I wonder if I'm repeating myself, or if so, do I need to see it again.

We live and move and have our being in God.  That's found in Luke I think.  I'm not a Bible sort like my Dad.

He is amazing with all that he knows (though he doesn't believe that he knows what he thinks he knows).

Anyway this is not about my Dad.  This is about my thoughts.

It seems to me that if We live and move and have our being in God, then God also lives and moves in us.  Not sure about his holding his "being".  But he's surely close. 

It would explain why he knows what we think and feel, what our intent in any situation might be. Before we do or do not do whatever it is we intend. 

Yet good or bad he forgives us.  For let's face it, mostly we think bad things in and of ourselves. 

We judge and manipulate and use and dishonor one another on a regular basis.  God forgives.  So, part of us and yet above us.  We are not God, but we are a part of God as he is part of us. 

When we touch our thoughts to his...

This, I think we call Grace. 

John.

Time and life.

I've been reading a bit on the web this morning.  And find one thing in common.

Folks seem to think that God lives in time. 

He doesn't.  We live in time because we need it.  Not him.  We created time so We can have time to do this and that. 

What need does God have? 

Just my thoughts.

John.

Hey! I'm 50!

Sort of odd for me.  I feel no different than I did when I was 49, or 48 or....well, the list goes on. 

I suppose that I'm now supposed to go out and fine a woman 30 years younger than me and buy some sort of "Status" car to drive about in.

Ummm...not up for it.  I rather like my life as it is.  I'm happy.

Seems a lot of folks want to be what they are not.  When we are young we want to be older, when we are old we want to be younger.  We are seldom happy just being where and who we are.

This minds me of the numerous times I'd spoken with any number of folks.  To so many they put their happiness ahead or behind themselves.  But they refuse to be happy Now.

When I'm old enough to move out, when I'm old enough to drink, when I'm old enough to vote....then later.

When I graduate!, When I get married!.  When I get the promotion!, When I find the right whatever! 

When I was with Him/Her, when I was at that job, when I used to be (fill in the blank).

Then I'll /will be happy.

Being happy, content, or just enjoying our lives is a simple matter of choice.  God created us to be happy with no resrictions.  We put resrictions upon our own happiness.  We can just choose to be happy now.

Give it a shot.  I did.

Just my thoughts,

John.

Christianity on Trial

based on Colin Chapman 's book ' Christianity on Trial '

My answer.

I can only note my own thoughts.  Christ showed us one thing.  That this life and our supposed death are not real.  Or not as real as God's reality at least.

Other faiths...I don't know.  Near as I can tell, they all hold the same truths in basis.  Love, faith, hope, forgiveness.  If we truly follow these do we need assign them to a particular Religion?  It seems not to me.

I follow the Christian faith as it's what I know best.  But I surely could not say another was incorrect in following any of the other faiths of the world.

And if in following their own faith they come to the belief in another they do not choose to call Christ.  Does the name matter?  Yehway is not a stranger to The Father..or The Mother for that matter any more than Christ is.  Neither I'd think is Mohamed.

We are called the children of God for a reason and it does give out names for them.

Anyone can be the older bother/sister at anytime.  I've learned a great deal from folks of other faiths.  All of which I feel to be truths.

Just my thoughts.

John.

My Lesson for this day.

 I spoke with my one boss (Mary) the other day about my leaving in the next few months.  She asked me not to tell what I consider my other boss (Mike) about it.  

 This conflicted me for a time as I'd much rather just be upfront with everyone unless there are exceptional circumstances.  Which these are not I think.  Folks come and go from jobs all the time.  Should not be that big a deal I'd think.

I'm a coward it seems.  I ended up asking one of my best friends to (drop the news in passing) to Mike which was poorly done I think.  He know's now but I'm not comfortable with the whole thing.

 Why Mary would ask something like this of me I don't know.  She's an older woman with a lot of experiance in bussiness.  So perhaps she sees an angle that I don't to such things.

On the other hand, what is right, is right.  I won't leave Mike hanging with no one to replace me at the last minute.  That to my mind would be wrong..  

I should have just told her No outright.  But I didn't and what's done is done.  Mike knows and that is important.

This is my lesson from The Course today.  It seems to fit well for this as well as most things in this life. :)

John.

 

Lesson 133

I will not value what is valueless.

Sometimes in teaching there is benefit, particularly after you have gone through what seems theoretical and far from what the student has already learned, to bring him back to practical concerns. This we will do today. We will not speak of lofty, world-encompassing ideas, but dwell instead on benefits to you.
You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. This course does not attempt to take from you the little that you have. It does not try to substitute utopian ideas for satisfactions which the world contains. There are no satisfactions in the world.
Today we list the real criteria by which to test all things you think you want. Unless they meet these sound requirements, they are not worth desiring at all, for they can but replace what offers more. The laws that govern choice you cannot make, no more than you can make alternatives from which to choose. The choosing you can do; indeed, you must. But it is wise to learn the laws you set in motion when you choose, and what alternatives you choose between.
We have already stressed there are but two, however many there appear to be. The range is set, and this we cannot change. It would be most ungenerous to you to let alternatives be limitless, and thus delay your final choice until you had considered all of them in time; and not been brought so clearly to the place where there is but one choice that must be made.
Another kindly and related law is that there is no compromise in what your choice must bring. It cannot give you just a little, for there is no in between. Each choice you make brings everything to you or nothing. Therefore, if you learn the tests by which you can distinguish everything from nothing, you will make the better choice.
First, if you choose a thing that will not last forever, what you chose is valueless. A temporary value is without all value. Time can never take away a value that is real. What fades and dies was never there, and makes no offering to him who chooses it. He is deceived by nothing in a form he thinks he likes.
Next, if you choose to take a thing away from someone else, you will have nothing left. This is because, when you deny his right to everything, you have denied your own. You therefore will not recognize the things you really have, denying they are there. Who seeks to take away has been deceived by the illusion loss can offer gain. Yet loss must offer loss, and nothing more.
Your next consideration is the one on which the others rest. Why is the choice you make of value to you? What attracts your mind to it? What purpose does it serve? Here it is easiest of all to be deceived. For what the ego wants it fails to recognize. It does not even tell the truth as it perceives it, for it needs to keep the halo which it uses to protect its goals from tarnish and from rust, that you may see how "innocent" it is.
Yet is its camouflage a thin veneer, which could deceive but those who are content to be deceived. Its goals are obvious to anyone who cares to look for them. Here is deception doubled, for the one who is deceived will not perceive that he has merely failed to gain. He will believe that he has served the ego's hidden goals.
Yet though he tries to keep its halo clear within his vision, still must he perceive its tarnished edges and its rusted core. His ineffectual mistakes appear as sins to him, because he looks upon the tarnish as his own; the rust a sign of deep unworthiness within himself. He who would still preserve the ego's goals and serve them as his own makes no mistakes, according to the dictates of his guide. This guidance teaches it is error to believe that sins are but mistakes, for who would suffer for his sins if this were so?
And so we come to the criterion for choice that is the hardest to believe, because its obviousness is overlaid with many levels of obscurity. If you feel any guilt about your choice, you have allowed the ego's goals to come between the real alternatives. And thus you do not realize there are but two, and the alternative you think you chose seems fearful, and too dangerous to be the nothingness it actually is.
All things are valuable or valueless, worthy or not of being sought at all, entirely desirable or not worth the slightest effort to obtain. Choosing is easy just because of this. Complexity is nothing but a screen of smoke, which hides the very simple fact that no decision can be difficult. What is the gain to you in learning this? It is far more than merely letting you make choices easily and without pain.
Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own. We will attempt to reach this state today, with self-deception laid aside, and with an honest willingness to value but the truly valuable and the real. Our two extended practice periods of fifteen minutes each begin with this:

I will not value what is valueless,
and only what has value do I seek,
for only that do I desire to find.

And then receive what waits for everyone who reaches, unencumbered, to the gate of Heaven, which swings open as he comes. Should you begin to let yourself collect some needless burdens, or believe you see some difficult decisions facing you, be quick to answer with this simple thought:

I will not value what is valueless,
for what is valuable belongs to me.

The Preperation

I'm intending to move within the next 3 or 4 months to Jacksonville, FL.  Most of my family is there saving for my eldest brother Fred who lives with me at the moment.

I told my teammates today that I'll be going and tomorrow I'll let the upper food chain know what's going on.

It seems only proper to me to tell the folks I actually work with first as it will impact them the most.  While my management folks will miss me also but it will by nature be a more remote thing.  

I've had the feeling that I should be there instead of hear for a couple of years now.  Yes Lord, I know, I'm slow.  But I'm also willing.

Bit scary to move to a place where I've no job lined up.  But this is in many ways a leap of faith.  I've done it before admittedly not willingly.  God Pushed Me the other times!  .  But slowly over the years I've found I can (trust?) him.  Yes, I suppose that's all I could call it.  Trust.  

He tells me to do this or that and sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.  Seems it always works out better when I do.  Which should be enough for me to follow without a visible means of support. 

The world mind tells me to stay safe.  Stay where I have a job, stay where I have friends, stay where I know.  But how often has the world lied to me?  Cheated me?  Offered me gold (which turns up is mostly plating)?

I don't recall God ever suggesting anything that did not work out for me and others well by doing it.  He tends to create win win situations. 

I think that's the difference.  God always offers win win things, wear-as the world always and can only offer me Me things. 

The Father does not offer his child a stone for bread.

I'm going to go get me some bread. 

John.

Christmass and New Year.

Christmass was wonderful!  I got to travel south to Jacksonville and visit with the family.  So many wonderful memories!  The kids all seem to be doing great.

I suppose I should not call them kids anymore as they are all older now.  I still see the kids in them though.

And I get to embarrass them now and then.  How cool it that?   

Jennifer (The nurse) always loving and kind.

Donald (The Rocket Scientist) truly one of the most brilliant men I've ever known.

Eve (The Librarian) The quiet and loving one.  She doesn't say a whole lot, but I always see it in her eyes.

Patricia (The Trouble Maker) She's the one that shakes things up and keeps everyone else on their toes.  She's turning into the most amazing woman.

I won't play favorite's as I can't.  They are all my favorites.  Each in their own way has touched and touches my life and being.

We talked, we sang, we ate, we listened, we told stories.  We went on a hay ride for the Luminaries and shot each other with marsh mellow guns and threw candy at each other and everyone else in sight.

And mostly we laughed a lot!  Seems I don't do a lot of laughing except when I'm home.

I will do so soon enough though as I plan to move there in the next few months. 

Seems to me there are things I should be doing there that I can't do here.  Not sure how to explain that one.  But it is what it is.  God talks, I do my best to listen.

I asked one of my sister's in law about things and was told "you already know".  She's right.  It's been in my mind for a couple of years now actually.  Now the time has come.

Thanks Terri!  HUGS

She's most likely now hiding her face, flipping me the bird and cursing my name under her breath.

I love you anyway Terri.

Closing for now as it's my beloved's birthday and I want to call or write to remind her that I love her.

All things are as they should be.  Always!  This is God's plan for us.

John.