IF I WAS GOD, I WOULD . . .

“If I was God, I would do things differently.”

So, if you were God, and did things differently, would that make people like you, happy?

If you were God, and did things the way you think they should be done, would that make everybody happy?

If you were God, would you care about making everybody happy—or just making you happy?

If you were God, would you still see things the way humans see them, or would you see things the way God does?

If you were God, would you want to have unlimited power, or unlimited wisdom, or both?

 

What if—

What if God’s unlimited wisdom already directs His unlimited power in the best possible way—better than all the eight billion different ideas of people wanting to be in charge?

Wanting to be God, or just wanting the world to be different—does that make any difference?

Is it a waste of time—wishful thinking?

Thinking about being God, is trying to avoid Him and live your own life without Him.

We do not want to be accountable to someone who thinks differently than we do.

 

Many people live like God doesn’t exist, and they imagine that it works for them.

We can’t ignore something out of existence—especially God.

Imagining a different god, or no god, does not affect the fact that God is—that He always has been, and that He is always the same.

We better deal with God on His terms, because He will deal with us on His terms.

 

So, what are God’s terms?

If you look at all the man-made religions, you find tremendous imagination about what God expects of humans.

And we keep inventing more ideas of how to deal with whatever is god.

Can someone break through the fog and make these things clear, for once, and for all (of us)?

 

Okay, here goes:

God is love—that’s good for us—what a relief—I’ll take that kind of God.

God is holy—that’s not so good for us—that’s scary—who wants that kind of God?

God is truth—and He wrote down in words that we can read, the facts that make things clear, for once, and for all (of us).

 

HOW DID ALL THIS GET STARTED?   In the beginning, God created everything, and it was all good.

HOW DID IT GET ALL MESSED UP?  Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and so do we also sin.

HOW DOES IT GET FIXED?  God’s Son, Jesus, died to pay for our sin, and we can accept His sacrifice and turn from our sin.

HOW DOES IT ALL END?  One day Jesus will take all who accepted Him to a perfect heaven, and all others go to hell.

 

Don’t take my word for it.

Open the Bible and read it.

Don’t debate it or question it.

Don’t try to change it.

And don’t say you didn’t know.

ALL GOD’S CHILDREN ?

I have something God doesn’t have.

And it’s beautiful and most valuable to me.

GRANDCHILDREN

Your parents’ faith does not make you a child of God.

You must believe in Jesus for yourself and ask Him to forgive you.

I BELIEVE I’M CLOSE TO GOD WHEN . . .

“I believe I’m close to god when . . . ”

Question:

Does nature have that kind of freedom to operate every which way?

No, only people have freedom to make up anything we want to believe, and expect it to fit into reality in the spiritual world.

In other words, we see the natural world has order, run by consistent laws—but then we count on the spiritual world to be completely random, run by and answerable to 8 billion different, fluctuating ideas from wishful thinking.

 

Natural world:

“I believe your gravity is okay for you, but my gravity is different.”

Question:

Would you show me an example?

 

Spiritual world:

“Your truth is not my truth.”

Question:

Is that true?

13.6 BILLION YEARS AGO ?

“Astronomers caught a glimpse of the beginning of the universe 13.6 billion years ago.”

—–side story on weatherbug site today

They keep adding years—lots and lots and lots of years—to make more room for their theories.

“Scientists” talking definitively about billions of years is about as credible as me publishing a log of my trips to Mars and back in a travel guide that everybody reads.

It seems like most people actually read and buy their travel guide telling us where we’ve been, a long, long, long time ago.

Fact is, anyone who can tell us where we’ve been, is likely to also tell us where to go (might be favorable to them and not to us)

– – – – – – – – –

I’ve seen an accurate glimpse of the beginning of the universe, which anyone can discover if they will, by opening the Bible to the beginning—“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Sounds pretty clear to me.

It hasn’t changed or needed an update in thousands of years.

You can take it or leave it, but it’s still true.

I’m just thankful that He told us how it all started—and, everything else we really need to know.

I feel a whole lot better about a clear instruction manual for this thing called life, rather than yearly updated versions of a guessing game.

And that certainty is available for everybody.

Check it out yourself, before you make conclusions about anything important.

GUILTY

We’ve always known of GUILT BY ASSOCIATION.

If you are too close to a crime, or too close to a criminal, or too closely associated with a criminal, you could very well find yourself guilty and blamed in part for a crime.

 

In recent decades we’ve observed the rise of GUILT BY ACCUSATION.

If you are accused of being controlling or harassing, you are likely assumed to be guilty first, with great difficulty to prove innocence.

 

The facts of current reality demonstrate increased GUILT BY ACCUSER.

If you are guilty, your best shot for keeping your freedom and your neck is to get the media to cover your story blaming somebody else or something else.

 

While I am totally serious about the above, I must add a lighter twist now three days later, compliments of my wonderful border collie dog, Buddy.

He is close to ten years old now, and he recently perfected the fine art of begging for something when I’m eating.

You probably know the routine—he lays his head on my leg, gently, then firmly, and looks up at me.

He locks into eye contact that does the number on me—and that, my friends, is GUILT BY ADMIRATION.

P.S. to WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM ?

Obviously, you need to read the other post first.

Notice, I did not say, “If you fixed your problem” or “If you figured out how to fix your problem” or “If someone else told you how to fix your problem” or “If ‘the doctor’ told you to fix your problem, or else” or “If . . . ”

I said, “Simply, if your problem was fixed, . . . ”

 

But if you would like a Bible verse to put this in perspective, I do have one:

“Seeing that all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness?”

There is something about our conversation, our very spoken words, that directs our lives—just like there is something inside that directs our conversation, our spoken words.

You see, our spoken words (not our thoughts) put us on record before other people with accountability—like built-in technology that impacts everything in our lives from day one.

WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM ?

(I’m writing this addressed to myself as well, in hopes that posting it will give fresh impetus to change my own conversation.)

So, what’s your problem?

That question is asked here in all sincerity, not in the frequent “put down” usage.

As briefly as possible, write down your specific problem (one)—your most nagging nemesis—your pet peeve about yourself—your trait that triggers negative conversation by you—your thing that keeps you from talking and living positively.

Don’t write in generalities that could describe other people as well.

What’s next is not just a trick to the power of positive thinking—I despise that as much as negative things I see that need changing.

This is not “how-to” or “self-help.”

S T O P ! ! !

REALLY STOP AND WRITE IT DOWN BEFORE YOU READ ON ! ! ! (Otherwise you will try to picture results first, and miss something.)

 

Simply:

If your particular problem was fixed, how might that affect your conversation?

 

That’s it!

I really believe that is A Word for Thought.

“SCHOOL ZONE”

Signs of these times?

Sign A:

SCHOOL ZONE

NO SPEED LIMIT

DURING SCHOOL

HOURS

 

Sign B:

SCHOOL ZONE

NO ARMED SECURITY

DURING SCHOOL

HOURS

 

Sign C:

SCHOOL ZONE

SECURITY

PROVIDED BY

GOD AND GUNS

DURING SCHOOL

HOURS

LGBT LIBRARY DISPLAY FOR CHILDREN

(Speech recently given before the City Council in Temple, Texas, after a 2 1/2 hour library board meeting with public comments.)

When my children were growing up, we came to the Temple Library nearly every week.

—–I have been aware for some time that the homosexual issue has been growing in this country.

I’m an American, but I’m also a Texan.

This issue, this disaster, coming to Texas, to Temple, calls me to speak out.

This is obviously much more than a library issue.

—–Several things became clear as I listened to everyone speak at the library.

Debate about censorship and rights will not settle this.

Claims of freedom of speech become pressure to accept, approve, and endorse the lgbt agenda publicly.

Claims of “civil rights” for adults do not satisfy their campaign for more.

Protection of childhood innocence about sex is giving way to pressuring children to think about things they cannot process until years later.

So adults process matters of sex for the children, to gain recruits for the lgbt agenda.

—–The summary observation from comments at the library meeting is this:

The lines are drawn, here and across the country, between Biblical Christianity and values in direct conflict with the Bible.

And the reason this is becoming a civil war for the life of America is because this country is based on principles in the Bible.

—–Concerning children’s literature, The Emperor Has No Clothes:

This whole mess is so obvious—it doesn’t let kids be kids and see life like kids should.

—–Concerning lgbt claiming Christianity (at the library meeting):

They do not and cannot ever talk about sin and repentance to salvation and obedience, only love.

—–Concerning the Bible:

Just because the Word of God is somewhat out of fashion these days—by no means does that mean it is out of power and authority.

Until recently the Bible was the guide in issues such as this, and it quickly settled the debate.

We cannot re-write or improve on what it says—we do so at our peril, as a nation, and as a community.

(12) REFORMATION REQUIRED AGAIN – – – AND AGAIN, and . . .

(please read these Reformation articles in numbered order—this one is last)
ADDENDUM

“The church must confess that she has witnessed the lawless application of brutal force, the physical and spiritual suffering of countless innocent people, oppression, hatred, and murder, and that she has not raised her voice on behalf of the victims and has not found ways to hasten to their aid.  She is guilty of the deaths of the weakest and most defenseless brothers of Jesus Christ… The church must confess that she has desired security, peace, and quiet, possessions and honor, to which she has no right… She has not borne witness to the truth of God… By her own silence she has rendered herself guilty because of her unwillingness to suffer for what she knows to be right.”

—–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, hanged (weeks before the end of WWII) for plotting attempts to kill Hitler