SO YOU ARE NOT VOTING

I posted this in October of 2020. I still believe it today, so I'll post it yet again:

I heard that someone said after the recent presidential debate, “I will not vote for either of them.” Why would you not want to place your influence behind the better of what seems to you two bad options? Why do you not want to influence the future in a way that, if not positive, at least is not so damaging? Not voting means you are allowing others, who like the one you most dislike, to have your vote.

You don’t like either candidate. You think one is directing your ship into the rocks while the other is directing your ship onto a sandy beach. But you will not do anything to avoid the rocks. In effect you are ignoring the destruction of your ship.

People died so you could vote the way you wanted. People died to protect you from those who would prevent you from voting. By not voting you shun thousands of people who have lived and died for you to have a safe place, a safe country, to live.

If you protest by not voting, who’s going to know about your protest? There is nothing to show for it. You could vote for an independent candidate if there was one running. I suppose your vote could be seen then. But realize an independent candidate will not win and you will have lost your influence

THE CARELESS INTERJECTION, “LIKE”

I recently saw a headline to an article that said: "Why Do We Say "Like," Like, All the Time?" I have not yet read the article, but I believe because it is a careless interjection as using “er” or “uh”.

Why do we people use this interjection? They might not have a firm idea of what they intended to say. They are not comfortable speaking in public. They have a low self-esteem. They are careless. They very much want to fit in with their peer group: all the others use "like" (like it's cool, the in thing). “Like if you want to fit in with us you must use the word, “like”.

It's a bad habit as feeling you have to start the answer to a question by starting the first sentence with the word "So, ".

FREE TO GO EITHER WAY

On this day the weather showed mostly clear skies. Clear, sunny, or rainy, God controls all. Happy or sad, God controls all. Whatever various people think, whatever they think there is, or is no God; God controls all.

God could have made you so that he controlled every one of your thoughts, but he did not. He gave you the option to believe in him, or not. He wanted your mind to be a free agent, even able to select the option of, “there is no God”. Moreover he gave you the option to switch your opinion. You can go from “there is no God’ to “there is a God” -- at any time.

But he did not leave us at loose ends. He gave us a book telling us his preference: the Bible.

“…[F]or he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” [Heb 11:6]. He cares that you believe the right way but lets you choose wrong. If he wanted machines, he would have made machines. But he wanted persons, like you.

UNAWARENESS

I see so many people unaware of their surroundings as they interact with their electronic devices. They look at them as they walk and do not see what is around them. They look at them when they are with other people in restaurants.

It is easy to be persuaded by them (the thing, not the nearby person). While involved they are not aware of their situation.
What is ahead of them?
What is behind them?
What is to the right of them?
What is to the left of them?
What is above them?
What is below them?
Are there any flowers, what color of flowers, what kind of flowers?
Are there any trees, what kind of trees, is it a healthy tree?
Is the retention pond full or drying up?

They are listening to music or a radio broadcast, or an audio blog. Are the people in it real or fictional? Is it possible they have an agenda? Is it possible you are listening to opinions and not facts?

If they were engaged in business would another place or time have been better? Would it be better to see them in real time, in real life, in real space?

We should be full of care about how and when we use our electronics.

THE AI GATEKEEPER

I became frustrated with trying to give information to a website. For many minutes (notice the word, “many”) I tried and waited for some sort of response. I tried my best to avoid the “Chat” option. After many minutes (notice the word, “many”) I finally pushed it. I was allowed to “chat” with a robot. The robot, after many minutes, allowed me to “chat” with a real human who could, and did, solve my issue. At least I guess it was a human.

I hate “Chat” sessions. Do you hate “Chat” sessions? You are not “chatting” with a person, you are interfacing with software on a machine. This software is otherwise known as “Artificial Intelligence”, or AI. There is no “intelligence” about it, though it is very much artificial. What was intelligent was the person or team of persons who wrote the software. These had to guess what questions you might ask and upon what various tracks the answers might lead. Once the software is devised, coded and loaded onto a machine the human intelligence is completed. There is no humanity left. There is only the software and the machine that contains it. You type to a machine which receives the electrical signals form the internet and processes them through the software to formulate an “answer”, untouched by human hands.

We are getting accustomed to being used by machines. We often do not think about it, we even want it in some cases. We need to be jealous of our humanity, or we may be imprisoned in a software/mechanical/electrical world.

ASSERTIONS

We must be careful to not blindly accept the assertions that are put forward in the material we read. I use the following sentences as an example:

"Gases like carbon dioxide and methane act like a blanket, heating up Earth in an unnatural and unprecedented way. The rapidly rising temperatures are directly connected to increased extreme weather events like severe storms, worsening wildfires, and devastating droughts."

This set of sentences came from Nick Paschal writing in “The Cool Down”. Lets look at some of the phrases:

“Gases like carbon dioxide and methane act like a blanket . . .” What other gases? Should we be frightened if there is a complex assortment of gases acting like a blanket? Humans and animals that breathe air output carbon dioxide every time they exhale. We, and they, can not stop exhaling. Plants need to take in carbon dioxide to live. Natural processes also output methane. Carbon dioxide and methane will not (and cannot) cease to exist and will continue to give us this “blanket”.

“. . . heating up Earth in an unnatural and unprecedented way.” There is nothing “unnatural” or “unprecedented” about these gases. Their chemical agency has not changed. They act as they always have acted since humans have learned to investigate them and their effects. In themselves they are not alarming.

“The rapidly rising temperatures. . . “ Really? How rapid, compared to what? Many scientists may not agree the temperatures are “rapidly” rising. There is currently dispute about this point. We can all agree we are not in an Ice Age. We all agree the Ice Age took place long ago. Climates have changed and will continue to change. Climate changed before there was any significant human activity.

“[T]emperatures are directly connected to increased extreme weather events . . .” No one likes severe storms, wildfires or devastating droughts. By their very nature they are severe, wild and devastating. They always have been. But which is increasing – the events, or our recording and reporting of them? The reporting of them and the varied interpretations of them certainly has increased. The outlets for our reporting have increased like Facebook, X, Twitter, and “The Cool Down”.

All of us should be careful of the assertions we read and hear and beware of the bias of the information. But we should also beware of our own blinders and earmuffs.

GREY OR NOT

It’s a grey day today. A painter would say that there are cool colors. Our thoughts can be like grey days. Sometimes ideas flow out of the head too fast to write them down. Other times there seems to be nothing of importance. Things seem to be too trivial, too insignificant to record. It is difficult to articulate insignificant thoughts. Are they worth the time and exercise?

What kind of grey day is this? It is not cold and it is not hot. It might rain, yet it might not. Many times in Florida grey days turn sunny whereas in Massachusetts they are apt to stay grey for a stretch of many days. Are we presently like Florida or Massachusetts?

Sometimes our minds are like Florida or like Massachusetts, some get sunny quickly, some stay grey for many days. But even if you live in Boston, Massachusetts or Regina, Saskatchewan, in your mind you can decide to have a Florida day. If you live in Quito, Ecuador you can have a Massachusetts day.

WHAT ARE WE SPEAKING?

The words that we speak can be helpful or hurtful. For example, it can be helpful when we speak uplifting words. Proverbs 20:3 says, “It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.” When we are speaking uplifting, constructive, and positive words, we are not fermenting strife in those we are addressing. For most of us, almost all the time, we are not hoping for strife. Although others may itch for a fight, that is not us, that is not who we are. Let malice reside in the hearts of them, not us.

Yet sometimes seeming too optimistic can misfire. Proverbs 25:20 says, “Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.” Singing songs to a heavy heart can cause a bad or harmful reaction. When one is sorrowful singing a happy song invites comparison which may make the hearer feel worse. He will compare his feelings with the happiness of the song which will make him notice even more the sadness of his own state. Likewise, singing a sad song is likely to make him feel worse. There are times when there should be no music.

Like Proverbs 25:25 says, “[As] cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” There is something refreshing about a faithful messenger and good news. So when we speak to a sad or heavy-hearted person, we must be careful. What is it we intend to say? Will it be like water or gasoline on a fire? Take time to think before you speak. Are you comforting, or standing alongside, or correcting wrong thinking? If you could imagine yourself in his shoes what would you want to hear?

TREASURE TAKES WORK

Proverbs 2:1,2
"My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; "

The action phrases: “receive”, “treasure up”, “making [the ear] attentive, and “inclining” seem to require work.

It takes continual effort to get knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. These things don't come easy, and they don't come quick. It takes work, it takes work every day. Receive, find value, listen up, and lean into wisdom. Apply, cry, lift your voice, seek, search.

When you search for silver and hidden treasure it is not done in five minutes of idle time before watching a video. To seek it you must decide where to go. You must decide to go there. You must inspect every rock formation. You must be diligent in research and then methodically and thoroughly comb the area, balancing your resources while doing it. It takes time and it takes resources. You must spend something.

So it is we have to spend something at God's word.

The application (one of them) of seeking understanding, knowledge, and wisdom is to know the right paths, the right way. Men and women, who are wicked, walk the wrong paths. The knowledge of the truth would have shown them the proper way.

How can one know which is wrong and which is right? Ask one who knows, read what he has written. Read the Bible and pray. You must ". . . receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; "

SOURCES

By looking at Genesis 1

I will make an observation: all things that appear to have a cause-and-effect may not have, or may not always have had, a cause-and-effect relationship. God first made the light, then he divided it from the darkness, then he named the darkness "night" and the light "day". Then the evening and the morning were the first day. It was after that (three days later, on the 4th day) that God created the lights, sun and moon, and attached them to the day/night cycle (to rule over the day and over the night).
-There was light without a source for it (sun, stars).
-There may have been day and night without the rotation of the earth.
-Things may become associated into cause and effect after they both are brought into existence,

There was light -- then there was sources for the light -- then the sources were made to rule over the light . Might there be other things that seem to be in a cause-and-effect relationship which really are not that way? Were energies made before the sources for them came into being? It is not possible for humans to create "energies" before we create the "sources". We always start from the source of the energy.

Does an idea come from a thought, or the thought from the idea?

The Holy Spirit comes from God but where does our human spirit come from? Does it come from the soul? Which came first the soul, or the spirit?

Does feeling produce a thought, or does thought produce a feeling, or can it happen either way?<

WASTING AWAY

Proverbs 5:3 and following: "For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword."

Her mouth "drips honey" , her mouth "is smoother than oil". This is how the wisdom of the world sounds: it is sweet and smooth. It is difficult to overcome because it sounds like it is good (honey) and it sounds so logical and solid (smoother than oil). But if we read further on we find it is death.

The wisdom of the world is movable (verse 6) meaning it has no standard upon which it is based, so it is free to drift in any convenient direction. When you shine the light of scripture and logic upon it to show that it is incorrect, it moves aside avoiding discovery. The wisdom of the world will cause you to give honor to others who are unworthy (verse 9). Your sense of worth and dedication will be merge with those who directly oppose what is written in God’s word, like the evolutionist, and not with God's people or family.

Your years may be spent with the cruel and your time will have vanished among the godless and not with gods people or family. Careerists, strangers, and materialists may eat up your laborers. At the end of your life your flesh and body may have been spent for humanist education, for feminists and homosexuals, for possessions many of which have long since decayed, or for your career, which did not further God's Kingdom .

When you choose your occupation over your family, when you seek your toys like your automobile over God's will or improvement of your character, when you select your fulfillment over your proper relationship to others -- then you will, at the end, find honor gone to others, years to the cruel, strangers filled with your strength, laborers in the house of others and your flesh and body consumed. You will no longer be able to correct what you have done.

But keeping in God's word is like staying with your wife and receiving refreshment by her. You should bring water out of your own cistern and well -- use God's instructions and not the instruction of the world.

JESUS APPEARANCE

The most significant of all creation, the Creator himself, came in apparent insignificance. The one of All Significance appeared to be insignificant. He first appeared as an unborn child of an insignificant yet-to-be-married (?) couple. His apparent Father was a tradesman, a carpenter. Mary was of no prominent family we know of. They had to travel to Bethlehem alone, as far as we know. She, though pregnant, had to endure a ride on a donkey.

After she gave birth, the announcement of the savior’s arrival came to Laborers, the shepherds, not to noblemen, not the powerful, not the influential. The shepherds were the ones that witnessed the heavenly host rejoicing. They were the ones who first saw Jesus as a newborn.

The announcement was hidden from the high-ranking Jewish people. It did not come to their rulers and not to the religious prominent of the Temple. It was not announced to the politically powerful administrative authorities (the Romans).

Jesus allowed himself to grow up to obscure adulthood under subjection to his parents. He was probably a journeyman carpenter under his adoptive Father. Jesus did not make himself known until after he reached the appropriate time.

He was insignificant all that time, until he became the most significant of all – to those of us who recognize it.

GOD AND WISDOM

Proverbs 8:22

God created everything as it says in the book of Genesis. For us, as created beings, everything that we know has been established by God. This includes the idea of wisdom. Proverbs 8:22 through 31 tells us wisdom was present at the inception of the creation. Wisdom was there before He made the heavens; wisdom was with the Lord before he made the earth.

God did not “make” wisdom, wisdom is something God always possessed. Since we are made in God’s image, wisdom is a property we also possess. We can develop the wisdom we have, we can learn from God and others.

We know that these characterize wisdom: it speaks of excellent things. right things. It speaks truth. Wickedness is an abomination to wisdom. Wisdom does nothing forward or perverse. It is plain to him that understands, right to those that find knowledge as we have read in the proverbs.

Wisdom is the ability, or result of an ability, to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, and insight. Since we know that God has all knowledge, understanding and insight we should look to what He plainly says to us in the Bible.

UNKNOWABLE DREAMS

I once had a dream that I was walking home (I guess) from a meeting of Navy chief petty officers. It was on a modest tree lined road at night. There were no streetlights. The road was wet. I was walking on the left side of the road ducking under the branches of bushes or trees that over hung the road shoulder. A few cars were passing me and going the other way. One car came on the right side and slowed and stopped, moved slowly forward and stopped several times. I looked at it and wondered what they were doing. The headlights were reflecting on the street. I assumed there was more than one person in the car. I considered running into the undergrowth to my left. Then in the daytime I was at a gas station. Somehow I knew the police had said I was beaten so badly that I couldn't remember it. I could not.

I had no idea what this meant, and still do not. Dreams are strange and often do not bear directly on our experience. I’m sure there is a catalogue of dreams, or dream types, written somewhere probably by degreed Psychiatrists or Psychologists who proport to be experts in dreams. Maybe there are several dream books which argue dream “facts” that disagree with other books written about dreams. In the end no one can be really sure.

There are very few, like Daniel or Joseph, who can know the meaning of dreams. It is a gift of God. The crowd of others that say they can – can’t.

WHAT IS THE WEALTH OF THE SOUL

Proverbs 22 verses 22, 23 say: "Rob not the poor because he is poor neither oppress the afflicted in the gate. God will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoil them."

My definition of "to spoil" is to remove the wealth of a person once you have the victory over him. It’s easy to rob the poor and oppress the afflicted because they have little power to resist you. You don’t even have to fabricate a fight with them as an excuse; you can just rob and oppress. But God will remove the wealth from the soul that has oppressed the poor and afflicted.

What is the wealth of the soul? Since the soul is non-material, I expect the elements of wealth are non-material as well. They would be such things as: intellect, confidence, joy, sense of direction, and knowledge of accomplishments. The loss of such things is clearly not wanted, but God will remove them from the oppressor of the poor and afflicted.

Hopefully, we are of the sort that would not even conceive of afflicting the poor and afflicted. We are to seek to be like Jesus. Jesus instructs us to care for them. Jesus instructs us to never oppress anyone. Why would we? Why should we?

PHRASES CHRISTIANS USE

This is a blog about phrases Christians commonly say that the hearers may not understand, or they may understand it in a different way than the speaker intended. This is most often true when the hearer is not a Christian, but it can also be true when he is. I will state some of these Christian phrases below and will add to this blog from time to time as I think of others. I will welcome suggestions about other phrases (although I am not sure at this present time how you can communicate them to me).
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JESUS IS MY PERSONAL SAVIOUR.
This could also be. “Accept Jesus as your personal savior.” What does the word “personal” mean? Some do not understand this phrasing or can be annoyed by it. We know that the Bible says that Jesus is the savior of all mankind, so some think adding “personal” is either useless or must mean something different.

I think a speaker uses the word “personal” to focus from Jesus’ general application to all mankind to the individual level. From all men to just one man - to the individual listener. The offering of salvation is meant for an individual person. While it is an open offering available to everyone, the speaker is telling the listener the offering made specifically to him. He should therefore take the opportunity to accept this offer. The decision can be to accept the offer, or to reject it. It is "personal" in the sense that the ability to accept or reject rests solely in the volition of the person who hears the offer. He is the agent, no one can act for him. At his hand lies two stamps: one says “Accept”, the other says “Reject”.

I have used the “Accept” stamp. I did this personally, by my own will, therefore Jesus is my personal savior.


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COME TO CHRIST.

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YOU MUST BE SAVED.

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XXX.

THE LIGHTED PATH

Proverbs eleven shows that righteous people shall live through troublesome times, but the wicked will perish in them. Righteousness and wickedness start from within. It starts from how each of us deals with the sin nature that dwells within us. Yet for the righteous, what is rightly dealt with within will preserve him when the trouble comes, when the outward, uncontrollable, hurtful situation occurs. They must choose the right path.

Character and righteousness do not just happen, they are built up step by step on a daily basis. It is not an "unchangeable" part of our character - something like our body type that has been given to us at birth. If we haven't been working on it when we need it will not be there.

The righteous would have been doing good acts, gaining a reputation for it perhaps. Maybe the good acts condition them toward salvation. Right internal corrections result in the right outward responses during the time of trouble. It might be the righteous have developed righteous friends when the wicked have not (at least not the good type of friends).

By contrast what is internal to the wicked will have no worth for delivery to others, except to others who are like them. They have chosen to develop inwardly the opposite way. Proverbs 4:16, 17 says: "For they [the wicked] cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence".

Proverbs 4: speaks a lot of following the right path. The admonition is to keep on the right path. By contrast, the wrong path of the wicked leads to a downfall. To be doing wrong is to not be doing right. Everything that is not on the righteous path leads into the area of wickedness. When you do mischief, you are knowingly working against some God-established ways. And if it were not good enough to be there themselves, the wicked attempt to trip others on the path of righteousness.

Righteousness follows the path of light, whereas there is darkness everywhere on the path of the wicked. It is very important to keep on the lighted path.

LANGUAGE AS A WEAPON

Language is a dynamic and changing thing. Changes occur in every language. There are many reasons for it. They change from country to country. German is spoken in Germany, French in France, and English in England. But the French in France has differences from the French in Quebec which is different from the French spoken in New Orleans. The English we speak in America has difference from the English spoken in England. England's English has words Americans do not know and vice versa. I was reminded of this while reading an Inspector Morse book by Colon Dexter. Even different geographical areas within the same country show language changes from place to place. In America there is Northern English and Southern English, Getto English and up-town English, and Midwest English, Boston English, California English.

Yet Hitler cleverly and effectively used German language on Germans to cause them to waste their woman, men, machines, materials, resources, and wealth to nearly eradicate Germany; and nearly destroying other countries too. Will we allow the use of language to waste our moral underpinnings?

Even though languages naturally undergo change, what disturbs me is when a group of people who, from a different moral view, pervert the language by attempting to change meanings of words into something never intended. “Gender” is a fine example of this. Gender always referred to “sex” meaning male or female. No one can ever “transition” into the other sex. Sex is determined at the cellular level, not the surgical level. Whatever anyone’s sexual preferences are, there are only two sexes (male and female), never more than two. Fantasies or imaginations will never change this basic physical fact.

I object to groups that take words in common use trying to force a moral code upon another. Sadly, the major media outlets and national Government have capitulated to this effort. We do not have to parrot or repeat what others may falsely say.  I believe we should not, and cannot, call a "transitioned man" a woman, nor should we call a "transitioned woman" a man.  The government can do it and the media can do it but we should never do it.

DO NOT ENTER

Prov: 4:14-16

Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

NO TRANS

There is no such thing as a “trans woman” or a “trans man”. These terms are faddish; they are part of the current “trans” fad. A “trans woman” is in fact, and biologically a male even if “altered” physically. A “trans man” is in fact, and biologically a female even if “altered” physically. There are only two sexes: male and female. There can be no others. People who have homosexual desires cannot either by surgery or by wishing change their sex.

No matter how many times the media repeat these phrases they cannot change biology.