controlled disorder

Not Seen Everyday...

2009-11-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

Man "Trapped In Coma" for 23 Years

I can't think of many worse things than this.

What It Takes To Be American

2009-11-12T19:17:00.000-08:00

I have a friend named Kim who just recently came to the United States from South Korea. There are a lot of interesting things about this guy, the first of which is that he's a genius. He knows a lot about his country's politics, economy and social structure, and more about America than most Americans (which is to say, he at least knows who the Vice President is).

A couple days ago, Kim said the following...

"I have the addiction. I can't stop drinking Dr. Pepper."

I think that Kim is an American now.

YouTube

2009-11-11T21:58:00.000-08:00

A few minutes ago, I completed the watching of a YouTube video containing film of a "man-on-the-street" interview. It was done by a church group, asking one question of various people. The question was pretty simple--"what is sin?"

The answers were quite varied, and interesting of themselves, but I made an observation while watching.

First of all, the majority of the people appearing in the video were well-dressed, and appeared to have an abundance of food and grooming. Basically, mostly middle-class people. All of them had a reaction to the use of the word "sin,"--although with some it was less obvious--and all reactions were negative.

One particularly interesting response was "the only sin is using that word." As in, you can't tell me that there is even such a thing as sin.

Aside from the responses from atheists/agnostics, there were also the religious people. Their responses were equally interesting, but much less intelligible. In fact, for someone not raised in church, the churchy responses would have been totally meaningless.

But one answer stood out. It was amazing how clear, precise and simple it was. "Sin is doing whatever God says not to do."

And, the man who said it was sitting on a sidewalk with dirty clothes and no teeth. It was clear that he was one of those homeless people that we don't like to think about.

How is it that he could answer a question so clearly, and not one other person could figure it out?

The Kingdom of God is not hard to understand. It's hard to put into practice, but the concept is very simple. But we have made it difficult, almost inaccessible for many. Why? The fact is, many Christians are not a part of the Kingdom of God, and secretly, they don't want to be. So we hide behind a mask of clever words and red herrings.

With all the deception, politics and selfishness in our churches, I think it might be time to start wondering...do we even know God anymore?

Hey, thanks for reading on this happy, happy day.

Religious Religion-Haters

2009-11-05T15:37:00.000-08:00

In many emergent and charismatic churches across the USA, there is a new phrase that has become very popular. It goes like this: "I don't want to be religious. I just want to have a relationship with Jesus."

Doesn't that sound so good?

In case you've never heard that, here's what it means: "I don't want to talk about meaningless junk, act hypocritical, or try to show that I know about God. I just want to have a relationship with Jesus."

It's a wonderful statement, especially considering how much the church has gathered dislike for its generally religious behavior. It's really a wonderful thing to actually desire a relationship with God over looking good in church. But here's the problem...that phrase doesn't mean anything anymore. It's been so overused that now, it is no more than a religious phrase. It's a meaningless statement for most church people.

But there is one difference between the new religion and the old one. The old religion, though it was stale, boring and cold, had something behind it. Whatever you want to say about the old religious people, there's no denying that most of them had solid knowledge of the Bible. The new religion is built 100% on an often nonexistent relationship, because it is impossible to have a relationship with anyone with no knowledge of that person.

Recently, I overheard a very interesting statement:

"I avoid doctrine entirely. I just want Jesus."

Is this really what people think? That there's something wrong with having beliefs?

Many aspects of the new churches are good--like the emphasis on relationships. But there is a major problem with them as well, in that no one knows anything. When an entire church is built around feelings, there's a problem. It is good to know the Bible. It is good to have real knowledge about God.

So seek a relationship with God...but don't stop there. Also learn who He is, and what He has to say.

Thank you for your valuable time,
Mitchell

2009-11-05T15:36:00.001-08:00

Apparently, you can blog from a phone. To test this concept, I am writing a post from my phone...isn't it amazing?

The Great Paraprosdokian

2009-11-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

I kind of wanted to write about something serious today. Maybe use some brilliant logic to ward off the dangerous "Whys" in the philosophical world. Instead, I'm going to talk about my favorite subject. Yes, that's right. The paraprosdokian.

I don't know how to pronounce that, but I do know what it is. A paraprosdokian is a type of sentence in which the second part is surprising or unexpected in such a way that the reader must reinterpret the first part.

This type of phrase is usually used by mistake or in humor, which is basically the same thing most of the time. It is used by mistake because the author or speaker did not fully think through their statement, and in humor because it's just funny.

Here are some examples:

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don't know." — Groucho Marx

"If I am reading this graph correctly, I would be very surprised." — Stephen Colbert

"I like going to the park and watching the children run and jump around, because you see, they don't know I'm using blanks." — Emo Philips

"I want to die like my father, quietly, in his sleep—not screaming and terrified like his passengers." — Bob Monkhouse

These things make me smile. I hope that my smile can be shared by you, because also it makes me smile when other people do too. And now my challenge: use a paraprosdokian today in a conversation. It doesn't matter if you rip off one of the above, or if you create your own slice of brilliance. But if anything good comes of it...please, comment and tell me about it.

I'm Back!!!

2009-11-03T22:45:00.000-08:00

It's been over a year since my last post. This is the first thing I've blogged in 2009...and it's November. Since things are happening constantly, my life is very different than it used to be. Also, it's exactly the same. I read over a lot of my old posts, and it was interesting to see how motionlessly I have changed.

I remember when I used to reminisce a lot.

Anyway, with that said, how about I say it and then be quiet:

I am now, once again, officially a writer. I have a blog, and it is once again active. You may read it if you want, but also you have permission to ignore the very existence of this page. Whatever. But it's here, and now you know.

Aaaaaargh!

2008-10-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, as the (capitalized) title suggests, I am unhappy and frustrated. This is because people are frequently stupid.

Let me tell you about someone I know. We'll call him Timmy, because Timmy is not his name.

Timmy lives in a Christian home. He goes to church and hears about Jesus, Heaven, Hell, etc. frequently. He believes in God and all that goes with this belief. Or at least, that's what he says if you ask him directly.

But look at the evidence. He lives entirely in the pursuit of fulfilling his desires. He's full of rudeness, anger, bitterness and everything that makes him not fun to be around. A good way of summing him up would be this: Timmy lives in the Moment, for the Moment, and is constantly searching for a way to make the Moment more intensely pleasurable.

I don't understand this mindset at all. How can a person believe in God and the eternity that goes with Him, and still live for the Moment--for what's happening here and now.

It's like this:

Imagine Alaska. Alaska is a cold place for most of the year, but for a few months, the weather turns beautiful, and hovers at a constant comfortable. This is how the seasons work: cold, warm, cold.

Now imagine the people of Alaska. Personally, if I lived in a cold place, I would want warm clothes, a warm house, and a really nice guitar (I'd like that last one anywhere I lived). So here you are in your warm clothes and warm house, playing your nice guitar, and you realize that the weather is warm.

"Hallelujah!" you say. "It isn't cold today!"

In excitement and jubilee, you put on shorts and flip-flops, and burn your jackets and fur coats. Then you knock down your warm house, and sit outside in the grass to play your nice guitar. Then the winter comes. The temperature drops well below zero, and then where are you? Frozen solid.

That's what Timmy is--and many others are--doing right now. This life is a season. It's a moment. It's a vapor. Nothing. In God's eyes, your life is shorter than a yard to Usain Bolt. So why, Timmy, do you insist on doing so many dumb things in this life? Don't you get it?

In eternity, there is no measurement of time, because there is no way to measure infinity. I can't even put it into words. Please, stop for a moment and think about it.

And then change.

since when...

2008-10-25T21:26:00.001-07:00

Since when did it become cool to stop using correct punctuation and/or capitalization? For example, most "cool" people use lowercase i instead of uppercase I. Or they forget to capitalize the beginning of a sentence. Or don't capitalize their titles. Yes, I have, at times (such as in this post), done the same thing, but I think it's time things changed around here.

From this day forward, I will strive to use correct punctuation, spelling and capitalization. This is my solemn promise.

Something Interesting

2008-10-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Read this. You will be astonished and amazed.

Mr. Obama

2008-10-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

You may have heard about some guy named Barrack Obama recently. In case you haven't, he's running for president right now. I agree with just about nothing that he says. I think he's probably a communist, and he is going to be the worst president that America has ever had.

So this prompts a question. How can I remain loyal to both this country and my God?

In Matthew 22, Jesus is tested by the Pharisees. They ask him basically the same question. They ask "is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" He responds that we should give to the government what is theirs, and give to God what is His. Also in other places we are instructed to respect authority and the laws of our country.

So if I disagree with everything said by our country's leader, is it morally right to support him through my loyalty?

Jesus, who was kind of an expert on morality, said yes. But this is no simple yes--it's not exactly "support everything your leader does."

Remember, we as Christians are not of this world. We belong to the Kingdom of God. However, we still live here, and so we still have to function in this place. If I decided to stop paying taxes so that my support doesn't go to a failed government, I'll probably go to jail.

We have to obey the law as a matter of survival, but we still have to place God and His Kingdom first.

I haven't signed out this way in a long time, but,

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Better Than Drugs

2008-08-13T09:13:00.000-07:00

Today, I got out of bed with the intention of spending my entire morning playing the guitar solo in the song Better The Drugs. I've played it at least one hundred times so far, and my fingers feel like they've been playing with knives. I am so envious of Skillet and their guitar skills.

In case you're unfamiliar with this song or this band, here are the lyrics:

Feel your every heartbeat
Feel you on these empty nights
Calm the ache, stop the shakes
You clear my mind

You’re my escape
From this messed up place
‘Cause you let me forget
You numb my pain

How can I tell you just all that you are
What you do to me

You're better than drugs
Your love is like wine
Feel You coming on so fast
Feel You coming to get me high

You're better than drugs
I'm addicted for life
Feel You coming on so fast
Feel You coming on to get me high

Feel you when I’m restless
Feel you when I cannot cope
You’re my addiction, my prescription, my antidote

You kill the poison
Ease the suffering
Calm the rage when I’m afraid
To feel again

How can I tell you just all that You are
What You do to me

You're better than drugs
Your love is like wine
Feel You coming on so fast
Feel You coming to get me high

You're better than drugs
I'm addicted for life
Feel You coming on so fast
Feel You coming on to get me high

How can I tell You just all that You are?
What You do to me

Feel Your every heartbeat
Feel You on these empty nights
You’re the strength of my life

I like this song, and not just because it has an awesome guitar solo that I can almost play. It also presents God in an unusual way.

I consider this to be a worship song. In fact, if I can learn it, I'll be using this song in a worship service. Most people are surprised by the fact that I think of it as worshipful. They say "how can you talk about drugs and still be worshipful?" Well, it's not really talking about drugs. It's talking about the fact that God is beyond comparison to anything else in the world.

Wouldn't it be cool if there were more songs that don't just say, "You're glorious, o majestic Savior," and said something meaningful? We have these words that we use to describe God in worship. Things like powerful, glorious, marvelous, etc. But "better than drugs?" Yes, this is an awesome worship song.

I have to now quit writing so that I can play the solo a few more thousand times.

Haiku

2008-08-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

I wrote a haiku today.

Top number's rising
Bottom is inching along
I hate buying gas

Coming Up Short

2008-08-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

One time, somebody said the following paragraph:

"The biggest problem with most people is that they won't admit their flaws. I would admit mine, if I had any."

This is funny, because it is obvious that everyone has flaws, and so he really does have something to admit to. I'm sure you've figured that out. Except for the second sentence, this is a true statement. No one wants to admit where they come short of perfection.

Why is that? Well, of course, because no one wants to look less than perfect. But in fact, admitting to a mistake doesn't actually make a person appear less good. Everyone is imperfect, and everyone knows that everyone else is imperfect. So just because you don't mention your imperfections doesn't mean that people think you don't have them.

Here's the truth: if you can humbly admit to the places where you come up short, other people will actually think of you in higher regard because you can admit to flaws.

This doesn't mean you should walk around telling everyone everything you've ever done wrong, but it does mean that there is no reason to be afraid of telling the truth. Of course, that's easier for me to say since I don't ever make mistakes, right?

The Difference Between Us

2008-08-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I spent a large amount of time at a memorial service for a relative. At this service, I observed some things.

Everyone was united in one area, which is that all of them were sad. This makes sense of course, since death is an unhappy thing. Everyone pretty much agreed that this relative was a great guy while he was alive. But after that, things start to break down.

See, this group of sad people were subdivided into two seperate groups. One group consisted of people who said "he was a great guy, I really liked being around him." The other group had people that said, "he was a great guy, I'm really looking forward to seeing him again."

I've been part of one church or another for my entire life, so God and Christianity are both pretty embedded in my way of thinking. I'll admit, I don't entirely understand other viewpoints. But I can see how they work, and it seems to me that the one major difference between the two involves death and how it affects us.

Viewpoint 1 says that death is just the end of the body, but the beginning of something very different and vastly better.

Viewpoint 2 says that death is the end of everything.

Personally, I like viewpoint 1 a lot better. This doesn't mean, of course, that this one is more accurate than the other. It's just more attractive to me.

I have a lot more to say about these viewpoints, but I'd rather keep this post short. Maybe I'll ramble some more about it at a future point in time. Probably not.

Apologies

2008-08-04T09:44:00.001-07:00

I must apologize. I have not blogged in a long time. I haven't even been that busy, I've just been not blogging.

But now things are changing, because I have things to blog about. So now I close to go write something more useful.

americans are all wrong

2008-07-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

I met an American today, and he was a jerk. He was loud, rude and pretty much annoying in every way. I was so annoyed by him, that I've decided to just drop the whole "Declaration of Independence" thing. If Americans are all so annoying, why should I believe the same thing that they believe?

Yes, this is a stupid thing to say. I know that. But the same idea carries over into religion all the time. For example, "I don't believe in God. It's not like Christians are any different anyway."

That is stupid. Whatever I do, God is the same. God was here before me, and God is always going to be bigger than I am. So don't judge God based on my actions. If you should choose to use the logic written above, I can't stop you. But I can sure tell you that it's not a good idea.

Be smart. Use uncommon sense.

Paradigms

2008-07-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

In case you've missed it, the term smart people use for changing your point of view is "paradigm shift." The word "paradigm," so I've been told, should be pronounced "paradime," but someone decided to insert a silent G. I don't know why, but this is interesting, and here's why:

To correctly pronounce that word, you have to go through a paradigm shift, because otherwise you would pronounce it phonetically, instead of correctly.

I Give Up

2008-07-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'm giving up on my plan to solve every major social problem in the world. This is not because I can't, but because it's tedious to outline every single problem when the answer is so obvious.

See, I thought of lots of different problems that all started out different, but then they all started to blend. It turns out that every problem has the same solution:

Jesus.

So when I realized this, I decided that it was time to start something new. I'm going back to my old ways of just writing whatever pops into my head.

I'm sorry to those of you who were relying heavily on these posts to solve your problems, but I get bored easily.

Global Warming

2008-07-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

Really, the biggest problem we currently have is Al Gore, the creator of human-driven global warming. It sure wasn't the factories that did it.

forgetfulness

2008-07-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

The next problem involves not remembering. This is not, however, the kind of thing that can be fixed easily with some ginkgo. This is a different sort of forgetting.

There are actually two kinds of forgetting. There's simple and complex forgetfulness. Simple is easy enough to figure out. This is when you don't make a list, and end up not buying cheese at the grocery store. The other, complex forgetfulness, is more about when you forget only some of the details.

This is a much more select kind of forgetfulness. It's typically found in conversations between two people about another who is not present. It's when person A says to person B something about the non-present person C, but doesn't mention certain details. This means that person C sounds worse than he really is.

This is called gossip. Most people say gossip is about people exaggerating, but I disagree. I think it's more subtle than that. Exaggeration very quickly becomes unbelievable. It tends to grow faster than dandelions, but most people can figure out that it's been exaggerated. But missing details are worse. It's all about missing the good things about someone in order to stress the bad things.

The solution is hard. Don't say anything negative about other people.

Proverbs 10:18He who conceals his hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

Notice, it says whoever conceals his hatred, not whoever has hatred, is a fool. Get it out. Talk to the person you don't like. That will work a whole lot better than harboring your anger.

being happy

2008-06-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

I think happiness is a huge problem. Not, of course, for the people who actually are happy, but for the people who aren't. These people, who may have sad and pathetic lives or may be billionares, see other people who are happy, and realize that they are not. "So what's wrong with me?" they wonder, but there seems to be no reason for their unhappiness.

The problem is widespread, but mostly only in countries such as the United States. Because the source of the problem is not really happy people, because happy people are annoying to non-happy people, but in fake-happy-people. This is very similar to the first problem of false saviors. We see actors on TV who are not really as happy as they appear. So then, from there, it's easy to leap to the conclusion that we are missing something.

We aren't missing something because we're not as plastic as an actor.

Because the problem is so similar to the first, the solution is too. It involves thinking mentally in your mind. Being self aware. If you know what happiness is, you won't be fooled into thinking you don't have happiness. So I have a challenge for you:

Look in your Bible's concordance for the words "happiness" and "joy." You'll find a lot there, and it all involves God. Like most problems, God has the only answer. (I think I just gave away most of my solutions.)

Here's a start:

Ecclesiastes 5:19Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God.

Happiness is the gift of God.

Also, happiness is about enjoying what you have, not having stuff.

Trust me, studying happiness is a lot more interesting and enjoyable that watching fake happiness on TV.

Seeds

2008-06-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

This one is a major problem. It's the problem of watermelon seeds. Imagine it--there you are on a hot summer day, and eating a wonderful, perfect watermelon. But there in the center, creeping into your beautiful enjoyment, is a small black seed. And another. And another. And another after that. And then another sentence starting with "and."

We need to eliminate this problem. I think this should be done by burning all watermelon plants in the world. No watermelons means no watermelon seeds. Easy solution.

The False Savior

2008-06-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

As it turns out, I didn't post yesterday. Internet went temporarily down, and I am currently writing as fast as possible so that I can get this post out. So here it is. . .

One of the biggest problems in America right now is that of false saviors. I'm not, however, referring here to an anti-Christ. I'm talking about what some might call "smart marketing." I'm talking about a method of advertising that involves a rather obviously subtle deception.

Here is what I'm talking about:

Imagine you see an ad on TV. This ad is for the newest Ford truck. On this ad they talk about how much better it is than anything that has ever come before.

Or maybe an ad for a cell phone companies. They talk a lot about how with their newest plan, you'll be able to talk with friends, relatives, etc for much cheaper. This will make you happier.

The list goes on, but the point is just that marketing almost universally involves saying that whatever it is you have is not as good as what they're trying to sell you.

So now, let's imagine that you go out and buy the truck, cell phone plan or potato peeler. You drive in it, call with it or peel with it, and yes, you are happier while it's new. But the problem is, the truck gets dirty and dented. The phone becomes obsolete, and the potato peeler breaks. And you're in the same place you were before. Your smile isn't as big as the smiles on the faces of the people on TV.

These corporations are not saviors. They're salesmen. We may know that intellectually, but we don’t know it. We may not claim that the truck is our salvation, but we feel like it is. Our feelings, so typically, have lied to us.

Although I had claimed yesterday that I was going to hide the answers, I changed my mind. Instead, I’m putting the solution to this problem at the bottom of the page. Here it is:

Because the problem is more personal than not, and we can’t stop the company from changing their ads, instead we have to find our own way out of this one. Basically, we have to somehow realize that we don’t need this new truck, and that even if we do get it, we won’t be made instantly happy.

That’s the best I can offer. Be aware that nothing is going to change just because you have a new thing. If I bought the best guitar in the world, and the best amplifiers and strings and everything else, I still wouldn’t be the best guitarist. I would be a mediocre guitarist with expensive stuff. Similarly, If your life is miserable, it has nothing to do with what you own (there are exceptions, maybe, but I’m willing to guess that if you have access to this blog, you’re not homeless.)

So there you are. This is all I’ve got. You can stop reading now.

My List of Problems

2008-06-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

I used to go to a church where the pastor did a lot of series. His series typically lasted for years. I'm going to start my own series now, but I don't think it's going to last for years. I'm not good at stretching a subject out very far.

The subject of this series is problems. Some are vast, worldwide problems and some are small, lonely problems. However, I'm going to do more than give a multi-week list of problems. I'm also going to give the solution, because I think every problem has a solution.

Really, the main reason for reading these (sometimes) depressing posts is the solutions. So I'm going to hide the solution. It will be obvious enough if you read the post, but this way you can't just skip to the bottom of the page.

So get ready, because tomorrow I'm going to talk about false saviors, and the difficult solution to the problem.

Skillet

2008-06-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

In about 24 hours, I will surrounded by a very large crowd of people, who are all observing a group of people standing on a stage holding guitars. This group of people is known collectively as "Skillet." Skillet is classified as a Christian metal band, meaning that they like thick distortion on their guitars, play mostly in minor keys, and talk about Jesus in a positive light.

In the place where I live, many people consider this style of music to be evil. I am not one of them.

I have been writing this blog for a whole six months and still haven't said that. Realizing this, I am ashamed. So here is a list of things I haven't admitted:

1: I don't think that the King James Version of the Bible is the only correct one.

2: I don't like the song Peace Like A River, and in fact I don't like the majority of the hymns that I know.

3: I don't believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit died with the last of the apostles (in my defense, there is absolutely no biblical backing for this).

4: I don't think that it's wrong for a woman to wear pants.

5: I don't think it's wrong for a woman to speak in church.

6: I don't think that you're going to hell if you've been to a Catholic/Methodist/Church of Christ church.

That's all I can think of for now. If you've never heard any of these things said, good for you. If you believe any of these things. . .this is probably the wrong blog for you.

P.S. A little before I see Skillet, I'll see a band called Demon Hunter. I really wish I had thought of that name first so that I could use it for an acoustic/bluegrass band.

Update: I made an error. In no. 5 I missed the word "don't." I don't what I said I did think. This is what is called "the works of the foolish man," I guess.

Also, Skillet was great, Demon Hunter was. . .not as good. However, I would love them forever if they did a version of Peace Like a River.

the internet

2008-06-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

The internet is an astonishing and amazingly useful device. I don't know what I would do without it. I get most of my information of the internet. Most of my communication is through the internet. Most of my entertainment is found on the internet. So what would happen if the entire thing suddenly crashed and was gone?

I would have to learn to use the library. I would have to write letters. I would have to figure out how to read books that I had not just ordered/downloaded off of the internet.

If the internet were gone, a lot of things would go with it. Most of it is just small (or large) conveniences, but we've become very reliant on these conveniences.

For example, when you go to Wal-Mart and swipe your credit card, the information that is transferred from the card to the computer has to go through the internet. If the internet went down, that would be over.

Most of our money processes rely heavily on the internet. If the internet vanished tonight, the entire United States economy (what's left of it, anyway) would collapse into dust. The government would be lost for at least six months, trying to figure out how to communicate from sea to shining sea. Someone would probably figure out how to use snail mail, but that takes about 10,000 times longer to send a piece of information from New York to Los Angeles. And then it would take just as long to send a reply.

I could go on and on about how terrible it would be if the internet went out. But what if God decided to stop receiving prayers? How many people would notice? My estimate: twenty-two people. If I were a mutant, I could count that on one hand.

Well, the number may be a little higher, but the point is the same: Christians rely a lot more on the world (internet) than they do on God, who is a lot bigger and a lot safer than the internet. And with God, you don't need virus protection and you don't get spam.

P.S. To you ancient people who remember a time without the internet, is it like the equivalent of your libraries? What would you have done if someone burned down all your local libraries?

humility

2008-06-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

I just went to Google Blogs and did a search for "Controlled Disorder." I found myself. It was cool.

I was very proud for a few seconds, until I realized that no one is ever going to do a search for such a random thing. After pondering this fact, I also realized that even if someone does find my blog, most likely he is going to immediately click the "back" button in his internet browser. So I am humble again.

Well, not really. To be humble is kind of hard (what an understatement). To be humble, I have to pretty much not think about myself at all. This means that if I think of myself even in derogatory terms (something I would never do), then I am still not humble. In fact, it's just as arrogant to think of myself as stupid as it is to think of myself as the smartest genius in the universe. This is simply because I am thinking about myself.

Arrogance is self-obsession. So to be obsessed with my supposed stupidity is to be arrogant.

So don't be arrogant. Think about someone else. Like me.

where is Heaven?

2008-06-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

According to the Bible, Heaven and Hell are real places. They are where people go when they die. So what I'm wondering is, where are these places? Here are some ideas:

A: On another planet

B: In another universe

C: Heaven is a state of mind

What do you think? Is it one of these, or something else?

Confidential

2008-06-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

random

2008-06-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

For some reason, the word "random" has seized hold of our culture, and is refusing to let go. It is the adjective of the decade, the wonderful word used by everyone who is anyone. To be cool, you have to use the word "random."

Did I say use? I'm sorry, I meant overuse. Below is the above paragraph translated into the language of the modern American:

For some random reason, the word "random" has randomly grabbed our --no word exists for culture in this language. Maybe "universe"-- , and randomly won't let go. It's pretty much the most randomly awesome word, and all the cool people use it, in like, random ways. You've gotta randomly say "random" to be cool.

You may have noted that there is no word for "culture" in the language of the modern American. This is because the modern American doesn't understand that there could be more in this world than our culture. Therefore "culture" is synonymous with "everything that could possibly exist."

Anyway, back to random. "Random" means this: proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern.

Our entire world is random. Maybe that's why so many people like the word. Right now, everything is proceeding with no definite aim, reason or pattern. Since we love ourselves over God, we obsessively use words like "random," because that means that in everything we say we refer back to ourselves.

And that's why I do my very best to avoid using that word. Maybe tomorrow I'll describe my anger over obsessive use or misuse of the word "ironic."

having nothing (part three)

2008-05-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

So if we can't be free by having everything, the only option is to have nothing. This is nearly as hard to do--impossible, in fact, as long as we are alive. Life equals desire and possession. That's why Paul talks about dying to himself.

Basically, freedom comes when we admit that we are stuck in the perpetual mistake, and give it up.

But here's where the next big problem arises. Life is not entirely to blame for our captivity to sin. The imperfections of the body have ruined the soul as well. And so, to die to ourselves, it's the soul that has to die.

However, if a thing is dead, that doesn't mean it's free. It's just dead. It also has to be reborn. And so, the path to freedom is found in being reborn in to a new life, which is life in Christ.

And that is the end of my thoughts on freedom.

freedom (part two)

2008-05-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Only three people in the entire history of the universe have ever been free. Two out of three only stayed that way for a short time. Freedom is an extremely hard thing to get a hold of, but there are two ways to do it.

One: have everything.

Two: have nothing.

These two things are both all but impossible to achieve. To have control of everything is incredibly hard, and only one person has ever attained that: Jesus (by "person," I am referring to human beings, meaning that God is ruled out).

The second is just as hard. A homeless hobo hobbling his way through the streets may look like he has nothing, but appearances are exceedingly deceiving. He still is constantly desiring more than what he has. I know this because it is human nature to want more that the possessions readily available to us. So really, everyone who has nothing actually has a desire.

The other two people who had perfect freedom were Adam and Eve. They had nothing, not even clothes, and didn't know the difference. But then they were confronted with a choice: eat the fruit of knowledge or not? They said yes.

When they took that bite, they lost their freedom. At this point, God gave control of the earth over to Satan; while God brings freedom, Satan brings captivity.

So if they lost their freedom, did they have free will anymore? No. And no one afterwards did either. Everyone is acting out the exact same decision (meaning, the wrong one). But there's more to the story, and I will continue tomorrow.

earth-shaking decisions (part one)

2008-05-20T19:33:00.001-07:00

What is a big decision? When we think of earth-shaking decisions, we typically think of things such as large, round tables and concerned middle-aged men in ties debating amongst themselves. We think of the Oval Office, or of Parliament (depending on your country), or even of the executive offices of a large business.

But the decisions made in these places are not earth-shaking or earth-shattering. They help move along the reals decisions, but are themselves not much at all.

The real decisions are made on a much smaller scale, at first glance. The real decisions are made by the soldier on the battlefield--should I pull the trigger or not? That may not, at first, seem earth-altering, but it is. World War One exploded when Gavrilo Princip deciding to pull the trigger and assassinate Archduke Ferdinand. The American Revolution grew from distrust to war when four or five men decided to pull a trigger and shoot some soldiers across the field.

Now, both of these situations were already volatile; both wars were intently seeking a way out of the conference rooms and onto the battlefield. However, who's to say they would have found that way without these men making decisions?

But Gavrilo Princip's decision was shaped strongly by his environment. It's possible that he could truly see no other option but to shoot the Archduke. But someone made the decisions that shaped his environment. And their decisions were shaped by those of their predecessors. And their decisions were shaped by those of their predecessors. And their decisions were shaped by those of their predecessors. And their decisions were shaped by those of their predecessors. And yes I did write that line four times.

The ultimate decision goes back a long way. Even before humanity existed. The ultimate decision goes back to God. He literally shaped the environment in which Adam was created. So everything goes back to God. He made the earth in the way He made it with full knowledge that Princip would shoot the Archduke. So why did He make it that way?

Because He gave us free will. But what does it mean to have free will? What exactly is freedom?

Tomorrow, I will do my best to answer that question.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T06:59:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this today (Sunday, May 11), and you are a mother, then happy Mother's Day. If you're not a mother, and yet you're reading a blog post with such a mother-directed title--shame on you.

Shovels

2008-05-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Shovels are useful tools. So are power-drills.

an amazing thing

2008-05-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Every time that I learn something new about the Bible, it becomes just a little more astonishing and amazing to me. I just recently learned one of this things, and now you too will have a chance to learn this thing.

In the Jewish culture some 2,000 years ago, a boy at the age of twelve became a man. At this time, he was allowed to begin learning his father's business. For example, if his father was an ironsmith, he would begin learning how to work with metal. If his father was a carpenter, he would begin learning how to build tables. He would be about his father's business.

So from the age of twelve, he would start learning. When he turned thirty, he had the knowledge to begin his own trade. His father would take him around to those he worked with and those he was friends with. The father would introduce the son by saying, "this is my son, in whom I am well pleased."

If something sounded vaguely familiar in these paragraphs, it means you've probably heard two rather largely important stories in the Gospels. When Jesus was twelve, he and his family went to Jerusalem and visited the temple. On their way home, Mary and Joseph discovered that, in fact, Jesus was not with them. So they went back to Jerusalem and spent three days searching for him. When they found him, he was in the temple discussing theology with the priests.

When they asked him what he was doing, he said, "you should have known that I'd be about my Father's business." Hmmm. . .

When Jesus was thirty (remember that number?) he was baptized by John the Baptist. When this happened, the clouds opened up and a dove descended from the sky. And a voice said, "this is my son, in whom I am well pleased." Hmmm. . .

New Month Day

2008-05-01T16:44:00.001-07:00

Happy New Month day. Today is the very first day in the month of May. Everyone shout hooray and say, "hey! This is the way to June!." May your day be colorful and lacking in gray, because they say that the way to be happy is to force it that way.

I've run out of words that rhyme with May, but I'll be back soon. Keep reading, okay?

Mitchell

things that don't make sense

2008-04-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

In the town that I live in (Coleman, Texas), there is an interesting thing that has been done with the streets. Intersecting Commercial Avenue, we have First through Thirteenth Street. However, intersecting these streets is Fifth Avenue. Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street intersect with each other. How did this happen?

Well, however it happened, it did. When I first encountered this, I was shocked speechless. Both signs said "5th" in large letters, and I failed to notice the tiny letters saying "st." and "ave." After a while, I got used to it. I don't really notice the strangeness anymore, I just keep going.

Christians tend to do that also. There will be some incongruity that doesn't quite fit, that doesn't make sense with the things we've been taught. However, our lives are much to busy to spend all our time trying to think through these things, and so we just push ahead. Eventually, we just forget about it.

Here's one of them:

Look up at the stars. These tiny points of light are massive balls of flame billions of lightyears away. A lightyear is the distance it takes light to travel in one year. So if the earth is only a few thousand years old, as it is according to the Bible, how could the light have reached us yet? How can this be?

At some point in the future, I will write about my theory as a comment to this post. However, in the meantime, I would like to hear your ideas, because they could (probably) be better than mine.

A Story

2008-04-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to tell a story.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Jimmy. Jimmy, when he was very little, went to church every Sunday. In Sunday-school he learned all about Jesus. Jesus was a friendly-looking man dressed in bright colors who lived in drawings populated by other bright and colorful people. For some reason, every once in a while, those pictures were less bright and more gray. The Jesus person looked sad in those pictures, and was usually nailed to the wooden thing at the top of the church steeple.

Then, Jimmy got bigger. He moved up to the next Sunday-school class, were he began to memorize verses from the Bible. He memorized things like, "for God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten son, so that whosoever believed in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life." He didn't really know what it meant, but it sure sounded nice. It was often abbreviated with things like, "God so loved the world," when the pastor noticed people getting bored.

Jimmy kept growing, and one day he realized that he was supposed to be actually doing something, and not just memorizing Bible verse. So he found one of his friends in school, and invited him to church. He was immensely proud of his good deeds, and decided he should do even more.

When he got into his teenage years, he graduated from Sunday-school to the Youth Group. The Youth Pastor there was always talking about "witnessing to the lost." So he decided to try it out, since that's what a godly person should do.

So Jimmy told one of his friends about Jesus. This friend was an atheist, and told Jimmy so. "But why?" Jimmy asked.

His friend had lots of convincing arguments. Jimmy just laughed and said, "well, you're wrong. The Bible says that--"

"Wait, I don't believe in the Bible," his friend said.

Then Jimmy was confused. Now what should he say? So he went to his Youth Pastor, who showed him several verses in the Bible that demonstrated how true it must be. Jimmy, once again armed to the teeth with knowledge, went after the unbelievers once again. But once again, he was conquered. The fact that he was using the Bible to prove itself for some reason didn't work.

So Jimmy began to have doubts. If there was no good reason to believe in the Bible, why should he believe it? He also started to realize how much better life could be if he didn't have to follow all those silly rules. This, of course, meant the end of Jimmy's time in church. He looked back upon it as his "religious phase," and laughed at all those people who actually still believed such an old-fashioned idea.

The big question is, why is this story so common? What are we doing wrong? I think the answer if fairly simple: the church is only teaching the easy things. We say, "this is what the Bible says," because that's easy. But we don't explain why we should believe the Bible, which is a necessary piece of knowledge in order to survive in this world.

Maybe it's time to figure this out.
Mitchell

Leading Worship

2008-04-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

I have begun a new thing (for me). I now lead worship for a very small group on Saturday evenings at a not-quite-church. This is the reason why I got the electric guitar shown in a previous post. This is a thing I have wanted to do for a long time, and only in the last few weeks have actually started.

However, I have discovered a problem with our current system that we call "worship." Basically, it's the fact that we have "worship leaders." You see, this term implies that there is someone "leading" the worship, which is true. However, then we look at the worship leader. In order to be accurate, the leader of worship has to be God, but the worship leaders we have are only humans.

So here's a better term: "worship helper." All they really do, after all, is give people someone to look at while praising God.

Somehow, though, I don't think that it's going to catch on.

Information

2008-04-11T19:22:00.001-07:00

We are living in the communication and information age. At this time, communicating with a person on the other side of the globe is as easy as talking to your next-door neighbor. It's about as easy to gather information as it is to gather oxygen. It has become as the song says "it's a small world after all." Plus, the invention of jets allows us to get to anywhere on the planet in two days, three at the most.

This has done a lot of things for the planet. For example, the information increase has allowed us to learn faster and easier than ever before, which makes knowledge available to nearly everyone. And when everyone has a basic understanding of the workings of the world, this helps prevent superstitions and false cures for disease that lead to worse ailments.

But there is also a problem with this constant flow of information. It has deculturized our world (I just made that word up, by the way. It means to remove all culture from something). Because we can get anywhere quickly, we have begun thinking that everyone is like us. This is not so. The cultures of the countries across the ocean differ from ours in sometimes enormous ways.

One thing in particular is often forgotten: Jesus was from one of the cultures differing the most from ours. The Middle East is nothing like the United States. The Middle East today is different than it was 2,000 years ago. So to properly understand Jesus, the culture He came from has to be understood.

I can't give you a good understanding of this. There's too much to learn, and I don't yet know a tenth of it all. But I can give you a little piece of information about His homeland.

Jesus was a Jew. The Jewish people have a complex history, which can be found in the Old Testament and the Apocrypha (as I said in another post, the Bible is the word of God. However, it is debated whether the Apocrypha is "inspired." Either way, though, it has been shown to be an accurate historical document). About one hundred years before His birth, there was a large war between the Hebrews and everyone else over how they could worship God. This can be read about in first and second Maccabees. Somehow, I must think that this was as important to them as our wars are to us.

What does this mean? Well, it's sort of like this: imagine that Hitler had won World War II. His grandson is ruling the world, killing people he doesn't like, destroying forests and causing many other problems. This is the kind of world Jesus was born into.

So what can be done with this? I don't really know, this is just what I wrote. Hopefully one of you can make some use of it.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

The Reason For The Cow

2008-04-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

Objections have been raised by several people about the picture I have used for my profile. It is a cow formerly owned by my family and formerly named Sarah. Currently, this cow is in our freezer, fridge and stomachs. The objection is over the fact that the picture is one of a now-dead thing.

However, this is why I don't think it matters:

The picture is supposed to be one of me, not that of a cow. So if it were merely a cow, the picture would be flawed. But this cow is one that I have assisted in eating. So actually, various parts of the cow are now a part of me. So really this picture, when it was taken, could be captioned "future Mitchell."

So that is why I have a picture of a deceased cow on my blog.

The Most Important Question In The World

2008-04-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Whose side are you on?

Christians

2008-04-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

Now that I have proven Christianity (to my own satisfaction, at least), I will make the following statement: Christians are stupid. They are not universally stupid, but many are foolish nonetheless. This can be summed up in the phenomena of evolution.

I don't personally believe in evolution. I don't think that the evidence supports it. I think that scientists should carefully search through what little evidence there is, and carefully reconsider the theory. However, many Christians have a better idea how to disprove it.

"The Bible says the world was made in six days, so evolution is wrong."

What a brilliant idea. It's sort of like being your own witness in court. If the Bible is the thing in question here, then how can we use it as evidence? Christians are killing themselves with their stupidity. Those of us who think (yes, I am including myself in the thinking group) don't want to be lumped together with the others, but we are anyway. We're technically part of the same religion, and so therefore we must be as stupid as the rest.

So let's start thinking, and stop saying "I want it to be this way and so it is." All we're doing is making ourselves look like two-year-olds.

Islam and Christianity

2008-04-03T07:53:00.001-07:00

This really is the final comparison. So far, no problems have been seen in Judaism, and enough evidence has been put forward to let us rely on it for the moment. So now, let's look at Christianity and Islam.

First of all, Christianity is the completion of Judaism. In Judaism, there is prophecy of a Messiah, the Son of God who will come to rescue the earth from sin. Christianity fulfills that prophecy through Jesus. Since you (the reader) probably know at least a little about Christianity already, I don't feel the need to explain in great detail who Jesus was. Let's just leave it at this:

In the Torah (the Jewish holy book, in the Bible the Old Testament), there are over three hundred prophecies of the Messiah, what He will do and how He will do it. These prophecies are very specific. Jesus fulfills every one of them. Unless shown otherwise, Christianity fully completes Judaism.

The problem, however, is Islam. Islam was founded by a man named Muhammad. He claimed to be a prophet--the last prophet, in fact--and that he was given the ultimate revelation from God. Basically, the revelation was that Christianity and Judaism were all wrong. Their supposed "words from God" had been distorted somehow, lost in the translation somewhere.

He claimed to be restoring the way of the old prophets, such as Noah, Abraham and Moses. One of the core beliefs of Muhammad was that there is only one God. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is considered blasphemous by Muslims, as is the fact that we claim Jesus is the Son of God (they belive Him to be a prophet, but not God).

So Islam has a strong objection to the deity of Jesus by claiming that the Torah is inaccurate. This would mean that the prophecies concerning Jesus are irrelevant.

Islam and Christianity were both built on the foundation of Judaism, so they should be proved by the same way Judaism was proved. Judaism's proof came through its moral law, so if one of its branches is correct then the moral law should be just as relevant to us as the Jewish law. Christianity fits with this: Jesus Himself stressed many times the importance of the law.

Islam does not fit with this. Their law, in several cases, is nearly the opposite of Judaism. In other places it contradicts itself. So in this regard, Christianity is superior, and Islam doesn't make it. If a branch differs from the root, the branch is in error. Does this conclusively prove anything? No. But it is, however, enough for me. So I remain happy with my religion. However, I'm not going to even start on denominations.

The Final Three

2008-04-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

I am now on my final post of this whatever-it-might-be on various possible truths. This will be the largest and most complex of them all--Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I have put the three together for a good reason: Christianity and Islam are both derived from Judaism, and thus the proving-wrong of Judaism would cancel out both of those. Their purpose, essentially, is to complete Judaism in some way (this is less accurate of Islam than Christianity, but more on that below).

So, to begin, Judaism must go under the lights. Let's look at what it is first of all:

Judaism was the first strictly monotheistic religion in history. According to their beliefs, God existed when there was nothing. He then created the universe out of nothing. This God, according to their belief, is actually three in one. This is characterized in the use of the word "Elohim" to describe Him. This is a pluralized word, in Hebrew, meaning that there is more than one.

The next part is that this God takes part in the lives of humanity, by giving them laws to obey, and then rewarding or punishing them according to their obedience to these laws. Because no one is able to follow the law perfectly, sacrifices must be made in order to appease the wrath of God and take the punishment deserved by us.

No problem, so far. No flaws so far, but also no evidence in favor. So let's compare it to life.

First of all, the idea that we are imperfect. This is not a strictly Jewish belief, but it lines up very well with what we can see in our own lives. Where do you think the phrase "only human" came from? We recognize without being told that we are missing something. But if we are imperfect, there must be a standard.

What is that standard? The standard, according to Judaism, is the Law. Interestingly, upon looking at the book of Leviticus, everything makes perfect sense. For some reason, it seems natural to us that it is wrong to kill. Why? If we came about by chance, we would need to kill simply to survive. Yet this makes sense. Or how about this: the Sabbath. Although some say the Sabbath is no longer relevant, this doesn't matter. The Sabbath makes perfect sense.

In the Soviet Union, at the height of Communism, their leaders decided to change a week to the length of ten days. The seven-day week comes clearly from the Bible, and they wanted an atheistic country. To make a long story short, they had to go back to the seven-day week. Nine days between each break doesn't work. Neither does it work to have four in between each break. The only system that works is a seven day week.

So the law fits with what works in our lives. This fits with the fact that the designer of the law is the same as the designer of humanity. So this is a rather strong point for Judaism.

As it turns out, this is not the last post in this set. Due to the current length, Islam and Christianity will be brought up tomorrow.

Myths

2008-03-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I talked about Hinduism. I was going to talk about Buddhism next, but there's really no point. Buddhism is merely another step in Hinduism. It came from the other religion in a way not entirely unlike Christianity coming from Judaism. It's the completion of an earlier religion. However, since Hinduism is problematic anyway, Buddhism has no foundation.

So next was going to be Islam, but that will be saved for later. For now: how do we know that the gods of various ancient civilizations weren't the right ones? These are what we refer to as "myths." Most cultures had some kind of god, all had some kind of creation story. Also, all that I have ever heard have possessed two major flaws.

1. The world existed as it was created.

If an egg hatched and out came the world (as one African culture believed), then something already existed before the world. Where did it come from? What is this egg that the earth hatched from? On a similar note, their beliefs conflicted strongly with what we know now. If the world were a flat disc resting on the backs of five elephants who stand on a giant turtle, then something is wrong somewhere.

(However, to this I will add one thing: in the Middle Ages it was commonly believed by Christians that the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun orbited around it. This is not a part of Christian belief, however, and was added later. Therefore the second point is not necessarily accurate. These ideas could have come along later and we just don't know.)

2. Every aspect of the world is ruled over by a different god

There's a problem here as well. A god is an ultimate power that rules everything. This means that the various little gods can't be gods. Some cultures solve this by refering to them instead as "spirits," and by having a "great spirit." I'm using Native American terms, but the same idea is in several other religions. However, this leads us to the original problem: where did the world come from? There has to be a god, not merely spirits. Spirits can't create a universe--that takes a god.

So upcoming is the largest of the challenges: Judasim, Islam and Christianity. The three largest religions in the world.

Mitchell

Hinduism

2008-03-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

I was going to post this yesterday, but I never finished it. Instead, I ended up looking at expensive guitars. I want this one. I don't know if I'll get it or not. What do you think--is it worth getting?

Basically, my next task, in order to show which religion is correct, is to go over all major religions and analyze them. I'm going to begin with Hinduism, because it's the easiest.

Hinduism has never been standardized. It's basically a term that describes a very large collection of religions. It generally contains at least one god, and more often hundreds. The atheistic aspect of it, of course, doesn't work because there must be a god. However, the theistic part has a problem too.

Like I said above, Hinduism has no standard belief. One of their traditional stories is as follows:

Five blind men are standing in an empty courtyard. As they stand here, an elephant is brought in. They here it, and decide to figure out what it is. One feels the tusk. He says, "it is like a spear." The next feels its tail. "No, it is like a rope," he says. The third feels its leg. "You're both wrong," he says. "It is like a tree." Then the next feels its ear. "It's like a fan," he said. Finally, the fifth feels its side. "You're all wrong," he says. "It's like a wall."

All were, to an extent, correct. But they only felt a part of the elephant. In this way, according to Hinduism, everyone is right but no one is completely right. But there's a problem with this.

Hinduism itself, because of its non-solid nature, often is cantradicted by the beliefs of two different Hindus. For example, one may believe that there are no gods, and another believes in two hundred different ones. How can both be right? The two cannot exist simultaneously.

So basically, Hinduism is a collection of mysticism that no one really understands. It's not nearly organized or coherent enough to bother applying much logic to. If you (the reader) happen to be a Hindu and I have drastically misrepresented your religion, let me know. This, however, is Hinduism to the best of my knowledge.

Mitchell

Cause and Effect

2008-03-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

One of the more important aspects of logic is the idea of cause and effect.* In case you don't know, cause and effect is when one thing causes another to occur. For example, if I type the letter E on my keyboard, an E appears on the screen. If I play an E on my (musical) keyboard, the resulting sound will be the E note.

However, there's more to cause and effect than is commonly realized. Basically, it proves the existence of a god. Not necessarily any specific god, but simply that there must be a creator. It does that in this way:

In the above example, I press an E on my keyboard, and so it appears on the screen. Pressing the E is the cause. However, I pressed the E for a reason. This means that the cause had a cause of its own. For example, I want to finish the word "the." Why do I want to write that word? Well, because it's part of a sentence I want to finish, which is part of a paragraph, which is part of a chapter, which is part of a book that I want to finish. So why do I want to write the book?

This can keeping going further and further back, all the way to the beginning of time. This is the clue: "the beginning of time." All of reality had to have a cause. That means something had to intervene in the middle of all the emptiness in order to cause the world to exist. Several qualifications are required to do this.

1. that thing must have existed perpetually, therefore having no cause.

2. that thing must be powerful enough to be a cause

Coincidentally, these happen to be two important attributes of a god. So there must be a god. The question is, what god? Is it possible for us to begin to grasp this god, or does our perception make sense?

More on that tomorrow,
Mitchell

*If I get "effect" and "affect" mixed up, I apologize. Just go ahead and comment on it so that I can be publicly embarrassed.

Happiness

2008-03-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how to be happy? Here's the answer:

How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the law of the LORD!
Happy are those who keep His decrees and seek Him with all their heart.
They do nothing wrong; they follow His ways.
You have commanded that Your precepts be diligently kept.
If only my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes!
Then I would not be ashamed when I think about all Your commands.
I will praise You with a sincere heart when I learn Your righteous judgments.
I will keep Your statutes; never abandon me

These are the first eight verses of Psalm 119 (if you don't believe me, look it up. This is from the Holman CSB, in case you were wondering). I've read Psalm 119 several times before, mostly because I wanted to know what the longest chapter in the Bible had to say. However, I've never really read it very closesly.

This first eight verses speak massively beyond what they sound like at first. It tells us everything that everyone has always wanted to know. It gives us the key to happiness. Look at the first verse. "How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the law of the LORD."

How happy. Do you want to be happy? Become blameless. Follow God. Do what He says. That's all there is to it.

When I first read this, I made a realization: life is a thing that matters. The number of people who question this fact is small, I think, compared with those who don't. I've never questioned it, but these verses made me realize how true it is.

If God has given us an entire book--or rather, an anthology of 66 books--on how to be happy, and how to live well, then life matters.

And there's yet another fact to be learned from this: it is vital to study the Bible. It is absolutely vital a relevant life on earth. The more you study God's Word, the better your life will become.

That's all I have to say,
Mitchell

Traffic Laws

2008-03-16T17:54:00.001-07:00

A lot of things in the church today can be illustrated by various traffic laws.

1. Legalism

Legalism is like this: imagine that you are driving along the road. You come to a stop sign. You come to a complete stop, look both ways, and then go. You don't, however, wait for the other cars to get out of the way. That's legalism: following a set of rules to the letter, but forgetting their actual purpose.

2. Hypocrisy

Now, you are driving on a stretch of road where the speed limit is sixty mph. You decide, instead to drive at sixty-five. This is illegal, of course. A few minutes later, a car passes you, driving at seventy mph. So you begin to complain loudly to anyone who will listen about how that person who passed you is a horrible law-breaker. Although you were speeding too, he was going even further above the speed limit.

I thought of others also, but these are the two clearest illustrations. So this is what I wrote.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

what we need

2008-03-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

Matthew 4:4 But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

These verses aren't typically put together. However, once put together they form an interesting bit of knowledge. Here's what it is: God provides for us everything that we need. What we need, more than anything else, is God. So therefore, God provides Himself for us. He will give Himself away to anyone who asks.

So there you are. All that you wanted to know.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Illuminating Shadows

2008-03-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

I heard a song today on the radio. In the first verse, there was a line sort of like this: "it's hard to shine/when the shadows are closing in." The point of the song was how much we need Jesus, but this particular line. . .isn't quite accurate.

Think about it for a second. Imagine you have a flashlight. You're standing outside on a clear day, in full sunlight. You turn the flashlight on, and because it's so bright outside the flashlight makes no difference.

Then, you take the flashlight outside on a cloudy night. There is no moon, and the clouds dim even the light of the stars. Now turn on the flashlight--suddenly, it makes a tremendous difference. In the daytime, the world is so saturated in light already that the flashlight does nothing. In the night, the flashlight stands out more than anywhere else.

So, the point is this: we (christians) can't make a difference surrounded entirely by other Christians. The light has already filled this place. This isn't a bad thing, of course, which is not to be implied in any way.

But, there's more to this parable. The flashlight will make a larger difference if it's outside, but not if it's turned off. The object itself is as darkened as everything else, until it's turned on. Until an electrical current is running to and from the bulb, there will be no light in the night.

Point 2 is this: we can only make a difference among the lost, and only if we choose to reveal our light. The question is, what's the best we to reveal our light?

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Two Lists

2008-03-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

Things that will not get you to heaven:

1. Killing people

2. Lying and being deceitful

3. Committing any form of adultery

4. Telling people about Jesus (what? this doesn't get you to heaven?)

5. Going to church (what are you talking about?)

6. Giving everything you own to the poor (this is in the wrong list, right?)

Things that will get you into heaven:

1. The blood of Jesus

2. . .

*********************************************

We'll have to wait on number 2, until our weapons become advanced enough to knock down the gates of heaven, or we figure out how to splice perfection into our DNA.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Him That Pisseth Against the Wall

2008-03-05T09:35:00.000-08:00

The really funny part is that he's serious.

Goodbye, valiant watcher,

Mitchell

On Being Free

2008-03-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

Why are small children (and sometimes not-so-small children) commonly afraid of the dark? What's scary about darkness? Have you ever noticed how strange this is? Really, there is nothing about the dark that should inspire fear. A tiger is scary, because it can kill you. A falling boulder is scary, because it can also kill you. Darkness, however, doesn't even have deadly potential.

I think that the reason is simply that we can't see in the dark. If we could see, the darkness wouldn't be scary. If we were like owls, however, and became blind in the light instead, I imagine that the daytime would be scary.

If we can't see, we have no control of anything around us. I think that humans are instinctively afraid of anything we can't control. The things that control us, therefore, are hated and feared universally. That's why freedom is so longed for by our species, and also why control of others is such a powerful desire.

However, we also have a problem. Along with the instinctive fear of being enslaved, we also seem to have an instinctive feeling of enslavement. Look at all the religions that have formed over the last few thousand years. All of them have a common thread: something powerful exists in a realm not quite visible, and it has the power to control us.

This is seen in all religions, major and minor. The aborigines of Australia belief in several types of spirits, which control every aspect of their lives. Hindus believe in hundreds of gods, all of which must be kept happy at all times. Even Buddhism, an atheistic religion, contains this thread. They believe that freedom comes from breaking out of the cycle of death and rebirth and death and rebirth and death and rebirth and so on.

There is only one religion which offers freedom. This is Christianity. However, Christianity offers freedom in a most unusual way: by becoming a slave.

Numerous times, Jesus refers to us as becoming slaves of God. Nearly every New Testament author makes the same reference. This, also, is how we become free. So maybe, freedom is not what we think it is. Maybe what we feel isn't a lack of freedom, but a lack of function. Instead of being free, what we need is to be part of something else.

Freedom, this means, is not what we think. Real freedom is control by something ultimately stronger than we are. This is an interesting paradox. I hope you thought so too.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Our Problem

2008-02-29T17:17:00.000-08:00

Below is a quote from an interview with Luis Palau, a South American Evangelist, who is now a missionary to the USA.

"When I was in Chicago doing launch rallies for 'Say Yes Chicago,' a taxi driver took me to a press conference at Grant Park. The driver was a Muslim from Sudan, very talkative and eager to make me a Muslim. He was trying to convert me in the course of a ten-minute drive. I told him I was a Christian, which began a quick discussion about Jesus Christ. After a few minutes, he said, 'Islam is going to win in America. And we're going to win in the world. You Christians do not really believe Jesus Christ is the only answer and the only One.'

"I said, 'Of course we believe that.' He said, 'No, you don't. I've been here for six years, and I've hardly met a single American that believes Jesus is the only One and the only way and the only answer.'

"I was amazed, moved, rebuked, and ashamed. Here was a foreigner in America unashamedly trying to convert me in ten minutes. And meanwhile, we Christians beat around the bush. We are not convinced that people without Christ are truly, truly lost forever. If we did, we wouldn't be able to rest. We would jump at the chance to be part of a citywide crusade. If we believed that people were irrevocably lost without Christ, we would take advantage of every chance to preach the gospel."

That's a frightening thought, isn't it? That's all I have to say, since it's getting late and I need to sleep. By the way, I hope you had a happy Leap Day. As far as I'm concerned, it's definitely the best of all the holidays. Thanksgiving doesn't hold a candle to it.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Ten Commandments Minus One

2008-02-27T19:15:00.000-08:00

It was my intention to talk some more about faith today. But instead, I'm going to talk about something else. As I mentioned very briefly, faith without works is dead. So what are works? This is important to determine before we can decide anything else.

Works means two things. The first is doing what God wants us to do, such as telling others about Jesus and such. The second is simply not sinning. So here's where ther question comes up: what does it mean to sin?

Sin is determined by the Law. The Law states what is sin, and the most commonly known part of the law is the Ten Commandments. Here's a list of the Ten Commandments (found in Exodus 20)

1 You will have no gods before The God

2 You will not have any idols (i.e. things that you place before God)

3 You will not misuse the name of God

4 Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy

5 Honor your parents

6 Don't murder

7 Don't adulterate

8 Don't steal

9 Don't lie

10 Don't covet

Which one is hardest to keep? I would say number 2. It's hard to focus more on God than on anything else. Which one is kept the least often? This one, interestingly enough, is also the easiest to keep. It's number 4.

What is the Sabbath? The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week (Saturday), which is intended by God to be a holy day. On the Sabbath, we are supposed to do no unnecessary work and spend our time worshipping God. How often do we do this? The not working part is easy--plenty of people manage to just do nothing on Saturday. However, we don't do the keeping-holy part of it.

The Law shows us what sin is and isn't (I'm not even talking about the complexities of sacrifice and the Feasts--just the Ten Commandents). If the Law says to do something, then not doing it is a sin, and vice-versa. The Law says to keep the Sabbath. So why don't we?

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Note: I have a new label for my posts. Important. This is for things that simply need to be said, regardless of their depth.

Faith

2008-02-26T17:41:00.000-08:00

Last night, I watched a movie. In this movie, one of the characters was a Catholic priest (who actually mentioned God a total of zero times), and at one point he was talking about faith. He defined faith as a belief in a thing larger than yourself. I have also heard it defined as a belief in an unseen thing. This means that faith is a specific kind of belief--I believe in the sun, but I don't have faith in it because I can see it.

However, that isn't what faith is. Hebrews chapter 11 is all about faith, and the first verse says something important about it: "faith is the evidence of things unseen." If faith is the evidence in things unseen, it can't be merely a belief in it. Evidence is proof. A belief is not proof of anything.

If I tell you that I believe that I am the best writer in the world, would that convince you? I strongly doubt it. I would have to show you a sample of every single writer in the world, and then demonstrate my own writing. That would be evidence, either for or against me.

So if faith is evidence, then that means it has to be more than belief. However, faith is belief. Hebrews 11 describes faith later on as being belief. So was the writer of Hebrews completely wrong? I don't think so--I think that we are lacking something when we define faith as belief in the unseen.

Here is my definition: faith is a belief in the unseen inspired by the unseen thing. This means that faith is a belief in God that is created in us by God. So how about this one: if faith without works is dead, then do the works justify the faith, or does the faith create the works? But that's a question for tomorrow.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Language Reform

2008-02-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

The idea of grammar is interesting to me. Who came up with it? And spelling. When did spelling become standardized? Did someone decide one day that our language needed to work like this, and not like that? If so, he didn't do it very well. I'll admit that grammar usually works well, but spelling does not.

Look at words like "eight" and "bomb." They don't sound like they look at all (and why do we have to have words for numbers? Why not just write it 8?) Standardized spelling is good, but why not make it a little more sensical. English, supposedly, is written phonetically. Wouldn't it be great if that were true? "Facade" should be written "fussad," and the letter K should be eliminated, since it's redundant to C. As for letters:

G should no longer share a sound with J.

C should cease to share with S.

X, Q and K should be removed from the alphabet.

The sounds Sh, Th and Ch should be replaced by, respectively, Q, K and X.

And those are my thoughts for the day.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Reply

2008-02-24T18:37:00.000-08:00

The other day I wrote down a very brief thought concerning sacrifice and Jesus. Today, I will finish the thought.

The sacrifice by Jesus was not human sacrifice. I made an error in my logic. If I made anyone worry and fret and lose sleep (I probably didn't), then you can be at rest once again. The human sacrifice mentioned in the Old Testament is entirely different than the one performed by Jesus. The main thing is that the Old Testament human sacrifices were not voluntary.

One of the more popular false religions in the time of Moses and the Judges was the worship of Molech. One of the central parts of Molech worship concerned human sacrifice--more specifically, the sacrifice of infants. When the various Prophets decried Israel for "allowing your children to be passed through the fire," this is what they were talking about.

Jesus was very different. His sacrifice was entirely voluntary. What Jesus did was sort of like a soldier stepping in the way of a bullet to save a friend. This is sacrifice, in a technical sense, but who would say that it's a bad thing?

What Jesus did was a glorious and heroic thing; involuntary human sacrifice is a disgusting and pathetic thing. Rest easy: His sacrifice is still entirely valid, and there is nothing anyone can do to make it less so.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Sacrifice

2008-02-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days since I've said anything, which is rare for me. However, even though it was my small and rather sad goal of having a post for every day of this month, I have so far come much closer to attaining the goal than I did in January. I imagine that the month that I actually attain the goal, someone in an office somewhere will shut it down and kick me off the internet.

I don't have much to say today. I have simply been reflecting upon this two-part thought:

1. God forbid human sacrifice in the Old Testament.

2. Jesus is the sacrifice for our sins (He also happened to be human).

What does this mean? If He was the sacrifice for our sins, He was a human sacrifice, which is sin in itself. I'm going to have to study this a little more, because I don't have an answer.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Unreality

2008-02-17T11:28:00.000-08:00

As anyone who's heard me knows, I am an exceedingly good guitarist. I am, if I do say so myself, one of the best to ever live. Although there are many who would disagree, they're probably just jealous.

There is a game that is popular among many people called Guitar Hero. It's basically a simulation of playing guitar. The controller is a small plastic guitar with five buttons on the neck. On the body, where a real guitarist would strum, there is a small plastic piece on a hinge. This simulates the strum.

I can't play Guitar Hero. I am the worst Guitar Heroist ever. However, I am an awesome guitarist. Guitar Hero has a fraction of the complexity of guitar, so the ability to play guitar should make Guitar Hero exponentially easier.

There's actually more to it than that, but for now let's stick with what I've just laid out (I'd rather not bring up how bad I am at sight-reading). Reality is easier than the simulation, which, based on casual observance, is backwards.

Looking back, this isn't a very good way of getting my point across. So before I fall deeper into my mistake, I'll just state my purpose.

It's a lot easier to maintain the truth than to keep up a lie. There are two reasons for this, neither of which really have anything to do with guitars. The first is memory, the second is backup.

Lies are easier to forget than the truth. A lie is made up entirely of words, and words can be easily forgotten. The truth is made up of actual events.

Other people can also easily and inadvertently cause your lie yto be disproved. Sometimes a casual comment that doesn't match up with a false story can destroy the false story.

Don't worry, this worthlessness I just spent all this time writing will not recur with too much frequency. My inspiration is only slowly returning, but it's coming. Maybe I'll say something worth saying tomorrow.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Another Day

2008-02-16T19:31:00.000-08:00

I still have inspiration deficiency. However, I also still want to have a post for every day in the month, and so I am writing.

That's all. I'll probably have something real to say tomorrow.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Help Wanted

2008-02-15T19:50:00.000-08:00

I can think of nothing good to talk about. I wish that I did. So here's what I want you, the valiant reader, to do for me. You've been sitting there reading my hard work for all this time. It's time for you to do your part. Here are your instructions.

1. Click below where it says "comments."

2. Write something in the box contained therein. This something can be whatever you think could be relevant and helpful. This could be a Bible verse, a theological statement, a non-theological statement, or the beginnings of the trace of an idea of something.

3. Post the comment.

This really isn't just a ploy to show how many people are reading my blog. If that's what it was, I know that I would be horribly disappointed. I just have run low on inspiration.

I hope to hear from you shortly,
Mitchell

A Step Closer to 29

2008-02-14T19:20:00.000-08:00

To understand the reason behind the above title, read the post from ten minutes ago.

To understand something more interesting, continue reading.

There is a doctrine concerning God that is generally accepted by most Christians. This doctrine is referred to as the Trinity. Basically, here's how it works: God consists of three beings--Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three beings are one being, yet they are simultaneously seperate. This is not understood by most people, myself included. However, that is the belief.

A lot of people do not believe in this, however. These people are wrong. I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about that particular subject though, because that isn't what interests me at the moment. I am more interested in the Trinity itself.

I have tried to think of something on earth that can compare to the Trinity, but can think of nothing. A well-known illustration was given by St. Patrick of Ireland, referring to a clover. He said the the clover was similar to the Trinity: The clover has three leaves, but is still one plant. This, like all analogies, is flawed.

If you tear a leaf off of a clover, it can still survive. It doesn't matter that much if there are seperated. God cannot be seperated. It isn't that we don't know how to do it--the three parts of God are so inseperable that they are essentially one.

C. S. Lewis (yes, him again) mentioned the Trinity in Mere Christianity. I'm going to borrow (and never return) his idea on the Trinity.

God the Father is the source of God the Son. The Son is constantly brought forth by the Father. This doesn't mean that the Father existed first. They both have existed in this relationship since forever. They are so closely connected though, that their relationship creates a third being--the Holy Spirit. Again, this doesn't mean that He came after the Father and Son. They have all three existed since time began.

For a much less concise and more complex explanation, read Mere Christianity. C. S. Lewis can state his thoughts much better than I can. I have nothing new to say, but I hope this was as interesting to you as it was to me.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

29 - 1 = Incompletion

2008-02-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

I have ruined everything. It was my goal to have post everyday in the month of February. But I missed yesterday, and now all hope is lost. I can do two posts in one day, which will bring the total for the month to 29 (since it's a leap year), but I can never fill the gap that will be left.

There is now a hole in Controlled Disorder. Please, watch your step and don't fall through it.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Part 2

2008-02-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was talking about a big question that comes up due to John 1:1-5. Why, if we must die to ourselves to enter Christ, would anyone want to enter Christ? If everyone in the world were to become Christ, that would be the end of individuality, right?

Well, not really. The question is somewhat flawed, as I will explain. First of all, let's be consistent. Let's continue to refer to Jesus as the light, and us as the darkness. When He illuminates us, we cease to exist. This is how the question came up in first place, but I have to admit that the premise is all because of a mistake.

I said that we are the darkness. This isn't quite true. We are in the darkness. For my initial purpose, this didn't matter. However, because this question came about, I must correct myself. Regardless, the question still remains from other sources. When God looks at us, for example, what He sees is Jesus.

To explain why th question is flawed, I will use a simile. Imagine that there is a world with an atmosphere so thick with clouds that only the tiniest amount of light can enter. The people on this world can only barely see, and so of course no one can clearly see what other people look like. They have never seen a bright light, however, and so they don't know how poorly they can see.

Then, one day, a hole breaks through the clouds, and full sunlight shines down. One curious darkness-dweller steps into this beam of brightness. Several others follow behind him. When they look at each other, they are shocked to find that they all look nearly identical. They quickly return to the darkness, where they have their own faces again. The light, they decide, just makes everyone look the same.

They thought they all looked the same, but this is because their eyes had not adjusted to the light. If they had stayed for a little longer, they would have discovered that the light clarified their features. Jesus, in the same way, clarifies our lives. When I entered into Christ, I became more myself than I was before.

But we have been living in the darkness of the world. We believe that individuality is acting unlike other people, and Christianity seems to destroy that by forcing everyone to live by a single code of laws. What we don't realize is that it gives us boundaries in which to create ourselves. God's laws are like the structure of a building. We have a sturdy, well-tested frame, but beyond that, the architecture is up to us.

That's all I have to say.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

John 1

2008-02-11T10:37:00.000-08:00

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

This is the first five verses of the first chapter of the gospel of John. There's a lot of fascinating stuff in these verses, but I want to talk about the last verse (The lights shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it). Other versions say that the darkness "has not put [the light] out."

The light shines in the darkness. The light is Jesus. The Word mentioned earlier in the first two verses is also Jesus. These verses describe Him as being the Word, the Light and the Creator of life. These are all important attributes. Because He is the Word, He is entirely truthful. Because He is the Creator, well. . .He created us.

Because He is the light, he shows us the way we need to go. In Psalm 119, it states that God is a light to our path. The darkness is the world--us, the people that He gives light to. The darkness us the world, and it is an undeniable fact that we are humans, and therefore a part of this world.

Darkness is the absence of light. The world, therefore, being darkness, is the absence of God. God is absent from us.

Here I will make an assumption. Most of you currently reading this are Christians, because otherwise the repeated mention of "God" and "Jesus" would probably have sent you running to a less theological page. So, from this point forward I am going to be speaking to those who are Christians, and have been "saved," to use church-words.

For a person to be saved, Jesus has to enter him. This means that the Light is coming into the darkness. If darkness is the absence of light, and light enters it, what is the darkness? Nothing. The darkness is destroyed. In the same way, we are destroyed the moment Jesus enters into us. Darkness cannot fathom light, because the moment it conceives of the idea, it's gone. To glimpse light would be suicidal to darkness.

When Paul said that anyone in Christ is a new creation, he was being very literal. The moment Jesus comes into us, we cease to exist.

This is a somewhat frightening thought. We either cease to exist, or we go to hell when we die. Those are our options. We will still exist, yes, but not as ourselves. So why would anyone ever want to be brought into the light with Jesus?

That question will be answered either tomorrow or later today. I'm going to go eat something. I hope that something is food.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

The Tortoise and the Hare

2008-02-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

Long ago, in a land far away (from my current location, anyway), there was a man named Aesop. He told a lot of stories that had nothing to do with reality, and included a less than subtle message about how people should be good. These stories were called fables.

One of the most famous of these is called the Tortoise and the Hare. I'm going to retell it (not, of course, that I wish to show myself a better storyteller than Aesop. This is not my intention, nor is it my intention to prove myself wiser. This might be the results anyway, but if so it is not my fault.)

Long ago, in a land far away, there was a tortoise. This tortoise was named Tortoise. He was the slowest and weakest of all the animals in the world. A hare, who happened to be named Hare, was constantly making fun of Tortoise's slowness. You see, Hare was the fastest.

One day, Tortoise got sick of this. "I'm sick of this," he said to Hare. "I challenge you to a race."

After the laughs died down, everyone realized that Tortoise was serious. An awkward silence settled over those present. Hare stared at Tortoise with a confused grin. "Well, okay," he said.

So everyone immediately placed all their money on the victory of Hare, except for one wise old man. This wise old man slowly sized up the odds, then quietly muttered something to himself. "Slow and steady wins the race." He was nearly drowning in wisdom.

Tortoise and Hare lined up at a large, imposing baobob tree. Tortoise suggested that their destination be another tree about a hundred yards away. "No, how about that one?" Hare said, pointing to one on the distant horizon.

"Okay," Tortoise said with a shrug. The possum named Possum shouted "Go!" The race was off.

Tortoise began to slowly plod along the path. Hare watched him go for a few seconds, then scratched his armpit and started running. Hare, as the fastest of all creatures, rapidly passed by Tortoise. He then preceded just as rapidly to reach the baobob tree on the distant horizon. Everyone cheered as he burst across the finish line.

Everyone was happy, except for the Tortoise and one wise old man.

Moral: Aesop was a little out of touch.

I think this story more adequately describes life as we know it. The losers lose and the winners win. God, however, tells a different story. He says that the first place champions will be nothing, and the losers will rule the world. He, however, is not out of touch with life. Aesop was eventually thrown off a cliff. God is still running the universe, and will continue in this infinitely.

So here's how the world works: everyone gets about seventy to eighty years to show his colors. Then, when that time is up, God decides whether that person has bright enough colors to make it into the ruling class. (Arrogance and apathy towards the lowly, by the way, are not the kind of thing He wants.)

I hope you enjoyed this new revision of The Tortoise and the Hare.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell the depressing (but not depressed) writer

The Flood

2008-02-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

It is commonly believed among Christian communities that, at some point in history, God caused a flood to cover the entire world. Everyone on earth was killed--with the exception of a man named Noah--because they were evil. Noah, Noah's wife, and his three sons survived because they built an enormous boat.

I'm going to add a little to that story. First of all, the flood came because of water pouring from the sky in the form of rain. This is commonly accepted by those who believe in the flood in the first place. But this has deeper meaning. Preceding the day of the flood, it had never rained before. Noah had never seen rain before. Also, at this time, the world consisted of a single, massive continent which is referred to as "Pangea." The flood broke this apart into the continents as we now know them. Noah lived in about the center of this continent.

So Noah had never seen rain before. He'd also never seen an expanse of standing water. Water came up from the ground in a fine mist, which gave life to the plants. So maybe, at the best, he had seen a puddle.

I would speculate that Noah rarely even looked at the sky. Because the globe was surrounded by a giant ice canopy (which compressed the atmosphere to create the enormous plants and insects found fossilized today), and so the light of the sun would be dispersed such that it wouldn't seem to be a single ball of light. If Noah ever looked up, he probably saw nothing of interest.

So when God said "Build an ark, it's going to rain," that's the equivalent of Him saying today "build a jugrin, it's going to bezhrull."

Noah had no clue what was going to happen, but he did what God told him. That's the first point.

Here's the second: As most people know, God left a symbol that He would never flood the earth again. This is what we now call a rainbow. But He also left another symbol, which is not actually one He mentioned but one which is there just the same.

The rain is a symbol, just like the rainbow. Whenever you see a rainbow, remember that God will never flood the world again. When it rains, remember that He can.

God is going to keep His promise. But He doesn't have to. He can destroy us all, if He wants to. He can flood the world again, and the best we could do is tread water as long as we can. He can destroy every human being on the planet with a thought.

But He doesn't. He continues to be patient--infinitely so. So next time you think that God is being unfair, or just allowing evil to run rampant, remember the flood and the mercy he has shown us by not doing it again.

God is love, and love is merciful. He will give grace to anyone who asks--and this will be needed by all, because the world will be destroyed again. But this time it will be by fire, instead. I hope these dark thoughts have brightened your day.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Color

2008-02-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

Color is light. Light is not color. In fact, even though color is light, the two things have opposite purposes. While light assists vision tremendously (without it there would even be vision), color can hinder it just as easily. The whole purpose of paint is to hinder vision. If a wall has a big stain on it, just paint over the stain and it vanishes. Though the stain is still there, it can't be seen. The color hinders sight.

Color is much like religion. Light is like Jesus. Religion is an aspect of Christianity, much like color is an aspect of light. Religion will logically follow from Christianity, like color comes with light. The problem is that sometimes people try to make religion the whole thing. Religion without Jesus is like color without light--which is the same as darkness.

Jesus can't jut be integrated into religion. He has to be more than the sculpted figure on the cross or the man on the poster holding a lamb/child/little dog. He is everything. So when we attempt to do anything in any church, no matter how good it may sound, but Jesus is not behind it, the result will be inevitable. It will end with a fight and a division.

So church leaders: keep Jesus central. For all of you who are not church leadership: keep Jesus central. For those who don't even know who Jesus is: find out.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell.

Today

2008-02-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

Today is the only day that can be changed. Yesterday is permanent, and tomorrow doesn't really exists. Because it hasn't happened yet, tomorrow is just a figment of the imagination. So the great Today is the only thing that matters.

However, Today is strongly influenced by yesterday. Most of the things done Today are because of what happened yesterday. The rest are in preparation for Tomorrow. This doesn't make sense. Why does it work that way? I can't answer, because I live completely in the moment. But for one of you living in a moment that isn't this one, please tell me. Why are you worried about what you can't change? By worrying, you can't change a single hair on your head.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Prayer

2008-02-06T15:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I mentioned (briefly) the miracle of prayer. I believe I devoted the second half of a sentence to it. Today, things are different. Today, I’m going to spend a whole post talking about it.

Prayer is a thing that we think very little about. Most Christians pray on occasion, usually when they want something, but don’t think about what it actually is. In an earlier post, I devoted a lot of words to praying, but I never said what exactly it is.

Prayer is a form of communication. It’s the spiritual equivalent of the phone, except that you can only call one person using prayer. That person (God) is always listening, and you don’t need any kind of phone to talk to him. It’s as simple to use as vocal cords, with one principal difference. Prayer is anything but natural, entirely unlike talking.

God is infinitely patient, and will listen to anything you have to say. Again, this is completely unlike the phone. To prove my point, let’s do an experiment.

Go pick up the phone, and dial the number of someone you know well. It doesn’t matter who—just call someone. Begin the conversation like you normally would, and then ask for some money. Or ask for something else. Whatever it is that you want. Now, come back and report your findings.

Most likely, the discussion did not go well from there. God is not like that. God will keep on listening to whatever you have to say to Him. That’s part of the miracle.

The other part of the miracle is that we can talk to Him at all. We humans are obsessed with our senses. We rarely rise above them to grasp at our potential. God doesn’t have any potential—He could be no greater than He already is. That’s why we capitalize the word “He” in reference to God.

Prayer is an incredible miracle. Prayer is the natural talking to the supernatural, and not even bringing the dead to life could be so amazing.

So, do more miracles more often. It’s good for you.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

The Bible, part 2

2008-02-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I showed (sort of) that that Bible must be God-inspired, meaning that it is correct. I'd like to add one point to that: our observations back up that statement. The historical parts of the Bible are repeatedly proved to be correct, based on every reliable historical source that can be found.

So we know the Bible is true, but is it complete? This is debated by various theologians, and there is a large range of opinions concerning the truth. The debate, essentially, is this: does God convey messages outside of the Bible?

We know the Bible is the truth and nothing but the truth, but is it the whole truth? I would say that it most definitely is not.

Anything that is good comes from God. The truth is good. So all truth comes from God. If the Bible is the complete word of God (the complete truth), then there can be no truth outside of the Bible. That means that right now I could not say "I'm wearing a shirt that says 'I SEE DUMB PEOPLE' in red letters on the front. I couldn't say this because it's true, and it's outside of the Bible.

So the Bible isn't the complete word of God. It is the true word of God, but it can't be complete. But now you're wondering, "what does this have to do with anything?" The Bible isn't complete, because to be complete it would have to be so vast a book that no one could ever possibly read it in a million trillion years. But that does not mean that it's worthless.

The Bible acts as a sort of test to determine what is true and what isn't. If someone makes a claim that is contrary to the Bible, it's not true. If someone makes a claim that goes closely with something in the Bible, it's true. If it's somewhere in between--it doesn't go against the Bible, but isn't necessarily mentioned therein--then something more is required. This something more is God.

God is still fully capable of revealing to us what is true and what is not. So if a question comes up that can't be answered by the Bible, perform a miracle: communicate with a being with a mind more vast than you could fathom.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

A Well-Known Book

2008-02-04T15:57:00.000-08:00

A long time ago, some people wrote down words on paper. These people were exceedingly diverse--one was a farmer, another was the richest king in the world. The writings of this diverse group was compiled into a single work: the Bible. The Bible is the best-selling book, and has been since before anyone thought of the idea of recording best-sellers.

The Bible has more authors than any other book. It also has less inconsistencies than any other book. This is inconceivable, by any earthly standards. All these people have nothing in common but their religion. How could so many people from so many walks of life all believe exactly the same thing about God?

Unless, of course, their belief is not internal, but external. Here's a definition of those terms:

By "internal," I mean that the believer created this belief in his own mind, using his own logic. By "external," I mean that the believer's belief comes from some other source. This could be simply that this is what the believer has been told his whole life, or it could be God-inspired.

It had to be an external belief that inspired the Bible. But external belief is more broad: it could be God-inspired, but it also might be human-inspired.

The human-inspired idea could easily destroy the accuracy of the Bible, if the ideas mentioned therein line up only because of what other people said. But this isn't a problem, because that really isn't possible.

The doctrines taken from the Bible were thought of after the Bible was written. The authors of the Bible were the first to say the things that they said. They were not just writing about the things they were told their whole lives. This is what I'm doing at the moment--I'm discussing ideas that I've known about as long as I can remember. The Biblical authors are the ones who created those ideas.

But, because their agreement with each other is humanly impossible, their beliefs still must be external. They still have to come from somewhere else. This means God. If they did not think of their own ideas, and no one gave them the ideas, then it had to be God.

So the Bible was God-inspired. Some would argue that this is impossible because God doesn't exist, but there's a problem with that statement now.

The Bible can only exist in its present state if there is a God. Since it does exist, and cannot exist any other way, there has to be a God.

This means that the Bible is accurate, coming from the inventor of life, the universe and everything; it also means that there is an inventor. I hope some of this makes sense to someone other than me. If not, I don't know that I can explain much better. Sorry.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

The Winner

2008-02-03T19:06:00.000-08:00

For your information. . .

The New York Giants just won the Super-Bowl. I hope they're happy.

Football

2008-02-03T17:27:00.000-08:00

Today, as far as the majority of Americans are concerned, is a major holiday, along the lines of Thanksgiving and Independence Day. It's Super-Bowl Sunday.

To be honest, I couldn't care less. Football bores me, as does every other sport. I'm not really sure what's so boring about them, but I can't get interested. In fact, I care so little that I didn't even know who was playing until the game started. (For those of you like me: it's the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. But I might not have the right cities with the right teams.)

I find football pretty much pointless. In fact, I consider all sports pretty much pointless. If you, the reader, disagree with me and enjoy sports, then good for you. It gives you something to do in your free time. But since it bores me, I'm going to try to come up with new ways of making it more interesting.

Imagine if the Super-Bowl were open to everyone. What if anyone, no matter how bad at football, could go play in the biggest game in the entire world. Well, the Super-Bowl would be boring and no one would watch anymore. This won't work.

Well, what if the teams shared the ball. All the players most likely tell their children to share toys and such, so maybe they should start practicing what they preach. But again, this would be boring, wouldn't it?

Okay, so what if one team just forgave the other? If they just worked around their differences, maybe they wouldn't have to have a giant fight over a small leather ball. Oh, but then there wouldn't be a game at all.

Do you realize that football, in all the three areas I just mentioned (nondiscrimination, sharing and forgiveness), comepletely undermines all the values taught to small children? Maybe it should be rated something higher. PG, at least. Preferably PG-13, or even R. That way all the little kids all over the world could be taught these values with more sucess.

Please, join me in my campaign to censor the Super-Bowl. Contact your local TV stations and complain. Together, we can defeat this international killer of morals.

Don't worry, football fans. I'm not serious.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

T-shirts and the Esteeming of Oneself

2008-02-02T18:03:00.000-08:00

I have a T-shirt that I wear frequently. It's black, and has 14 red letters across the chest. These letters spell out the phrase "I SEE DUMB PEOPLE." I wear it a lot, because it's one of only three shirts in my possession. Other people comment on it frequently, and last night someone commented in a most unusual way.
He said, "you should put black tape over the word 'dumb' and write 'smart' instead." His point was that people would then walk away from me with a happy, warm feeling instead of mild to strong irritation.
This is a really good point, and I wish I'd thought of this idea first. Think about how cool that would be: T-shirts that don't say "you're stupid," but that encourage.
Okay, the truth is that it wouldn't be cool at all. It would be pathetic and completely un-funny. This country has come up with an idea for its public schools: let's teach everyone how special they are! Let's focus more on self-esteem than the two R's (who needs arithmetic?). Wouldn't this be a great idea? Then the younger generations will grow up feeling good about themselves.
This could be a good idea, but it isn't.
Here's what it's done: it's created a society of people who have no self-esteem, no confidence, and don't feel good about themselves at all.
You may be wondering about now how I made the leap from insulting but funny T-shirts to teaching self-esteem. Well, I think that the latter is the cause of the former. This is not because I think that everyone is too arrogant now. In fact, I think it's the opposite. This is demonstrated by the other kind of T-shirt in the world.
There's the kind of shirt saying "you're stupid/lazy/boring etc," and there's the kind saying "I'm stupid/lazy/boring etc." They both come from the same place. The first one is enjoyed by teenagers everywhere because it makes them feel good because someone else is stupid (the shirt says so!). The second one comes from their true feelings.
So this begs the question "how does self-esteem being taught in school give people lower self-esteems?"
Very easily. The problem is that self-esteem is taught apart from its source. Self-esteem, which I will call pride because it's quicker to say, comes from actions. I have pride in the fact that I taught myself to play guitar. While this is not the most amazing of all feats, it's something that I have done.
In school, kids are told that they are special. But what is it that makes them special? If one child does an exceptionally good job can't be told how well he did, because then those who didn't do so well will feel bad. So the one who does well sees that he is treated no better than the one who failed.
This could be easily fixed. We should recognize that, though everyone may be created equal, everyone is not the same. Some people have mental, physical or emotional handicaps, and these people can't be treated the same as everyone else.
How this can be implemented, I don't know. But it should be done somehow, because that is how to really build self-esteem.
And by the way: if anyone happens to find a place where T-shirts with messages containing complements can be bought, please let me know.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

The Theory. . .

2008-01-29T18:29:00.000-08:00

There is a new theory floating around this planet that many people have taken firm hold of. It isn't actually new, but it's far more pervasive than any other time in history. This theory is that there are no moral absolutes. It's a completely atheistic idea.
To start with, it is founded upon the premise that there is no God. If there is no God, then several other things must go. First of all is morality. See, God is the source of morals--or at least, that's the claim made by all religions (except Buddhism, which is atheistic). So if there is no God, who says morals are true?
No one, except for the religious people. But if the religious people are just people, what makes them right? Nothing. So, their morals are fine for them, but that doesn't mean they're true. From this, it follows that there is no truth.
So all this is built on the fact that there is no God. So to refute this theory, all that must be done is to prove the existence of God. This is really hard, however, but not because there are no proofs. It's hard because the people who don't believe in God will cling to any tiny thing that could possibly be a difficulty for religion.
Since I'm not sure how to go about proving God, I'll just refute the idea of no absolutes.
Here's the first thing: There are absolutely no absolutes. I emphasized "absolutely" for the convenience of the reader. My view of the universe is only true for me, and yours only for you. Well, but my view of the universe states that there are absolutes. So that one isn't valid? Doesn't that mean that the only truth is that there are no truths? That's self-refuting.
Also, there's another big problem. What makes moral laws so different from the laws of physics? Just like the laws of physics are a vital part to the behavior of the universe, moral laws are a vital part of human behavior.
So here's an illustration. Right now, it is winter, and therefore it is cold. I don't like the cold. So, if physical laws are as malleable as we say that moral laws are, I can just say that it's mid-summer and 100 degrees outside, right? But if I decide to go swimming to ward off the heat, I'm going to freeze.
Moral laws are the same. Even if I don't like that I'm not allowed to kill, I'm still breaking a law if I decide to murder, both moral and civil laws.
If I applied this s upposed flexibility to anything but morality, it would cause some tremendous problems for me. Every sane person understands that. So it's just insane to apply such looseness to morality.
I don't know if any of my readers believes in the personalizing of morals, or knows someone who does, but I thought I'd write about it anyway.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Bricks

2008-01-27T17:49:00.001-08:00

There are lots of different kinds of bricks. Some are made of concrete, and are very large and are actually mostly made of the core. These are called cinderblocks. Others are smaller, red and have much smaller cores. These are the kind you see in the construction of most brick houses. Yet another kind is about 2 1/2 pounds, is gray, and can be found inside the human skull.
I have a low opinion of human intellect (my own included). You may wonder why. You also may not, however, because you may have observed some of the same things I have.

1. Everyone in the world does hundreds of stupid things every day.
2. Everyone in the world says hundreds of stupid things every day.
3. Everyone in the world thinks hundreds of stupid things every day.
4. Ice cream is delicious.

These things demonstrate clearly how messed up our minds are. Maybe part of it is the fact that we can actually use only about ten percent of our brains, meaning that we are short about ninety percent of our needed intellect.
Whatever. It doesn't matter that much why we do dumb things. The main thing is that we do.
Think of the last really smart thing you said. This tends to be pretty hard for must of us. Now think of the last really dumb thing that you said. Again, this is pretty hard for me, because I can never remember which dumb thing was said most recently.
So dumb things are said, done and thought daily. I know what you're thinking. "We're only human, what do you expect?" This is not a dumb thought. The other day I was talking endlessly about holiness. We, being only human, cannot attain holiness. We also have a hard time with wisdom.
Even King Solomon, the wisest man ever to live, did some dumb things. Is there hope left for the rest of us?
So, what do we do? All problems have a solution. This problem is not special, because it's drowning in a solution.
Read the Bible. This is hard for a lot of people (like me) because we've never really entered the habit of reading the Bible frequently. But the Bible, being the word of God, has the answer to just about every problem you'll come across.
Actually, let me rephrase this. Read the Bible prayerfully. The Bible was written thousands of years ago, and is no longer relevant to this world. . .unless the Holy Spirit is guiding the reader. So if you are one of us who needs things like wisdom, go to the Bible. And more importantly: pray without ceasing.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Fire

2008-01-25T19:49:00.001-08:00

For the last 24 days, I have lived in a new house that I have never before lived in. This house has no central heat, and instead uses a wood-burning stove. This one stove actually keeps the house fairly warm--most of the time. The problem is, sometimes the fire goes out and is not noticed. So the house steadily loses its warmth, and house - heat = cold house.
But that has nothing to do with what I was actually planning to say. Actually I was going to talk about the fan on this stove.
About the fan on the stove: the wood-burning stove has a fan on it that blows heat out of the inside and into the outside. This means that the whole house is warm, not just the inside of the stove. Right in front of the stove, where the heat is constantly being blown out, it's really warm. So certain people (like me) enjoy standing a few feet in front of the stove, where heat is being poured out constantly.
But at some point, that person has to walk away from the stove to do something else. This person then becomes even colder than before, because he has been standing in a cloud of heat. So does that mean it's not good to stand in front of the stove? Because then I'm even worse than when I started.
My point is this: the stove in this picture represents God. The heat represents holiness, which is the thing I was talking about two days ago. Holiness is a good thing to have, just like heat. But like heat (in the house I live in), it can come from only one source. Holiness comes from God, heat comes from the stove.
I have two points I want to make. The first I mentioned already. When I step away from the stove and its warmth, I feel colder than I was before. I'm not really, but it certainly seems that way. Same with holiness. As soon as I step away from God, I seem to be worse than before, now that I've felt His glory.
So should I still strive for that holiness? I would say yes. If I had no warmth, I would eventually freeze to death. If I have no holiness, I'll eventually burn. Remember what I said about eternity? That's a long time to be sitting in Hell (whether the fire depicted throughout the Bible is literal or figurative, Hell will still not be fun by any stretch of the imagination.)
But that isn't the point that interests me the most. I might talk about that a little more later, but not now.
Here's what interests me: I can find warmth in other places. If I get in bed and pull the blanket over my head, it'll be warm. But it isn't nearly as warm as standing in front of the stove. And still, without the stove I'll eventually get cold again.
So the point is, we can find holiness elsewhere. But it isn't real holiness in that it's only a sort of morality. And again, it will eventually fade if the source isn't present. Cynicism is a powerful weapon against this fake holiness--people get jaded, and then decide that it isn't worth it to keep trying.
This is what's killing our planet. It isn't global warming or terrorism. It's false holiness. All religion is a failed attempt at creating holiness without God. Even Christianity, but only when it becomes so watered down that God is forgotten--sort of like our churches today. . . .
So what can we do about this? How do we turn the world around and start giving people real holiness?
Send them to the source. This could be rephrased with equal accuracy as "send them to Jesus."
That's all I have to say. I can't make you change, I can just make you aware that you need to. I hope that, if needed, you do change. I also hope that you can show others how to change.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Infinity

2008-01-24T18:43:00.000-08:00

When was the last time you thought sat down for a minute and thought about eternity? I say "sat down" because it's hard to do standing up. Eternity is a big amount of time. It's really big. It's so big, in fact, that there is no end.
Think about it like this: there is a robot that is programmed to repeat the words "hello, how are you?" He repeats it at five-second intervals. He is also absolutely indestructible, because who would want such a friendly thing destroyed? This robot was built a long time ago, so he's been saying those words for a long time.
Now, to complete the story, imagine that he keeps on saying this forever. Try to imagine this.
We have a hard time with this, because if he started at some point, he has to stop eventually. What goes up must come down. What begins must end. That's what we think, anyway. But he doesn't stop. Just goes on and on and on and etc.
Now imagine a little more. This robot has always been repeating this phrase. Always. Since before you or anyone you know was born. Before, in fact, the universe ever existed. How many hours has he been speaking? How many days? Years? Centuries?
We can't measure it. We can't even begin to measure it because something like this is so far beyond anything we can conceive of in our brains. Maybe if we were able to use 100% of our brains, rather than the 10% actually available, this would be a comprehensible thing. But maybe not. Like I said, this is a big amount of time.
God rules over it all. God absolutely and totally controls every part of this massive amount of time, and has existed through all of it. I know this has been said a million or more times (probably a lot more), but I'm still amazed every time I think about it.
So think for a while about eternity, and then think about God.
"Wow" is such an understatement, don't you think?
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Holiness

2008-01-23T14:55:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thought about the word "holy"? It's used in a lot of different ways. For example "Holy Cow!" Or, "my old jeans have holy (holey) knees." But I don't really care about those particular usages, because they're too silly and pointless even for this blog. I want to focus on a very different usage, which is the way it's used in church.
We say things like "God is holy" all the time. The word is used in tens of thousands of worship songs. But what does it mean to be holy?
There are several simple qualifications. First of all, you have to be sinless to be holy. Anyone who is holy never sins, and never has. Not once. One sin, no matter how small, destroys the holiness in the same way that a brick destroys glass. All you've got left are a bunch of little bits of holiness.
The next qualification is perfection. This one is a lot more harsh, and seems to be mentioned less than holiness. Well, "perfection" is mentioned quite often in relation to God, but no one really seems to expound upon the theme.
Perfection is one of the things that keeps the Bible from being politically correct. In the Old Testament, along with the rest of the Law, God gives instructions on what can and cannot be sacrificed. He basically saws that He will only accept a perfect lamb--meaning that it cannot be blind, deaf, lame, etc.
Any handicap makes a person imperfect, and therefore that person is not holy. If you are reading this and you're blind, deaf or lame, don't quit reading yet. There's yet another qualification.
To be holy, a person must be clean. This excludes a pretty big portion of all the people in the world. I'll just mention a few things about cleanliness. If you want the rest you can read the book of Leviticus.
Anyone with any kind of skin disease is unclean. Sorry, this doesn't just include leprosy. It also applies to simple little things like warts and sores.
Anyone who is sick is unclean.
Anyone who has eaten an unclean animal is unclean.
Anyone who has touched an unclean thing or person.
And so on.
Basically, the point is that holiness is not an easy thing to attain. In fact, it's impossible. But God is holy. God is sinless, perfect and clean. He is absolutely holy.
So, think about holiness for a while, and tomorrow I'll talk about infinity.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell the unholy

NASA

2008-01-22T10:43:00.000-08:00

When there's a major problem at NASA, what do they do? It is rocket science.

Question Number 4

2008-01-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

Today, I seek to answer the final question. Why does God not just destroy the universe and start over?
The answer can be found in the biggest best-seller book of all time: the Bible. Exodus 20 describes an interesting occurrence. God gives Moses the law, including the widely-famed Ten Commandments. In the interest of time and space, I'm not going to list all ten. I'm just going to bring up one.
To paraphrase: don't kill anyone. Why does He tell us this? Because life is sacred. All ten of these commandments basically work the same way. Don't misuse God's name. Why? His name is sacred. Don't commit adultery. Why? Marriage is sacred. Don't work on the Sabbath. Why? Because the Sabbath is holy. Etc.
That last one (the Sabbath) is important to my coming argument, and here is why. God was the first one to keep the Sabbath. Following the six days of creation mentioned in Genesis, God took a day to rest. That means that He also keeps the Sabbath holy.
I don't think that God does nothing on Saturday just to keep it holy, but I think that He is mentioned as resting for a reason. Maybe to show that He believes in the holiness of that day. He's not a king who is above His own laws.
So it follows that He believes life to be sacred also. I'm sorry if you don't follow this leap of logic, but I'm not sure how else to phrase it. But the point is simple.
Because God believes life to be sacred, He will not destroy it. I can hear you arguing already: "wait a second, Mitchell, are you trying to tell me people don't die? Or that God isn't in charge of our lives?"
No. People do die, and God is in charge. But remember Question 3, and more importantly, the answer. If it wasn't for Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge, they and all their children (everyone) would still be alive today. God didn't take life--we broke it.
There are exceptions, however. For example, in the Old Testament are mentioned several kings of various nations whom God kills for their sins. But think about it. What happened next? What is it preachers always say to try to get people saved?
"Do you want to live for eternity in Hell?" I most certainly do not, but the point is that word I so neatly italicized. Live. Even if He were to take our lives, God always leaves our souls. It may not be our choice when our lives end, but it's certainly our choice what happens next.
So He won't destroy the universe, because Heaven and Hell are part of it all. And to destroy the universe would mean that nothing would exist but Him. And He will not ever destroy one of His creations.
So, that should be either encouraging or terrifying. Because if you're with Him, that means eternity of happiness. If you're against Him, eternity of not-so-happiness. Choose wisely.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Question Number 3

2008-01-19T09:03:00.000-08:00

The answers to questions 1 and 2, as we saw, basically came down to free will. So does question number 3. The question was "Why does God allow sin?" It could be phrased a little better by replacing the word sin with the words free will.
All sin and all pain come down to free will. So let's look at what is meant by "free will." What exactly does it mean?
Well, if you want to study something, you should go to the place where it began. To understand the meaning of a word, study the root, not the prefix. To study free will, look at the first time it was ever exercised--the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve were the first people that God created. In the book of Genesis, He is described as creating the entire universe in six days, and then resting on the seventh. There's a debate among Christians whether these six days of creation are literal, or whether they actually span millions or billions of years, therefore including the theory of evolution in the story of creation.
It doesn't matter right now. The important thing is, Adam and Eve were the first people ever to live on this planet.
They lived in a beautiful garden, with trees bearing fruit of every kind. It was pretty much paradise. They were happy, and it seems that they were even a little childlike in some ways. For example, the Bible says that they were unaware of their nakedness. When the snake came to talk to Eve, she saw nothing strange in a talking snake. Everything was perfect.
But they were not childlike in one way. God put a tree in the middle of the garden, which they were not allowed to eat from. It was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They knew they should not eat from that tree. But they did.
Anyone who's made it this far probably already knows the story, so I'm not going to outline the rest of it. Here's the question that has arisen in my mind:
Why did God put the tree there? Did he want them to sin?
Adam and Eve had free will. They didn't have to eat the fruit, but they were capable of it. So this tree is the beginning of free will. It all comes down to the above question. Why did He put the tree there?
There are several possibilities.

1. He wanted them to eat the forbidden fruit. I really doubt this one. After Adam and Eve eat the fruit, the Bible records great disappointment from God. He did not want them to eat it. It just doesn't fit with His nature. Scratch off number one.

2. He was testing them. I've heard this theory stated from several sources, but it also doesn't fit with God's nature. Satan is the tempter. If God tempted us, one of the lines of the Lord's Prayer would become entirely void. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One." God does not tempt us with evil.

3. It had a purpose later on. This is the most complex. Let's see if I can explain it. . .
Not for no reason is this the tree of knowledge. Knowledge is something that just happens. Anything thay has a fully functioning mind gathers knowledge. Anyone who's been around small children knows that it is important to humanity to gather knowledge. They constantly ask questions (like "what is that thing for?" "Why do you want to do that?" "But why would that happen?" etc.). They also tend to ask questions beyond their capacity to understand (i.e. "where do babies come from?).
Maybe Adam and Eve were the same way. Maybe God was waiting for them to be ready to understand good and evil before he allowed them to eat the fruit. Toddlers aren't taught about the source of life, because they aren't ready to understand it.

All this is just speculation. It may be none of the above. But the third possibility, to me, seems to be the most likely. So here's the answer:
God allowed sin into the world because the option had to be there, because the Tree of Good and Evil was there. It's as complexly simple as that.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

my pocket

2008-01-18T19:36:00.000-08:00

Here are the contents of my pockets, in case you want to know:

1. A wallet. This is a useful thing to have for carrying money, a driver's liscense and credit cards. The only thing is, I have none of those.

2. A guitar pick. This is much more useful, because when I pick up my guitar I don't have to search for an hour before I can actually play it. Although usually the pick ends up magically in my wallet, making it harder than ever to find it.

3. A pocket knife. Always good to have, in case I get lost in the wilderness and have to kill a bear.

4. Coins. How else do you make a big decision?

5. Holes. These aren't technically in my pocket, but lots of coins seem to end up going through these tedious spots of emptiness.

And that's all. I think the tag (completely useless) is pretty accurate today.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Question Number 2

2008-01-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

Today, I will do my best to answer the second question. If God is a loving god, why does He send people to Hell?
Don't worry, I'll be quoting C.S. Lewis again. There are really only two kinds of Christian authors: the kind that quotes C.S. Lewis to further prove his point, and the kind that quotes C.S. Lewis because his point is really just a rephrasing of the one made by Lewis. I'm not going to tell you which one I am.
So, on to the answer.
This question is frequently asked, but often it's asked in the wrong way. See, there are two big problems with the phrase "why does God send people to Hell?" First of all, the problem is with the word "people." This word is too neutral. When people hear the word "people," a crowd of blank-faced folks without personality or life fills the mind. They aren't necessarily good, but certainly not bad. "People," we think, do not deserve to go to Hell.
Right there is the problem. Yes, right there. I'm pointing at the screen, but I guess you can't see that, can you? So let me fill in the question with some adjectives.
"Why would a loving God send evil, hateful, lustful, selfish and mean people to Hell?" Hmmm. . . And in case you think I'm being too harsh, read the book of Romans. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Okay, now for the next problem. This is the word "send." God does not "send" anyone to Hell.
As C.S. Lewis said (I told you it would come), "in the end, there are only two kinds of people. The ones who say to God, 'thy will be done,' and the ones to which God says 'thy will be done.' "*
Again, the root of the problem is in free will. God isn't sending anyone to Hell--they go willingly. It's a simple choice: God, or no God.
So, here is the final draft of Question Number 2: "How could a loving God let evil, hateful, lustful selfish and mean people choose to go to Hell?"
It really takes all the power out of that question, doesn't it? Mark Twain once said "Humor and frogs can both be dissected, but both die in the process." The same is true of most atheistic questions.
So, here's my theistic question for you: have you chosen God or no God? Or, more specifically, has Jesus covered your sins, or have you rejected His sacrifice?
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

*I don't know which book he wrote this in (maybe Miracles), and yes, I paraphrased.

Jesus Loves Me

2008-01-17T16:09:00.000-08:00

This has nothing to do with the quartet of questions that I asked myself a few days ago. I just heard a song today, and I wanted to share it with all the three or four people reading this.
It goes like this:

Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong

I know this isn't a new song, and I also know that everyone who's ever been to Sunday School has heard it before. But recently, I came to a realization that greatly fascinates and enthralls me. It is commonly said that God loves us. Look at verses such as John 3:16 and Romans 8:38-39. Jesus loves me.
But until recently, I didn't realize how deeply He loves his people. I'm not sure how this thought came to me, but this was the thought: God would still love me if I cursed His name. God would still love me if I went around the world telling as many people that God doesn't exist.
Think about it: what if someone starting saying that you don't exist, just because he/she doesn't like you? That person would be hard to love.
Jesus loves me, and Jesus loves you. That's your inspirational message for today.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

Question Number 1

2008-01-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

Today I will try to answer the first question, which is why God's people seem to have so many problems. It seems like it should be the immoral people that have the problems, but like I said in my previous post: life doesn't fit the blueprints.
First of all, the pain that Christians experience comes in two varieties. The first is pretty simple. It's called "discipline."

Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; therefore be zealous and repent.

This is Jesus speaking to the church at Laodicea. He chastens--disciplines--the ones that He loves. So that covers a part of it. God doesn't discipline those who aren't His children. They don't experience pain, although ultimately it won't be a painful experience.
C.S. Lewis pointed out* that to a puppy, discipline is a terrible thing, and therefore the master who is disciplining him must be cruel and terrible. But years later, this dog will be much better-off than the wild one that never received any discipline at all.
But surely this doesn't cover everything. What about the people who are actually doing well, morally? A master doesn't punish a good dog, right? So there must be a different kind of suffering that is not instigated by God.
There is.
Think about this question with me, for a moment. When is driving the most frustrating? Is it while you're on the highway, cruising along at seventy--or eighty-five, if you're inclined to break the law--or stuck in heavy traffic? Driving on an empty road doesn't require much thought. It's when other vehicles are around that you have to use your brain.
So?
Driving is harder with other people around. So is writing. I was doing well, and then a large amount of people walked into the room, and I can't seem to keep my train of thought. Business is harder when competition comes in. Socializing alone is easier when other people are around, and this is one of the hardest things imaginable.
Life is not excluded from this list. It would be incalculably easier to be the only person on Earth. Of course, it would also be a lot lonelier.
The point is, other people cause the most pain in life. Whether because your friend dies or because your friend stabs you in the back, people cause you pain far more than God. After all, it was people who smashed planes into the World Trade Center, and it's people--not God--who go around starting wars.
This has sort of led us in a circle, because the next logical question is really the one I started with. Why does God allow pain? although it's become, Why does God allow people to cause pain to each other?
Followed through to the end, what would it mean that God doesn't let us cause pain to each other? It would mean that we have no free will. Free will means that we can do whatever we want, no matter how stupid it is or how much it might hurt someone. For God to be constantly preventing people from shooting each other and treating their neighbor as they don't want to be treated, He would take away a huge chunk of our options.
I guess you can still blame it on God--Why did He give us free will, then?--but life wouldn't be worth much if we couldn't actually do anything. And free will doesn't just create pain. It also creates ample opportunity for kindness, mercy and generosity.
So make sure to use your free will wisely, and I'll use mine to go eat dinner.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Hungry Mitchell

*In, "The Problem of Pain," I think.

inconsistent

2008-01-11T15:34:00.000-08:00

Life is inconsistent sometimes. Well, not totally. To be inconsistent, one part of it would have to conflict with some other part--for example, one day George Washington is dead and gone, and the next he's sitting on your couch watching TV. It is, however, inconsistent with its design. It's the kind of inconsistency you would find when the blueprints show a room as 279' by 612' (yes, I know how enormous that would be), and yet its 2' by 4'. I'm not exaggerating--the world is nothing like its blueprints.
Here's what I mean: the Bible states that the first will be last (Matthew 19:30). It also says that the humble--the inconspicuous and the small--will rule the world (Matthew 5:5). This isn't how the world works. It didn't work that way 2000 years ago, either. Jesus knew that when he said these things.
One story from the Gospel of Mark especially fascinates me. In chapter 12, verses 41-44, it describes a widow going to the temple and dropping two copper coins into the collection box. This is the equivalent of someone going to church today and putting a single penny into the offering plate.
All around her, the rich and powerful are dropping massive amounts of money into this box, proudly displaying to the world just how rich they are. Most likely, they're watching this little widow give the most useless gift imaginable (except for one copper coin, I guess).
Then Jesus says a thing that is so-often repeated that its oddity is nearly forgotten. He calls his disciples around him and says, (v. 43-44) "I assure you: This poor widow has put in more than all those giving to the temple treasury. For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she possessed--all she had to live on."
Wait a second. . .she gave a penny, and Mr. Zechariah Rich-Man just put in a million dollars. She gave the most?
I can imagine what the disciples must have said to their teacher. "Do you need a drink, Jesus?" "Are you talking about that widow?"
I'm not saying that Jesus was wrong, but here's what I am saying. Life doesn't fit the blueprints. This widow didn't give the most money, although on a percentage scale she was certainly the highest. But what happened when she went home? She had nothing left. As pessimistic as this sounds, my guess is that she didn't do real well. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from giving 100%, that's just how it typically works.
"So? That isn't the point of the story!" I know this. The thing is, I can't get over the fact that God doesn't seem to bless the people who do the most for Him. Why not? Why? Why why why?
I'm going to close with a list of "whys sort of about suffering," which will be answered in entirety. . .someday. Maybe.

Uno: Why do God's people have to suffer, and the devil's seem to have everything they want?
Dos: If God is so loving, why does He send people to Hell?
Tres: Why did God allow sin in the first place?
~~quatro~~ ~~cuattro~~ ~~kwatro~~ Four: Why doesn't God just destroy the universe and start over?

Goodbye, valiant reader (and sorry if I wasted your time),
Mitchell

2008-01-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I blogged last. This isn't my fault; I haven't forgotten. But I've been moving, and have not had internet access until a few minutes ago. There were a lot of things that I wanted to say over the last few weeks (or however long it's been), but I've forgotten them all. Sorry.
I just want to let you know: I'm still alive, and my brain is still working.
Goodbye, valiant reader
Mitchell

conversation

2007-12-24T18:10:00.000-08:00

Have you (the reader) ever been completely at a loss for something to say? Have you ever just been so astounded by something another person said or did that you couldn't think of words to say? Or seen something so incredible it completely stole your voice away? If so, I don't understand you at all.
Well, that isn't entirely true. One time I had such a bad sore throat that I couldn't speak above a whisper. That, however, is the extent of my wordlessness. No matter what is said to me, I can just about always come up with a reply. I don't always say that thing, and sometimes it doesn't make sense to anyone but me, but I always have something to say.
To another person, anyway. When talking to God, on the other hand, I usually have nothing to say. I can say things like "please give me perfect grades on my math test today," or, "please give me a new guitar," but that isn't really conversation. God doesn't want my requests to be the extent of our relations.
Once I wrote a song, and entitled it "At A Loss." The lyrics were as follows.

"I'm at a loss, I have no words to say."

I was trying to write a praise/worship song. Instead, I ended up with that one line. I realized that I didn't really have anything to say--I was just filling up time and paper.
Why is it hard to talk to God? That's a really easy question to answer. Let me write a list of reasons.

1. Because He is the ruler of the universe, and we're little insignificant specks.
2. Because we can't see Him, and have a hard time with what we can't see.
3. Because we have nothing in common with Him that we can talk about.

All of these barriers can be overcome, mostly because He is constantly overcoming them so that we can talk to Him easier. Even with all barriers overcome, though, it still remains difficult. Even overcome, the barriers remain.
So what do we talk to Him about? This is, in fact, another really easy question. Jesus showed us exactly what we can talk to Him about. Look in Matthew 6:9-13. This passage is commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer, because it was prayed by our Lord Jesus.

6:9 Therefore pray in this way: Our Father, who is in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
6:10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
6:11 Give us this day our daily bread;
6:12 and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.
6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil. For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

So here's what you can talk to Him about (and here's another list):

1: Worship (vv. 9-10, 13b). God loves our praise, and it's surprisingly fulfilling to praise Him.
2: Confession (v. 12). Why bother to confess sins to God, since He already knows them all? Basically, because confessing a sin to God makes the sin far less powerful in your life. God can deal with it much more effectively once you have admitted to Him that you have the sin.
3: Requests (v. 11). No one needs help with this part. I do think it's interesting, however, that this is the shortest part of the prayer, and that praise is the largest chunk. It's important, when praying, to praise more than request. If there's a long list of requests, that just means there will be a lot of praise.

I hope that this has made a difference to someone besides myself. If it didn't, I apologize for wasting your time.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell

the answer

2007-12-22T15:53:00.000-08:00

Why did God create humans?

A: He had nothing else to do.
B: He wanted someone He could love.
C: He needed some new toys.
D: He did it on accident. He sneezed, and there we were.

The correct answer is B. God created us because He wanted someone to love, and He wanted someone who would love Him. Humanity exists solely to fulfill these two purposes. He wants us to worship Him, and He wants to bless us. Whether our loving Him or His loving us is the more important of the two reasons, I don't know. I don't think it matters, at the moment.
The point is this: we have a specific purpose--the object of God's love. OK, why does this matter?
Yesterday, I asked why God would create humans as such frail creatures. Why would He want to be stuck taking care of us? Maybe because He loves us.
Most of you have probably finished your Christmas shopping by now. If so, you probably understand what I'm saying. Giving to people you love is a good experience. I would recommend it as therapy to anyone who is depressed. It's somehow uplifting to imagine the faces of other people as they receive a much-desired gift.
God is the same way. He loves to give us gifts, although sometimes these gifts are hard to see. They can be as simple as a roof over your head or food to eat. I'm not talking about prosperity theology here at all. My point is just this: God loves to give to us, just as we love to give to others. We are, after all, made in His image.
I hope that I've answered my own question now, pointless though it may be. And though it may be pointless, please remember one thing: to avoid depression, give gifts (I'll post a wishlist sometime).
Goodbye, valiant reader
Mitchell

food, drink and sleep

2007-12-21T18:14:00.001-08:00

Last night, I was sitting in a fifteen-passenger van with ten other people. I sat there for a long time--or at least, it seemed like a long time to me. Maybe seven hours, compared to eternity, isn't much of anything. But to the mind of a simple human being like me, seven hours is a very long time.
My eyes are still bloodshot from the abundant lack of sleep I got last night. I want to sleep, but those ten other people happen to be my family, and they refuse to be silent long enough for me to sleep.
All this has caused me to think of a question: what is sleep for? Who decided that we have to sleep every twelve hours just to survive? Isn't that a little inefficient?
If I were to create an entire universe and populate it with small people designed in my image, in the way that God did (Genesis 1:26), I wouldn't have given them such a huge disadvantage as sleep.
Just look around, and it's easy to see hundreds of little "flaws" in our design. To keep on going, we have to eat, drink, sleep and stay warm and dry. Our bodies can't go below a certain temperature or we slow down and ultimately die, and above a certain temperature we overheat. Again, this can lead to death. God doesn't have any of these problems--why did he give them to us?
Could it be that He wants us to rely on Him? We already know this to be true. Look at Matthew 6:25-34. We shouldn't be worried about food, clothing or shelter. We shouldn't even be worried about our own lives. God wants us to rely on Him, and Him alone.
That brings up another question. Why? Why would He want to care for a big bunch of primates with bad breath and overly fancy cars?
This is a good question (I think), and I'm out of time to write. So next time I post, if it be tomorrow or in seventy-three years, I'll attempt to satisfactorily answer that question.
Goodbye, valiant reader
Mitchell

patience and myself

2007-12-19T11:22:00.001-08:00

Today, I am going to introduce myself a little better. In my profile, one of the things listed is interests, and in this place I put "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." These are interests of mine, but I usually don't spend my days pursuing happiness.
My real interests are music and writing. I do other things, but I am most interested in those two things. I can't tell you why. I don't know why I like some things more than others.
I write music more than I write stories, since songs can be written about eighty times faster than a novel, and inspiration comes more frequently. Someday, hopefully soon, it is my intention to record some of these songs.
A few days ago, I ordered an extremely useful device called a mixer, which is the last device I need to be able to record. It's due to arrive today, and so I've been glancing out the window every thirty seconds since I woke up this morning. It's almost two o'clock, and it still hasn't arrived--if it had, I wouldn't be writing this: I'd be recording. And here's the reason I'm saying all this:
Patience is one of the fruits of the spirits mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. The fruits of the spirit are important, because they reveal who has the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of them. If you are displaying the fruits of the spirit, God can work through you. If you aren't, He can't. So what I'm wondering is, based on the patience I'm shown to have, is the Holy Spirit revealed in me?
I don't like to wait, but patience isn't about enjoying long waits. It's about bearing them out calmly. That's the opposite of what I'm doing by looking out the window every thirty seconds.
OK--so what? Why does it matter that I'm eager to get the thing that I'm waiting for? How could that prevent God from working through me? Before I can answer that, I have to answer a different question. What does God want to do through me?
Through me--and through everyone--God's goal is essentially the same. He wants us to spread His name throughout the world (Mark 16:15).
So how is my impatience going to impede that task? Impatience is a refusal to bear any discomfort or delay. God's goal for us is to show love, and love is patient. It bears all things. So my impatience is actually causing me to love less. And since God is love, and I am loving less, I now have less of God in me than I did yesterday when I was more patient.
That's all I have to say. The UPS truck still hasn't arrived, but maybe this has helped me to be more patient (or not).
Goodbye, valiant reader
Mitchell

further explanations

2007-12-18T18:21:00.000-08:00

Actually, I'm not finished posting yet. I am posting five seconds after the first post. I have to explain things some more.
All of my posts will be sorted into one of five categories.
1. completely useless
2. somewhat useless
3. intriguing
4. fascinating
5. deep as the ocean

This is so that you can skip the uninteresting ones and read the important ones, as your busy schedule allows. Most likely, you will never see 5.
Goodbye, valiant reader
Mitchell

Explanation

2007-12-18T18:07:00.001-08:00

My name is Mitchell Nelson. I call myself me, but you can call me Mitchell. This is my blog, and as you can see, it is called "Controlled Disorder." Those two words put together in this way create what is commonly called an oxi-moron, which means that one contradicts the other. Disorder is a thing that can't be controlled.
However, controlling disorder is what I'm going to attempt to do. My brain (and yours) is filled to the brim with disorder, because it's fully impossible to organize my thoughts. Thoughts can't be organized. And thus, I created a blog so that I could put my chaotic thoughts onto the Internet. Once in writing, they can be organized. That's the idea, anyway. We'll see if it works.
This is the end of today's post. The interesting things begin next time I post, be that tomorrow or six years from now.
Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell