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.
Monday, March 28, 2011
A Beautiful, Distorted World
Greetings readers!
The date today is Monday, March 28, 2011. Currently, the sun is gracing us with it's warm, bright presence. The temperature is a chilly 35 degrees fahrenheit, but the overall brightness seemingly dwarfs the presence of the cold in my mind. On a day such as this, it becomes increasingly difficult to view occurrences as daily routine or patterns. I go through the same routines (driving to school, coming home, reading, writing, thinking) but it is all in a different light today. I cannot help but notice the beauty of this world. From the air being forced into my lungs through respiration to the keys I press on in order to convey the thoughts of my mind - none of it will be taken for granted! I would like to take this time to thank God for every accommodation He has placed in my life to ensure that I could make today - this moment a reality.
For those reading, I would like to encourage you to take the time to look around and think about the beauty in all things nature has given us. Of course the man-made possessions we may cling to may have physical beauty, but far too long have we been glued to our technological advancements. I find it very interesting - yet not surprising - that a man by the name of Blaise Pascal, scientist, mathematician, and French philosopher predicted back in the early to mid 1600's that with the advancement of technology, with all of it's marvelous uses, we would only become bored with life and the blessings we are so very lucky to have been given. Here is a quote that has peaked my interest from Dr. Wolf's lecture: "Man's boredom with himself and his universe leads him to two realities: Indifference, and Diversion." It is clear to me - as clear as the cloudless sky, in fact - that our boredom (caused probably primarily by technology) has caused us (from what I have observed in Americans I come into contact with) to become indifferent to what is really going on in the world and most of all it has made us indifferent to our souls. We are indifferent to anything that is not placed right in front of our eyes so that we can physically see and experience its usefulness. Now this is tragic because remember what was said by Aristotle that if a thing is separated from its purpose, only misuse, disorder, or destruction can follow. We are very clearly separated from our purpose at this point it would seem. Technology - being an invention of man - cannot possibly be the purpose of man. Technology was created due to the genius of many people. Now that we have so much technology to make our lives "easier", what use do we have to think for ourselves? I would like to argue that technology in itself is a very wonderful thing. In fact - I am now using technology in order to attempt to reach many people without ever having to leave my house. Technology is a wonderful, marvelous invention that is indeed a tribute to the genius thoughts behind its existence. However, anything taken out of moderation can distort its beauty and usefulness. Since we are so BORED with life and the newest technologies, we no longer recognize it as a great tool, we see it as a "diversion".
Many people are so very focused on their cell phones and the latest tech out there, they almost live for it. How many hours a day do you spend simply looking at your cell phone or computer? With the invention of smart phones, people can go outside into beautiful nature and see only what is in their email inbox. Is it any wonder we are so bored and is it any wonder the suicide rate/depression rate is so high? What meaning has life if we stand outside the window and never look in? We, as a society - or dare I say world - are for the most part standing outside the door of a party but relying on text messages to tell us what is going on at the party! Instead of putting down our technology and walking in and experiencing life for ourselves, we look at our phones to do it for us because it is easier.
All it really takes to have a more thorough appreciation for your life and what has been given to you (and can just as easily be taken away), is to just take the time to focus on the meaning of life. What other purpose should we strive for? What could possibly make this life more enjoyable than to know what the meaning of this life is? Just as a bottle filled with water is meant to quench your physical thirst, your life - every life - has a purpose. Find that purpose and you will never again look at things the same. Neglecting your soul is the same as not knowing the purpose of the water in the water bottle - it cannot serve or help you in the most meaningful way unless you find what its true purpose is - to be consumed.
Thank you all for reading everyone. I'm out to enjoy nature now! Thank you, God for the beauty you have placed in front of me to observe, for it is all a testament to your beauty!
Monday, March 7, 2011
True Love
Tonight I'm going to focus on a topic that everybody should hopefully be familiar with: love. There are many different views on this, so maybe I can get some feedback or discussion about the topic. Love - true love - is a rare gem in our culture here in America. As I am no expert on other cultures around the world, I can only base my observations on that which I have been able to observe - American culture. Love is such a powerful force, I would argue that it may be the ONLY thing that can absolutely shake your soul. It could build it up or tear it down. To begin to understand love, lets start with its origin.
Love is arguably the very force that started everything. There is a Latin phrase called "Ex Nihilo", which means "out of nothing" when translated. This phrase means that nothing can come from nothing. If there is something, then it has come from something before it. So if nothing can come from nothing and everything has to have come from something, there MUST be a force that put it in motion. Either that or everything that we see, everywhere mankind has been, has come into existence by RANDOMNESS - sheer luck. With the complexity of just ONE cell in the human body, how likely would you say it is that we are what we are due to complete randomness? In other words, God, or another force is behind our existence. If God truly is behind our existence, He could have created us in any way He wished. He could have either created us as robots to follow His bidding and to please Him, but instead He has given us the idea of "free will". I know that if I were God, I may not have made the same choice. People today try in every possible way to convince us of God's nonexistence. How great is God's love for us that He not only gives us the choice to love Him back or to completely shun Him? Understanding the origin of love is key in understanding love in our day and age.
Love has mostly been reduced to the physical or the mental. Love in our day and age is determined upon the frequency of physical benefits or to keep us mentally sane. Our relativistic society has distorted our views on love and they feed on it. In our society, love has been turned into a made up holiday in the middle of February or October. Doesn't it sound nice? Sweetest day or Valentine's day: a day where you focus everything on your significant other - a day for the two of you to show each other how you feel through gifts or cards. Really?! Its no wonder the divorce rate is so disturbingly high: we think 2 days is enough to show our "love". The ironic part about this is: I personally do not see how anyone who has adopted a relativistic style of thought could experience true love. The media feeds us so much relativism, but if we do not believe in absolute truth, and we believe that truth is subjective to each person, how can two souls ever fully connect? It is obvious that trust is needed in a relationship. How can there be trust if everyone makes up their own beliefs of right vs. wrong? If there is no absolute truth, trust will suffer to a degree. Now lets get to what TRUE love is!
In the medieval times, there was an idea called "courtship". This idea was a way of life for knights during this era. Courtship is much more than just holding the door for a woman; it is completely giving yourself to her! According to courtship, a man had to be worthy of a woman's love. How amazing would it be if men still thought this way in our day! If this idea was still existent in our time, just imagine the divorce rate. Imagine how many people are in abusive relationships. I think it is very strange that with the progression of women's rights, the idea of courtship has just simply gone down the tube. Is it that men are afraid of women? Perhaps. Even if we go back 50-60 years, we see a dramatic difference between how women were treated. I believe we need to adopt this concept back into our society!
True love is giving EVERYTHING you have to another. When you give everything, you have nothing - NOTHING else to give. I find it absolutely absurd with how many people cheat on someone they are supposed to love. If you even begin to THINK about saying those three words to your significant other, just remember that if you truly love that person, you are bonded to them for the rest of your life. Everything that is yours becomes theirs as well. 100% of you goes to them which means you cannot even give 1% of yourself to another. How is it, then, that people cheat on the ones they claim to love? Astounding...
So if you believe you truly love someone, search your soul, pray, meditate. Be ready to commit 100%.
Love...it is a very powerful thing. Once you have it, never EVER give it up. If you give 100% to someone, how could you possibly fall in love again? If, then, you truly only have one shot, make it count!
Never...EVER...give up love. Once you have it - realize it, and cherish it with all that you have and all that you are. It is indeed, the one force that started all of existence. What a powerful force...
True Love: The bonding together of two souls to become one - striving for excellence for both individuals.
Love is arguably the very force that started everything. There is a Latin phrase called "Ex Nihilo", which means "out of nothing" when translated. This phrase means that nothing can come from nothing. If there is something, then it has come from something before it. So if nothing can come from nothing and everything has to have come from something, there MUST be a force that put it in motion. Either that or everything that we see, everywhere mankind has been, has come into existence by RANDOMNESS - sheer luck. With the complexity of just ONE cell in the human body, how likely would you say it is that we are what we are due to complete randomness? In other words, God, or another force is behind our existence. If God truly is behind our existence, He could have created us in any way He wished. He could have either created us as robots to follow His bidding and to please Him, but instead He has given us the idea of "free will". I know that if I were God, I may not have made the same choice. People today try in every possible way to convince us of God's nonexistence. How great is God's love for us that He not only gives us the choice to love Him back or to completely shun Him? Understanding the origin of love is key in understanding love in our day and age.
Love has mostly been reduced to the physical or the mental. Love in our day and age is determined upon the frequency of physical benefits or to keep us mentally sane. Our relativistic society has distorted our views on love and they feed on it. In our society, love has been turned into a made up holiday in the middle of February or October. Doesn't it sound nice? Sweetest day or Valentine's day: a day where you focus everything on your significant other - a day for the two of you to show each other how you feel through gifts or cards. Really?! Its no wonder the divorce rate is so disturbingly high: we think 2 days is enough to show our "love". The ironic part about this is: I personally do not see how anyone who has adopted a relativistic style of thought could experience true love. The media feeds us so much relativism, but if we do not believe in absolute truth, and we believe that truth is subjective to each person, how can two souls ever fully connect? It is obvious that trust is needed in a relationship. How can there be trust if everyone makes up their own beliefs of right vs. wrong? If there is no absolute truth, trust will suffer to a degree. Now lets get to what TRUE love is!
In the medieval times, there was an idea called "courtship". This idea was a way of life for knights during this era. Courtship is much more than just holding the door for a woman; it is completely giving yourself to her! According to courtship, a man had to be worthy of a woman's love. How amazing would it be if men still thought this way in our day! If this idea was still existent in our time, just imagine the divorce rate. Imagine how many people are in abusive relationships. I think it is very strange that with the progression of women's rights, the idea of courtship has just simply gone down the tube. Is it that men are afraid of women? Perhaps. Even if we go back 50-60 years, we see a dramatic difference between how women were treated. I believe we need to adopt this concept back into our society!
True love is giving EVERYTHING you have to another. When you give everything, you have nothing - NOTHING else to give. I find it absolutely absurd with how many people cheat on someone they are supposed to love. If you even begin to THINK about saying those three words to your significant other, just remember that if you truly love that person, you are bonded to them for the rest of your life. Everything that is yours becomes theirs as well. 100% of you goes to them which means you cannot even give 1% of yourself to another. How is it, then, that people cheat on the ones they claim to love? Astounding...
So if you believe you truly love someone, search your soul, pray, meditate. Be ready to commit 100%.
Love...it is a very powerful thing. Once you have it, never EVER give it up. If you give 100% to someone, how could you possibly fall in love again? If, then, you truly only have one shot, make it count!
Never...EVER...give up love. Once you have it - realize it, and cherish it with all that you have and all that you are. It is indeed, the one force that started all of existence. What a powerful force...
True Love: The bonding together of two souls to become one - striving for excellence for both individuals.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Today
Greetings readers!
Today is the day, don't let it get away from you.
Today is a very important philosophical matter! If we are without today, then what do we truly have? Todays create our yesterdays and they shape our tomorrows. What is stopping us from living this moment to the fullest extent? Why do people persist on being average? The world's love-affair with average and the relativistic are destroying what beauty we have. What kind of a world do we live in where nobody aspires to strive for excellence simply because everyone is so average that no one needs to be any more than that? We buy into all of the relativistic thinkings of our modern day and age. "The only absolute is that there are no absolutes." We need to step away from this type of thinking! What is it that is holding you back from excellence? We all have excellence in us, because we all have a purpose we are meant to fulfill. Find what is holding you back - that is key in understanding yourself and your life.
Today, we have expanded our technological spectrums to such an extent that we no longer see fit to think about the infinite. I mentioned previously the importance of the soul to our well being. Being one of the most influential, brilliant people I have gotten the honor of studying under, Dr. Wolf, Philosophy professor, speaks every day about the importance of the soul. Our soul can be in harmony with nature and natural laws, or it could be in turmoil. Many of today's people do not take the time to work on the soul and therefore, are more likely to succumb to "bad" things. Working on the soul takes practice, but with more and more time spent on the soul, the more inner peace you can feel. When we don't work on the soul, we have no defense against what situations we have no control over.
To quote from Sharon Lebell's interpretation of Epictetus' work: "When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it. What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not the things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance." This quote is absolutely life-changing. In order to be more peaceful and content, we must worry ourselves only with that which is in our control. When worrying ourselves with matters that are completely and entirely out of our control, we let the situation control our lives. How long is this life? It varies! It can be the next ten minutes or the next sixty years. Knowing that life can end at any second, how can we be content with letting a situation control our lives? Take control of your lives and turn your hatred towards a situation into an understanding of it, learn from it, carry out the knowledge you just learned into action. Wisdom - necessary if we plan on living a full life. There is a difference between those who are knowledgable and those who are wise. The knowledgable train their minds and expand their mental capacities. The wise, however, expand their mental capabilities and they convert the knowledge they just learned into action. A knowledgable man can state "striving for excellence is the only way to reach one's full potential." A wise man says nothing but DOES!
As William Hazlitt has stated "contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created." Today Dr. Wolf imparted such a wisdom onto me: "Life is too short to not seek the truth." We should all seek the truth as if it was the last precious drop of water in the desert. Love the truth, for it will be your liberation from the average and will place you amongst the extraordinary! A quote that goes so well with this is spoken by Elie Wiesel, "The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference." Indifference can only cause an imbalance in your soul and you can never be in harmony with what is natural. Seek after truth with all that you are, with all that you have.
"There is a profound difference between having to and wanting to." - Dr. Richard Wolf. We need to want to seek truth and be excellent. We do not have to train our minds, but the desire to want to will absolutely change your life.
Work on your soul today. Start striving for excellence today.
Today is the day, don't let it get away from you.
Today is a very important philosophical matter! If we are without today, then what do we truly have? Todays create our yesterdays and they shape our tomorrows. What is stopping us from living this moment to the fullest extent? Why do people persist on being average? The world's love-affair with average and the relativistic are destroying what beauty we have. What kind of a world do we live in where nobody aspires to strive for excellence simply because everyone is so average that no one needs to be any more than that? We buy into all of the relativistic thinkings of our modern day and age. "The only absolute is that there are no absolutes." We need to step away from this type of thinking! What is it that is holding you back from excellence? We all have excellence in us, because we all have a purpose we are meant to fulfill. Find what is holding you back - that is key in understanding yourself and your life.
Today, we have expanded our technological spectrums to such an extent that we no longer see fit to think about the infinite. I mentioned previously the importance of the soul to our well being. Being one of the most influential, brilliant people I have gotten the honor of studying under, Dr. Wolf, Philosophy professor, speaks every day about the importance of the soul. Our soul can be in harmony with nature and natural laws, or it could be in turmoil. Many of today's people do not take the time to work on the soul and therefore, are more likely to succumb to "bad" things. Working on the soul takes practice, but with more and more time spent on the soul, the more inner peace you can feel. When we don't work on the soul, we have no defense against what situations we have no control over.
To quote from Sharon Lebell's interpretation of Epictetus' work: "When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it. What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not the things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance." This quote is absolutely life-changing. In order to be more peaceful and content, we must worry ourselves only with that which is in our control. When worrying ourselves with matters that are completely and entirely out of our control, we let the situation control our lives. How long is this life? It varies! It can be the next ten minutes or the next sixty years. Knowing that life can end at any second, how can we be content with letting a situation control our lives? Take control of your lives and turn your hatred towards a situation into an understanding of it, learn from it, carry out the knowledge you just learned into action. Wisdom - necessary if we plan on living a full life. There is a difference between those who are knowledgable and those who are wise. The knowledgable train their minds and expand their mental capacities. The wise, however, expand their mental capabilities and they convert the knowledge they just learned into action. A knowledgable man can state "striving for excellence is the only way to reach one's full potential." A wise man says nothing but DOES!
As William Hazlitt has stated "contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created." Today Dr. Wolf imparted such a wisdom onto me: "Life is too short to not seek the truth." We should all seek the truth as if it was the last precious drop of water in the desert. Love the truth, for it will be your liberation from the average and will place you amongst the extraordinary! A quote that goes so well with this is spoken by Elie Wiesel, "The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference." Indifference can only cause an imbalance in your soul and you can never be in harmony with what is natural. Seek after truth with all that you are, with all that you have.
"There is a profound difference between having to and wanting to." - Dr. Richard Wolf. We need to want to seek truth and be excellent. We do not have to train our minds, but the desire to want to will absolutely change your life.
Work on your soul today. Start striving for excellence today.
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