motivation

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“Decisions”


When Making that “Decision,” do we look at what makes us comfortable, or do we dig into areas that differ from our comfort zone?

We all make decisions every day. Some work out great, just like we planned, and some do not. Decisions are generally based on what we have learned over time, experiences, and sometimes just our human desire. Finally, a decision is made, even if it’s subconscious. Even religious teachings are an influence, and just as significant the lack of religious teachings also influences decisions. C.S. Lewis said, “If Heaven is real, not much else matters. If Heaven is not real, nothing matters at all.”

If we broaden our scope of influence and step out of our comfort zone, we recognize that some form of religious belief has existed since the beginning of time, at least human time as we know it. So if we discount religion, we base life’s most significant decisions on something short of all the influences required to have a solid basis for our decisions. To narrow down the discussion about religions, of which we can find books and books written on them, let’s focus on the oldest known and recorded religious writings. The Bible. Especially the first part of it. This part is where we find information about God’s creation of the heavens and earth. However, many scientists want to argue that this is not correct. That science and the recorded events of the Bible do not line up. Or do they?

Some people take what they understand, the concepts, the teachings learned during their education years, and scientific findings, and then search for ways to interpret the words written in the Bible, or possibly the plethora of other religious beliefs, to fit these influences neatly. Finally, we make a decision: This is how it all happened!

Maybe it’s time to take what’s written in the Bible and look at how science fits God’s written word. One big question continues to rise to the surface. I believe this has to do with how evolutionary science try’s to explain the world into existence. Some interpret verse 8 in 2nd Peter, “a day to God is like a thousand to us,” to support the millions of years that evolutionary science teaches how everything came into existence. The question should be asked: under what context is this written? Does it have anything to do with God’s creation, or is it in context to the eternal, everlasting God of the Bible? Is Peters writing about creation or about how our human mind needs to grasp that all things are in God’s timing, not ours?

In the creation account, as told in the first two chapters of Genesis, are we to interpret the words about a day and night as maybe a thousand years or perhaps a million years or more? Or are we to understand that when God said there was night and day, He meant one night and one day? We should also understand that throughout the Bible, prophecies and events are based on a 24-hour day.

So this brings back the question about the science discovered and defined by humans that many things are millions or even billions of years old. How could this be true if we believe God’s written word that a day and night is a day and night as we experience it? What was different at the time of creation that would alter what science tells us? What was different on earth before the recorded flood of Noah’s time versus today?

One question I have asked myself is how could any of the recorded ages of the men in the Bible before the flood of Noah be correct when we know that is not possible today? What was different? Could today’s scientific knowledge be used to explain this?

This important question needs answering: Is God real, is His written word accurate, or are science and the theory of evolution true? This is critical information! When you boil it down, all other religious beliefs fail in comparison to this question.

So it’s decision time. Do we attempt to make God’s written word fit into our human scientific findings, or do we allow our human scientific findings to fit into God’s written word? This question challenges the evolutionists’ view that God does not exist and that only time and some mysterious explosion exist. We must remember that this event is scientifically unproven even though so many believe it as fact, even though it is a theory only.

So, where does one go from here? Is it time to discover, or are we content with our current understanding? Now that’s a ‘Decision’ each of us should make. But, it truly has ramifications if God’s word, as recorded in the Bible, is true.

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What are the Chances


     Just what are the odds of some event happening somewhere back in time setting in motion everything we see? The plants, animals, fish, birds and even the insects and of course us humans came from something or someplace. Something started it.

     The scientifically accepted law of probability which is called Borel’s law of probability, states that the odds of anything happening would have to be better than 1 out of 10 to the 50th power. That is a lot of zeros. However, one might think anything is possible if it is just one point below this. It is stated by some of the very influential evolutionist that for things to evolve from some random something happening would be most difficult. Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell stated the odds would be 1 in 10 to the 2,000,000 power. One now believing creationist – Dr. Harold Morowitz a biophysics from Yale – states the chances of evolution happening as we are taught in our schools is 1 chance out of 10 to the 340,000,000.

     Putting this in simple words. Based on scientific numbers, the odd’s of evolution happening all by itself, no help, no one starting it, is impossible based on the odds given by the scientific world.

The question we should ask is:

It’s not what started everything, it’s who started everything?

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“Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”


     How often have you heard the statement, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff?” There have been books written on this subject. Many of us already ignore the small stuff. Let’s face it, we all have a busy life. We have work, family, home repairs, hobbies, our education, homework, not to mention the little bit of downtime we each need. We may live in a region of the world that just staying alive is the daily objective. So why sweat the small stuff. What difference will it make anyway?

     What if some of that small stuff plays a role in who we really are, or maybe we could say, who we become? Some of that small stuff can have a major impact on our lives. Sometimes the small stuff becomes the foundation behind larger stuff. When was the last time you heard the statement: “It started out small, and then it just snowballed?” At this point, we just remember the snowball, not the snowflake.

     Exploring the thoughts we often contemplate, who am I and why am I here, we find some of the influences that have had a major impact on each of us. We find that around the mid-1800, the influences of a small group of men, did just that. Charles Darwin was a trained theologian, believed in God, while at the same time questioned how everything got its start. After struggling with his health, and the loss of two of his children at a very young age, it appears that Charles became embittered with God. After this, his friends, along with a strong influence from his grandfather, Darwin convinced himself to publish the ‘Origin of Species,’ to go public with his theory. Some might say this is small stuff. Just one book. However, this was the small stuff that started the evolutionary train moving.

     While this was just one book, the floodgates opened for those not wanting to believe in God. Those that wanted to push forward the sciences in the evolutionary direction attempting to disprove that God exists. Darwin was not the first, a few others produced theories for the last 1000 years, but Darwin was the first to push it over the edge, which earned him the name of, “Father of Evolution.” As time moved on, we have others such as Albert Einstein in the early 1900’s who founded the theory of ‘Special and General Relativity.’ Then in the late 1960’s, we find George Ellis, Stephen Hawking, and Roger Penrose pushing the theory of ‘Space-Time Theorem.’ Then around 1993, we have Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor providing the theory of ‘Second Dimension of Time.’ Now we have ‘String theory,’ and ‘M theory.’

     We continue to see theories designed to enable science to work toward answering the question about life. These theories are designed as true at the time they are considered. Then the effort to disprove them begins. However, this can set the foundation for the theory of evolution to be accepted as reality. If we aren’t careful, we find ourselves totally submerged into the indoctrination of how we all evolved. That there was a big bang that started everything. It is taught in our schools as the only way, not just one of the ways. While we don’t think this is important, it plays a serious role in who we become, how we think, and how we influence others after us.

     This may seem small to us because we have a life to live and we are all very busy living it. But the theory of evolution is one side of the story. Why should we not be given both? Why are there those that only want us to think one way?

    My challenge to each of us is to question why ‘science’ is not also used in disproving what is written in the Bible? The theory that ‘there was a creator.’ The theory that ‘earth is approximately 6500 years old?’ Why not teach this available information in our schools. Why are these theories excluded? Why not allow each of us to determine for ourselves what we would like to wrap our arm’s around, what theory to place our faith in?

     As we work down this list of possibilities as presented at the beginning of the Bible, using available science, and scientific findings, then defining key models around these understandings, we will try to see the other side of the understood but not often told story.

“to be continued”

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Our Mental Hard Drive – “The Brain”


“Challenging Ourselves through Questions”

Have you ever done something and later asked yourself, “Why did I do that?”
Did you ever tell yourself, “If I would have know that, I would have done things differently?”

Information is generally involved in everything we do. Information is essential and can be critical as we take steps through life desiring to make the least amount of mistakes.

The information available today is at an all time high. Media and online resources are exploding. It is at our finger tips if we care to explore for it. Even if we don’t realize it, the information that is absorbed by our mind, plays a role in how we react to any given situation. It is at the heart of what we eat, the fun things we enjoy doing, the work details we perform, our reaction to things we fear, virtually every function or task we undertake.

In many ways we could look at the information absorbed by our brain similar to information stored on a computers hard drive. Our thinking process utilizes this stored information. We use our mind to search back in time to what we recorded in it, or we kick in gear an understanding or reaction based on past experiences. A little like an application running on a computer. Sometimes we utilize our stored information subconsciously in our decision process. Sometimes we need our subconscious mind to quickly react but it doesn’t because we never trained it properly. Then after the fact we might say, “If only I would have done this.” There are times when we react so quickly that we never recognize if we reacted properly all based on something in our minds that triggered the response. Only when someone calls us out do we possibly slow long enough to question if our understanding was correct.

Through repetition, receiving the same information several time, repeating the same thoughts, we begin to place a priority over less received information. Companies today monitor our activity online or our purchasing history. They begin to see a pattern and as a result, they put things in front of us that follow this pattern of thinking.

We need to be aware that we can subconsciously feed our minds with one-sided information.

If we feed our minds with one-sided information, then we become lopsided, or possible what someone else would like us to become. It may be our way of feeding our minds with things that bring comfort, satisfaction, or even fill our emotional desires. The more we feed or are fed the same information, the more we believe it.

Is it possible that we are allowing ourselves to become brain washed?

Sometimes a computers hard-drive becomes overloaded with outdated, incorrect, or flawed information. This can cause results that while looking correct, are not. So some hard-drives may require reformatting, or at the least, old files and programs need to be removed. A clean-up program can be run to enable it to operate correctly. Outdated programs need to be replaced with new one that have bugs removed. Proper information needs to be made available to them.

Our brain requires a similar type of updating. Some things we learned 10, 20, 30, or 50+ years ago may not be totally correct. Sciences continue to learn and produce updates. New findings become available that could totally alter what one was taught during their education years. If we stop our learning process, we become outdated, we lock in our beliefs and understandings.

What would be nice is if we could just install a mental program that would search out and remove all misunderstandings, erase old outdated information and beliefs, clean up all the fragmented thoughts and reorganize how our information flows during our thought process.

Our mind is a powerful tool that we are blessed to have,
and
Proper care and maintenance are required.

This brings us to the question about the evolution of, or the creation of our brain.

Regardless of where you choose to place your faith, in evolution or in creation, one need to explore and understand details behind both sides. Did we evolve or is God real? Do the sciences support both creation as well as parts of our understanding of evolution?

Are the grounds that you stand on with respect to God and creation solid?

 

 

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The Paint of our Heart


When you open a fresh can of paint it is clean and ready to beautify. If you have completely cleaned up all the dust and debris, your paint remains just as it was prior to opening the can. The more you paint the beauty continues to shows it face. It’s when our brush picks up some dust or dirt and we dip it back into the can of paint that the paint begins to change. If we forget and leave the top off for a period of time a film can form which creates small lumps in the paint can. Before long you notice something on the wall that you need to remove or even worse, it is not found until the paint is dry. What happen? It started out so perfect.

How we handle our fresh can of paint is the same as how we handle the emotional side of our heart. It starts out so perfect with nothing but love. But then we allow it to become contaminated. It’s never the heart itself, but it’s the surroundings, the environment, and the influences that change it into something different than how it began. If we put the cover back on the paint, debris cannot enter. If we protect our hearts or the heart of a loved one, we keep it clean.

The heart just like a fresh can of paint requires proper handling. We need to be aware of what we put into it or it’s beauty and love will change or even disappear completely. When this happens it takes some hard work to restore it. But just like a can of paint, once it is contaminated, it never returns back to it’s original state.

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Reflecting on Life


When I look back on my childhood, taking the time to evaluate my life, or maybe I should say the areas that I wrapped my arms around and embraced and those that I didn’t, it brings great joy and in some cases a level of sadness. Turning the clock back to my childhood, growing up on the farm during the 50’s and 60’s with little spare cash, just enough to get by with and sometimes not even that much, I had a good life that taught me more than I ever gave it credit for.

Graduating High School in 1968 while the Viet Nam war was in full swing, seeing many of my friends serving there and returning home not the same person, some in a box, some missing limbs, but mostly changed personalities due to the effects of the war, was a difficult time.

Getting married at age nineteen, building our first house at age twenty, becoming a father at age twenty-one, were huge steps in life for me.

The foundation learned as a youth growing up was never lost, only forgotten for many years. Saddened by so much I had witnessed as a youth and my mid-teenage years in the religious arena, set my life path in motion. Determination set in, a drive to enjoy life, to become financially sound, to take a stand against all that didn’t fit into my version of faith, all began while still in high school.

Working my way up the ranks of my first job, I worked hard. I took on two jobs in those early years trying to earn what I felt was required to be a good provider. Then becoming licensed in the electrical trade and eventually starting our own company my life was very busy. Between work, family and fun, I had my hands full. Then my eyes were opened to the rest of the world when I took a new job in 1986. Being able to travel to many parts of the world, I began to see and feel the effects that war really has. To be close to war, hearing how others dealt with war both old and new, grasping the many religious faiths and beliefs including those that have no belief in God, it kicked in motion my past and the emotions caused me to re-evaluate my understandings of life.

So what does this mean in the grander scheme of things? It shows that from childhood on, our lives and personalities are set in a direction and become altered as we continue to age, grasping new information, learning about others we cross paths with. The real question is; do we allow ourselves the freedom to open our mind and explore what we see and hear? Or do we remain set in our ways determined not to allow change? Do we even recognize that we are closed to anything that may disrupt our desires and beliefs in life?

For me, I spent the time to re-evaluate my past, examine what I had learned and experienced, and to wrap my arms around what I believe this life is all about. I worked hard to eliminate the mental blocks that so often accompanies our attempt to truly understand, disabling any rational outcome. What I found was that I could make a decision for myself, placing my faith in what I had come to understand. While it was influenced by many, it was in the end, my choice, my decision, my beliefs.

So there’s this lingering question

When was the time you slowed down long enough, shoved the distraction aside, threw out the external influences of those that educate with an agenda whether religious or non-religious or educational and dug deep enough that you allowed yourself the freedom to choose where you have placed your faith?

One of the biggest things I learned along this adventure is that it takes faith to believe in life, it takes faith to believe what it is all about. It takes faith to believe in God or to not believe in God. It takes faith to believe in the direction we choose for our lives.

Where is your faith placed?  

 

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Making a Difference!


“As the African proverb puts it, ‘If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent the night with a mosquito.’ The mosquito makes a difference in an annoying way, but the principle is the same. One person can stop a great injustice. One person can be a voice for truth. One person’s kindness can save a life. Each person matters.”

Very interesting way to view doing something positive!

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Breaking it Down: if we could just…


If we would allow ourselves to step outside our current life, dropping for a moment our inner thoughts, forgetting what we have been taught in our schools, our homes and step back from any religious beliefs we have, opening our mind to all we see, what would we like the world to be like?

With everything that is happening around this world, many times in the name of God, or some god, or Allah, or in the name of progressive evolution, one should wonder why. Why does man take something so simple to grasp, add his desires and then drive his agenda?  What is it that makes man’s desire to do evil, to hate, to murder?

If you are a Christian, you say you believe in God. Why do those that kill in the name of this belief, kill at all, when to be a Christian you are to love one another.

If you a Muslim, you say you believe in God. Why do those that kill in the name of this belief, kill at all, when to be a Muslim you are to love one another.

If you acknowledge that God exist, then you should show love to everyone.

What makes man behave as he does? What makes humans make up their own rules just to satisfy man’s own desires?

One of the most basic needs in life is to be loved by a mother or father, a brother or sister, a son or a daughter, a friend or a foe. Yes, even our enemy. If we loved our enemies and we were loved by our enemies, we would no longer have enemies. It makes no difference where in this world you live or what your beliefs are. Love enables each of us to grasp our desired happiness and defeat evil, to stop doing evil, to stop being evil.

Coming back full circle, we step back into our world realizing that love is drastically missing in so many places. We recognize that some force is driving man away from this simple principle of life. Is it intellect and a belief man has evolved and that some levels of man are greater than others? Is it the man-made rules in some religious belief that pits one against another? Is it a form of arrogance, conceit, pride or superiority that separates one from another? Is it aggressiveness versus laziness? Is it an evil force driving the wedge of hate and deceit into our lives?

This is a question we should ask ourselves?

To be loved one must show love remembering that real love is unconditional and real love expects nothing in return. If your religious belief, which includes all religions, (i.e. Christian, Muslim/Islam, Atheist, Buddhism, etc.) includes evil, hate, murder, then maybe you should rethink your religious belief and take a stand for “Love your neighbor” and bring this world back to what it was designed to be from the beginning.

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What is Life Worth?


IMG_1993

“The Beauty Around Us”

Asking a hard question is not what most of us like to do let alone being forced to answer it. It is not what makes us comfortable and generally we avoid them if possible. However, sometimes the question is asked and we have little choice but to answer it. So what is life really worth?

If one is faced with making a decision about the importance of the life we know and the need to protect what we have or what we desire, how would we react?

Would we give our life for one last good meal?
Would we give our life for something we can experience only once?
Would we give our life for our wife or husbands safety?
Would we give our life for our kids safety and future?
Would we give our life for our neighbor in need?
Would we give our life for our country and its freedom?
Would we give our life for freedom around the world?
Would we give our life for our freedom of religion or what we believe in?

Just what is important enough to give our life for or to ask someone else to give theirs for or to just stand by while they do?

Ok, this is a heavy question I know. But how would we each react if faced with making a decision to live or to die trying.

Many lives have been lost over the hundreds of years of wars and feuds. Men and women have died protecting their families. Freedoms have been won and lost in the efforts that cost lives. To give of one’s life is no small deed and should not go unrecognized. Disrespect for those lost lives should not be tolerated. Those who take lives disrespecting others just to help themselves should be stopped. Each of us as people have rights and we should recognize how we attained those rights. For those that have lost their rights we should have compassion. To tolerate continued loss of rights should be condemned and stopped in it tracks.

“freedom isn’t free unless everyone is free”

In the beginning there was one man and one woman whether you believe in God or not. In the beginning there was freedom in the human race. What happened?