The Gala at Galatia & beyond

Did in fact finish the 5 day study plan of Galatians.  I don't think I extracted as much from it as I would have liked.  Between his precision and the out of body existence he lived with..........It's almost like a stream of consciousness writing except it's got some important stuff in it.  In some ways, it reminds me of the Old Testament passages such as the Book Of Job when God was listing various creations.  Not every word in those passages is worth something on its own.  It's not worthless when taken as a whole, and maybe it's worth more than I realize, but that passage, along with others that I've been reading more recently from the prophets, just go on and on, would be much easier to read if it were permissible to read God's Word in an abbreviated form.  For instance, "I created the Earth and everything in it, far before even Abraham's time, how much more before yours.  Can you name all of my creations?  You are foolish for thinking you can!"  See?  A medium sized paragraph.  Instead, The Bible stretches it out over the course of two pages.  I'm sure there's something of value in those two pages, possibly an opportunity to worship if nothing else.  That's actually a passage I read several months ago.  I've read stuff more recently that I don't even recall well enough to paraphrase or cite by book, much less chapter or verse.  So obviously that bit of Job does register with me somewhat.

Ugh.

I've only read one entry of my One Year Bible this week.
Despite this and the last many many weeks/months of similar results, I am fairly confident I will finish the One Year Bible in 2 years, not 3 (or 4, or 5......).  I'm not entirely sure how that's possible.  I must have been doing something right some of this time.  Weird.



In other news, I finished watching THE OTHER WOMAN (2009) w Natalie Portman.  I started watching it several months ago and got through a good chunk of it in one sitting and watched a little more later and just finally got the last half of it watched.  It's a relatively short movie.  COLD MOUNTAIN (2003) was a more "period piece" like movie and was twice as long and was not bad.  I saw about half of it.  Melodramas are good, IMO, but they don't need to be 3 hours long.  THE GREEN MILE was 3 hours long, but it wasn't entirely melodrama.  It had a lot of quant conversational moments.  It was so long because it had a leisurely pace like that of a Stephen King novel.  It didn't rush into the drama.  If it had, it would've come across as rushed and without any frame of reference for the audience to recall.  THE GODFATHER was 3 hours long, but it was not a melodrama.  It was a fictional document, meant to illustrate the eerie bridges that exist between the courts and the streets.  While I don't agree with it, mainly because it fictionalizes the mafia to look good in ways that it never did, I do also agree that the courts have no authority on truth.  They do have the authority however to punish you for not bowing down to them.  They can pull a gun on you and demand you say otherwise, but the truth is not what I say nor is it what someone else says.  The truth simply is.  One's inability to know the truth or comprehend it doesn't change it.  In that respect, the courts rightly refer to THE FACTS.  A fact is not truth.  The existence of a fact that does indeed exist is a truth, but the same goes for the existence of facts that are not documented in ways the courts have the ability or authority to know or comprehend, which the courts do not deem FACT, but rather OPINION, or something else.  A court ruling declaring someone guilty is not necessarily right, but you cannot argue that point without a humongous pile of paperwork filed and submitted.  A casual statement of common sense is enough to get you thrown in jail.

The epistle to the Galatians

I started a 5 day study plan yesterday.  Not sure if I'll be able to finish it in earnest.  Paul(?) uses something akin to calculus to navigate the hypocrisy of whatever it was the Galatians were doing wrong which is not explained.  I'm good with numbers but quaddigitchart xing is intimidating.  I'm not even sure if i can do longwinded minuses on paper.  I manage a budget of $250 per month including food stamps so maybe I'd be less rusty if I was flexing some middke class weight...idk.  But pre algebra and beyond were the iceberg to my titanium; the kryptonite to my Krypton; the "Fine; DON'T just say no!" to the Holy Spirit at work in my soul.
I...might finish it.  It's going to take a lot of chugging and good will to accomplish and sloth is probably my strongest nemesis at this point in time.

Avril Lavigne - round 6

I had read about Avril Lavigne being sick but had no idea she was so gravely ill and that it was such a long standing issue for her.  She published a new song today co written by her.  It's rather good.  It seems a little short but that's better than it overstaying its' welcome.  That aside it's a well conceived and well executed piece of music.  Avril Lavigne i think was responsible for the conceptualization. She stated in a newsletter that a couple BTS bigcheezes in the industry were mostly responsible for the execution of the concept Avril had penned.  I'm glad she realized she's not cutout to write and arrange music on her own.  

It's also interesting that the lyrics really do seem true to her usual defiant self but are directed to God.  She even mentions being drawn closer to Him during the deepest lows of her illness.  So now we the spectators wait an album title and release date.  4/5

About Love, in a time of Biblical thirst

I wrote this here as a response to Michael Tull's post on Quora answering someone's question about morality and religion.

It may not apply in every respect to all of the multitude of people who have similar attitudes about Christianity, but maybe someone will find use from it

•       The different people in this world who call themselves Christians can be summed up with a careful examination of Genesis Ch 3 Vs 4 & 5 — The snake didn’t say one word in there that is an outright lie.  The two first humans did not face the life that they - presumably - would have desired in place of the one they had after they'd eaten the fruit.  To explain further would be to experience the life that Adam & Eve had prior to eating of the fruit.  To date I have not.  Likewise, for God to have clearly explained to Adam & Eve what the consequences of eating the fruit were as a means of keeping them from eating it would require one of two things A) SHOWING them the nightmare inducing wasteland that we now live in or B) Explaining to them something they have no frame of reference to understand even a little.  A would be punishing them for something they'd yet to do and B would be absolutely pointless.
•       Israel, now that it has been re-established as a nation, is free to follow whatever laws it wants. As far as I know it has not adopted the texts of Leviticus and Deuteronomy etc. as their law. So until such a nation comes to existence, there is no need to kill disobedient children. God sent four simple instructions to the early churches and those are documented in Acts Ch15 V19.
•       Slavery was not a problem until the practice of it became more like locking someone in jail and throwing the key away. The Bible clearly lays out a limit of 7 years. And in most cases, slaveowners were not acquiring slaves by means of kidnapping. People would volunteer themselves as slaves to repay debt they had accrued. More info here Does the Bible condone slavery?    
•  “Some say homosexuals will burn in Hell” Saying homosexuals will go to Hell is not necessarily incorrect, but the relevance in saying such a thing is dependent on the context and the relevance of the context is ultimately what people should consider before opening their mouths to say anything, regardless of what it is.  Paul said something similar to the Corinthian CHURCH because they were partying like they were on 42nd Street circa 1980 instead of sobering up like 42nd Street circa Y2K.  42nd Street Y2K is not perfect.  God nor any of His messengers demanded or implied an expectation of that.  "If you love Me you will follow My commands."  The thing is, the love you have is like the water in a vase.  You can fill it halfway and allow the flowers to flourish or you can put just enough in to give the flowers nutrients or you can drown the flowers with it.  We being born dead I don't believe are even willing to drown in love.  Our self preservation instincts kick in before we even take a step toward Jesus.  We must deny ourselves and take that step anyway.  Jesus will run toward us and do the rest for us. Jesus said to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.  He did not say to pick your dream vacation and throw a rock at some random person so that might see the inscribed on it "Jesus knows what you're doing and you're gonna pay for it"