What is the Living Word of God?

What is the Living Word of God? Life implies growth and at least change, if not evolution. However, we know that God's word doesn't change, least of all to fit it's new environment as a living thing would.

Are good things for bad reasons good?

Philippians 1:17-18 ESV

The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice,

Prophecy has not changed much in the last million years

In the old testament, God spoke directly to a prophet, the prophet then spoke that message to the people.

Now-a-days we still have God's word, and we're still called to tell the people. The only difference is the medium (which is almost irrelevant) and that we're no longer individually told and instead the same message has been given to everyone.

Does God give peace to those who love Him?

Ephesians 6:23-24 ESV

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

I would assume that any feeling of peace and love that comes from God as a result of our love and faith would be a result of our brain chemicals generating the feeling of peace once we spend time with God and realize that the battle has already been won, and that our life here on earth is a fleeting moment meant to be used to prepare for the real life that comes next.

However, this takes some of God out of the equation. It's true that He set up the universe with its physics and humans with their brains wired such that knowledge of God brings peace. This, I think, sets God as the watchmaker, building us and winding us and letting us live alone with what he's given us.

I find my conclusion disturbing in that I don't think it's accurate. I'll have to look more into God's direct and present involvement in our life.

Maybe the problem is with the idea of "present" involvement. To one who exists outside of time, when is the present? I have nearly infinite presents, each taking a moment and literally moving on before I can know it's even happened.

God exists outside of time

And probably at all times simultaneously, just as we presently occupy several sections of the X, y, Z, and maybe also T axis.

Where we occupy only a part of each, God occupies every part of His T axis, wherever in x, y, and Z that may be. Therefore, He is the same now as He was years ago.

It's probably a good idea to thank God now for all of the things we've cursed Him for in the past. As stupid children, we've railed against the barriers put up in our life, even those put up for our good. As stupid adults, we at least have some of the benefit of hindsight, and can see where God's working in our life has been beneficial.

It seems like a silly idea now that I'm writing it down, but I thought I'd be a good idea to thank God to offset all of the ungratefulnes of the past, since He's probably hearing them at the same time?

Content and containment

Looking to a church for salvation is like eating tupperware: you're confusing the container for the content.

I ought not control what I have

I am stupid, small, weak, have a history of poor choices, and will probably die soon.

I know all of this, it's not like some well kept secret; so why do I still hesitate to give God what I have? I'm not going to build a maxed out FreeNAS box for the exclusive use of my cat. The cat doesn't care that it has 16GB of RAM or 10TB of stripped and redundant storage. It might sleep on the case in the winter, but otherwise won't care. Less than being grateful for it, its hair will clog up the fans and overhead the processors.

When then do I think I can use my body and brain better than God can? I have probably spent more time thinking up fast jokes than I have serving God. What has that gotten me? What do I have to show for all of the times I've REPLAYED Neverwinter Nights? If my assets were my children, CPA would have taken them away years ago.

Why don't I trust God with all that I have? Because I'm afraid of leaping into what I don't understand? I don't understand ANYTHING! I don't know how gravity works, which I've been surrounded by since before I was born. I've been using Linux on and off for almost half of my life now, but I still can't compile software without occasionally ending up in dependency heck. I don't understand what I'M doing with my life, how is that any different than not knowing what God wants to do? Am I afraid of leaping into God's will, but perfectly comfortable falling blindly into mine?

Further proving how dumb I am and therefore how woefully inadequate I am to manage my own resources, I still don't want to give God me.

And that's it. I don't have anything else. Hopefully the lack of a happy ending means that this story isn't over yet. Hopefully the God of second chances will give me my next mole of mulligans. I am left praying for forgiveness for a crime I'm already planning again. I don't deserve to speak to God, let alone request of Him. I'd like to end this entry with resolve to fix me, but I'm still too weak and stupid to do it. I still contend that more information would force everyone to love and serve God. It's a shame that my tiny, mishandled brain is probably incapable of knowing that much of anything. I can only pray for faith, and hope that God doesn't give up as easily as I do.

What's in your RAM

RAM is useful because it's a quick way to access frequently used data. Sure, you could stream all data live from your hard drive and keep all temporary data in your swap partition, but that's so slow, even at 7200rpm.

The human brain is similar, though obviously much more complex. Eisenstein once said that there's no need to memorize anything that you could look up in a book. Now with the wide proliferation and ubiquity of the Internet, there really no reason to know anything, right?

Well, what is the brain, and a bigger question, who are we? The person is not flesh and blood, or we would all be nearly identical, and a paraplegic would be less a person. If you pile a bunch of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen in a corner, it isn't human, just a bunch of dirty air.
So isn't the person in the brain? Lose a limb and you're shocked, but otherwise unchanged. Get a lobotomy and you're similar to who you were, but for all intents and purposes, you're a different person. So what in the brain is us? Are we a collection of memories? Are we nothing more than an artifical structure, conjured into being by the calcium ion exchange of a million synaptic firings? As scary as that may sound, I believe that we are. So if we are what's in our brain, then what's in yours?

Yes, we could always look up God's word online or in a book, but that's still keeping it apart from us. I think we should all memorize the Bible, not necessarily to keep it accessible, but to make it a part of us. We are told to keep the word of God in our heart, and we all know that most instances of the word "heart" in all of written history actually means "the brain".

Isn't it amazing how the Bible, written millions of years ago (or something, I really have no idea) speaks truths that we and our science are still finding out for ourselves.
Noah was told to build an ark of exactly the perfect dimensions for maximum seaworthyness, the same dimensions we use today. I think it was Moses who was told by God to circumcise babies exactly when their bodies would produce enough blood and clotting agents to heal up from that? (remember leaches being used in the 1800AD era to remove "evil blood" from a person's body to cure them? Moses' days were many thousands of years before then). David was given a vision, of which he described the earth floating in space. Some people (though few) still believe that the earth is sitting on the back of an elephant, which is standing on the back of a turtle, which itself is floating in a bowl of milk--or instead is just "turtles all the way down".

There is no doubt in my mind that the Bible is Truth incarnat, and the more we learn of our universe, the more my belief is strengthened.

If it was, will it continue to be?

With the probable exception of John 3, it seems to me that most of the Bible is written to a specific audience.

So often we assume that every word written is applicable forever in all situations. This, I think, is where the idea of contradiction comes from. A police officer swears to serve and protect, but then shoots some guy between the eyes. Is this a contradiction? If the shot guy was a wild gunman, then no, he was serving by protecting everyone in the gunman's scope. If the guy was a college kid in Ohio, then probably yes, a contradiction.

[editor's note: I have no idea how the police reference is relevant. It doesn't seem to be an accurate metaphore]

God tells us not to get drunk, and then Paul tells Timothy that he should drink more alcohol. Is this a contradiction? Or should Timothy drink alcohol because the dirty water is giving him dysentery and alcohol kills bacteria?

In the same vein, does all of the Bible still apply? Maybe we should still "not murder" but what about "thou shall not suffer a witch to live"?

Is the spread of the Word of God hindered by world peace?

If everything is great and cancer has been cured and hunger eradicated, are we all the rich man squeezing through the eye of a needle? Riches are as much health as wealth, if not more. 

If we have everything we could want, why would we want God?
Isn't peace all we want? 

All this "chasing the almighty dollar" and "worshiping mammon" is ultimately for the feeling of security and happiness--in other words: peace. I don't think most people actually want more money, they want what money brings. Having enough money (but not too much) actually does bring security and happiness because it can be traded for food and shelter. Once we have enough food and shelter, we can concern ourselves with creating art and medicine, which makes us happier and healthier when we share it around or trade it for money. 

Money also brings power, but only when traded for guns or the time and efforts of other people to do things for you. Going even further, a gun doesn't inherently have power itself, only the power that's given to it by people who recognize that a gun can quickly and irrecoverably make our life worse. We don't give that same power to the money used to buy the gun, and only tangentially to the person holding the gun. If a child is holding a gun, you worry more for the child's safety than your own. If a monkey is holding a gun, you might even laugh at it unless it hits the safety button with a rock or something like that. 

When we think of "riches" we often think of money, but really, money is worthless on its own. Only Scrooge McDuck would use money for anything other than trading for goods or services. Therefore, I submit that "riches", despite what the name may conjure, is actually just health, safety, and happiness. 
If this health, safety, and happiness is what makes it difficult for someone to get to Heaven, what does that mean for our affluent world where Polio is all but extinct, and we can send cat pictures to anyone around the world instantly?

If this health, safety, and happiness is what we tell others that God can offer, why would anyone choose God? They already have most of those things, and they don't have to wake up early on Sunday or stay sober or celibate to get it. The only thing that I can see God offering that the world can't is a purpose in life. 
Purpose is big and important to us humans, so it shouldn't be discounted. The closest thing to purpose 'the world' can offer is making life easier for yourself and others. This sounds good, but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Life can't exist exclusively to make life better, that's tautological (my favorite word). If anything bad were to happen ever at any time in human history, then the purpose of 'making life better' will have--at least partially--failed. Wouldn't it then be better for all of life to have not existed in the first place? 

It seems to me that every step we keep taking towards world peace is another step away from thinking we need God. The purpose of existing to worship God isn't detracted from, but its appeal is when that's all He seems to offer, right? Well, that and salvation of course. 

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Reading over this, I think it's true, but I don't think it's a problem. Our primary goal in evangelism is not to make God more appealing, that's just a common means to the end of spreading salvation.

How many souls were saved during the fire-and-brimstone days? Surely someone was saved during the popular "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God" sermon, right? God was not gussied up and made appealing with His love and mercy, He was gussied up and made frightening with His wrath and riotous fury.

The spread of the word of God may be hindered by peace, but that doesn't change the Message or the goal, only the approach. If our carrot isn't as tasty, we can go back to the stick.

Personally, I think all of this world peace business is great. As a self-described "professional problem solver", all of this perpetual and drastic improvement to life and our world is bad for business, but I'd rather be a blissfully unemployed policeman than live in a crime-ridden world with a steady paycheck.

"I Am" is self-establishment

The best we can do is prove that we exist to some extent, because we think, therefore we are. We can establish our existence by referencing the proof of our thoughts existing in some capacity, therefore we must exist to some capacity to think them.
We require God to have created us to think thoughts, and it is God's actions that have wrought us into existence.

God actualizes Himself. We are because God made us. God is. He always was, and always will be. Not because something greater made Him, but because He is the greatest.

To follow that logic thread any further would be to make presumptions about the beginning of God, which I will never be qualified to make. Not only as a subject of God, but also as a finite being, only ever seeing and touching finite things, I have no concept of infinite, and as such can't conceptualize an infinite God.