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Getting somewhere requires effort, it takes
faith to push on, it's easy to screw up,
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Friday, April 29, 2011
Royalty, hope, and romantic idealism!
"Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what
is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour,
Romans, chapter 12.
These are the words read at the royal wedding of Kate and William! Wonderful words, uplifting words, words of guidance into the
future, tough words that will take work to bring about.
Don’t
we love the promise in a royal wedding?
Thousands of British fans and
tourists were there to see the wedding and billions watched from afar.
Why?
This wedding was only two young people getting married and that happens every day
doesn’t it?
What makes this different?
Hope!
The billions of people watching have to be wanting to see a marriage that gives
our world hope.
To most people the world promises
a bland common existence, so the grandeur and splendour of this extravagant wedding points us to the fact that sometimes
there is more than the common that could meet our everyday lives.
As
we wish Kate and William a wonderful future we invest ourselves into that future, riding alone with their lives in a virtual journey to what we hope will be a better future.
Years ago, we did the same with Charles and Diane, and for a while that flared
into a fairy story, before the dust and dirt of the world started to take its toll on their lives.
They were normal people and but for Diane’s death, perhaps that hope would have
died. Instead it got locked into eternity in the hearts of people as another great emotion, compassion rose to support it.
So while we look at the royal wedding, we find we are looking at our aspirations and desires
through the mirror of their vows.
Perhaps those age old
words that the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians captures it best…
“And
now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. “ 1 Cor 13:13 NIV
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Toxic words, or touching trust?
When God
made his promise to Abraham, he took an oath to keep it. But there was no one greater than himself to take an oath by. So
he took his oath by making an appeal to himself.
He
said, "I will certainly bless you. I will give you many children."—(Genesis 22:17) Abraham was patient while
he waited. Then he received what God promised him. –Hebrews 6 (NIRV)
Swearing is considered anti-Christian behaviour, but God did it!
Many people think swear words are the worst toxic words we can have but they would
be mistaken.
I can prove it to you!
If you watch a lot of television of movies, by now the f__ word is common and you hardly think twice when
you hear it. The visceral response it evokes is limited and meaning is completely lost. It is particularly amusing
to me because what I think of when a person says f___ or f___ you, or f___ off is that they can hardly be wanting to do what
they say at that point in time.
Intercourse is hardly on their mind in any form!
So it is meaningless and mildly amusing and definitely says something of the lack
intelligence of the person using it right?
No, real
toxic words come in sentences designed to strip the targeted person of self worth. They are those truthful statements
that the targeted person actually identities with and agrees too! They are truths that are unpleasant and the person wants
to avoid, but are used like a swords to impale the person on their own inadequacies.
Those
are the real toxic words! These are the words Christians are to avoid as far as possible!
The opposite of toxic words are words that build someone up.
Look at how God built up Abraham with his words in the quote above. He built the man up, in so doing he built up his family,
in so doing he built up his extended family, his tribe, his nation and through him came Jesus.
Jesus then
built a way to God and built up the ability for everyone to love and communicate with God daily in a new and special way.
Now those are words Abraham could trust! They touched him deeply, but
had to be applied by faith because for many years he didn’t see them coming true!
Today let us look for words that build and help! They may not do so
immediately, and it may take faith in the listener to apply them before they root and build their lives, but let us look
for them and use them anyhow!
That way instead of our words having
simple stupidity or toxic impact, they will instead have eternal value!
Now that’s
a legacy I would like to leave behind, what about you?
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Giving up on finding aliens? Why?
“SETI
Institute to shut down alien-seeking radio dishes
By Lisa M. Krieger
If E.T. phones Earth,
he'll get a "disconnect" signal.
Lacking
the money to pay its operating expenses, Mountain View's SETI Institute has pulled the plug on the renowned Allen Telescope
Array, a field of radio dishes that scan the skies for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.” Excerpt
from http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_17926565?nclick_check=1
I
have mixed feelings about this!
Firstly I am sorry that space
exploration is not continuing as I think it benefits us all. Money well spent!
However,
I think looking for other life in space is rather worthless, what we should be doing is helping grow the wonderful lives of
those around us!
I wrote an article a while back on SETI , the Search for
Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence and at that time, over a year
back pointed out that they had not found one item of evidence of this life.
Today
they have decided that for themselves. The wasted money is being redirected to better endeavours.
Yay! More bang for the buck!
Why
do we look so hard for life outside earth when the life outside earth has already visited us and many have rejected him?
We are all so full of what we will do if we meet someone from outer space who may
even take human form to communicate with us and we fail to
realize Jesus as god was that life that took human form to communicate with us.
Look what we did to him! We gave him capital punishment
from loving us. We killed him! Just as well he wasn’t relying on being only human or he would have been no more!
Being God he came alive again!
More amazingly he still loved us so much he made ways for us to
go to an eternal home after life if we accept him.
Isn’t that amazing?
Doesn’t the true story out perform our wildest imaginations?
So why don’t we believe in it and instead believe in aliens that to date we
have not yet found?
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Qualities of God "He is the God who made the world. He also made everything
in it. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. He doesn't live in temples built by hands. He is not served
by human hands. He doesn't need anything. He himself gives life and breath to all people. He also gives them everything else
they have. From one man he made all the people of the world. Now they live all over the earth. He decided exactly when they
should live. And he decided exactly where they should live. God did this so that people would seek him. Then perhaps they
would reach out for him and find him. They would find him even though he is not far from any of us. 'In him we live and move
and exist.' As some of your own poets have also said, 'We are his children.'
Paul, the apostle
Wow! What a statement! It seems
to have been sufficiently important to quote verbatim and keep track of for 2000 years.
The opening statement says he made the world, us and the universe we know. I am aware many people have an issue with
this today, and feel science and evolution cover much of this. If you do please go back to my early blogs on the days of creation…
The first day of creation!
The second “day” of creation!
The third “day”
of creation
The Fourth “day” of creation!
The Fifth “day” of creation!
The Sixth “day” of creation!
Here I explain a little of how God and science AGREE to dispel the crazy notion the
bible talks a completely different language to science.
We can see
God chose the time for man to walk on this planet, the exact time he was to do so, and God wants us to reach out for him and
look for him.
That
is the inner design of every man. We are all to ask the big question of why we exist.
Paul
explains that in him we live and move and exist…see yesterdays blog for a more of an explanation on that.
We are upheld by God’s power every moment of every day. A good friends father-in-law died this good Friday. Talking about it with a colleague
I pointed out we are all only one heartbeat away from eternity. If that next heartbeat doesn’t occur we are dead meat!
God builds the mechanisms that keep us alive and sustain us
for many years. More than that, God builds a need to know him
inside our hearts.
Some people squash that need, and waste their live on pleasure
and self satisfying activities, like the Epicureans of old.
One group Paul that debated with in ancient Athens! He didn’t waste too much time with them. This group is so
full of themselves they rarely hear God’s call in their lives. Instead they drown it out with noise and pleasure.
Others search for God and discipline themselves to look for the touches of God
within the canvas of time. Fine strokes are identified, but
sometimes it takes a master to point out the qualities and tie it together.
That
is why God sent Jesus to earth as one of us. To point out how it all ties together.
Thank-you God!
I guess that today knowing this makes me look at life through
different eyes. I see opportunity in every occasion, even
ones where others see disaster.
My work environment is under huge stress currently. People get upset easily. Not a nice place to be some would say! I say, God gave
me this as an opportunity to be a peace maker and shine some of his light and love into a tough place. Isn’t that a privilege? Is he giving you similar opportunities?
Praise
be to God! Have a great success filled day!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Respecting other religions, an attribute of Paul
“In him we live
and move and have our being”
Aratus
277B.C.
“In him we live and move and have our being”
Paul 30A.D.
So many Christians immediately
have problems with people of different religions and almost take offense at what people who believe these religions say and
do.
Why?
Paul was an apostle of Jesus and didn’t!
How do
I know that?
Read Acts 17:16 onwards.
Paul is in Athens and is upset at seeing all the idols. They must have
been magnificent because today if you go to Athens (I have been there) there is an immediate impact made by the temples on
the acropolis that overlook that city. The many white marble busts of gods litter the area around where the old city was and
that is behind the current agora(marketplace).
In the days of Paul these
statues were painted and not white, they were probably covered in gold and bright colors and would have attracted much attention.
Despite being upset, when Paul talks, it is with two groups of people, the Epicurean
and Stoic thinkers.
Now the Epicureans followed a guy who lived in 377B.C. and
believed in pleasuring yourself and rejecting all spiritual matters.
Stoics
were followers of Zeno of Citium an early 3rd century BC philosopher who considered emotion is destructive, and
believed in the supernatural and that one should live in harmony with nature.
That Paul was able to argue logically with them, meant he understood
both worldviews and respected their arguments enough to have investigate and understand them.
The men in turn respected him enough to take him to
the Areopagus or the “rock of Ares” , the place where people debated these things. They set him
up to be able to speak to the men of Athens.
When he stands up he aligns his
introduction by pointing out they already understand something of God since they have set up an altar to “the
unknown god”.
He doesn’t attack their pagan
beliefs, instead he finds a point which he can honestly commend them for doing. Do we do this when we meet
others of different religions? Do we respect them enough to understand their beliefs in detail?
Then he quotes of God the father with the words “In him we live and move and exist.”
The learned men around him would immediately have understood this as the words spoken earlier by a Greek Philospher
about Zeus!
Aratus was a Greek poet of Cilicia the native place of Paul,
and flourished about 277 years before Christ. He had said these words years before Jesus.
In a simple non confrontational way Paul showed God was shown in the attributes of
Zeus! Without destroying their beliefs, Paul extended them out to our great God.
Then he also
quotes Aratus saying “We are his children”, a term Paul would have known was also used by Cleanthus in a hymn
to Zeus. (translated in old English as “For we from Thee an offspring are, “)
Paul takes people where they are and reveals God to them as he points to Jesus.
The result is not predictable but typical. Some accept his message (a few), the majority either mock it, or were
mildly interested to hear more.
It doesn’t really matter what the actual outcome is,
since Paul did what he could by making sure they were aware of the good news of Jesus.
Do we do that?
Do we in non-confrontational ways try and show others who
God and Jesus really are?
Are we willing to take people where they are and lead them
forward to Jesus. Are we willing to invest in understanding another’s religion so we could even quote from their important
writings?
Paul was!
I guess that means I need to be! What about you?
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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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| 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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