Running Interference!

football legal blocking: in football, the legal blocking of opposing players to protect and make way for the player carrying the ball. 

Every parent's duty.

The comfort of the inertial frame.

We all exist in a unique inertial frame that is limited by a narrow degree of input of information. The information I am experiencing and referencing is acquired by others, but the result is different because of the response that is produced. All our different choices interact with everyone else's choices, in their own inertial frame. And we claim to understand.

The comfort zone makes us believe we have the answers within ourselves. Then we discover the perspective of others. That's the problem.

The perspective of other's are inherently flawed, don't trust it. They are limited by a narrow perspective. Don't limit yourself to any one inertial frame, we all see through a glass darkly. Yet iron sharpens iron.

There is only one who sees and understands all that is happening and He is wise enough to know what you should do next. Trust in Him and His Guidance. Seek it out like your future depends on it.

Tradition?

I'm not talking about the Roman Catholic Liturgies. More like the traditions we create with those we care most about.

Here is an example. Since pre-K I have prayed for my two young sons as I dropped them off at school. In the beginning those prayers were spontaneous and inspired by what the Spirit had layed on my heart. I thought, this is good, and determined to make sure I prayed for them each time I dropped them off for school. I have been 'faithful" to do such.

Now my young sons are teenagers. They graceously say "amen" to my prayer each morning as I drop them off, but my feeling is they may have something to contend concerning my prayer. You see I long ago fell back on the tradition of praying for them as I dropped them off at school instead of listening to what the Spirit was saying and responding with something other then a simple prayer for their day.

Tradition? Resting in yesterday's blessing.

Tradition has a certain re-assurance. It provides a continuity with the past where God had guided and blessed with steps to take to maintain a close relationship with Him.

It takes a lot of attention and humility to follow Christ. The easier route is to trust in what worked before. So we fall back on the familiar, and do that again.

But God has moved on.

"What we learned yesterday can get in the way of what we need to learn today" Bill Johnson

Cycles? The view is determined by your perspective.

As you go around again, do you see the good things God is holding up in His Grace? The provision? The opportunity? The way forward.

All He asks is "Trust in His guidance, don't be passive, but be intentional. Accept your responsibility,  call others to trust in the Lord with all their hearts. And believe He will Go before you and prepare the way.

12-12-2012

A unique date. We'll never be here again. Do you get it? Cycles don't exist. Today may look like yesterday but it's not. Cycles are an illusion meant to distract you and occupy your time. Tomorrow I will change my ways?... You will run out of tomorrows. Change today, for today is all we have.

Cycles.

The cool thing about "cycles" is that they bring you around again. They are closely related to "ruts".

It is God's Grace, manifest in His long-suffering.

His hope is that you'll finally get it.

Ruts and cycles, the trick is to know "He died for you". No matter how deep the rut or how many times you've been around. He has a way for you to be an overcomer.

Not desperate enough to admit you don't have it within yourself? The Lover of your soul has one last recourse.

There comes a time when in God's "Judgement" He realizes you won't get it where you are at. It is then He withdraws His sustaining Hand, like holding a ball so it doesn't fall to the ground, our sin pulls us down. Reaping the consequences of our sin will hopefully wake us up to our inability to overcome in our own understanding.  Are you awake? Then there is "Hope". May your Soul long after Him and the Grace He offers freely.

While we were yet sinners, He died for us!

Swept Along?

The interaction of mass and energy has an "inertia". Events beyond your control that sweep you along. Even when in the moment you make a wise choice, events transpire that seem to be detrimental to your situation. Your mistake is thinking you understand your situation.

Yes, we are swept along by the inertia of the interaction of mass and energy. And even though we make wise decisions, we can still find ourselves in a less than comfortable situation. Rejoice, if you find yourself there. It is there that the Lover of your Soul can reveal just how much He loves you, just how much He has "Got your back". Maybe then you will get serious about the pride that gets in the way of hearing His voice, understanding His heart, and committing yourself to His desire to bring everyone into the Kingdom.

Notes on "Time"

Time: A succession of moments demarcating change in the physical realm of our existence*

(*1. The fact or state of existing; being.
2. The fact or state of continued being.
Synonyms:  actuality, being)

Only the now exists. Ongoing existence is continually being created and held together by God. Creation was not a single act of God but is an on ongoing activity. 

Colossians 1:17 "He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together."

The past is forever gone. The present now is where we exist and have our being. The future has not yet been created by our choices and God's deference to those choices. 

God has yet to exert his will completely, in hope that all will repent. Some of the future is determined and God knows it as a certainty, although it does not yet exist. Some of the future is open and God knows it as a contingency and it does not yet exist. Existence is the present now.

Now is the succession of moments demarcating Creation. Creation is continually held together by God and the concept of time is the result of the cause and effect progression of change in creation/existence. Creation is the ongoing task of God. He has chosen to share some of that task.

To some extent, we "create" our own existence by the choices we make. Our existence in the now is partly determined by the choices we have made in the past. Our future existence in creation is partly determined by choices we make in the now with the before ordained plan of God, manifested in Jesus Christ.

The plan of God finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ even before the foundations of creation/existence were laid.

Our present now is relative. Reality is comprised of a multitude of relative nows. The physicality of existence requires relativity in individual nows. My now is unique. No one else can experience my now except God.

Creation is created moment by moment. God is in the moment by moment, creating our existence. The future has yet to be created. Therein rests the Hope that motivates the Lover of our Soul.

You and I view existence from a particular perspective limited by our locale. This limited perspective inhibits our comprehension of reality as a whole.

Because God is outside the physicality of our existence, does that mean He is outside of time? To say God is outside of time makes no sense. Time is inside God. God creates and holds existence together as an ongoing activity. Existence is created by God moment by moment and is demarcated by change which results in the observance of time. To say it another way, time is the observance of change in existence as God creates it moment by moment. God is the creator of time.

It exists because of God’s ongoing activity of creation.

TIME exists because change is observed. Change occurs because things move. Things move because of the “Prime Mover” God.

The Past - Is Fact    
The Future - Is Potential
The present - God's ongoing act of creation enabling Existence.

Be Blameless

God's desire for us is that we would be blameless. It was not long after Christ became Lord and Savior in my life that I started coming across scripture that spoke that truth into my life. To be blameless, what does that really mean, why is it important?

For me it began as a conviction that I wasn't the perfect person I thought I was. I began to see just how often I "was" to blame for the conflicts in my life. As I began to realize my part in these conflicts, guilt became the consequence and my pride was revealed. Let me explain.

My pride let me think it would be easy to be blameless. You see for quite sometime I had directed the blame for my conflicts directly onto the one I had the conflict with.

Everyone is Unique.

So what should we deduce from this truth?

I'm not like you. Then why do I compare myself to you? It's because I want what you have. You are noticed, others praise your accomplishments, when I try to compete, you do better than me. When will I realize I can't be you?

Have you ever tried to be "like" someone else? What about trying to be someone you aren't, just to get someone to like you, to notice you? Have you ever struggled with trying to find the real you?

Then you are a "most fortunate soul". You are close to realizing... the real you is not like anyone else.

Years ago I learned that... "When I get a glimpse of God, I automatically get a glimpse of my true self".

Let His Light shine into (reveal) your life as you "Seek Him with all your Heart". As you get to know Him, you will get to know yourself. READ YOUR BIBLE!

Think About it!

You are unique, just like everybody else. Hmmmmmn?

A Snow Flake?

"Snow flakes are unique. But they are all snow flakes."   Hudson Brown

That's Hudson's interpretation of the statement he found online. "Just remember, all of us are unique, just like everyone else".

Light the fire Again?

Swept along? Sure I am swept along by circumstance, events beyond my control. Everyone is. The issue is our position in the flow. The flow sweeps us along the line of circumstance, but do we see a different perspective? Does our "position" rise us above the circumstance to see the bigger picture. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners!

Buck the Trend!

Swept along? By the flow? I have to remind myself...? Hmmm, thank you Lord.

http://www.randolphbrown.com/2011/04/cause-and-effect-is-in-swept-along-in.html

That's crazy.

Over the last few months I have been languishing in doubt and fear.  As I appraise my situation I find the most popular statement between Tracy and I is "That's Crazy".

It is an honest statement of perspective and a witness of "unbelief".

Yet time passes and God's provision, though it makes no sense, still remains.

On a road not of my own construction.

Yet, here I am. I thought the choices I made would direct the consequences that my future would reveal. Make good choices and good results would happened. What the?

Good choices compared to logical choices. My mistake was thinking "Logical choices" were "Good choices" NOT!

I walked a path of logical choices. At the end, I was un-employed and left to figure it out on my own.

The logic of it all, okay. But the immediate result, scary.

Then God proves Himself. Stay tuned.

Where do you place your trust?

The well equipped, tend to trust in their equipment.

Those with no sharp axe are much less likely to believe they can chop down the forest.

Perspective.

Our perspective informs all our opinions. Our opinions are an amalgamate (to combine into a unified or integrated whole) of our experience and the understanding we had in the moment. Insight is a crucial factor affecting the validity of our opinions. I suspect that "our insight" is superficial.

Superficial

su·per·fi·cial 

1. being at, on, or near the surface: a superficial wound.

2. of or pertaining to the surface: superficial measurement.

3. external or outward: a superficial resemblance.

4. concerned with or comprehending only what is on the surface or obvious: a superficial observer.

5. shallow; not profound or thorough: a superficial writer.

Born Again. Earthly things?

John 3:1-12 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”


9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

Light the Fire again.

I have many times re-lit the fire on my backyard deck. I pride myself in using just one match. I look to arrange the coals from my previous fire and bring them together in close proximity to one another. That is where I strike the match that burns brightly. Though it is small, I bring it close to the coals from my previous fire. The match sparks the coals around it yet if left alone the light of the flame quickly dies out so I blow on them. I take deep breaths in hopes that the longer I blow the more intense the embers glow and the more likely new fuel will ignite. Once the embers are glowing bright I sit back and watch the progression. I see how oxygen is now flowing into the embers and the heat rises pulling in more oxygen. The coals glow and heat is created, and it rises.

The glowing embers spread out slowly. I think I can anticipate where they will spread. Then all of a sudden I see a flame break out in a surprising place. The flame's light spreads out from it and illuminates the deck area. The flame comes from fuel that has never been exposed to the fire or the heat. It was the embers closest to the fresh wood that ignited them because of their close proximity. I had purposefully positioned the wood to come in contact with the glowing embers that they might be ignited by the heat that the embers possessed and become a roaring campfire that would attract all to come and see.

Making Sense?

We all try to figure things out. We look around and our experience gives us a clue. Yet there is so much more. In our pride we take our perspective and try to use it as an answer to explain the reality of the circumstance. And then the circumstance changes. We are fools who trust in our own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5-6

Potential

1. The inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, or coming into being.

2. Something possessing the capacity for growth or development.

WHEN WE THINK ABOUT OUR IDENTITY it is important to understand that God sees us from a perspective of our potential. It is this potential that is the foundation of His commitment and long-suffering toward us. With insight and understanding of our God-given potential He rebukes, chastises, and disciplines us with exhortations of humility, honesty, and demonstrations of unconditional love. He calls us to be over-comers, blameless, willing to admit our mistakes, dependent on His guidance. Willing to serve His purposes. 

In this light, we should consider our choices and decisions!

To be "present" in the Now.

Have you ever been distracted? Has your attention ever been occupied? Have you ever lost track of what you were paying attention too?

Being "Present" in the "Now" is the last thing the enemy of your Soul wants you to be aware of, understanding the reality of your existence, being aware and cognizant of your surroundings, both physical and Spiritual.

It is there you "attend" to the need. It's the last thing the enemy of your soul wants you to realize. There is no better time than "Now". There are no other considerations as important, no other distractions that beg procrastination. Time and effort proclaim "do it now" there is no better opportunity for the doing,  and the promise "Be at Peace" is fulfilled when done. There is no greater Joy than to obey "Now".

"for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." ROMANS 14:17

We are not defined by the stuff we have accumulated

Look around yourself. Okay, look around your "home". Look at the stuff. It's all familiar. It all has a history. Are you surprised from how "long ago" the stuff has sat there? I was.

Stuff, I thought it would define my families future. But it is left by the wayside cluttering up our now. I'm reminded of the idea that "Your possessions, possess you." I need to stop that.

Set in your ways?

Don't be.

The steps of a good man?

Psalm 37:23-25 (NKJV)

²³ The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way.
²⁴ Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand.

²⁵ I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.

Inertial Frames?

The interaction of mass and energy have their frames of inertia. Planets cycling around suns. Stars revolving within a galaxy, Galaxies moving in the Universe. Inertial frames all relative in the now.

Determinism makes it all predictable. Yet, choice makes it all incomprehensible. Choice is the wild card. We can build or we can destroy, it is our choice. The enemy of our soul speaks in accusations, wanting us to focus on how we have been wronged, how we have been trespassed against. As long as we use that to excuse our own failings we will not be able to confess our sins and accept God's forgiveness.

The path of being an overcomer begins with the rejection of blaming someone else for your situation.  Looking to the lover of your soul as he calls you to reject passivity, accept responsibility, lead courageously and to expect the greater reward. Then trusting He will be faithful.

(https://www.authenticmanhood.com/store/category/33-the-series)

Inertial Frames

Frame within a frame, within a frame and so it goes. My inertial frame, how do I define it? Tonight I realized the house that my family lives in is not "my" inertial frame. Why? Because... it's not.

Who am I?

Who I think I am is brought into focus by the interpretation of my perception (5 Senses) which results from my perspective of what exists. This perspective is informed by truth or lies...

What is the source of your information? Is your perspective of reality interpreted from your limited perception, then you have reasons to be uncertain about anything you decide, or do you rely on information from a perspective high above your own? A perception that is not limited to the "Here and Now"?

Lets do some investigation...

I started an online course from Stanford on Artificial Intelligence. There's a free version available.

It seems that AI research has come up with “Reasons of Uncertainty” as they investigate “What to do when you don’t know what to do”. Here are the reasons for uncertainty...

• Sensor limits. Don’t see it all.
• Stochastic environment. Unlimited variables.
• Adversaries. An enemy dedicated to you failing.
• Laziness. Not being thorough in your investigation
• Ignorance. Not knowing and not caring.

Oh, crap! Christian, does this sound familiar?

Euroclydon [yoo-rok-li-don]

A southeast billow, the name of the wind which blew in the Adriatic Gulf, and which struck the ship in which Paul was wrecked on the coast of Malta (Acts 27:14; R.V., "Euraquilo," i.e., north-east wind). It is called a "tempestuous wind," i.e., as literally rendered, a "typhonic wind," or a typhoon. It is the modern Gregalia or Levanter. (Comp. Jonah 1:4.)

A Natural Man!

A natural man, yes I am, that broke free from the cycle of deception. Ill equipped to face the challenge of condemnation or exaltation, how do I train up a son in the way that he should go?

The truth shall set you free!

Deception: is the norm. Make believe is entertainment's offering to all our perspectives. How can I discern the truth in what I perceive.

Conception: an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances.
Self conception: who you think you are derived from past instances that formed an identity.

Tumultuous in its energy, the flow of truth and lies mixed up to give veracity to the current of deception, has its effect. The discerner of spirits will fall back to the fundamentals and embrace the Lover of their Soul. Peace in the storm, do you see the signs?

Though turmoil is all about and I am flummoxed on every side, the Rock of my Salvation is solid ground. I stand in His Grace. He knows me. Amen.

Facebook Timeline.

Who are you? Your past defines you if Facebook has its way. Be wary.

The past provides clues to discover the real you. Mistakes, even if they are documented, really provide insight...

Okay, maybe a timeline on facebook will confront shortcomings. Of course, if I can edit my history then I can build the me I think I should be. Danger Will Robinson.

Connect to Reality in an Excellent way

How do we navigate through the flood of distraction and find our way to the reality of our existence?

The Excellent Way has two witnesses.

God's Initiative has provided us with #1 the Holy Scriptures, passed down through time to us. AND #2 The Holy Spirit...

John 14:26 Amplified Bible

26 But the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you.