Hypocrites! We all hate ‘em. They say one thing and then do another.
Still how many people say this and then turn out to be hypocrites themselves? Sure you hate how good people seem when they are in front of the crowd or cameras, or even when authorities are around, whether it is cops, parents, a boss, or teachers.
Then no sooner does the crowd disperse, the cameras leave, or the one with authority leave then they show his/her true colors and rips you to shreds. They call you freak, weirdo, nerd, geek, or worse.
It’s like watching the jerk who picked on you all throughout high school get the girl you secretly had a crush on and she thinks he’s such a sweetie. Please. If she knew what he was really like …
I think Barsidious White from the book House said it best when he was taunting the people in his house:
“Most people are quite dense. They like little white houses with big stained-glassed churches
and prefer to do their killing with looks and words behind one another’s backs.
Welcome to my house. No secrets allowed. Here we all do our killing with guns and axes and knives.
It’s more bloody than what most people are accustomed to, yes, but it’s far less brutal.”
Over the years I’ve found that I too am a hypocrite. I try to do what is right. But I still want to look good. Is it more important to look good, or to be good?
We find ourselves in a paradox that if we do good or what is right, then what good is it that no one knows?
We find that the truth of the matter is that all people including ourselves are scum.
No sooner do we take a breath of fresh air of coming to realize our true state, and then we are back to eating our vomit.
It would take some outside force to make us better than what we are. And it would have nothing to do with what we could do ourselves.
If someone made an offer to us to clean us up. Then the only thing we could do is … just accept it. As a gift. With no way to pay this person back.
My gratitude would be overflowing. I could never thank them enough. I would follow such a person, because this would be a person worth following.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
I still fight this fight. The old man in me still wants me to go back to my pit. My vomit. He would win, if it was just me fighting him, but I have help now. I don’t fight this fight alone.
My last blog featured a number of things reminding me of Revelations and other prophecies in the Bible. A few people have asked if this is what I really think
I don’t really know how everything is going to fully play out and I don’t think anyone does but God. For example, I’m not convinced the guy from Puerto Rico claiming to be the Antichrist, is the Antichrist. But I’ve come to realize that God was using articles and videos to remind me of the end times, and they are reminders that our time is running out.
The article and the videos except for Steve Taylor’s video, just came to me in the last couple of days. Yeah, I know, the Steve Taylor video and the Declaration video aren’t really end times, but all of history connects. The video about the Declaration just makes me wonder how many “Freedoms” we’ll surrender for our security. Does or how does the loss of our freedoms play into all of this?
At church today we sang a hymn tonight that goes “Soon and very soon we are going to see the Lord” and Pastor Dave mentioned that “Our time is short” and “Hell is hot” this has caused me to rethink a couple of things. Christian MySpace Graphics
I used to think we shouldn’t worry about this stuff too much cause if we get saved then we shouldn’t be around for it anyway. But then why in such a short period of time in the last 3 days or so, would God keep bringing these videos and news articles to my attention to make me think of the events and prophecies in Revelation.
In another sense, if we needn’t think of the future then why would books in the Bible like Daniel and Revelation contain prophecies about the future? There are signs and things that God must want us to know and look forward to. And even though things will get bad, we know we have hope.
Also as a follower of Christ, I have to keep my eye on the prize. I read, that if signs of Christmas are already appearing and Thanksgiving hasn’t occurred yet then chances are good that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This is true of the end times as well. If signs start to appear or things begin to happen to remind us of the prophecies of the end times then Christ’s return for us must be very soon. Could be a week, could be 50 years. Soon nonetheless. And as a follower of Christ, getting to heaven is my prize and that is something worth remembering when considering what may happen before I get there.
I admit this thought process is a bit cluttered, and I don’t really know much on the future or the meaning of the prophecies. I’m hoping to introduce thought on the subject. If not to anyone else then at least to myself. I pray God will make things clear as I study his word on the issue and read other peoples ideas on it as well. So in a sense I was kind of right, we shouldn’t worry about it in the sense of fretting, but we should think about it, and be aware of these things and look for the signs.
I came across some really wierd stuff this weekend. Since it all came to me in such a short amount of time and somehow they all seem go together, I thought I would post them all together here. I don’t normally go looking for this stuff it just sort of lands in my lap.
There’s symbolism in Megadeth’s Washington is Next song with some additional symbolism and clarification added by the video. Interesting ideas.
Then there is Steve Taylor’s satirical points on how good intentions get bathed in the machine of hopelessness to the point that we dump all our good intentions altogether, these two videos seem to lay the footwork of an examination on our political culture.
Anyway it’s just food for thought. If you want one more thing to consider, Check out this CNN Article
Megadeth – Washington is Next
Steve Taylor – Since I Gave up Hope
To leave you with something inspiring here is the Declaration of Independence which oddly enough also in some round about way has something to do with the rest of the stuff here.
It’s the Declaration of Independence
If you’d rather read it:
July 4, 1776
The Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
House is Awesome! I finished the book awhile back and can’t wait for the movie. However it’s been pushed back to the beggining of the year next year instead of October. Hopefully this is good news in that it will be a better movie.
I’m at the end of my lunch so I’ll post a couple of links about this later, but it seems that PC manufacturers and PC/Service providers are beginning to stop fixing hardware that isn’t running the Windows OS that it was sold with.
So in other words if you get Windows Vista on a computer and it doesn’t do what you need it to, so you load Linux or even Windows XP(or older) and then your hinge breaks or a crack in the case appears then the Manufacturer or Service provider will say you voided your warranty and then not fix it.
This is not only unreasonable on the business’s part it just plain falls under the stupid category. I can understand not providing drivers or software support, but the software is completely separate from the hardware in this regard. Installing Linux doesn’t make the hinge break. Although if it did, it’d be a pretty cool trick.
Update:
It looks like PC World finally decided to fix the laptop, but the local store manager still hasn’t gotten the news. Anyway it sounds like there is still confusion here. Here’s the links for the story
If this can help someone with their faith or spiritual journey then here it is. If it doesn’t help then simply toss it aside and don’t worry about it.
Why I believe in God.
The simple answer is Jesus. The much longer version is a bit of my testimony, but since this isn’t my testimony I’ll try to keep it short.
When I started writing this, I started with long drawn out thinking of different arguments and different lines of thinking to show why God is real. But as I was writing I realized that what I was writing was answers and liturgy to help me with my faith, it wasn’t why I believed to begin with.
The reason I first believed in God is because I was taught about God since I was little. By my parents. My Grandparents. The Pastor and the Sunday School teachers.
The question that sometimes gets raised to this is “Are you only a Christian because you were raised in a Christian home?”
When I was 15 I came to realize that even though I was brought up in a Christian home and I tried living a good life. I was still a sinner. I still needed a saviour. And I pulled upon what I knew to be saved and that was to give my heart to God.
The answer to the question almost 7 or 8 years ago, would have very possibly been yes.
In a metaphorical sense, I’ve come to think of Jesus like a bridegroom and his church is his bride. He woos his bride because he loves her. He shows her he loves her. He shows her the good that he has planned for her. The gifts for her. And He says she is beautiful and cherishes her in his heart. He chases after her, woos her, lavishes her. With all his love.
All my life God had blessed me greatly with a Christian home and friends that could help me see God’s love and plan for me.
It was about 7 or 8 years ago that I turned my back on God. I even stopped going to church and found myself doing things I never thought that I would do. I’m not proud of any of it.
If a bride is supposed to wear white on her wedding day to symbolize her purity, and I was a metaphorical bride, then I was no longer wearing white.
Then a year ago, when I was at my lowest, God found me. He spoke to my heart in such a way that I couldn’t deny it was him.
This isn’t my complete story by any means but I believe in God, not because I was raised in a Christian home, but because He has sought me. It was always about him seeking me.
I’ve always struggled with words. Maybe I simply worry too much about what to say. Or maybe its all the times I’ve spoken before I thought about what I was saying.
Words … are powerful.
Words can put people to sleep, no matter how much caffeine you’ve had. Just ask any student. Words can also wake you up. Especially your name. When uttered by the teacher. You know the one that just put you to sleep.
Words allow us to communicate. They can build people up. And they can tear people down.
Words can entertain us. Make us laugh. Cry. Think.
Words can be devastating when their meaning is taken wrong. Words can explain misunderstandings.
Words can be full. Words can be hollow.
It has been said that “The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword”
Do you believe this to be true? Do we act as we say?
Do our actions empower our words? Or do our words move us to act?
Words spoke the world into existence.
Words are powerful.
These are some of the thoughts I’ve had when I contemplate what to write here.
