We have children, Sarah (age 14) and Joseph (age 7, almost 8). We have been homeschooling them both from the beginning. Sarah is starting 8th grade and Joseph is starting 2nd grade, but 3rd in Math. We have had our challenges trying to figure out what and how much to teach them, how to plan out their lessons, etc. Over the years we have tried out various methods and materials. My wife Emmy has been very instrumental in starting Sarah off right. When Sarah was still a todler, she’d have her help sort the laundry as she taught our daughter her colors. When Sarah was 4 we started teaching..

Over the years it has been a long and somewhat arduous process, many times not knowing what to do, but we keep plodding onward anyway. We keep trying to do it better each year. Once a year we go to a home school curriculum fair in Portland. A couple years we purchased a full curriculum from two different suppliers; the first was Rod and Staff and the second was Bob Jones University Press. We found that we liked part of each of those curriculums (those parts we kept), but much of the rest of those choices we didn’t like. As we have tried out various types of curriculum and books, we keep finding more and more things that we like. You might say that we are “working out our salvation (well-being and right-mindedness) through this process.

As I wrote in a previous entry, we are not ones to use someone else’s “out of the box” curriculum, or “ready-made” life or belief system.

We have a friend in church who is a teacher. In times past when I’ve shared with him about homeschooling, he has asked me something like “How long do you think you’ll keep homeschooling.” Then he’ll go on talking about how great the public schools are and how much better it is for the kids, etc. I’m sure that he is genuinely very concerned about our kids. (Sarah has consistantly tested in the 92%-96%th (top 8%) since we started. She is very bright).

It really amuses me when other people see how bright our children are, that some of them, like this above friend, tell me how well my kids would do in public school. I even have another aquaintance (a customer of mine), who has seen how bright my daughter is, go on to tell me how wonderdful the new high school is in this part of town. These caring friends of mine don’t seem to think that perhaps the reason our kids are doing so well is because they are home schooled.

Lets look at an example of why our daughter does so well in math (which she doesn’t like) is that we dillegently correct every lesson, and then make her redo every problem until it is correct. If she needs help, I’ll help her work through the problems. But she is needing my help less and less. In public school how often does the teacher have the students redo the lessons until it is correct? I see that this is a very important part of the student learning, by having to work through every problem correctly. This helps prepare her for what’s coming up ahead.

“Some years ago I wrote this as a spoof, of sorts. I was dealing with the concept; Is God all powerful, is He really in control? This article highlights the contradictions that we often see people deal with:”

God made a perfect earth, but it has been spoiled and seems to be bent upon destruction. This is not what God intended, somehow he must have failed,
Somehow things went wrong, things got out of God’s control.
Someday God will be God, Someday He will win the battle, but not now,
He must not be strong enough to overcome evil now, but maybe someday.

He made a perfect man and woman, but somehow he failed to make it so that they could stay perfect.
Why did he just stand by while they were corrupted by the serpent?
Was Satan just to much for God to handle?
This is not what God intended, somehow he must have failed,
Somehow things went wrong, things got out of God’s control.
Someday God will be God, Someday He will win the battle, but not now,
He must not be strong enough to overcome evil now, but maybe someday.

I’ve heard it said that he made a perfect angel called Lucifer, But somehow God failed…
Something went wrong and this perfect angel got spoiled.
It is said that he got puffed up with pride and rebelled, and took many of the angels with him.
This is not what God intended, somehow he must have failed,
Somehow things went wrong, things got out of God’s control.
Someday God will be God, Someday He will win the battle, but not now,
He must not be strong enough to overcome evil now, but maybe someday.

Somehow my life was supposed to be perfect,
Somehow I was supposed to have everything that my little heart desired,
but I didn’t get all of my heart’s desires.
This is not what God intended, somehow he must have failed,
Somehow things went wrong, things got out of God’s control.
Someday God will be God, Someday He will win the battle, but not now,
He must not be strong enough to overcome evil now, but maybe someday.

Oh god, Satan keeps attacking my weak spots, he keeps pointing out my evil desires.
Oh Lord, I so wanted these to remain hidden, but now, Oh God, they’ve been exposed.
This is not what God intended, somehow he must have failed,
Somehow things went wrong, things got out of God’s control.
Someday God will be God, Someday He will win the battle, but not now,
He must not be strong enough to overcome evil now, but maybe someday.

I’ve heard that someday there’ll be a great battle of good against evil
and on that day God will win over Satan and over all evil, but not now.
He must be too weak of a God to win over evil now. Satan must have the upper hand right now.
This is not what God intended, somehow he must have failed,
Somehow things went wrong, things got out of God’s control.
Someday God will be God, Someday He will win the battle, but not now,
He must not be strong enough to overcome evil now, but maybe someday.

Oh God there are so many things that seem like they are just out of your control right now.
Lord, if you are Lord, there is so much evil right now, there must be so much involved with
keeping this world going that you must have looked the other way
and things got out of your control.
It must be just to much for you to handle Lord, if you are truly Lord.
This is not what God intended, somehow he must have failed,
Somehow things went wrong, things got out of God’s control.
Someday God will be God, Someday He will win the battle, but not now,
He must not be strong enough to overcome evil now, but maybe someday.

Someday God will be lord of my life, but not now. Lord, I’m just so self center and so selfish.
I’m such a sinner, my life is so messed up. Lord I know that I am outside of your will
When you made up your plan you didn’t know how messed up I would be,
This is not what God intended, somehow he failed,
Somehow things went wrong, things got out of God’s control.
Someday God will be God, Someday He will win the battle, but not now,
He must not be strong enough to overcome evil now, but maybe someday.

Lord, are your really Lord? How could my life get so out of control?
Lord, why do I have so many problems? why are things not going my way?
This is not what God intended, somehow he must have failed,
Somehow things went wrong, things got out of God’s control.
Someday God will be God, Someday He will win the battle, but not now,
He must not be strong enough to overcome evil now, but maybe someday.

Well my bible says that God is working “ALL THINGS” ……………

It says that God is all and through all ……….

Well, the bible must be wrong … God must have failed

If Satan is not here by God’s … plan, then why is he here. Why does God let Satan remain here. Is Satan too big for God to handle? Is God so weak that he needs many people to pray for him so that he can someday defeat Satan?

   You might ask, “What is the point of this article?” I merely suggest, think about the deeper implications of what you believe.  If God is not in control of EVERYTHING (including the evil and disastrous things), then He’s not God at all. However, if He is in control of ALL THINGS (As the Bible clearly says), then why are we so worried about the way “seems” to be going, all toward evil. Remember who is in control. He has a purpose in everything that happens on this earth. Also, God sees things from a different perspective, from an eternal point of view.

    We often live in this world as though this was to be a final destination. We want everything to go according to our own preconceived ideas of right and wrong, good and bad. When disasters or “evil” things happen, we don’t want to attribute those things to God. I’ve often heard it say that God “uses” the bad things for our God. No one seems to want to say that God causes those things to happen. However the Bible says that God is ALL in ALL, He is the beginning and the end. The Bible clearly says that everything that happens is according to his plan. Think about what you believe. If the bad and disastrous things that happen did not have their origin in God, if those things are not planned by God, then that means that they are outside of God’s plan and they are outside of God’s control. And, if they are outside of God’s control, then God isn’t All-Powerful; God isn’t God.

I just ask you to think about the implications of what you believe….. more to come…

When we try to “do church” or “be the church” we actually mess up the free and natural functioning of the church. In the “doing” of church it becomes artificial and lifeless. When the people “meet as a church” it then becomes all about “us” (about us trying to “act” spiritual). When we “do” church, we take the church out of our daily lives and try to give it a life of it’s own separate from us. The church is not something that we do. The church comes about, the church “lives” and expresses itself as we live and express ourselves. Because we are the body of Christ every day and wherever we are, the church is a natural expression of us and our daily lives as we care for our family, as we help our neighbor. The church is where we are. The church is the body of Christ, and it is alive in the neighborhoods wherever people are expressing God’s love and caring for one another. This could be at a barn-raising, of helping someone pack up and move to a new house, of crying with someone who has lost a family member, of treating a fellow worker responsibly and honorably.

The church is the people. The “church” is a natural and ongoing expression of our daily lives. The church is not some building. The church (Christ’s body) is always present and functioning. Just as Christ’s body is always here and always functioning, the church is always alive and functioning every place God’s people are living and active, in their homes, jobs, schools, every place and every day. We are extensions of Christ’s body, a living and active part of Christ’s church no matter where we are and whatever we are doing.

Expressing the life of God is something that we are supposed to do naturally and organically on a daily basis. We are not supposed to “do” church. We “are” the church every moment of every day.

The church expresses itself (or you could say that the church “happens”) when the members get together for some purpose outside of itself, such as; to help a neighbor, to care for the sick, to comfort the wounded, etc.

The church functions as a church when it doesn’t try to “be” the church. When we try to meet as the church, then the focus is about us and what we are doing. We try to act spiritual, we try to act like we are worshiping God. In the process me hinder the life of the church.

The church is functioning when people are working together for a godly cause, when they are fighting evil by doing good.

Two nights ago I was in a men’s group. During my time to share I had read a page from a book called The Criminal Personality, Volume 1, starting on page 297. This book was based upon the pioneering work, that spanned well over a decade, of it’s authors. The page I was reading described how a large percentage (about 99%) of criminals (in the study) had had some religious training in their childhood. The page also talked about how criminals thought concretely about heaven and hell, God and the devil, etc.

One of the two co-leaders of the group was really set off. He went on a tirade about how he believes in a literal heaven and hell, God and Satan. He continued to raise his voice more and more to emphasize how important he though it was to believe these, and other, things he thought were so important. At first I tried to further explain, but that just set him off even more. He raised his voice and put strong emphasis on what he believed. His actions showed that his beliefs were going to win out and silence any opposing viewpoints. (In this case, the opposing viewpoint was mine. I could see that if I continued it could, and probably would, lead to a heated argument. I could also see my own sense of “wanting to be right” raising up within me, “wanting to be Right!” This was just my pride wanting to come out. So I quieted myself and just let him talk, let him “win”. And that was OK. My trying to prove myself right would have only have been destructive.) While beliefs are very good, we must make sure that what we believe is true. Our beliefs are not what it most important. Truth and love are important.
I did a Google search and found this:

1. Feelings are not facts
2. Don’t believe everything you think
3. Don’t believe everything you believe

This was first published on my other blog here.

Much of our lives are based upon the principle of stimulus = response, and cause = effect. Much of the time we get trapped in trying to change the consequences without changing the causes. For example, overeating is abounding in this country today, and with it all the diseases and illnesses caused by obesity. So, we try to change the symptoms without changing the behaviors that caused the problem (obesity and its accompanying side affects, disease, etc.) Our efforts would be better spent in changing us and our behavior. Then the consequences and the accompanying side affects would go away.

We each are (only) a small part of the total scheme of things. We each only see or know such a little part of the total scheme of things.

Part of the problem some of us have had, or have, is that “we” want to “see” the meaning to our lives. As I was pondering that this morning, it hit me. When we want meaning in our lives, could it be that we are wanting to see that our lives account for something great and significant, or even that others will look at us and say “That person really affected and changed our lives. That person is great and wonderful.” Of course I’ve overdoing my example for effect. When we want to see the meaning to our lives, we want to see that our life meant something to somebody, that our life was of some value to somebody. That desire or idea does seem to have some merit, but but, that whole way of thinking is about Us, About ME!!. “It is important to ME that MY life have meaning and significance.?” This whole way of thinking is kind of screwed up. I think of Mother Theresa. For what I understand she went to someplace to serve, not to find meaning about her life. And yet (I would assume) that she found meaning in her life because of the way she lived her life.

Trying to find meaning in life is very self serving. It is all about us. Instead, “The question is not, says Frankl, “What do I expect from life?” but, “What does life expect from me?” We must realize that we are being questioned by life—daily, even hourly.” http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=9e1705481ae6b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

What people may not understand is that trying to find meaning is life is all about trying to satisfy our emotions. “I want to FEEL like my life has meaning.” Instead of trying to find meaning in our lives, we need to answer the questions that God and life are giving us right now. We find true meaning in life acting responsibly in every situation, i.e., being a good husband and a good father, etc. In fulfilling our duties and responsibilities we don’t always “feel” that our life has meaning. But our life has meaning because it means something to those that we love and serve.

Over the years I have noticed that many people are very explosive (get very angry very quickly) over anyone questioning that Bible as being "the Word God". I've wondered, why do they get angry. If the Bible was indeed true, then why would they get angry over it. People generally get angry when they are covering up a lie and it is about to be exposed. Why would anyone get angry over something that is supposedly true?
If the Bible is supposedly true, then it would not need to be defended. Truth can stand up questioning.

In addition, whenever I've even insinuated that I was questioning the Bible, I've experienced religious leaders trying to "set me straight".

Why would anyone get angry over someone questioning the Bible, when the Bible says (Galatians 5:20) that "Outbursts of anger" are one of the deeds of the flesh.

It's OK to ask questions. In fact, if you ask the right questions it will change your life. Don't be afraid to ask questions of God, of the Bible, about work, family, etc. Learning the art of asking questions is more important than the answers that come. When you focus on asking questions (even of the answers that come) your percepts will change.

Recently I've begun asking questions about the authority and inerrancy of the Bible. There is a modern day view of the Bible that says.....  I ask, where did this view of the Bible come from? Who started this view of the Bible? and many others. The actual questions are not as important as developing the freedom to question anything and everthing. Even though I say this, I also add a word of caution. Be careful not to get in the habit of asking question at the wrong time. Be careful not to ask question instead of fulfilling your responsibilities (as a child will often try to do). Question can often be used as an excuse to not do anything. When I say ask questions, I mainly mean to fulfill your responsibilities first, then at the proper time feel free to ask your questions.

Again, it is not any one question that is important. Usually when I ask questions I get more questions. If I only focus on trying to get answers, then I won't get more questions. When I'm on a quest, as I often am, questions will come in a string, one after another. When I ask the first question, sometimes I get an answer, but sometimes I just get the next question.

Often times we hold onto our misconceptions so tightly. One question won't set us free. It often takes a whole series (or multi-series) of questions before we begin to experience freedom. Part of walking into this freedom involves the crumbling of our tightly-held-onto belief system. The many questions allows our minds to look at and question our beliefs from many different angles. In reality, asking questions primarily has to do with tearing down our own  inadequate belief system. This can be, and usually is, a very scarey process because questioning can demolish much of our core beliefs. This was very scarey for me when I first started questioning my own beliefs. It's like having almost everything that I relied upon, the things that I held to be true, all just crumbled to the ground. To be sure, at the beginning it took a period of some months before my incorrect beliefs began to crumble. At the time I didn't know what was happening. Yet, with the crumbling of my old beliefs came a new freedom, a freedom to search for that which was true.

Much of the time we have received our belief system from our parents or other authority figures in our lives. At the time we received our beliefs we were very young and didn't evaluate or question what we were thought.

It might be said that if you question the bible and your beliefs that your faith and your belief in the Bible may be destroyed. How true, as it should be, if your beliefs have been built upon errors and traditions of men.

However, truth can stand up to questioning. Upon deep and sincere questioning, truth will stand up and found to be truth. But errors, mistakes, and faulty belief systems can not stand up to thorough question.

One of the biggest benefits of questioning yourself and your deepest beliefs is that which is false will crumble. In the end, in the midst of all the rubble, you will find that which is true. Then you can build your beliefs upon truth. Truth can stand the test of time.

If we make a claim that God wrote the Bible through the hands of men, and that it was perfect, infallible, inerrant in it's original documents, then we would also have to believe that God was also in control of all the people that copied and translated the bible throughout the milenia of time. If that was true, then why was the Bible locked away for centuries in Latin, only available to the priests and monks? If the Bible was truly the Word of God, then why did God not make it immediately available to all people from the very beginning. If God is God, can't he do anything that he wants? Is He not the Lord of all creation?

If the Bible was the Word of God to us, would God not make sure that only the true and accurate copies of His word were available to all people throughout time? Why are there some many translations. Why are the translators continually "correcting" and "improving" the various translations? If the Bible is truly the Word of God to us, is he not able to give us accurate translations at all times?

What is our purpose here on earth? Why did God put us here? What does he want us to do? Answers to these, and similar questions will help determine what careers we choose.

One verse that is quoted over and over again by many Christians is:

Matthew 28:19-20 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Many lives are built around this verse. People go to Bible college, go to seminary, and become preachers and missionaries. Many who don't choose one of these "callings" often feel guilty that they are "serving God".

John 13:34-35 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

In Christianity I've heard MUCH about "The Fall" (when Adam and Eve sinned" and thereby FELL away from God's plan and FELL OUT of God's grace. (Supposedly) Adam, Eve, and the serpent "messed up" God's perfect plan. God created the perfect environment in the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve "were supposed" to live out their lives in happy bliss. However, they disobeyed God, fell out of his will, and messed up God's perfect plan. Now, because of Adam and Eve's screw up, then God had to send His Son Jesus to die for the sin that came into the result as their sin. Jesus had to clean up and correct the mess of things that Adam and Eve made.

But wait!, in Ephessians 1:11 it says, "according to the plan of him who work out everything according to his plan". You can't have it both ways. You can't say that Adam and Even sinned and fell from grace and at the same time God is working out EVERYTHING in conformity to His will. You can't have it both ways. If God is working out everthing, the Adam and Eve "sinning" was all part of God's plan. Therefore Adam and Eve did not sin, but were only walking out what God had already planned would happen. But there is a problem here. If you take away Adam and Eve and the "original sin", then the whole thought of "saving from (original) sin comes crashing down.

Before the creation of this world "He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. " 1 Peter 1:21    

Before anything came into being

Eternal plan

"³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he[c] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. ⁹And he[d] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. ¹¹In him we were also chosen,[e] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. ¹³And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory." Ephessians 1:3-14

So many parents are struggle nowadays with raising their children. Children are a real test of the parent's beliefs. If the parents' belief system is off center, then the children will go way off track.

As adults it is so easy get into our own mindset and not have to change anything about ourselves. But, once we have children, everything changes. If we want to raise our children correctly, so that they will be good responsible godly human beings, we parents have to critcically examine ourselves, our beliefs and our behaviors. In any area where we are off-center, the children will take it to excess.

Over the years I've heard much said about how important is to believe the "foundational" beliefs. Here is an example1.

I think that they have that all mixed up. Jesus say, "the greatest command is Love... the brothers". People are so quick to argue and expound on a variety of topics, such as, the Trinity, The Rapture.... etc. And yet Jesus said that Love was the most important. What difference does it make if we have different beliefs about God, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, Justification, etc. People who are growing are going through a process of learning new ideas and beliefs. Their ideas and beliefs with change, grow, and expand as they begin to mature over the years. If we don't have love, we don't have anything. Love is the important thing, Love is the foundational belief, not all those other doctrines.

• 1. Foundational Beliefs. Vol. 2010. Tualatin, Oregon: Horizon Christian Schools, 2010.

A little while ago I read a book titled The Wisdom of Crowds that talks about how, in a crowd, there are people with all types of different thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Their ideas go from one extreme to the other, but when you let everyone express their views and beliefs and take an average of all the beliefs, the final outcome is very on target. When everyone is allowed to participate, from one extreme to the other, they all kind of balance out each other. Consequently, the resulting conclusion is very wise, wiser than any one man can come up with.

This principle has such a tremendous application for the body of Christ, and agrees with the concept of having a "multitude of counselors."

Scholars of today put such extreme inportance upon the Bible being the inspired Word of God. Many scholars quote 1 Tim 3:16. This thought just came to me. If it was indeed true that all the Bible was written by the Holy Spirity through men AND if it was important for us to know that, would not each author have included that fact within the context of his writing? If the Bible were of such extreme importance, would not each author have stressed the importance of the readers knowing that their writing was being written by the Holy Spirit? Does God leave to chance the things that we are supposed to know?

in Writing, writer's license

Who I am at home is who I truly am.

It is easy to try to be religious, spiritual, or to have others think that I'm a super person, a great "soul-winner" etc. But what I do when I'm at home shows me and everyone else who I truly am. How I treat my family reveals my true character.

To be of any value to anyone, religion must be practical. For example, in ... it says, 

Image via Wikipedia

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

True religion should make us better, more compasionate and loving people. Religion should not be just about go through religious motions, or doing religious actions. The main function of religion should be to help us keep on the right track, to help us to love and obey God and to love our neighbors.

True religion is not about us thinking that we are the chosen ones just because we go to endless worship services and Bible studies.

True religion and true science are in agreement. They both are about seeing the world as it really is.

a true definition of faith is the day by day living out of what you belief (know to be true). a false definition of faith is believing the illogical.

Over the past two thousand years the Christian religion has picked up a lot of superstitions  and erroneous teachings. (give examples)

Back in the days the Jesus was on the earth, many of the common people believed superstitions. Since they didn't know the truth (lack of knowledge, lack of science) about many things (sickness, bad behaviors, death, etc.) they made up all types of false beliefs (superstitions about witches, spirits, demons, etc.) to try to make sense of what was happening. Only their superstitions were not very helpful because they became even more afraid. Their false beliefs gave them no power over what was happening. Jesus came to show people the truth and to set people free from their erroneous and harmful belief systems. He came to show people the truth about God and about the world around them. Jesus was a true scientist. Following his death his disciples continued to spread his true science. Many people came into the light of understanding the truth about God,  themselves, and the powers of this world. They came into freedom. The people in the church were people of faith (the people who lived by the truth). They were lights to those who lived in darkness (who lived by their false beliefs and superstitions)...

Through the centuries, when those superstitious people came into the church, they brought many of their superstitions with them and mixed them with the religious beliefs. These erroneous beliefs have been made a part of the theology of the church and have been carried down even to the present day. Nowadays much of the church is living in the bondage of those false superstitious belief systems and they are fighting against the truth of modern science. Just to clarify, not all that claims to be science is true science, just as all that claims to be true religion is of God.

True science is merely examining to see what is true and how things really operate.

Trials come to either tear you down or to build you up, your choice. If you run from the trial you are slowly torn down and become less capable. Trials often come to teach us lessonsH. If you face the trial head on, keeping a good attitude, resting when you need to, studying out and working through the problem, you become more capable, more knowledgeable and less afraid.
Face your problems with acceptance and a good attitude.Learn to work with life, don't avoid life or fight against it. Face your problems with acceptance and a good attitude.

Trials and tribulations come for a purpose to either teach and train us, to give us direction, or to mature us. "He who endures to the end (of the trial) will be saved (made whole, corrected, or matured). This applies to each and every trial that comes our way. If we run from the trial or fight it, then we don't learn the lessons and don't receive the growth that submitting to and perservering through the trial brings. Then a stronger trial may come our way because we didn't learn the lessons of the earlier trial.

Many of us are weak and immature in many areas. We struggle helplessly, wanting change and freedom, but now knowing how to attain them. We want the quick and easy way out. We continue to cause many of our own problems because of our ignorance, our selfishness, and our immaturity. Trials come intensely over a long period of time to thoroughly burn into us ... and to mature us and teach us...

Trials come to teach, train, and to prepare us for that which lies ahead. Blessings lie on the other side of the trial. The blessings are a fruit of the trials. If we try to avoid the trial, then we miss out on the blessings and fruit of the trial as well.

"Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without know God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strickes the balance, because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness." Blaise Pascal

Jesus said, "I came that they ^(K)may have life, and have it abundantly" John 10:10b (or "My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." New Living Translation) Jesus came to give us a rich satisfying life. He did not come to bring us a new religion. He came to free us from religion. If there is anything to religion, it is to help widows and orphans in there distress. If there is anything to religion, it is only to help us to live the abundant life that Jesus talked about.

It's OK to ask genuine and sincere questions. It's very appropriate to question even the existance of God,

"So here's what I want you to do in the next 40 days. Remember the phrase that came from Thomas Jefferson. It changed my life. Question with the quote, the full quote is, when it comes to religion, above all things fix reason firmly in her seat and question with boldness even the very existence of God. For if there be a God, he must surely rather honest questioning over blindfolded fear.

That changed my life. Fix reason firmly in her seat. And question with boldness even the very existence of God. Find out what you believe. Don't go to church because you've always gone to church. It's not enough. You must have a personal relationship. You must know that he exists. You must know who you are in relation to him. When times are when times are troubled I'm almost quoting the Beatles here. I'm trying hard not to say Mother Mary comes to me. But when times are troubled, you must know that everything is going to be okay. Because he cares. And you must trust him." Glenn Beck, What does it all mean?

Today I was listening to Micheal Savage on the radio. During his show he said that one of his professors in college said something like, "Don't worry about memorization. Just learn to get the information when you need it. And know the stuff that is important"

That immediately hit me. So true! I think about how many people memorize the Bible and how I spend years memorizing the Bible. And for what purpose?

To summarize what Mr. Savage said, "Know the stuff that is important and know where to look up the rest."

Living out what is important is so much more important than memorizing lots of scriptures. What should we live out? "Love the Lord your God with all you mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." AND "I give you a new command... love your brother..." AND ... ".... if I have not love.... I am only a noisy gong or clanging symbor.

Our feelings towards others are largely based upon how we think about and how we treat others, and not as much upon how they treat us. Much of our thinking about others is based upon our own misconceptions and prejudices. Our own erroneous thinking causes us to act poorly towards others. This causes them to look upon us as enemies and for them not to trust us.

This is why Jesus said to "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." Matt 5:44-45. Whether it is towards our enemies or our brothers, the standard is love. (1 Cor 13:4-5 ff "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.")

Our actions towards others should not be based upon their behavior or about our thoughts or feelings about others. Instead, our thoughts, attitudes, and actions towards others are to be based upon who God is and who was are as his children. We are to love both our brothers (John 13:34) and our enemies (Matt 5:44).

Throughout the course  of each day their are countless... that occur that can build resentment and bitterness. The process of forgiveness is monitoring and being constantly aware of our thinking. As each event happens that triggers a pain or ... response, then we consciously let it go. Whenever we feel hurt and want to withdraw, we instead reach out in kindness. With each .... we disarm it by proactively acting contrary to our emotions. We think kind thoughts and proactively do some acts of kindness to those who hurt us. To be .... much of the pain we receive comes from our own minds. Much of the hurt we receive from others is of our own imaginations.

It is so easy to build up tiny resentments which can damage relationships. To disarm the resentment we continually let go of our "rights" to be treated as we imagine. It is a matter of "dying to self" moment by moment of each day.

Forgiving others is not a one-time act, but an ongoing process. It is a way of continually acting with humility, not expecting to be the center of everyone's universe.

 A lot of the pain that we experience is because of our incorrect focus. We think of ourselves and of our "rights" of what others "should" do for us or how they "should" act towards us. Then we are constantly dissappointed or angered because we perceive that others are not meeting our needs.

Where is our attention focused? Is it focused on what I "should" be receiving, or on how I can serve others?

"He who perseveres to the end will be saved." This came to me today, "He who continues to be fully aware and engaged to the very end will be made whole."

I like to play Spider Solitaire on my computer whenever I just have a few minutes. It's kind of a mindless game that usually only takes a few minutes to win. The more I play it, the more I'm able to win more and more games. That's partly because as I play more I"m more aware of how to play better. During the times I've played, I've had a number of games that seemed hopeless. I was in the middle of the game and didn't yet have any sets, and I didn't see any way to proceed. It seemed like I had lost and it is easy to just zone-out (mentally disengage from the game) and give up. But as I've played it more and more I've come to realize that if I stay fully engaged to the very end, I have a very high chance of winning almost every game. By Fully engaged, I mean that I keep my mind fully away and fully on the problem of finding one more move. Sometimes it might mean that I have to back up a couple moves and play the cards differently.

This is much like real life. There have been many times that life seemed overwhelming and I didn't know what to do. The saying comes to me, "Do what is before you (at this moment)". One thing that quickly overwhelms us is when we try to see the big picture and understand what is going on. It just doesn't make sense. Jesus said, "I AM". The Jews wanted to stone him because that is how God calls Himself. But let's take a look at that. "I AM" In the structure of language "I Am" is "Present Tense". God is the god of right now. That brings us back to "Do what is before you (in this moment)". We do what we can in this moment (truthfully, with honor and integrity), and God works out the details.

When we come to the difficult or challenging times in life it is so easy to just want to step back out of the fight and zone out. I believe that God purposefully sends challenging times our way to grow us so that we can handle more and more challenging times. It is as we pursevere (keeping fully awake and fully engaged, acting with integrity and honor) through each challenging time that we become more and more like God's son. It is through these times that God transforms us into His image.

Part of the reason it is so important to keep fully aware and engage all the way through the challenge is there are things that you need to either learn or accomplish before the trial will end. To successfull finish the trial, you must succeed through the trial. The way out is not to escape from the trial. This only makes you have to go through it again. To successfully leave the trial you must learn the lessons of the trial. The lessons can only be learned if you keep fully awake and are fully engaged in working through the tasks of the trial.

For much of my life, whenever I heard a preacher preach about "repentance", I always thought of it as something like, a person had to be totally broken, kneeling "humbly" before God, and saying something like, "Oh God, I'm a horrible sinner. I'm not worthy to come to you, but I cry out to you. Change me...." The sinner had to admit his sin and recognize and admit the horribleness of it. (I'm being a little overly dramatic here, but, hopefully, you get the point.) But Jesus and the Bible didn't have that attitude.

(To the woman who as caught in adultery, after her accusers had left,) Jesus said, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

 ¹¹ “No, Lord,” she said.

   And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)

Jesus did not condemn her. He cared about her and wante what was best for her.

 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you^[a] free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:1-2

In recent years my view of repentance has change markedly. I see repentance as more of a realization, "Oh, I've been doing that incorrectly." and with that a decision to do things differently.

Repentance is not a one time event, but rather it is a continually change in the way one thinks. It's a matter of being open to correction, of being willing to change and improve the way one thinks and acts.

As I was walking today I got to thinking about all that God has been teaching me over the past few years. Much of it doesn't agree with "traditional" christianity.

Then a realization hit me. God is not human. He is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. When the writers of the New Testament, they used human words to try to express spiritual truths and to try to tell about God. However, mere human words cannot adequated explain things of the spirit or of God. God's truths are beyond the ability of humans to comprehend, and yet God reveals them to use by his spirit.

What does that mean, to reveal it by his spirit?

When I was young I looked upon life as divided into two parts, the spiritual part and the secular part.

Nowadays I don't see a separation, all of our life is one. What matters is how we live our lives in all circumstances.

Portals are merely openings or entrances to another place. They can be either good or bad. In this writing we are describing portals to irresponsibility or the dark side.

The portal has enticing sites, sounds, and smells the draw the ignorant to it. The portal is often located close to a seeming desirable location. The progression into the portal can seem very inoculous and seemingly harmless. The path to the portal dull the senses. Invisible vines reach and slowly wrap themselves around the legs, minds, and perceptions. Portals have fingers that reach our and entice us to come closer. Portals trigger our weaknesses. Weaknesses are those things that call us to take the easy way out.

The hidden message of portals is that we can have what we want without any effort, that we are right and others are wrong. We don't need any advice, we are the smart ones. It tells us to compartmentalize, that if part of it seems OK, then it is OK. It appears as an angel of light to try to deceive even the elect.

The way out of the trap is painful and hard to find, very few find it. The path to freedom is to become real, to admit and confess our wrongful thoughts and behaviors, to put our selfish side to death, over and over again.

I recently heard someone who is close to me say, "God is selfish. It's all about him." In a very real sense this is true. For example, if we met a human whose main thought was having everything to be about him, and if he sought glory for himself, we'd call that a very selfish man. However, we attribute those same motives to God. We say, "It's all about God!" I repeatedly hear Christians talk about God seeking his own glory. If we were to attribute those exact same set of attributes that we attribute to God to a human, we'd say that human is very egotistical. He is very self-centered.

How would I differentiate (or would I) human selfishness versus God self-centeredness. For the sake of clarity, I'm going to call God's focus as "God(self-)centeredness". Let's take a look at this. Everything in this earth already belongs to God. Even we humans are the property of God. He made us for his own reasons. His self-centeredness plays out like this. He desires the best for all of his creation. What is best for his creation is also best for God AND what is best for God is best for his creation.

To fuller illustrate this, let's look at the relationship of a husband and a wife. What is the most selfish thing that a husband can be and do? In a worldly sense, he would go have countless affairs, have sex with many different women. He would go from one to another without end. But does this bring him happiness? To the man blinded by his passions, he thinks of "getting some" for each female as his goal. In reality, he's not happy, he has no one in his life who really cares about his. No woman would truly care about a man who just uses her body for his own satisfaction. In contrast to this, a godly man, who is a true man, cares deeply for his wife. He does whatever he can to please her and satisfy her. He has an eye for her alone. She is his treasure and his pleasure. He submits to her, as she does to him. She cares deeply for him and gives herself fully and freely to him. She eagerly says with her actions, "Here I am, come take me and have your way with me." She fully trusts him and has full confidence that he will only do what is best for her and that which pleases her. She holds nothing back from him.

In much the same way, when we have lived life for some time we begin to realize that God wants what is best for us, that he shows his love and care for us on a daily basis, we begin to trust him more with each passing day. As time goes by, we begin to open ourselves more and more to him. We finally say to him, "Here I am, do as you please with me. I am yours to do with as you will." In a very real sense, what is best for us is best for God. God is most pleased with us when we give ourselves fully to him.

What is best for God is what is best for us. He created us in his image. Yes, God is self-centered, but Godly self-centeredness brings about what is best for us, because we belong to him and are part of his body.  "for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church," Ephesians 5:29

In a very similar sense, a truly wise husband will be fully self-centered, meaning: He knows that whatever he plants he will get back. To get the best back he must plant the best. To get a wife who truly loves him and one who will truly give herself fully to him, he must treat her well, take care of her needs, love her fully. So he will do whatever he can to please and satisfy her because it will come back to him many times over.

In conclusion, when God loves himself, he loves us. We are his body, we are part of him. So, God being (god)self-centered is best for him and it is also best for us.

Here is a similar article that I found on another website after I wrote this article: Is God Self-Centered?

If you were to bring an aboregenie, who had never seen anything of the modern world, out of the most primitive areas of Africa, into a modern day city, with all the modern cars, buildings, electronic gadges, etc. what would his experience be like? What would he think? He wouldn't be able to understand the language, and would have no way to relate to people in this society. In the same way, if you were to bring someone here from two thousand years ago, what would his experience be like? If he were to see cars and trains and TV's, and rocket ships that went to the moon, what would he think? How would he describe it to those at home?

If you want people to understand you,  you would use examples and illustrations from their language and ideas from their own culture to share your ideas with them. It would be pointless to try to describe a jumbo jet (telling about jet propulsion, pilots, landing gear, etc) to a primitive person who had never seen any modern..... So, it would seem that to try to describe the using things they knew about.

Imagine these same primitive people trying to describe these objects to their friends and others in their tribe. They might describe the jet as a huge bird. They might describe a train with a huge snake. A primitive people would not have the words in their language to describe what they say in our culture. (Now think about the book of Revelations.)

If you were very ill, would you want a physician of 2000 years ago (such as Luke) to treat you, or would you go to your family doctor? Do you have more faith in modern day medicine over the medicine of 2000 years ago? That could probably be debated and come up with a wide variety of answers. Irregardless, there is an abundance of knowledge about an innumerable amount of subjects that wasn't available 2000 years ago.

Some things haven't change: Telling the truth is still telling the truth. Telling a lie is still telling a lie. Working hard, living with honor and integrity, being humble and compassionate while you serve others is still valid, although the methods may have changed.

I once had a christian tell me, "I don't want to live a pure life because my co-workers and friends would feel like I'm judging them." This is the thought I'm addressing in this post.

We just recently got a puppy, which is currently about 3 1/2 months old. We are in the process of house training the puppy. The purpose of house training the puppy is to enable it to live successfully with the others (the humans) in the household. As long as the puppy was living ing the kennel, it never had to worry about where to go potty or poo-poo. It just did it's business whenever and wherever it was. The other dogs didn't give any thought to where the puppy went to the bathroom. Who cared? That was normal for that stage of the puppy's life.

However, once we (humans) bring the puppy into our home, that behavior is not acceptable. Which of the humans wants to be walking around the house and step into ...... (you get the picture).

In one sense, sin is making messes in this life that others have to clean up. We are not thinking about the difficulties that we cause others, but are only thinking about the immediated gratification and convenience to ourselves.

Purity is about learning to live one's life in a way that doesn't messes for others to clean up. It's about changing our behavior to that we no longer make the messes OR we clean up our own messes. It's not about living a "perfect" life. (What does "perfect" even mean in the context of living anyway?)

A large part of learning to live "pure" is putting down our pride and learning to look at ourselves, our0 thoughts & motives, emotions, behaviors, and actions honestly. We learn to look at ourselves from a perspective outside of ourselves. We learn to see ourselves as others see us and as God sees us.

Confession is not about guilt or condemnation, but rather about learning to live a life of freedom, responsibility, compassion. Confession is part of a process repentence (learning to live a better life).

Getting back to the thought of purity. Jesus was said to have lived a pure life, and yet sinners flocked to him. (i.e. the sermon on the mount, the many healings, etc.) Jesus did not condemn them. (He only condemned the religious leaders and other hypocrites). He only wanted to show them a better way, a way to escape their sin and bondage.

There were also times that almost everyone left him. Jesus said to his disciples something like, "Will you also leave?"

Over my 60 years of life I have heard many people say, "I believe..." in Jesus, in God, etc. Some say this with such a conviction or with such emotion or force in their voice.

One hard FACT for many of us to accept is, "Just because I believe something doesn't make it true." Belief is not the same thing as truth. Belief is not the same thing as reality. Spoken words of belief is a mental construct. Just because I say, or I yell, that I believe, that doesn't mean that I truly believe.

In reality, when it comes to belief, words have very little meaning UNLESS they are accompanied by a living out of one's beliefs. For example, someone can say, "I believe in God." but, by themselves, those words don't really mean anything. Truly believing in God encompases a whole lifestyle.

Honesty in all of one's interactions with people

There are some things that confuse me.

It has been said that God is all and

How much of everything is ALL?

Eph 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Let's start with God. He created ALL things. He holds them all together by his might hand. He set the heavens in place

I really enjoy eating. I could easily become the world's fattest man, if I let myself go. I could just eat and eat and eat.

I also notice that many times when I get into an unhealthy pattern of overeating I get sick afterward. Being sick is no fun. But the good part about being sick is that it helps to get me out of the "pigging out" cycle. In fact, when I'm sick, I just don't feel like eating. Whenever I'm sick, I try to eat light (soups, salads).

A trial is something that your mind fights against. Once you stop fighting the trial and submit to the learning process of the trial, then the trial changes. Trials can become blessing once you accept the trial. Trial generally involve bringing changes into your life. If ou fight the trial, the changes can become destructive to you. But once you finally let go of the who thought that you are right, then you open yourself up to building positive in you.

Trials also show who really cares about you.

This morning It discovered a message thread "Do You Have Free Will? Yes, It’s the Only Choice" in a forum that was discussing freewill versus predestination. I must say that I was both delighted and amused at all the comments and often seemingly jovial bantering back and forth about a seemingly deep subject. I have really enjoyed reading both sides of the discussion. This posting is a result of the thoughts stimulated by that message thread. At this point of my life, my own personal thought is that it is neither freewill nor predestination (by themselves), but rather that it is both freewill and prestination in combination. This is my view, I'm not trying to convince anyone else of this.

The reality is that there are pretty defined consequences to our behavior and our actions. For example, if someone gets lazy and doesn't work and doesn't take care of necessities, eventually he'll go hungry and have no place to live. In another example, if a man kills people, the police will come and arrest him, put him in jail. After the trial he could be executed or spend many years in prison. We can spend a lot of meaningless effort trying to argue whether or not he had the free will to kill the people. In any case, he will suffer the consequences of our own behavior. He had a thought or an impulse and he acted on that impulse. On the other hand, many people may have a thought or impulse to kill someone, but don't act on the thought.

In many ways, we are a product of our own thinking and of our own behaviors. For example, if a man steals, he becomes a thief (of course, one could always argue that he was a thief already, before he had stolen anything, and the act of stealing only confirmed that he was indeed a thief. But this doesn't hold up under close scrutiny because many people have a thought to steal something, but they don't act on the thought.) In many ways, "we are what we do", not what we think we are.

But even all of this explanation seems pointless because I mainly hear the discussion of "freewill" versus "predestination" from religious people in talking about the afterlife. Much of this is focused on whether someone will go to "heaven" or "hell" after they die. The accompanying thought is, "How can God condemn people to hell unless they have free will?" (The subject of "hell" is another discussion, which I won't go into here.) 1

The reality is, in this life we all have daily moment-by-moment choices. We decide whether to get up in the morning, or not, We decide whether we will eat, and what we will eat. We decide whether or not we will go to work, or to school, etc. You might say, "but I don't have a choice. I must .... (go to work, go to school, etc.)". The truth is that any of us can decide to NOT do anything. But most of us realize that with each choice we make comes a consequence. We can chose what to do, but we generally don't have a choice about the consequences of our choice.

I've heard this ongoing debate over freewill versus presdestination for many years. I've seldom got in the middle of the discussion because, who really knows. And what difference does it make anyway? Things are what they are. Our responsibility is to find out what that is and then live our lives according to that reality.

Of what value is the question about free will versus predestination? It seems that the question mostly just comes up in conjunction of people being sent to "heaven" or "hell".  A more useful question might be to ask if we humans control where we "spend eternity", or what happens to us after we die.

If people who do wrongs here on this earth are punished here on earth, will they also be punished "forever" in a place called "hell"? So, do "evil-doers" get punished twice, one while or earth and then again forever in another place after death? If the people who sinned here on earth were punished for those sins here on earth, would God punish them for those same sins again after they die?

• 1. As a person who was raised in the Christian faith, I would say that much of modern day Christianity is all mixed up. Although I still consider myself a Christian (of a different sort) I really don't even like to use that term.

What is integrity? What does it mean to have integrity. An immature person may ofter think that he has integrity by the very fact that "It's me!" An immature person has self-pride to the extent that he thinks that everything he does is right. This is part of his whole outlook of always being right. He never even considers the idea that he might be wrong.

Well, putting all that aside, what does it truly mean to have integrity? I found this definition after searching on the Internet I found this definition: "integrity: Wholeness; uprightness; honesty or soundness of moral principle and character."1

• 1. http://ab-ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/aboriginal-art/protecting-aust...

Is it logical to say, "God desires" something, but then that God doesn't do anything to bring about his desire?

"A tree falling in the forest without ears to hear makes no sound". I have heard this saying a number of times. Now I think that I may have finally understood this saying. When a tree falls in the forest, it only moves air and moves and cracks branches. These send out vibrations. It is only the ears of a living thing with ears that hears. When the vibrations enter the ear canal they are translated or recorded as sounds within the brain of the living thing. So, in a way, you could say that the sounds only happen within the brain of the living creature. When they are not within the ears and brain, they they are not sounds.

Faith is:

1. the thought, the determination, the umption that there has to be more to life than the way things are or appear to be.
2. the action, the moving force that keeps us on track to keep going, to keep our eyes on the goal, as we persevere, to keep going through the most severe difficulty, to keep us pressing on when it seems impossible.
   
3. perseverence. Faith keeps going until the end. Faith helps us to move mountains, to do the impossible because we never quit, we never give up. Every time we fall down and get discouraged, we get up and go again. 
4. is our inspiration and motivation to see ourselves as we really are and to be willing to change., and to keep going through the difficult things of life that God uses to change us.
   

One of the biggest challenges in life is realizing that we are wrong, our thoughts are wrong, our ideas are wrong. (STOP! Pause a moment and examine yourself. How did you respond when you read that first sentence?) This is because many of our thoughts and ideas are based upon our emotions. We get often emotionally attached to our thoughts. We think that because we have a thought, then our thoughts are correct. Our thoughts keep us captive. We look at a seemingly difficult task and think, "That is too hard. I'd never be able to do that!" And so we defeat ourselves before we get started. OR we look at a new coworker or a new neighbor with judging thoughts. Something about the way they look or behave gives us judging thoughts. So we avoid them without knowing anything about them.

There have been many times in my life when, before I started a project, had a certain idea about it. But, once I get started on it, find out that it was much different than my initial idea.

I have found a similar thing in correcting/disciplining children, my first thoughts are usually wrong. As an example, I hear an argument or fight between the children in another part of the house. Then one of the kids will come to me and complain about the other child, giving an explanation of how the other child is causing the problem. The description of this child often triggers in my mind thoughts of how the other child is wrong. My first emotional response is about how that other child needs to be punished. However, from many times in the past, I recognize that my first thoughts and emotions about what happened are quite often quite wrong. So, I take the children who complained with me and we go back to the other child and have them each tell me what happened. Many times I have them act out what happened. Most of the time I find out that what I had thought happened was way off.

"¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  ²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do" James 1: 19-20

So, when our thoughts and emotions tell us to quickly do something, it is much better to pause (hold off our angry or emotional response, and to investigate what really happened.

^"14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? ¹⁷ Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! ²⁰ But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? ²² Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? ²³ And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”And he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
²⁵ Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
²⁶ For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." James 2: 14-26

Then we might then ask, what is faith? One way of looking at faith is that faith is the umption that gives us the will to begin and to keep going when we get discouraged and want to quit.

We all have ideas of how we think things are or how we think that life works. From all of our life experiences we think that things are a certain way. What we don't realize, and don't want to see, is that our thoughts are wrong, we are wrong. The result is that our misunderstandings give us a lot of fear, which keeps us in bondange.

Many times in life our first thoughts are wrong. We instantly prejudge a person or a situation without finding out what is real. It often takes a lot of courage, perseverance to face our thoughts and to work through to find out what is real. Faith is the spark that should keep us going to work through until the very end.

The prize is at the end. We don't find out what is real, we don't see things as they really are, until we work through the situation until it is complete. At the end comes the awareness and knowlege of how things really are. It is only then that we realize how wrong we were. It is then that we are released from our fears and the bondage of our own misconceptions.

That's the way I was raised.

I think it's OK OR, I like it.: This says, I long as I like something (it ) then it's OK.

These are values that put onself as God. "I" think that it is OK, so it must be OK.

But what are our guidelines? "Let every man (woman & child) examine himself  to see if he is in the truth." Take a minute to look at that verse and what it is saying.

"Out of the heart of man springs

What do you truly believe? Have you ever heard these following quotations?

"Don't believe everything that you think"

"Don't believe everything that you  (think that you) believe"

These remind us that just because we have a thought or an opinion doesn't make it true. Examine everything to see if it is true. Most important, examine your own thoughts and beliefs to see if there are true.

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves." 2 Corinthians 13:5

This is not just a one time self-evaluation, but rather it is an ongoing moment-by-moment watching of our thoughts, behaviors and actions. Each moment we should be examining ourselves to see if we are living out the life of God our Father. For example, if we are mistreated, we should not be judging and condemning others. Instead we should be watching ourselves. Are we thinking and responding out of our true selves. Are we showing love in our response?

"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens; not by what life brings us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst a spark that creates extraordinary results."
-- UNKNOWN

"It doesn’t matter so much what happens to us but how we react to what happens that counts."

How we respond to adversity shows our true nature. When we go through hard times, we should watch our own thoughts, attitudes and behavior. Our true beliefs are shown by what we think and do.

Much of what people call their beliefs is either their pride or their opinion. We humans are very prideful and think that we are right about everything. This is especially true when it comes to religion. Many people have been killed in the name of religion. Much of what is called religion is just self-centered pride. It can be very destructive. Be careful of what we do in the name of our beliefs.

When you go over to someone's home and they invite you to sit in a chair, do you have to "make a decision to believe" that the chair will hold you up? If you are a normal person, you probably will just sit in the chair without giving it a second thought.

If you have a normal good running automobile, when you get into your car, you don't have to make yourself believe that it will start and take you where you want to go.

These are just natural outflowings of you deep internal belief system. A true belief you don't even have to think about. You just do it. If you wonder what you or someone else truly believes, don't listen to their words or the "professions of faith. But rather examine what they do. What they do is what they truly believe. Their words only carry any value IF they are in agreement with how people live their lives.

Much of theology seems so complex and hard to understand. Is God supposed to be hard to understand? Is there a way to make it simple?

"I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

In recent times I've been thinking such things as, "If God is love, then the reverse is also true, love is God. If God is spirit, the spirit is god. If God is truth, then truth is God." I haven't had the words to go any further than that. This morning I decided to look up "God" on Wikipedia. After reading that article, I was led to the Wikipedia link for "divine simplicity".

In theology, the doctrine of divine simplicity says that God is without parts. The general idea of divine simplicity can be stated in this way: the being of God is identical to the "attributes" of God. In other words, such characteristics as omnipresence, goodness, truth, eternity, etc. are identical to God's being, not qualities that make up that being, nor abstract entities inhering in God as in a substance..... In classical Christian theism, God is simple, not composite, not made up of thing upon thing. In other words, the characteristics of God are not parts of God that together make up God. Because God is simple, God is those characteristics; for example, God does not have goodness, but simply is goodness.  Wikipedia: Divine Simplicity

Then it hit me, that's what I was thinking about, but just didn't have the words, "Because God is simple, God is those characteristics; for example, God does not have goodness, but simply is goodness." I had never heard of the concept of "divine simplicity", but it makes such perfect sense, especially when compared to the above quote by Holmes. God is simple, but at the other side of complexity. True simplicity has all the details and loose ends worked out.

Now let's add another quote

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Albert Einstein

Now it is beginning to make sense. If someone needs a lot of theological  doctrine and words to try to explain about God, then they just don't understand God well enough yet. For example, this concept is very simole. God is love, therefore love is God. If you want to show someone God, then show them true love. Here we have an example of how to show someone true love:

"4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

If we are to truly walk in the spirit, we do so by living out the life of God. In a very real sense, we are to take on love and have it be who we are. Not "we have love", but rather 'We are love".

And again, God is truth, therefore truth is God. If you want to show someone God, show them truth. More simply, tell them the truth. And the same can be said for the other "attributes" of God.

Then it only follows that if we are to "walk in the spirit" we are to walk in God.

Love is patient, love is kind

God said, "I AM." If God is the "I AM", then he is .... He doesn't "have" love, but he is love.

I'm sixty years old and have went to numerous Bible studies over many years. Quite frankly, I don't like bible studies. All I ever found there has been an endless studying, for knowledge, the same book over and over again. It seems to me that, in general, many Christians don't know what to do with one another except to have a Bible study.

The main focus I found there was, seemingly, "Bible knowledge." The main focus of each of the Bible studies was on studying the text of the Bible. It's as though the prevailing thought is that we get to know God and become closer to God by studying "God's written Word". To me, this seems like endlessly studying a driver's manual so that we really know it inside and out, but never getting into a car to drive. Yes, we need to know laws of the road, which the driver's manual gives us. And yes we need to know the technical aspects of how to drive. This is best done by 1.)  us seeing by example how others drive and 2.) us doing lots of driving ourselves. This is a good example of how Christian living should be done. It's mostly in the doing.

In recent years I rarely go to Bible studies. I'd rather fellowship with other Christians one on one, or, in some cases, with just a few others. I'd rather be discussing what is going on in each of  our lives, and how we can motivate one another towards "love and good deeds." Yes, the Bible can have a place, but it is on the bookshelf with other helpful books. It can be referred to as needed, but it should not be the main focus, as it is so much today.

I did a search on the Internet today and came across this webpage: Why I Don't Like Bible Study where he writes this:   

"In our current educational climate "study" more naturally carries the connotation of dissection-for-comprehension. Rather than searching in order to meet God. It suggests that coming to the Bible is primarily an exercise in increased knowledge rather than increased love for God."

He wrote the Title as basically a way to get people to notice and possibly read his article. Much of he said was kind of tongue-in-cheek, but he made some good points. The thing that caught my attention was about, "Why do people study the Bible." It is important to have a proper focus when we study. Our focus will determine the outcome.

As I wrote previously, The word of God is a message, not a book." God did not stop speaking two thousand years ago, but rather he has been speaking throughout history, and he continues to speak today. God has so much more to say to each one of us than can ever be written in a book.

When we call our small group meetings "Bible Studies" we give an incorrect focus about what we should be doing in our meetings. I think about Jesus saying, "All men will know you are my disciples by your love...." I did a search of that phrase and found this

"Jesus said simply, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15)²  This leads to an obvious question, what did Jesus command?  There is only one thing that the Bible records that Christ explicitly commanded his disciples to do: to love one another (John 13:34, John 15:12, John 15:17).  Jesus told them that their love for one another would become their trademark. And, indeed it did.  At the end of the 2nd century, the church father Tertullian described the reputation that the early church had earned: “What marks us in the eyes of our enemies is our loving kindness. ‘Only look,’ they say, ‘look how they love one another’”^{3" Principle 6: By this will all men know you are my disciples.}

The author also said:

 "The words translated here as “love” and “loved” are forms of the Greek word agape.  Jesus didn’t leave us with a long sermon or a book on the meaning of agape.  He instead chose to show us the meaning of agape by living it out before us:"

Yes, we need instruction to live out the life of God, but that instruction needs to come more by example than by study. And, in much the same way witnessing,, if I'll even use that word, needs to come more by example than by words. We are to be living examples of the "word" of God.