Author: leekierdorf

No Middle Ground/No Sidelines

by leekierdorf
We make many decisions in our life. Often, children are asked in America, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I can’t believe adults are serious about this. Maybe they are just making conversation with a child. It does show the underlying belief Americans have in freedom, so that’s good. But to have your whole life planned out as a child? I don’t think so.

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But there are big decisions to be made. And some prefer a middle position on things. They would rather remain on the sidelines waiting to see what happens. But in one decision, these sidelines do not exist. And there are passionate voices to be heard. “God does not exist!” “God is so wonderful.” Waiting on the sidelines seems to be a safer place. But try and find those sidelines.

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One approach is to be agnostic. “I don’t know if God exists.” It sounds safe, a neutrality, perhaps. But, you must go further. You must say, “It is impossible to know if God exists.” This could be your exemption. But, others are so sure of his existence. Your stronger statement is unlikely to be true.

To be neutral is above all to be a sceptic. It is not just indifference, not an unwilling suspense because you must believe something. Do you doubt everything? Do you doubt your consciousness? Are you just dreaming it all? Or do you doubt your own existence?

You can’t go that far, so no one is a complete sceptic. You do believe something but how do you know it is true? What assures you?

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If no God exists, what then is man? A novelty of the universe? Man is a contradiction. He is a prodigy and a judge of all things. But, no, his hold on truth turns to uncertainty in a moment. He is proud and strong. Yet, his weakness becomes apparent so easily.

Who will unravel this riddle that is man? What do you become, when you try to find out by your natural reason what is your true condition? You cannot avoid claiming knowledge or remaining in doubt. Yet, you remain a paradox to yourself.

Humble yourself, put off weak reason; silence foolish nature; and learn that man infinitely transcends man. You have a Master who reveals your true condition, of which you are ignorant. Hear God.

If there was no corruption of the original, men would enjoy in their innocence both truth and happiness with assurance; and if man had always been corrupt, he would have no idea of truth or bliss.

And if there were no greatness in our condition, we would have no concept of the ideal. We would not reach for it and discover we cannot attain it. We are incapable of absolute ignorance and of certain knowledge. Why? Because we had a degree of perfection from which we have unhappily fallen.

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There are no observers among men who stand on the sidelines of the human race. All ground is included. The state of man without God is misery that turns despondent and finally becomes despair.

The man who thinks himself God, for without God he must become his own god, has nagging doubts that echo through his soul. He makes himself like iron but then becomes brittle and cracks under the pressure of life. In making his own life, he finds no life at all within that will maintain it.

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Man is made and he must find his Maker. He must discover what went wrong with mankind. Not for curiosity, but because it affects him deeply.

When he looks inside himself, he finds so much, yet not enough. What is missing? How can it be restored? Only God can answer this. Only he can put inside what will stop the wrongness and begin making all things new.

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God Obscured/Revealed – Pascal

by leekierdorf
The world exists for the exercise of mercy and judgment, not as if men were placed in it, out of the hands of God, but as hostile to God; and to them He grants, by grace, sufficient light, that they may return to Him, if they desire to seek and follow Him; and also that they may not, if they refuse to seek or follow Him.

If there were only one religion, God would indeed be manifest. The same would be the case, if there were no martyrs but in our religion. God being thus hidden, every religion which does not affirm that God is hidden, is not true; and every religion which does not give the reason of it, is not instructive. Our religion does all this.

If there were no obscurity, man would not be sensible of his corruption; if there were no light, man would not hope for a remedy. Thus, it is not only fair, but advantageous to us, that God be partly hidden and partly revealed; since it is equally dangerous to man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness, and to know his own wretchedness without knowing God.

This religion, so great in miracles, saints, learned and great witnesses, martyrs, established kings like David, and Isaiah, a prince of the blood, and so great in science, after having displayed all her miracles and all her wisdom, rejects all this, and declares that she has neither wisdom nor signs, but only the cross and foolishness.

For those, who, by these signs and that wisdom, have deserved your belief, and who have proved to you their character, declare to you that nothing of all this can change you, and render you capable of knowing and loving God, but the power of the foolishness of the cross without wisdom and signs, and not the signs without this power. Thus our religion is foolish in respect to the effective cause, and wise in respect to the wisdom which prepares it.

Our religion is wise and foolish. Wise, because it is the most learned, and the most founded on miracles, prophecies, &c. Foolish, because it is not all this which makes us belong to it. This makes us indeed condemn those who do not belong to it; but it does not cause belief in those who do belong to it. It is the cross that makes them believe. And so Saint Paul, who came with wisdom and signs, says that he has come neither with wisdom nor with signs; for he came to convert. But those who come only to convince, can say that they come with wisdom and with signs.

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Do You See Correctly?

by leekierdorf

I am a fan of the Beatles. They came to America when I was 13. One thing the fans would talk about is a true history of the Beatles. They wanted to know it.

But when it finally came down to it, it could not be written. Each of the guys had different memories of the same event. Maybe two would agree but another would say it didn’t happen like that.

Let us consider a story. A man is walking down the street one night when it begins to rain. It is really windy with lightning flashing along with buckets of water coming down. He looks for shelter and finds an unlocked door. He enters the darkened place and shuts the door. He is happy to have found a refuge. He does not mind the dark and waits for the storm to stop. Finally, it does. He leaves and goes home.

The next day, he wonders where he was during the storm. He retraces his steps and finds it was an art gallery, full of beautiful paintings.

The man was surprised to find he was surrounded by wonderful art and was unaware of it. Because of his situation and the darkness, he perceived none of it.

Consider this: you and I perceive the world and people around us. But are we correct in our perception? I don’t mean physically. Our eyes see what is there. But do we understand what it means?

What I am saying is that our perception of life may be in error. How did it begin? How will it end? Is it true God began the world and humankind? If it is, that changes everything.

I once rode in an elevator up to the top of the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. What I saw was a few of us in a tiny room. There was no sound or feeling of movement. The doors closed, one minute later they opened again and we went out into a place very high in the air. My mind could not believe it. It was like some sort of magic. I even walked out onto a glass floor and looked down without fear. I could not believe it was a real experience.

We know there are things beyond our perception. Marie Currie worked with radioactive material. She felt no harm, yet she died rather young from the exposure to the radium.

Jacob fell asleep in the desert. He had a vision. He woke up and said, “The Lord is in this place and I didn’t know it.” God had been involved with Jacob all his life. Jacob just didn’t know it.

As an old man, Jacob was brought to Egypt by his son, Joseph. Jacob had thought Joseph was dead. Jacob even spoke with the pharoh of Egypt. The last we see of Jacob, he is leaning on his staff and worshipping the God who had cared for him all his life.

Do you and I see correctly? Are we like Jacob? Do we see that God is working in our life? He is calling you to see the truth.

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True Religion – Pascal

by leekierdorf

Men are born so averse to the love of God, and it is so necessary, that we must be born guilty, or God would be unjust.

The true religion must have as a characteristic the obligation to love God. This is very just, and yet no other religion has commanded this; ours has done so. It must also be aware of human lust and weakness; ours is so. It must have adduced remedies for this; one is prayer. No other religion has asked of God to love and follow Him.

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He who hates not in himself his self-love, and that instinct which leads him to make himself God, is indeed blinded. Who does not see that there is nothing so opposed to justice and truth? For it is false that we deserve this, and it is unfair and impossible to attain it, since all demand the same thing. It is, then, a manifest injustice which is innate in us, of which we cannot get rid, and of which we must get rid.

Yet no religion has indicated that this was a sin; or that we were born in it; or that we were obliged to resist it; or has thought of giving us remedies for it.

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The true religion teaches our duties; our weaknesses, pride, and lust; and the remedies, humility and mortification.

The true religion must teach greatness and misery; must lead to the esteem and contempt of self, to love and to hate.

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If it is an extraordinary blindness to live without investigating what we are, it is a terrible one to live an evil life, while believing in God.

Experience makes us see an enormous difference between piety and goodness.

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Against those who, trusting to the mercy of God, live heedlessly, without doing good works.—As the two sources of our sins are pride and sloth, God has revealed to us two of His attributes to cure them, mercy and justice. The property of justice is to humble pride, however holy may be our works, et non intres in judicium, and the property of mercy is to combat sloth by exhorting to good works, according to that passage: “The goodness of God leadeth to repentance,” and that other of the Ninevites: “Let us do penance to see if peradventure He will pity us.” And thus mercy is so far from authorising slackness, that it is on the contrary the quality which formally attacks it; so that instead of saying, “If there were no mercy in God we should have to make every kind of effort after virtue,” we must say, on the contrary, that it is because there is mercy in God, that we must make every kind of effort.

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It is true there is difficulty in entering into godliness. But this difficulty does not arise from the religion which begins in us, but from the irreligion which is still there. If our senses were not opposed to penitence, and if our corruption were not opposed to the purity of God, there would be nothing in this painful to us. We suffer only in proportion as the vice which is natural to us resists supernatural grace. Our heart feels torn asunder between these opposed efforts. But it would be very unfair to impute this violence to God, who is drawing us on, instead of to the world, which is holding us back. It is as a child, which a mother tears from the arms of robbers, in the pain it suffers, should love the loving and legitimate violence of her who procures its liberty, and detest only the impetuous and tyrannical violence of those who detain it unjustly. The most cruel war which God can make with men in this life is to leave them without that war which He came to bring. “I came to send war,” He says, “and to teach them of this war. I came to bring fire and the sword.” Before Him the world lived in this false peace.

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The Body – Pascal

by leekierdorf

God having made the heavens and the earth, which do not feel the happiness of their being, He has willed to make beings who should know it, and who should compose a body of thinking members. For our members do not feel the happiness of their union. How happy they would be if they saw and felt it! But for this they would need to have intelligence to know it, and good-will to consent to that of the universal soul. But if, having received intelligence, they employed it to retain nourishment for themselves without allowing it to pass to the other members, they would hate rather than love themselves; their blessedness, as well as their duty, consisting in their consent to the guidance of the whole soul to which they belong, which loves them better than they love themselves.

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To be a member is to have neither life, being, nor movement, except through the spirit of the body, and for the body.

The separate member, seeing no longer the body to which it belongs, has only a perishing and dying existence. Yet it believes it is a whole, and seeing not the body on which it depends, it believes it depends only on self, and desires to make itself both center and body. But not having in itself a principle of life, it only goes astray, and is astonished in the uncertainty of its being; perceiving in fact that it is not a body, and still not seeing that it is a member of a body. In short, when it comes to know itself, it has returned as it were to its own home, and loves itself only for the body. It deplores its past wanderings.

It cannot by its nature love any other thing, except for itself and to subject it to self, because each thing loves itself more than all. But in loving the body, it loves itself, because it only exists in it, by it, and for it. Qui adhæret Deo unus spiritus est.
(“He who clings to God is one spirit [with Him]”)

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The body loves the hand; and the hand, if it had a will, should love itself in the same way as it is loved by the soul. All love which goes beyond this is unfair.

Adhærens Deo unus spiritus est. (“He who clings to God is one spirit [with Him]”) We love ourselves, because we are members of Jesus Christ. We love Jesus Christ, because He is the body of which we are members. All is one, one is in the other, like the Three Persons.

The true and only virtue, then, is to hate self (for we are hateful on account of lust), and to seek a truly lovable being to love. But as we cannot love what is outside ourselves, we must love a being who is in us, and is not ourselves; and that is true of each and all men. Now, only the Universal Being is such. The kingdom of God is within us; the universal good is within us, is ourselves—and not ourselves.

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The dignity of man in his innocence consisted in using and having dominion over the creatures, but now in separating himself from them, and subjecting himself to them.

Every religion is false, which as to its faith does not worship one God as the origin of everything, and which as to its morality does not love one only God as the object of everything.

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…But it is impossible that God should ever be the end, if He is not the beginning. We lift our eyes on high, but lean upon the sand; and the earth will dissolve, and we shall fall whilst looking at the heavens.

If there is one sole source of everything, there is one sole end of everything; everything through Him, everything for Him. The true religion, then, must teach us to worship Him only, and to love Him only. But as we find ourselves unable to worship what we know not, and to love any other object but ourselves, the religion which instructs us in these duties must instruct us also of this inability, and teach us also the remedies for it. It teaches us that by one man all was lost, and the bond broken between God and us, and that by one man the bond is renewed.

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How to Know the Will of God

by leekierdorf

Do the will of God, and you will know God, and he will open your eyes to look into the very heart of knowledge. But if you go your own way, you may gain knowledge, but miss the truth.

How kind God is to offer healing to men who are sick. The disease is called sin. This is not a metaphor but a very real condition.

It is like you go to the doctor for a routine physical and hear him say, “There is a problem.”

“But doctor, I have no symptoms.

“It may seem so, but have you experienced this or that?”

“Yes, but I was told everybody has experiences like that. It means nothing.”

“Not so,” he says, “It means this. We must address it and make you healthy or it will hurt you as time goes on.”

Yes, there are symptoms. They are all around us. We can call it normal life, but God says it is not what he intended for people. What we think is normal human experience is far from the possibilities God has for us.

He offers us the cure. But we must do two things. Acknowledge the condition and accept his cure.

That cure is simply this: do the will of God. Do what God says. This is how we humans went wrong a long time ago. We said to God, “Thanks for creating us but we can take it from here.”

We thought we would be fine but trouble soon came causing pain and suffering. Not just physical but deep emotional pain caused by loss and futility. Futility, in that we had no answer to the problems. Finally, we reach despair because we have no answers in ourselves.

This is the condition of people: there is something wrong with us and we don’t know what it is. And we have no way to fix it. Not in society and not in ourselves.

Try and be good. I am serious. See if you can become really good. Don’t accept any compromise with evil. Become that best person.

Don’t accept anything but real goodness in you that flows out naturally. Don’t seem to be good. Become that good person in reality.

If you can do it, you will become the answer for everyone else. You will become the first person in the world to have become good on your own with no help from God whatsoever.

Of course, you must maintain your goodness in all situations. Like when people don’t understand you or even resist your efforts. That’s the real test. You are good and they are ungrateful as you are doing good towards them. Patiently continue no matter what.

Or you can turn to God for his help. It is up to you. Yes, use your own wisdom and power or find the cure offered by the one who made humans. He has revealed it through Jesus.

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What About Sin?

by leekierdorf

No one wants to talk about sin these days. I don’t want talk about sin, either. Okay, what is sin? Not sins, but sin. Sin is a state of wrongness. It is the opposite of rightness. There is a strange line in the ancient book of Daniel. It says that the coming one, the Messiah, will deal with sin in a final way. Daniel also prophesied when this Messiah would come. And it was about the time Jesus showed up. So according to Daniel’s prophesy, Jesus would deal with sin in a dramatic and final way, he would atone for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness. It also says he will be cut off and have nothing. That means die.

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We know what happened. Jesus told his disciples that sinful men would take him and kill him. He also gave other predictions of what this would mean. We grab on to the part about forgiveness. But there is more. More? God can forgive sins. But look at what happened. Jesus, who no one could say was bad. Not Pilate, nor any fair-minded people in Israel. Who could say that he did anything bad? The final accusation was that he claimed to be the Messiah.

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Jesus, the Messiah, did not resist them. He let them do their worst to him. Crucifixion was a dreadful punishment and it was only for the enemies of the Roman Empire. It had been designed to bring fear into any heart. If someone had gone against Rome, they could be executed in this terrible way. But Pilate said Jesus was not an enemy of Rome. He asked Jesus what they had against him. They wanted him crucified. And Pilate agreed to allow it. They threated a riot if he didn’t. He had several recent uprisings in Israel and he didn’t need another one.

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They leaders hated Jesus so bad that when Pilate asked them to say that Caesar was their one and only leader, they did. Well, Pilate says, I don’t condemn this man but you can have him killed in this way. They agreed it was their responsibility.

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Once a man was given to the Romans in charge of this gruesome punishment, it was all over. He was on his way to a slow and humiliating death.

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The men who did this were heartless. They did their job without mercy. They took a man and destroyed his body in the most horrible way.

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But let us step back and think about it in a different way. How could men do this? They had to get rid of all kindness and goodness from their hearts. They had to regard another human as completely worthless. They behaved like fiends in hell as the went about their work. Not only was this man being removed from human society but he was made an example that made ordinary people shudder as they went past.

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How can a person do this? Again, they had to regard a fellow human as completely worthless. They have to become evil and then more evil. And they got paid to do it. And the men who got Pilate to do this came to taunt him. Now that he was powerless, as they thought, they could heap scorn on him. They came to mock him. The scene is too gross to imagine. An innocent man being treated this way. This was what sin had done to these men. It had made them without human feeling. It had brought Jew and Roman together to do a terrible thing: to give a man the worst punishment they could conceive of and watch him die slowly as a spectacle. The man suffered as you watched. Who would deserve such treatment? Who could be any part of this?

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But this is sin in action. Sin can bring a person to a point where they don’t care about a fellow human being. This was not done in rage but was calculated. We can go back to Cain and what he had to become to kill his brother. He stopped caring about his brother. He didn’t care what it would do to their parents. And the men who got Jesus killed and actually killed him were in the same state. This was humans acting worse than devils.

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Now, do you want to come to this state? Do you want to become without human feeling? This is what sin does to a person. They become capable of the most horrifying acts against a helpless human being. This is what Jesus showed us by giving himself over to sinful men. He showed us what sin was really like in action. This was a terrible punishment to a evil man but to this good man? It is almost too much to take in.

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What can we do? We can move to other side. We can join God and want to be those people who are kind and good. And we need God to change us for this. We can’t become these truly good people by ourselves. Jesus said that no one was good but God. He said, “I always do the will of the Father.” God is the only truly good being. We can be changed into good people by him. But we must then love what he loves. And want what he wants. We must become like him.

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Impossible, huh? Can’t be done, you say. I would agree except for one thing. This is the very plan of God: to bring people to his side, to bring them into his family, to impress upon us the family likeness of goodness. Yes, to make us good people. This was his idea from the start: to make human beings that are truly good from the inside out. We got off to a bad start a long time ago. But we can return to God, one at a time. Each one of us can be transformed into a good person.

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How can it be done? The method is love. God is moved by love toward us to rescue us from the damage sin causes in us. We don’t even know how bad it is. It’s like you go to a doctor for a check up and they run some tests and tell you that you are going to die from a disease. It doesn’t seem possible.

Really, Doc? Is there a cure?”

“Yes,” he says, “but you have to go to this specialist and do exactly as he says.”

Who is it? God. Only God can change us inside.

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And the way we begin to be cured of sin is by loving God. He doesn’t charge us for this treatment. Jesus says, I am the cure. Be like me. Love God and do his will all the time.

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How can I? Well, you ask God for his help. He will give you his cure for sin. It is an inward change that is energized by his Spirit. You become different. You can’t do it by yourself and need God’s help for all of it except one part. You have to ask. He will not force anything on you. You are free. You can choose him or not.

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And he does not take over. No, not a bit. You must keep choosing him every day. Your will must choose his will.

“How do I know what that is?”

You know some of it. Be kind to people. Show mercy. Forgive them. Don’t judge others.

But, hey, anyone can give you good advice. God is the only one that can empower you to do good.

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Ask him for his help. He will treat you like his own child that he loves. He will do all he can to enable you to become a wonderful person. Anything you feel you don’t have, he will give it to you.

The attributes of God are summed up as love. God is Love. Jesus was full of the Spirit of Love. We can be too. This is the great gift of God. The power to be like him in character. To become good people who never take credit for their goodness because they know all goodness is a gift from God.

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From the Beginning

by leekierdorf

When Jesus was speaking once, someone pointed out that Moses had given them some rules about divorce. They implied that divorce was approved by God since Moses talked about it. Jesus said that it was not that way from the beginning.

How was it in the beginning? In the beginning there was a man. There were animals. There was not a woman. The man was all of humanity. One guy. There was God and the one man. God wanted the man to have a relationship with him. But God said, “It is not good that man should be alone. I will make one along side to help, one comparable to him.”

Why does God do this? If he wants the man to be his friend, why add another person? God gives him a choice. Does he do his best work when forming the woman? I think he did.

God is a completely unselfish being. That’s hard to believe, isn’t it? We have never met someone like that. He insists that each person be free to choose. If you don’t choose him, that is your choice. But he does want you to change your mind about him. He knows you have him all wrong.

That’s why he sent Jesus. Jesus is God but in our context. Some people thought he was doing bad. How could they see this good person as bad? It tells us two things about him: He could be mistaken for an ordinary guy. And that they saw him as someone who wanted to take their job. They liked being in charge of telling people how to behave. They even thought God would back them up. But Jesus came as one here to show how God really was.

Near the end of his life, someone close to Jesus asked him to show them God. Jesus talked about hima as The Father. This guy, Thomas, said to Jesus, “Show us the Father.” You might think Jesus would say, “You ask too much, Thomas.” Or, “He is invisible, I can’t.” But he looks at Thomas and says, “That is exactly what I have been doing. I have been showing you what the Father is like in reality. I have been behaving in just the way he wanted me to as a human like yourself.

Later, Thomas and others who had been close to Jesus for maybe three years or so, went around talking about Jesus to people. They became examples of guys who were with Jesus and knew what God was really like.

Back to Jesus saying, “It was not like this at the beginning.” He knew how things were supposed to be. He knew the intentions of God for human life on earth. He also knew that our reality was nothing like the original plan. But he went about explaining how it was supposed to be. Not only that, he offered a way to reconnect with God in a real way. He said, “I’m leaving. You won’t see me anymore. But there is even more to God than you realize. There is another who will help you. He will be with you at all times. It will be as though I am with each of you wherever you are.”

That someone is the Holy Spirit. He is with those who choose God to be in their lives. He helps people be like God in their character. Because they know how God really is (although they are continually learning more about him), they want to co-operate with him. And he helps them in a very real way.

God wants each of us to change our opinion of him. He wants us to believe what is true. He wants to make each of us into the best person we can be. The part that is ours is this: change your mind about God because he is not like you and I thought. And we are not what we should be. Something is wrong. And we can’t fix it. Even if we knew exactly what we want to be and tried our hardest to be that good person, we would fail. But with God’s help, we can begin to change into a better person. That new person is the real you. Hard to believe?

But it is up to you. God will not force you to do anything. You can ignore him. He can say he doesn’t exist.

But he has a door that is open to you. I would advise you to be good. Try and be a really good person. Don’t be satisfied with anything less than you being a wonderful, loving person. If you can do it without God’s help, then great. You don’t need him.

I mean, love others. Don’t be selfish. Don’t judge people. Treat them with respect. Don’t do things that are good for you but bad for them like steal their spouse. Or steal their stuff. Or lie about them and misrepresent yourself as better than you act.

You can check yourself from time to time and see if you live up to your own standards.

Unfortunately, if you do anything wrong, you will just have to forgive yourself since we are leaving God out of it. And if you are misunderstood or rejected, you will have to take a deep breath and go on being good.

Basically, you will become a great example to others. If they ask you how you do it, you can say, “Just try your best. Don’t give up. Find your strength within yourself.” Or something like that.

See how it goes. Don’t get discouraged. Believe in yourself. You are your own god.

Don’t cheat and ask God for help. The fact that he made you should not influence you. You know you are just an accident of nature. Don’t even ask yourself how you know good from bad. Also, do not spend time thinking about how complicated your body is. It just is. Don’t think about it.

Another thing, if you see something beautiful, don’t ask why it is beautiful or why you enjoy it. It just happened, okay. And you just happen to like beautiful things.

One last thing, do not think about how you can evaluate your own behavior. I mean, if you think, I could have done better in that situation, do not even consider how you would know that.

So, forget about the fact that you are conscious of being yourself. Forget that you somehow know right and wrong. Forget than you have this idea of a perfect person somewhere in you. And disregard your sense of beauty. Some things look good. You like the way they look. So, what? Doesn’t mean a thing. All accidental. Now go be that good person.

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Just Ask

by leekierdorf

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”   Matthew 7:7‭-‬8 NIV

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Who said this?  Jesus Christ. The person God sent to give us the best way of knowing God. And the simplicity of these statements and their balance tell us something about him. There is nothing hidden here. There is no need to look beneath the surface. There is no reason to misunderstand. The speech is straightforward and clear.

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And the words are repeated in a different way to assure us that we heard it right. So, we can accept them without any doubt.

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Ask and it will be given to you. There is only to admit need. He says ‘ask’, not beg, not petition, nothing but a simple request is required. 

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What else is required? Only what is always required, believe in the power and goodness of God. Believe that God can and will give the good that you ask for. Jesus wants to fill us with confidence when we ask. He does not say “may be given” or “might be given”  but says, “will be given”.

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And the words “to you” have intimacy in them. You ask God and he gives to you. It is between you and God. Your asking is heard by him and he responds to you directly. No one stands between you. There is no go-between in this relation of you and God. No one carries your message to God. He hears you.

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Now what you ask for is not qualified. But we ask God. Let our asking be worthy of him. Let us not ask small. And let our asking be worthy of us as well. Let us ask our benefactor who has given us so much already, for something that is good, not something that will diminish us.

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God can only give good and perfect gifts that are without repentance. Consider who we ask. Is it something another could give you? Is it a test request? If he gives me this, then I will ask my real request. No, ask with abandon. Ask with confidence. Did we not hear him? Ask wholeheartedly. Ask from your heart to God’s heart.

Listen to him repeat: Everyone who asks, receives. Do not doubt his goodness. To doubt his goodness is to doubt his Godness. And don’t qualify your request. Don’t include how or where or under what circumstances. Ask freely and trust him to answer you as he will.

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But what if you want something that is not so easy to simply request? What if it is deeper? What if it will take something more from you? Seek. Yes, seek. Take on your quest. Begin with confidence. Seek and you will find. Be patient and don’t give up. Be cheerful and confident as you seek.

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But what if there is an obstacle? What if the way is blocked? What if the door is closed? Don’t walk away. Knock. Is the door heavy? Does it seem very solid? Does it seem impossible to open? Knock and it will be opened. Be patient and expectant like God was while waiting for you to open your heart to him.

A closed door is forbidding. It may look like it will never open. But is there something good beyond this door? Then it will be opened. He did not say open the door yourself.  He said the door will be opened. The opening will be done by one able to open it. It will not be broken down but opened.

Every good gift comes from God. Your answer will be good. Your seeking will result in finding good. And when the door opens, you will not be disappointed. God cannot give bad gifts.

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Look at what he has given. After thousands of years, his gifts continue to do good. An apple tree gives apples. Water quenches thirst.  He is thoughtful and wise. He wants to be asked by you. He wants you to have good. He wants to give you all good things.

Why don’t some have? Because they ask not. Or they ask small. They ask for so little from God. They don’t see his great heart. They ask like the prodigal. What the prodigal asked from his father was unworthy of him and his father. He asked too little. He asked too small. Let us ask large of our Father. Let us ask him for something great that continues, and not like the prodigal for something limited as if we wrested it from a reluctant giver. 

Ask like a son from a great Father. You will receive good from him.

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Two Things That Don't Exist

by leekierdorf

Did you know that ‘The Media’ does not exist. It’s just what we call a bunch of voices saying different things with various megaphones about various topics. The Media speaks to The People, which also does not exist. The People, is really a method for leveling people. The individual is supposed to see themselves as part of The People. This is to set aside your individuality and become part the nameless mass, The People.

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Now The Media stands up for The People. If there is someone better than or worse than The People, The Media attacks them like a dog that tears his clothes, and bites his leg. This is amusing to watch but becomes boring if done too long. Yes, this is the method of leveling individuals. It condemns the individuality they show by distinguishing themselves from that indistinguishable mass, The People. Now, they can be doing something bad or good. As one of The People, you don’t want to be put in the spotlight like them. If they are doing good, they will at some point do something bad and then that can be shown by The Media. Really, their crime is doing something that distinguished them from The People and so they must be punished by The Media.

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That The Media does not exist can be shown as any individual in it does not want to be spotlighted. “I don’t want to be part of the story!” they plead. When questioned, they say, “These are merely facts I am giving out.” They are selflessly serving The People and do not want to be questioned by anyone. By just questioning, the individual has stepped out of The People, which he has no right to do. And by questioning an individual as part of The Media, he has ruined the game. He is revealing the trick of the magician. He has identified an individual of The Media, who wants to slip back into the place where there is no individual responsibility for their words. We talk to you, The People, and you listen to us, The Media.

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So The Media speaks to The People, filled with unreal individuals. It’s like another ghost called The State. Another group without names. Neither can ever be shown because they are not real. But you are to see yourself as part of The People or The State depending on your country.

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The People is not a generation, it is not a community, it is not a society, it is not those particular people over there, because all these actually exist since they are real; however, no single individual who belongs to The People has any real existence; sometimes during the day he belongs to The People, namely, in those times in which he is listening to The Media.

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In those times when he is a particular person, doing a particular thing, he does not belong to The People nor The State because he cannot. The People consists of such people, who as individuals are not important. And you, you are supposed to be a part of this imaginary thing. Why? So people at the top can do something for the good of The People. It may not be good for you but what does that matter? It’s for the general good and you must believe it is somehow for your general good. The Media will let you know what to think so just don’t worry about it.

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Now, here is the worst part. You as an individual can be sacrificed for the good of The People. In fact, any individual can be eliminated or at least sidelined for the good of The People. But, of course, the ones who will benefit are the people in power. If you, an individual, are removed from The People, well, The People will go on fine without you. Now individuals who know you may be sad, but The People? The loss of one does not change anything. No individual is important. Only The People is important.

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One final note. This is because people are so limited in their thinking. They cannot deal with very many individuals as such. They must group them in some way. But as soon as a group is named, anyone within that group become nobody. There are no real individuals, so to speak. But there is someone who is able to regard each individual as a particular person. This person is God. He is not limited as we are. He can consider you as an individual. He does consider you in this way. His attitude towards you is love. He wants your best. That means two things: he wants you to be the best person you can possibly be and he wants to do the best he can to help you become that best you. He does not see groups. He regards you as one of a kind. That kind is humankind which he modeled after himself. This means you and he can become related.

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