Equator

All of existence is a dialectical dilemma.  Dialectical because there are only two opposing possibilities, God or Nature.  It is a dilemma because, within our existence, there can be no absolute certainty. Everything between these two poles is someone’s opinion.  However, all the opinions of the philosophers, theologians and scientists are based on faith in one or the other.

The extreme poles are uninhabitable just as the north and South poles of our world are uninhabitable.  One pole says that God did the deed and left the created existence to fend for itself.  One pole says that Nature is a never-ending force unto itself that can only be measured in progress toward the whatever. 

All of us live, think and hope for the best somewhere between these two poles or possibilities.

Where are you, equator?  

G, Goslaw

Landers, Ca 

    

 

Dumb

The college experience should teach us humility. One should be convinced not of how much one knows but how much one has yet to learn.  Without humility, there is no education.  Our college campuses have become just a place to join a club and buy their talking points. 

Columbia University is but the worst of the worst in America.

G.Goslaw

Landers, CA

  

Reflection

We humans are the crown of God’s creation, six billion years or 30,000 years, the truth is the same. God made everything the way it is, the galaxies, the planets, the forests and the fish in the streams.  All of we earthlings have been sourced by God. Our existence has layers of complexity but the reality is that we were and are very simply staged in this world.  Who are we then?

“Then God said (message), “Let us (eternity) make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  (Genesis 1: 26, TNIV)

We, all of us, are here on earth having the image or likeness of God.  Really? What foolishness is Genesis giving out?  You and I know that any resemblance to God in our lives is a very far off reality.  We know that all peoples of every flavor are but a goulash of the good, the bad and the ugly. You and I qualify for either/or.  Maybe, that is not the point.

The point that Genesis is making is that every human being is like God in that we are spiritual message centers, we have spiritual ears.  God is bombarding our world constantly with messages for we humans.  You doubt me?  The God “said” language in Genesis 1: 26 was a message, a creative message.  The “us” of eternity is fascinating.  Sometimes in a religious context messages are received but, more often than not, religion stifles God’s messaging. Maybe, God’s messages are being sent out at random, intended for anyone and everyone listening.

We are also like God in that we have been given a spiritual caretaker mission.  As humans we must have a mission, a purpose, be it however small.  Genesis 1:26 says that we all have the God given mission of “ruling” all other life forms on this earth.  The word “rule” has a sour taste but it is the correct translation of the Hebrew.  

In the surroundings of the messenger of Genesis, what did “to rule” mean to say?  Authority given, yes, but more than that, authority given to act in the best interest of the fish, the birds, the livestock, the wild animals and the snakes.  We are to be leaders not despots, we are caretakers in the Garden, the Land or the Forest of Mutual support called eternity.

This is who God Is.  

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

 

 

 

 

Message Power

In the beginning God (the Message) created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  (Genesis 1: 1 and 2) TNIV

In the beginning was the Word (Logos or Message), and the Word (Logos or the Message) was with God. He (Logos or Message) was with God in the beginning. Through him (Logos or the Message) all things were made; without him (Logos or the Message) nothing was made that has been made.  (St. John’s Gospel 1: 1 and 2) TNIV

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA

 

doom

This is how all communist countries maintain their power and win elections.  “Show me the man and I will show you the crime.”  Sounds familiar, right?  Familiar like in Manhattan.  America once was the land of the free touting the goal of blind justice?  No more.   

The future of all Americans is doomed with grandpa Joe as president and the progressive, radical, extremist, government first democrats writing the script. The Presidential election this November is freedom's last hope for America, our last chance to be free once again. Let's send Barack and friends to the bleachers where they belong!   Better yet, let's send Barrack's fundamental change to Hell!  

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA

Dig

We humans are burrowing animals, especially gifted burrowing animals formed of the dirt of this earth but animals non the less. Just like all other burrowing animals, we burrow into this world seeking a safe, comfortable space only to be forced to dig another tunnel.  At age 30, Jesus would have none of it.  Jesus was all about burrowing into the next world, the reality of eternity.  Sooner or later, all of us will be making that dig, intentional or not.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

 

 

Freedom

Why are some of us so intent on dragging this world’s bounty and corruption into eternity?  Have we not experienced enough of this world, it's blessings, divisions and vicissitudes?  Some of us believe that eternity must be ruled by the vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.  "Free at last!"

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

Foxhole

Rev. Dr. Drew Sams

Bel Air Presbyterian Church,

Los Angeles, California

Dear Rev. Sams,

Thank you for your TV teaching ministry every Sunday morning. This Sunday your message was on the Kingship of Jesus as the leader of our lives here on earth.  This is all well and good but I have a question that you artfully seemed to avoid.  Are we talking about personal piety or national politics or both?  This listener got a mixed message, whether it was intended or not.

When Jesus rightly directed us to love our enemies, does that mean we should no longer love our friends or our country?  Hopefully, we can love selflessly both relationships but this world, at times, makes it highly unlikely.  The difficulties multiply when the Christian gives into the bullies of this world, claiming some higher or more creditable spirituality.  The bullies will always want more. 

As you know, Rev. Dietrick Bonhoeffers found himself in this dilemma.  How can I love the Jews who were being roasted in the ovens of Nazi Germany, my homeland, and still live according to the words of Jesus?  Is love passivity?  Rev. Bonhoffer made the decision to participate in a plot to kill Hitler.  The decision was agonizing.  Every self-righteous scheme to qualify our spirituality will be tested in our world and found to be dust.

Preaching the love of God in the whirlwind of our California environment must be difficult but trying to remain neutral in the face of evil is impossible.  Sure, when we take sides, it will be costly but how can we look the other way in the face of evil? 

The new Democrat Party under King Joe Biden and the radical left present the exact same choice that faced Bonhoeffer. The evil of this Democratic cabal has killed seven million people worldwide with the covid virus. Hitler exterminated seven million Jews. The Hunan lab in China that dumped the man-made virus on the people was partly financed with our taxpayer money.  Dr. (Mengele) Fauci, the deranged bureaucrat of our NIH, who, knowing that this kind of research was dangerous and illegal, found a way around the law by funneling the money through a non-profit entity.

And the evil just keep on coming. King Joe’s open border has dumped tons of illegal drugs, fentanyl being the most dangerous, killing over 100,000 Americans. King Joe’s Democrat supporters in Michigan are shouting “Death to America”.  Crime is only a social disease not to be controlled. King Joe has weaponized our legal system to ruthlessly take down anyone who has the courage to speak the truth.  There is now no place for honesty in America. God has been replaced by the power of our own government.

Do you believe I am exaggerating our national disgrace?  It is past the time to pray for our country but pray we must. Personal piety is a worthy topic that we all need but when it is only a foxhole, we shall all answer for our misdeeds.

Respectfully,

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

        

 

    

 

 

Why Not?

God created our world and all the galaxies.  Our world was created just as God had planned and wanted to happen, ours is the planet of dreams and disunity, the green spot of boundless dreams and fractured reality.  Designed and gifted with freedom from this creative process, we are here to experience the price of that freedom, irrecoverable or irreversible disunity.  Salvation, then, is the acceptance of this divine order and the undertaking of an eternity search that will be unifying. Evil is merely the under side of the two sided coin of freedom. 

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca  

 

Disunity

Sin is disunity.  We can invent a host of other definitions for the word sin but all seem to be religiously or culturally bound. The definition of sin as disunity seems to have a much broader reach and it still fits the biblical story.  God is in a covenant (written) relationship with we humans and that relationship, from God’s angle, has a dual focus. The agreement is to be worked out with the individual and the covenant becomes a promise to all that God will accomplish pure unity for the human species. As God sees it, there can be no exceptions. Unity is total inclusion.

What must 100% pure unity feel like?  Who knows?  We only know personal, religious, political and cultural disunity.  Ours ancestors will never live in a sinless world. Like it or not, every relationship on this earth is fraught with compromise, therefore, we shall ever be a ship out of the water.  This qualifies as a pessimistic understanding of who we are and the truth does hurt, however, let us buckle up and take it like a man (adult).   

Could it be that we will never recognize Unity until we have experienced disunity?  If this be the case, God has created just the right environment here on earth.  Welcome aboard.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

 

 

Picking

St. Mark’s Gospel says that Jesus became God at his baptism as he begins his earthly mission.

St. Matthew’s Gospel says that Jesus became God at his birth cementing the new Jesus gospel with the historic Hebrew divine revelation.

St. Luke’s Gospel says that Jesus became God at his resurrection opening the non Jewish world to also hear the Jesus good news.

St. John’s Gospel says that Jesus was and is the always God.

Pick your poison, can they all be true?

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA

 

 

Sin

Sin is disunity, our fractured reality. How does it work for you and yours?

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA

 

Mixers Stew

Some people accept as truth just what they are told.  Some people accept as truth nothing they are told. Then there are the mixers, those of us who find the ingredients everywhere, mixing them together with a little heat to cook a hopefully tasty truth stew.  These are the interesting people but they tend not to fit our popular labels.  It is so with Jacob Boehme, medieval mystic theologian and cobbler who found God in everything.

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA

Unity

“The Key, or Clavis & Confessions”, Jacob Boehme, 2018, p.7. 

“He (God) is the eternal unmeasurable Unity.” God is the only original.

If all things began in Unity and if this Unity is all powerful, does it not follow that all things will be eternally united again?  Unity is the very definition of eternity. May it all be so. (Jacob Boehme does not project to this possible eventuality) gg

G.Goslaw

Landers, Ca

Praising

Karen Akins Goslaw celebrated every Easter Sunday with the greeting that was her joyful praise, “He is Risen”!  On this Easter Sunday of 2024 we join that eternal chorus with her for indeed, he is risen.  I must confess to only catching a glimpse of what was in her heart.  Karen lived with the belief that, based on her certainty of the empty grave, that we can live toward others with a sense of irrational optimism.

Karen was a people person, believing the best of everyone and leaving the rest for further study as in the application of God’s grace. One has to be a little crazy to live with that trusting spirit toward people since our world, over the last 28 years, has gotten even darker. Regardless, Karen showed us all that it can and should only be routine because Jesus rose from the grave!

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca   

        

Pillow talk

Some years ago, the Manson Family viciously murdered five white people in Los Angeles. The motive as told to us by Charles Manson was to start a race war, specifically targeting the Black Panthers.  Fifty-five years later, there is another such conspiracy underfoot. The Democrats, lead by President Biden and engineered by former president Barak Obama, are pushing all the race buttons they can find to start a race war in America.  The rhetoric is insulting, demonizing all white people and the MAGA movement, which is, in their minds, white. It is pure and simple race baiting.

This overt alienation of a sector of the voting public is unprecedented in American politics and can have only one motive. The Democrats will do anything to prevent a President Trump's victory in November, including exciting a race war.  Such violence would justify declaring Martial law and subjugating America.  Biden’s defense department and justice department and FBI  will co-operate, We shall become a police state.  The Supreme Court would be ignored.  All that is needed is right violent excuse enabling O'bama to suspend or kill our America. The covid suspension of our freedoms was just the trial run.

Can't happen?  What about the oath taken to support the Constitution?  Wake up America, sleepy time is over.  Our leftist, government first politicians despise the Constitution, they despise America and they despise a free people. Can't happen? 

Just one little spark is all the excuse Barack and friends need.

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA

   

listen

I am the man with a God given message for this hour, if you listen, the message will be a gate through which you can access eternity. (Jesus, St. John 10)

G. Goslaw

Landers, ca

Crowing

So now Mexican President Obrador is telling America that his country will not take back deported illegal aliens under any circumstances.  Really?  You, Mr. President, have co-operated with Bidens open border policy, enriching the cartels and if the truth be told, your pockets have been lined with millions of our dollars. Do you really want to play hardball?  Crow while you can but a rooster, you are not.

Once before Mexico got huffy with President Trump.  In six months, our rooster, soon to be reelected as our president, Donald J. Trump, will be doing all the crowing.  Mexico will accept all deportations or President Trumps America will enforce a 100% tariff on all Mexican imports. You, Mr. Mexican President Obrador will then join the ladies in the henhouse.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca     

Words Matter

As human beings we all have the opportunity to pick our life yardsticks, to choose how we want to live our lives. Well, maybe not.  In most of the world, the picking is not the choice of the individual.  In most of the world, the wishes or demands of the government is the only real choice.  Yours and my wishes are irrelevant and laughable, you and I must plug into the system to survive.  Freedom is dead.   

America has historically been the rare exception, the America of our fathers has the yardstick of God, Family and Country.  The order of this yardstick is all important, God first, family second and country third. Most of the world turns this yardstick around to be country first, family second and God third. This means that the government is Godlike in our lives and can best make decisions for the individual.  This politics is the politics of personal destruction for we become like cattle to be herded.

The sad truth is that the Biden administration and the radical left of the Democratic party are at war with our national exceptionalism.  They are governing with the yardstick of country first and the people, primarily the American people are last.  How does it feel America?  Is the change not crystal clear?   When you voted for Grand paw Joe, did you vote for all his stuff?  Stuff like the chaos of our supermarket inflation, the chaos of an open border immigration policy and our failed international standing.

Entering this election season, it would seem that the Biden voters would only be those who are unaffected by this chaos in their personal lives.  Maybe they are rich, they must have job security and for the moment, they must feel our national space is irrelevant.  You know, those rich and powerful folk in charge of the herd.  Yet these folk, who are not the majority in America seem to be in a virtual tie with the Republican challenger, former president Trump.  Why? 

The only conclusion that can be drawn from this divide in America is that some of us are not thinking and being easily herded.  The political advisors to President Biden must be saying, keep punching those cows, it seems to be working.  Are the American people so easily manipulated and if so, how?  The answer to that question is the age old “bait and switch”.  Throw a couple of familiar positive terms out there in the conversation and then switch gears, silently redefining the meaning. 

The standard “bait and switch” has always been the word democracy.  Every communist or socialist country in our world uses the word democratic to identify itself but the word has a queer meaning to the political left.  Their definition of democratic is government first. The definition makes no sense but the new meaning has won the day worldwide over the last 200 years.

The Joe Biden “bait and switch” is the familiar positive word soul. Our president says that the election in November is a supposed battle for the soul of America, then comes the switch.  The leftist definition has nothing to do with our traditional understanding of life in America. The Biden definition has nothing to do with God or our destiny beyond the grave.  The battle Biden means is the competition between two, on the ground, political realities. A true democratic system that works for the people and his recently preferred government first system that works for the politically connected, the rich and the powerful.

Mr. President, define your words.

G, Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

 

 

 

Significance

Game # 9221389: Free cell Solitaire.  Won this game without cards to the boxes.  March 13, 2024 @ 0251. Whoopee! 

G, Goslaw

Landers, CA

Charles Barkley

Thank you, Charles Barkley for your racist words of wisdom this election year.  Your black brothers who do not bow down to the Democratic spinmeisters and want a Trump America, are idiots, really?  The other team is only idiotic if your team is smart.  Are you smart Charles Barkley?

Who gave the world the man made covid virus that made 700 million people sick and killed 7 million people (Worldometer)?  Even now, some people of some families and someone’s brother or sister die from covid virus complications, the crisis is over but the dying is not. Democrats, China and the illegal purse strings of Dr. (Mengele) Fauci, with their “wet market” blame game did the deed. Yes? No?

Four years later, who are the idiots, Charles Barkley? 

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA  

Beware!

Beware of the Republican establishment website, (httpswinred.cva). They are scamming thieves. I made a one-time contribution of $50 thinking it would go to support President Trump. Instead, this bankrupt fundraising website has been digging my bank for a recurring $50 contribution every two weeks. How can a political fundraiser treat its donors so badly and then expect them to vote Republican? 

Maybe, that is the point.  The Republican establishment wants Biden in the Whitehouse rather than Trump. Corrupt Washington elites, who funded Nikki Haley, want business as usual which means no Trump or America First.  Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel is finally quitting leaving the party broke only because they hate the leader of the people.  A Trump choice for the new chairmanship is imperative.  Former House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and McDaniel have quite and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell is out in November.  Yes, he has endorsed Trump but hopes for a Biden victory so that he can change his mind.

Who said politics is not a blood sport?

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca         

 

 

Story

Finally, finally and finally, I found a book that speaks of Jesus as if we were there, ground up, listening and observing the going’s on in Palestine 2000 years ago.  No doctrine centered thinking here.  The author tells us a story, in fact, the book is entitled, “A Life of Jesus” (1973), written by a believing and accomplished Japanese novelist, Shusaku Endo.    

Congregation, please don’t get into a tizzy just yet.  A novelist is a story teller but the story may be from real life.  A novelist wants the reader to participate in the story, on a human emotional level, not just to repeat a murid of supposed facts. The author accomplished his mission.

This book came in the mail and I jumped to the last chapter as the story of the resurrection is told to us.  Mr. Endo knows his Bible and is not afraid of liberal textual criticism, weaving a beautiful story.  The point of the chapter is that some of the disciples believed in the resurrection and were changed from being pliable cowards to courageous God servants for the risen Jesus.

Although the fact of the resurrection may not hold up in a court of law, the effects or power of the resurrection is proven in history as our world heard the news. The everyday, everywhere folk who experienced death at their doorstep every day of their lives began to question, maybe, there is a God who, somehow, can bring eternal life to us in the midst of our misery. The people must decide.

It is clear from his story that the author believed but to his credit Mr. Endo never says, because I believe, you should also believe. Mr. Endo gives his readers respect and the freedom to make their own decision. However it may be explained or remembered, the spirit of the divine acted at this time and place. 

Personally, I believe in the resurrection but that does not mean that I have to believe that God was on the cross, to me, that is an unnecessary leap of faith. Considering the world of 2000 years ago, where the lines between politics and religion were everywhere muddied, one can understand how many made that leap.

Where have I been for the last fifty years?  I missed, at least until now, “A Jesus Story”.

G.Goslaw

Landers, Ca        

 

 

 

 

 

Ears

The Bible is not a God totem. The Bible is not a rule book for living our lives although much of Christianity has these opinions which I have found to be short sighted. This places me in the minority but to each his own.  I have moved through these biblical understandings to another place over the many years God has given me. The Bible has, however, always been the grand love of my life and thinking. 

Please give me the opportunity to explain.  The Bible is first of all ancient literature written by a multitude of ancient contributors who relate their God understandings and experiences.  Yes, there are God inspired understandings within these pages but they are not all equally inspired by God.  Some understandings are, shall we say, ungodly.

I broke with the traditional interpreters some fifty years ago when reading about the supposedly God ordained final taking of the promised land under the supposedly God ordained leadership of Joshua. The Bible praises this genocide in the name of religion as the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham.  The Bible commands the slaughter. Is it any wonder that Moses, who saw God rescue his people without violence, would have no part in the genocide. The outer reaches of eternity are reserved for those who kill in the name of God.

Is it sinful to ask questions of the Bible?  Is it sinful to disagree with the Bible at some points?  Is the Bible not a place to have a conversation with God? Job had some very pointed conversations with God, questioning traditional understandings. Mahatma Gandhi, who preached nonviolence, took a long look at Christianity.  I am guessing but maybe he walked away because of the seeming duplicity in the Bible.  A duplicity that is swept under the rug by tradition. An honest reader or interpreter must ask questions.

Enough said, the upside is that the book is alive. The Bible is a hearing instrument.  You know, those God messages that are bombarding our world constantly.  We can hear from eternity through the lives and struggles of the people within these pages. 

Yesterday, I was fitted with my new ears and I am hearing stuff that I haven’t heard for thirty years. Stuff like the shuffling of my own feet or the bird songs from my front porch or the squeak in my chair as I sit at the computer.  If we decide to listen, sometimes with the aid of an instrument, we will hear the eternal words for us, in the Bible or on the front porch smoking the morning cigar.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca           

 

 

Peace

The miracle of miracles of life is the gift of God given peace that overflows us when we give up dealing with life from our own emotions and say to God from the depth of our being, we want what you want God.  I trust you.

(Sunday Summary: Bel Aire Presbyterian Church, Feb. 25, 2024)

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca     

Takers

The first part of the Obama’s plan (Agenda) is to wreak havoc in America and let Joe Biden take all the heat.  This is why we have had riots in the streets, an inflationary economy and 10 million illegal aliens flooding onto our streets.  The second part is to provide a solution to the chaos and the national discontent in our nation and among Democrats. 

That solution will arrive at the Democrat Convention, August 19 to 22, in Chicago’s United Center.  Is this not appropriate?  President Biden will decline to lead the ticket in 24. In desperation, the Democrat Party will convince and choose a second Obama savior, Mrs. Michelle Obama.  Michelle will deceitfully claim that all the chaos in America is Joe Bidens fault. 

You can bet on it!  I for one will take that bet, are their any more takers?

G, Goslaw

Landers, CA

 

WARNING

President Biden is not and will not be the candidate of the Democrat Party for President in 2024.  The actual leader of the Democrat Party and the man who has been pulling all the strings of the Presidency for the last sixteen years is Barack Obama.  Even when President Trump was in office, Mr. Obama lead the vicious previously unheard-of assault on the then president, Donald Trump.  Mr. Obama is the actual Republican target in 2024, we can forget about the bumbling fool.

This is not earthshaking news as everyone knows the truth but there is only silence about Obama.  Why are you afraid of Obama?  Why have we always been afraid of Obama?  Could it be because Obama is a bullet proof black man who cannot be questioned like the rest of us? Republicans, conservatives and libertarians must correctly identify their target in this presidential campaign season and have the guts to attack. The few conservative leaning media outlets only want to talk and expose President Biden’s obvious senility.  Get over it.

The Biden agenda for America is the Obama agenda.  Republicans must attack the record and agenda of the master vicious politician former President Obama.  Politics is not the area for cowards.  The Obama agenda is a remake of America to suite the political ideology of his deceased father from African poverty.  Government control of all life decisions was the easiest fix under those circumstances of poverty but America was not and is not Africa.  In America, individual freedoms are of greater value than the bank account, that is why we have been a successful nation, the power of a free people.  That is how American was blessed at least to this present day.    

President Trump and all Republicans running for office must now go on the offense opposing the Biden/Obama agenda.  The Democrats want this presidential election to be about personality.  That focus worked for them in 2020 and will work again unless the focus becomes the agenda for America.  

It may already be too late.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

 

 

 

Review

Religion is about top-down thinking.  The 2007 publication, “Putting Jesus in his Place”, written by Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski, clearly illustrates this way of quoting scripture.  The book is a claimed defense of the God on the cross theology.  It is not. The book is an embarrassment to creditable biblical scholarship because it chooses only those sympathetic biblical understandings.  Frankly, in their read, there is no scripture that cannot be twisted and any opposing understandings are blatantly ignored.   

This book was written to counter the historical record of the four centuries following the death of Jesus.  Bart D. Edmans is the devil incarnate just because he told us the story of these centuries and how the doctrinal God on the cross theology came to be unassailable.  Believers owe him a debt of gratitude despite the fact that he is wrong to assume that this history disavows the existence or relevancy of God altogether. 

From their assumption the authors present a most one-sided case whose only authority is the Bible used as a proof text.  As has been mentioned somewhere else, as in this blog, this is biblical abuse.  If taken at face value, God as the trinity of persons, is no longer a monotheism.  The authors are not scholars, they are mass market profiteers whose market is we ill-informed church goers or former church goers.

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA    

Touched

It was never about the Promised Land; it was always about the Promised Forest.  The life of Abram was not about land, it was about the forest where there was no forest.  The Promised Land or Forest was the longed-for place to be found where Abram believed God could be touched.  The place where to awaken every morning was to awaken in the midst of the divine.  Abram’s decedents called this place a land flowing with milk and honey yet not understanding.  It would have been more appropriate, perhaps, considering the local, to name this place the desert flowing with milk and honey.  The contrast is stark.  Oh, the bondage of the literal!   

In either case, we normal humans would say, Abram was a little touched, to set off with family and flocks on a road trip towards eternity land. 

Talk about touched, what is our road trip about?

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA

Entitlement

We deserve nothing while alive on earth and we deserve nothing in eternity.  Eternity is not ours.    

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

Lie

Religion of every flavor, by definition, is a lie or a falsehood.  Religion makes the lie socially and culturally acceptable to the point that the lie is no longer a lie.  At least to a specific collection of peoples it is not a lie. You know how this world operates, if you tell a lie long enough and loud enough, it will be believed and become the truth.

The religious lie is that there exists in and out of our world, a supreme being or power that is aware of the existence of every individual earthling.  This God is ready to take action to benefit the individual person in this world and the next, a sort of buddy God.  Religion then becomes the gatekeeper and the toll collector.

Jesus did not tell that religious lie, in fact, that religious lie put him on the cross.  Religion kills to insure and further its own survival. Jesus said, if you want to know our Father God, follow along with me, have faith as I do, that he, she or it is available and wants to make himself or herself known to us.  Nothing in this world is of equal importance and if we seek we will find.

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA  

Respect

This one is tough, Matthew 5: 38-42.  “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth’ (religious Law of the O. T.).  But I (Jesus) tell you, do not resist an evil person.  If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.  If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two.  Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”

Spirituality is a very practical everyday choice.  Are we living to impress this world or the next? Could it have something to do with selflessly storing up treasures (respect) in eternity?  Ouch!

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

Thanks

Dear Dr. Larry P. Arnn

President Hillsdale College

Thank you for sending my 2024 Benefactor Card.  I am glad to make a contribution to help with your educational efforts to counter the secular agenda that is destroying our country and faith in the Almighty.  I am a fan and agree that there is no greater need in America.

Politics is not the answer, as you say, freedom is the answer.  The freedom to think and speak your own personal beliefs whether or not anyone else may agree.  Every freedom believer, young and old, must be able to give a reason for their faith in God and their faith in America.

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to share in a small way.

G.Goslaw

Landers, CA.

 

Flies

The flies have gone as the temperature dips to freezing.  This has been a terrible year for sitting on the porch because of those pesky little scavengers. There must be a relationship between the flies and the moisture that comes to us from the heavens, our water reserves have returned to normal in southern California.  Draught is no longer newsworthy. 

The fly is associated with death and rightfully so, they process the dead. Flies have this positive mission or purpose in nature but that knowledge is little comfort when they make the out of doors uninhabitable. Fly swatting is a daily endless chore in summertime Landers.  When not swatting flies, we retirees also have some free time to ponder the certainty of death. It kind of goes along with old age as our death awareness factor reaches for the heavens.

The Egyptian Pharaohs 5000 years ago had only one fear, losing their unearned status as kingmakers when they die.  Death was the only adversary they could not slay.  Claiming to have all powerful God status they forced the people to build for them huge buildings of stone to house their remains after they die. These were the pyramids of the Pharaohs.  So certain were these God Pharaohs about their future reign in eternity that trophies, riches, spirits, food, servants and wives were entombed along with their lifeless remains.

This is a sad way of dealing with death but is it not understandable?  Is our heavenly language not a scheme to avoid the certainty of death?  Do we not expect and anticipate a heavenly reunion with the choir, family and friends?  I know, we are in uncharted territory here and to some extent any scheme is open to criticism.  As much as we would like to believe, no one has come back from death to tell us what is on the other side.  Yes, there are claims of near-death experiences but these understandings seem very familiar.

Death is the end. That is the truth.  Death is the end of dealing with the uncertainties and the injustices of our world.  Death is the end of the survival at any cost imperative.  Jesus was just as blunt when a prospective disciple begged for time off to bury his father.  Jesus said. “Let the dead bury the dead”.  One can criticize Jesus for a lack of empathy toward the prospect but Jesus knew that as much as death is an ending, out there in this world and beyond is a reality more important than nursing ours or others endings.

As unpopular as this three-letter word may be, no other word fits our near-death life experience.  God is here now and God is eternity.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca

                       

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Freedom

Spirituality is in the eye of the beholder.  There are countless definitions, some are God centered and others are about what it means to be a spiritual human being.  Every month it seems a book shows up on the best seller list claiming to give us an accurate picture of our spiritual potential.  Religions of every flavor claim to have their own inside track to authentic spirituality.  Where or to whom is the serious seeker to go?

The message and teachings of Jesus answer this question.

Boundless …. freedom from the ties of this world.

Brokenness …. freedom from self-rule.

Blessedness …. freedom gifted from the beyond of eternity.

If you know your Jesus message, fill in the blanks.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca