ATTENTION SURPLUS DISORDER — PART TWO
Back on January 17, when just beginning this blog, I wrote a piece called “Attention Surplus Disorder,” thinking I was witty to come up with the name. However lots of people thought up the name before me, as I found out when I ran a search on “Attention Surplus Disorder.”
Yesterday Rush Limbaugh apparently used the phrase, and when someone with that many listeners uses a phrase like that people use their search engines, and I can get an accidental hit on my old story. Then I get curious about what made the person do such a thing.
Apparently it was due to a story in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting drugging boys doesn’t improve their grades.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323368704578593660384362292.html
I am such a cynic! My immediate thought was that some pharmaceutical company didn’t donate enough to Obama, or else the government is worried about paying for four million children on drugs. Otherwise such news would be suppressed.
To me drugging children has always been appalling. If it is such a crime to spank a fanny, how can it be good to spank a brain?
I’m fairly certain I would have been put on those drugs, as a boy. The mental gifts God gave me are a two-edged-sword, and often are a flaw. However this seems to be a rule with gifts. They are our best and our worst.
My brain likes to leap from topic to topic. This is called “range” and “scope,” and it can be a good thing when it brings several topics together in a way that works. When it doesn’t work, my mind just jumps to a new topic, and no one can see how I made the jump.
For example, when I was a boy the curve on the number “5” reminded me of the curve on a fat stomach. Math teachers were not interested, and did not want to hear how “fives are fat.” They wanted to know where the heck my homework was.
I pity teachers who have to control twenty or thirty kids. However drugging active boys is not the way to go.
Boys need, and often don’t get,
A.) Lots and lots of exercise.
B.) Proper nutrition
C.) At least eight and likely ten hours of sleep.
D.) Time away from TV and video games.
E.) A basic framework in life that is stable; IE less moving from town to town; less divorce and switching parents.
F.) Within such stability, boys need “wild time.” IE Unsupervised sports; Time in fields and woods rather than groomed gardens and parks.
G.) I can’t believe I left this until last. Boys need a Dad.
Just do that, and a lot of the problems vanish. As I’ve described in two posts:
https://sunriseswansong.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/attention-surplus-disorder/
And the first two parts of:
https://sunriseswansong.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/dazzling-baffling/
Sunrise's Swansong 
Excellent point. I have four boys all of whom are home schooled. One would be on ADHD drugs if we did that kind if thing. Instead we give him chances to run around during his school day. We did find he has a type of dislexia and have been helping him through that. Get to know the kid and develop their talents instead if just drugging them up because they don’t fit ‘the norm’.
I home schooled mine, also. Our middle school had a very lenient principal, and things got utterly out of hand, so I yanked my older three when they were just entering their teens and very susceptible to bad influences. They went back for high school, and did OK and stayed out of serious trouble, (though they did find some.)
I home schooled my younger two right up to high school age.
Back in the 1990’s there was a lot of worry that home schooled kids weren’t being educated correctly. My younger two boys went to high school and got straight A’s, which made that worry look foolish. By then colleges were actually looking for home schooled kids. They both got academic scholarships.
Too much of education is just a racket. But I’d better not get going on that subject!
Caleb, you and I think a lot alike. We’ve had our kids do some of the standardized testing. They are all on track or way ahead.
Not sure exactly how this relates but does seem to tie in. Several decades ago I heard about an elementary school that had a lot of land. The had a fence up for the kids play area at recess. Kids roamed and played all over the fenced area. They decided to take the fence down to give the kids more room to play. They were surprised to find that instead of expanding their play into the larger, unfenced area, the kids tended to clump into small groups in an area even smaller than the old fenced area. It would seem that kids need to have boundaries set to feel free and explore. A drug is not a boundary.
That is very interesting. It fits in with a lot of intuitions I have. If you ever chance upon the original story of that school, or rediscover the story somewhere on the web, I’d love to read more about it.
A lot of people really dislike the concept of people having a “territory.” It clashes with their ideals of everyone getting along, and borders being abandoned, and wars becoming a thing of the past.
I like such idealism, and like John Lennon’s song, “Imagine,” however a long, rough life has forced me to also have a more pragmatic side.
People need a center, just as a molecule needs a nucleus. Otherwise we become too diffuse, and spread out too thin, like a river without banks becoming a swamp.
If you want to get all esoteric, this center is the “ego” or “our selfish and sinful self,” and all sorts of spiritual writers have talked about the battle to subdue our own lusts and greeds, and how we should become selfless, generous, and pure. I agree, of course, and think such ideals are fine and dandy, but we still need a center if we are to be useful in this world. Otherwise we might achieve this theoretical and wonderful Union With God but, in all respects the world could see, would resemble a brain dead vegetable.
I once read that what we need is a “provisional ego.” It sounded a bit like a “necessary evil.” It is a wall we need in the short term, even though “something there is that does not love a wall.”
All the talk of high ideals and internationalism sounds grand, but charity begins at home. You start with a strong self, move out to a strong marriage, develop a strong family, expand to a strong neighborhood and strong town and strong county and strong state and strong nation. But the beginning is with mere boys, running free, but running free with boundaries.
I heard the about the fence thing back in the ’70’s. I tried to find a link to something about it but lots of lessons that might be learned from the past aren’t on the internet.
You’ve said a couple of things that I’ve wanted to comment on but I’m a slow typist (Does anybody but me still use that word?).
For example, you said once that you wondered what happens when one church is praying for rain and another is not. The short answer is, “Which one is praying for what God wants?” But you deserve more than the short answer.
One of these days what is happening on this side of the keyboard may allow me the “type time” and thought time to elaborate. Suffice it to say that to many people think of God as a genie in a lamp and prayer as rubbing the lamp.
Actually I think your short answer holds a lot of wisdom. After all, the Lord’s Prayer has the phrase, “Thy will be done,” and not “My will be done.”
On the other hand, few of us hear a deep voice or get directions, and consequently have a hard time being conduits of divinity, (and in my time I have sometimes been more of a sewer pipe of selfishness.) Given that we are so often blinded by our own wants and desires, God probably doesn’t mind if we look upon Him as a genie in a lamp, as long as we are honest. (It is when we lie to ourselves, and our desires go underground into the mysterious world of the subconscious, that our sabotage and subterfuge becomes truly bizarre.)
At our Childcare I deal with little kids, and they can be amazingly honest about their wants, even when they want the most unreasonable things. At times they want the moon and they want it RIGHT NOW! It doesn’t seem to make them particularly evil, as much as makes them human. At times, when I’m not tired, it makes them quite endearing.
I hope God looks on me as a endearing child, especially when I’m burned out, and have nothing to offer but grouchiness, (not even a song on a drum.) (IE: “Little Drummer Boy.”
Well, here’s the long answer. Sorry it took so long.
Two churches praying for different things. Maybe I misunderstood you, but you’ve said a couple of things that seemed to be saying, as a Christian, we needed to do things to be accepted before God rather than because of Christ we are accepted and want to want to walk worthy out of gratitude for what He’s done for us. Around Easter you also mentioned Matthew 27: 52 & 53.
As I said in a comment on WUWT, I’m not that interested in what people have said about the Bible but rather what does the Book itself say.
II Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
(The King James Version is my “work horse” in my study of the Bible. It may not be the most accurate translation but it is solid. BTW, in the KJV when the translators added a word that didn’t have a corresponding word in the text they usually put it in italics. I’ll try to preserve them but I’ll have to do it manually. )
If any of this comes off as “preachy” or condescending, apologies in advance. I don’t know if you already know all this but here goes.
I think the simplest way to go about this would be to go to the basics.
I’ll start with a verse very familiar to football fans and go a bit further.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Why was verse 16 needed and what does it mean in 18 when it says “he that believeth not is condemned already”?
To lay some groundwork, let’s go back to the beginning.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
There are two things I want to point out here. God, as He spoke in His Word via men who believed Him (II Peter 1:20, 21), didn’t use words haphazardly as men do. The word “create” is to bring something into existence that never existed before. In verse 3 it doesn’t say that God “created” light. What light is was created in verse 1. He “put it back together” in verse 3. He “made” light from what He had created in verse 1.
The reason He needed to “put it back together” is in verse 2.
Note the two places the word “was” appears. The second is in italics and the first is not. There is probably a more precise way of phrasing this but in Hebrew there was no word for “was” as a simple statement of a past state. They had a way of expressing the idea but not a single word form to do so. That’s why the second is in italics.
The first “was” (and in verse 3) is a form of the Hebrew word “hayah”. It’s often translated “it came to pass” or “became”.
(If I said in Hebrew that “I was angry” and used “hayah” then I wouldn’t simply be saying that at some time in the past I was angry but that at some time in the past something happened and I became angry.)
The next place the exact same form of “hayah” in verse 2 is used is in Genesis 2.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Here it is translated “became”.
God did not create the heavens and the earth without form and void. They became that way. (In Isaiah 45:18 the word “vain” is the same Hebrew word translated “without form” in Genesis 1:2.) Briefly, how it became that way has to do with Lucifer’s “mutiny” in heaven. (Isaiah 14:12-17 is one of the places that talk of it.)
Now back to the word “create”. It’s only used 3 times in Genesis 1. We looked at Genesis 1:1. The next place is Genesis 1:21.
Genesis 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
The words “living creature” here is in Hebrew “chay nephesh”. They mean literally “living soul”. (The same words are used in Genesis 2:7 of man (Adam).) Soul life did not exist previously. Whatever type of life plants have did exist in Genesis 1:1. Note also that God did not create soul life in Adam. He had already created it for animals. He just put it in the body He had formed for Adam. (BTW “Adam” is the Hebrew word for man.) What makes an animal’s body alive is the same thing that makes a man’s body alive. While soul is in the spiritual realm, there is nothing eternal about soul. People confuse “soul” with what we’ll get into now.
The third and last place “create” is used in Genesis 1 is in verse 27. I’ll start in verse 26.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
If God didn’t create soul life for Adam then what did He create for Adam? The “image of God”. People tend to get all philosophical about just what is “the image of God”. They all seem to think it is something inherent in all men. But what does the Book itself say? The most concise place it says it is in John 4:24. (Genesis 1:2 also says it but not as concisely.)
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
That is what God created in Adam, spirit, form of life different than soul life. Adam and Eve were each body, soul and spirit.
(A side note. In the text there were no chapter divisions. They were added by men much later and mainly for ease of reference. They were not placed based on content. The content of Genesis chapter 1 doesn’t end till Genesis 2:3. Genesis 2:4 starts a new context. In Genesis 1 “God” is “Elohiym”. God the Creator. In Genesis 2 God is “LORD God”, “Yahweh Elohiym” or more commonly known as “Jehovah Elohim”. God in relation to what He has created.)
In Genesis 2 Adam and Eve are in literal paradise. They have life in a perfect natural realm and they have life in the spiritual realm, the realm God “lives in”. They were in perfect harmony with God.
There was only one commandment.
Genesis 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Now, this was not an arbitrary rule God just threw in for the fun of it. This is more like you telling one of the kids you watch not to stick their finger in the light socket. If a kid puts his finger in the light socket anyway you weren’t the one who shocked them. This is the same kind of thing.
Well, you know what happens next.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
(God said “freely eat”.)
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
(God didn’t say anything about touching it and He had said, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”)
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
(The first lie.)
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
(Man had never known evil.)
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Now the question is, “What died that day?”
They lived on many years after this. They even had children. The life they lost was spirit. They lived on but only as body and soul.
Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
Seth was born in Adam’s image which was now just body and soul. No being born in the image of God, spirit, mentioned for Seth or any of Adam’s offspring and descendants.
That’s why it says in John 3:18 “… but he that believeth not is condemned already…” and in Romans 5:12
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
OK. So Man is in deep you-know-what. Any honest person has to admit they’ve added their own sins to what we all inherited from Adam. There is nothing a dead person can do to help himself. Absolutely nothing.
Before I go on to what God did, under no obligation but His, love to fix Man’s problem and remain Just and true to Himself, I want to go back and pick up something else.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
God gave Man dominion, authority over the Earth. The power, ability, to exercise that dominion came with the spirit God created in Adam. When Adam lost that spirit, he lost that dominion.
Genesis 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken:
So what happened to Adam’s dominion that God had given him?
Luke 4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power (The Greek word for power here is “exousia” meaning “authority”.) will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
And
2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
And
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
And
Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
There are other verses that point this out.
So all the people who blame the true God for what the insurance company’s call “Acts of God” or evil in the world or a loved one dying etc., are blaming the wrong “god”.
It’s like this. Say, I buy a car. I give the keys to my son so he can drive it. He drops the keys and someone else takes the car. It’s still my care but someone I did not give permission to is in control of it. So what are my options? Chase them down and take them out with a shotgun? Then I’d be in the wrong. I’d need to take lawful measures to get control of my car back.
(A side note. What is the Devil doing with his (temporary) authority?
2 Corinthians 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
“Devices” is not the best translation. “Motives” would be better. How he manipulates people changes all the time but why he does it remains the same.
The Amplified Bible renders it:
2 Corinthians 2:11 To keep Satan from getting the advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his wiles and intentions.
Goodspeed New Testament renders it:
2 Corinthians 2:11 to keep Satan from getting the better of us. For we know what he is after.
So what is he after? Isaiah 14:12-17 is one place that talks of it. Also, he is opposed to what God wants. What does God want? Well, among other things:
1Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
The Devil is manipulating the world to try and prevent people from being saved and/or coming the knowledge of the real Truth.
He’s the one pulling the strings of his puppets in, say, the MSM or the money trails that Gail Combs traces or those who want people to look to and depend on Big Government to meet their needs instead of God and what God did for us in Christ. He doesn’t care if you’re a democrat or a republican, a liberal or a conservative, an atheist or a Muslim; as long as you don’t believe Jesus is the Christ and that God raised him from the dead and then learn and believe what that means.)
Right after the fall God said this:
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee (the serpent, the Devil) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
He promised the redeemer. Those who believed God in the Old Testament could “draw on his account” so to speak. It was kind of like buying something, say, a bike on lay-away. The bike is yours but you don’t actually receive it until it is paid for. In the mean time you could sign up for a bike-a-thon that would take place after the last payment was made.
Romans 4:1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
God could treat men like Abraham in the OT as if they were righteous even though they weren’t yet. They will actually be in the future at the end of the book of Revelation. In the mean time He could put spirit “on” them. That is, it wasn’t theirs, it was “loaned”. Then God could talk with them without burning bushes or fingers writing on the wall.
How could God do that and still be Just?
Rom 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to bea propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
I used to read this as MY sins that are past but it’s the OT sins. In the OT Law they would sacrifice an animal for sin, repeatedly. Sin remained. What made the belief in those sacrifices of value was when Jesus Christ made the only real and final “lay-away” payment.
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: {for that: or, in whom}
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) {by one man’s…: or, by one offence}
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. {by the offence…: or, by one offence} {by the righteousness…: or, by one righteousness}
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
We CAN”T stand before God in what we have done. We DO stand before God in what Jesus Christ did for us. Anything we do for God is because of what He’s done for us in Christ. If you gave your son a bike and he was so thankful he cut the grass without being asked, you’d be blessed. If you gave him a gift and he said he’d cut the grass 4 times to pay back?
When you gave him the bike what you really want to see is him riding it!
One more thing. Going back to John.
John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. {again: or, from above}
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water (Amniotic fluid, natural birth) and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. {again: or, from above}
What Jesus Christ made possible by paying the debt he didn’t owe was for anyone who believes on him (Romans 10:9, 10) to be born again (or born form above) of holy spirit. This time there is no condition because, in his death and resurrection, all the conditions were met. It first happened on the day of Pentecost. (Acts 1 and 2)
There’s more I’d like to say but it’s very late.
I just realized I didn’t address Matthew 27: 52 & 53.
There’s reason to believe those verses were added by those copying the text. Not all the manuscripts have them.
But if they are genuine (I don’t think they are.) then it could only be a case of body and soul as with Lazarus or the son of the Shunammite woman’s son in 2 Kings 4. Jesus Christ was the firstborn from the dead, the first raised to never die again.
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? {were: or, are}
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. {freed: Gr. justified}
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
@ Gunga Din…” “That is, it wasn’t theirs, it was “loaned”. “…I was loaned the ‘little gift’ every now and again, as I made progress on the path back in the 60s. I know that I am only a partially aware man, because of being loaned that ‘little gift’ for brief moments in my life. There are hardly any words to describe what that moment is like, except that it is ultimate freedom which nothing on this Earth can touch or take away.
Thanks for pointing me to Caleb,s page. Caleb, just looking at the picture of you that is on your home page, I immediately sensed how decent a man you are. You look rather similar to my older brother Michael, also a similar spirit. We used to be called the other set of twins back then, as I have older sisters who are identical twins. There is so much to read and think about. I will come back to finish this enjoyable page later. It is funny how that which one needs, often comes to them if they keep their eyes open and take the time to look.
Sorry for not responding to this back in February. I can’t remember what was going on back then, but assume I was in a hurry and just glanced at the start of the comment, and assumed it was for Gunga Din and not me. Only now, in June, do I notice the second paragraph.
I like that picture as well. It shows how children awaken the kinder side of me. Adults don’t always have the same effect.
That is a good and wise line, “That which one needs, often comes to them if they keep their eyes open and take the time to look.” I believe Truth is always trying to penetrate our ignorance, both externally with realities that puncture our fond illusions, and also inwardly through the mysterious promptings we sometimes call our conscience and other times dismiss as doubts.
The sad thing is how often we are deaf and blind. I have kept a diary since I was nine, and when I look back through the yellowing pages I often want to smack my forehead, because an amazing coincidence occurs, and it seems obvious that what I needed came to me, but I neither kept my eyes open nor took the time to look. Not that I wasn’t looking, but I was looking in all the wrong places. (Example: At times peer pressure matters more than Truth.)
Rather than get all bummed out about how deaf and blind I have been, I prefer to be in awe over the fact Truth gives me such attention.
Hello Caleb. We look at life in a similar fashion. I was fortunate to be gifted with a ‘built in diary’. I was able to recall every footstep, twist and turn in my life. Unfortunately, I lost the key to that room in the mid 60s. I can access it through a back door, but it is not the same. Several times I have seen a way to remake a key, but every time current events shifted to keep me from successfully remaking the key.
However, similar to what you state in your last paragraph, I have always been grateful that I was given the ability and the opportunity to see and understand a portion of the deeper purpose within Creation. I did well against peer pressure for the most part. That did make me a bit of an odd duck at times. I have always been known for starting unusual conversations.
I should add something. The question might come up, “Why Jesus? Why couldn’t someone else die for all?”
The answer is that everyone else “had their finger in the light socket”.
Adam was a son of God. His soul life came unsullied from God.
Jesus was the only begotten son of God. He was born of Mary. His body came from Mary but his soul life also came unsullied directly from God. That’s why he’s called “the last Adam” in 1Corinthians 15:45. He kept it that way and obeyed God even to the point of dying a death for sin and sins that he had no part in and had never committed.
Phillippians 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. {fashion: or habit}
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Here I am again.
I read my comment again and I’d like to amend something.
I had said, “The word “create” is to bring something into existence that never existed before.”
I’m not sure I can say “never existed before.”
Make that, “The word “create” is to bring something into existence from nothing that never existed there before.”
I apologize for never responding to your deep thought. You are on my “to do” list, however the most banal things bump profound topics down the list.
Even though I sometimes never get around to working profound things to the top of my “to do” list, they are stirring about in my subconscious.
What follows is a sort of partial-payment towards a decent response.
Reality is Truth, and Truth is Beauty, called by us mortals “God.” However for some reason Reality created a Creation.
Creation, by definition, is unreal. God is everlasting, but we are as fleeting as flowers and wither like the grass.
Why would God create something unreal? Why would that which is lasting create something that doesn’t last? Why would Reality create a Creation?
Of what use are we?
Obviously we are very important, (though I don’t feel important,) because God suffers for us. But why bother?
The answer is that we, despite being a pain, sustain God.
Light cannot know how brilliant Light is unless there is shadow. Thus a perfect Creator requires an imperfect Creation.
We do God a favor by being numskulls. Out of gratitude he will lift our imperfection to his perfect level.
That’s as close as I can come to explaining why Someone so honest, beautiful and powerful would have anything to do with dishonest, ugly and hapless humanity.
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It’s much simpler than that. God is love. A loving parent doesn’t change a dirty diaper because they need a dirty diaper to know they are a loving parent. They change it because it needs to be changed.
God make John 3:16 a reality, not because He needed it, but because we did.
Freedom of will. Adam made a choice that got us in this mess. Jesus Christ made a choice that can get anyone who chooses out of this mess.
It was God’s choice, because of love, that made a choice available to us.
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Rom 5:8-10 KJV)
I agree. Love is the answer, and so simple our intellects cannot fathom it.
I do want to clarify something.
I had said, “As I said in a comment on WUWT, I’m not that interested in what people have said about the Bible but rather what does the Book itself say.”
I don’t want to give you the impression that I “discovered” all of this on my own. I have heard most, if not all, of this taught before but I endeavor to follow the example of the Bereans in Acts.
Act17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Act 17:11 KJV)
I’ve “rediscovered” it. I do want to know what the Book itself says.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (Joh 17:17 KJV)
I’m only making this comment so I can click the “Notify me of follow-up comments via email” option.
I haven’t forgotten you. I’m just very busy.
I didn’t really think you had but I am glad to know that “give it all the attention it deserves” doesn’t mean silence. 😎
Maybe you will conclude something along those lines. If so, just say so.
God Bless
This is not a prod to get you to respond. But there has been a couple of times when I was tempted to link to this on other blogs but I don’t want to invite others to your “living room” on this subject without your permission.
If it’s OK or not OK then please let me know.
I noticed some hits on this old post the past few days, and did a bit of back-tracking to your comment at WUWT. This comment is just to reassure you that I don’t mind you linking to your thoughtful comment, here at my site. However you should likely start up your own WordPress site. They are free.
If you had your own site you could expand on your ideas, with other thoughtful essays. You would likely get a few visitors from those who noticed your comments on other sites, and were curious about you. Most come and go without comment (lurkers) but a few will take the time to chat. I find it very stimulating to get input from outside my little world.
Thanks for letting me know you don’t mind. I’ve linked maybe 4 or 5 times. Most times I ask that people people not respond here.
And thanks for the suggestion that I start my own blog but, if you remember how long it took me to put up “the long answer”, I couldn’t keep up with it or do it justice. I would likely end up being a “lurker” on my own blog!
Anyway, God Bless and have a great day!
It is now September 6, 2014, and to my surprise this old post got 29 views. I did a bit a back-tracking and discovered my friend “Gunga Din” had left a link to this post midst a somewhat unruley discussion at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/05/is-john-kerry-mentally-ill-scriptures-commands-america-to-protect-muslims-from-global-warming/
Hi Caleb. Just a heads up that I did it again here http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/10/tell-me-why-by-pointman/#comment-137801. The link was to a WUWT comment that contained a link to here. I hope you’re not inconvenienced.
No problem.