God did it all for us...

If you go to the doctor and it is all about him, Run! If you go to God and it is all about him, Run! That god is not the John 3:16 God. That is the church god which is all about the church, the people in the church, and their social entertainments.

all God's laws are for our own benefit

All God's primary concerns are about us individually alone. Jesus asked what credit can you receive if you love those easy to love? Credit comes from loving the least easy to love. Why should we love those hardest to love? It is, what seems to be the purpose of all God's commandments, for our own benefit. We are not doing anyone else any great favor are we? After all we are not God.

we all speak about Jesus everytime

However we speak of and whoever we speak about, if we speak about the least attractive and most annoying person we ever met who deserves undying rejection because they are bad for our church, we speak about Jesus. When was that? Extensive verses, one is. Whatever you do to the least you do onto me. . . see Matt 25.

keeping my hedge strong

We view the spirit with spiritual eyes and see the works with our physical in time corruptible, even deceivingly unreliable eyes. Christians who know they cannot get into heaven by their own works, by their actions emphasize their works more than their beliefs just by spending more time talking about them. Their hearts are where their treasure is and their treasure and their time is spent in works, where there is much opportunity for socializing. If a disagreement or a misunderstanding arises while socializing they will forget the spirit of the affair and translate that spirit into works, too often walking out of the church. Everyone in a church should have the permission, the mandate, the desire of the Holy Spirit for being there. It would seem therefore, walking out of a church without the permission of the Holy Spirit for me would be a great mistake. I would be concerned the strength in the hedge around me would be gone.

Jesus demonstrates healing prayer

When we pray publicly it may be good to tell God what He already knows, but it can be only for our sake since He knows what He is before we started praying. We remind ourselves. Public prayers have a problem with self consciousness. What you say to God when others are listening in and what you say alone is an entirely different matter. Corporate prayer is not personal prayer. But when you are praying for healing publicly there is little difference. Jesus told us how to pray for healing. You have to have a "specific" desire. You have to "say", to speak, to the matter. You have to "believe" that His power can heal you. How do we know this? We watch Jesus heal someone. He asked what they wanted Him to do. He already knew that, anyone could see that, so why ask? He wanted an answer. A spoken answer. Answered prayer often seems to involve speaking. Speak to the mountain. Then He said, He pronounced it done, according to our "belief". Not His belief, ours. We have to do something in order to receive.

knowing yourself is a challenge

The most important thing we can do, must do, in life is to know what we believe and have faith in before we carry over into the future beyond the failure of these cocoons, we call our bodies, as they complete their course and pass away. Suspected reason is we become what we believe, really believe in trust in and rely on, deep down inside the secret places of our spirit. I believe that will be what I feed my spirit, even as I fed my body.

lip service and spiritual service

Some people place Jesus above church in their speech and place the church above Jesus in their actions. Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these you do to me. And He said to love one another. Further He  asked, what credit do we expect loving our friends, even the devil does that. Yet christians in churches are so often ready to shun and make uncomfortable those they feel are not good for the church.

nothing right found in anything wrong

Once one works to become an expert on what is wrong, they will find it does not have any future of any interest to the good. It is very interesting to that which is wrong, interesting to examine what is wrong, why it is wrong, and all that, but it is not interesting to what is right and good. It should be avoided, one would think, by definition. The wrong does not incease the good, it increases itself. Rather than avoiding the attempt of anything wrong, it can let a curiosity slip in for it that leads to destruction. You need to know what is right and everything about what is right and which leads to harmony with Existence. It is dangerous to flirt with negative spirits in any matter.

we forgive for our own benefit not for another's

Jesus wants us to forgive others. Is this for their benefit or is it for ours? We forgive others for our own benefit and mind our own business as to whether it does anything whatever for another. It is what is in our own eye that we are to be concerned with, not anyone with else. That is their jurisdiction and the business of the Holy Spirit, not ours. This is what Jesus told Peter in regard to the longevity of John.

more emotion at a football game than at church

The reason so many churches are not much more than social lodges is their weak abstractions generate very little, if any, emotion. Many churches do not compete well with the world's attractions. Without emotion, our abstractions are stillborn. Some churches display little emotion and others are not much more than ritualized emotion. Abstractions should normally lead to emotions, this is the normal course of events. Those who reverse the order are thrown into an arbitrary and unpredictable thinking process that makes them vulnerable to manipulations of whim and circumstance. Then there are those who are wary of emotion as a loss of control, probably because they have not done, simply put, any homework. When talk of the spirit rises, which is after all what any church should be all about, then they retreat because things are getting ghosty. This is ironically the exact case of the matter. Churches without the presence of the Holy Spirit are a contradiction in terms. If abstracting has not taken place, then one should be wary. However, without emotion there is no power to translate the abstract into the concrete. While we are in the concrete it is more difficult to control the manifested world, one would think, because abstractions are more powerful from the unseen.  

when we see eye to eye

For those who follow the commandments of Christ, if they actually love someone they do not accuse them, they excuse them. We have one accuser, the father of all accusations, the source of doubt the devil. When a christian accuses his brother we can say he is giving tongue to the devil. Devil is a term for the personfication of destruction and the lover the many mirages of oblivion and there is no love in it. If I think someone is not in harmony with the commandments of Christ I may witness to them, but for my own benefit not theirs. It is up to the Holy Spirit to convict those that He will, no one else. It is not anyone's job to straighten any person out but themselves. We see this when Jesus speaks about the speck and the beam in the eye.  

eating the spirit builds the body

The only way christians can please God is to have faith. The only way for the faithful to have or build faith is to feed their spirit faith verses in the Bible, and thereby hear the word daily. We all eat food three times a day every day for our bodies. We all feed our spirit something, christians should eat the words in the Bible at least once a day for their spirit. God has the power to heal them but if they just agree it is not good enough, we all must have enough force to believe. The spirit knows what it believes. Many christians are not too sure of what it is since they spend very little time searching their spirit out.

being out of everything

Ominious cloud at sunset
with a hint of the future.

When the agnostic makes a decision to not decide he nevertheless makes a decision not to decide. It makes no difference at this point why he made this decision, it is still a decision no matter why. This is a decision not to decide. So now we have a decision on our hands not to decide. Not making a decision is a negative position about God which means not recognizing the primary Person reflecting Existence. Most likely fact is that the word-concept God has not even been defined in his head and is in a basket of fuzzy thinking in the corner of his mind. It is like God held a party for life and this poor soul never came because he was not sure where he was, let alone where the party was. So what? Well first of all it is hard to appreciate and celebrate life fully very long if you cannot recognize or affirm it only on your own actions, similar to an existentialist who makes a box for himself he cannot get of he calls No Exit. Secondly, sitting in the back row of a humanist convention is rather like being out of everything. Lastly your spirit may not survive the cut.

sympathy is love

If we love our friends we do well but if we cannot love someone we can clearly see standing right in front of us, how can we love God who we cannot see? Even tho David sinned he was honest with God and God loved him for that. Whatever we do to anyone, even the very least desirable person, we do to God. If this is how we treat God, who is the personified Spirit of Existence, then why be surprised when we reap the harvest of our mouth? 

words are powerful onto creation

Out of the treasure of the heart the mouth speaks. If we want to know how important words are to God, and by deduction our existence, all we have to do is read Genesis where God speaks the world into existence. One must conclude He believed it since His word never returns to Him void. Jesus also speaks, and instructs us to speak. In English translations He uses the word say repeatedly. This must mean something for us if His example has any significance.

know the will of God

God operates by his own rules which are set up to serve our existence. It might be a good idea to accumulate Bible verses which reveal the will of God if it is that we really want to know His will. Matt 7:11 where Jesus speaks about giving good gifts to our children and every good gift comes down from above in James 1:17 reveals His will among countless countless others. To match up these generalities with a specific so that a bitter gift can be construed to be given by God instead is not just bad logic, it is merely self-serving unbelief, and cannot find a parallel anywhere in the Bible. Jesus said that whatever things we desire when we pray, to believe that we receive them in Mark 11:34. W. Somerset Maugham as a child went to bed believing that and because he still stuttered in the morning, he dropped the matter and became a life long unbeliever. This most sophisticated man never grew out of that view even as an adult. Persistence is the bed rock of belief. His belief was brief. Somethings are not accomplished without much prayer and fasting, according to Jesus as he answered His disciples when they asked why they could not heal the child being consumed by a demon, Matt 17:21. Sometimes it is just not yet, but it is never forever until eternity when there is no time. It is a good course to stick with Jesus whether we understand it or not, as for me I choose no other course. The alternative is to involve onself in other spirits of unknown destination.

outside the inside of the cup

The letter of the law of God is a curse and condemns us without the spirit of the law. The law was made for Man not Man for the law. The law serves us, not we the law. Jesus' entire ministry was heavily accented on making this clear....the outside of the cup is clean but inside is filthy. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree." Galations 3:13

must be OK to die

Based on the data we all had when we were being born, the entire scenario was a bad move percentage wise. What made it critical, unbeknownst to us, was the introduction of time. We had no information to insist we leave the absolutely perfect invironment we found ourselves in, so why leave now, or at all? No information on that at the time. But if you were told you'd be hung upside down and wacked, that you would be faced with hunger and cold, then throw in income taxes and all the other routine aggravations of living, who would opt for that? But it was ok so it must be ok to die? We were propelled light years ahead just being born, so it may be the same going out as coming in. Purpose of the trials of old age may be to make it easier to accept the ending of time. Time fools us all, more especially in the end. So if we withdraw time, introduced at birth, and reverting to the absence of time, we have eternity. It was good to exist. It looks as if it will be even more exciting going forward.

spiritual slumber parties

In my youth a rite of passage in order to walk alongside our peers was, no longer going to church. If you were going to church past the age of fourteen then you were a wimp and no longer thinking for yourself since from what I could tell the church was put up by the adults to fool the children there was a Santa saint. These were not isolated incidents as it turned out, this was total and complete across the entire spectrum of young people. You had to be pretty gutsy or unnoticed to get away with explaining your involvement in church. According to a survey last year by a Christain group most young adults - do not pray, do not worship, and do not read the Bible. I suspect even adults of all age groups are indifferent even if they do go to church, as well as doing something else if not watching football. Curious fact of the survey is that many consider themselves more spiritual than religious. This means that if you dig down we find that lack of faith coincides with the decline of churches as they become more and more social outlets doing little works of the flesh rather than any big works of the spirit. Seems like an awful lot of slumbering going on.  

the God who is Existence

God is the personified Spirit of Existence. This Spirit has been called the Great Spirit, the Holy Spirit, I am that I am, as well as God. The idea of God has been hung in our hearts by God because God, personified as the Holy Spirit, animates those He creates into existence as a person. This is so we can comprehend and relate to Him.

in defense of hypocrites

Many church people like to attack the argument of those people who charge that they are hypocrites by pointing out so what, so are you. This is a straw because foremost, churched people are assuming a desire for higher standards which make their positions appear vulnerable in the extreme. Fact is most churched people are not so hypocritical as some would have us believe. Many come right out and admit they do not believe everything in the Bible is any longer true. They will openly regulate Christ's teaching to the limbo of metaphor. That is hardly hypocritical and seems more honest than the so what defense implies.

the suddeness of now

Your body is not going to want to give you up. But someday it will fearfully leave you and it is certain you, and we, will all be surprised. It is just that no one thought it would be now. No body likes change. But since it was alright after all to be born, maybe it will be alright to die.

church hoppers hopped up

Church Hopping at first flush seems a harmless bit of shopping fun. If it keeps up too long there must be a time when a bell tolls somewhere in a tower far away in the Hopper's mind. The bell that tolls for an end to this fearful game. Church hopping requires a singularly self-centered point of view. It is selfish because it is for certain the Holy Spirit is not the leader in this quest, since the Holy Spirit knows where to go and would say so if He were consulted. One would think the Holy Spirit directs where we are most needed, not where we most wanted. This is better for us where He directs because it is there where we grow. Instead the church hopper acts out a dance like a confused bee flitting around looking for honey. Self consciousness, perhaps even fear, is at the core of any definition of introversion. A Christian imbued with the boldness of the Holy Spirit is turned outward, not inward. He is not quiet and withdrawn but happy, and with a spirit within him that causes him to witness, sharing it with others. Every time a church hopping church hopper leaves a church I've asked him, Did the Holy Spirit tell you to leave? My question has always gone unanswered, so apparently not. Not an enviable position to be in.

only one thing Christians must do

There is only one thing the Christian must do to be Christian and that is to believe the commandments of Jesus. First it is only through faith that they can please God. Faith is believing and Jesus said his teachings were commandments, he never hinted that they may be just qualifying suggestions that could be limited and or redefined according to our belief abilities. He never said anything whatsoever was just for now, but would not hold up or not be required later. God is not a man that he should change. His word is the same today, yesterday and forever. If they only believe some and not something else, then they are luke warm and will be spewed out of the mouth. That is the word and the spirit of the commandments of Jesus. The law cannot be used to wiggle around anything for those who would be Christians.

defining the Christian atheist

A churched Christian atheist denies actualized meaning and power of certain Christ's sayings by regulating them to the ineffectual limbo of metaphor. The church is more real than Christ's teachings and occupies a greater space in their speech. While they may profess to believe that Christ rose from the dead among other to us miracles, they cannot stretch that belief far enough to cover what Christ says about us. For instance, if you believe, casting a mountain into the sea. The only conclusion one can draw from this is that they not only do not have faith to do that, they do not have faith to even believe Christ actually meant what he said. They then qualify, dilute, distract, or otherwise avoid the meaning of what He said. If someone does not believe in all of Christ's sayings, then I would call that person a Christian, but an Christian atheist because he is more than just an atheist, he is a luke warm Christian who Jesus said he would spew out of his mouth. This unbelief often extends to the healing stripes of Jesus and denies the power to believe what Jesus actually said about healing as real.

churches bing bang boring

Current research talks about a slight gain in church attendance in recent years coming largely from an aging population. Over all, attendance is declining in all the developed countries they say. Those who study these things attribute this to negative media coverage (and indeed they have a lot to be negative about) and boredom during church services. There you have it. Can't come up with solutions unless you are willing to discuss the problem, something religious leaders seem reluctant to even talk about casually in the corridors. 

Existence requires belief

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol. It is very difficult to prove quite a few things with any technical assurity, a certain amount of belief must come into play. Existence reveals itself slowly to us and as this happens we learn there is quite a bit more to things than we imagined previously. It is as if the more we learn the more ignorant we realize we are. As the universe expands so does our knowledge, and our own ignorance along with it. That is my view at the moment. Facts may be factual but nothing can be carved in stone since even stones melt in time.

not all theoretical

The man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with a theory.

sympathy as a measure of intelligence

As a child grows if they can sense sympathy for others we can say that individual is expressing a certain level of intelligence. So if anyone can experience sympathy for others, they express it for all and not selectively for themselves or in an unbalanced way. Comparing their desires and comfort against another's life for instance. So if someone cannot sympathize with new life how can they sympathize with life that is older? They have to be intelligent so they can understand, identify or enjoy someone in the abstract. The higher the level of abstraction the higher the intelligence. Therefore we can conclude abortion would appeal to those who are selfish, concrete minded, and unsymathetic to others. If this is true we have to make peace with the conclusion with these people cannot experience sympathy to the same level nor think in the abstract to the same degree. Their views will carry over into politics for the most part and the same results should be seen there as well. The individual will not appear on their radar and the group will be manipulated to achieve their dreams for us all. The ideal of many decision makers will seem to be chaotic so they bring order to the scene by a select few deciding for everyone. Once we understand this we will see the danger of being offended by them, because to take any offense from them is to render ourselves offensive by the actual taking of any offenses. Therefore we extend our sympathy to them as well. If we can be sympathetic to a stranger it is more to our credit as to our level of intelligence than just being sympathetic to our friends.                    

this question brings down the duck

Some people are atheists and others are avowed atheists. There are some, perhaps many, not willing to readily admit what they are. But we all leave tracks as we speak which tells the true story. What is the true story in this scene recalled from the past? Watching the psychology professor chalking a formula on the blackboard prompted a question, what does the zero mean? It is not a zero, it is an "O"! Oh I said. I think in logic they call this begging the question. Momentarily I asked, then what does the "O" stand for? Organism! Definitely ticked off now she was. Then I really ventured into the center of the battlefield. So? What Organism? Humanity! she exclaimed completely exasperated with me now. Remember this is a psychology class. I started catching the frustration building in the room myself and I retorted, then why don't you use the letter H? This was the question that brings down the duck. This was a very significant exchange and reflects two different views of humanity.  In one, individual humans are not mindless organisms and in the other there is a lack of respect for organisms, pick any fetus for instance.When one wants to take away a person's rights and respect you take away their humanity, their H and replace the H with an O that looks like a zer0. And that is the difference between the individual in the group and the group in the individual.  

view of humanity different

Those who believe in God no matter how you define God are more likely to have greater respect for humans that those who do not believe in God. There is a certain haughtiness, a hubris, actually a definite pompous assery that comes into play when man views himself as the center of the decision sphere for all humanity. The more he learns the more intelligent he thinks he is, but actually he is learning that there are so many more things that he did not know that before he did not know.  

ourselves understanding ourselves

If survival is one's goal, to continue to exist, the only hope is not existing with corruptible bodies decaying day in and out, but with the core-deep spirit within us. Many have not even come close to their own spirit within, but to know ourselves deep down is the most important goal we can have if you want to survive or even just excel in one's chosen career. Those that search will find themselves.

God spelled backwards...

is dog. This was seen on a sign in a trendy shop in an exclusive neighborhood. Not far away was a car with a bumper sticker that said The Devil Can Heal. First, this is the opposite of the truth, since any attempt to do the opposite of what anything is, will self destruct, because it would have to consume itself. It could not be what it was designed to be. Second, any word spelled backwards is a common characteristic of devil worshipping. The devil is the opposite of existence, which is why it is true that the devil does not actually exist, except as a phantom since he attracts all that exist into oblivion, or non-existence. Ancient writers did not, and indeed we may not best conceive spiritual forces in ourselves, unless perceived as personifications. This is why the Spirit of Existence, who the religious call today the Holy Spirit, is a person, and not a cloud of nebulous concepts.

what we believe is central to our existence

What we know is natural. What we do not know or understand is the supernatural, because we do not know it. It therefore requires faith to be believed. There are those who want the super natural to be believable but if it were believable it would be natural, not supernatural and require no belief at all. Belief is the central activity of our lives in the concrete world leading to the abstract world of the spirit. What we believe is spiritual and is the prime activity of our existence.

atheism in the church

Some believe nothing happened at all. This would be an atheism. Some others believe that it may have happened but now it does not matter anymore. This would have to be dangerously close to another variety of christian atheism which accepts God but denies His power in their lives. This is convenient for those with little faith. This is also quite convenient for the accuser of the brethren who wants to marginalize God in someone's life so that no person can benefit from that power. One author called it the Quenching of the Spirit. It is shocking how far the church can get from the teachings of Christ who is no longer for today and therefore in their eyes no longer the same today yesterday and forever as it says in the Bible. It all depends whether you live in the world of specifics or of generalities. Specifics require faith in the speaker, generalities require whatever one wants to hear. It has to be one or the other, to jump categories is a commonly known fallacy in logic.

more water in the wine

There are those who say miracles are not for today. Translated it means they believe Christ died on the cross to save their sins and by his stripes heal their bodies, but it is no longer for today. Once the crack in the door is edged open for one thing then next the hinges. Sort of those magic acts where now you see it now you don't that atheism tries to play on christians. Some call it doubt, some call it the devil.

watering down the wine

There are more atheists in many churches than in any humanist convention. The way the Bible reads and the way Christians read the Bible are often two different and very opposing things. This according to a non-churchgoer who, like many atheists, are not so opposed to a concept of God as they are to churches. As the more well known quote goes, I am not against churches so long as they do not get in the way God's work.  

abortion in ancient Carthage

Abortion short term provided a higher standard of living in Carthage compared to Rome, until it led to the dimise of their culture.