This is a short post to explain why I chose the name Center of Gravity for my blog. One definition of center of gravity states that it represents a balancing point. The concept of being at or in the center of something gives word images of not tipping to one side or the other, not sliding all the way to the left or to the right.
This is where I find myself in my relationship with God, I look to find balance, a centering place where I am not too cold toward God and not too hot. You may say to yourself, "how can being too hot for God be something to watch out for?" Good question and for me this is my answer, if I allow myself to become too hot for God, to be too consumed into the dealings of church and pastoral matters to the point that I am ignoring what is happening with my family, my neighbors, my work, my community I am then ignoring the very issues that I believe God wants me to pay attention to. It is being so engrossed and focused that I am consuming my life in things about God and about church but not being church, not being Jesus with skin on for a person in need whatever that need may be. To be too cold is rather obvious, I desire to be in His presence all the hours of the day and on His mind all the days of my life. To do this it is important for me to act in the same manner when it concerns God, to have Him at the forefront of all my issues and concerns all hours of the day and to have Him at the center of my life all of my days. It is a relationship and not just a following, it is a friendship and not simply a master - servant type of situation. In God's printed word He never tells any of His chosen that they must keep at a distance for any reason in regards to a relationship. God called Moses to the top of the mount and had him remove his sandals and approach closer to the burning bush. God is not shy nor does God see any harm with allowing us to know Him more closely.
Over time it has occured to me that I find myself desiring balance in my life. To have a closeness with God and to walk in God's ways and at the same time do it without being a stumbling block to my fellow man. To be in the world but not part of it in the ways of unhealthy living. To be a help rather than a hindrance and to offer a hand up. In the view of this blog it is my intention to offer a view of the world around us and give some comparison to the Word of God. Not to quote scripture and verse and say how it fits with bible prophecy there are many who do that already. I may quote from them time to time but I am not a person of prophecy.
I offer to share certain things that stand out to me and offer information, reference, guidance where I am able and to share what is on my heart at times if I believe it goes with my main message. The purpose of this blog is to know and understand that God is ever present in our lives and He does not hate anyone. That He allows us to be as close as we have courage for, He let us know how much He desires to have relationship with Him by sending His one and only Son to come and live with us. Jesus was born into this world just like we are, He grew up and learned to obey and honor His earthly parents. He worked with His hands and made a living to provide for His mother and their household. Jesus went to church (synagogue) and learned about God not only through the written word of the Torah but also through the people around him and through nature.
Jesus cared for the sick and the dying, He provided food for the hungry and blessings to all who sought to only see him if even from the top of a tree. You see, the Jesus that I have come to know would wake up with me next Monday morning and put on work clothes and shoes just like me and we would ride to work together. At work we would help each other to get the daily tasks handled and squared away. He would take break with me and the other workers and when lunch came around He may go along or take time out for Himself and go over to the nearby park to have some down time, to look at the beauty of nature and to feel the wind on His face. After lunch it's back to business and finally back home for a shower and dinner and discuss the topics of the day from family, the news or ideas for a new project around the house. You see, Jesus isn't only interested in promoting an agenda and expecting you and I to fall in lock step with it, He cares about our daily existence and issues, He created our work so we would have ways to earn a living and buy food and clothing. He created the metals that go into making our pots and pans so we can have ways to heat and process our food. He has just as much desire for that politician on the news to do the right thing as you or I, He created that politician and He expects that person to abide by each of the Ten Commandments and becomes frustrated at the lack of commitment and self discipline that person displays just as we do. It's not that the actions are unexpected, nothing surprises Jesus it's only the hopes that He has for us to elevate ourselves more toward His way of living become a little more diminished as either of us continue to do things out of our own self and follow not His ways but our own.
I hope that in the coming posts you would keep my purpose for this blog in mind. That the information I share is intended to make you a little stronger than you were, to help you be more self reliant or self sufficient. To enable you to provide food for your family through more energy or cost cutting ways. To shed some light on events and issues and share with you how I see them through the eyes of my faith. I realize that a blog is mostly a one sided discussion but I am always open to your comments or suggestions. Please allow information found here (if it be helpful to you) to resonate in your prayer life. Find your center of gravity and learn how to live in that place more and more of your day. While the skies may grow dim or the waves become rough there is always a place inside ourselves where we can go to be at peace, find balance. I pray that Jesus would be allowed into your space of peace and balance, may you allow Him to join you in work and play. May Jesus show you how He provided for His family and how He showed His thanks to God and to all around Him.
Till next time, be at peace and be prepard...
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
China looking to offload U.S. debt, U.S. dollar heading for a crash
Heard about this and went to confirm it. You will hear about this from main stream media but it will be too late. Their not going to want to bring this to the forefront and start a panic but China is talking about selling off two thirds of our debt to others countries so they can diversify their future interests. Sounds like selling off house mortgages and flushing away the debt here in the U.S.
Look for yourself: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-04/23/c_13842843.htm
Even the Huffington-Puffington post ran a mention in their paper: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Changein2012/republicans-debt-ceiling-debt-limit_n_853009_85599329.html
They posted it in the social column, like that's going to get a lot of attention by the fashion crowd.
If you are holding cash and want to convert some to gold, silver or copper you may want to do it now. When the Chinese actually do this it will dump the dollar in the flusher. When will they do it? Who knows but the thing is they are talking about it like it's just another bad investment they made. Their prepared to take a loss and move on. They will have to do something soon because they have their own inflation problems and they need to fix their own mess: http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE73K2F120110421
It's one story but there are more about China's inflation problems. No one likes to hear stuff like this on Monday morning but I wanted to get the word out as soon as I heard it myself. As the dollar continues to go down, gold and silver and copper will continue to go up in value. This is not the way an economy that is strong is supposed to act. The main stream news people are not giving all the information. Be careful and prepare as best you can for what comes ahead. To find out the current value of gold or silver you can look here: http://www.goldline.com
Look for yourself: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-04/23/c_13842843.htm
Even the Huffington-Puffington post ran a mention in their paper: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Changein2012/republicans-debt-ceiling-debt-limit_n_853009_85599329.html
They posted it in the social column, like that's going to get a lot of attention by the fashion crowd.
If you are holding cash and want to convert some to gold, silver or copper you may want to do it now. When the Chinese actually do this it will dump the dollar in the flusher. When will they do it? Who knows but the thing is they are talking about it like it's just another bad investment they made. Their prepared to take a loss and move on. They will have to do something soon because they have their own inflation problems and they need to fix their own mess: http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE73K2F120110421
It's one story but there are more about China's inflation problems. No one likes to hear stuff like this on Monday morning but I wanted to get the word out as soon as I heard it myself. As the dollar continues to go down, gold and silver and copper will continue to go up in value. This is not the way an economy that is strong is supposed to act. The main stream news people are not giving all the information. Be careful and prepare as best you can for what comes ahead. To find out the current value of gold or silver you can look here: http://www.goldline.com
Look on the right side of the page in a box that will display current market prices when the stock market is open from 9:00 - 4:00 EST
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Could you say it? My Easter letter
A thought for this week and especially for Easter, would you mean it if you said these words to God our Father just as Job said it in chapter 13, verse 15 (KJV) no other translation says it the same way.
If today you lost your job, lost your stocks, bonds, IRA. If today you found out you had a terminal illness or one of your children. If today your world came crashing down around your ears and you felt like God had abandoned you and you were ready to flip the Church the bird, could you stop at that point and look to the heavens and speak the words Job spoke; "though He slay me yet I will trust Him,"
It may do us well to stop at some point this week, at this time of remembering the Passion of our Christ Jesus and ponder on how Jesus was feeling. What was He going through. To ponder it as a bystander, a disciple who is not of the twelve but a follower just the same keeping near enough to hear His voice and the teachings He gives to the twelve. Think in your mind's eye to see him slapped around and accused by the Sanhedrin of being a blasphemer and mocker of our Holy God. He, like Job, was stripped away of everything of worth, His family members stayed at a distance. He was without a defender, without a lawyer, He was as silent as a lamb for our sake. He was beaten, tortured, humiliated and spat upon. He was made to suffer what none of us could dare imagine.
It could very well have been that Job's words were rolling around in the mind of Christ Jesus, "though He slay me yet I will trust Him," if not the exact words it is the sentiment that they express. Jesus had to loose it all for us, He was stripped of his clothing, His image to the followers and new converts, He was made to suffer our punishment for our transgressions. It is not so much that we bring ourselves to believe that we could do the same, to stand with shakey wabbely knees and endure the passion that Christ Jesus suffered for that was for Him alone for all the world. Rather, we are to take it to our own self, our own existence and our own family. It is the foundation to which our faith must finally come to rest if it is to last. Our faith will be tested and stretched not because God is trying to find us unworthy of His goodness and blessings no. It is because at some point in our life we may...may...find ourselves in a spot in life where we too will be stripped of our family or security. We may be told we have only months to live or told that about one of our children. It will not be true but your mind may turn to the words of Job and you may find yourself believing God is slaying you and your heart is breaking into pieces, will you still trust Him. It is not an answer to be given flippantly or quickly, it is an answer that will well up inside you and overflow out over your lips if and when the time comes. The main point is that we must enable our spirit and our heart to love God in all ways and through our good times and in bad. That if God stopped listening to our prayers today and we loose everything tomorrow, can we live out the rest of our days praising Him for allowing us to know Him and His Son? Will we find comfort in remembering what it was like to feel His loving warmth envelop us when we called out to Him and hold to that through all waves of upset or turmoil that come our way? You see my friend, it was bleak on the path that Jesus chose and accepted. The scripture states that at one point he turned toward Jerusalem and set His face like flint, knowing what He was walking into. Yes, God has blessings for us and piles of them as tall as hills awaiting us in God's Heavenly Kingdom but that is not here and it's not now. Now, at this point, we live in a realm where light is mixed with dark, good with bad and healing with sickness and yet it is all God for nothing exists without His having created it, nothing outside of God exists.
While we get ready to celebrate with music and dancing focusing on Easter morning and the reality that a dead man got up and walked out of that tomb. While we thank God for His unending love and compassion for His creation we may first ask ourselves the question on Good Friday, "if He were to slay me, would I yet trust Him?"
May you have a Jesus filled day
If today you lost your job, lost your stocks, bonds, IRA. If today you found out you had a terminal illness or one of your children. If today your world came crashing down around your ears and you felt like God had abandoned you and you were ready to flip the Church the bird, could you stop at that point and look to the heavens and speak the words Job spoke; "though He slay me yet I will trust Him,"
It may do us well to stop at some point this week, at this time of remembering the Passion of our Christ Jesus and ponder on how Jesus was feeling. What was He going through. To ponder it as a bystander, a disciple who is not of the twelve but a follower just the same keeping near enough to hear His voice and the teachings He gives to the twelve. Think in your mind's eye to see him slapped around and accused by the Sanhedrin of being a blasphemer and mocker of our Holy God. He, like Job, was stripped away of everything of worth, His family members stayed at a distance. He was without a defender, without a lawyer, He was as silent as a lamb for our sake. He was beaten, tortured, humiliated and spat upon. He was made to suffer what none of us could dare imagine.
It could very well have been that Job's words were rolling around in the mind of Christ Jesus, "though He slay me yet I will trust Him," if not the exact words it is the sentiment that they express. Jesus had to loose it all for us, He was stripped of his clothing, His image to the followers and new converts, He was made to suffer our punishment for our transgressions. It is not so much that we bring ourselves to believe that we could do the same, to stand with shakey wabbely knees and endure the passion that Christ Jesus suffered for that was for Him alone for all the world. Rather, we are to take it to our own self, our own existence and our own family. It is the foundation to which our faith must finally come to rest if it is to last. Our faith will be tested and stretched not because God is trying to find us unworthy of His goodness and blessings no. It is because at some point in our life we may...may...find ourselves in a spot in life where we too will be stripped of our family or security. We may be told we have only months to live or told that about one of our children. It will not be true but your mind may turn to the words of Job and you may find yourself believing God is slaying you and your heart is breaking into pieces, will you still trust Him. It is not an answer to be given flippantly or quickly, it is an answer that will well up inside you and overflow out over your lips if and when the time comes. The main point is that we must enable our spirit and our heart to love God in all ways and through our good times and in bad. That if God stopped listening to our prayers today and we loose everything tomorrow, can we live out the rest of our days praising Him for allowing us to know Him and His Son? Will we find comfort in remembering what it was like to feel His loving warmth envelop us when we called out to Him and hold to that through all waves of upset or turmoil that come our way? You see my friend, it was bleak on the path that Jesus chose and accepted. The scripture states that at one point he turned toward Jerusalem and set His face like flint, knowing what He was walking into. Yes, God has blessings for us and piles of them as tall as hills awaiting us in God's Heavenly Kingdom but that is not here and it's not now. Now, at this point, we live in a realm where light is mixed with dark, good with bad and healing with sickness and yet it is all God for nothing exists without His having created it, nothing outside of God exists.
While we get ready to celebrate with music and dancing focusing on Easter morning and the reality that a dead man got up and walked out of that tomb. While we thank God for His unending love and compassion for His creation we may first ask ourselves the question on Good Friday, "if He were to slay me, would I yet trust Him?"
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