Spirit Fresh

 I was trying to communicate this a few+ years ago to some guys in a Bible study but they seemed skeptical of the idea.  I thought about texting one of those guys about it but I don't know if he's even alive anymore.  One of those guys I'm friends with on Facebook and he's no longer with us.  It's strange to think I have like 14 friends on Facebook and three of them are deceased.
Anyway, we were going over Genesis where, after Jacob, later known as Israel, meets God, he tells the members of his household to forsake their idols.  People in my Bible study were wondering how Israel knew that since The Ten Commandments were not written and the text says nothing about any conversations that God had with Jacob/Israel (as if The Bible were all that detailed about every little thing like that...).  I was supposing that meeting God would have encompassed obtaining that knowledge, for two reasons:

A) God is not an object, like people are.  People, even ones who are full of LIFE, contagiously exuberant, or otherwise emotional, are still largely objects.  Marrow, blood, skin, etc...  God is not only far more alive than any of us, but He is not bound by those constraints.  B) God is not a matter of consequence.  Who am I?  Who are you?  Many potential answers to that question are a sheer matter of happenstance.  Where does one work?  What foods do "like" to eat?  What is one's fondest childhood memory?  Who are your parents?  What are your sources of comfort?  All of these things, to varying degrees, are manufactured.  A person's "favorite food" is often limited by their region, as well as their economic status.  A lot of people can't afford to eat their FAVORITE food, so they might not even be thinking about that as an option.  What are your sources of comfort?  That often corresponds with what you're familiar with.  What you're familiar with is largely based on what other people around you are familiar with.  That's why music from 50 years ago is often very different from music of today but music from 5 years ago isn't all that different.  Innovations in music are typically very slight.  Yet these are "creative" types of people.  People who don't create music or any other kind of art simply hear what gets put in their direction.  Why some of it is liked more and some less or not at all is too complex to really unravel here.
As Samuel said to King Saul "...the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind"
When you meet God, you meet HIM.  You don't meet his skin.  You don't meet whatever mask He's wearing.  You don't meet a phony smile or any sort of pretense of confidence or whatever.  You don't meet his "favorite" color, or anything else that might change with the seasons, but you meet HIM, HIS ESSENCE!  His essence is that idolatry is forbidden.  He is a jealous God, an all consuming fire.  Undoubtedly Jacob did not meet God face to face, or He would have been evaporated ash.  There was some distance between Him and Jacob but Jacob saw enough of Him to see that idols were a hindrance.  When you see someone sincerely crying and you KNOW you did something to hurt them, you almost feel their pain.  At least I do.  That kind of honesty that only God has, and the empathy that man at least has the potential to have, that could be a more straightforward simple explanation of how Jacob knew about the evil of idolatry, but then again, I can't speak for Jacob, but I know that before I learned about God through the words and sentences in The Bible, that I had no idea idolatry was anything to be concerned about.  I don't even know if I knew what idolatry is.  After my mom converted to Christianity, I think I learned about it a little...of course, there's varying degrees and kinds of idolatry...   So I think my initial explanation is probably more plausible, although it does appear at least that the early humans, i.e.: Cain (the first recorded instance of murder) were better able to communicate with God.  Romans 1, although people I know interpret that as a statement about each individual person, I think, unless I'm some weird exception, that those verses that talk about people having an internal knowledge of good and evil and God making His invisible attributes evident to people, are more in relation to ancient humans.  Those verses may? still pertain to some more primitive societies...I think when Jacob was alive on Earth, that kind of osmotic communication may have still been effective enough to resound with people.  And I think some people, who aren't exposed to and surrounded as much by sinful influences, might be more able to receive God's communication than I was.

I don't really know how to "properly" close this...uh.....

telepathy

 I really get sick of people saying "Jesus said anger is the same as murder" or some variation of that sentence whenever the word "murder" ends up used in a sentence.  First of all, Jesus did not say that.  He simply said, in a nutshell, that you don't have any business applauding yourself for not having murdered someone, which lines up with the rest of The Bible.  The social taboo of murder is cross cultural and even if it weren't, God is the one who decreed to Jesus' audience (the descendants of Abraham and Sarah) that they should not murder and should love one another.  They probably did succeed in mastering that, inasmuch as anyone has, before or since, but there are times when a person simply ends up a violent rage and the only thing stopping them from murdering someone is the knowledge of the consequences, i.e.: public scorn, jail time and even death depending on the circumstances.  There are times also when a person might hold back strictly because they know it would grieve God, but, at least in my experience, those times are far outnumbered by the times a person holds back for the lesser reasons.  If you have not murdered, you probably still have sins in your heart, some of them may not be pressing issues that need constant scrutiny, but some of them might be, and even if there is no pressing sin that needs to be constantly battled until it is killed, A) you have no authorship over that and B) you are not exempt from the need of God and the propitiation for your occasional bouts of sin that Jesus The Christ volunteered to be so that we, all mankind, might find reconciliation with Father God and have fellowship with Him at His feet.
But murder and thinking about murder are simply not the same thing.  Murder *begins* in the heart, but it does not begin AND end there.  The seeds of murder are called malice.  Malice is malice.  Murder is murder.  The two words cannot be used interchangeably.  Scripture in some instances might use the two words interchangeably but people in the USA (and probably much of the rest of the world, I'd imagine, although I can't say I know that for a fact) don't talk with the same heavy handedness that The Bible is written with.  The Bible is constantly hammering home a point, in many cases it's hammering home more than one point at the same time.  When James says "You don't have so you murder", he's making an overall point, but he's also making a point just by use of the word "murder".  It is not a light thing to be angry at your brother or sister in Christ.  But not every word people in everyday speech say is meant to be scrutinized and double checked the way The Bible is.  If I say "murder", I mean the unjust taking of one's life.  Murder is not an act of telekinesis.

There is no 1, there is only 2

 https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5765844/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

I can't imagine how this would NOT be confusing to people.  There IS NO Kung Fury.  So why is there a "2" beside the title??  Doubtless people are going to either figure they're not interested or else they'd have already seen "the first one" (which they'd haven't because they'd never heard of it, not because it was so not worth their attention but because IT NEVER EXISTED!!) or they're going to hold off on seeing it until they catch up by watching the original (again...they can't do this, not because "it must not be that important otherwise I'd have done it by now" but because it **does not exist**!)

I think the under 45 crowd probably is, for the most part, savvy enough to look this nonsense up on the internet and figure out the absurdity of this and accept it.  People over the age of 50... it's a little iffy.  And most of your JCVD knuckleheads are not young pups or anything.

SMH 

HOG by RCS

 Chapter 2 QA3)

In what ways do I need to be refined...

Obviously, there's the immorality I'm entangled in, and covetousness, etc.  There's probably a hefty dose of arrogance I could do without, and I could also stand to be less embittered by the bitter parts of my life, I'm not as forgiving as I should be.
I'm not sure how far I'm going to get being the kind of person who has no inward response to Isiah chapter 6.  All  I see in that passage is that God is unapproachable.  I don't understand how that in and of itself would even be valuable.  I can see how it would cause a person to disregard any qualms they have about God's decrees etc., but even that's a moot point, because God IS GOOD!  He's not just good because He says He is and everyone else is wrong.  We were not made to be banished from Eden.  We were made to be in communion with God.  It's not God's stuckupedness that is the problem we face in getting close to Him.  It's OUR *sin*  Maybe I'm off the mark here, to some degree or another.  I don't know what to think.

Discogs misshap pt 2

 I  requested one item be cancelled.  Seller took almost an entire 24 hours to reply and seemed to think I was being unreasonable in worrying that I was being ignored.  I suggested an easy fix to prevent this from happening again, to let people know in her seller terms that messages can take 24++(?) hours to receive a reply.  She responded saying I was being unpleasant and cancelled the rest of the order.  I don't understand how I was being unpleasant and when I asked her she said I was harassing her.  😒

Belated thoughts putting

 I was thinking a few days ago how Paul notes salvation as being a reward of sorts for the amount of work that we are required to put into it since it is not always an easy thing. And how it's also referred to as a gift, specifically *NOT*(!) a debt.

 I realized that theres a kind of layered truth at work here;

The gift is the cancelling of our debt to Him.  We as people can and sometimes do accomplish good things, but without our many many layers of debt being cancelled, He would owe us nothing.  Salvation is a gift first and foremost.  It is not to be trampled on.  It is secondarily a reward.  That is also not to be trampled on lest we become the least in the Kingdom. (Matthew 5:19).  We have so much to be thankful for.  May I be continually recognizing ever more how wonderful His gift of righteousness truly is.

Keep it a-jar

I don't understand how anyone can think of Donald Trump as a Christian.  Someone I know posted a meme saying not to judge people because they don't practice Christianity the same way.  I'll admit it's possible Donald Trump may end up in Heaven without any drastic overhaul of his position about things.  If I can be salvaged, given my slow-cooking feet-dragging repentance, I have no business assuming who will or won't be in Heaven.  But The Bible, at least to me, seems rather clear on the matter; you will not get into Heaven if you think you don't need to be saved.  If Donald Trump doesn't think he's ever done anything wrong, what is it he's trying to be saved from?  Other people?  "Judge not or you will be judged.  By the same standard you use, it will be measured to you".  If Donald Trump were not constantly verbally attacking other people, I'd say ok, he's forgiven other people, he's not comfortable living in a broken world, he wants saved from it,  he simply doesn't have a firm understanding about the nature of sin.  I can empathize with that.  However, if he's forgiven all the various people he's tweeted ugly demeaning things about, you'd think at some point he'd quit instead of finding new enemies.  Maybe he has.  I don't keep up with it that closely.

On the other hand, it's possible Donald Trump's seeming hatred of everyone who doesn't kiss his ats can be described the same way that blog post I put up yesterday was.  I don't hate my church.  I thought I'd made that clear, but I can see how some people might miss that nuance.  Gay people think they're being hated on everytime someone even hints that their gayness is disapproved of by God.  People who are rightly wrestling with their sexual deviancy are considered "hypocrites", and they are.  Any person who wants to be saved from the eternal damnation that God puts on people who don't ask Him for that salvation is a hypocrite.  That hypocrisy should decrease over time but sometimes giant logs like vindictiveness and sexual immorality can be virtually a lifelong process to pull away from.  I'd rather be a hypocrite than be 100% in agreement with a decaying world.

Everything I do...

 Sunday school teacher a couple weeks ago said that Christianity is dedicating everything you do to God.  I tried expressing my disagreement with that, pointing out an activity he enjoys, and how that activity does nothing for God.  But supposedly that's counted as part of that because "God wants us to enjoy ourselves". Totally beside the point.  I seriously don't understand how one can't distinguish the difference.  Non Christians enjoy themselves.  They do so regardless of whether they should.  I don't understand how that's any different with Christians.  If everything a Christian did were for God, having the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling, how is it possible for a Christian to sin?  People respond "Because we're sinful". You can't have it both ways.  You either live 100% for God or you don't.  The only other possibility for sins against The King is demonic possession.  It'd be one thing if God were some random guy that happened to be King, but He's not.  He's loving, He's kind, He's fighting for us and desires nothing for us except the absolute best.  How does one end up boasting or coveting or committing any of the extra evil sins of sexual immorality when God is one's King?  Technically God is everyone's king.  That is why every knee shall bow and every tongue confess it to be.  Because it is true, regardless of mankind's acts of treason.  Regardless of their faith or lack thereof.

It's really annoying going to church sometimes with all of the exaggerations and oversimplified statements.  I make myself sick thinking about them.  I don't know how to just accept all of it and move on.

dancing on the floor of a taxi cab

There's been a crack of progress in my daily living the past week or so.  I can't remember exactly what day I did what, but I remember, over the past 14 days, there's been *at least* 4 days where I wasn't blatantly sinning against The Lord.  I know I was on relatively good behavior Friday and Saturday of this past week.  It seems like I remember early in that same week, I was also on fairly good behavior, like Tuesday and Wednesday, I think.....I'm fairly certain it was the same week, and then of course the week before that I was probably well behaved one or more of the days of that week, too, so I'm definitely seeing progress.  I broke out of that narrow path midmorning today...I was in the middle of a Bible study yesterday and I had that gunk floating in my head.  I was kinda sorta planning on it.  :/

So I got some progress to be made for sure just in this one area.  My mind needs all this crap flushed out of it, but unfortunately the only way to accomplish that is a complete detox.  I just don't know how to do that.  If I were more of a reader, that might be completely doable.
God's been good to me.  He's always good to me.  I just need to learn how to be more contemplative, aware, of His goodness, and PRIASE Him for all of it!  And stop this madness(!)

Another Discogs adventure

 This seller on Discogs sent me a CD with cover art that just barely by all technical strainings of the truth could have passed as being "accurately graded" with no stated caveats or anything of the sort.  I contacted him, yes, broaching the possibility of a partial refund without needing to endure the cost of returning it, which many sellers do prefer but I didn't get any reply from seller after half a day of waiting so clarified that IF he is willing to pay for return shipping, I could return both CDs, but I didn't get any reply to that either.  Got negative feedback, seemingly because I didn't give up trying to communicate with him.  I opened a PayPal claim and an waiting for that to be resolved.  He replied to that basically citing Discogs grading  guidelines that say, in part, NM sleeves can possibly have very light wear...  

:/

Update 7/20/23

Seller replied to PayPal claim and said I needed to send them back.  I did that and then upon receipt, he discovers one of the CDs is scratched when it was sold as NM, and instead of accepting the possibility that he made a mistake,  accuses me of switching out the CD, which I never had any reason to inspect because I just assume until / unless I find otherwise that the underside of a CD I ordered is A) going to look like every other CD underside and will function just fine.  I returned the order because of the cover art of the other CD.  Those two issues are quite different.  One is about... not entirely sure really and the other is about aesthetic.  A CD with less than great condition cover art is not going to have as good an aesthetic.  A CD that's scratched performs every bit as well as one that isn't.

Anyway... this purchase was an overall trainwreck. :/