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Getting somewhere requires effort, it takes
faith to push on, it's easy to screw up,
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Friday, May 28, 2010
Bragging? Big strong? Who cares if others get hurt?Bragging? Big strong? Who cares if others get hurt?
This is direct comment on Psalm 52 NIRV
Have you ever met people who
tell you have they are such big, strong men or women! Do they brag about the evil things they've done?
Doing this dishonors God! We should not do it. Those that plan ways to take down others (a common
business strategy these days) are not doing something God appreciates! They are often great speakers and can come up with
great manipulating words that cut their opponents down and make them appear fools. Distorting truth is considered “spin”
and so is now considered acceptable! It is not, it is lies! These people love planning evil and doing it in a way that allows
them to gain! The prefer to lie than be truthful when cornered!
The fact that others get hurt
along the way as these lies spread doesn’t worry this type of person one little bit!
These
types of people will be ultimately destroyed by God in the future. They will be destroyed forever. He will take them
and throw them out of their lives of comfort and false value. They will die and instead of reward will receive pain, eternal
pain!
Those of us that try to not do this and try to live right will be rewarded, we will not be
surprised at that happens to those who do these wrong things. Everyone dies, everyone is judged!
Then those who are right with God will look at those who are not and say “"Just look at this person! They
didn't depend on God for their safety. They put their trust in all their wealth. They grew strong by destroying others!"
We who try to live righteous lives are different. We plug into the ternal power socket and
have Holy Spirit rule in our lives. We trust in God’s love. Always!
Let’s
thank God and tell him how great it is to be with him! How great his love is and how much we appreciate it! Always!
Let us say to our loving Father. . .
“ I will praise you forever for what you have done.
I will put my hope
in you because you are good. I will praise you when I'm with your faithful people.”
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Hurt and suffering has a purpose! ... “We are full of joy even when we suffer.We know that our suffering gives us the strength to go on.The strength to go on produces character.Character produces hope.And hope will never let us down.”
A
few days back in my blog Strength to go on, joy while we strain and stress! I explained how we can have joy despite
suffering and how we gain strength to the point that we develop character. I used climbing, a sport I do to explain how this
happens in that discipline and explained how we are able to achieve the same through life and following the guidelines God
has given us.
Character is a difficult word to understand. It describes complex attributes that
determines a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions or good repute. What do we think of when we think of a person of good character.
Enthusiasm!
The person has a enthusiastic attitude to what is to done and what is happening around them.
Quality!
They have an attitude of providing
and inspiring quality to the best of their ability.
Action based!
They
are ready to do! They don’t look at why things cannot be done, but get into doing what can be done. They have an attitude
of lets do it!
Value others!
They see the true positive potential of those around
them and promote it to all those they meet.
Encouragers!
They encourage others to reach their own potential and to encourage others.
Christ based!
This
is a Christian attribute of character; we try and align ourselves with biblical truth as revealed by Jesus.
Now with these described how many of these are not possible if we have experienced suffering? Can we have
these attitudes even if we are suffering? Of course, but it’s a bit more difficult. It takes the grace of God to overcome
the pain and still move forward in strength.
God provides us with this strength. It’s amazing how effective
we are when we live lives of character despite suffering! It speaks loudly about our value and worth. Suffering gives weight
to the truths we speak! Suffering gives us depth behind statements we make. If we can still make them and mean them while
suffering, they are hard to refute.
Have you ever noticed how when we encourage and help others even if we
are a bit down ourselves, it helps us also feel better? It helps everyone! Unfortunately, the opposite attitude takes
everyone down. Isn’t that itself a reason to take the positive, high road?
So I
think we can agree that the strength to go on produces character!
In addition to this as we build
our character, and we align it to the Character of Christ, we understand God’s plan so much more and
we have a positive hope for the world around us instead of a gloomy negativity attitdue!
That’s what
God wants! He has a great future for us all and wants us to respond and live that way because it’s good for us and others!
Isn’t that great! Isn’t it wonderful to have a positive hope! It’s available to us all. You got it?
Thu, May 27, 2010 | link
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Scientists produce “life”?...
In an article entitled
“It's alive! Artificial DNA controls life
Synthetic genome blazes trail for new drugs and biofuels"
Eric
Bland describes how a group of scientists have gone and taken DNA that they copied from a bacteria, and remade and
modified and inserted into a host cell with no DNA. This bacteria “like a bolt of lightening”…”invigorated
the host cell, which began to grow and reproduce”
Hmmm! Makes me think of that
old story about the scientist and God who meet and the scientist says to God, “I can create life!” to
which God says “show me”. The scientist bends down and picks up a handful of dirt only to find God has a disapproving
look. “what?” asks the scientist. “get your own dirt!” says God.
It is amazing
to me that it takes man 15 years and $40 million worth of research to copy what God created, makes one or two modifications (which causes it to syntehesise
wityh some mistakes) and then Journalists claim these guys have created life!
I notice in the Wall street journal the story is more factual and does not make this
outrageous life creation statement. That article is entitled “How We Created the First Synthetic Cell The assembled genome is the largest chemically defined structure ever synthesized
in the laboratory.” A much more accurate and modest report!
In
fact these scientists say “Kornberg did
not create life in a test tube, nor did we create life from scratch. We transformed existing life into new life. We also did
not design and build a new chromosome from nothing. Rather, using only digitized information, we synthesized a modified version
of the naturally occurring Mycoplasma mycoides genome. The result is not an "artificial" life form. It is a very
real, self-replicating cell that most microbiologists would be unable to readily distinguish from the naturally occurring
counterpart without the aid of DNA sequencing”
Notice
how true journalists report facts but poor journalists like to spin up the facts to create controversy. If journalists
are not part of an integrity based publication that reports accurately we need to check out their claims before we believe
them.
It is strange to think that it took a team of guys and gals 15 years and $40 million to copy
an insignificant part of creation. They still have to get it right, and then some people say the rest of the complexity
and beauty around us had no guidance from God! Which is harder to believe, that there was guidance ensuring no run away creation
of monsters that consume and eradicate the other parts of creation, or that everything is a product of probability and dice
rolls?
To me there is no choice. I have met God, so I am biased! I know that but there was
a time when I wasn’t and even then I didn’t consider the probability theory was good enough!
I
think it’s great we are learning more about God’s creation. Isn’t it a privilege to be alive when all these
great discoveries are occurring? We are in a place where we can see with clarity as never before the immense forces
at work to establish this wonderful world we live in. From the smallest and nearest to the most extreme, large and distant,
we gather more knowledge daily. I want to get to understand these new discoveries because I see this as an opportunity to
learn more about God. I trust you are the same! There is so many amazing things to learn and understand provided we ignore
the journalists who want to excite our emotions past where the actual truth is.
Let’s enjoy
today’s discoveries and make life a little more interesting for those around us today. Let’s check out
claims we hear from a variety of sources because God wants two or three witnesses to facts. That’s the biblical approach!
Let’s go and discover
wisely what today has to offer! Have a great day!
Wed, May 26, 2010 | link
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Strength to go on, joy while we strain and stress!... This weekend was the Canadian Bouldering Championships!
My
family are all involved in climbing in the way other families are involved in hockey, baseball, basketball or soccer!
We all own our own gear, our own climbing shoes, chalk bags and have our favourite clothes to climb in.
The
championships were held in Toronto Canada and had some incredible climbers, my daughter being among the Canadian
women’s open finalists. My son does setting of routes, a complicated process of placing rocks in various angles and
distances from each other along a wall made specially for the purpose, so as to force certain complicated climbing moves.
I am a less serious climber doing only recreational climbing but I take our youth to the competition because of what it teaches
them about life and the Christian walk of life.
The reason I mention this is because one of the lessons they learn is part of
what Paul is talking about in our sacred writings when in Romans 5 he says:
We have been made right with
God because of our faith. Now we have peace with him because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus we have received
God's grace. In that grace we stand. We are full of joy because we expect to share in God's glory.
And that's not all. We are full of joy even when
we suffer. We know that our suffering gives us the strength to go on. The strength to go on produces character.
We
believe in God and in Jesus who gives us the ability to chat to God each day and have a relationship with him, we are able
to know through what Jesus said, that God accepts us and that we will be able to be right there with God at some point. We
will share in the amazing things God has and does!
The thing that is more difficult to understand
is joy while we strain and stress with life! When life causes us to suffer!
Climbers
understand this well! When we get up to climb, we feel healthy, invigorated and ready for the challenge. Climbing
competitions take three hours and there are fifty problems (a problem is the term for a combinations of rocks layed out on
a wall to test a particular climbing skill set and having a specific difficulty).
Each problem has a different
score value and you climb the problem to attain that score. In competitions, the top six scores makes up your overall
score. Climbers attempt to climb at the highest level they possibly can to achieve the best they can.
If you choose
to hard a problem, you climb and fall off without getting to the end and get no score. Choose to easy a problem, means you
don’t score well. This means that over the first hour, you try the hardest problems possible to get the best
score possible, and then over the next two hours you fill in your score by climbing some easier ones to make up your routes,
then some harder ones to improve your score.
Climbing comes with pain! Hanging onto the rocks takes all ones strength,
and when you are feet away from the objective and your muscles tell you they cannot take any more, you tend to ignore the
pain and move on. When you achieve the goal and finish the route, the joy is huge. Then despite the tiredness, the sore muscles
and the painful fingers (some of which loose their skin on the rough rocks), we go on to try and complete the next problem,
because we “enjoy” it.
A climber really understands the phrase “no pain no gain”
but also acutely understands that to really enjoy our sport requires the right equipment, being prepared, ignoring the negative
feedback our bodies give us and striving for excellence!
A mature Christian really understands
similarly!
We understand we need to prepare for life, we spend time reading up on the manual
of how to live effectively. We hand our lives over to God the ultimate coach! We memorise key truths to give us the equipment
to take on life’s problems. We prepare ourselves and then we take on life with joyful expectation of the ultimate joy
of living because we know whatever it deals out, we have the best coach, the best equipment and we are doing the best we can
with the God given abilities we have. Yes, there are pains in life, the body of Christ or the “church” as we call
it is imperfect (like my own body), but together we work at life and improve it. We succeed in overcoming problems by ignoring
the pain and keeping focussed on the goal and then taking time to enjoy our accomplishment and prepare for the next challenge.
That’s
the way we keep joyful as we go! Continual success because we are continually striving at the right level! A climber
learns quickly that not all climbers are the same. They have to climb to their ability and be satisfied with achieving their
goals. As Christians we need to not try and do what others are able to do, but must only walk our own path through life’s
hurdles. That way we find joy! When we are doing what God knows is right for us!
There are unexpected rewards along the way as well. Every now and then an unexpected prize comes
our way. Like me a middle aged guy coming in second in the recreational category of the competition. Unexpected but pleasant!
God provides us encouragement along the way and motivates us, but to get it we do have to be willing to take on life and it’s
challenges with joy. Thats what builds character!
Are
you ready to have an excellent joyful day today even if you have to overcome some challenges to do so?
I am! Let’s
go and have a joy filled day!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Empowered lives, super mind, the breath of God!?Empowered lives, super mind, the breath of God!?
Previously
we discussed Jesus didn’t come to establish a religion, but a way of life that was a heart or attitude changing.
We discussed we could mould our spirituality and that it involved the interplay between our will and desires
and spirituality.
Now we want to investigate how we align
ourselves to be empowered by God. Often we see these superheroes in movies that have super abilities. The difference
between this and the super-ability of God in our lives is significant and difficult to explain.
Bruxy of the Meeting house
refers to the movie “The Abyss” in this regard, particularly to the scene where a rat is dropped into a liquid
that it can actually breath in. This liquid that carries oxygen actually exists! The rat is dropped in and for a second considers
itself to be drowning. It fights breathing in the liquid, but when it does take it in, it suddenly finds out it can breath
quite well. It experiences the strange experience of breathing what it would be drinking!
Bruxy then explains that
this is a bit of an analogy to how a Christian should experience Holy Spirit. Sometimes we fight hard to avoid Holy
Spirit to our own discomfort. What we need to do is drink in the living water of Holy Spirit and know at the same
time every breath we take in is part of the experience of living in alignment with Holy Spirit.
Just as we need air
to breath and water to not die of thirst, so we need Holy Spirit if we are to have a live filled with action of Holy Spirit.
Hold your breath for 3 minutes! I guess that request is one that most of us would consider crazy!
We just can’t do it. In spiritual terms however, we do it all the time. We are quite happy
to starve ourselves of spiritual “air”. In spiritual terms we are being just as crazy! Do we even think
about that? Is it surprising most people reject spiritual power? They are basically spiritually dead! Thank God he doesn’t
take both physical and spiritual breath from us. See psalm 104:29-30 to see what would happen then! To overcome this problem,
we need to invite holy Spirit into our minds. We need to agree with Colossians 1:17 that “Before anything
was created, he was already there. He holds everything together.” We need to be able to say and mean what it says
in 1 John 4:16 “So we know that God loves us. We depend on it. God is love. Anyone who leads a life of love shows
that he is joined to God. And God is joined to him.”
Our lives need to be tracking
with God’s totally if we are to avoid disaster.
Years ago I worked on air traffic control consoles.
There is a symbol that shows the position of the aircraft. The controller directs the aircraft, but he does it looking at
the symbol. The pilot can do what the controller asks or do his own thing, but to be safe he needs to listen to the controller.
Holy Spirit is in our life and we need to make him the pilot. God and Holy Spirit are one. God sees
much more than we do and to be safe we need to follow his lead. We need to have holy Spirit in us, and we need to decide to
let our minds and wills be piloted by God. That’s the way we get to live safely and yet freely at
the same time.
That pilot can go anywhere he wants so long as he checks out the flight plan with the controller and
reacts when the controller tells him to! Its critical to safety.
Reacting to Holy Spirit and keeping
our communication with Him open all the time is critical for our safety. Lets try and do this today. Lets keep in
contact with God as we live our lives. That’s my challenge for today! What’s yours?
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If you want to see a short blog describing a perspective on what I believe click here
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Rift in Evil
By Ken
X Briggs - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size:
6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. |
Credit cards are acceptable on sites having Ken's books: 
:)
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| Ken's book covers are displayed below. . . | |  This
suspense thriller centers on Kiara, a beautiful young woman pursued by a murderous group of people, who relentlessly and ruthlessly
hunt her and her sisters. Kiara has no idea why she is being targeted! When Kiara and her family turn to the law for help,
this fails. Her pursuers’ powers reach deeply into the political and law enforcement world. Family support for her dwindles
when they too have to flee her pursuers. Can Kiara escape the clutches of both the law and dishonest big business? With the
media broadcasting that Kiara and friends are dangerous and subversive, can Kiara clear her name and bring her pursuers to
justice?
| | | | | To purchase Kiara's Pursuer ebook
@ $1.99 kindle version click here, To contact the author contact Author@KenXBriggs.com | | | | | | | | The town of Zinaville is dropped into a spiral of evil causing a young man and a beautiful but abused woman
to launch into an investigation that unveils an evil conspiracy. A horrific mining accident results in Joshua
Robyn's father being killed. Joshua struggles both with himself and his townsfolk as he tries to make sense of an incomprehensible
situation. Is it an accident or a murder? Why is there a seeming link to evil? Why is his work environment suddenly threatening?
What is the conspiracy about and what are they trying to do? As action moves dramatically from exotic African grasslands to
the heart of North America's cities, the plot unfolds and the pace quickens. Will there be time? Why is a beautiful abused
young woman in the center of this plot? Evil tendrils tighten on their lives and the interplay between the visible
and invisible world shows opposing forces at work. Will there be a rift in evil? Will they be able to stop the
evil in time? | | - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect
Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size: 6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available
from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. Chapters | | | | |
| Frugal Eating Advice |
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| Good advice for students living on limited $'s. Click on the image! |
May you be blessed today!
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