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| Those of you who have read, or plan to read THE SHACK (please read it first), I want to ask a question:
What do you think about the marks of nail scars in Papa's hands? I found most of the portrayal of the godhead acceptable, and interesting, but this was something that I wondered how others viewed the idea.
Looking forward to responses.
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| As a member of a labor union, I respect their goals. But I do not always (usually?) agree. This is one of those times. The AFT is trying to get all members to lobby Congress for affordable Health Care. Sounds like a good plan, doesn't it? The problem is that their proposals will cost each of us over $1000 more in Health Care costs per year. I have already seem my group insurance rates increase about $70 this past month. There is nothing in the proposed coverage proposals that will give me or my family anything we are not already getting. And, it will not be a choice: that is wrong! Some people choose not to take our Health Insurance coverage. That option will no longer be there. And, should end-of-life decisions be in the hands of each family and their personal physician for the loved one? Or should it depend on the advice of bureaucrats? That is EXACTLY where these proposals want to put it: in the hands of bureaucrats. And, coverage for all Reproductive choices being optional: forget about it--they mandate coverage of all matters including sex change and abortion. For those reasons, I will not agree, and will continue to fight this invasion of rights by the President and his evil minions.
Today, I was perusing the local newspaper, and found out that the AFT and NEA locals have filed a lawsuit to recover campaign costs from the sponsors of last years failed limitation tax measures on our Oregon ballot. They were recently sued for their inflamatory slander and name calling in the Voter's Pamphlet. I know the people involved, and there were NO untrue statements issued by the chief sponsor. He was exercising democracy. So, I stand with the oppressed, if the teacher unions want to sue. THEY ARE WRONG!
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| Much has been said lately about a Mayan calendar that is thought to indicate that the world will end in 2012. I would ask if others agree with me that this is unnecessary date setting, and seems unwarranted for a Christian? I believe it is clear from what Jesus said to his disciples in Acts 1, that no one knows the day, nor the hour (let alone the year, or the month of the year) when the Son of Man will come. I know of no other event that any of us should be concerned with.
Having said that, I want to also say that we were given signs to watch for, and many more of those signs have been fulfilled in the past 20 years, than in the previous 30, which exceeded the signs of the previous 100 before that, especially as it relates to the nation of Israel, Russia, and the areas now occupied by Iraq and Iran. There is a sense in which we are seeing the end signs far more now than ever before. And don't we see a great apostasy among believers? We are living in a time when far too many claiming disciples are rejecting the very basic doctrines of our faith, and far more are excusing behavior that was severely sanctioned in past generations. Have we no seen the apostasy and realized that was one of the signs Jesus gave?
I believe God gives to any open heart a certain portion of His divine wisdom and council in the ways of God. I believe that many of the past civilizations had a knowledge of the "God who is there", even if they did not acknowledge the true God of Heaven. So, if there is a prophecy in their literature that has the ring of truth, why should we be surprised? It just may be another prophecy of what God is about to do. OR, it could be nonsense and we should not worry about it. I take it as a possible sign post urging me, and all I love, to get ready; Jesus is coming.
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| (First, about the book, and the story it contains: It is a story. I do not believe we are take it for more than a story. This is not a lesson in theology. Yet, William Paul Young throws in enough detail that you wonder, as you read: is this something that really happened? The main action takes place in an area of Eastern Oregon just north of where I lived for 3 years. I found myself imagining the scenery along with the protagonist, as he went through his adventure. Here are a few more things I got from the book.)
God will meet us where we are, and bring us to where we should be. In the story, God does not force the protagonist to go anywhere, but he makes him to want to move. God does that. Sometimes he makes our present circumstances uncomfortable, so that we will seek to move on. Sometimes he will offer us that "huge fish" to be caught, and then we find an even greater treasure awaiting us. He knows the way that I go, and how to direct me to go the way He wants me to go. When He gets me there, He will reveal things I could not otherwise know.
God cares about our hurts. He will come to us in a manner in which we can feel comfortable: food, gender approachability, exercise and vision. He will bring us to healing, while not holding back forever on where He says we need discipline.
God will seek to satisfy even that last area of grief to bring us to closure. It is not God's will that we continue in life as wounded warriors, unless you mean by that the evident scars in our hands. God can see the areas where our soul has been ripped to shreds, and He knows how to mend it as good as new, and He will do it. In the book, God does bring the protagonist to closure, and peace about the future.
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| It is hard to say that I prefer any one part of the year more than another. But today I think I realized that I really like the days in early October when the temperature is starting to fall, and the fluffy clouds skidding past the moon make for eerie sensations of mystery. This morning dawned sunlit, with a few clouds (after predictions yesterday evening that we would have rain, heavy rain, by daybreak. So I was surprised and pleased. I went over to work at the church (which included some outdoor work), and was coming home via the store to allow my wife to have the car to get to work: she had walked. It was starting to rain, and I noticed the water flowing over the rain gutters, so instead of trying to catch up with her, I got the ladder, and climbed up to remove the leaves. By the time I got done with our gutters, and three other neighbor's gutters, I was thoroughly soaked, and figured she would have arrived at work by now, so I came inside and dried off. This evening: it is back to fluffy clouds surrounding the moon, and dry. That is a Western Oregon October evening. Lovely. I like where I get to live.
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