severence

People say that sin is what seperates us from God.  I do wonder then how God communicated with Cain after he became the first murderer.  It would seem as if Cain had some level of understanding of what he did wrong as far as that heinous act goes.  But God still conversed with him after the deed was not only plotted but committed.
I tend to think that humanity has lost its standing with God through time.  God commands us to have Faith because otherwise, we would be destroyed by the incompatibility of our two existences.  Not even Moses was allowed to see God despite having to his credit the most humility of any man who ever walked the Earth.
A surface inventory of evil would suggest that Cain surpassed all comprehensible evil, but on the other hand, one has to consider: how much hatred truly was in Cain's heart?  Did Cain truly hate his brother or did he kill his brother simply to eliminate the competition?  If the latter is the case, consider this: the competition was a rather noble one (it's not like they were business rivals) and there was no reference manual for Cain to look at when he had questions.  And think also: If Cain had a question, would he have been aware of what to ask?  Or how to ask it?  Intellectually, humans have proven themselves to be rather limited.  Even in this day and age, with literacy at a relative high point, and ground breaking research leading to many medical advancements, how much more we still have to learn!  Many literate individuals still struggle to grasp the fundamentals of communication in their native language, and how many wrong decisions could be avoided if people applied basic 2nd grade math skills to their present situations alongside a half tablespoon of compassion?
So ultimately, the question Cain would have asked, supposing he stopped and questioned the reliability of his thought process would be "Is it OK to pursue killing Abel?"  And knowing what we know now, sure, that sounds like a "well, duh, of course not!"  The answer to Cain probably seemed obvious too but the conclusion he drew was obviously not the one that we as a society in this date and time would draw.  I don't think he was oblivious to God's opinion on the matter, but I think he most likely reasoned the thing out in his head in a way that is so convoluted he couldn't possibly begin to explain it out loud without immediately realizing how stupid his thought process really was.  I can't speak for anyone in Generation 2.0 of humanity, but I know that does tend to be how my thought process goes at times and it's usually when I'm on the precipice of some kind of failing.

I can't speak for Moses or Cain or even my own closest family members, two of whom I share an address with, but I can say that I have spent many many hours, probably weeks altogether counted, if one were capable of counting undocumented things like emotions, feeling anger and bitterness, in varying levels of consciousness, and in varying degrees.  I think a lot of it has been unjust, as much as I struggle to see it as so in those moments.  I think the only thing that has kept me not guilty of murder is the watchful eye of others and the forceful hand of the government.  God knows what I would have done and and when if not for these things.  God has won me over gradually and has given me the wisdom to understand the bulk of His Word.  Thanks be to God for this opportunity to enter through the Narrow Gate and not the needle's eye.  I'm not wealthy and by the standards of the U.S. gov't and its' people, I am poor, and truly I own nothing, for it is by the mercy of taxpayers who have been shown mercy by God that I am allowed to even live under a roof of this size.  I do have money that is written out to me by the government and I am trying ever more to use that money wisely but I often still fail more than I feel like I should be at this point in my walk with Christ.  I do feel like if I had more money, I would simply be that much bigger of a failure in my usage of it.  I find the pursuit of material goods to be a distraction when I have the slightest bit of money to spend.

bitterness dies at the end

Church was a rather hearty soul full.  Pastor at my sister's church had a lot to say about 1st Peter saying not to complain about anything but to be thankful in all circumstances.  He began the sermon by citing an article stating the benefits of gratitude and the detriments of complaining.  After saying all that he stated "Ok, so does this scientific research make you more prone to stop complainig and be grateful?"  That threw me for a loop.  It's true.  I knew it was, and I almost always include that in my prayers that God would somehow make me more obedient and humble.  I don't know how to make myself that way or how to be that way.  Submission is something of a two way street in my mind.  If I am elevated, my behavior tends to be more careless as I get excited and just start running through the store like it's all for me.  Eventualy the high dies, and I realize I've been selfish and destructive.
Submission tho?  I honestly don't even have the faintest idea of how to do that.  If I were to go more than 5 minutes in isolation and relative silence I'd probably crap my pants.  Or my teeth would start clattering and my head would explode.  I just can't fathom the concept of waiting hours on end for God to give me a direction and I don't even know if God has anything specific He wants me to do.  What is my calling exactly?  Is it possible I'm producing much fruit relatively speaking without doing much of anything at all to my knowledge?  I don't think I have nothing.  But I also don't know if the phrase "without measure" really applies to The Holy Spirit's involvement in my life. A.W. Tozer addressed this in one of his books.  And early in it he says the first step is you have to want it & then says if you were hoping to get a step by step instructional guide on how to be filled with The Holy Spirit, you may as well stop right here and do something else.  Well, so much for that (heh).  I've been reading another semi-ancient Christian guidance author by the name of D.L. Moody.  I can't remember the name of it but it's about what a Christian life is supposed to look like.  So far it's a rather abstract writing, IMO.  I'm not very far through it.  As a side note, the book was free b/c the author's been dead for more years than he was alive and no natural or manmade resources were required to make the book available in electronic fashion, except bandwidth which is hardly anything.  It's not like anyone sits at their phone 24/7 reading free books on their Kindle app all day long.  It's a short book too.  Maybe 100 pages.
I still need to try reading that Ravi Z book BEYOND OPINION.  And I finally looked up that passage "don't toss your pearls before swine".  It seems obvious now that it's been explained, but I kept reading that and was like "huh?"  Jesus says "do not give what is Holy to dogs"  And I'm like "such as?"  The Gospel is supposed to be shared.  Nobody makes any mention of a secret handshake you gotta know before receiving God's word.  But the advice given in the article I read made plenty of sense.  He was addressing the need to make proper use of restored vision.  He says not to engage in hypocrisy but to instead examine your own conduct and change out if necessary and then you'll have the ability to not only draw attn to your brother in Christ's conduct as needed but to discern WHO among you IS your brother in Christ.  So it looks like my Facebook pen pal is just a lost cause.  He may change his mind.  He has all of the facts.  He's simply chosen to disbelieve or devalue every single one of them.

MIB: International

I never was a big fan of the movie MEN IN BLACK (1997).  I saw it on video and was bored through most of it.  I enjoyed it more as I got older.  Watching parts of the two sequels as I weaved my way in and out of the living room while my Mom had them on was more rewarding than having seen the 1st one.  I really felt MIB3 was really gr8.  That poke at Andy Warhol was hilarious.

I just found out that the spin off movie MIB: International is now on video.  I have to say; I never was looking forward to that film.  Go figure.  I never was looking forward to the other MIB films.  But once I saw the 1st one, and caught the tail of end of Men In Black II, the chemistry between TLJ and Will Smith does become something you don't mind chumming up to.  But MIB International, I'm sure has a good chemistry between the cast, but I seriously need more than that to convince me to pay somewhere between $5 for a matinee (if one were so lucky) w/o popcorn and soda to $30 for a Saturday evening showing with popcorn and soda.  Good chemistry and smooth pacing as well as a sense of purpose all make the difference.  For instance -- THE FAREWELL is a movie that looks extremely interesting.  Sure, it's probably not beneficial to see it on the big screen the same way watching aliens destroy the earth would be.  It'd be nice if Hollywood would quit typecasting movies that don't do well in theaters as failures.  But then again, it'd be nice if the audience would quit pursuing superficial thrills so that movies like TRANSFORMERS PART VII would not even be a consideration and that movies like THE FAREWELL would have a greater chance at success.

Anyway.

MIB I'm sure would have done a lot better in theaters had it not been a spinoff of a film series that had arguably already had an overly full day in the sun.  At some point, it gets to "ok, we've been there, done that".  Someone was comparing the fact that there was a female in the mix to the Ghostbusters reboot saying that it made sense in the context of Men In Black in a way that it ddin't in Ghostbusters.  I disagree.  Ghostbusters could have been a great film had it not been so haphazardly written and executed.  It had nothing to do with the gender of the actors.  It was the choice of actors he went with and the overall sloppiness of the writing as well as the extremely light as a feather script.  The original GB didn't have a very logical script, but the way it was executed, it's almost like there was more going on than you could really put your finger on.  The script for GB'16 could have used a bit more depth or a bit more editing.  The film was over 2 hours long.  There were lots of scenes filmed during production of GB'84 that if included would have slowed the film down to a sluggish crawl.  GB'84 is one of the snappiest peppiest films I've ever had the chance to see.  Possible contenders go to LIAR LIAR (1997) and BATMAN (1989).  There's probably others that I'm not thinking of at the moment because that's not where my mind is most at right now and I don't want to spend all evening typing this.  Oh, just thought of one --- THE GODFATHER (1972).  That film definitely had its own world.  I tried watching it during the daytime and was bored to death.  Watching it at night with the lights off made a HUGE difference.  It really immerses you in the hearts and minds of the characters.  It's a crude analogy of democracy that resonated all too well with a lot of people at that time, but people take it too far by declaring Don Corleone as some kind of role model or respectable citizen.  I can truly understand the beaten & disfigured girl's father pleading to his mafia leader relative for justice after the courts failed him, but what about those that aren't related to The Godfather?  I'm not Italian.  I'm certainly not related to any crime boss to my knowledge.  And even if I were, it's still not up to me what kind of justice my enemies face.  There's a reason they're called crime bosses.  They commit crime and make money off of it.  It's a very wide network of family members and associates who operate for the mere sake of their own selves.  That's why I say THE GODFATHER (the 1st one, the 2nd one is all over the place and leads nowhere that I can tell) immerses you in its own world.  It's not based on a true story, nor is it a realistic portrait of the mafia, nor is it supposed to be.  The mafia is a complicated network that would take mutliple days of film footage to accurately portray.  THE GODFATHER is about a man's re-assessment of his family and his cultural roots.  At least that's what I remember of it.  The gang war aspect of it was intriguing and acted as a catalyst for some of the more somber moments.  

I also think THE EXORCIST is a one of a kind cinematic experience that was lightyears ahead of its time in terms of making the best use of sight and sound as it pertains to commercial art.  I used to harp on the Director's Cut.  But the more I think about it, after having read the book before seeing the movie & the first time seeing the movie being so disappointed by the relatively drab way it was presented, I have realized that much of the story was not really coherently expressed in the movie.  In the movie, the possessed girl has been seeing a doctor due to abnormal behavior.  You don't know this untiil she asks her mother "What's wrong with me?" after she gets tucked in to bed.  Her mother, whispering, says "It's just like the doctor said.  It's nerves."  What doctor?  This doctor eventually does get some screen time and the search for answers regarding her manic destructive behavior gets its due, but the timeline is really not explained.  And what was that about the rats in the attic?  That was never explained.  In the book it was explained so I never wondered about it having already read the book.  In the book, there was a passage where the mother was researching cases of demonic possession and the sound of animals clawing their way around was one of many of the ongoing ocurrances that the household was experiencing that indicated the presence of a demon making its way into the body of its host.  When I read that, my hair stood up on end as I was like "If she'd only known..."  But of course, how could she have known?  Even the local priest had failed to meet a single one of his colleagues (or presumably anyone else) that had performed an exorcism.  

Anyway...............hmm.  Yeah.  So that's my updated 2 cents on movies today.  

itexists

When I say movie ---
I mean anything from PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, FORREST GUMP, BAMBI, GHOSTBUSTERS, BATMAN RETURNS, THE STEPFATHER PART 3, and so on...
Those movies, be them comedic or tragic or terror inducing or attempting with or without success any combination of the three, have one or more people uniting others to reflect his her or their perspective.  It doesn't matter if you agree with the perspective or not.  It doesn't matter if it's well conveyed nor does it matter if the movie was self released or shot by an 8 year old whose work was so shoddy even he recognized it and never showed it to anyone.
Documentaries are not movies.  Documentaries are journalism.  Journalism is not art.  When it becomes art, it becomes an assault to journalism and an exception can perhaps be made.
Regardless, between all the appalling PLAN 9s and reboots of BATMAN and BASIC INSTINCT direct to video cashgrabs and borefests like ANGELA'S ASHES and mindtwerks like HEATHERS, you ultimately have a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE qty of films that get released every week.
Most people, when you combine the knowledge of your average movie goer, are only aware of at most 10 that come out each week.  A bonafide film buff might be aware of more than that and I'd say your average film goer's individual knowledge of movies is limited to maybe 3 or 4 movies that come out each week.  Maybe 5.  And of those movies, an average of 0 make history.  1 or 2 during the summer months might blow a person away and there may be 3 or 4 movies that get caught on video later in the year that really stick out in one's memory for years to come.
That's 6 DVDs in your collection for every year.  Each week?  There's 52 weeks in a year.  Seriously.  How many movies are in your DVD collection and how many came out all in the same year?  How many are you deadset on keeping and how many do you just happen to own for some reason you aren't really sure you're comfortable explaining?

There are 166 hours in a week.  From 10pm to 7pm nothing but talk shows and reality TV is aired on network TV in between what passes for journalism in the morning hours and afternoon and evening/night.
So from 7pm to 9:59pm roughly television studios attempt to bring the big screen to the small screen by providing bite size portions of drama, comedy and sometimes horror (mostly not the latter, although it does happen).  The problem with that is the bite sizes are ultimately expected to be followed up on.  You take a bit of THE GOOD WIFE, or LAW&ORDER, or SCANDAL, or BLUE BLOODS or THE BIG BANG THEORY, or FRAISER or THE SIMPSONS or DAWSON'S CREEK, whatever the show is, it's never the end when you just have one bite.  The effort is ongoing to produce a quality bite and that poses 2 monolithic problems A) The TV show doesn't ever end and the quantity of mediocre to poor output eventually overshadows what drew you to the show to begin with (i.e.: THE SIMPSONS).  B) The show, despite being extremely good, gets cancelled midway through a side plot that was developed only a few weeks ago, for any number of reasons such as an actor on the show posted a hotly contested opinion on Twitter or simply lost interest in working on the show or, worse yet, you and a small handful of other people were the only ones watching the show still and the majority of viewers lost interest somewhat suddenly for whatever reason.

People complain about lack of privacy regarding the availability of data. 
1) The data is collected.  It was never illegal to do so and therefore anyone can use that data to stalk you or your loved one(s) or extort information from you in exchange for a political contribution to an affiliate super pac.
or whatever
2) How many hours did people bemoan the presence of commercials on TV?  People without internet can still be heard complaining about commercials.  Here's an idea.  What if instead of hearing about your local car dealerships and furniture stores or fast food options in steady rotation, you actually received advertising that was useful and perhaps even entertaining?
Ads are a part of life.  You can get recommendations from friends and family when looking to buy something, but just as someone has to teach humanity the difference between right and wrong, someone has to tell people that the automobile -- a revolutionary concept at one point in time -- exists and furthermore, explanation of what it is and where to buy it also necessary.  If people watching TV are more apt to run for the hills until the programming resumes, you can bet investors are not going to want to try to explain their product on network TV unless these companies have data to support the idea that x demographic is more receptive to an explanation about this or that product's appeal.

Maybe I'm an oddity, but don't people generally have a percentage of their income that is almost guaranteed to get spent, come hell or high water?  Heck, even if it's just throwing it in a wishing well or spending it on a movie that's so far behind in paying for itself it makes you wonder if giving yourself a lobotomy would make you a pepper too(!)  It's not just the super rich who do this.  As far as I can tell, people with middle of the road incomes, and people in the lesser grips of poverty still spend money that perhaps should be saved but ultimately ends up spent without a whole lot of forethought.  Many of these dollars get spent habitually, on products that everybody and their dog knows good and well about, products that are so ubiquitous that advertising isn't even needed.
But imagine, a startup company selling medicinal quality soap that can't legally be sold as medicine just like Jesus can't be legally said to be The Truth --- let's start with one examplee, multiply it however you wish ----- let's name it Super Hero Man Inc.
they get access to data about consumers that give it - SHM Inc. - just enough if not ample info to know where and how to advertise their company & its products/services and in turn the half dozen employees that work there turn into 12 full dozen employees, with 2 or more dozen receiving full-time employment benefits.  And imagine if this company grew to the heights of Starbucks!  Wouldn't it be nice if all the big wigs that work on the board of directors at Starbucks had an extra set of dopplegangers?  One of those dopplegangers could end up being someone you know or someone whose will your included in (wink, wink)
C'mom people.  Quit fearing big business.  The government is who you should fear if you're going to fear anyone.  I guess it makes more sense to be on guard regarding the government.  True, business owners make careless decisions that cause much strife and nationally televised carnage.  However, how many people wishing they had more money and more recognition from their boss can honestly say they know enough about the circusmtances that led their neighbors' boss or possibly their own former boss to make said decisions?  Anyone reading this who happens to be operating on full cylinders, leaving nothing neglected or cut might be well to seriously consider starting a business if you have anything remotely unique to offer any faction of the the human race.  However, police put their lives on the line daily, and a few dozen incidences across the nation suddenly proves that police are not worthy of trust?  That may be true in a large number of PDs, but seriously -- "A large #" could be 5,000 and that would still not be remotely close to half of the police departments in the nation.  A big chunk of the south I'm sure has police departments that are systematically racist.  Does that mean you shouldn't trust them?  Ultimately, it's your God given right to live and breathe without police harrassmentt.  But if you set foot in an automoible, you're bound to make a traffic violation and if a cop pulls you over, you are not doing yourself any favors treating the situation like an outrage against humanity.  Even if your skin color is not "the weapon they fear", you still would be better off being appreciative of the police offier's job even if they did pull you over on false suspicions or nothing more than being nit picky and bored.  True, if they seize your property or get violent with you before you're able to act toward them with any shred of kindness, I would be worried about my future, knowing that I am unarmed and they are very much not and its' truly sickening when such a situation turns into blatant murder as has been documented on a few occassions over the past couple years.  Racism isn't limited to police.  It simply is that the police who are racist are more apt to be a problem because racist police offers are not exempt from having guns along with their badge IDs.  If MLK Jr & co.'s attempts to open people's eyes to the realities of the plight of colored people were not so successful, the dash cam videos would not exist because they would either be turned off or never purchased in the first place.  Cameras were what brought this nation's attn to the need for the Civil Rights Act and the Voter's Rights Act.  Why would the Blue Brotherhood, if still so heavily steeped in a mindset that was alive & flying high in 1955, want to be seen doing anything, let alone something that might make them need to register with Witness Protection or simply leave the state and change their legal name to avoid being in fear of a nighttime pummeling by their nearby resident(s)?
But anyway.  Due dillegence is key in all situations.  You can't control the outcome of your actions.  But generally good things will follow good deeds.  If your deeds are a combination of good and bad, you can expect a combination of good and bad in your life.
idk why I even started talking about that.  I'm sure there's plenty of information available that I could use to more clearly state my case.  I do think it's sick the way people take the statement "Black lives matter" and say it's a racist slogan.  That's like saying BATMEN MATTER.  Does that mean SUPERMEN don't?  Everybody loves Superman.  They always have.  Nobody ever had qualms about Superman.  He was a Cub Scout.  Batman was the mentally unstable half nephew who smiled kindly during the day and let loose his screws at night.  Enough people identiifed with Batman for him to have a hit TV show and a subsequent series of cartoon shows and the like, but I'm sure there were some parents who would have taken their kid to a shrink of they spent more time reading Batman than they did Superman.  Likewise, black lives have always been under question.  The ruling school of thought in The United States, among other nations acting on the impulse to colonize the planet, have come a long way from accepting this defense of slavery by defining black people as being something other than human, but there is still a large segment of society that values black lives less than white lives.  It may not be a conscious perspective and it may not even be an accurate statement to begin with.  After all, life itself is devalued by many people in the modern world.  Hatred festers and violence breaks out.  Sometimes it's race related, sometimes it's gender related, or political and/or religious.  Perhaps a better slogan for the BLM movement would be DON'T SHOOT ME JUST BECAUSE I'M BLACK.  DSJBB?  Those 5 letters alone are still a mouthful.  Or would that somehow imply that it's ok to shoot someone for just being white?  Um........I'm sure that has happened maybe a few times in the history of this nation...................................................I can't say I'm readily aware of anything recent....and by recent I mean within the past 5 years (yeah, I'm old now.  My 14 year old self would cringe)

No naming, evil anonymous

If I died, at least you wouldn't be with me to throw your ball at my court
I have no court, I'm conceited
Ok whatever
Obviously nothing is mine, that much has been ruminated over
It's not like God Almighty is going to eat "not my" supply of ham.
It's not as if my daily over intake of food is being frowned upon by anyone
Intervention would be welcome if there was any possible
I run out of food, more food is provided
And so it goes
Feeding the hungry is against the law
So is protecting the children from their malicious parents
So is caring for children whose parents have been murdered
So is reaching out to console a widow with a simple hug
Fear has kept everyone inside and away from one another
Money and all it can buy provides its' seal of approval

The bridegroom is gone at last, but was I really fasting for Him?
A laugh, as if I'd know where to begin
I'd have to be sick to even consider skipping a meal
During my recent bout of food poisoning I still fought my way to the pantry and forced myself to eat until I could no longer
And still consumed 600 or more calories
The very day I felt up to eating again, my intake skyrocketed to over quadruple that

I don't deserve Heaven
I do deserve Hell, being as I was ever was to be, doing as I lived long enough to remember having done
Yet I help myself to good things, piling them on, hours upon hours, days upon days
When does it end?
What is the cure for cowardice?
What is the cure for being self righteous?

Sexy chickenz

I really hope the chicken and egg concept isn't as confusing as people talk it up like.  But in case it is--- here's another quandry; what came first?  The embryo or the night of heated lovemaking?  I read someone talking about Adam & Eve starting out as children.  Yeah.  Maybe some think that why they got kicked out of the garden?  Because until the knowledge of sex people grew out of the ground like plants?  Childhood is a gift to us individually and collectively.  It's a privilege to have that time of unbridled freedom & embrace life by the horns but it's also a great responsibility for those that decide to volunteer as surrogates for God, regardless of weather they do so with respect to that responsibility or not. 

"keep my commandments"/"depart lawbreakers"

Back to this again.  I get the impression that God is doing all he is willing (able?) to do, but I'm not doing all I'm able to do.  "Strike to enter through the narrow gate" supposedly, in its original language, implies an agony involved in doing so.  Maybe I'm not supposed to know that.  I don't know.  Jesus on another account says his ukelele is easy to play and his burden is light or something like that.  Of course, God the father also said the same thing to the Isrealites as they were settling into their Promised land.  So I don't know what to make of any of this.  Today's verse of the day says if you don't keep God's commands you can't know God.  I can see from experience a decrease in spiritual enlightenment as of late with my reckless behavior.  I guess I should probably take a hint.  Overnight healing is a possibility, but I can't count on that.  This is a frustrating process.