WE ARE ALL THE SAME

If I could meet a vast majority of people from around the world, what would be my impression of mankind after the fact? I have met many from around the world. I have somewhat of an opinion towards this inquiry.

I decided to try a social network. In this case, Google circles. It's Google's version of FaceBook. Why didn't I just do Facebook? Because everyone else already has. I never lean towards what all others do, but away from it. I find the unique and unusual, or the path less traveled to journey on. My adult children have warned me repeatedly not to go on FaceBook. I tend to take their protective advice. So, I chose circles instead.

Here is what I have found. This is an early opinion so I might find myself changing it within the weeks and months to come (which is a woman's prerogative). I have found that all in all, people are the same. When you go onto a social site (and I take into consideration that every single person reading this will have already done one or the other social sites and so have their own opinions) people come from everywhere. All over the world. I've been circled from the 4 corners of the globe.

Most of the people I have met online in this forum have been kind people. Most of them have their own set of morals and values that they feel strongly about. Most of them have a faith in something. Most of them prefer kindness over rude and insulting comments. Most of them want to have light hearted banter or philosophical discussion. Most of the opinions have one sharp contrast. Either they believe in God or they do not.

The ratio of believers to non-believers seems to be 20:1 or thereabouts. This is not a scientific statement. This is my little old self making the observation that out of 20 people only one will express disbelief in God.

There's also the percentage that do not mention a belief or a lack thereof. For the most part if I were to say anything about this, it would be that I am relieved to find that the majority of people believe in God and are willing to talk about Him in even the smallest ways.

I had one gentleman attack me for my faith. He wanted to delete my comment from another person's post for my faith and belief. He was so indignant that I could be so stupid as to believe in God...or as he called Him, "your imaginary friend." I simply reminded him that it's a public forum wherein I respect his beliefs as coming from a point of evolutionary theory and I asked him to respect mine as coming from a point of spiritualistic revelation. It's not possible to explain the presence of God to someone who has never felt Him. I have more than just felt Him, and so therefore am highly and richly blessed to be able to say, "He exists."

And so, this post is simply a quick touch on this new venture in my life to find the world out. I am open to this world and respect all faiths and beliefs. I've been insulted rarely but embraced mostly. I find that most of us just want to be loved and accepted and are willing to love and accept another in return. It may be that this is God's way of helping me to want to live. Don't look so surprised! I haven't wanted to live in a very long time. I can't explain this for I don't understand it myself.

I hope my reports only get better. I am an observer. I pay close attention to things as they take shape. I see a great body forming. This "person" is beautiful.

 

MOTHER OF GOD

My dear blogger friend at Crossed Tipped Churches  is an awesome photographer!!! Please do check him out. He has a great eye for the things of God and the church. He is no respecter of religions or faiths (as I've seen it to be) but he is taking pictures in Ohio, which I believe has an abundance of Catholic churches. He posted a photograph he took of Mary holding her dead child.

It really made me think about her. Mary, the mother of Jesus. The picture he chose was profoundly beautiful and sweetly heart rending. A mother holding her son after He has been brutally maimed, her hand cradling his head. It broke my heart. And then the conflict that all blood-bought Christians share, rose up in me, and I was so very grateful. As I looked at Russ' photograph, the tears streamed down my face. The emotion I felt was profound.

Once there was a mother. She had a son. Not just any son, and not just any conception. But a son who was a Deity, and a conception that was immaculate. His birth was contingent upon her obedience to the command of God. What would have happened if she had not believed the angel of the Lord that day? Would God have sent another angel to convince her or was she just one of millions he could have chosen to birth the Son of God?

Was the angel persuasive or was Mary just passive, making her a willing participant? We won't know on this side of eternity. My mind goes to the heart of this young mother. It's been researched and reported that Mary could have been as young as 12 years old when the angel came to her. Shocking for an American, considering our teenage daughters are still considered children at the age 18. But in the East, women are married off quite young and motherhood comes to any young woman who is able to conceive, provided her husband has been chosen for her by the family.

Mary...so young. Just a child perhaps. But beloved to God. Lovingly chosen to bear His son, and trusted to give Him up. I asked Russ on his blog, "do I dare to thank this mother?" I've never thought much about Mary. I always felt it would steer me in the wrong direction to give her more place than the Bible gives her. However, I've also come to realize that there's much of this life that isn't written in the Bible. It's even said that all the books of the world cannot hold the acts of Christ. So, that being said, I think Mary deserves her place in our speech. She deserves our appreciation for having faith enough to believe that what was going to happen was for the good of mankind, and even though she could do nothing to stop the loss of her beloved child, she agreed to obey.

Mary, beautiful mother of Jesus, I'm so sorry that they hurt you and stole your child from your arms. I'm so sorry that you had to watch the cruelty this world contains. I understand, however, you were told, "woman, behold thy son." St. John 19:26. And now, my heart is wrenching within me at your pain, all those 1000s of years ago. I hurt with you. Now, I feel sure that you are seated within the throne room. Hailed by the angels as the mother of their Master and Lord.

She suffered much while here..right along with her son. "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." Romans 8:18. Mary, mother of God, full of grace and truth. Thank you.

I DON'T BELIEVE THIS EITHER!

(The title of this blog is in relation to the previous blog entry.)

Here is today's contemplation: If God did not create this world and everything in it (taking into consideration all that this world needs in order to survive, grow, and flourish) then why is it so aptly protected?

Consider the fact that when a meteor enters the earth's atmosphere, it is moving at a rate of speed that gives it the potential to cause the same level of damage upon impact as the bomb that landed on Hiroshima. This means, if the meteor makes impact at the rate of speed it enters our atmosphere, the damage it would cause upon impact is total devastation for miles and miles. (I realize that a good scientific statement adds numbers, but you'll have to look up the exact data yourself.)


Now, consider the fact that meteors enter our atmosphere everyday. However, they burn up upon entry. Now, if this planet was solely dependent on the evolutionary process for everything, then what did the planet do to survive the daily meteor onslaught billions of years ago and up to today? Come on atheists, you can't honestly believe that the planet's atmosphere evolved to realize that meteors were coming through, which "it" came to realize was causing damage, and so "it" decided to change "itself" to form a protective barrier.


Sounds ludicrous doesn't it? That's because if something doesn't sound right, it isn't true.


FRIENDLY REMINDER: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and the darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Genesis 1:2.

I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!

Here's something I just discovered while watching a PBS special about hummingbirds (while I eat supper and break from study.)

There are 350 different hummingbird species. Each has it's own particular flower that it's "designed" to eat nectar from. According to the commentator, each bird has evolved to have a bill that fits the flower perfectly. There's the "Swordbill" hummingbird, for instance. This little fellow has a bill that is three times the length of his tiny body. It fits inside a trumpet flower.

According to the science behind this lock-&-key theory, the flower has trained the bird to evolve so that it can pollinate the flower. How long does evolution take? Millions of years. That's what scientists say.

If it took millions of years for the bird to evolve in order to fit the flower and the bird is the flower's ONLY pollinator...what did the flower do to pollinate itself before the bird finally evolved? What's the truth behind this hummingbird evolution?

I think they're full of hooey! Each bird was designed, and I'll even go as far as saying, hand reared, by God Almighty Himself. There's no way a process that takes millions of years can keep the flower around and alive while at the same time working on the bird. You know what? I feel stupid even saying it.

Watch the video. Tell me what you think. Let's talk about it.

THE FLAME OR THE EMBER

In reading others blogs about Jesus, church, and faith..I find myself returning to the issue I've had all along. The issue of religion or as I am calling it..a runaway train. It seems to run everything spiritual down that is in it's path.

All of those years I devoted to the church should have been the ties that bind me to the congregation, my family. How does one start out so full of fire and end up yawning their way through their service among the body? Easily...religion. It quenches the spirit and kills the life. It's the bushel basket that isn't supposed to be placed over the flame.

My fire is back but it burns in a different window now. I have simply moved my "candle." God knows my heart and He knows my struggles. He's walked with me right out the door of the church (the building not the faith). There's a difference between being convicted and knowing you're being convicted but suppressing it so you don't have to feel it. I haven't had to suppress it because it never came. God hasn't convicted me (and Christians know it when He does) of not attending Sunday service...not once. I think it's possible that it's part of my journey and He will use this just like He used my time serving in the church.

There's much to be said for the time I was there. Many children came to Jesus because I chose to obey. But just like that road seemed to materialize under my feet, a new path has materialized as well. I have to walk this out or I am not true to myself nor to the Holy Spirit within me.

This is a deep well of my life. I hear the enemy trying to call me back in. How do I know it's him? Because I know that what started out as a beautiful fire became quenched embers the longer I remained. Why would God have me in a place that leads me further and further from the truth? He wouldn't. That leaves one other entity or force pulling me back. The enemy and none other.

Last night, as I was completing my evening bed time rituals I became aware of a sudden rush of freedom. I knew my heart ached for the things of the Kingdom however, I didn't feel that bondage to the rituals that I had once believed were the only keys that fit the lock of that door. I use to follow a stringent routine of rituals. Bible study at 8...prayer at 9....life...prayer....life....Bible....life...prayer...bed. For all of that I felt empty and entirely unfulfilled. I was happy but not complete.

I have since that time put away those rituals and left inspiration up to God. Call me Father. Call me unto thee. I will come. And call me He has. Sometimes He calls me at 5 and sometimes at 7. Sometimes He calls me in the wee hours and sometimes He doesn't call for long periods. But when He speaks to me, I hear His voice because it's not mingled with man's. 

I don't hear the voice of a man telling me "once saved always saved." I hear my Father warning that there will be a great falling away and that, "it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." Hebrews 6:4-6.

I assume that anyone who wants to argue that scripture's validity with me would be reading from a translation that uses the comfortable words that people seek out. Just like the church doesn't teach that there's a hell because it's not comfortable for their congregants, they move the words around in the newer translations to form scriptures that don't even resemble the earlier translations. Why take a scripture that is self explanatory such as, "Jesus wept," and change it to say, "Jesus cried." What's the point in that? It says He wept, so let Him weep.


I will end this saying with, I am called of my Father and not of man. I won't be summoned to a building because man says it's the way of the Christian. I know of only one way to be...in Christ. I reiterate what I've said many times before, Jesus never healed one person and said, "now, you get yerself into a good Bible believin church." He said, and I quote, "go thy way." "Thy way" isn't anyone elses except for mine. I will walk with Jesus and if it means walking alone with Him then so be it. If I can't satisfy my need for corporate worship because the church doesn't uphold sound doctrine anymore, then so be it. I'll deal with it when I get home and He will deal with me.