The Gospel of Rory

Let there be...

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 20:18:57 GMT

Was bored on the net the other day and found a very interesting site that dealt with a topic I've always looked at as "we probably won't ever know and it isn't the most important topic" but it has been something that has nagged at the back of my mind ever since my conversion. On the site one of the topics it talked about was if the earth is only 7000 years old, and the Six day creation was really just six days as some think, where in those days did Satan and the other Angels fall from heaven, I mean by the time Adam and Eve came around Satan/Serpent was already out of God's graces.

According to those that believe in a literal six day creation, before Genesis 1 there was only God, and six days later there was everything else as well. This strict narrow view has some flaws in it, one of which being Satan and the Fallen Angels, another being scientific proof of life older than 7000 years. Another point, God created animals and plant life before Man, the earth could of been populated by all sorts of beasts billions of years before Adam and Eve, since there is no real way to know how much time those six days took when it comes to how God perceives time.

One of the other things I thought of is, well how about the Kingdom itself, where is Heaven in the creation story, I'm sure God would build His own house somewhere in all that creating, but its not mentioned either, to me it would make sense if there was a time before Adam and Eve where all the cosmic stuff took place, also it would stand to reason that this would also explain science claiming earth is 4.5 billion years old, plus what is a day to God? How can we expect Him to be bound by our limited scope of time? It would seem that some people find their own self-worth as humans to be so superior to everything else besides God that nothing could be outside of our own history with God. But isn't that just another way of us putting limits on God? Just because He chose us humans to be his favorites, doesn't mean He hasn't had other projects in the past, He did create Angels, why couldn't He have created dinosaurs along with other animals long before He got to Man. Though this goes off into conspiracy territory, and I am not saying this is my view, but whose to say He didn't also create beings on other planets as either tests or even for amusement or something. God is limitless, people need to stop placing their own narrow mindsets on an infinite beings capabilities.

First Times

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 05:44:44 GMT

So today I went to Church for the first time. Not for a funeral, nor a wedding, but for the first time, I went to worship. I've had my run in's with church folk before, and it never turned out good, but I have a feeling this one I've found is different, I still have my doubts of course, I've been through so many bad incidents that it will be hard to not have them. These people seem cool though, and seem sincere about their commitment. I thought the music was excellent and the sermon was really good too, though it was on a topic I have discussed with a friend or two in the past, so it wasn't really new info for me, but it was still done really well. Depending on work, I want to try going there again, possibly regularly.

Another thing, I've decided to not let this blog turn into just "rants" so from time to time I'll be posting less "thoughtful" posts about random things in my life. Not sure if anyone will find them of interest, but yeah, that will be the way of things from now on. So I didn't quite find what I was hoping for tonight, but it was an interesting time nonetheless, who knows, maybe with time I will find it. For now, that is all.

Failed Government

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 07:03:49 GMT

When it comes to politics these days, liberal or conservative, far as im concerned all governments are already or will be corrupt eventually. All of them will fall, its a fact of history, and I refuse to give any more of my stress to their cause, which is why I'm just focusing on my faith, its something that I can have a say in and be happy with, theres nothing I can do to help fix the failing governments from their own corruption so my outlook is that I'll deal with individuals and myself and leave all the debating on rights and wrongs in politics to others with a more optimistic outlook on the subject.

My only duty now is to the Lord and to His people, saved and lost, the governments will always be corrupt and all of them will fall, its no use wasting time on dealing with them IMO. God will always be here for us, He's been here since before time began and will be here forever more, no government in history can claim the same thing and I think that deserves some serious thought. I used to worry about politics all the time, and have seen way too many people let it divide them from other good friends because they disagreed on some views. I feel that anything which makes you want to be seperate from your fellow man or woman is an evil thing, so from here on out, I refuse to deal with topics on Politics. Nothing is ever accomplished in those debates except the spreading of hate for those of opposite views and I'm not down with that anymore. Sorry but its just not worth it, for me everything is for the Lord, and my focus should be on Him always, and He wants us to love each other so that's what I'm here for now.

The Full Story

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 19:41:59 GMT

I believe that the Bible is the Word of God, I feel he gave us everything we need to know in that one book. Though I do not feel he gave us the full story of Earth, some point to Dinosaurs and ancient myths about reptilian aliens from throughout history as some sort of proof that the Bible is inaccurate. To these people I say that God gave us what we needed to know about but like any great author He didn't bog us down with every detail of history. I'm sure no one would say that the Bible gives a full account of the lives of so many figures in the Old Testament, so since God felt he didn't need to tell us the word for word account of some of the most prominent people of our history, why should we think that he told us anything more than our own important points we needed to hear about?

The Bible is the history of God's Chosen people, where they started and how they can redeem themselves in his Son, Jesus, and what to expect at the end for humanity. I feel that God left out such things as Dinosaurs because it was before our time and had no bearing on our redemption and faith. He gave us what we required and nothing more, for anyone to claim that the Bible is the only true history shows that they admit to ignoring everything that happened outside of the written accounts. These things, for example, the building of the Great Pyramids, which everyone knows happened, but since it was of little importance to God's plan he didn't feel the need to write it down for us.

Instead He mentions a lot of events that if not for the Bible they would be lost to history, one being the Great Flood. Today we have evidence all over the world of the Flood, but that is only due to our modern technology and because these people know what to look for due to God giving us the story of Noah. Another would be Sodom and Gammorah, a tale that shows us just how bad a society can get and a warning to the future generations of invoking God's wrath. I'm sure if I was more learned in the Old Testament I could point out many other events that fit into this line of thought, but I'm sure you get my point by now.

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common."  — John Locke

Christ-mas Time

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 06:01:40 GMT

Tis the time of cheer and gifts, many people celebrate Christmas but not all of them understand the true meaning of the holiday. Every mall has a Santa Claus, and almost all department stores big and small play Christmas music, but one thing you will never hear from the majority of these places is a simple "Merry Christmas". I don't expect it to be a greeting given to every customer, but at least when you are obvious about it being your reason for shopping there, a nice "have a merry christmas" would be cool. If it was the employee's choice to not say it, then that would be one thing, but having worked retail at the holidays in the past I know that you are forbidden to say Merry Christmas unless they say it to you first, its always Happy Holidays.

These stores will play rudolph and jingle bells over the speakers to make people think of all the gifts they need to buy, and they will even wrap your presents for you in an assortment of papers ranging from Menorahs to Christmas Trees. Though all they want is your cash, they would rather you leave your religion at the door, there is no place for any form of faith in a place of business even if that is what drives you to shop at these stores. They even go so far as to call it XMas on their windows, I know this can be taken in non offensive ways but it is my opinion that the symbolism of the X crossing out Christ from Christmas is more in line with the thought pattern of these companies. They refuse to acknowledge Jesus in any other form so why not just X him out of the name of the season they so love to plunder.

Of course this argument could be applied to other religious holidays as well, but that just shows how greedy and inconsiderate these companies are. I don't expect them to greet everyone with a "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" but I feel that it should be an option if an employee wants to and has some clear sign of which the person celebrates, people mention their holiday constantly while shopping and it would be fairly easy to tell and would more than likely make the customer happy. However I know this is a pipe dream in the Politically Correct age we live in, where the only ones fighting for supposed rights are groups like the ACLU which are doing nothing more than trying to limit the religious freedoms of the people out of a sad attempt to pretend they still have a purpose. In the beginning they had a great purpose but what they've turned into today is almost the complete opposite of that goal of protecting civil liberties. I wish we could call some sort of boycott on these places but I know that is a bit out of the question considering how it really affects almost every type of store from retail mall stores to even grocery stores. We'd starve and freeze to death if we tried such a feat before any of those places would even notice there was a problem for some customers.

"Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice." ~Unknown

Interesting Quote

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 07:04:16 GMT

"We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."

- John Adams, Second President of the United States of America

Anti-Christian Media

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 03:55:01 GMT

I've always thought people like Bill O'Reilly were a bit obsessed around this time of year with the talk of "attacks on christmas" and the like, plus misc stuff the rest of the year, but I've been watching a lot of movies and tv lately and have noticed that there is a huge underlying movement against Christianity, its creepy cause its so subtle that I sometimes barely notice it. and also because it feels so much like the whole end times persecution parts of the bible that talks about Satan and Antichrist turning the people against Christians. I know its not quite there yet but it feels like the groundwork is being laid for such an endeavor on almost all our tv channels and in most of our movies. I'm not normally paranoid but this has been bothering me for some time now, and I've always been against any form of censorship because I believe in self responsibility of what you expose yourself or your children to, but this seems to be getting really spooky lately.

The general media, especially TV shows are trying to make faith seem a joke, they poke stabs at the faithful constantly in the name of humor. I know this has always been a problem but if you pay attention to the TV today just watch a few sitcoms and I'd bet each one will have at least one stab if not many against Christians. I don't think regulations would either work or be right, especially with the free speech section of our constitution here in the states. I do however think that the faithful need to be aware of this and realize that their children and themselves are being subtly bombarded with a sort of mental warfare in the minds of the populace due to this programing.

One thing such awareness could do is help those witnessing understand that the misguided are not only rebelling out of personal choice but in my opinion they are also being deceived daily through their televisions into feeling that you are just some whacko that wants to brainwash them and steal their money. With this knowledge we can better reach those lost souls and show them through our love and our actions that we are good people that mean well for them.

True Christians

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:31:53 GMT

Why is it so easy for people to say "I believe Jesus died for me" yet so hard for those same people to pay attention to the rest of His message. They think that just because they believe in His sacrifice that they are safe, but that is not what He said. You have to live by His standards if you want into His kingdom, as He said in this quote: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 7:21. Believing in Him is not enough, He wants this as the first step, but once someone accomplishes this they then have to LIVE the Word, being a Christian means to be Christ-Like. Its like the saying, What Would Jesus Do, in God's eyes Jesus was the ultimate being and He gave His Son as the ultimate sacrifice.

For us to truly call ourselves Christians we have to live up to what God expected of His Son, Jesus. Some will say that since everyone sins we are allowed to have some room to stray, from day to day, either because of work or social scenes. But how can you think you can give such weak excuses to God? People need to start living up to their claims, they want people to believe they are good Christians but they don't always show it. They may even use the excuse that they are "working on that goal" because they feel that they are allotted much time to get to the state they should be in, but how many use this as a perpetual excuse to the ends of never achieving the goal? Some may not even realize they are prolonging their full salvation, I feel from what Jesus has said that to be truly saved you have to live the Word not just preach it to others and confess it with your mouth.

This goes also with being Baptised, a Baptism is supposed to cleanse you of your sins, at that point you are clean in God's eyes. Shouldn't something so important be enough drive for someone to strive as much as possible to live up to the real meaning of the title Christian? Personally when I do get Baptised that will be a major step for me and nothing will stand in my way of leading a life as close to Jesus as possible, I am already trying to now but once that time comes it will be a special thing for me as it should be for everyone methinks.

I'm not here to judge anyone, I've written this so that hopefully those that this applies to will be honest with themselves and take it to heart. Even if you've read the New Testament a hundred times, you would do good to read it again with this thought in mind, "Do I lead a Christ-Like life?" look truly at what Jesus says at least in the Gospels about what he wants from his followers. This is for your own good whether you really do fit His message or if you need a lot of work, nobody here on earth can say anything about you being good or bad as a Christian, its not our place to judge you, but God can, and He will when Judgement comes. Will you be able to stand at His throne and say you have been a good Christian?

A Miracle of Faith

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 17:59:29 GMT

When I was a teen I was fairly quiet, always nice to people, and cared a lot for friends. As I got older and especially after I started dating I became bitter and turned into a major prick. I would still be cool with friends for the most part but if someone, friend or stranger, annoyed me at all I'd say something to them right then and there. It didn't matter if it was my grandmother in the middle of a department store or if it was a fast food worker. If they pissed me off or even just annoyed me, I'd verbally rip them a new one.

During this time of my life I never missed the old me, I knew it was there in the past, and would joke about it even, but I never cared that I lost him. In fact for the most part I was very happy he was gone because I saw that part of me as a weakness, easily hurt and high maintenance to deal with. Since I've found Jesus I've had a sudden change of heart, I didn't mean for it to happen but never the less it happened anyways. I started finding myself wanting to be nicer to people, I haven't changed my ways completely of course. I wish I could say I have, but I still get quite angry with people fairly easily. I know that with how far I've come so far that it's only a matter of time before that to is wiped away from me, and now that I feel like I've regained a part of me I should never have lost, I will be ecstatic when that time comes.

There is too much hate in the world, I feel bad that I was an ally of it for so long, but all I want now is to love everyone and help in any way I can to make this world a better place even if all I can affect is my surroundings. I thank the Lord for bringing me back to this frame of mind, it was clearly of His doing that this was accomplished, He worked on my heart from the moment I chose to follow him and I am forever grateful for His love and caring touch.