New Year Coming

Long May It Wave

A new year is coming. 2020 is around the corner. God has been good to America. We don't deserve it.  Not after the way we are treating Him. We were founded, true, not as a Christian Bible based experiment but most of our original documents, which have been parsed and parsed so many times to be practically meaningless, were based on the idea that we had a blessing of a supreme being over us. We based our documents on there being standards that are God given and as such can't be taken away by government. Such standards as right and wrong. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, not given by the state. For if the state gave us these rights they can be taken back by the state. No. God gave us these three rights and only God can take them back.
So 2020 is before us. Don't allow the state or even the government in Washington DC to take away your rights. A chance to prove what you can do is fine. But there is no right to sponge off the cities and nation you live in. Work ethics is good. Pan handling is not a right.
Helping others get back on their feet and become productive is right. The state taking money from your pocket to do programs for the ones who won't work,  that is questionable at best, and down right stealing at the worst.
I have more to say but I will allow this to seep into your mind first before I venture to share them.

A Deeper Way Of Study

   Now this is an more advance way of study. Maybe not for the beginner, but I would keep this one in mind as I seek to grow in my understanding and depth in my Christian walk.
    I have started this the last few months. To do this one you will need a note book to record your observations. A pen to write with is needed. You won't just be reading without responding. Maybe for a while you will be responding to the passages as if you were journaling. In fact you should be able, over time, to look back and trace your growth.
    For you will grow using this method.
    It goes without saying you will need a good version of the scriptures. NASB, NIV, English Standard, etc. Yes, even the King James helps. Or the NKJ. Just a good version that is readable.
    I take a chapter at a time. Once a day. I don't rush. I ask what is here? Who is speaking? Who is he speaking to? What is the context? I record as if  I were seeing this for the first time. I keep remembering I am not reading a 21st century book. It meant something to those who read it for the first time.  Look at it as it meant then.
    Just what was the impact?
    You will need a good book on Bible times to refer to. Maybe even a concordance to look up words and see how they were first used.
    Using this method you will end up comparing scripture with scripture. When was the word first used? What did it mean when used that first time?
     I told you this was advanced. It will take more than a few moments. But you can also break your devotion time down into segments so you may not do a full chapter a day. But you keep with it day by day until you finish that book.
      I hope you are enjoying the methods discussion of this blog. It seems some are.
      You can always search this blog. I am sure all the postings are there.

Growing in Bible Understanding

Well, I am still going to use this blog for the purpose of furthering your study of God's communication to us, the Bible.
The method I am talking about this time is devotions.
To do this properly you will need a good Bible, a pencil or pen and a note book. You may also need a commentary or a good handbook of the Bible.
 Chose a book of the Bible that you can spend time studying.
 The pen or pencil is for marking up the Bible. A well read Bible is a well marked up Bible.
You will be asking what is being said here? Who is speaking? You will be marking in your Bible the key word in each portion.
 I suggest you do a paragraph at a time this works well, but the idea is not speed. Or maybe a chapter at a time.
The notebook is to jot down what it is you are discovering. Also what you are noticing. Record the repetition of a certain word. You may find it repeats in another chapter. Note that. It is important .
Use the handbook for background and context.
Always search context. Don't take day dreaming trips. The Bible is not written in twenty-first century context.
 Use the commentary to understand if you are on the right track in the deduction you are making.
 Stay with it. Dig as in mining for precious ore.
 And may your understanding of God grow as you do so.

Gender Misunderstanding

Come on now. really? You don't know your gender?

There are really only two. Two? Yes, you heard right.
In the beginning God created you in your mothers womb. He made no mistake. Your gender is rather male or female. He didn't look down and say, "Opps, I think I made a mistake there. I meant to create a non-binary person.)
Who told you differently?
Who ever it was is wrong. Or they maybe need to go back to basic biology.
Somewhere along the line you were scammed. And you bought it. Or if you haven't your friend or person you know who is trying to tell you some time between the planting of the sperm in the egg something happened to the fetus and you were the result--a non-binary person.
I look at myself in the mirror each morning as I shave and thank God I am a person who in this respect is not confused as to gender.
The last time I looked God did not pop out a non-binary gene.
Someone, let me repeat, has fooled you.
There is no reason for you to run out and have a penis looped  off or a breast removed or added.
The problem is in the way you are thinking. And you are  thinking this way because you have come to believe something without the proper investigation.
 Don't accept everything at face value. Don't always trust what people say.
Wait until you are thinking correctly before you make a move.

Immigration Reform Needed

 

Now this blog will, I hope, for a while center on the issue of immigration. We need reform of our laws and we need them fast.
  I don't feel at the present time we are looking at the gift of immigration correctly.
  President Trump's current push to use ICE as a punishing arm of the government is wrong. We need the immigrant; Persian, Russian, Greek, South African, Mexican, and so on to keep our economy going. Not all Americans are stepping up and doing the manual labor and back breaking labor needed to get our fruits and vegetables among other things to market to sell.
    And also some of our work force. Our scientists, our doctors, our lawyers, etc.
    What is needed is for someone to step up and help those skilled immigrants and, yes, unskilled, to get green cards and then work to get citizenship as soon as possible.
     True, we need a vet them. Both of us can gain from their presence. We shouldn't be dividing families in doing so. Show them all how to work within the system to become citizens.
    It is also a misuse of our troops to spend time nitpicking.
     The illegal immigrant came here for a reason. We are seen as the best chance they have to achieve independence from oppression,
     Sure, we don't need criminals but we do need people who are willing to work  for what they can achieve.
     No, we don't need more on the governments' bankroll (Which is another subject for later).
      We need immigration reform and we need to come into the twenty-first century and show more compassion for the world around us.
   

New Year. New Subjects

 It has been quite a while since I have been here and posting. I somehow get the feeling I am texting to myself. Why? Because I get little, if any, feed back and less suggestion on what areas I should be covering so that you, the reader, will keep coming back again and again.
 So that may be one reason I spend little time posing under this blog, For Your Information.
   In the past I have acted as a guide for your Bible study time ( If you do study the Bible and find the help useful.) (Have gotten no feedback except for the number of hits that are recorded behind the curtain, so to speak, for each posting)
  I do enjoy ,or I should say, have enjoyed doing so but even I need feedback to feel I am being useful. And that you need it.
   So for 2019 onward I will broaden my area of coverage. I will blog on areas on my interest, and hope that from time to time I may just be talking in an area that interests you. And how am I to know these areas?
   Hopefully you will be telling me. And if you were to leave your email address we may even be able to strike up an email conversation.
   Now that is an idea.
    It will only work if there is a connection made.
   So first I would like to talk about reading. Reading is becoming a lost art. When I talk or post about reading I am talking about books. Not e-books. I am talking about real books of weight. Books that can be held in the hand and pages that can be turned. The things you go to real brick and mortar places and you spend time browsing stacks of literature and non-literature until you find that one book that is calling out to you to be read.
     I have another blog that I use to handle book  reviews of books I have found worthy of being read by others. Not that I am trying to say I know good books when I see them. Yet I do think I have some intelligence when it comes to good stories.
    The Santa Monica Library has what they call a Santa Monica Read each year around summer time. So reading a real book is important.
   Now I am not a big lover of graphic novels as they remind me of comic books more than a progressive form of  book presentation.
I like to use my imagination when I approach a story. Seeing pictures and cartons is not the same as allowing words to flow through my brain and igniting the imagination cells in my cortex.
   More blogs to come with more flow of subjects. Stay tuned and continue to have that nice day.