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A funny thing happened to me a while back in that I thought a co-worker had a symbolic message artfully welded onto the backside of his company vehicle. The first thing I was drawn to at the very center (significant) of the sign was a “T” which to me looked more like a cross based on where the lines intersected and then on both sides were the symbols “X” and “O” (Hugs and Kisses) which I immediately thought he was trying to creatively communicate His love for Jesus. Looking his way, I proudly gave him a thumbs up as pointing to the back of his truck and then when I questioned Him about the church he attended he gave me a puzzled response towards the relevance of making such a statement as quickly telling me that it was only the company logo, something I should have known or recognized considering I’ve been employed there for nine years. Needless to say, I was embarrassed over my misconception but not ashamed of what I thought it represented. Come to find out he did go to church even though his purpose was not to share the gospel with his tailgaters.

Anyway, this example could lead to various applications as to lessons learned, such as, immediately jumping to conclusions before having all the facts, inattentive as overlooking the obvious, that postmodernism is erroneous as these letters were intended to have an objective meaning, instead of a relative significance, according to the designer’s (welder’s), not the observer’s, intent. That such faulty occurrences, like pareidolia, are often misread into explaining certain phenomena as a mystical sign in wrongly deciphering the facts. So what some may regard as a valid interpretation to a modern art abstraction (former e.g.) or a symbolic apparition of a cryptic text (later e.g.), proved itself to be neither.

Also it goes to show that sometimes we can be biased in our views or hold certain presuppositions in only seeing what we want to see while refusing (key) to see what is really there or maybe it’s due to having a limited framework of knowledge, as within culturalism, in being sincere about one’s belief but sincerely wrong.

Nonetheless, there are all sorts of epistemic problems we could imagine to this scenario as leading to a poor hermeneutic but one important matter I wanted to bring out in this blog is that even though my perspective was entirely off and wrong my heart was not, given that the case for Christian theism is a warranted position.

In respect to such a consideration, what is your primary focus or aim in life? What quickly captures your imagination or attention? Could God be the furthest thought from your mind, as blinding, unable to catch your eye or deadening in failing to get your auditory attention? Ironically, if God made such functions even possible to begin with then it is reasonable that He wants us to take notice. Yet, why is mankind so dysfunctional towards sensing their Creator? If there are sufficient signs as to the created order, then why should others, such as naturalists, expect even more signs from God as proof when they are not really listening or looking for Him anyway? Some would rather offer excuses that it’s not enough and when is it ever? Jesus said, you can easily discern the earthly signs as to the weather and for today new-agers may know their zodiac sign so that a scientific and religious community has connections to both the heavens and the earth; yet, to only be preoccupied with such forms is to miss or miss out on the One who is transcendentally formless and who cannot be conformed, conned to be formed, to our will, but rather we have a need, because of a sinful rebellious nature, indicated by a negative response to the above questions, to be transformed to do His will on earth as it is in heaven so that the very essence of our person is a love for God in which our heart’s deepest desires and mindful thoughts become foremost rather than hindmost in what we see(k).

Mark 12:30

30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.

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Often we are wowed by people’s knowledge/understanding and to such a degree that it is often mind-boggling. Haven’t you ever thought, how did they figure that out, as if it’s almost humanly impossible to derive such cognizance.

Such know-how appears to be so insurmountable in that it eludes our grasp with a great sense of wonderment. Yet even in the greatness of our vast intellect there are those who are in the know, which are often bewildered by things which they have not yet learned in realizing that some things are beyond themselves which should strongly hint that if we are at the top of the chain that someone else is holding the other end. Some may think to themselves How Great They Art, yet realize the restrictions of sometimes being left to the observation and discovery of things as limited to only being able to theoretically describe stuff. This concept should get us to begin pondering such deep mysteries of the universe in asking ourselves such metaphysical questions of how and why we have attained this understanding or what is the ultimate source to such brilliance.

Some will overconfidently state, such as with evolutionary thought, given enough time, eventually, someone will figure it out, just wait and see; as forming a Naturalism of the gaps. While others going beyond such wish projection have made an effort in answering such questions as treating it as only a material construct and then to ensure their success they go outside of the science department as taking over the department of communication as marketing themselves as SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) in mastering the art of persuasion as realizing they better come up with something or else.

One approach is to attribute such creative wisdom to that of Mother Nature as a mythical person in only fooling themselves, not her.

For others who would deny this sort of fabled personage would perhaps prefer some mysteriously impersonal and indescribable force that is simply out there without any further explanation as to “that’s all there is folks” or maybe creating a new identity as using the secret agent of Chance who is the brainiac of the operation as given such attributes of volition and intellect but who remains incognito as confusing this code word with an identity.

Some realizing that these options are not viable look to infinity and beyond in the stretches of outer space to that of other possible world scenarios in hopes that SETI can get a callback number from ET.

Yet in some respects, God is alien, but not alien enough to completely leave us from being visited, which is what the materialist fears.

Though I have joked a bit about this situation we know that to some degree we are all wrong about some things, e.g. Einstein cosmological constant, and sometimes it can even be a consensus. Yet we behave as if we really do know. Have you ever been so sure about something only to find out later that you were entirely wrong and then make excuses on how you completely missed the boat even though it was in the dock the whole time? We’ve all been there and done that in giving erroneous arguments while thinking we were right. Then there are times we are partially correct but even then the best of lies can be mostly true.

Anyway, what brought this all about originally is that I had a similar situation like this happen at work in which I was trying to figure out a piece of equipment that we had no information on. The problem is I was trying to do this with certain criteria not realizing that my input to how I thought or wanted it to be designed didn’t create a reality to how it was really made. Yet this is how we treat God and my challenge to you is to reconsider what you might think you know or have been taught in questioning mere physicalism to consider such ontological matters.

Finally, in returning to the illustration of the chain, knowledge is a leash by which the Chainholder uses to guide others, but oftentimes it is met with resistance in failing to yield to Him the right of way as leading them down the right path. So in their struggle, they run away thinking themselves to be free of such cruel restraint, in becoming lost needing to be found, if only the person had the sense to know that the owner’s desire was to have them walk safely by His side as a loving companion then perhaps this whole runaround wouldn’t have been necessary to begin with. #Godsbestfriend

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All of us influence other people to some degree or another as either positive, negative, or a combination of both and I believe that one of the best examples of this is our children as they are the most responsive to our authority, at least before they reach a strong sense of independence otherwise known as rebellion.

Nonetheless, parents can also be dysfunctional, as exploiting their kids according to their own best interests and wishes as damaging these little guys for life as through their words, actions, and attitudes. In my culture, one of the ways I see this is through the activity of sports and academics, as if the parents are competing through the child as an attempt to gain a sense of superiority in affirming themselves as winners through the extension of their children and then showing off by displaying their bragging rights on the appropriate bumper sticker. Of course, I think it is good to back our children but not manipulating them as a game piece in directing their efforts and abilities just to buttress the parents’ esteem, which if losing, resorts to becoming a poor sport as making excuses by blaming the child or society for failing them. This sort of child’s play gives our children the wrong idea as setting them up for failure with a value system that equates importance based on the performance of how society defines such success as a part of the ethos of our cultural milieu. This overreaching development creates a persona that can cause the child to lose their unique identity as living their parent’s dreams in convincing them that it’s all because they are a chip off the old block.

Also, another matter to consider is that parents may negatively affect their children’s ethics. I remember my mother’s infamous words as instructing me in righteousness as to heed her sacrilegious hypocritical oath to ‘do what I say and not what I do” in using the fallacy of power and authority to convince us to take such action seriously not realizing that her behavior was perhaps more convincing and impactful than her concise little creedal formula in supporting her situational ethics. Yet washing ones’ hands like this does not leave a person guiltless but rather it becomes self-convicting as “ doing what they know not to do”. Therefore telling you to do one thing while doing another is not a privilege of authority or age but rather a shoddy excuse for such an important role model.

The reason I used the example of children is because these little eyes and ears see and hear things which they shouldn’t be exposed to by those to whom they have been entrusted to as their guardians, in serving to protect, not endanger. It’s one thing to be unconcerned about your life, but when you project wrong values onto your children then it becomes a matter of neglect and abuse.

Anyway, to objectively ground one’s ethic a person must speak of God, not as we would define or not define God, or how society would do so, but God, as based on truth instead of pure subjectivism, which again, would be making them worship a god according to your own image.

Some in realizing this become passive participants in getting a little closer to the church door by dropping their kids off for vacation bible school, youth group, or the annual festival events of Easter and Christmas, thinking that this is win-win situation for God and themselves as providing both spiritual and natural care in the form of free babysitting. Then on the other side, there are those who could care less as not even bothering with such pretense in going all the way in converting them to be twice the son of hell.

Finally, I can only pray that you would at least give them a chance towards belief and not fear that your child’s testimony will usurp your authority in having to deal with these little feet who are swift to preach the good news by whom God has perfected such praise for His glory.

Though you may object to the concept of God in having power and control of your children’s lives, this becomes self-refuting, as you are trying to influence them otherwise, in pretending to play god through some self-acclaimed role of which you have no part.

In comparison it’s sickly for some to state that children are not a life while waiting to exit the door of the womb yet in some respects there is a similar correlation to these babies not having any real rights to life and life eternal even up to the time they leave and walk out of their childhood homes.

Thus my challenge to you in all of this is to seek after the truth of God, for both of your sakes, as recognizing the potential for a ripple effect in affecting future generations of people in leading them towards righteousness, rather than condemnation. I can say all of this because at one time when I was younger and wanted to serve God, my parents, were unable or unwilling to take the lead in playing a more supportive role as making a positive difference as encouraging me towards this goal. And who knows, perhaps you may come to believe a little latter in life and then regret losing that window of opportunity, which is what happened with my parents who came to trust Jesus when they were older, and graciously, God intervened and salvaged the family operation.

In closing, I hope that you will re-think your position towards influencing others eternally, namely your kids, who are watching your example as making note of your life. Therefore, would it be too much to ask to initially default towards giving God the benefit of the doubt instead of merely doubting His benefits. After all how will it benefit you in the end to avoid or repress the pursuit of truth in respect to God as hostilely opposed or indifferently entrenched towards not giving any ground towards your families inheritance? For if this God idea is true, as I believe it is, then wouldn’t this be the most important legacy in life as influencing your progeny towards Christ? #thinkaboutmakingadifference.

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One of the most significant problems in our lives are the distractions that we allow as becoming more technologized with devices that compete for our time and attention. This behavior becomes imminently dangerous as we accommodate these advances on the road for the sake of our entertainment, business, and personal needs. What we fail to think about is that our decision to momentarily allow these objects into our driving space becomes detrimental as momentarily taking our eyes or focus off of the roadway as potentially destroying ourselves and the precious lives of others as including future generations. Many times we are so in the moment that we fail to think about the lasting consequences of our impulsive decisions to play Russian roulette as forgetting what we have in our hands is essentially a loaded gun leading to suicidal or homicidal actions by our irresponsible behavior of driving distracted.

Many of us realize this deep down but fail to ignore these dangers in allowing a split second  interchange which is way too long in possibly sending you and others to an eternal destiny as a radical stop or departure from your intended temporal earthly destination.

One of the reason why I using the illustration of distracted driving is because it is one of the most prominent examples of how we overlook the seriousness of operating the machinery of life while impaired as a regular routine of our daily living without giving it a second thought. Why this is so critical is because lives are at stake and what I find perplexing is that people treat life as though watching a movie or like gaming as some sort of illusion as a spectator who is fastened to a theater seat or perhaps being strapped into some kind of harmless simulator or maybe holding onto a joystick in manipulating an avatar as themselves in escaping a reality as to somehow inertly be unaffected by life’s happenings. Pretending to be in some dream world instead of responding to a wake-up call to heed the warning signs of our existence through the preaching of ad campaigns and statistics as to its dangers.

We behave as if we have nine lives in gaining some sort of immortal immunity in failing to realize that death could be just inches away as an unintelligible metallic force precedes to miss us, head on, hundreds of times each day.

So whether it is something as suddenly drastic as a car wreck or some other serious condition, nonetheless, the ultimate consequence of living life is always death, which can be premature. It is something that can’t be avoided nor ignored and each time you drive by the welcoming gate of a cemetery it should be a conscious reminder of the inevitable in making us realize that one day we will be chauffeured to be parked in such a spot.

Lastly, these actions also correspond to a spiritual reality and I would encourage you to live responsibly each day as if it’s your last, as it might well be, and don’t become so distracted by life in seeing God as some far away destination on your bucket list in remembering that buckets can be tipped over in losing everything that we thought was important but essentially was not #todayisthedayofsalvation.

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This is what Muhammad Ali theatrically said about himself when referring to his boxing skills as well as how others correspond in treating the human icons of success, whether it’s in academics, athletics, music, acting, philanthropy, wealth, modeling, politics, etc., Just fill in the blank to what people admire as having a sense of awe for in excelling at their skill or position in life.

What I find troubling in all this is that others can hate God while loving and appreciating the greatest of human potential which at their very best are merely human in comparison to God who can’t be outdone. God infinitely possesses such superior qualities, yet ironically, people are often repulsed by the idea of worshipping and honoring Him in His Omni greatness as exchanging His glory for those who are only image bearers, Romans 1:22-25, Psalms 8:3-5.

Another matter is that some of these secular values may be entertaining and add diversity to life but are not necessarily essential or critical to human existence as offering superficial value while treating the One as merely optional who has given such acclaimed heroes their life and breath.

It’s sad how others are willing to entrust their time, energy, and money in pursuit of those who can only offer such temporal benefits and ideals but it is God who gifts us with eternal things, as giving rather than merely receiving. However, some would rather place their gift on the human altar of excellence than to receive this greatest gift of all.

Not only that, but some can admire these people so greatly and never meet nor have a real relationship with them and thus it seems scandalous when God is personal, as with Jesus, in having a real relationship with us, yet exchange His person in favor of these applauded pseudo characters who take the center stage for a brief moment in time only to be replaced by new cast members as mostly leaving behind a faint and delible mark while booing the Director who made the entire human drama.

Furthermore, even when considering some of the greatest people in your life; it is God the Creator, who made such relationships possible as a part of His imprint in bestowing such love and care, and though these human relationships are essential and irreplaceable, somehow God who formed such a reciprocation is marginalized as rejected. Moreover, all people, including yourself, can let others down while God’s love, though sometimes misunderstood, is perfect and never fails, while ours is imperfect as evidenced as failing to fully love this great God.

Anyway you may be oblivious to the mechanism of how this all works but the Bible simply explains this problem as the natural tendency of our sinful nature, in bringing about this separation of enmity between God and ourselves as prone towards rebellion, resulting in mankind behaving like a wild brute of a beast in avoiding God through fight or flight, even though instinctively we should realize He is the giver of life in its fullness, John 10:10, Romans 5:10, 8:7, Matthew 11:28-30.

So not only is there a battle between the will and nature but it also becomes one of reason which becomes so unreasonable as unjustly unfounded on various grounds as to find such ad hoc excuses to hate God as the “Great I Am” in condemning Him without a rightful cause, John 15:17-25.

Just to think that in the aptitude of His all-powerful knowingness (omniscience) that He even allowed you to take such a position or make such a conclusion proves that He is not some tyrannical and overbearing ruler as giving you the right to accept or reject His Lordship. Thus, this sort of freedom speaks even more to a person’s condemnation over such wrongful condescension as this privilege allows for such rights in which we would find inexcusable and intolerable if we were treated accordingly, especially by those to whom we have nurtured in life.

Finally, there is no good reason to love others as God or place yourself above God as He humbled Himself as a little lower than the angels to exalt you, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 2:14-18. Furthermore, there is no excuse to maintain such anger as God pursues to reconcile you unto Himself, and therefore, I can only hope that you will become reconcilable towards Him, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.

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