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Getting somewhere requires effort, it takes
faith to push on, it's easy to screw up,
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Saturday, March 19, 2011
I missed Friday's Blog for the first time for almost two years…cos I became a Grandad! What children need most are the essentials that grandparents
provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life.
And, most importantly, cookies. ~Rudolph Giuliani
Yesterday my daughter gave birth to
Samuel!
Happy times! Isn’t life a wonderful gift?
Looking at the picture of the tiny face, I was struck by the fact that it is a eternal event.
A new spirit is born into this universe and eternity. Out of no-where life arrives in a beautiful little package to give joy
to a mom, dad and in this case a whole crowd of family members.
When we look at a baby we see opportunity, future and joy! At least, we should!
How come when we look at each other we don’t see the same things?
We should!
In eternity terms we are all newborns! We all have limitless
potential! We are all able to experience eternal joy.
Today, I cannot but be filled with joy but my prayer is this will become a way
of life. May you and I grow into the joy of life more each day!
Have a great one!
Sat, March 19, 2011 | link
Thursday, March 17, 2011
What is mankind that God is mindful of us?
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and
honor
and
put everything under their feet – Hebrews 2:7&8
For a little while we as human are lower than the angels as we go about our daily activities.
Angels guard and protect us daily. In Exodus 32:34 God says his
angels go ahead of us at times, if we look at Psalm 91:11 we find it says “For he will command
his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike
your foot against a stone.”
So we are loved enough by God that he puts
a superior being into the role of looking after us and protecting our interests. (probably also because we are not
smart enough yet to do that effectively for ourselves).
What is more amazing is that Jesus came as a human,
and so he put himself lower than angels for a while.
This is the case of the ultimate servant leader!
We
see this type of activity in a simpler form on the television shows like “undercover boss”. Where the
person who controls everything goes into a situation to experience exactly what his employees are experiencing.
What
is different with Jesus, is he “created us”, and so he became part of his “creation”, which is much
more than we see on undercover boss. Then, he didn’t pull back at any experience at all and that included undergoing
being hated, tortured and killed.
God loves us enough to want to experience all we experience in every way.
In
so doing God opened for us a way to have God in our life daily. Later holy Spirit came to be with every person daily.
In this way Jesus brings heaven into our lives every moment of every day (if we submit to him and let him).
Glory
and honour comes to us, even though we don’t really deserve it do we?
Let’s take on the
day today knowing the creator of us and our universe is walking with us every step of the way!
What a way to enjoy
the day!
Have a good one!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
How many witnesses does it take to confirm something? Cursing is invoking the assistance of a spirit to help you inflict
suffering. Swearing on the other hand, is invoking, only the witness of a spirit to an statement you wish to make. - John Ruskin
According to Wikipedia “A witness is someone
who has firsthand knowledge about a crime or significant event through his or her senses (e.g. seeing, hearing, smelling,
touching) and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event”
A witness is judged by
the criteria of reliability, trustworthiness and expertise.
In
our court system, if a person is accused of murder and is on the stand, the word of a single witness can put that
person in jail for life or get them released depending on if they are considered to have those three attributes or
not.
In the time of Jesus, he choose twelve guys to walk around with him, he had thousands
of people listen to what he had to say and two thousand years later we have the written statement of a good number of these
people to read and review. The bible reflects these statements in gospels (good news books).
In any court of law it
would be impossible to ignore not only Jesus’ existence, but the fact that his moral character was exemplary and his
conduct incredibly honest.
Even non-Christian
sources mention this unusual man!
Roman and Jewish historians mention him. Many of the people and places
mentioned with him are also supported in Non-Christian writings of the time. Even the characters of others involved with him
(like Pilate) are keenly judged by historians and show that the biblical statements are true.
It is undeniable
Jesus lived and died, and if those who were with his are to be believed, that he rose from the dead and is the son
of God.
So what can we learn
about this today?
Well it says in Hebrews 2 “that salvation, which
was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also
testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”
One witness would have been sufficient but we have many!
Now to flip the coin and change the focus. . .
How many witnesses are necessary to qualify our own character and actions as being honest, Godly, full of
integrity and being reliable and trustworthy?
We may think we need others,
but there is only one that counts, that is God’s Holy Spirit who lives within us as
believers. Even if we are nota believer, God sustains our ever breath and listens to our every word.
Cursing and
swearing is heard in heaven and it is considered and weighed to see if it is true, or just foul! Every word is
recorded for evaluation later. How do we feel about that?
Where do we sit on the
balance of truth, how will we come out at the eternal trial?
I know Jesus is on my side making up fo my inadequacies, what about you? 
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/witness.html#ixzz1GlMxrjPB
Wed, March 16, 2011 | link
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Drifting away from truth, the sublime art of deceiving to ourselves!
It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived. - Rene Descartes
One of the people that it is most difficult
to trust after we have found them to be unreliable or untruthful, is ourselves!
Psychologists make a lot of money out of people who allow this problem
to take hold of them to a point that they no longer can move themselves forward to face reality, simply because they
may fail themselves or others.
Failing ourselves by taking in a false truth can be devastating!
The most painful of these is where we believe true love is unveiled, only to find it counterfeit or troublesome.
“What is truth” is then the question we ask, and how can we possibly know it?
A core understanding
comes when we find out that not all voices that speak to us through our thoughts are to be considered equal.
Some are nasty lying thoughts that drag us downwards and once we are on that way, they thrash us and whip us along,
often sucking sleep away from tired eyes by spinning through our minds with more force than a category one tornado!
How can we know truth?
As
a Christian, I have learned that the writer to the Hebrews speaks it when he says…
“We
must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” Hebrews 2:1
Truth for me comes from understanding, listening carefully to God, reading his guidelines, and
locating God’s guidelines into my life. It is having what Jesus told his friends as central to my life purpose.
If I know what God considers good, then I can use it as a measure to establish which thoughts
must be ignored and which acted upon.
One piece of good advice I have been given by a wise man was to
not to argue with the false thoughts.
It’s rather worthless to argue with oneself (we call it rationalisation).
It is far better to rather suppress and ignore them.
If possible do the opposite to the negative influence immediately!
This pushes these false thoughts to where they belong, and enables success!
So that’s my plan for today! Focus on our God! Suppress false thoughts and be
successful!
I do hope you manage
to do that too!
Monday, March 14, 2011
I also screw up sometimes! Don’t we all? (So, I will be fixing a previous blog discussion!)
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether
you are content with your failure.
- Abraham Lincoln
Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiam.
- Winston Churchill
A few days ago while writing a blog about Jesus’ activities as he moved
to the cross and the three days between when he died and rose, I mistakenly mis-quoted where I got some of the bible references.
I screwed up!
Sorry!
How often do you actually hear people say those words? I don't here them that often, instead I get
to hear all sorts of excuses!
Well, this blog is to apologize, fix the mistake and also to encourage
those people who fail to meet their own stringent standards (like I do) that it’s okay to fail now and again,
as long as we don’t PLAN to fail!
If we plan to fail, or use the failures as an excuse to lower
our objectives, then we are not doing ourselves any favours, are we?
I
once read an article that said good managers make 60% good decisions. That means they make 40% bad decisions.
The good outweighs the bad and so they are labelled as good managers.
Are we good managers of our lives?
I
was counting off the days just before Jesus died and doing it as days in “Nissan” the first Jewish month of the
year.
Here we go again…hopefully with better results
| Nissan
8Thursday | Jesus spends the Thursday before at Zaccheus’ home in Jericho | Luke 19:1-21 | | Nissan
9Friday | Jesus goes to Jerusalem | Matt 21:1-15 | | Nissan 10SaturdaySABBATH | DOESN’T DO
ANYTHING …RESTING | Mark 11:11 | | Nissan 11Sunday | The
fig tree cursed! Jerusalem overturned traders tables, Temple teaching, back to Bethany | Mark 11 | | Nissan 12Monday | The fig tree has withered!Jesus authority, teach in temple, goes to Mt Olives, back to Bethany, anointed | Mark 11-14 | | Nissan 13Tuesday | Preparation
for the passover | Mark 14:1-11 | | Nissan 14Wednesday | Last supper, trials, Jesus crucified at 9am(roman time).Jesus dies at 3pm(roman time) and is buried before the sun sets | Mark 14:12-15:25Mark 15:33-37 | | Nissan 15ThursdaySPECIAL SABBATH | Special Sabbath of the feast of unleavened bread. The first day and a special Sabbath feast day celebrating the passover! | John 19:31 | | Nissan 16Friday | 2nd day
of feast of unleavened bread. It is a day before Sabbath so no touching of dead bodies is allowed! | | | Nissan 17SaturdaySABBATH | Normal Sabbath. | | | Nissan 18Sunday | Easter
Sunday! Jesus body is missing from the tomb early in the morning before daybreak! | Mark 16:1-2 |
Okay, and to revise on the 3 days Jesus was
in the tomb, I will re-include the image that gives that context of that week of his life!
So, here we can see the timeline with some references you can read!
So, here we see Jesus didn't die on good Friday but on Wednesday! My previous blog has the detail
:).
My screw up is corrected, my failure
exposed, my reward is knowing I didn’t mislead you forever (at least I hope and pray I didn’t).
I am off to enjoy a day of a few failures and many successes, where I hope and pray my successes outweigh my failure!
I pray you will also have a successful day! God bless you!
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/failure.html#ixzz1GQUYrobO
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If you want to see a short blog describing a perspective on what I believe click here
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Rift in Evil
By Ken
X Briggs - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size:
6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. |
Credit cards are acceptable on sites having Ken's books: 
:)
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Click
on XML Click here =>  to be told of new blogs
| Ken's book covers are displayed below. . . | |  This
suspense thriller centers on Kiara, a beautiful young woman pursued by a murderous group of people, who relentlessly and ruthlessly
hunt her and her sisters. Kiara has no idea why she is being targeted! When Kiara and her family turn to the law for help,
this fails. Her pursuers’ powers reach deeply into the political and law enforcement world. Family support for her dwindles
when they too have to flee her pursuers. Can Kiara escape the clutches of both the law and dishonest big business? With the
media broadcasting that Kiara and friends are dangerous and subversive, can Kiara clear her name and bring her pursuers to
justice?
| | | | | To purchase Kiara's Pursuer ebook
@ $1.99 kindle version click here, To contact the author contact Author@KenXBriggs.com | | | | | | | | The town of Zinaville is dropped into a spiral of evil causing a young man and a beautiful but abused woman
to launch into an investigation that unveils an evil conspiracy. A horrific mining accident results in Joshua
Robyn's father being killed. Joshua struggles both with himself and his townsfolk as he tries to make sense of an incomprehensible
situation. Is it an accident or a murder? Why is there a seeming link to evil? Why is his work environment suddenly threatening?
What is the conspiracy about and what are they trying to do? As action moves dramatically from exotic African grasslands to
the heart of North America's cities, the plot unfolds and the pace quickens. Will there be time? Why is a beautiful abused
young woman in the center of this plot? Evil tendrils tighten on their lives and the interplay between the visible
and invisible world shows opposing forces at work. Will there be a rift in evil? Will they be able to stop the
evil in time? | | - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect
Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size: 6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available
from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. Chapters | | | | |
| Frugal Eating Advice |
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| Good advice for students living on limited $'s. Click on the image! |
May you be blessed today!
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