Love in a Bucket

  LOVE. I know we all know what that word is supposed to mean. The dictionary defines it as an intense feeling of deep affection. I have to admit I’ve wished, sometimes, that we never heard of it. But we all crave it, don’t we? We seem to wither as viable human beings without it. And if all that’s true, the whole world should be full of love. All we need is love, right? Then why is the world so not full of this fickle affection? If you could sit on the moon and look down on us with a telescope, what you would mostly notice right away is war and strife and misery and death. From afar, no signs of love would be visible at all. Now let’s jump from the moon to the ISS (International Space Station). From there it would be a little easier to focus in on individual nations. But looking down on your own country, could you see any evidence that love existed anywhere in the world? Probably not.

  It’s only when you plant your feet on the ground that you can point to things and say, “There is love.” Things like people walking together holding hands. People hugging. A grandparent shedding a tear over the sheer beauty that is their grandchild. Or a guy out in a park playing fetch with his dog. There may be several things in any one area that you could point to and say that is there because of love. Or that looks like love. But the problem is, you could point to just as many, or maybe even more instances where you would have to admit there is no love there. Even inside our families. Yes, there is love in families, some of it is even unconditional love. But all too often, there is just the opposite. So the question is, why? Why is it so hard for us to be in love or show our love all the time 24/7 as they say? Where does all the negative “not love” come from? Hey, why you looking at me? It’s a mystery to me as well.

  But looking back on my own life, it was kinda like a children’s game. In the game, we each had a bucket for a heart. And with most of us, the bucket could only get so full and then it starts to overflow. When your bucket is full, you have a lot of love to give. So, then you find someone with an empty bucket and pour the contents of your bucket into theirs. When our buckets were equally full, then we felt like we were in love and everything was right with the world. But I kept running into people whose buckets seemed to have a hole in the bottom of them. The more water I poured in the bucket the faster it came out the bottom through that hole. Their bucket never ended up full. In the end, even I would get drained and feel empty as a result of constantly trying to keep their bucket full. When that point was reached, the relationship was over. Some people had a bigger hole in their buckets than others. And after each failed attempt to maintain a mutual level in both buckets, it would take longer to refill my own bucket.

  Now bear in mind, I’m talking about relationships here. It’s different with your kids and grandkids. I love my kids and grandkids with a love that is always overflowing. It doesn’t matter how full their buckets are for me. Sometimes, my heart feels like it will burst every time I look at them. My daughter Is more precious to me than all the riches of the world. So is my son, and he hasn’t even spoken to me in years. I still love him and his family with all my heart. And I miss him terribly. And it pains me so much that I don’t seem to know a way to fix that problem. My granddaughters are my pride and joy just to look upon. To me, they are perfection walking. My great grandson makes me smile just thinking about him. So familial love is no mystery to me. It’s the one unconditional love I know well.

  Relationships are harder. And don’t get me wrong. I’ve been a very lucky man to have enjoyed the brilliant love of more than one woman…oh how I longed for that not to have been the case. Love of but one woman for all my life was the dream. But there it is. As long as I can remember as a child, all I ever wanted was to find a woman who would love me as much as I loved her. And in that childhood dream we would grow old together and go out at the end of a long and happy life together, also. So much for dreams. Life has its own ideas of how things are supposed to go, I guess. Either that or there really is such a thing as karma and my life had to make up for some very bad karma left over from the past. But again, don’t get me wrong. I’m not whining or crying over past or lost loves. Even though it didn’t turn out the way I wished. I have so many good and happy memories filled with much love. And even though some of the tragedy in my life may have put a hole in the bottom of my bucket, Jesus came along and started pouring his love into it. Now my bucket is always overflowing.

  But what does make me sad sometimes, is I look around and I see so many people walking around with empty buckets. The results of which seem to be responsible for all that other “not love” we see unfolding all around us more and more every day. It makes me want to run around and try to fill their buckets from my own. But the task has grown so fast and so big, I know I would soon find myself empty again. I alone can’t save the world. I know where the well is. I can point you to it, if you have an empty bucket or one with a hole in it. But, like that stubborn horse, I can’t make you drink of it and fill your bucket. Just know that it’s your own stubbornness that leaves you thirsty.

  Now for those fortunate enough to be in a relationship. For the new ones, if you want it to live and grow, it does take effort and a little bit of luck. If you really want to keep it growing, learn where the source of the living water is and draw deeply from it. You’re going to need it. And for you, oh so lucky few, who have been in the same relationship for a long time and it only seems to get stronger over the years…well I don’t have to tell you anything. You already know. May your bucket always be full and never spring a leak.

An Easter Message About The Glory of God

  When you hear someone talk about, “The Glory of God”, what do you understand that to mean? Sometimes, we say someone is basking in his own glory. When we say that, we’re usually talking about someone getting the big head over his own fame and fortune. In fact, here are the three common definitions of the word “glory” in the dictionary: 1) high renown or honor won by notable achievements. 2) magnificence or great beauty as in the train has been restored to all its former glory, and 3) take great pride or pleasure in, as in they were individuals who gloried in their independence.

  But this is not what the Bible means when it talks about the Glory of God. God’s Glory is not a prideful feeling of emotion. Nor is it a puffing up of His own ego. And even though God is a beautiful thing, He doesn’t glory in His appearance. His Glory is not His renown either. So what exactly is the Bible talking about when it talks about “God’s Glory”? Most of us can’t even imagine what God is. Most baby Christians imagine God to be an old man with white hair and a white beard sitting on a throne. I assure you, that is not what God looks like. Jesus/Yeshua/Immanuel, also known as the Son of God said that no one has ever looked on the face of God and lived except for him. So no one really knows what God looks like. But Jesus told the Pharisees that if they knew the Father, then they would know him. And if they had seen him, then they had seen the one who sent him. The way I see all this is as follows. God is not of this universe. God exists outside of time and space. Therefore, He most likely would be invisible to anything that does exist inside the universe.

  People talk of higher levels of beings. For instance, we exist in a three-dimensional world. We would perceive a two-dimensional being as a flat surface. A two-dimensional being would probably not be able to perceive us at all. A four-dimensional being would not be visible to us at all. Four, five, six, etc. level beings would exist on different levels of reality all of which would not register on our three-dimensional awareness at all. God, then, would be the ultimate level of existence and completely invisible to all levels of reality. I’m not saying this is the way it is. But scientists speculate about different levels of reality all the time.

  Now we come to Jesus. Jesus, in this case, would be the three-dimensional manifestation of God. God then had to manifest himself on our level of existence to bring his message and redemption to us. So does Jesus look like God? No. Jesus looks like a man. He often referred to himself as the Son of Man. Was Jesus this beautiful, perfect, Hollywood image of a man? No. He was just a man born of a woman. However, once Jesus resurrected and ascended into heaven, he received of the Father his “Glorified Body”. So in heaven, Jesus is much more than just a man. But he has taken on a manifestation that we are able to look upon and live to tell it.

  When the Bible says God says, “Let us create them in our image,” it doesn’t mean let’s cookie cut them so that they all look like me/us (God the Father and God the Son). Clearly, all men don’t even look alike. So what’s meant by this? Instead of an image, it’s better to think of likeness. He created us in his likeness. God reveals himself as one but consisting of three different manifestations. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit making him, on one level, a three-dimensional being. So too are we. At least originally. The first man was Soul, Flesh, and Spirit and also a three-dimensional being which would make us like God in that way and by the fact that we would live forever. However, when man fell/sinned he forfeited his spirit.

  Spirit is what gives us the possibility of everlasting life. Without it, we eventually die. When a man is “born again”, he receives the Holy Spirit. Then he is restored to his original form and is capable of everlasting life. Without that spirit, the body dies. It is debatable what happens to the soul then. Some say it returns to the Father who gave it. Others say it is condemned to hell and punished for eternity. I don’t know the answer to this one. I only know how I would want it to be. But I’m not God.

  Anyway, the soul is what makes you alive. It’s what makes you different from a rock or a table. The soul is the prime motivator and repository of all your actions, words, and memories. It is the “I am” that you call your “self” – that voice that’s speaking to you right now in your head. Your soul is not a part of your body. It is not your brain. Think of all the various parts of your body, with all its amazing systems functioning together as one, like a car. Your car, on its own, doesn’t do anything but just sit there in the driveway. You, the driver, have to get in the car and drive it before it will move or do anything. It is the same thing with your Soul. Without it, you do nothing and go nowhere. But you can die, and so can the car. I personally believe, that if you do not become indwelled by the Holy Spirit, your Soul does not return to God. And it does not go to a place where it is tortured forever and ever by demons and the Devil. The Soul without the Spirit can experience what the Bible calls “the second death”. The Bible in, The Revelation of John, states that Satan, all his fallen angels, the lost souls who followed him, and even death and hell will be cast into the lake of fire, after the Great White Throne Judgement, and will perish. This is the second death. The original Greek word for “perish” means to be blotted out or to cease to exist. It doesn’t mean torture for eternity. So that’s the way I see it. And to me, that sounds like righteous judgment. Eternal punishment is not. The second death is only eternal punishment in that it is finished forever. Those souls will never live again.

  Now back to God’s glory. What does the Bible mean when it talks about God’s glory? It’s the bright light that is difficult to even look upon. It’s the bright light that knocked Saul off his horse and blinded him on the way to Damascus. In heaven, there is no darkness, yet there is no sun or moon or stars. There is no day and night like on Earth - only eternal light which is the Glory of God shining forth from his presence. His Glory fills the whole of Heaven eliminating all cold and darkness. How wonderful it must be to bask in that Glory and know that it is a manifestation of God. Not apart from God but a part of God. And how sad would it be to miss out on experiencing God’s Glory?

  When God said, “Let there be light,” he created a kind of artificial Glory emanating from the stars for us to walk in. It is wonderful on a sunny day to bask in the sunlight. Just imagine basking in the real thing how much more wonderful it will be.

  Now let’s look at it this way. In quantum physics, all things, in reality, are energy. All energy differentiates into frequencies. So God’s Glory/Light is the ultimate and primal frequency. It is the frequency that generates all other frequencies. So, the Bible, in John Ch. 1:1, says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” A word is a spoken sound or frequency. In that light (God’s Light), that opening sentence of the Book of John makes a whole lot more sense. In the beginning was the perfect, eternal, frequency, and the frequency was with God, and the frequency was God. When God spoke upon the face of the universe, his perfect frequency created new frequencies. The harmony of all these new frequencies became what we experience as the universe. But what we call our physical selves are only vibrations spoken into existence by God. But God did something else with us. He breathed his spirit into us. Spirit being a different kind of vibration or frequency. It is one that cannot be destroyed. It can be removed from us if we do not obey God, as it was with Adam and Eve. But it can never die. Neither can the Holy Spirit. That’s why blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is such an unpardonable sin. It will cause the Holy Spirit to remove itself from you. And you will surely die.

  So, that is the Glory of God. It is a light so bright you can hardly look upon it. But God is not just that perfect frequency of light. He is also an emotional being as we are. And as we do, so too does he have feelings. Now scientists will tell you that feelings are a result of chemical and electrical responses in the body to outside stimuli. It’s all about the chemistry, they tell us. And they are partially correct. But even all that “chemistry” boils down to just an interplay of frequencies of energy. Everyone who has ever had a near death experience (NDE) or what’s usually referred to as a “Mystical Experience” talks about an overwhelming feeling of peace, joy, and love. These feelings (or vibrations) are an aspect of God’s Glory. You can think of those feelings as harmonic frequencies embedded in God’s Glory. To be in his Glory is to experience ultimate peace, joy, and love because your own frequencies will resonate with His.

  All this puts a different light (no pun intended), on the subject of why we are told so much in the Bible about the angels singing to praise God. And why singing has always been an important part of our worship of God. Our harmonious vibrations sent forth to heaven are echoes of perhaps our spiritual remembrances of these heavenly frequencies presented as true worship to the Glory of God.

  May all within you be harmonious giving you peace, joy, and love by the Grace and Glory of God.

P.S. And if you think all that came from this little pea brain of mine, think again. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will even send vibrations to stir a poor old soul like mine.       

World of Destiny: Living in a Terrorist State Most of the peop...

World of Destiny: Living in a Terrorist State  Most of the peop...: Living in a Terrorist State   Most of the people of the world just want to live in peace and be left alone to make theirs and...

Living in a Terrorist State

  Most of the people of the world just want to live in peace and be left alone to make theirs and their family’s lives as comfortable as possible. I talk to people from all over the world, and when I ask them, they pretty much say the same thing. I talk to people all over Europe and Canada here on my computer. And, on my job, I talk to sailors from all over the rest of the world. So far, all have agreed with me on this. So why is there so much turmoil in the world? “It’s our governments,” most of them assure me. They, and not the people of the country are the problem. How can this be? Aren’t our governments supposed to be representing the will of the people? And if they are not, shouldn’t we have already gotten rid of our unruly governments? At least that’s how it’s supposed to be in Democratic societies.

  Even in a totalitarian regime, if it’s doing completely opposite of the will of the people, why don’t they rise up and get rid of such an evil government? I mean, after all, the people far outnumber the rank and file of the government. So, why is this not happening? Why are we letting our governments terrorize countries to the point of them wanting to completely wipe us out? And who are the terrorists anyway? Is it the ones who drop the bombs indiscriminately killing men, women, and children? Or is it the victims of those bombings striking back any way they can at the bomb droppers? In a previous blog article, I asked the question – “Are we insane?” In that article, I concluded that we absolutely must be.

  Six months later, it’s getting worse. Many are starting to write about us being on the brink of another World War. This is unthinkable. Too many countries now have nuclear weapons. And none of them are liable to suffer defeat until that last arrow has been pulled from their quiver and let loose. Once one of them unleashes destruction of that magnitude, insanity will ensue. History will end – or reboot with cave dwellers starting from scratch.

  Now my next question is, who is responsible? Is it ISIS, North Korea, China, Russian? Right now, our propaganda is trying to place all the blame for everything bad that happens in the world on Russia. Russia is even being accused of somehow “hacking” our most recent election. Which is patently absurd, by the way. And you probably say, “Hey, we don’t use propaganda!” Wrong. We use it all the time and very effectively most of the time. When it fails, then we resort to what’s called “False Flag Operations”. 9/11 is one such operation. Prior to most major conflicts in history, false flag operations have been used to goad an unwilling population into support of conflicts they previously would have never supported.  I know we have suffered legitimate “terrorists” attacks. In most of them, only a relatively few people have been killed. We, on the other hand, have been dropping bombs, almost on a daily basis, on several other countries, whom we have not even declared war on, for many years now. You must ask yourself, what would you be willing to do in retaliation if someone dropped a bomb on your house while you were at work and killed your whole family?

  See that’s how propaganda works. In the west, we are so brainwashed into thinking that our actions are always on the side of righteousness. Our actions are always justified and are reactions to something evil done to us first. But is that true? Let’s take the most recent case. The president of Syria, allegedly, used poison gas on some of his own people. So the U.S. government sent in cruise missiles and took out one of Assad’s air bases. We have not declared war on Syria. Syria has never directly threatened the U.S. I know gassing your own people is a horrible thing. But what gives us the right to do such a thing in return? What makes our action “righteous” and Assad’s a criminal act? To me, both acts are criminal. Both are wrong. And like my Momma always used to say, “Two wrongs don’t make a right, any way you look at it.” Certainly, our government’s actions over the last several years have been anything but righteous. Our bombs, cruise missiles, and drones kill indiscriminately men, women, and children all over the middle eastern countries in undeclared wars. Isn’t that the total definition of terrorism? So, I ask you, who is the terrorist here? Are we living in a terrorist state?

  I think the answer is pretty obvious. So, my fellow citizens who are appalled by all this, what are we going to do about it? Are we going to just sit back and watch it unfold on TV like watching a video game? When the nukes start falling in your own neighborhood, is this going to be the last thought that goes through your mind? - “Man I wish I had been more active in stopping my rogue government from doing such crazy things!” “But what can I do about it,” you ask. Well, you can become more vocal and active in the political arena. When the next election rolls around you could inform yourself and get out and vote. The last election was a hotly contested one, yet only about 58% of the eligible voters in this country actually got out and voted. And that was better than most elections.

  I can hear you now, “But, it’s the shadow government that is responsible and they are unelected.” Well, they are way less than 1% of the population. If even 50% of the population rose up and rooted them out, there would be nowhere for them to hide. The other thing you can do is pray. Pray a lot! We’re going to need it. Best you get in the practice now rather than waiting until it is too late. I don’t know about you, but it makes me really uncomfortable thinking that I might be living in a terrorist state that is responsible for so much evil in the world. I don’t like thinking of my beloved United States of America that way. But it’s getting harder and harder to avoid it. Just as the people of Germany, who stood by and watched the Nazis reign down terror on their neighbors too afraid to oppose a few powerful men, are we now doing the same thing? I’m not saying Donald Trump is Hitler. But I am saying that the ones making our foreign policy are criminal and need to be reined in by someone.