New Study Proves 6 out of 5 Allow Preconceptions To Blind Cognition.

Yes, 6 out of 5, can you believe it?

All of the fact are in right?

Maybe Not?

Congratulations!!

You checked to see if what was said was true.

Of course, there can't be 6 out of 5, but you probably already guess that most people just repost what they already believe without fact-checking.

You aren't one of those people.

I can't offer you a reward or real data but we already know some people post without checking so congrats on checking. You can feel good about that.

Now if you #share this to see if others are paying attention that is your choice.

Usually, I just talk about what I think, but I can't help, Okay, I choose not to resist, at times, to be a bit or more than a bit sarcastic.

Daydreams

Wow, I'm out of the regular blogging habit. After nearly two years of writing blog on chapters of the Bible getting back to regular posting isn't easy. However, what do we do? Get up and start doing.

I am writing today about Oswald Chambers's devotion, My Utmost for His Highest for today. He mentioned that daydreaming was perfectly fine if you are rehearsing how to do what is right. It is wrong when your daydreaming rather than doing it.

Daydreaming is a useful tool but I agree it is often used as a distraction from really working. I would point out that for those people who are prone to action see all daydreaming as wrong. This, however, is wrong. Working through a problem or a plan in your mind often saves people from mistakes, which some action prone people make. Like jumping out of a burning plane. The person who thought first put on the parachute which the action prone person thought about on the way down, but not after that.

Is that illustration extreme? No not really, but neither is the person who thought about everything they needed to do and finally got it worked out as the plane hit the ground.

There is a time to daydream, but there is a time to act. The key is to know which is which.

Dreams

Scriptures say that God in the last days would speak to people in dreams and visions. We have heard stories about this but at the end of the day, we have to take these stories by faith as there is no way to prove someone had a dream other than by their own testimony. Often we hear things second or third or thirtieth hand so we can't verify anything. 
What we know for sure. God does speak through dreams. He has in the past and I have to believe he still does. Dreams don't have the weight of Scripture any more than my preaching does other than when it confirms it.
Hope for the dying? Could God reach someone with the gospel in their dreams? Sure there isn't anything in Scripture that says He couldn't. I know of someone who accepted Christ in a dream. The problem is though God could do this a sinner doesn't want to wait for a dream to accept Christ or a Christian force on God something we should be doing, shar
ing the gospel.
God is trying to reach people, so we can have hope God might still be reaching out to our dying relatives. This isn't a guarantee they will respond positively even if they knew they were dying. It is only a hope. A welcome hope but ultimately Christians are the ones God wants to use to share the good news.

Just a story

This is just a story, nothing more... 

Writing

“Idiot, Moron” Charles hurried to his study to grab his writing utensils. She was writing again. He wasn’t angry at Elizabeth. In truth, he was thrilled she was writing. He was a writer and he saw in her the ability which would outshine him.

“Tim, you might be the smartest programmer in the world, but you have no imagination.” Charles threw the books, pens, and pencils across his desk. “You might be the savior of mankind but what of its history did you ever think outside…Ah.” The last word came out through clenched teeth.

Charles was nearly sure Tim couldn’t hear him, Part of him wished he did, and part didn’t. He was grateful, but some things made life so much more difficult.

“It isn’t as if I don’t have anything else to do.”

“Elizabeth’s work isn’t finished thankfully. I still have time.”  He just wished he had been paying attention when she had said she was going to write.

“It couldn’t have been a story about an alternate world, could it. It just had to be an alternative history story.” He said threw teeth that were clenched again. “There is still time,” Charles took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, “There’s still time, there is still time.”

Charles pushed a couple of the book aside and took what looked like a leather-bound tomb. He opened it to an empty page and grabbed a pen and started writing.

Elizabeth shared part of her story with her mom and dad. It was a fantastic tale where Ireland was truly a land of magic and magical creatures. It was, of course, absolute fiction. It never ever happened. Though the cities and some of the names were real the story never took place in the real history of mankind. The Roman empire didn’t build a wall to protect gal from the magical creatures of Ireland. There were never giants other than men who called giants because they were naturally taller than others around them. They could never build land bridges from Ireland to England.

There were originally 13 colonies in the New World who did break away from the Old World. Magical enchantments never keep commoners at bay. Though Elizbeth wrote things about a different history they were just made up. They never happened. She just made them up as a great author does. An author worthy of renown.

Charles cringed. He shouldn’t have written that last line. It was done. He was an author. Other stories had written about the power of the author, but they were all wrong. Authors had no powers, no magical abilities to change reality. Even now they didn’t, well… Charles wasn’t going to think about it right now. It gave him a headache. Tim might have had something to do with that, He probably did, Charles thought but he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t going to think about it too much either. Too much danger there.

“Back to writing.” Charles bent back to writing in the tomb.  

Elizabeth wrote more stories about this alternate history but all they were was fiction. Her words were never real. Though her father and mother praised them for being good because they were, they were not true history. Only later would Elizabeth write the true history. It would be then that she would write the truth of things and fiction to cause people to think about life and to just have joy in the moment. It was only after her father told her the true nature of all that her uncle had done did her work change.

It was only after the conversation should her work be considered real. It isn’t real now and wouldn’t be for some time. The End.

Charles dropped the pen as if it was on fire. It bounced off the desk and landed on the floor. He ignored it and closed the tomb. Reaching over he opened another and scanned the pages, then let out a sigh. “Tim, you’re an idiot.”

Still writing

Getting back into the grove of writing on this blog is going to take a little time. There are many things I am doing but I wonder what I should be sharing here. The continuing work in Bible Reflections goes on but this isn't something I write here. This is where I have shared insights I have been having in my life that don't relate to Bible Reflections, so here I go.

I am beginning a new experience by being an instructor for the district of my church. Though I have taught for years this is a new forum. It is a little scary, but I trust it will be good for both me and for those who take the course. There is the chance that no one takes the class but for now, I am not worried about it, I'm going to prepare.

This is where I want to remind myself and anyone reading this, you can do more than you realize if you put yourself on the line. For me, it was volunteering to teach. Yes, I am busy (too busy according to my wife), but for a few weeks of extra work, I can grow and help others grow also. In the end, it will be positive.

So, what are you risking, what are you trying outside of your comfort zone?

The new norm

It has been a few months now since I have finished Bible Reflections' first draft. I find myself adjusting to a new norm. Yes, I still write but not like before. Yes, I still journal but not with the fevered intensity which I had when I finished the first draft. I am getting to a new norm which means getting back to blogging here.

This year I have taken up reading Oswald Chamber's classic MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST. This and going through the Bible Reflections. Both of these disciplines will help me grow in my faith.

I still don't have a new project to write but there are old ones I need to work on and sometimes this is harder for me. I can honestly say I would rather take on writing a blog for every chapter in the Bible than editing my other books. So maybe, I need to take on the harder work. 

In the church I preach at, I pray and work for a spirit of hope. One can be determined and that is something to admire, but hope is the thing that is catchy. Do I expect something big, no and maybe that is wrong? In truth, it wouldn't take much just a couple of really radically changed lives to raise attendance. Confession, my vision has been too small.

Writing this now fills me with the hope for something big. If it doesn't happen will I give up? No, because I know God works on His schedule in the people of the world. I also know I am, this church, is making a difference in the Kingdom of God. This is ultimately more important than the battles of this one church. I, however, do not give us on the church here in Tell City, nor on the people of this town.

I think of the battle at the gate in Lord of the Rings when Aragorn says, "There may be a day when the strength of men will fail.. but that is not today." For we fight as it were not for a hobbit, but for the King of kings. The war is not lost...if we should fall, but that is not today!

Reflections on Reflections

Okay, I don't know what to call this and to be honest it may sound a little on the egotistical side but really, I'm not trying to be. Anyhow, the other day I was reading my post on Bible Reflections. The work is my unedited and first response or as I have called them reflections to all the chapters in the Bible. However, I read one and was really surprised. Here is what I wrote on a piece of paper at the time.

The things which really get my attention aren't mistakes and the less than stellar theology, grammar, and explanations but the moments of brilliance. Yes, this is egotistical but then perhaps it isn't. When great people of the past did great work often the knew it afterward. They knew it was great. I don't worry too much about ego as I still have plenty of, oops to keep me humble. The thought that I can be brilliant is a relief that my life isn't a waste. It is a hope what I do can make a difference. Yes, the world I live in may be going the way of Isaiah's prophecy but my work may have an impact beyond a generation set for destruction.