Thursday, October 25, 2007

A Third of the Angels

I posted this on March 22nd, 2007. Our feelings and desires have been on my mind lately. Just how does one's mind develop emotions; wants, feelings, desires. Are we destined to have those emotions from birth? Or through the events of our upbringing, what people did and said to us, and our decisions on what to pursue, did these things form our feelings and desires?

Lately, my thoughts just keep going back to what I wrote on March 22nd about having a roommate. I don't know anyone who would disagree about what I wrote. Let me know if you disagree........

"Ever since I read Revelations 12, I've been fascinated by verses 3 and 4 where it makes the reference of a third of the angels being kicked out of heaven. Throughout the Bible we read about a spiritual war going on between GOD and Satan. Some of us can agree that not all of our desires are born within ourselves, we know they can come from an outside source. I have always wrestled with which desires are inspired from Satan, which ones from GOD, and which ones from myself.

But what I want to comment on isn't which desires are coming from where, but the fact a third of the angels were kicked out of heaven. I still can't get over how the angels weren't content with Heaven, that they still wanted to what appears create or have there own way with doing things that went against GOD's sovereignty in His kingdom. Kind of reminds me of me at work wanting to do things my own way even though I was hired and am getting paid to do things works way.

Think of someone you see every day. They really get on your nerves because they completely have no respect for your outlook on life. They joke about things around you that are completely irritating. You have to listen to their selection of music all day from their cubicle. You have asked them to turn it down, but they claim they can't hear it that low. They are loud and obnoxious. But even though they have all these traits that make you angry, they still aren't doing anything wrong in everyone's eyes at work. Some people actually enjoy the music, they enjoy the jokes and what is loud and obnoxious to you isn't loud and obnoxious to them. Basically its just a difference of opinion with this person, not what is right and what is wrong. But every day you feel a huge relief immediately when leaving their presence.

So I wonder would GOD kick a third of the angels out just because of personality conflict? One thing I just can't stop thinking about is that everyone I know eventually moves away from roommates that they are having a personality conflict with, its just a matter of time before one or the other can't take it anymore. So is GOD trying to groom us to be roommmates in Heaven?And from the way He created us and under the circumstances of what Adam and Eve did in the garden, the grooming has to be done through a relationship with Him on earth?

I know this all sounds completely ridiculous. But, man is made in GOD's image. There are many people I just don't get along with, but its just a personality confict, niether of us are right or wrong. Could I ever get along with that person as a roommate if either I or they never changed? Don't see how that would be possible. So how does one come to the conclusion that GOD needs to change for them, or put up with something that is completely annoying to Him in Heaven? I know many of you are saying GOD is completely above this petty analogy, GOD is love, love perseveres through all things. I agree completely, but no matter how much I go back and forth, a third of the angels were still kicked out of Heaven.

Reference: Angels are often referred to as "stars" and "sons of God" (Job 1:6, 2:1, Isa 14:12, Rev. 1:20, 9:1, 12:4,9)."

9 little ways to go green

  • Take your refrigerator's temperature... it should be between 37 and 40 degrees
  • Moving your fridge out of the sun, or away from a range can save you money and energy... any 1 degree temperature change above 70 degrees makes your fridge use 2.5 times more energy
  • Use your dishwasher... if you have one, especially an Energy Star one, it saves 5,000 gallons of water and roughly 230 hours each year!
  • Fix a leaky faucet and toilet
  • Change your shower head to one that uses less water ... for example 1.5 gallons per minute vs. one that fills a gallon in 20 seconds.
  • Put extra rugs in your entry way and USE them to wipe your feet -- this means less pathogens, cleaner air quality, and thus, less chemical cleaning and less frequent vacuuming.
  • Put a sweater on in the winter and keep your heat turned down
  • Use the sun to heat your home... open shades when it's sunny and close them when the sun sets
  • and, of course, use energy efficient light bulbs!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Edward O. Wilson

Last night I went to hear Edward O. Wilson speak at MSU. This man is considered to be one of the leading scientist in the world. He spoke on the urgency for us to come together and do something about the destruction of our planet. His focus was on informing the audience the details of science that at least have never been discussed to me from anyone:

  • Estimated by experts that only 10% of the species on earth have been found.
  • We have found 1.8 million species. In 1988 we had found 1.3.
  • In one human, the ratio of bacteria to every one cell in the body is 100 to 1.
  • There are 3 billion chemical based pairs that make up one human body and each body is unique.
The image “http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Dna_basepairs.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

If the human genome were a book it would span from New York to Dallas and within each inch, a hundred letters from each base pair would need to be read off! I was going to entitle this post mind boggling because those are the only words that come to me, it just doesn't seem possible that all of this could just come together from chance through evolution.

The fact that we are all unique. This means the 3 billion long line of code has to first evolve from chance and then takes on a mind of its own when it comes together to create each new baby.

500 different kinds of bacteria live in our mouth and throat which do a number of things including keeping pathogens out. How many are in the digestive system? There are 20,000 species of nematodes that have been found and an estimated 480,000 that are still waiting to be found. Edward said that it has been proven that certain species of nematodes populate certain regions and are believed to be all woven together somehow serving a purpose.

The main point of his speech was that there are so many things in this world that we don't know, and we are destroying them one by one as we build our civilization on earth. We must find ways to preserve the ecosystem or else we might be the next to go just like the latest species that has become extinct.

A friend of mine who also attended the lecture posted below on October 23rd:

http://adamandsara.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Why do bad people prosper?

For God to provide the general blessings of life only to the righteous would in effect be coercive in manipulating men's decision to strive for righteousness.

Why do the innocent suffer?

Evil exists because given the choice, men chose evil. Men also are responsible in their failure to release God to act through the means given them. These repeated choices for evil empower and authorize a corporate effect of evil into the world that spills over into the lives of the innocent.

We are all under a curse as a result of our sin and the sins of our forefathers, which we share in (Ex. 20:5; Num. 14:18; Dt. 7:9; Ezek. 18:14-20; Rom. 5:12, 18-19).

Why does evil exist?

This has been taken from an IBC 7/91 lecture at University of the Nations by Mel Hanna.

"In the book of Job, Satan charged God with coercing or buying Job's faithfulness through blessings--a charge which God defended Himself against (showing that it indeed would have been wrong for Him to have bought Job's obedience).

God is therefore limited in the degree to which He can interfere with the free will of man. God has limited Himself in this way, so that man can truly have free will. Free will in man is necessary in order for man to be able to love.

Love requires a free will agent in order to exist. It cannot be coerced or programmed into a being and still be love. Man has to be able to chose evil for the choice to love to be meaningful.
God is love, and it is unthinkable that He would have created a world where love could not exist.

Why does evil exist? Because, given the choice to do good or to do evil, men with a free will continually choose evil.

When God acts in our lives, it is because He has been legitimately released to act. When we pray, we are releasing God to act. He can enter into our lives when we open the door for Him to enter. Our free will remains intact in those instances, because He is coming at our invitation.

Satan and his demons also must be released to act. They are released to interfere in our lives when we choose evil--when we seek after other gods, when we proclaim evil words, when we perform sinful acts, or acts against GOD's love.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Attitude

Yesterday was a bad day, i guess that's pretty evident. I often wonder if I'm pissing people off just as much as they are pissing me off? It's possible, but I don't think so, wow, what if I'm wrong about that, what if I am pissing people off just as much as they are pissing me off. What if they are blogging at this very moment about how much people piss them off and they are absolute angels and don't deserve such terrible treatment in the world. But they are the blind ones, not me. I'm the good one.

Hmmmm, "I'm the good one". This makes me think about some discussions I have gotten into with friends. The discussion is what makes one good, or bad. We end up comparing ourselves to some legalistic standard pulled out of our butts. And then we go on feeling good about ourselves for awhile until the conversation arises again. Since the conversation keeps coming up then we haven't justified our actions enough, because we can't, so we keep having to try and convince ourselves by tweaking that legalistic standard we pulled out of our butts.

The Bible says in Psalm 14:1-3 that not one of us is good. I guess you could take it as the author was speaking of a certain group of people from that time. But I ask you the question what group of people do you know today that are good? But just remember that legalistic standard you pulled out of your butt is from your butt.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Tired

I'm really tired today.

Work has really sucked lately. I feel like nobody cares around me, actually I don't feel, I know. And that attitude is slowly seaping into my work ethic. It's hard to care when everyone around you doesn't. It's hard to care when everyone around you says one thing and does the other.
So even though I'm really tired today and work sucks, it's pretty much all because of the people around me. So don't let everyone around you dictate your days. People suck. People always have been and always will. You just got to love them like GOD loves you every day. If you think GOD doesn't think you suck, think again. Just remember GOD doesn't care if you suck, if he did why would we still be here killing each other, raping each other, letting 1000's a day starve or die from bad drinking water, selling each other addictive drugs, ripping each other off for a good profit, well the list goes on.........did i mention I'm really tired today and work sucks.

Yeah, i'm kind of negative, but a friend once told me who I respect that I should let her be pissy and negative, because that's the way she is feeling and there's nothing wrong with that and I told her she was wrong. Now I understand what she was feeling and I was wrong.
So anywho, where am I going with this post. I think what I'm trying to say is, don't let the people around u dictate your attitude and motivation to make your surroundings a better place. Just remember to love people like GOD loves us.......blindly. Because if GOD didn't forgive us and watched everything we did in absolute horror, trust me this world would be like Sodom and Gomorrah in a second. All I have to say is I'm so grateful that he didn't finish what he started, because then I would of ceased to exist. So next time you are directly effected by people that suck just remember they and you are on borrowed time and GOD needs you to love those people and be the difference to those people in a world that doesn't care about anything but its own self indulgence.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Sport of Poverty

I consistantly find myself at www.espn.com every morning looking for news and highlight reels from the previous day. ESPN's front page gives in my opinion the best layout of the w.w.w. with top news stories and commentaries.

Lately I have been wishing that I had the motivation to seek out each morning like I do with ESPN on what is going on in the world of poverty, persecution and oppression around the world. It would be nice if there was a website like ESPN that sparked my interest so that I would go to it every morning.

Wouldn't it be great if our government chose to put billions of dollars into an organization that could produce information like ESPN on poverty, persecution and oppression around the world. I bet it would be more effective than putting the billions of dollars into the war in Iraq.

If you find a website or a group of websites that could feed my interest in poverty, persecution and oppression around the world like ESPN does for the sportsworld, please let me know....