Debate

When someone says they are open-minded, they sincerely don’t care, they are fools, or they imply they are open to listening to your side of the argument long enough for an opportunity to interject their opinion while holding the same objective as you:  to win you to their cause.  This almost never works.  People just don’t listen to opposing facts (assuming at least one side bothered to start the process with any facts).  Maybe it’s a problem with the media.  We no longer know who to trust.  Liberals attack conservatives, conservatives call liberals communists, liberals call those conservatives who called them communist, racists, while racists call everyone racists except themselves and we are all left puzzled when we didn’t realize we were a member of any of the above groups and where’s the cover sheet on your TPS report, didn’t you get the memo?  Everyone has their own agenda (yes, everyone!).  The objective is to win you to their ‘side’.  I don’t think people set out to lie, but lies are propagated on all sides.  Lies are easier to come up with than facts.  If the facts don’t support your cause you can lie.  If the lie is discovered; change it.  Lie again.  Lie bigger.  Retreat, mix in a little fact (lie less), regroup and lie differently (but the same).  I’m not speaking of any group or cause here, just in the general sense.  Whoever is more powerful wins, and they won before the debate started.  But it’s nice to be polite and give the other side a chance isn’t it?

When it comes down to it I really don’t care about the politics; pretty much got Maslow's hierarchy of needs covered.  So why do I enjoy debating the issues so much?  Is it really the issues themselves?  Ultimately I am removed from the final decision making process.  Is it the issues themselves or is it just the conflict, the battle of wits?  It’s human nature to love conflict.  It's sometimes an adrenaline rush, but there is hardly ever any resolution because those who are willing to enter into the thing in the first place have similarly strong feelings but inclined to opposite sides of the argument.  Why do we always assume what seems to us to be an elegantly structured, logical, and perfectly reasonable solution never resolves the issue or converts the other participant to our side?

Arguments don’t gain any ground.  Debate does not win hearts.  Debate does not win minds.  Debate is like a boxing match.  Sure a boxer wants to win, but they really just want to go out and kick some ass.  To see the other boxer humiliated with bloody eyes and mouth.  It’s an organized endeavor.  After the ass kicking you shake hands and there is no guilt.  But you’ve tasted blood.  You want to kick ass again.  I was on the frontline.  I was the boxer.  I was the best; undefeated, but with no victories:  Running on a hamster wheel watching punishment and humiliation receiving the occasional nugget of worthless corn that has no nutritional value.  Call that life?

I give up the fight.  I am a treasure in the arms of Christ.

sin and wrath, that stuff sucks

sin and wrath, that stuff sucks. no one wants to hear about you just
want to hear about the good stuff. how about endless happiness.
untapped promise of flowing pleasure on demand with no end. sinless
immortality full of joyful song and crying out in infinite rejoicing.
smiling happy people laughing. ethereal bodies singing with
undulating vibration whose only purpose is to worship the glory of the
creator of the universe forever. floating. flying praise and light.
no pain no darkness no fear no death no loss no more. guaranteed
through justification by faith. the perfect sacrifice narrow is the
path fulfillment of the law. more buzzwords? new vocabulary new
ideas new outlook new life. more happy. freedom forgiveness and a
future. comfort warmth and happiness without end.

so many words too many words no words can describe the experience you
have to try it for yourself. I'm no poet this is just me. I wrote it
but I've been filled with the spirit. kind of fun on this tiny
keyboard once again the spell checker is on top of things. just
messing around trying to fill up my blog archive nobody reads my rants
anyway not for anybody just to waste time. bored but not with the
lord. worship forever again with no end and hands raised to heaven.
outstretched open to love and receiving grace for free undeserved gift
priceless everlasting hallelujah.

Here’s the Thing…

To put it lightly it’s a big issue. Health care. Education. Socialism. Deception. Lies. The role of government. Is it the place of government to provide for the every need of citizens? Citizens do not belong to the government. The government belongs to the citizens. Freedom is, ultimately, the ability to make choices. When choices are made for you, even with the best of intentions, you have lost your freedom. Your ability, no, your opportunity, to make choices has been removed.Therefore your freedom is removed. How else do you define freedom? Isn’t the big picture awesome? So many people focus on the details that they forget what is important. No one wants homelessness, or poverty, or illiteracy, or war, or murder, pain, death, or sickness. Socialism and Communism sound great until they are imposed upon society. Imposed Upon You.

"As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X, or in the better case, what A, B, and C shall do for X.... [W]hat I want to do is to look up C.... He is the man who never is thought of."

"He works, he votes, generally he prays--but he always pays. . . ."

(William Graham Sumner)

The forgotten man. If I bring that up does it sound like I’m whining? I don’t mean to complain.When it comes down to it, I don’t really care about taxes. I pay them. Money comes in, money goes out. My daughters have their ballet costumes and they smile a lot. They love Jesus. I love them and that is what makes me happy. All of this political garbage is just a distraction. I volunteered to go to war. I hate war. I don’t like watching movies with animal protagonists because I know that I will develop sympathy for the poor creature and my emotions will take over. I consider myself an everyman; a regular guy sojourning through life with the desire to do great things but ready to accept mediocrity if that be my fate.

There is a fundamental problem in our society. It is painful for some to hear. It is utterly dismissed and disdainfully rejected by others. I’m no prophet. It can be said in many ways. I have a set of beliefs so I say it in accordance with my beliefs, which are no longer deemed ‘politically correct.’ I am sometimes profane in my language because I have strong feelings. I hope that others will see things my way, but in all probability, and to my understanding, not everyone will. Unfortunately, there may be some who have been appointed to wrath. We are on the path to destruction. I really do believe that. I don’t think I am crazy. I’ll spare you the scripture, but the writing is on the wall. (Sorry, I lied) Everything is scripture.

For about a year there, before the last election, I began to get interested in politics. I started watching the news for the first time. At first I tried watching several channels and news outlets and I listened to all the different talk radio shows in my market. I quickly realized that I was a conservative. I picked up a few other labels for myself in recent months. Far right conservative.Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christian, or Jesus Freak. I believe in limited government. I like Fox News and I enjoy Glenn Beck. I believe that elected officials are supposed to represent the people who elected them. When a large group of people gather to protest that generally means they are upset about something. This may not be the end that the Bible promises us, but if things continue as they are I fear for the future of my country.

The wicked shall be turned into hell,

And all the nations that forget God.

For the needy shall not always be forgotten;

The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.

Arise, O LORD,

Do not let man prevail;

Let the nations be judged in Your sight.

Put them in fear, O LORD,

That the nations may know themselves to be but men.

(Psalm 9:17-20)

So what's my point? I forgot. When the time comes so will you. So let's all get over ourselves and remember what's important. Today. Remember: Its not about what would Jesus do? It's about what Jesus did. Look it up because its important.

People say the name

People say the name, or variations of it without thinking.  When you stub your toe, or when things don't go your way why not just say 'shit' or 'fucking hell' instead?  All things being equal these words are more colorful and generally draw more readily the desired attention and sympathy.  To shout, "Fuck!" actually means, "look at me I stubbed my toe and it hurts," and please respond with, "awww, I'm so sorry for you."  Instead people curse God.  Its become so commonplace we no longer even notice.  Job lost everything he owned, his children were all murdered or killed, and he got some nasty skin disease which covered him with boils.  It got so bad that Job's wife literally told him to curse God so that he would be struck down in his blasphemy (Job 2:9).  But Job refused.

 

It should come as no surprise that people no longer fear God.  "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil" (Proverbs 7:4).  Without getting into the whole fire and brimstone 'thing', consider at least that there is something greater than yourself which demands respect.  More than just words, they are the greatest names ever named.  Thank goodness we don't know the true name of God, or we all would have been struck down dead a long time ago.  Did you know that whenever you see the word LORD in all caps in the Old Testament that this is a replacement for the true name of God?  Only the high priest was allowed to speak it once a year upon entering the holy of holies (Leviticus 16) during Yom Kippur which involved an incredibly complex affair of sacrifices, clothing changes, and ritual washings.  Incidentally, this is probably where the term scape goat comes from because at one point a lamb is pushed off a cliff as part of the annual atonement for sins. 'For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23).  The point is that the name demands reverence.  How did we get here?  It's always been that way.

 

'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.' (John 1:1-5)

 

'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.' (John 3:16-17)

 

'And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.' (John 3:19-21)

 

'The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.' (John 7:7)

 

 

The leap of faith

The leap of faith or Soren Kierkegaard's "leap to faith."  What is it
exactly?  I'll tell you what it means to me.  I consider myself an
intelligent person.  No one could ever prove to me that God exists,
therefore I concluded that He does not exist.  The truth is that you
can't prove or disprove the intangible, the supernatural.  It is by
definition beyond our senses to perceive and outside of nature.  So the
intellectuals and philosophers reject the possibility of the existence
of an omnipotent/omniscient/omnipresent/omni-whatever-you-can-think-of
entity/being/concept.  When you reject the possibility of such an entity
you must fill the gap with something else that explains all the unknowns
of nature.  Science, psychology, philosophy; all these things make the
attempt.  In all the areas where these disciplines fall short phenomena
can be written off as, 'as yet unexplainable by science' while taking
the assumption that all things will be revealed through the course of
normal observation and expansion of human knowledge.  Unanswered
questions get answered and ultimately lead to more questions and so on
and so forth.  This is a natural and important process.  I love science.
I am an engineer and love solving technical problems.  Science is cold,
systematic, logical, and mathematic.  Faith requires no such development
of knowledge.  The leap of faith means that yesterday you didn't have
any (faith) and today you do.  The leap can be dramatic, breathtaking,
and life-changing.

What makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you hear
great music?  Where does that tingle come from?  Chemicals in your brain
stimulating neural responses caused by vibrations in your eardrums no
doubt.  Yes, but how does your favorite song recall memories of a lost
loved one?  How does a peculiar combination of musical notes stimulate
the neural response creating such vivid images behind your eyeballs?  I
don't know?  Are there any neurologists out there?  The point is that
there comes a point where science fails.  Throughout history, without
knowing any better, people explained things they did not understand by
attributing them to supernatural causes.  Some argue that this situation
has not changed and is the only reason to believe in God.  It is true
that human knowledge has greatly advanced such that rather than chalking
up the unexplainable to supernatural causes the initial inclination is
to look to some scientific explanation even when it is beyond our own
understanding.  New discoveries are made all the time, which as I said
lead to more questions.  I believe these discoveries provide more
insight into the mechanisms of God, and that in a way they bring us
closer to Him.  The more we learn the more we discover that the world is
a complex and interrelated system of systems which is at times very
robust and others incredibly fragile, but always beautiful.  The
advancement of science does not diminish the sovereignty of God.

The Bible is a wonderful thing. Tech...

The Bible is a wonderful thing.  Technology is a wonderful thing.  Put the two together, and you get two wonderful things.  They don't really go together.  What I mean is that technology can't improve on the Word of God.  Technology is imperfect and constantly changing and improving.  I wanted some improvements to my iphone and low and behold some of the great folks at apple made the changes for me.  Now my iphone is improved with some great new features.  The Bible never changes, but it is constantly teaching me new things.  We call it the 'Living Word of God' because no matter how many times you read a verse there is something new to add to your understanding.  Technology is made by man and is under our control.  Man did not make the Bible, God did.  Do you believe that?  Man cannot change the Bible; the Bible changes man.

I know what all the unbelievers are saying.  The bible is a corrupted work that has constantly been changing through translation and translation and copier to copyist throughout history.  In fact there is evidence that the bible we have in our hands today matches what was found in the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' and Qumran discoveries of decades ago.    Think about, the men who created new translations are very devout people.  Why else would they spend years of their lives pouring over a document unless they intended to be as true to the original as possible?  It was no small work for a medieval monk to copy a large text onto animal hides by hand.  Don't you think he would have been diligent and dedicated to getting it right?  The same with any translator.  These were the experts in their field whose goal was to spread the Word of God around the world, to fulfill what we call the great commission (Matthew 28:19).  Why is there no controversy over the Iliad?  It's as old or older than most of the Bible.  It's because the Bible is special.  It's human nature to be defensive and attack your accuser.  Think about when someone accuses you of wrong-doing.  Do you simply listen to your conscience and admit that you were in the wrong or do you become defensive and attempt to justify your actions?  In this case the Bible is the accuser.  Christians are not perfect.  In fact, Christians are among the few who would readily admit they are not perfect.  That's the whole point.  Jesus lives.  He lives in you.  Consider that advanced Christianity.  

I can't prove any of this with words.  Faith is a circular argument.  For now just think about this:  God exists and He loves you.  This is a good starting point.  I have to tell you though, once you take the first step, your whole life will change forever.  It's not about religion, it's about life.

I don't read the bible as often as I would like, but a new reading system given to me by a friend will hopefully change that.  You read ten chapters a day, each from a different book of the bible.  It is amazing to see the themes unfolding over and over again across the new and old testaments.  With the system you end up reading the most of the bible several times a year (the denser parts like Isaiah and other prophets only 1-2 times a year); you get through acts and proverbs once a month!  It is simply amazing.  If you don't read the bible every day, try this for a couple of days and it may encourage you, like it did me, to start reading the Word every single day.  Check it out on facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46416541831&ref=mf

journey down a path of broken glass

my personal journey to get closer to God; believer's blog new insights gained from reading and pondering the word; how my life is changing, to include little things like vocabulary and big things like attitudes or political views. Just being honest, and put my progress out there. could be a testimony to the family. help save some of those who are lost or bring others closer in their walk. inspiration and insight. I love to think about God; this is a way to share Him with everyone. so how to proceed? start at the beginning. don't worry about how it sounds just let the spirit flow out throughthe fingers. write for the unsaved because most people are probay lost and those that are not may be able to relate and even add with their own experiences. just let it flow and not worry about judgement or criticism. this is the spirit of god. the spirit of god is god. Jesus is god. don't worry about editing right now. I wonderr where Ll the water flowing metaphors come from? probably somewhere in psalms. that seems ri be where most of the poetic allusions come from. why not? it's the most quoted boom in the new testament followed by Isaiah a d maybe proverbs? not sure, doesn't matter. stream of conscious ess - more water. water is good for you. the spirit of god tends to do a lot of flowing and filling not unlike water. seems like it could be q good idea to let it flow over you and fill you up like water. living water rain down on me. blockage. spell check bot working l the time. interestig how the spell check catches many mistakes and not others. it never capitalizes god for me I always have to go back and fix it even Though I can never mispell adn (except just that one time Pparently). is that ironic that the world He created seems to be so against him that man won't even put it into autocorrect to capitalize His name? what does that say about us? are we so separated from Him not to give Him that common courtesy? here's a little experiment. Jeremy god Jesus Baal Satan. god gods one true god Yahweh there it worked YHWH the lord holy one holy one of the lord.

Hummingbirds

IMGP0651
Originally uploaded by Jeremy.Geiss

I have a serious thing for hummingbirds lately. They are so beautiful and just inspiring in a very deep spiritual way. They are basically big honey bees (without the sticky sweet substance for the benefit of mankind). They area reminder that God is in control of the small things also.

What are you afraid of?

Obama speaking directly to school children is not only unprecedented it is alarming, and I'll tell you why. Firstly he is undermining parental authority. If all he wants is 'to encourage students to pursue their goals' why is he not sending a message to TEACHERS encouraging them to TEACH their students, which is, in fact, their job. Secondly, people may be throwing around the term indoctrination a little too much these days, but this seems to be a clear attempt at creating a cult of personality to me, by a political figure directly addressing school age children not in the presence of their parents.

It scares me that our political discourse has degenerated to the level that disagreeing with an elected official who happens to represent a cultural minority provokes being called a racist. This should scare everyone, irrespective of your opinion on the issues, who tries to have an honest, intelligent discussion.

President Obama is not my leader, he is my President and Commander in Chief. Words are important. The more you agree to compromise them the less important your voice becomes. I also strongly disagree with the term 'Czar'. Do not forget that the term comes from the name, Caesar, who also began as an elected official, then made himself Dictator for life, and whose adopted son became the first emperor of the Roman Empire.

These are my replies to facebook comments after I was called a racist for disagreeing with the president. All this after picking up my five year old from her radical, racist redneck, conservative evangelical Christian indoctrination school where she is being taught such radical and earth shattering ideas such as respecting authority while maintaining the right to question it, and, above all, to fear God because He first loved us and is holy and righteous.