Article Title: Hope, Faith , Love and Joy : God has a Great and Unique Plan for YOUR Life

Author: Craig Lock
Key words: God, hope, belief, faith, love, spiritual growth, faith, thoughts on God

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(Personal growth, self help, writing, internet marketing, spiritual, ‘spiritual writings’ (how ‘airey-fairey’), words of inspiration

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This piece (as with all my articles) may be freely reproduced, electronically or in print. If they help at all, or make any difference in people’s lives by bringing a ray of some joy in a sometimes very dark, but always beautiful world, then I’m very happy.

“We share what we know, so that we all may grow.”

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HOPE, FAITH, LOVE , and JOY- GOD HAS A GREAT AND UNIQUE PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE

Just sharing a few thoughts on hope faith, love, spiritual growth, faith

“Truth and love must always prevail over lies and hate.”
- Vaclev Havel (former President of Czechoslovakia, poet and play-right)

I truly believe that, no matter how bad or traumatic an event appeared at the time, absolutely everything happens for a reason – to teach us lessons in the ‘scholarly journey’ of life… and that this only means that something much bigger and better, something way more beautiful is waiting for you – somewhere, somehow! God can weave a beautiful tapestry from even the most tangled thread of a shattered life.. It’s just a matter of “hanging in by the fingernails” with the hidden strength of character that we all have deep within us…and which is only severely tested in trials and tribulations. Like the ‘pearl of great’ price, which is produced by the great irritation of the oyster. This suffering breeds our great strength of character, which is within every one of us.

It’s not what happens to us in life…it’s how we react to what has happened to us…and our success will largely depend on our ATTITUDE to life: by remaining optimistic and open to new opportunities in the face of hardship, when all seems lost. Continue to do your part to open new doors amidst your trials and tribulations. All we need is FAITH to keep going. So many miners gave up within inches of finding the gold in the seam of life.

I have an absolute faith in a Power way beyond ourselves, God, Life, Spirit of the Universe, Higher Authority, Infinite Intelligence, the Ultimate Source, the Creator (whatever you wish to call Him/It). However, I also believe that God, first helps those who help themselves. He may steer the course of our lives, but we have to take action and start peddling. He always gives us HOPE and LOVE when we may think we have nothing left…and God, Life Force, the Universe wants what is best for us and for us to be fulfilled and happy. That, I believe, is why , I believe God always conspires to deliver when we want something with all our heart and soul. God can make our wildest dreams come true -ones that are far bigger and more magnificent than we could ever have dreamed ourselves.

craig

Another one… from craig’s first book ‘Handbook To Survive’

HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL…

Dream big dreams.

Have a goal and plan to achieve.

Love doing what you do.

Listen to the advice of your spouse/partner.

Seek help from those whose skills you don’t have.

Believe you are a winner, or one who CAN be.

Work smarter, not necessarily harder.

Fly with the eagles, don’t scratch with the turkeys.

Be prepared to take calculated risks.

Be aware that opportunities are always around.

Promote your product well.

Satisfy customers needs completely.

Be decisive, determined and self-disciplined.

Encourage others constantly.

A strong belief in yourself.

A stronger belief in a higher power

from http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Survive-Life-Nineties-ebook

Find your life purpose and BE HAPPY along the magical journey of life.

“God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another”

- John Henry Newman.

” I truly believe we can ALL create and enthuse magic into ‘so-called humdrum little lives’. You don’t just have to be the choreographer, or the conductor of your life script – rather paint your life as the masterpiece it could (one day) be. There is a rich tapestry of talent in every human soul, that flows through the spirit of God. So don’t spend your days stringing and tuning your instrument; start making and playing your unique tunes of music right now.”

This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.

Benjamin Franklin

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

Revelation 3:15-17

The opposite of love is not hate – it’s apathy. It’s not giving a damn.

Leo Buscaglia

Love cannot endure indifference. It needs to be wanted. Like a lamp, it needs to be fed out of the oil of another’s heart, or its flame burns low.

Henry Ward Beecher

I intend to explore for the rest of the week and beyond what seems to me to be the a serious threat to our republic, and what could ultimately be it’s death.

There is no doubt in my mind that we are staring at the gaping maw of tyranny – it is here, it is now, it is ongoing with the various and rapid-fire scandals at IRS, the Department of Justice, at NSA, and the full court press that these federal authorities are putting on the Bill of Rights and the liberties and freedoms enshrined therein.

You may say that scandals happen to every administration and the warning of encroaching tyranny is sounded every few years and nothing ever seems to come of it, but I believe we have entered a new highly dangerous point in the history of the experiment of American liberty.

I believe that we are under attack.  The attack is not coming from some other country or even one person or group in particular.  We are the enemy, because the root of the problem is apathy, indifference, and a lack of love.

Tune in tomorrow for why WE are the enemy to our own liberty.

There are so many things I cannot control, but I can choose to control myself.  Actually, I can’t even seem to be able to do that very well, but I can (and do) definitely choose to throw myself on the Lord: “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22). (Of course, that means I have to search my heart, confessing my sins and asking God to give me the grace to do right!) I also choose to believe and search God’s word for encouragement: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word; in God I have put my trust; I will not [notice that this is a choice of my will] fear what flesh can do unto me” (Psalm 56:3-4). And then, I cling to the cross: “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trustest in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast” (Psalm 57:1).

I don’t know if a baby has the ability to self-soothe or not, but I do know that we have a God who can soothe us if we will choose to be still and let him, because “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble” (Psalm 46:1). May we all learn to run to the Lord and find our serenity by resting in him!

Today, that same jackboot of tyranny has found a willing caretaker in the alphabet agencies of the United States government.

EPA

IRS

NSA

DHS

FBI

That same jackboot of tyranny has usurped the freedoms and liberties that those free men bled and died for on the sandy beaches of western France.

Media members being wiretapped.

Religion under assault within the US military.

Content of prayers being demanded by the IRS.

The federal government smuggling guns across a foreign border to create the narrative that American gun owners and gun stores are to blame for another country’s violence.

Every phone call, email, text message, instant message, tweet, or other form of electronic communication or internet posting by every American citizen is scoured and stored by the federal government without warrant or cause.

We have been taught and indoctrinated from a young age, and even moreso our children now, that the government is just looking out for you and wants the best for you.

That is the great lie.  What is best for you in their eyes is to shut up, get in line, and live your life in the prison that our society and country will become if these usurpations and abuses are tolerated or forgiven.

Unfortunately you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all of our problems. Some of these same voices do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices.

President Barack Obama

Whether involved or just a hapless stooge, I don’t know, and it ultimately does not matter as the machine of tyranny – the approaching jackboot of slavery will advance with or without him unless we, the People, in concert and backed by the righteous hand of God – the Creator and source of our very life, liberty, and only true source of happiness – stand up and say no, that is enough.  The dangerous fire of government that our first President warned about has come to the doorstep like a raging wildfire.  It is powerful.  It is fearsome.  It will consume and destroy everything it wishes until it is cut off from fuel and air.

We have permitted ever more intrusions into a daily lives in the forms of extralegal bureaucratic rules, guidelines, and dictats that carry the force of law because the bureaucracy says they do.

We have permitted ever more chains of tyranny on our backs.

• The right of free speech is threatened
• The right of free expression of religion has all but been removed except when practiced in sanctioned “worship” houses
• The right to keep and bear arms is under constant assault by politicians wishing to secure their power.
• Our right to privacy is no more in light of extrajudicial wiretaps, data mining, unmanned drone aircraft, warrantless searches and seizures for the cause of public safety, and the seizure of genetic material (blood) of a person arrested but not yet even charged with a crime.
• We watched as the citizens of one of the most well-known and largest cities in the country stood by helpless as a state of martial law was put in place “for their protection” and the concept of shelter-in-place began to be used all over the country for ridiculous reasons rather than for the serious threats that such a concept was ever conceived.

There are just a few examples of the chains being laid upon us.

At what point will the American people say ENOUGH!!!!??? Is there no spirit of defiance and ruggedness that beats within the hearts of the people today?  Have we been so inculcated and changed deep down that we no longer have the mettle of those men on those landing craft 69 years ago today?  Are we no longer ready and willing to charge through the surf, up the beach and past the waiting defenses into the very heart of the enemy of humanity, of liberty, of freedom?

Are we able to admit that we are not alive today to enjoy our freedoms and liberties, but to protect and preserve them for our children, our grandchildren, and the generations yet to come?

I am.  Whether you come with me or not is up to you, but like on that day nearly seven decades ago, we are at the waterline and the mortars and machine guns are zeroing in on us and you can’t stay here.  What’ll it be soldier?  Press forward or retreat into the sea?

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

The lust for the ring of power was great.  It was known to contain great power and endowed the bearer with magical abilities such as invisibility, unusually long life, and others, but at a great price.  It was a corrupting force.  Regardless of the intent of the person who possessed the ring, no matter how it was used, the ring only answered to the one who made it.

Let’s unpack the concept that Tolkien was trying to convey.  The first and most obvious layer is that power corrupts.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1st Baron Acton

“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.”

William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778

The lure of the power in the ring was impossible to resist.  Men would do anything to gain possession of that power – lie, cheat, steal, kill.

Take a look around at all disconcerting tyrannies that I have written extensively about to date.  Those tyrannies are either aimed at obtaining, preserving, or strengthening power.

Yesterday, May 30th, the NSA’s Utah Data Center went live.  The center has the capability to capture, record, and analyze every form of electronic communication in the domestic United States every single day.

The Department of Homeland Security has expanded it’s mission from just protecting modes of travel to protecting and actively policing within the United States.

The warrantless wiretaps on the AP, the targeting of individual reporters such as James Rosen, the IRS’ unequal treatment of conservative, Tea Party, and Jewish groups are all methods being used to silence opposition and whistleblowers through intimidation.

More than 70 percent of federal spending goes to dependency programs.  The threat of removal of these programs ensures that dissension is unthinkable lest the life support that 128 million Americans rely on for subsistence be taken away.  These people have become serfs of the new feudal masters within the government (both elected and unelected).

Schools in Florida, under the guise of an insidious program called Common Core, scanned and retained the irises of school children for their “safety” and “security.”

These are just a few instances of huge power grabs, shows of naked force.  Each one by itself could be written off as nothing, an overreaction or overreach by overzealous bureaucrats, but together in concert they are much more.  They take on the mantle of a full blown tightening of the vise of tyranny on the citizens of the United States.

Now you might even be saying that I’m overreacting because I disagree with President Obama politically on nearly every issue, but it goes far beyond that.  I would disagree with these steps regardless of which party or President was in power at the time because I see these for the lure of power that they are and will be going forward.  That power becomes a drug for the person who wields it – they need it, and not to know that they have it, but they will need to exercise it in growing frequency in order to fulfill their craving for it.  The power will corrupt them.  Even if they began with the best of intentions, that power will destroy them.

The bureaucrats and politicians that come next will see the One Ring before them.  It will call to them, not with the clarion call of liberty, but with the sinister whisper of influence, authority, power, and strength, but those powers can only be wielded by the creator of the ring.

Who is the creator of the ring?

In Tolkien’s tale, Sauron, the Dark Lord, is the creator of the ring, but even he can be destroyed by it because he is ultimately dependent on it as well.  So did Sauron create the authority, power, and strength that were endowed into the ring or did he simply channel them there?  Let’s back this up to theology now… did Satan create the power that he yields?

The short answer is no.

God created Satan as Lucifer the angel.  Satan is dependent on God for his very existence.

One day the angelscame to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.

Job 1:6

The authority, power, and strength that Satan holds were benefits of his created nature and were gifts of his position in the hierarchy of heaven.  It is Satan’s intent to disobey and rebel against God that corrupts those gifts.  Just as Satan rebels and corrupts those great and mighty gifts that God bestowed on him at his creation, the government – the politicians and bureaucrats, the authorities, the individual branches and big players have intents and purposes that run counter to the Constitutionally-directed role of the government and it’s relationship with the people altogether.  The small tyrannies summed together will corrupt even the best intended of those men and women because they will beg to be used… the temptation is too great.

THAT is why we rail against these overreaches.  THAT is why we sound the watchman’s call as the abuses and usurpations mount.

The enemy is not just at the gates.

The enemy is now within the city walls.

If we do not stand and fight and defeat these self-obtained powers, then we will lose whatever scrap of liberty that we have left on this Earth except for the hope that we have in Christ.

If power corrupts, we must rid ourselves of it.  If we do not want a corrupt government controlling every step we take in our lives, we must disrupt and dismantle it’s power to do so or we will find ourselves prisoners in our own country.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:12

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:7

]]> http://untraveledroads.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/lifes-a-gift-not-an-ability-test/ Tue, 28 May 2013 22:48:06 +0000 UntraveledRoads http://untraveledroads.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/lifes-a-gift-not-an-ability-test/ Keep wondering why we are here. Life must have some design – we can't just be randomly wandering. I suppose I keep asking, because living with pain makes me need a reason. My life isn't a series of pleasant events. I can't choose on a whim to go out for supper or drop in on a friend for coffee.

I have to plan my day, fit in rest, time pain killers for maximum effect. More than anything, I have not to mind. And that takes a huge amount of psychic energy, not to mind doors closing, to be consciously grateful, to find every small speck of joy or contentment. And be cheerful. So it matters that it is FOR something. That there is some purpose, some meaning.

So I was cogitating, something that I have plenty of time for, when my mind isn't too puddled with pain. And it came – life is a gift. It makes all the difference because my Protestant upbringing had echoes of Pilgrim's Progress. Back then, the underlying belief was in original sin, so childhood was a time for training and learning self-discipline.

I hadn't really seen the ramifications till I stood back with another view. You learn what you think, or are told, are the rules without questioning: life is hard, we are faulty, we are also judged. Phrases floated through my mind: day of judgement, hell fire, sacrifice, original sin. And that sentence from the General Confession, “There is no health in us.” Sometimes I felt I had been entered in an obstacle race. I couldn't stop running and no one asked me if I wanted to compete.

Yet through it all, like shafts of sunlight through cloud, were flashes of beauty and joy. Harriet Vane said in Gaudy Night that she always thought life could be good if she could only reach it. I knew what she meant. Because my brother was institutionalized when I was nine, it was desperately important for me to placate, obey the rules and try to be “good.”

Now the clouds shifted. I rolled the thought round in my head, tasting it. “Life is a gift.” Wow! How different. My vision cleared and the way ahead looked surer, sunlit. A gift? Then goodbye to “should” and “must”, to “try harder,” and self blame.

Life is suddenly voluntary, not mandated. It is the difference between giving a present and being taxed. I feel I will make the same choices because my core values are unchanged, but with a willing heart and a feeling of designing my life, rather than obeying orders. It is CHOICE.

Now rather than taking a deep breath and sticking it out through pain (because that's what is expected), I can choose grace. It is as if no longer am I performing my life to God's exacting standards. I am painting a picture with my life and offering it lovingly, willingly to God.

Once, years ago, I heard these words in my head, “Life is my gift to you; joy is your gift to me.” And joy is my gift as I look at the beauty and kindness of life.

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I am outraged that the value of life means so little that the alleged parent (they are not worthy of the respect that “mother” and “father” entail) actually dropped their helpless newborn down a toilet.

I am outraged that the entire world considers this child to be a miracle baby since it survived this attempt at postnatal abortion, but had the mother walked into a Chinese hospital weeks earlier and requested an abortion, she would have been granted one without question per that country’s reproductive limitations and dictates.

What significant moral leap must occur to assign miracle status to a baby just a few weeks older, still attached to the placenta, merely because it refused to die when it’s biological material co-donor decided that they didn’t want him?  Was the parent not just enacting their right to choose after the fact rather than before like abortionists encourage?

Thank God for small miracles – especially the kind that way 6.2 lbs, have black hair, and a little button nose.  Maybe little “59″ will spur China to step away from their draconian policies which are causing this horrible degradation of the value of human life in their country.

Little signs and whispers are sweet and loving. Yet, that is not the only way God speaks He also can shout with a flood of tweets saying “be brave”, friends saying that any dream is scarey but it is worth it, reading Bible versions saying trust in God, and pastors’ messages saying God has a plan and we must follow it. Yes,  it seems like God is shouting to me “follow my plan” and that is scarey, because no where in the Bible does it say God is safe or comfortable.

God is loving, awesome, just and powerful, but his wisdom, power and love is not worldly, it is above the world’s understanding. This causes his plans to bigger than we can imagine. We can not understand His plans.

If we trust and follow God we cannot rely on our own understanding. We have to trust that God really knows what he is doing, although our path may be dark he will bring you through it, and God’s plans is the best path for you. If you truly follow God you have to fully trust him and believe in him 100%.

That is what he is telling me right now and my thoughts on it. So prepare for more blogs about my adventures and poems about hard paths and struggling towards my dreams.

Yesterday, a majority of voting delegates decided that scouting would become open to openly gay boys.  The issue of openly gay scoutmasters and adult leaders was tabled, but the camel’s nose is under the tent now and it is only a matter of time.

The problems with this decision are many.

Older boy scouts are looked up to by the younger ones.  Children are not generally well-founded morally, ethically, or spiritually in order to define right and wrong especially on a culturally divisive issue as sexual preference.  Confusion is easy to generate in teenagers and will be amplified by the disconnect between the words of the Boy Scout Oath and Law which no longer seem to apply in light of this decision.

Traditionally, churches have been the sponsors of scout troops across the country.  These delegates are rather short sighted in that the sponsorship and support that they have received from churches that still preach morality and Godly-living will dry up and wither away as those bodies of believers will refuse to support an organization that does not abide by the moral purpose it once did.

More so, that short-sightedness fails to take into account one other element, and that is men like me.  My boys are too young to join scouting for a few more years.  The problem is that the scouting I knew will cease to exist.  There are so few organizations that take a moral stance and will proclaim right and wrong.  The Scouts have always been inclusive of Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and atheists.  They have never forced a certain belief set, but they have insisted historically on a moral code of behavior that set Boy Scouts apart from non-scouts.  Without that code, the scouts are just a social group that teaches how to build fires, us a compass, and go camping.  Frankly, I can teach my boys just as well or better than anyone else how to do those things AND I can use those to teach right, wrong, good, evil, and the nature of God.

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

So what motivation do I have to say to my sons that joining the Scouts is a good idea anymore?

Why would I encourage my sons to join an organization that caved on one of it’s founding principles?

Honor?  There is no longer any. A group that violates it’s own oath of membership has no honor.

Duty? My duty is to God and country.

Mental awakeness?  There is none. There was no forethought in this decision.  There was no critical thinking applied.

Moral straightness?  By demanding none, the further graying of the lines of morality will continue.

I once was forced to decide between a sport that I loved and an organization that seemed to be waffling, but I did not then understand why or for what reason.  Now I am forced to decide what is best for my sons – my duty before God.  Instead of regret though, I am proud to proclaim that this former Scout will not abide this violation of the Scout Oath, as it no longer has any meaning for that organization going forward.

Why do churches and other believers not spend more time in teaching not just what prayer is, but rather how to pray?

I’m not talking about your conventional routine prayers

There are even catchy acronyms for Christians to follow: PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield), ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), FACTS (Faith, Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, and others.

These guidelines show what we should pray and can even guide how we approach prayer, but how do you go about teaching someone how to pray?

How can you convey through words how to approach an omniscient God and not just focus on what you feel led to tell Him, but rather how to reciprocate and allow prayer to become that two-way conversation?

Considering that prayer is a spiritual discipline, it requires training and instruction.

Why aren’t churches stepping into this void and teaching people not just what to pray, but rather how to pray?

Today a strange metaphor came to mind during this time that I want to share with you.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4

The trials in life are kind of like individual pitches in a baseball game.  Each pitch is an opportunity.  The pitch – fast, slow, sliding, curving, or sinking – must be quickly discerned (May the Lord help you if you’re facing a knuckleball thrower because it can do all three at the same time if that’s the case!).

Each of those trials is capable of blowing right by you untouched into the catcher’s mitt and striking you out at the plate.  Equally, each of those pitches represents an opportunity for you to individually shine.

Before you step in the batter’s box, you get your signal from the third base coach (the Spirit) who in turn is relaying the expectations and the game plan from the manager (God).

You step in the box and the pitcher starts his wind up.  Your eye tracks the pitcher’s arm and watches for the ball.  If your vision is clear then you can see the ball’s seams and “read the pitch.”  The spin and release point tell you whether it’s a sinker, slider, fastball, changeup, or curve and give you a fair idea of whether the pitch will be a ball or a strike.  Then and only then do you decide whether you should swing.

What makes the “read” hard for mankind is that our vision is not clear.  It is clouded because of the obstructions of sin, doubt, and unfaithfulness.

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:3-5

When you can’t see the pitch, rarely can you hit it, and when you do, you usually hit it on the ground or pop it up sharply and get yourself out easily.  How can we see the pitch, the trial, for what it is and recognize what God wants us to do with it?

We have to admit our faults.  Our vision sucks.  His vision is perfect.  When we accept Christ into our hearts and place our faith in Him, He will start to heal our vision and turn it into His.  By trusting our coach on when to swing for the fences, to hit for contact, or to bunt as part of the game-plan, our vision will improve more as we know what pitches we should be looking for when we step up to the plate.  Our chance to really shine and put the ball in play increase as a result.

The pitches start coming.  You might hit a solid base hit, drop a bunt, hit a home run, or get yourself out on strikes, but even if you do, there will be another chance soon and you’ll get to step into the box again and look for your pitch once more.

I hesitated to wade into this issue because I was clouded with anger over it, but I have recently realized that my angry was misplaced.  My anger was not wrong or sinful and I believe it was and is still a righteous anger.

What issue could have me so hesitant and angry all at once?

What issue would the world tell me I’m not allowed to have a valid opinion about because I lack the necessary anatomy to fully understand it from the right perspective?

Abortion.

Don’t stop reading now though. I am not going to wax for pages on this as others have already well-worn the Biblical arguments against it. I just want to ask a few simple questions.

Has abortion-on-demand had a cultural impact since it’s nationwide legalization and inception in the 1970s?

Has that impact been a cheapening of the value of life within our society?

Could that lessened value have a negative impact as the generation that is in the thirties or below have not known a country without such “convenience” at terminating life that does not fit into one’s “plans?”

Could that very loss of value that life has historically had within Western Civilization be the causal reason why men like Kermit Gosnell and Douglas Karpen feel that they can get away with the wholesale slaughter of viable infants, including those born alive, not in an act of surgical birth control, but of mass murder of the worst degree – infanticide?

How can the world say that I cannot take a stand against evil – against murder?

How can I not burn with righteous anger as the horrors of the Gosnell abortion case came to light?

Now what should we do about it?

There are some that believe we should picket outside of abortion providers’ offices.

Some believe that we should fight this battle in the legislature and judiciary.

Some believe that we should fight this battle in the court of public opinion.

I believe that while those tactics have their valid places, they will not succeed in the face of one simple fact.  The houses of horror that they are designed to counter will not be swayed by such temporal, human weakness.

Are you ready for the answer?

I wasn’t.

Love.

Not human love though as our love is tainted with selfishness, pride, and jealousy.

We must ask God to pour into us His love.  We must shine the light of Christ, the infinite, forgiving, all-consuming love of our Creator and our Savior on these clinics, on these men and women corrupted by the pervasive evils that they perform day in and out at the behest of women that are afraid.  They fear the consequences of past actions. They fear future encumbrances because they believe that they are entitled to something, whatever it may be.

You cannot fight evil with evil. You can only fight it with love, specifically the pure love of God.  You cannot fight evil with man’s laws, man’s protests, man alone cannot stand against evil.  If man tries to fight evil by himself, he will be undone because you cannot fight evil without exposing it to good.  The only source of good is God.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:7-12

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.Now what do you say?”They were using this question as a trap,in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,”Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

John 8:3-11

]]> http://untraveledroads.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/voice-of-protest/ Mon, 20 May 2013 00:41:03 +0000 UntraveledRoads http://untraveledroads.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/voice-of-protest/ Lying in bed with mild bug, aching, head and stomach ache, nothing serious, so feel vaguely sybaritic (and guilty). Good old Protestant work ethic kicking in again. Also, so accustomed to carrying on regardless with sick kids etc. It must be one of the unexpected benefits of growing older – to be able to be ill in peace. Balances the unexpected disadvantage of finding, after years of rising at 6 and looking forward to one day being able to sleep in (like my adolescent kids did), that one's body clock has changed and one wakes up at crack of dawn.

The Protestant work ethic has dogged me all my life, flailing me ceaselessly. It's all part of the package that includes cold baths and original sin. I used to be so scared as a child of the unforgivable sin. No one told me what it was, so I lived in dread of unknowingly committing it and being assigned to hell. Hell, incidentally, to me was never fiery hot, but like a cold dungeon where one perched on a stool all alone. Nowadays. I have updated it to eternity in an airport with constant, incomprehensible announcements.

It is only now that some deep part of me robustly cries NO. I can't believe in a creator who makes something inherently flawed and leaves it to self-correct. No self-respecting potter would make a leaky jug or a cup with half a handle, let alone expect the benighted pottery to mend itself. No one creative willfully makes something second rate. We do our tireless best, spend long hours perfecting our work before setting it free.

Of course, my painting or music may not, and probably wouldn't be, to your taste and no one might buy it, but to have any integrity it has to be my best vision.

So how can an all knowing, perfect creator (our understood definition of God) deliberately create something faulty and declare it “in his image”?

So I have a choice: I can believe in an atheistic model, where life is chancy at best. Where we are an accident, nudged by evolution (which certainly doesn't always take the most straight-forward routes). It's a bleak, lonely universe and we struggle to make the best of it. We cram our bucket lists, try not to think of our eventual decay while trying to beat the roulette wheel of life. And wonder why on earth we are here.

Or I can put my money (hopes and emotions) on a purposeful universe. I can accept that I can't understand its weird and often wilful ways. It is huge, encompassing, minutely beautiful. I am in awe of a butterfly's wing, which can only be fully appreciated as a deliberate work of art. It can't have the same beauty if a random accident. Just as a painting done by a chimp on a bicycle cannot have the same artistic merit as a picture done with skill and imagination

I am not a literal creationist, but I do believe there is a an intelligence underlying our universe. An intelligence that can be explained mathematically, but I also believe that it all started as an idea. “In the beginning was the Word.” The Word exploded – Big Bang? – and we evolved slowly, patiently through the ages. God, after all is always described as eternal. I always felt that we are a necessary complement to that seminal idea.

Jim Al-khalili expressed it perfectly in his TV series Order and Disorder. According to him, everything is basically information, for example coded as DNA or sound, broken down for recording. He says, (and it hit me so hard I wound back the recording to write his words down) “As abstract and ethereal as information seems, we know it must always be embodied in a physical system.” Yes, the idea or Word has to be made manifest, has to be embodied in our world and us.

He takes it further: “Every aspect of the physical universe can be thought of as a blank canvas which we can use to build beauty, structure and order.” Wow! I said in an earlier entry that believing we are making manifest makes our every act important.. No longer must we feel we are plodding along, battered by fate, or that our pain is a lesson, that we are in essence sinful.

No! I, because I can't impose my beliefs on you, can trust that we are building something wonderful and every act of compassion or courage is a Lego brick in an immense creation. We can build beauty through our lives and through our love. A true tone, echoing down the ages.

More info

Order and disorder – the series: link

Order and Disorder – episode two – Communication. The episode that turned the lights on in my head: link

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This has been a week of season finales for some of our favorite TV shows.  American Idol, Elementary,  and The Office – among others I have recorded but haven’t had time to watch yet.   American Idol ended just as I knew it would – with Candace Glover winning the title.  She deserved it – she could sing circles around the other contestants!  I know we will be hearing a lot from her in the very near future!

In the case of “The Office” – (which our dear son-in-law, Drew started us on while he was first dating our daughter, Ashlee) it was the final season.  Something got messed up on my DVR, even though I went in manually and set the high priority for “The Office” and “American Idol”.  Sadly “The Office” didn’t make the cut.  Luckily we found it online and were able to hook up Greg’s Mac book to the TV and watch it that way.  There were several twists and surprises to this last episode and I must admit, I was actually a little teary when Steve Carell made a guest appearance for Dwight and Angela’s wedding.

In the case of “Elementary” I was glad to find this online also – as I somehow stopped recording in progress to get “The Office” recorded!  Good grief.  But all is well, and we got to see the finale of that as well.  I found this storyline VERY compelling.  Sherlock, who believes his lost love who died two years earlier is suddenly alive!  They are reunited, only to find out that he has been played and seduced.  The woman who was supposed to be everything he had wanted and loved, turned out to be his nemesis!  The actress playing Irene, ah – I mean Moriarty - was none other than the actress who played Anne Boleyn in the fantastic mini series “The Tudors”.  (I looked it up)  How could he have gotten it so wrong?  Did his feelings get so in the way that he was unable to see what she really was?  Even as brilliant as he was?  Yes. Sometimes the things we have rolling around in our heads is just plain wrong.  And has nothing to do with reality.  Have you ever thought something was actually true?  You believe it for so long – it occupied your thoughts, crept into your dreams at night, drove you crazy?  And then some time (maybe even years) later – you discovered you were wrong about everything?  You wasted your thoughts and time on believing you were right?  When people disappear  from your life – often it is because of another completely different reason.  Not the one you have romanticized in your mind.  Sometimes we have to stop the fantasy in our minds.  Stop believing for that happy ending.  Sometimes things are what they are.  No happy ending.  Just hard cold reality.  Not all people are kind.  Not all people have your back.  Not all people want you to be happy.  Sometimes they are so unhappy themselves that their true intent is to destroy you.  Sometimes they never loved you at all.  And when we can make peace with reality instead of a fantasy – it is a beginning.  A step to becoming and staying content.

Something happened to Sherlock when this happened to him – when he finally beat his nemesis.  He grew up.  He let go.  He took the fantasy and turned it upside down, inside out and started a beginning into a new life.  Seeing things clearly  allowed him to move on, be wiser next time in matters of the heart and mostly – it gave him his life back.

Can you relate to Sherlock?  Have you ever trusted someone with your thoughts, your words – even your very life?  You shared a part of your heart with them so intimate and rarely spoken?  You thought you meant as much to them as they did to you.  And then you found out they were not who you thought they were.  Have you been betrayed by someone you really trusted and loved?  Do you still make excuses for them?  Have they gone away and on with their life – and yet you are still holding out for them to come back and change?  Or like Sherlock, have you had a reality check?  You woke up to the cold hard truth one day.  Things are not what you always believed?  And guess what?  You are going to be okay.  This will not finish you.  This will not defeat you.  You will rise up to be wiser, stronger and yes, you will regain your life back.

It’s funny.  Life is all about trust.  We trust with all the ordinary things we do in our everyday life.  From sitting in a chair we are sure will hold us up – to eating something we are sure will not kill us – or at very least not make us sick!  Trusting people is a must as well.  We trust the bank teller.  We trust the wait staff in a restaurant.  We trust our parents.  We trust our pastor.  We trust our friends.  These are natural inclinations.  It is only when someone proves to be untrustworthy that we are reduced to being suspicious and cautious.  I believe we are born to be “trusters”.  I like living my life open and trusting – even though others, including my own husband have called me “naive”.

I have also learned that I cannot trust everyone I meet – even if they appear to be all about good intentions.  And this makes me sad.  But it has not defeated me.  I’ve had others try to beat me down, but it has not finished me.   I’ve learned the lesson that I needed to learn.  And with God’s grace, it has not made me bitter.  Nor does it make me look suspiciously on every friendly person that comes into my life.  I’m willing to give everyone a chance.  I have God to credit with that – it does not come naturally to me.  He works in and through my life, finding the good in people.  I look deeper than the surface.  I watch for what others do and not just what they say.  I look beneath just the superficial pleasantries and observe how they are with others, listen to what their friends say about them and watch how they handle themselves in difficult situations.  I remember that I am not very lovable at times either – and God found something worthwhile and worth saving in me.  And in spite of many hurts and slights from people over the years – this simple thought has given me my life back.

I am hoping and praying the same for you.

God Bless

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• Meet Your New American Idol!! (americanidolchitchat.blogspot.com)
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• ‘The Office’ Finale: Steve Carell, As Michael Scott, Surprises Dwight At His Wedding (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
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Why does sacrifice require blood?

How does Christ’s death satisfy the debt of sin?

All three are deep theological questions and the answers to each can open up new questions.  Before I dive in, question why something is a certain way is not wrong in any way.  Questioning and even arguing with God is not wrong, but ultimately obedience is what is demanded by the Creator whether we understand fully or not.

Some people are not satisfied with blind obedience though.  As a liberty-minded patriot, I have expressed my disdain for blind obedience before.  That obedience that I have a problem with is directed toward fallible men however, not an infallible God.  So if you have faith in God and obey God absent full and complete theological understanding, that is great for you and it will be credited to you I am certain.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:29

So how do you answer the questions I posed above.  Do you feel the need to answer them?  Do you trust God and love the Lord enough to not need them answered?

There is no wrong answer… just food for thought.

Check Engine light on a 1996 Dodge Caravan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This happened the other day.  I was sure that Greg had said something.  My car had a flashing “check engine light” all the way to church.  He had preceded me to church to play drums for the youth, taking part in the services.  I got to church and found Greg to tell him about the flashing light.  A solid “check engine light” is nothing new to this car.  There are things that eventually need to be fixed and we’ve done everything we can – or I should say everything we want to spend money on.  But this flashing light was something new.  As I finished letting Greg know – I was sure that he said, “I’ll need to call Steve about that and during the message I can go out and take a look – it’s the only time I have to do that”.  He started to walk back up to the drums and I asked, “do you have your keys to the car”?  He looked at me blankly for a moment and then said rather cautiously, “yes” – with a sidelong glance.

For a second I wondered why.  Greg never carries more keys on his person than he has to.  He usually never has my car keys because he has his truck keys.  But since retiring from a night window washing job he had been able to lighten up the load of keys he was carrying around for that job.  Maybe, I thought – he has permanently put my keys on his truck ring.  I guess that’s it, I reasoned.

The song service and special youth numbers came to a close and it was the time right before the message.  Greg came down from the platform and placed his phone and other papers beside me and said, “I’ll be right back”.  I thought, “good – he’s going to look at that light and make sure the car isn’t going to blow up while I’m driving home!”  In about 5 minutes he was back – sneaking in during the prayer time.  I whispered, “is everything okay??”  He didn’t answer.  I said again, “is it okay??”  He looked at me puzzled – as if he didn’t hear me and said, “what?”  I whispered directly in his ear, “the car – is it okay??”  He answered, “I don’t know I didn’t look – I went to the bathroom.”  “But didn’t you say you were going to look at the car during the message?”  “No”.

It was a most frustrating but amusing moment.  I had evidently skipped ahead to another whole chapter – maybe even two or three!  When Greg joined me at home later that morning we had a fun time trying to figure out just what he had meant.  He had absolutely no recollection of saying what he did!  Nothing about checking the engine during the message – nothing!!  You can imagine how we laughed when he thought I was asking him how he did in the bathroom!  And why was I asking if he had the keys to the car!  Funny – good times!

I was pondering this funny moment since it happened on Mother’s Day.  How many times do I skip ahead feeling justified to ask for answers, demand results and more often than I want to admit – am impatient with those not on our same page?  More than once – I can assure you.

I hear and fill in those empty spaces with things I want – or that sound logical to me, forgetting that not everyone thinks like me.  This happens too often and reminds me that I must slow down - not only my words – but also my thought process.  Slowing down is hard for me.  My body may not always cooperate but my mind has always been quick.  I have always been a step or two ahead.  I am a planner.  I like to have things organized – especially in my thinking.  In this way I can feel in control.

But what does God require of me?

Be still and know that I am God

Psalm 46:10

There it is.  Be still.  What does that mean?  To be still is to be quiet in my mind.  Meditate on God’s love and peace breathed in my life.  Nothing else.  No agenda, no planning, no anticipating.  No skipping ahead.

This is a daily discipline for me.  To slow down.  Take one day as it comes with all its wonders and discoveries.  To ponder.  To relish, reflect and  to be still.

My prayer for you today is that you too will slow down.  You will appreciate the little things.  Take time to stop and ponder.  Really listen.  Stop planning three steps ahead.   To be still.

And may your spouse always be effective in communicating just what they mean. 

God Bless

” I truly believe we can ALL create and enthuse magic into ‘so-called humdrum little lives’. You don’t just have to be the choreographer, or the conductor of your life script – rather paint your life as the masterpiece it could (one day) be. There is a rich tapestry of talent in every human soul, that flows through the spirit of God. So don’t spend your days stringing and tuning your instrument; start making and playing your unique tunes of music right now.”

I am passionate about sports.  I love competition and the push and pull of a hard-fought football, basketball, or baseball game.  I love the thrill of victory snatched from the jaws of defeat – the buzzer beater in basketball, the successful Hail Mary pass in football, or the bottom of the ninth bases loaded hit to score the winning run.

I am passionate about my country.  I grew up with a deep understanding of freedom and the sacrifices in the past in order to win those liberties and the ongoing sacrifices necessary in maintenance of them.  I look at those men and women who have sacrificed limbs, years of their lives, families in some cases, friends, careers, and lives in maintenance of those liberties and freedoms.

I am passionate about my family.  I deeply love my wife, more than I could ever express in words. I cherish everything that she does and sacrifices for me and my sons.  I watch earnestly as they learn new things and hunger for new experiences and share their excitement in going out to tackle those experiences together.

I am passionate about truth.  The mission statement and purpose for this collection of writings is part of my passion, which is to share the unvarnished truth.  I mix in my opinion, but always with an eye on the truth of the matter.  Whether a million people happen to read my words or not doesn’t matter – the truth on it’s own is justification enough for me to expend my energy in this endeavor.

I am passionate about my God.  I wish I could say that I was the perfect follower of Christ and always place Him at the center of my life.  I try, but it is so easy to get out of balance.  It is so easy to put other things in the center of my life, even for just a moment, but as I have gained more perspective in life it has become easier to realize that my motivations, my focus, my hub are out of whack.  This perspective has given me the ability to go to God to re-centralize my focus on Him.  I don’t get it right all the time, but I know that He has already forgiven me for those moments.

That’s really the crux of passion if you think about it.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

God, one and the same as Christ and the Spirit, is eternal, infinite love.  The triune nature of God is one of love and passion.  The God of the universe loved the Son infinitely.  The God of the universe loved the world, mankind, so much that He asked Christ, the Son, to die and suffer separation from the triune bond, even if only for three infinitesimal days from His perspective.

What passion.

How much passion must you have to ask your SON to die?

How much passion must you have to respond, as Christ did, by doing so?

To lay down His crown and authority for us?

I believe from the core of my being that He hung on the cross and rose after three days in the grave, yet I have a hard time grasping that amount of love and passion.  I want to desperately.

I could be ruled by my own passions… I could chase the desires of my flesh – sex, food, wealth, vanity, pleasures of every kind, but they do not fulfill me.  They fail to satisfy me, and leave me wanting more and more.  Instead of inspiring me, they ensnare me in an endless cycle of trying to gain my next “hit.”

I choose to be ruled by His passion.  As I want more and more, He freely gives of His own passion.

I know a lot of people who would ascribe to me the passions I listed above, amongst others, but what I desperately want people to see is that my passion in life is not my own, but His.

How many soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines, and coastguardsmen are Christians?

In 2003, 67.53872% of the military was identified as some denomination of Christianity (Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodox).  The next largest subset of declared religious affiliation within the military at that time was 26.92228% as “No Stated Preference.”

According to a 2012 Department of Defense set of statistics on religious identification, 92.36% of all members of the United States military consider themselves to belong to a Christian denomination.

Good luck prosecuting just 10% of those should they choose to share their faith openly within their unit.  I say – bring it.  Let’s see that come down into practice.

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,

with the cross of Jesus going on before.

Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;

forward into battle see his banners go!

At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;

on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!

Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;

brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

Like a mighty army moves the church of God;

brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.

We are not divided, all one body we,

one in hope and doctrine, one in charity.

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,

but the church of Jesus constant will remain.

Gates of hell can never against that church prevail;

we have Christ’s own promise, and that cannot fail.

Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng,

blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.

Glory, laud, and honor unto Christ the King,

this through countless ages men and angels sing.

“Obey the Lord and

serve him faithfully with all your heart.

Remember the great things he has done for you.”

I Samuel 12:24 GNT

It seemed fitting that my very first post on this blog should be the Bible verse that sums up the theme of my wonderful crazy life. Every good thought I have ever had came from God so if there is anything written here worth thinking about ….He gets the credit!

Forgiveness implies that you count the debt fulfilled even without recompense (payment).

The last few weeks have been filled with heartache and bloodshed.  The terrible consequences of living in a fallen world echo throughout our civilization.  Despite all of our intrepidity poured into minimizing such horrors, they still occur.  Since shortly after the creation of mankind, man has shed man’s blood.  Disease takes the young and the elderly.  Accidents happen.  Atrocities occur.  Death, destruction, and evil overtake our personal worlds without warning.

Today, there are families walking about missing husbands, wives, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, cousins, and close friends all because of our humanity.  That which sets us apart from a dog in the street, or a bird in the sky, that spark of the Divine that makes us unique with a power to create, conceive, invent, and to improve our own human condition can be harnessed for the worst of evils – to shoot, stab, bomb, abort, and destroy each other.

I have written before about the importance of Godly men and women being willing to stand up and fight such evil over, and over, and over again.

My sons are not yet ready to stand and fight at four and just over one and a half.  In our household, I stand with my gaze fixed outward at the horizon – trying to discern and classify threats.  My wife does the same, but she also must look inward and remind me from time to time that there is little we can do against some threats, but come to our knees and pray.

There is one more thing we must do though.  Those that are hurting from loss and death are usually incapable of taking this step at first as the searing pain is too great, the anguish too fresh, but those of us detached from the situation personally must take up the mantle.

Despite all of the evils done, despite all of the losses taken and the pain caused… we must forgive.  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his elder brother could never be sufficiently punished in this life to fill the void and pain caused in so many lives (or in our collective soul as Americans).  Even if Dzhokhar faces the death penalty and is ultimately killed for his role in the Boston attacks, his life does not equal the three innocents lost and the almost two hundred permanently changed by the evil action.

Must we accept evil in this world? Absolutely not.

Must we forgive the lost souls abducted into committing gross evils among us?  Absolutely.

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2:2

Dzhokhar is a lost soul, just as many others.  He is as much deserving of forgiveness and grace as me.  Will he face judgment for his actions?  Yes, but they will fall short of making those hurt or killed whole again, and that is why we must forgive and turn to God in prayer so that He may make us whole again as it is He who is uniquely able.

When I told my husband about this he listened and for valentines day this year I got this:

A rewrite of Proverbs 31 just for me:)

I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it a million more I know just how blessed I am to have this amazing guy in my life.

Proverbs 31: A Rewrite

A wife who inspires better character I have found, worth more than jewels I can’t afford.
She makes me realize my life is complete and I really need nothing more.
Ever since we began life together I find mine made better and full.

Although she doesn’t have to collect sheaves, harvest flax or spin wool
She sifts through grocery stores and catalogs, always looking for what is fair
Because all the world’s important and our family’s well being is not her only care.

Rising before the dawn and waking early will never be her cup-of-tea
But the morning routine we have as I bring her coffee in bed is just fine by me.

She may never buy a field as wealth is not something we will ever come to
But it doesn’t change her mission in making our home a place of value.

She is crafty and creative and a seamstress at times in finding ways to provide for us all
But compassion also springs out of her doings and often leaks out of our walls.

We often don’t have money for the clothes that we need but it never messes up her flow
We are provided for in ways unseen regardless of the rain or the sun or the snow.

She loves making our bed for it is our favorite place, in blankets and pillows and duvets
And when I go out to provide for our family I pine for it throughout my day.

She wants what is best for me day to day and pushes me to be great in my career
But financial success is not her end as she would rather my work be filled with cheer.

The strongest person I know and she never knows fear living a life filled with laughter
She is wise and beautiful, teaching me good things that echo both now and forever after.

The greatest gift that I know she receives every day is hearing little voices call her mom
Blessed above all, my wife, lover and friend and I praise her with the words of this Psalm.

Many women are great in this world and this life but you for me pass them all.
You are loving and true, you make our home amazing and you are faithful to your call.

So thank you for being a woman of valor; a woman who knows and fears the Lord
You are my eshet chayil and I love you for that only a fool would seek after more…

Hardly.  Cold is a word that use to indicate an relative absence of heat.  Heat is a measurable thing.  It represents existential energy as it affects matter and excites it in order to resonate energy thermally, rather than as magnetic attraction, electricity, or kinetically.  Cold is merely the absence of heat.  There is a scientific law that states that absolute zero is the complete absence of heat (we measure this as zero degrees Kelvin, -273.15 degrees Celsius, or -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit).  We have scientifically never reproduced this absence of heat, although we can come pretty close (the world record is one picoKelvin).  Cold by itself is immeasurable as it merely a definition of a word reliant on our understanding of thermal energy, or heat.

If you really want to throw your mind for a loop, consider this – as temperatures (thermal energy) decrease, molecular interactions begin to slow down.  This continues until you begin to approach that absolute zero point and a complete lack of thermal energy, and then molecular interactions and electron travel inexplicably expands and accelerates to far greater than their normal “range” of interactions.  These interactions introduce energetic releases that begin to heat the molecules again.  It appears to be impossible to remove all heat from even a single atom.

Mankind can split the atom, but the neutrons, protons and electrons are not destroyed.  Mankind can try to manipulate matter to a point where, theoretically, all electron motion should cease and the atom itself would self-terminate through neutralization, but as we get close, that fundamental building block of the entire universe rebels against us.

What is darkness?  Is darkness measurable?  Can it be quantified?

Absolutely not.  Darkness is the absence of light.  In the absence of light, we say that we have darkness, but really all we have is nothing.  What about something painted black? Even when shined on with a light, it remains black.  To the human eye, yes.  To a thermal camera, no.  Photons are absorbed by the black colored item and converted from photonic energy (light) into thermal energy (heat).  This is something anyone with a black car on a July day knows all too well.

Just like cold, darkness is a relative concept that must be tied to light in order to have meaning.  It is a term that must be defined based on it’s polarity in relation to it’s opposite, but it’s opposite is not reliant on it for it’s definition.

Even in a dark room, complete devoid of all internal and external light sources, there is light as chemical interactions generate photons (light) as part of the energy exchange.

Now here’s a question for you to ponder now.

What is death, but merely the absence of life?

What is evil, but merely the absence of good?

In the worst moments in our life, where we find ourselves at the bottom of a pit, buried beneath pain, sorrow, depression, regret, hate, and fear there is hope.

I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

John 12:46

The answers to all of the questions of this world point to Him, but only if you open your eyes to see.

The bulletins were designed in the way that they always were: A generic flower picture with a clichéd scripture beneath it. “We’re glad you’re hear” is what it was meant to say, but to me it said: “Old ladies with cross stitch await you”. I smiled to myself. It wasn’t too far from the truth these days, but you know, we’re praying for something big. We really want to see God break into people’s lives anew. And it was as I handed out my last bulletin that it happened.

I think I had seen the spirit before. She had been in the service once or twice maybe. She introduced herself to me when I first got saved and then disappeared. But now here she was in the flesh! And coming to our church!

My buddy Christian saw her coming and greeted the Holy Sprit with a smile and a polite handshake.

“Hey Man, it’s awesome you’re here.” He said excitedly pulling out a bulletin “Wait right here, I’ll go get the pastor.” Christian ran off before either Holy Spirit or I could stop him. I smiled a little sheepish. Christian was rather enthusiastic. I wondered if Holy Spirit didn’t want to just go in and enjoy the service. But she waited patiently until Christian returned with the pastor.

“Greetings!” The pastor said reaching out his hand for another shake. “It’s good to have you here.”  He smiled. Spirit nodded. “It’s been awhile,” The pastor continued “I hope you like the service.” He grabbed a bulletin from Christian and opened it up taking out the stuffer with the service outline.

“Hey listen,” The pastor said, “Since you’re here. Let me just explain the service and where we want you to interact okay?” Holy Spirit cocked her head to the side quizzically.

“The first two songs are really exciting. So if you could maybe work up some joy. Maybe some gifts,” The pastor rethought “well, maybe just one or two. You know, nothing that would disturb the order the of service or embarrass anyone.” I watched, a little embarrassed myself while the pastor took the bulletin from Holy Spirit to open her own copy so she could see. He took care to point out the ‘next phase’ in the schedule to her.

“After that if you would just come in and quiet it down, you know make a few people cry, really get intimate with us. And then, here are the notes to the sermon this week. If you could” He hesitated a little “just come in and convict the people with my message, you know, a real life changer. But of course you know how to do that,” The pastor said laughing “but be sure to be done by eleven, okay. That’s when the service ends and you will be dismissed.”

There were a few more pleasantries exchanged between the two of them, “it’s good to have you”s and “this will really be good for the service today”s and then the pastor excused himself, quietly ushering Holy Spirit into the building with his hand in the small of her back. The pastor assured her that he would find a good seat for her to sit, you know not too obvious so as to attract too much attention. We wouldn’t want her to be a distraction in the service. It was, after all, the Apostle Paul who said to worship in an orderly fashion.

I watched them go even more embarrassed. I didn’t know what Holy Spirit thought of that. I can’t imagine it made Her feel…well comfortable. I turned to Christian who was still ecstatic.

“Oh man, can you believe it!” He half shouted at me “Holy Spirit hasn’t been at this church in forever!”

Yeah. I thought to myself. I wonder why she doesn’t come more often…