Yesterdays post I still counted as day 2 even though I hit the publish button after midnight. But it was done before I went to bed!
Well I was gonna try and do day 3 before I got to bed tonight but I wanna sleep. So I'll make up for it tomorrow and enter 2 posts.
I knew this wasn't gonna be easy or perfect. But I am truly enjoying this challenge! Because my heart feels closer to God. Life is slowly heading in the direction that looks brighter. One step at a time. One baby step at a time! It feels great though, and I have been happier! I know God is always there, but I think now my heart is getting back to where it used to be when I was more in tune with God's voice. That was way back when I was in catechism classes. Don't remember what grade, but one year (I may have had him as a teacher 2 years in a row) I had this really awesome teacher who motivated the students to really get into the messages of God.
His name was Mr. Mancilla. Funky name. He was probably in his early 20's and had a girlfriend/fiance. Attractive young man I remember that! Lol, but he was old enough to be my big brother. Not the point here...
Catechism was every Wednesday evening. And every class we had a homework assignment to turn in. If we turned it in, we got a homemade chocolate chip cookie that he made himself. Some of the best chocolate chip cookies I ever had! Seriously! I have never forgotten that. : ) Oh man. The homework assignment was to pick a passage of the bible and write a reflection on it. He taught us how to reference bible passages. For example Genesis 3: 4-10 Then we would write what it was about. He was the best Catechism teacher I ever had, and those were the years I truly understood what was going on in what I was reading.
My preferred method of operation was to stick to the New Testament. Then, I would just flip through the pages, stop when my heart told me too, selected a title that caught my eye and read it. I seemed to like all the parables and stories like the mustard seed, the bread and the fish, wedding at canaa, where 2 or more are gathered in the lords name. I believe I did pick some stories from the old testament too, those aren't so fresh in my mind. And the book of revelations. Tried to comprehend that, but I was way too young for that. Honestly, most of what anyone knows about it is an interpretation anyway.
After that year I kept up with reading like that for a while, but nothing beats doing it every week and writing a reflection about it. So I am happy that I have decided to do this! It feels good. And it feels right!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Consequences for Our Choices. Day 2.
Genesis 3.
Original sin. We all know the story of Adam and Eve. My first questions were, why did God not protect Adam and Eve when He made them so naive? They were innocent but God made them that way. So how is it they are punished for falling into the serpents trap?
After talking to a couple people, I quickly remembered why. Because God gave us free will. And though God said "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Genesis 2: 17) God told them what it was (well technically He told Adam, and made Eve after wards, but I'm assuming Adam told her or God repeated the rules to Eve. :-D) and they didn't even question it because they were so innocent. They were only occupied with performing their duties of tilling the earth and tending to the plants, trees, and animals like God intended. But the serpent talked Eve into having some of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
But God wanted them to remain innocent. And He expected them to simply trust Him and do what He said. Maybe God made us in His image to do good things because He had his angels. But they knew the difference between Good and Evil. And one angel was a fallen angel and God had to send him out of heaven. This angel knew the difference between good and evil, and was jealous that God was the one in charge. Maybe God wanted to create something that was still in his image but innocent. Innocent meaning that we as humans wouldn't know good and bad existed. Not to say that one can't be innocent when knowing of these two things and knowing the differences between them. However God did not create humans capable of handling the knowledge of right and wrong.
Which is way we constantly fall out of God's grace. Good news is that we have the beautiful gift of confession.
As babies though, we do not have the original holiness and justice God meant for us to be born with. This is because original sin is inherited so to speak, and this is why we have baptism. As a newborn, unable to understand what kind of world we have just come into, a very beautiful gift is bestowed upon us. That is the gift of baptism. At baptism we are dissolved of original sin and become truly innocent and free of things that are bad.
So now I know what to say when people have beef with the catholic practice of the sacrament of baptism. Or, if anyone catholic doesn't like that they were baptized at an age when "they had no say". What I would say is, you may not have had a say in whether or not to be baptized, but you also didn't commit the first sin yet it was still a mark on your soul when you were born. You were given the gift of innocence restored on your soul as a baby. A beautiful gift. Nothing that was forced upon you! You still have the free will to maintain the work on your soul or not. Because God gave us free will. But don't be mad because you didn't get to choose whether or not you wanted to be baptized.
Its like at Christmas. We ask for some of our gifts. But not all of them. God actually gives us gifts all the time. We just don't always recognize them as gifts. But if the gift is a good one and there was a good intent behind it, there is no need to be rejecting it and be offended by it.
One more thing I was contemplating. I was comparing how God handled disobedient children and how human parents handle disobedient children. God is much smoother about things then some human parents. I think God was not happy. Truly disappointed because from then forward his children wouldn't be delivering 100% joy and happiness. But God has never held grudges. Yelled off the handle. Said I never want to see your face again. Because humans cannot handle the differences between right and wrong, some parents can't handle when their child has done something "horribly wrong". God hands out the punishments. But its the punishment bottom line, no funny business beyond that. I'm sure if we all sat back in our lives and thought about the proper ways we received punishment for bad behavior, we would also find ways that we were inappropriately punished. Or how we were treated went beyond just a punishment. Perhaps we have children of our own and can think about what has been good or bad punishment. Maybe we don't have kids. But most likely have siblings or friends. They aren't perfect either. But there are appropriate ways and inappropriate ways to deal with them.
Sometimes its enough to just say what you don't like or what hurt you to the other person and that's enough. Sometimes sorry doesn't matter. Who hasn't said sorry for something even though they should? And why should we always say sorry about everything. I am guilty of saying sorry for things that don't need a sorry. But I am guilty of not saying sorry for things I should. Why are we so hung up on apologies?
As far as we know Adam and Eve didn't say sorry. As far as I know now (and that isn't much) I don't think anyone in the bible has said sorry to God. And there were so many who let God down. In fact we all do. But we have confession. And we need to repent of our sins, be free of them so we can find ourselves in God's grace again and continue having a great relationship with Him. The only person that matters we say sorry to is God. But He is in each and every one of our souls. because He made us all in His image. If we aren't sorry to each other, we aren't sorry to God for our own faults. Every single one of us will hurt each other because we do things right and wrong, good and evil. But we are incapable of knowing good and evil. Not forgiving another person for how they hurt you makes no sense. Because that means you can't be forgiven by God because you don't understand grace. If you understand that you want grace from God, we need it between ourselves and then He can give it to us. If someone has done something to you worth making you feel you cannot forgive them, chances are you did the same to them or someone else, if no one else then God. We all know what (hopefully few) terrible things we have done personally that would seem God could never forgive us. But He does. With all the love in His heart. And for that grace, we should let go of our human emotions that do not understand good and evil, and forgive. Because only then can we return to a place in this world where everything is good. If anything, at least there is one less bad in this world. And the goodness of a relationship with God is back on track.
Original sin. We all know the story of Adam and Eve. My first questions were, why did God not protect Adam and Eve when He made them so naive? They were innocent but God made them that way. So how is it they are punished for falling into the serpents trap?
After talking to a couple people, I quickly remembered why. Because God gave us free will. And though God said "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Genesis 2: 17) God told them what it was (well technically He told Adam, and made Eve after wards, but I'm assuming Adam told her or God repeated the rules to Eve. :-D) and they didn't even question it because they were so innocent. They were only occupied with performing their duties of tilling the earth and tending to the plants, trees, and animals like God intended. But the serpent talked Eve into having some of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
But God wanted them to remain innocent. And He expected them to simply trust Him and do what He said. Maybe God made us in His image to do good things because He had his angels. But they knew the difference between Good and Evil. And one angel was a fallen angel and God had to send him out of heaven. This angel knew the difference between good and evil, and was jealous that God was the one in charge. Maybe God wanted to create something that was still in his image but innocent. Innocent meaning that we as humans wouldn't know good and bad existed. Not to say that one can't be innocent when knowing of these two things and knowing the differences between them. However God did not create humans capable of handling the knowledge of right and wrong.
Which is way we constantly fall out of God's grace. Good news is that we have the beautiful gift of confession.
As babies though, we do not have the original holiness and justice God meant for us to be born with. This is because original sin is inherited so to speak, and this is why we have baptism. As a newborn, unable to understand what kind of world we have just come into, a very beautiful gift is bestowed upon us. That is the gift of baptism. At baptism we are dissolved of original sin and become truly innocent and free of things that are bad.
So now I know what to say when people have beef with the catholic practice of the sacrament of baptism. Or, if anyone catholic doesn't like that they were baptized at an age when "they had no say". What I would say is, you may not have had a say in whether or not to be baptized, but you also didn't commit the first sin yet it was still a mark on your soul when you were born. You were given the gift of innocence restored on your soul as a baby. A beautiful gift. Nothing that was forced upon you! You still have the free will to maintain the work on your soul or not. Because God gave us free will. But don't be mad because you didn't get to choose whether or not you wanted to be baptized.
Its like at Christmas. We ask for some of our gifts. But not all of them. God actually gives us gifts all the time. We just don't always recognize them as gifts. But if the gift is a good one and there was a good intent behind it, there is no need to be rejecting it and be offended by it.
One more thing I was contemplating. I was comparing how God handled disobedient children and how human parents handle disobedient children. God is much smoother about things then some human parents. I think God was not happy. Truly disappointed because from then forward his children wouldn't be delivering 100% joy and happiness. But God has never held grudges. Yelled off the handle. Said I never want to see your face again. Because humans cannot handle the differences between right and wrong, some parents can't handle when their child has done something "horribly wrong". God hands out the punishments. But its the punishment bottom line, no funny business beyond that. I'm sure if we all sat back in our lives and thought about the proper ways we received punishment for bad behavior, we would also find ways that we were inappropriately punished. Or how we were treated went beyond just a punishment. Perhaps we have children of our own and can think about what has been good or bad punishment. Maybe we don't have kids. But most likely have siblings or friends. They aren't perfect either. But there are appropriate ways and inappropriate ways to deal with them.
Sometimes its enough to just say what you don't like or what hurt you to the other person and that's enough. Sometimes sorry doesn't matter. Who hasn't said sorry for something even though they should? And why should we always say sorry about everything. I am guilty of saying sorry for things that don't need a sorry. But I am guilty of not saying sorry for things I should. Why are we so hung up on apologies?
As far as we know Adam and Eve didn't say sorry. As far as I know now (and that isn't much) I don't think anyone in the bible has said sorry to God. And there were so many who let God down. In fact we all do. But we have confession. And we need to repent of our sins, be free of them so we can find ourselves in God's grace again and continue having a great relationship with Him. The only person that matters we say sorry to is God. But He is in each and every one of our souls. because He made us all in His image. If we aren't sorry to each other, we aren't sorry to God for our own faults. Every single one of us will hurt each other because we do things right and wrong, good and evil. But we are incapable of knowing good and evil. Not forgiving another person for how they hurt you makes no sense. Because that means you can't be forgiven by God because you don't understand grace. If you understand that you want grace from God, we need it between ourselves and then He can give it to us. If someone has done something to you worth making you feel you cannot forgive them, chances are you did the same to them or someone else, if no one else then God. We all know what (hopefully few) terrible things we have done personally that would seem God could never forgive us. But He does. With all the love in His heart. And for that grace, we should let go of our human emotions that do not understand good and evil, and forgive. Because only then can we return to a place in this world where everything is good. If anything, at least there is one less bad in this world. And the goodness of a relationship with God is back on track.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Summarizing the Bible. Day 1
I will be starting with Reading Plan 2. This plan is titled A Walk Through the Bible. It covers some of the highlights of the Bible in chronological order over the course of 28 days.
Genesis. Chapters 1 & 2
The Third day God created the food He provided on this earth to feed the living creatures He created. He created the living creatures in 2 phases. Phase 2 has two parts.
1. The creatures of the Sea and those that fly the 5th day.
2a. The creatures of the Land the 6th day.
2b. Humankind also the 6th day to have dominion over every single thing He created on Land and Sea.
God was very busy the 6th day. That was the culmination of all He did on this planet He chose to create life. Considering the 6th day was His busiest, I'm not surprised He chose to rest the seventh day! He was done by then anyway.
But I began to wonder. Six days to create life as we know it. I guess its more like life in its foundation to produce life as we now know it. I'm talking about the part of the vegetation and the plants and the creatures. How all of that has changed. Science has been a big part of the whole world's culture as they try to find out whether the earth is flat or not. The fossils that tell us there were dinosaurs. The tectonic plates that move and change the face of the land God created. The formation of Pangaea and its separation. The discovery that Pangaea was actually the second time that all of the land mass was together in one content.
Also, time. Time is discussed somewhere in the bible. I'll come across it one of these days soon. But time to God is not the same as time for us. We have seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, and centuries. A century for us, could be the smallest of increment of time on God's clock.
So when God created our earth as we know it in 6 days, was that 6 days our time or His time?
My vote is that it was done in His time. Let me see if I can summarize why quickly.
Because God had to create a dome and a sky. Lightness and Darkness. Day and Night. There used to be just water, over time land showed up. The land to water ratio has varied, but water has always been greater by far. The first creatures God created was those of the sea. It even says in Genesis 1: 21 that God created sea monsters. And by verse 24 God mentions cattle as one of the creatures the earth brought forth.
I believe there is a scientific theory that the ancient creatures of the sea migrated to land for food and eventually just stayed on land. Their physical features evolved and changed for new uses on land or the lack for need of them since they were no longer gonna live in water. And then cattle...those have not been around for as long as some sea creatures (or monsters) have. So one day to the next in existence has to be on Gods time because things on earth evolve slower in our time.
The part about a dome and the sky, light and darkness, day and night- that makes a lot more sense that it came first. Those also did not happen in the time earth/humans function on. Science knows enough about what we call the universe that it takes us so many light years to travel to a star, planet, rock, even galaxy. And once we see things that are X amount of lights years away, you are seeing it the way it was that many light years ago. Very confusing, but very intriguing I think.
So I suppose that it took God light years rather than days to make earth. That would then mean that He is outside the earth. So perhaps when we say He created the Heavens and the Earth, the heavens would be the universe as far as we know anyway. And heaven then when we die, will be out somewhere in the universe. Oh! Since God is preparing our places in heaven, maybe all the "places" outside of the universe are for us! Haja. This may be another blog in it of itself. Just theories though, and some nonsense.
All of the above is mainly what I thought of when reading Chapter 1. But Chapter 2 still supports my theory. It doesn't necessarily go into any indication of time. It proves that there are details that went into what God did. So Chapter 1 just an overall of what was accomplished.
I suppose I am trying to correlate scientific discovery and what God did. Not to prove God is and was. Not because I think there is some lie or something wrong with this story of creation. I am confident I am not the only human being who simply wonders about these things and takes what others have discovered and tried to figure where it fits into what God did.
I think I wonder these things because fitting the two together shows me the specifics of what God did and how over all these years its changed. I also like seeing the original state of something and how it has developed. It also makes me feel like I can touch what God has touched. Be where He has been. Those last two sentences I think are the core for these questions.
Genesis. Chapters 1 & 2
The Third day God created the food He provided on this earth to feed the living creatures He created. He created the living creatures in 2 phases. Phase 2 has two parts.
1. The creatures of the Sea and those that fly the 5th day.
2a. The creatures of the Land the 6th day.
2b. Humankind also the 6th day to have dominion over every single thing He created on Land and Sea.
God was very busy the 6th day. That was the culmination of all He did on this planet He chose to create life. Considering the 6th day was His busiest, I'm not surprised He chose to rest the seventh day! He was done by then anyway.
But I began to wonder. Six days to create life as we know it. I guess its more like life in its foundation to produce life as we now know it. I'm talking about the part of the vegetation and the plants and the creatures. How all of that has changed. Science has been a big part of the whole world's culture as they try to find out whether the earth is flat or not. The fossils that tell us there were dinosaurs. The tectonic plates that move and change the face of the land God created. The formation of Pangaea and its separation. The discovery that Pangaea was actually the second time that all of the land mass was together in one content.
Also, time. Time is discussed somewhere in the bible. I'll come across it one of these days soon. But time to God is not the same as time for us. We have seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, and centuries. A century for us, could be the smallest of increment of time on God's clock.
So when God created our earth as we know it in 6 days, was that 6 days our time or His time?
My vote is that it was done in His time. Let me see if I can summarize why quickly.
Because God had to create a dome and a sky. Lightness and Darkness. Day and Night. There used to be just water, over time land showed up. The land to water ratio has varied, but water has always been greater by far. The first creatures God created was those of the sea. It even says in Genesis 1: 21 that God created sea monsters. And by verse 24 God mentions cattle as one of the creatures the earth brought forth.
I believe there is a scientific theory that the ancient creatures of the sea migrated to land for food and eventually just stayed on land. Their physical features evolved and changed for new uses on land or the lack for need of them since they were no longer gonna live in water. And then cattle...those have not been around for as long as some sea creatures (or monsters) have. So one day to the next in existence has to be on Gods time because things on earth evolve slower in our time.
The part about a dome and the sky, light and darkness, day and night- that makes a lot more sense that it came first. Those also did not happen in the time earth/humans function on. Science knows enough about what we call the universe that it takes us so many light years to travel to a star, planet, rock, even galaxy. And once we see things that are X amount of lights years away, you are seeing it the way it was that many light years ago. Very confusing, but very intriguing I think.
So I suppose that it took God light years rather than days to make earth. That would then mean that He is outside the earth. So perhaps when we say He created the Heavens and the Earth, the heavens would be the universe as far as we know anyway. And heaven then when we die, will be out somewhere in the universe. Oh! Since God is preparing our places in heaven, maybe all the "places" outside of the universe are for us! Haja. This may be another blog in it of itself. Just theories though, and some nonsense.
All of the above is mainly what I thought of when reading Chapter 1. But Chapter 2 still supports my theory. It doesn't necessarily go into any indication of time. It proves that there are details that went into what God did. So Chapter 1 just an overall of what was accomplished.
I suppose I am trying to correlate scientific discovery and what God did. Not to prove God is and was. Not because I think there is some lie or something wrong with this story of creation. I am confident I am not the only human being who simply wonders about these things and takes what others have discovered and tried to figure where it fits into what God did.
I think I wonder these things because fitting the two together shows me the specifics of what God did and how over all these years its changed. I also like seeing the original state of something and how it has developed. It also makes me feel like I can touch what God has touched. Be where He has been. Those last two sentences I think are the core for these questions.
The Yellow Brick Road Diaries
What is this Yellow Brick Road and why call it Project 365
Someone did a project 365 where she took a picture a day and posted it in a journal. She used facebook to do this. Oh and you do this for 365 days.
Well I thought this was a cool idea and I wanted to do something like it, but more personalized.
Also the movie Julie and Julia, where she went through the whole recipe book and blogged about it everyday. I loved that idea too.
So finally I'm gonna do something like it. Except, its gonna be really hard. Talk about personal discipline. Not sure I can do this. I will hate to skip any day at all over the next 365 days. But I know there will be some days where I'll have no choice because it would be out of my control. More reason to be on top of my game when I do have control over it.
One definite solution would be to still journal daily, but enter it in the blog later. That would particularly be for days that I don't have internet access due to technical difficulties or vacations.
Any-who. On to what I will do daily and blog about it.
Its nothing trendy or crafty. But its deep and educational. And could very well be what I need.
Took out my Catholic Youth Bible. Found a list of 8 reading plans. Each have different topics and focus. Most of these reading plans can be covered over 14 days. One is 28 days. The first one is 365 days! Every catholic knows that over the course of 3 years the whole bible is read if it is done daily. Now that is a daily project that takes 3 years to complete!
I will not be following the 365 reading plan that takes 3 years to complete. I will be doing the smaller reading plans. I want to focus on specific topics. I will most likely complete the other 7 reading plans listed at the front of my bible. From there I will create my own studies. I'll think about how I'll go about that later.
So that is my 365 project. I am a little nervous. But oh!, what a journey!
I wish I knew a great quote or phrase to wish myself luck on this adventure. I'll stick to the standard though.
Good Luck to me!
Someone did a project 365 where she took a picture a day and posted it in a journal. She used facebook to do this. Oh and you do this for 365 days.
Well I thought this was a cool idea and I wanted to do something like it, but more personalized.
Also the movie Julie and Julia, where she went through the whole recipe book and blogged about it everyday. I loved that idea too.
So finally I'm gonna do something like it. Except, its gonna be really hard. Talk about personal discipline. Not sure I can do this. I will hate to skip any day at all over the next 365 days. But I know there will be some days where I'll have no choice because it would be out of my control. More reason to be on top of my game when I do have control over it.
One definite solution would be to still journal daily, but enter it in the blog later. That would particularly be for days that I don't have internet access due to technical difficulties or vacations.
Any-who. On to what I will do daily and blog about it.
Its nothing trendy or crafty. But its deep and educational. And could very well be what I need.
Took out my Catholic Youth Bible. Found a list of 8 reading plans. Each have different topics and focus. Most of these reading plans can be covered over 14 days. One is 28 days. The first one is 365 days! Every catholic knows that over the course of 3 years the whole bible is read if it is done daily. Now that is a daily project that takes 3 years to complete!
I will not be following the 365 reading plan that takes 3 years to complete. I will be doing the smaller reading plans. I want to focus on specific topics. I will most likely complete the other 7 reading plans listed at the front of my bible. From there I will create my own studies. I'll think about how I'll go about that later.
So that is my 365 project. I am a little nervous. But oh!, what a journey!
I wish I knew a great quote or phrase to wish myself luck on this adventure. I'll stick to the standard though.
Good Luck to me!
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