Our future points to what we say

 I like to read out loud for reasons based in the July 18th Sunset Stroller. 

Faith and fear

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans  10:17

I also, forgive me, also think faith comes by saying, speaking the word of God, which I suppose is pretty much the same thing. Faith always interests me, what it is and so forth, because it is quite literally POP, the point of purchase. 

I know there are various degrees of faith since Jesus spoke about little and great faith. I want as much as possible because I know I believe it on paper, but do I believe it in the foxhole? I am convinced we are directed, we are empowered, by our words in particular projecting our faith into the future. This is my view for myself at any rate. 

If some do not go along with my view then it does not reflect on any error in my view nor does it prove I am correct either. I think whatever we have faith for we will get in the future. 

If I do not believe in any existence for myself in the future then that is what I will get. Only catch is I will know I do not exist, and therefore outside existence and knowing it at the same time. That is as bad anything gets. We get what we believe, is essentially what I believe.  

Marking my favorites

I've been reading in Psalms recently and earmark my favorites that speak to me, as it were, personally. Psalms 90 and 91 come to mind recently, particularly the beautiful 91st. 

What God looks like

And God said.....

“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  Genesis 1:26

"Our" refers to .the Trinity I believe, as is everyone who is spiritually One in God as Jesus prayed in John 17. As I read this entire account it appears a better account than a physical science one because it is more poetic and spiritually powerful. But I do not see any natural controversy between  the two. The unseen version includes the seen view while the stand alone seen version merely lacks the beauty and power of the unseen view.

Power of the Tongue

James 3:1-12  is the best concentrated source of wisdom about the tongue in the entire Bible. God spoke the worlds into existence, worlds much greater than generations upon generations of people even could conceive.  Speaking is important for each of us as well I believe. Jesus asked questions of people who wanted to be healed to which He already  knew the answers. They had to speak back. Speaking brings life to words of the speaker. Words are powerful, more than I believe any of us realize. Notice how many times we read that God says in Genesis. I want to do as God says, but in the effort to be light hearted and humorous I often speak nonsense, I suppose to relieve tension. Sometimes excuses are also reasons.

You are looking at this only from a human point of view and not from God's. Mark 8:33

Unlike God, time figures into everything we think. It is not disputed that we have free will because we witness the continual practice of it. Why some seek to blame God for anything untoward that we ourselves introduce is a real blind eye, in my view. As Walt Kelly's Pogo said I have met the enemy and he is us. I, myself, look for forgiveness. God does not just forgive, he forgets outright. 

 I called upon the Lord in my distress, and he heard me from his Temple. My cry reached his ears. 1 Samuel 22:7

There are more ways to be wrong just as there are a million ways to die. But I wanted to be free and struggled for it from the beginning but, it seems now, mostly  as an observer. Freedom however, like wisdom, is heavy and scary in the foxhole, unlike on paper. Now I am hanging onto God so I can continue to exist. We are a long time dead, and a long time forgotten, together with all our other physical possessions.