Good day, readers.
Yes it is i, Turk. (again, please hold the applause.)
So, yes i want to talk to you for a bit on religion. not on what kind of religion you should follow, because i do not want you to think that i am telling you to believe something, but instead, i think i am telling you to do the complete opposite.
It seems to me that now in the present time there are people that are always telling us what to believe and how we should believe it. I am not bashing spiritual leaders at all when i say this remark, but instead, i am talking the adults of this world who have chosen to follow certain leaders with a certain blindness. People who have stopped actually looking at what they should be believing themselves, and have chose to follow something that has been said to them, and so they take it and believe it. This is to all of those people. this will be a short entry, since i would very much like some feedback, whether is be from virgil or some other reader. Let me ask you a wonderful question, my dear friends. Would you rather be led without the knowledge of what you are following, or believe in something that is entirely your own faith, and that is something that you personally believe? That is what i am asking, pals. That is what i want you to answer. how do you want to live? in the fact that your beliefs is on something that you are told, or something that you absolutely, without a doubt, believe? lets hear some feedback.
Who you calling bud pal?
Turk
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Virgil on Politics
Just a little short post this time (maybe).
I find it immensely amusing to watch politics nowadays. It seems like every time we get a new president, the people on the losing side of the vote throw a temper tantrum declaring the end of the world because of the current administration's policies.
When GW Bush became president, we had the "hanging chad" debate, or even the anti-war sentiment a few years later.
Now we have this whole health care mess. I haven't been keeping up with the debate as far as the issues go, so I'm horribly under informed on that, but what really amuses me is the people getting into arguments and near fistfights over the notion of a national health care system.
*Disclaimer: as I'm under-informed, I don't have much of an opinion on the health care debate....yet. Stay tuned.
The thing that I have to laugh about is that the people doing most of the bickering and whining seem to be the conservative republican base (I'm evangelical and relatively conservative, but refuse to ally myself with a political party for reasons to be discussed at a later time). Now, most conservative republicans are, like myself, evangelical Christians. So, after watching this debate, I've compiled a list of hypocritical things that go on within this sect of people.
I seem to remember Jesus saying something in Luke 6:30 like "Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back."
Also, we see in Matthew 5:42, the famous Sermon on the mount, "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
So, let's think for a sec....Jesus says one thing, but the overwhelming thing we hear from the conservative base is, get off their lazy rears go to work! Cut Welfare! Now, I know the response, "those who do not work should not eat" However, that came from one of Paul's letters to the church, so that passage was directed toward the church, not the unbelieving public (which is becoming ever larger).
In my view, we need to be more generous, not just with our money, but with our time. The bible depicts God as "the defender of the fatherless" on many an occasion, and last time I checked, there are tons and tons of fatherless out there. Who cares if the government gives to the poor? Heck, let the government give more! Before we get into uproar about nationalizing health care, let's have some uproar about the retirement packages for career politicians. If you truly want to see what's destroying America, look at the career politicians. You won't get any true change until we have term limits on congress.
That's all for now.
Watch it, bud.
I find it immensely amusing to watch politics nowadays. It seems like every time we get a new president, the people on the losing side of the vote throw a temper tantrum declaring the end of the world because of the current administration's policies.
When GW Bush became president, we had the "hanging chad" debate, or even the anti-war sentiment a few years later.
Now we have this whole health care mess. I haven't been keeping up with the debate as far as the issues go, so I'm horribly under informed on that, but what really amuses me is the people getting into arguments and near fistfights over the notion of a national health care system.
*Disclaimer: as I'm under-informed, I don't have much of an opinion on the health care debate....yet. Stay tuned.
The thing that I have to laugh about is that the people doing most of the bickering and whining seem to be the conservative republican base (I'm evangelical and relatively conservative, but refuse to ally myself with a political party for reasons to be discussed at a later time). Now, most conservative republicans are, like myself, evangelical Christians. So, after watching this debate, I've compiled a list of hypocritical things that go on within this sect of people.
I seem to remember Jesus saying something in Luke 6:30 like "Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back."
Also, we see in Matthew 5:42, the famous Sermon on the mount, "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
So, let's think for a sec....Jesus says one thing, but the overwhelming thing we hear from the conservative base is, get off their lazy rears go to work! Cut Welfare! Now, I know the response, "those who do not work should not eat" However, that came from one of Paul's letters to the church, so that passage was directed toward the church, not the unbelieving public (which is becoming ever larger).
In my view, we need to be more generous, not just with our money, but with our time. The bible depicts God as "the defender of the fatherless" on many an occasion, and last time I checked, there are tons and tons of fatherless out there. Who cares if the government gives to the poor? Heck, let the government give more! Before we get into uproar about nationalizing health care, let's have some uproar about the retirement packages for career politicians. If you truly want to see what's destroying America, look at the career politicians. You won't get any true change until we have term limits on congress.
That's all for now.
Watch it, bud.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Great Choice
Ok, I guess Turk isn't going to post, so in the interest of keeping our readership (or building one), I'm going to move forward with my point of view on love.
Before going any further, I must add that my point of view on love is greatly influenced by the Bible, and specifically Paul's discourse on love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-8. Also, I want to apologize because this post does look a bit like I'm tooting my own horn, but the story I tell below is the truth, and I hope it does enlighten some of you.
After my first date with my wife, I couldn't stop smiling, or laughing, or singing in my car on the way home. That night, I thanked God for such an experience simply because I had a great time with a wonderful woman. I even said, "even if she's not the one, thank you so much for this experience, this was the best first date I ever had!" Amazingly enough, we had a second, third, fourth, and so on dates. While we dated, I loved just being around her and loved trying to find ways just to make her smile. I got really creative with it too. I asked a whole bunch of people I know for ideas, and was able to dazzle her with many fun dates.
One night, I was enjoying an ice cold beer after a round of golf outside my apartment. I was soon joined by my next door neighbor, who interestingly enough, grew up in France. She was an odd duck, but I guess no more than anyone else. We quickly struck up a conversation, and I told her about the girl I was dating. I also told her how my fascination with this girl had nothing to do with sex. In fact, sex was the LAST thing on my mind. We hadn't taken that step, and I didn't want to because I knew the consequences of rushing into sex, and didn't want to ruin our relationship. She then asked me, "do you love her?" At first, I didn't answer. I thought for a second. Then she asked me, "what if she told you tomorrow that she didn't want to see you anymore, or that she had found someone else?" I said, "I really really only want to make her smile and be happy, so I would let her go, and respect her wishes." She replied, "You love her, then."
Around this time, I had committed my life to Christ and was reading 1 Corinthians. I got stuck on the "love" chapter. I read how "love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked,does not take into account a wrong suffered,does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails;"
I was shocked to see that all of these things are how I felt (and feel) about my soon-to-be-wife.
I have an over-simplified paraphrase of this whole passage: LOVE IS A CHOICE.
Let's examine the passage at hand. Love is patient, kind, and not jealous. Right there we can eliminate the notion that sex = love, or love = sex, or that sex is even love making. In high school, we all (especially me) couldn't fathom this perspective of love. Nobody was patient, if the girl you liked went out with another guy, you hated him (and sometimes her), and you were insanely jealous of whatever guy she was with. That isn't love.
Love does not brag. Do I really need to explain this one, especially to guys?
Love does not seek its own. When I first told my wife that I love her, her response was "what if I don't feel the same way?" My response was, "It doesn't even matter. I just want you to know." The world would have you believe that if your love does not return your love, then you must wither and die most horribly and poetically, tragically alone and smitten by all. That's not how it's supposed to work! Christ commanded us to love one another as he loves us over and over and over again. You can't obey a command that is subject to how you're feeling at the time. Again, this proves that love is a choice, not based on feeling at all!
Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. Forgive forgive forgive. End of story.
"does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;" I could hint around this one, but in my mind, this passage speaks to people who have bought into the love scam perpetuated by society. You can read into this comment all you want right now, and trust me, that I'm implying everything you think I am.
"bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails"
Let's examine God's love for us. If God loved us in our society's version of love, then he'd have ditched us all a LONG time ago. Why? Because we have absolutely NOTHING to offer him. Seriously, even if you're an atheist, consider this. Let's say you're an all-powerful God, and your version of love is based on what the object of your love can do for you. Then, let's say you create a species of being in your image, perfect to the last detail. Then, this being rejects you, runs out on you, becomes infatuated with the idea perpetuated by another of your creations who has also rejected your ways, proceeds to destroy themselves and the rest of your created world because of their disobedience, then when you provide for them the Way out thousands of years later to get back in perfect harmony with you, they spurn him, reject him and murder him. Would you love a people like that?
The thing is, God chooses to love us. He chose to send his son to die for us so we can be reconciled to him. Christ chose to step down from Glory, take on all of our human frailty, model a true Godly life, suffer a cruel death made the most cruel death possible by the taking on the punishment of every sin ever committed, past present and future. Then, in the final defeat of death, God CHOSE to raise Christ in victory just so we, his beloved may be able to return to him and fear death no more.
God leaves us with a choice to love him. Could God have created us with the desire to only love him and follow his Word? Yep, He's God, for crying out loud! BUT, what good does it do to force someone to love you? Seriously, can you even fathom that happening? We can't force people to love us, and God won't force people to love Him. We are free to love Him or not, just like we are free to buy into society's "love", or live in God's love.
To be continued.... (watch it, bud)
Before going any further, I must add that my point of view on love is greatly influenced by the Bible, and specifically Paul's discourse on love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-8. Also, I want to apologize because this post does look a bit like I'm tooting my own horn, but the story I tell below is the truth, and I hope it does enlighten some of you.
After my first date with my wife, I couldn't stop smiling, or laughing, or singing in my car on the way home. That night, I thanked God for such an experience simply because I had a great time with a wonderful woman. I even said, "even if she's not the one, thank you so much for this experience, this was the best first date I ever had!" Amazingly enough, we had a second, third, fourth, and so on dates. While we dated, I loved just being around her and loved trying to find ways just to make her smile. I got really creative with it too. I asked a whole bunch of people I know for ideas, and was able to dazzle her with many fun dates.
One night, I was enjoying an ice cold beer after a round of golf outside my apartment. I was soon joined by my next door neighbor, who interestingly enough, grew up in France. She was an odd duck, but I guess no more than anyone else. We quickly struck up a conversation, and I told her about the girl I was dating. I also told her how my fascination with this girl had nothing to do with sex. In fact, sex was the LAST thing on my mind. We hadn't taken that step, and I didn't want to because I knew the consequences of rushing into sex, and didn't want to ruin our relationship. She then asked me, "do you love her?" At first, I didn't answer. I thought for a second. Then she asked me, "what if she told you tomorrow that she didn't want to see you anymore, or that she had found someone else?" I said, "I really really only want to make her smile and be happy, so I would let her go, and respect her wishes." She replied, "You love her, then."
Around this time, I had committed my life to Christ and was reading 1 Corinthians. I got stuck on the "love" chapter. I read how "love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked,does not take into account a wrong suffered,does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails;"
I was shocked to see that all of these things are how I felt (and feel) about my soon-to-be-wife.
I have an over-simplified paraphrase of this whole passage: LOVE IS A CHOICE.
Let's examine the passage at hand. Love is patient, kind, and not jealous. Right there we can eliminate the notion that sex = love, or love = sex, or that sex is even love making. In high school, we all (especially me) couldn't fathom this perspective of love. Nobody was patient, if the girl you liked went out with another guy, you hated him (and sometimes her), and you were insanely jealous of whatever guy she was with. That isn't love.
Love does not brag. Do I really need to explain this one, especially to guys?
Love does not seek its own. When I first told my wife that I love her, her response was "what if I don't feel the same way?" My response was, "It doesn't even matter. I just want you to know." The world would have you believe that if your love does not return your love, then you must wither and die most horribly and poetically, tragically alone and smitten by all. That's not how it's supposed to work! Christ commanded us to love one another as he loves us over and over and over again. You can't obey a command that is subject to how you're feeling at the time. Again, this proves that love is a choice, not based on feeling at all!
Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. Forgive forgive forgive. End of story.
"does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;" I could hint around this one, but in my mind, this passage speaks to people who have bought into the love scam perpetuated by society. You can read into this comment all you want right now, and trust me, that I'm implying everything you think I am.
"bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails"
Let's examine God's love for us. If God loved us in our society's version of love, then he'd have ditched us all a LONG time ago. Why? Because we have absolutely NOTHING to offer him. Seriously, even if you're an atheist, consider this. Let's say you're an all-powerful God, and your version of love is based on what the object of your love can do for you. Then, let's say you create a species of being in your image, perfect to the last detail. Then, this being rejects you, runs out on you, becomes infatuated with the idea perpetuated by another of your creations who has also rejected your ways, proceeds to destroy themselves and the rest of your created world because of their disobedience, then when you provide for them the Way out thousands of years later to get back in perfect harmony with you, they spurn him, reject him and murder him. Would you love a people like that?
The thing is, God chooses to love us. He chose to send his son to die for us so we can be reconciled to him. Christ chose to step down from Glory, take on all of our human frailty, model a true Godly life, suffer a cruel death made the most cruel death possible by the taking on the punishment of every sin ever committed, past present and future. Then, in the final defeat of death, God CHOSE to raise Christ in victory just so we, his beloved may be able to return to him and fear death no more.
God leaves us with a choice to love him. Could God have created us with the desire to only love him and follow his Word? Yep, He's God, for crying out loud! BUT, what good does it do to force someone to love you? Seriously, can you even fathom that happening? We can't force people to love us, and God won't force people to love Him. We are free to love Him or not, just like we are free to buy into society's "love", or live in God's love.
To be continued.... (watch it, bud)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
What is love?
I had given my brother the dubious distinction of posting the first topic up for discussion on our blog, but he has since neglected this opportunity, so it falls to me, the elder and wiser of our duo to pick up the ball and run with it.
Our first discussion is about love. What is love? (baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no mo, and cue "Night at the Roxbury head-nodding).
In my opinion, our society is being scammed when it comes to love. Everything we see about love revolves and screams about the short term when it comes to love. We are told "you can't choose who you fall in love with", or "love is blind". We are given programs like "The Bachelor(ette) which attempt to convince us that finding love is possible in 8 weeks (or, more importantly that love is something you must search for). We are even ingrained during the most volatile time of our lives (9th grade) with the idea that love at first sight is not only possible, but something we are completely powerless to prevent and can't turn away from no matter what(see Romeo and Juliet or the "Twilight" series).
SO, to begin with, I now toss the ball to my younger brother for his perspective on love, to give his views before I proffer any of my own opinions on what love truly is. This should get interesting real quick...
Until then, Watch it, bud.
Our first discussion is about love. What is love? (baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no mo, and cue "Night at the Roxbury head-nodding).
In my opinion, our society is being scammed when it comes to love. Everything we see about love revolves and screams about the short term when it comes to love. We are told "you can't choose who you fall in love with", or "love is blind". We are given programs like "The Bachelor(ette) which attempt to convince us that finding love is possible in 8 weeks (or, more importantly that love is something you must search for). We are even ingrained during the most volatile time of our lives (9th grade) with the idea that love at first sight is not only possible, but something we are completely powerless to prevent and can't turn away from no matter what(see Romeo and Juliet or the "Twilight" series).
SO, to begin with, I now toss the ball to my younger brother for his perspective on love, to give his views before I proffer any of my own opinions on what love truly is. This should get interesting real quick...
Until then, Watch it, bud.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
To elaborate on the personal offendings by opinion
Good day.
I am the aforementioned Turk (please hold the applause).
Please understand, dear reader, that the purpose of this speaking of the minds is not so that we CAN offend you. We do not, and we will not, try to oppress our wonderful opinions on you, and if at any point, it seems like that is what we are doing, we immensely apologize for our tone. Understand that my brother and I have not been raised to be politically correct, but we have been raised to respect other people's opinions. We may rant, we may rave (ok, there is no may in it, we will do that), but in the end, the only thing that we want you to do, my dear friend, is to keep your mind open, and NEVER stop thinking about the numerous things going on in a continually changing world. Oh, and please feel free to comment on us as much as you want. We very much enjoy constructive criticism. Just don't do it too much to my brother, because you may hurt his feelings. (again, there is no may in that statement, haha)
Who you calling bud pal?
I am the aforementioned Turk (please hold the applause).
Please understand, dear reader, that the purpose of this speaking of the minds is not so that we CAN offend you. We do not, and we will not, try to oppress our wonderful opinions on you, and if at any point, it seems like that is what we are doing, we immensely apologize for our tone. Understand that my brother and I have not been raised to be politically correct, but we have been raised to respect other people's opinions. We may rant, we may rave (ok, there is no may in it, we will do that), but in the end, the only thing that we want you to do, my dear friend, is to keep your mind open, and NEVER stop thinking about the numerous things going on in a continually changing world. Oh, and please feel free to comment on us as much as you want. We very much enjoy constructive criticism. Just don't do it too much to my brother, because you may hurt his feelings. (again, there is no may in that statement, haha)
Who you calling bud pal?
Topics up for Discussion?
Things we plan to discuss:
1) Religion
2) Christianity (have fun reading into why we have separated these two topics into two separate topics)
3) Society
4) Politics (or at least the modern-day Americanized version of politics)
5) Wild Card (pretty much anything else we choose.
Things we pledge:
1) We will not cuss in our posting unless the situation REALLY calls for it (and it seldom if ever does).
2) We will not marginalize and ridicule other opinions (unless our arguments against other opinions are so profound and convincing that the holder of such an opinion feels ridiculed or marginalized)
3) We will be respectful to everyone except each other. (we're brothers for crying out loud!)
4) We will not be ashamed or restrained in sharing the Gospel.
1) Religion
2) Christianity (have fun reading into why we have separated these two topics into two separate topics)
3) Society
4) Politics (or at least the modern-day Americanized version of politics)
5) Wild Card (pretty much anything else we choose.
Things we pledge:
1) We will not cuss in our posting unless the situation REALLY calls for it (and it seldom if ever does).
2) We will not marginalize and ridicule other opinions (unless our arguments against other opinions are so profound and convincing that the holder of such an opinion feels ridiculed or marginalized)
3) We will be respectful to everyone except each other. (we're brothers for crying out loud!)
4) We will not be ashamed or restrained in sharing the Gospel.
Welcome!
In case you're wondering, no my name isn't Virgil, and my brother's name isn't Turk. We're using this blog as a sounding board, if you will, for our various opinions on whatever comes to mind. Please understand that you might just get offended if you read what we post, and if you do get offended, you might want to ask yourself why. That's all for now. Watch it, bud.
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