remove iniquity far from your tents. I will continue at Job 22:25 - 30: "Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver; For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you and you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say, 'Exaltation will come!' Then He will save the humble person. He will even deliver one who is not innocent." My friends we need to acquaint ourselves with God, indulge in His word, continuously and vigorously pray, praise, worship and seek God and listen for His instructions. The most amazing thing about this all is verse 30: "He will even deliver one who is not innocent". The love God has for us becomes even more apparent in Job 23: 6-7: "Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. There the upright could reason with Him, And I would be delivered forever from my Judge." God offers us who are far from innocent a chance to be reconciled with Him and escape judgement EVEN in the Old Testament before the sacrifice Christ made for us.
I apologize for the length of this post, my friends, but this post contains an entire summary of the book of Job as well as my notes on the book. It is true that I have a lot on my mind and my heart right now. Discouragement and despair has taken over me, but through an examination of the book of Job, my burden feels much lighter. I will continue through these times, whether calm or rough waters, and I will continue to trust in the Almighty God. I hope that through my troubles, my readers can recall this post in troublesome times of their own. We can pull through any situation we are placed into if we put our trust in the right place. Stay strong, my friends and remember to unify with one another. We all need people to support us and that's why God places the people He does in our lives. Some will stay, others may not, but don't despair because God loves you more than you know and more than you deserve.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Unify
Good afternoon everybody and thanks once again for coming!
I have been brainstorming about things to write about, but it seems to me that the most meaningful things to write about are the things that really spur deep emotion and thought, not just anything you can come up with off the top of your head. Today I came across a news story that was really actually quite awful (but when does the news ever report anything we LIKE to hear?). I will post a link to the specific news article on here, although I'm not sure if it will be displayed or how long it will be accessible.
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/mother-drives-5-week-old-top-car-164426051--abc-news-topstories.html
In case you are unable to access the news report for any reason, I will sum up the happenings for you all right here. Basically what happened is a mother was out partying with friends and the father. They all smoked marijuana and brought the baby along and the father was arrested that night for DUI while he was driving to purchase alcohol and he had the baby in the car. The mother was reportedly upset by arrest of her baby's father and so she coped the only way she knew how - doing more drugs and drinking with her best friends. As the night was winding down, the mother decided to leave the party so she put the baby in the car seat and set the car seat on top of the car. Have you ever set something - perhaps a cup of coffee or soda - on top of your car while you fished your keys out of your pocket or bag and forgot you had placed your beverage on top of the car and you drove off? Well it had apparently slipped this mother's mind that she set her own child on top of the car and she drove away nonchalantly and baby goes tumbling down onto the public roadway. At this point I am pleased to inform you all that by the grace of God the baby is okay and was rescued before any harm could come to him.
Today I'd like to focus on something OTHER than the news story itself and I will tie it all together at the end so bear with me here. What got me so upset was when I was reading through the comments people around the USA posted on this news blog. While reading through some of the comments I realized that the content of the majority of the comments was not even based on the actual story itself, but it essentially turned into a debate on the presence (or lack thereof) of God. I don't know about you my brothers and sisters, but I feel that there is something incredibly wrong with the fact that when somebody thanks God for being with this child and protecting him, that person gets called out and virtually persecuted and textually assaulted. There is an option to rate comments either up for good or down for bad, and I noticed that a good amount of the comments that proclaimed thanks and praise to God got rated down by the majority.
It truly does break my heart that humankind is slowly drifting away in a river whose current leads only to their certain demise. Families get separated, church on Sunday has gone from an absolute necessity to "maybe I'll go... but only if it is Easter or Christmas and only if I'm not too busy...". Reading the Bible has become too much work; praying to God has gone from proclaiming His glory and giving thanks as well as asking for His advice and His help to only asking Him to get you a better job or to bring you more money or to get you out of any uneasy situation. Mention of the name of Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit anywhere other than church is almost a crime in a nation that was founded "ONE NATION UNDER GOD". I was telling one of my brothers (not by blood but through God), that as time progresses, humankind regresses. He was trying to start a political debate with me. We all know the debate - liberals vs. conservatives - bashing each other and pointing fingers at each other and instilling hatred and thus occurs separation. I find it sad that just maybe half a century ago (though I wasn't yet born), church was almost mandatory, families were closer, businesses were closed on Sundays, the name of God was still in the pledge of allegiance, etc., etc., the list can go on. What is it that went so wrong? It started with people maybe skipping one day of church to just relax or maybe go have a picnic and do something fun then slowly progressed to maybe justifying only going once every other week or so (I mean you're still going, right? What's the harm in missing 2 services a month?) It went from skipping a couple services a month, to just becoming lazy but maybe still saying a prayer a day. Then since they no longer had the church community around them to support their spiritual growth, they got rid of prayer altogether unless there was some sort of a crisis. Can you see how as time progressed we have truly regressed?
Now look at what we have in our current day. We have people at each other's throats arguing over which political party is right (though they never look at the negatives in the party they support... that'd be too inconvenient and uncomfortable). Politics and religion are the two topics we now must never discuss, because it only causes arguments... Convenient, hm? The arguments lead to disagreements, the disagreements lead to us speaking down of our brothers and sisters, speaking down of our brothers and sisters leads to further arguing and then eventually to complete separation and loss of a companionship. This is a tragedy. I'd like to go back and refer to one of the comments on this news blog in particular. One person had stated something along the lines of (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Thank God that the baby is okay? Why is it that you think God has saved this baby when there are so many other children out there starving to death, suffering, getting beaten and abused by neglectful parents. Is God doing anything for those children? He saves one but He turns a blind eye to all these others?" I could not believe what I was reading when I read that comment. I was absolutely and completely shocked. To make it even worse for me, they had about 40 people rate it as a thumbs up and only about half of that rate it thumbs down.
I'm here to propose a theory to all of you today for those of you who are still reading. God HAS saved that baby and He does deserve the praise for doing so. This baby had angels surrounding him and protecting him and he has a specific purpose and God has a plan for this child. But does that mean God is responsible for the suffering and pain and death of all these other children? I resent that even as an idea. I believe that the only reason there is the possibility for those children to go through those trials and suffer and even lose their lives is because humankind has regressed so far and have taken it to those extremes. I believe it is because God is no longer regarded as the only way and God is not feared among humankind. We are to blame, brothers and sisters, not God. Humankind has abused their gift of free will and they chose to remove Him from everything that He has given us by His grace and mercy. It is as if we have received say a new car as a gift from our parents and then we have pridefully snatched the keys out of their hands and drove off without even saying "Thank you, mom and dad".
I'm going to leave you all with that this afternoon and I really hope that - if anything at all - you think about the ways in which you interact with your fellow brothers and sisters. What we need is unity. The hateful arguments about politics or religion or ethics should all be disregarded and engage in your conversations with love for one another and caring, and brotherhood. Where there is unity, God commands His blessing. (Psalm 133).
I have been brainstorming about things to write about, but it seems to me that the most meaningful things to write about are the things that really spur deep emotion and thought, not just anything you can come up with off the top of your head. Today I came across a news story that was really actually quite awful (but when does the news ever report anything we LIKE to hear?). I will post a link to the specific news article on here, although I'm not sure if it will be displayed or how long it will be accessible.
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/mother-drives-5-week-old-top-car-164426051--abc-news-topstories.html
In case you are unable to access the news report for any reason, I will sum up the happenings for you all right here. Basically what happened is a mother was out partying with friends and the father. They all smoked marijuana and brought the baby along and the father was arrested that night for DUI while he was driving to purchase alcohol and he had the baby in the car. The mother was reportedly upset by arrest of her baby's father and so she coped the only way she knew how - doing more drugs and drinking with her best friends. As the night was winding down, the mother decided to leave the party so she put the baby in the car seat and set the car seat on top of the car. Have you ever set something - perhaps a cup of coffee or soda - on top of your car while you fished your keys out of your pocket or bag and forgot you had placed your beverage on top of the car and you drove off? Well it had apparently slipped this mother's mind that she set her own child on top of the car and she drove away nonchalantly and baby goes tumbling down onto the public roadway. At this point I am pleased to inform you all that by the grace of God the baby is okay and was rescued before any harm could come to him.
Today I'd like to focus on something OTHER than the news story itself and I will tie it all together at the end so bear with me here. What got me so upset was when I was reading through the comments people around the USA posted on this news blog. While reading through some of the comments I realized that the content of the majority of the comments was not even based on the actual story itself, but it essentially turned into a debate on the presence (or lack thereof) of God. I don't know about you my brothers and sisters, but I feel that there is something incredibly wrong with the fact that when somebody thanks God for being with this child and protecting him, that person gets called out and virtually persecuted and textually assaulted. There is an option to rate comments either up for good or down for bad, and I noticed that a good amount of the comments that proclaimed thanks and praise to God got rated down by the majority.
It truly does break my heart that humankind is slowly drifting away in a river whose current leads only to their certain demise. Families get separated, church on Sunday has gone from an absolute necessity to "maybe I'll go... but only if it is Easter or Christmas and only if I'm not too busy...". Reading the Bible has become too much work; praying to God has gone from proclaiming His glory and giving thanks as well as asking for His advice and His help to only asking Him to get you a better job or to bring you more money or to get you out of any uneasy situation. Mention of the name of Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit anywhere other than church is almost a crime in a nation that was founded "ONE NATION UNDER GOD". I was telling one of my brothers (not by blood but through God), that as time progresses, humankind regresses. He was trying to start a political debate with me. We all know the debate - liberals vs. conservatives - bashing each other and pointing fingers at each other and instilling hatred and thus occurs separation. I find it sad that just maybe half a century ago (though I wasn't yet born), church was almost mandatory, families were closer, businesses were closed on Sundays, the name of God was still in the pledge of allegiance, etc., etc., the list can go on. What is it that went so wrong? It started with people maybe skipping one day of church to just relax or maybe go have a picnic and do something fun then slowly progressed to maybe justifying only going once every other week or so (I mean you're still going, right? What's the harm in missing 2 services a month?) It went from skipping a couple services a month, to just becoming lazy but maybe still saying a prayer a day. Then since they no longer had the church community around them to support their spiritual growth, they got rid of prayer altogether unless there was some sort of a crisis. Can you see how as time progressed we have truly regressed?
Now look at what we have in our current day. We have people at each other's throats arguing over which political party is right (though they never look at the negatives in the party they support... that'd be too inconvenient and uncomfortable). Politics and religion are the two topics we now must never discuss, because it only causes arguments... Convenient, hm? The arguments lead to disagreements, the disagreements lead to us speaking down of our brothers and sisters, speaking down of our brothers and sisters leads to further arguing and then eventually to complete separation and loss of a companionship. This is a tragedy. I'd like to go back and refer to one of the comments on this news blog in particular. One person had stated something along the lines of (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Thank God that the baby is okay? Why is it that you think God has saved this baby when there are so many other children out there starving to death, suffering, getting beaten and abused by neglectful parents. Is God doing anything for those children? He saves one but He turns a blind eye to all these others?" I could not believe what I was reading when I read that comment. I was absolutely and completely shocked. To make it even worse for me, they had about 40 people rate it as a thumbs up and only about half of that rate it thumbs down.
I'm here to propose a theory to all of you today for those of you who are still reading. God HAS saved that baby and He does deserve the praise for doing so. This baby had angels surrounding him and protecting him and he has a specific purpose and God has a plan for this child. But does that mean God is responsible for the suffering and pain and death of all these other children? I resent that even as an idea. I believe that the only reason there is the possibility for those children to go through those trials and suffer and even lose their lives is because humankind has regressed so far and have taken it to those extremes. I believe it is because God is no longer regarded as the only way and God is not feared among humankind. We are to blame, brothers and sisters, not God. Humankind has abused their gift of free will and they chose to remove Him from everything that He has given us by His grace and mercy. It is as if we have received say a new car as a gift from our parents and then we have pridefully snatched the keys out of their hands and drove off without even saying "Thank you, mom and dad".
I'm going to leave you all with that this afternoon and I really hope that - if anything at all - you think about the ways in which you interact with your fellow brothers and sisters. What we need is unity. The hateful arguments about politics or religion or ethics should all be disregarded and engage in your conversations with love for one another and caring, and brotherhood. Where there is unity, God commands His blessing. (Psalm 133).
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
My Friends...
Greetings, my wonderful and gracious audience. For anyone who happens to stumble across and take the time to read through my thoughts, I greatly appreciate your time and I am glad you're here. After over a year hiatus, I'm back to the world of blogging. Today, May 29, 2012, I think I'm going to focus on letting you all know how much I appreciate every single one of you.
Recently I've been really thinking about the meaning each individual life has and the importance of every single living, breathing thing. I realize that this post is going to be quite different from what I normally write about, but this is what I find on my heart today. Have you ever just taken time to truly think about what each person in your life means to you? I just can't help but be absolutely amazed by the wonderful and genius plan of our almighty Creator. The story that unfolds in each and every life has all been planned and if we choose to live righteously and obey that internal moral compass which is ever so present in every single one of us, we will find exactly who and what we need to find in this journey and exactly when we need to find it. I find this absolutely amazing.
I have found through my own personal experiences that with a little patience, people that you need in your life will eventually find their way into your life. And not just that, sometimes people leave our lives and it may initially cause pain, but it's all part of the Master's design. For any of you out there that are hurting and just waiting for someone to come and lend you a loving, caring hand, or anyone who is hurting that someone either voluntarily or involuntarily left your life, don't despair! If you let Him, God will be there to comfort you and bring you through it all and He will do what's best for you because He is truly a loving God. You have a purpose and you mean more than you know to the people that are around you. We all need each other and without all of you, I feel like my life would have lost a whole lot of meaning. I feel we all have a purpose which is to serve our God, but we all have a purpose and a meaning to each other as well. There is a reason that God didn't create us to be all alone, take the time to think about the people you have in your lives and what they mean to you.
To all of my readers, take this as my thank you note. I am so grateful for each of you, you're all such blessings. God has put all of you here in this moment for a reason and you are all in my life for a reason and it's all part of the all loving God's perfect plan. I thank God for His plan and for all of you. Like I stated earlier, I know this isn't like my typical blog posts, but everything happens for a reason and this is on my heart for a reason and I'm hoping we can all take the time to thank God for His blessings and His people. God bless you all my brothers and sisters, thank you for coming.
I have found through my own personal experiences that with a little patience, people that you need in your life will eventually find their way into your life. And not just that, sometimes people leave our lives and it may initially cause pain, but it's all part of the Master's design. For any of you out there that are hurting and just waiting for someone to come and lend you a loving, caring hand, or anyone who is hurting that someone either voluntarily or involuntarily left your life, don't despair! If you let Him, God will be there to comfort you and bring you through it all and He will do what's best for you because He is truly a loving God. You have a purpose and you mean more than you know to the people that are around you. We all need each other and without all of you, I feel like my life would have lost a whole lot of meaning. I feel we all have a purpose which is to serve our God, but we all have a purpose and a meaning to each other as well. There is a reason that God didn't create us to be all alone, take the time to think about the people you have in your lives and what they mean to you.
To all of my readers, take this as my thank you note. I am so grateful for each of you, you're all such blessings. God has put all of you here in this moment for a reason and you are all in my life for a reason and it's all part of the all loving God's perfect plan. I thank God for His plan and for all of you. Like I stated earlier, I know this isn't like my typical blog posts, but everything happens for a reason and this is on my heart for a reason and I'm hoping we can all take the time to thank God for His blessings and His people. God bless you all my brothers and sisters, thank you for coming.
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