THE RAIN

There are tears:
of joy,
from pain,
for sorrow.
There is the rain?
I laughed so hard,
I started to cry.
Some dirt in my eye,
I started to cry.
When my mother died,
I started to cry.
Rain looks like tears?
Is the earth
happy,
hurt,
or sad.
Science says,
or
is
it
Simon says.
Too much moisture in the clouds,
clinging to small particles of dust
and
or
dirt.
Rain is released to the earth
when
the dirt ate to much moisture
and
got too fat.
Is this the same
LIKE
Some dirt in my eye.
Does the earth feel joy?
Does the earth feel sorrow?
It is raining today.
Did the moon WHISPER a funny joke to the earth?
Did the sun SHOUT: the people on your back is a disease?
Humans are like the earth.
We both live under the sun.
Gravity weighs us down.
We will both die one day.
I like to watch
THE RAIN

I not a protestant Im a methodist.

There is a method to my madness. It became clear when I read about John Wesley and his actions in College. I like to think his group was called methodist in jest because of the Saints Cyril and Methodius. Two brothers that spread the word to the Slavs. The term Slavish is a derogative word that describes people as of or beffiting a slave, being or resembling a slave. John and Charles Wesley wanted to spread the word to the poor. This is speculation not fact at all. As products of the age of enlightenment Greek Logic and reason where used to describe and understand the world. There is a point where science and God are on very different roads. The divorce of philosophy and metaphysics was a tragedy. Fredrick Neitszhe dispair regarding the divorce of science from philosophy is comparable to the divorce of philosophy from metaphysics. For some this does not exist. Reason fails and faith is neccessary.

I am not protesting catholism they are protesting me. In the book of Luke v 46 - 50,:

46 Then arose a REASONING among them, which of them should be greatest. 47, And Je'sus perceiving them the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him. (it is great to see this done at my church, but I try to stay away from children, I dont like to contributing to a kid going astray) 48 And said to them. Whosoever shall recieve this child in my name recieves Me, and whosoever shall recieve me recieves Him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great. And john answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Your name: and we forbid him, because he follows not with us. 50 And je'sus said to him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.

The problem I see with humanity at that time and today is the use of human resoning, I would say greek logic. A major purpose of greek logic is to catergorize items and determine their value. The disiciples used logic. Overall, the human condition (we suffer so we turn to evil to cure this suffering instead of turning to god threw christ), leads to us to believe we are more than GOD. To understand the greek logic allows you to see its failure. Jesus understood greek logic (JESUS IS AWESOME, thank god). I studied it, but not depend on it. Greek Logic breeds inequality while Christains faith nurtures unity.

I do things in Jesus name. I do forget at times to acknowledge him to others. It is not because I am ashamed, it is because to me, loving Jesus is like the sky being blue. I don't have to point at the sky and say it is blue it obvious. You have to be crazy to not live life in Jesus name. I got the Holy Spirit to keep in check. There are days when I am just on auto-pilot and the trinity is driving.

To me Catholics are like John trying to stop us from doing our Jesus thing. It is Jesus we Love not the church. They Love Jesus I love Jesus, You say potato and I say potatoe.

Counter-culture revolution

Taking drugs is one means to express your discontent with the state of society. Timothy Leary is a name that I heard many times as a child. "Dont do the brown acid." "Turn on, tune drop out." The sixties where great. We did mind expanding drugs that expanded our minds and spirit.

As a youngerster I found my belief betrayed. In the book "The Road Less Traveled" the author Scott Peck describes to people a way to raise children in a loving enviroment. This enviroment that he wants people to raise there children in is imaginary. Like most scientist, he is trying to create a perfect system and impose his idealogies on the masses for profit.

He is only reinforcing a belief pattern that is inherent in our society, the quest for the perfect world. Give a child the perfect enviroment and they will be successfull. First, one must define successful, moreover, one would have to define normal behavior.

I am biased, I find it difficult to accept a statement from one that embraces science and faith. A person can only serve one master. There are times when religion and science has been in accordance and times when they are at odds. We live in a time where science and religion are at odds. It is a noble task for those that try to bring harmonay to science and religion. Therefore, I will say that Scott Peck wishes to create a heaven on earth by creating well adjusted children that are prepared to deal with life.

I must say again, the drive for perfection is a misnomer. His ideas look good on paper but in reality they are lacking. First, any member that profeses to be involved in counter-culture can shoot holes threw scripture. I did use to wonder why the Holy Bible was Holy, because it had many holes in the logic?

Yes it is true, Faith is not based on reason. The holes in logic are filled by faith. Reason can be used to try to understand faith and fail but with faith one can understand the flaw in reason. The major flaw that I see is the desire for imposing perfection on society from a chalk board.

However, it could be argued that there is no flaw. It is the process of constant change from strong and weak that causes us to label things as flawed. We like strength but detest weakness. We have been taught to aspect "the survival of the fitest," The most fit human will die of old age or the strongest man can be beat by three average stengthed men.

A Christain that enters the world is not ready. It is good to have Christains that have not encountered the world, but to me they are not realistic, they hold a line for us. I would not want to change them at all. We have a choice as christain to remian home or go into the world, we have free will.

I have yet to find a self supporting Christain organization, meaning those in the world and gain from those endeavors give to the church. The larger the organization the more members are engaged in worldly affairs. I see the concept of indulgences creepin in, as long as you give money to the church you are forgiven for your bad acts.

The hypocracy that is caused by living for God and the world was my first step towards embracing counter-culture. As a teen ager, I was fascinated by the fact that a church that I went to had a pastor that drove a rolls royce. He was comfortable driving his expensive car when teenagers where dying on the streets to get expensive cars. I thought the money he invested in that car could help alot of people.

I saw Jesus for profit. Many others things I saw as I grew from young adult to adult. I flet that the world was in total chaos. Drugs are an effective tool to forget about the inconsistencies. Drugs are like an aspirin for a gun shot wound. They help to deal with the contradiction of our existence but at a stiff price.

The problem was not the contradictions with the world it was the contradictions within myself. First, I was judging the world. It is not my purpose to judge the world. God loves the world why should I despise the world. As a Christain I am not to judge others but that is what I was doing. I still do it, but I work on it.

I wanted to change the world and impose my beliefs on others. I was right and I knew what needed to be done. We are all unique but someone is always trying to catergorize us. I hated people telling me what to do but I was going to college to get skills to tell people what to do and have a plausible explanation for the actions they made.

I think the only one that has the authority to shape us is Jesus and his disciples. The list of disciples is bigger than the twelve apostles.

The more frustrated I became for judging the world the more drugs I had to take. I was an inconsistant hypocrite. The more you become a hypocrite the farther from God you are. God does not abandon us we abandon God. I stopped listening and wondered down some interesting paths.

Lucky for me I did not forget Jesus. You can put your self on auto-pilot and do what jesus did when you lose yourself. I have been upset with GOD, but I have always loved Jesus. He is my road dog. Unbelievers tend to scoff at the Bible as make believe presented to us in bad translation, but I do not care what translation you read Jesus words they are a cogent and sound way to live.

What is wrong with the good news of Jesus? I have no idea. I do wonder about the flood but the gospel never.

In western civilization we have lost time. We sell our time for pointless bobbles and junk. We lose sight of our inner voice and tune into the nightly news. We forget to read the bible and depend on anothers person views. I like preachers but I can always go straight to the word. When we don't like what a preacher says we find something to justify our actions.

Breaking one rule you break others. I think it says if you break the tenth commandment you are breaking the first. Drugs are a way to treat the psychic damage. It comes to point when you are in so much pain that drugs do not work.

I started whittling at the log in my eyes. I still have a splintter. To end this rant. I sat in church today and the Holy Spirit made me feel like I was on drugs. I spent tons of money buying marijuana to ease my pain. The happy feeling people go looking for in drugs is right there in the holy spirit free of charge.

Today, I know that being a Christain is the true counter-culture revolution.

Who is Jesus.

The giver of
of salvation,
by hip hop
hop scotching
his way,
singing
"ring around
the roses"
fearing not
TO BE
holding his hand
on judgement day.
Made without
the seed
of corrupted
men,
but placed in
the womb
of a holy oven,
bread of life
BAKED
by God Almighty.
A muslim should
tell you us
that story is true
not to sure about the jews.
but I love them too
not too sure about those HINDU's
they get me nervous
reminds me of withcraft and vodoo
Why bother,
Indian Jones knows what to do.
Complicated birth,
Filthy, smelly, and cramped
manger
around
foriegners and strangers.
Was it comparible to giving
birth in the big city
in the back seat
of a cab.
Harold's henchmen
wanting to stop
his reign on earth
given: gold, frankensense and myrr
WAS HE RICH,
WAS HE WHITE,
WAS HE POOR,
WAS HE BLACK,
he is definately a citizen
of the empire of rome
and a jew.
I try not to eat pork
on Christmas
and Easter
too.
Who is jesus?
no one really knows,
except the twelve
that are long dead,
but,
and,
even they
got confused
Judas swung from
tree
dropped his
bloody coins in the dirt
Peter said no three times.
Then ran to Rome
to start a church
I think Jesus words
are awesome,
they guide the thoughts
of my mind.
To tell the truth
I really don't know him
I was not at the table
when he broke the bread
and passed the cup of wine,
(I don't even like wine?
Am i in trouble?
It must mean alot more?)
I did not see him
hang from a cross
and I did not touch
his wounds after he was buried
for three days.
I do know the HOLY SPIRIT
and she and WISDOM
tells me it is true.
Jesus is the Christ
the giver of our Salvation.

All roads Lead to Rome.

Rome is death. The road not taken, is the road taken by another, making the road less travelled travelled by you and another. Regardless, death is waiting for all. High road or the low road we all will be pushing up daisies and becoming bug food. No matter, I still sit under the shade of my porch. To many acorns, bugs and pine needles sitting under the shade of a tree. I will always know how to get to my tree on the road.

I reread the poem "The road not taken" by Robert Frost. I think of Frank Sinatra and the song "my way." I can not do it my way, someone has been on the road before and will be on it after me. Oh, this me carving on a tree in those woods not clearly seen on that road taken. Lots of people been carving out here. This is when I just want to be enviromentalist and not carve on trees but give a human a light if they ask me. I will let them know unequivocally it is Jesus that lights all of these roads.

Why wait till it hits your front door.

The economic misfortunes in the United State has been occuring in a domino effect. The first time I heard of the domino effect was as a child setting up domino to fall in very pretty patterns that did nifty trick. I did not have many dominos for outrageous displays but I did like to make dominoes fall of a table into a bowl. Then their is the house of cards?



Overtime, I learned that the domino effect was a condition that represented the rise of communism. A state, once embracing the ideals of communism, would export those beliefs to neighboring countries and subvert ideals of traditional liberalism. The concept has proven to be true and false. The states created tend to be autonomous and not maintaining a central idea that controlled all communist nations. For example, communism in the former Soviet Union was different to those created in communist China.



The domino effect that I am seeing is the collapse of our economy from the inside of our country. The domino effects hits the the lower classes first then rises to extend into the upper strata of economy. Well the top end of the American economy can take an economi hit. For instance, if you make 5 millions dollars in the previous year and only 2.5 million dollars in the next year, the loss of a 2.5 a million would hurt but not drastically change an individual economic condition. However, If an indidual made 50,000 dollars in one year and 25,000 dollars the next that will surely devastate the person living condition.



The greater the loss of individuals in the lower branch of our economy has a more profound effect on the econmy than those in the upper levels of our economy. It may also be argued that the profits lost by the upper strata of our econmy has a more profound effects on our economy. Nash's equlibrium formula would come in handy to create a balance between the upper and lower.

The collapse of the economy is a domino effect! We see the occurrance in many cities of America. I have seen many abandoned industrial sectors of American communities. The largest I know of is the area known as the "Rust Belt." We are not very neighborly when we begin to see to dominoes fall. In the United States these dominoe fall in areas of class and race. Personal I think we are all humans. The lower a person is on the totem pole the quicker the eradicaition of the section of their economy.

"Am I my brothers keeper?" Am I being neighborly when I see large sections of our econmy begin to collapse and say nothing. Will prayers to God and petitions to the government address this econmic delima. What are we as Americans being taught to replace these sections of the economy that are being replaced.

I notice major cutbacks in education in my home state of California. Can we learn to replace sections of economy without being educated. How can an individual have morals for their fellow man when the Christian faith is being purged from the govermental apparatus the state. Many educated individuals do not need to take ethics and they become the shaker and movers our society.

What happens to the rest of the world if we do get our economy back on track? Will we allow our neighboring countries to have a bad economy while we prosper? The influx of illegal immigrant workers show the problems of letting countries in South American econmies become stagnant and not allow growth. This has been termed Neo-colonialism.

Recently, I have noticed our president attempting to expand trade with India. The exportation of jobs to foriegn countries are killing our economy. People starve and go without for profits to increase revenues for multinational corporations. The Christian businessman becomes an oxymoron in the pursuit of wealth.

How many more jobs will be lost when companies begin to hire the undesirable caste in India. What will they be willing to do to raise their lot in their culture. A doctor that makes 20,000 a year. A doctor mostly prescribes medication. I geuss I will be able to get real cheap prescription from indian doctors. What are the American people willing to surrender to help these individual raise their lot in life. Business people say they are helping these people so it is a good thing to do. Am I a good neighbor, not at the moment. The modern world makes it difficult to be the good neighbor.

The chicken or the egg.

As an expert political theorist and Christian I always wonder about the need for people to dwell in a city, to the Greeks a polis. Many Christians want to create a "city of light" on a hill that all may see the prosperity of living for God threw Christ. The problem I see, the more I analyze the problem, I notice that it is not Christ that causes people to flock to a "city of light" but the acquisition of wealth.

The true rewards of being a Christian are not tangible. Wealth is tangible but it is an indirect reward for living for Christ. I think at any point of time a Christian will surrender their wealth to further walk with Christ. Many people wait till their about to check out for the afterlife to surrender this wealth.
The rewards are a feeling that one has inside: peace, wisdom, freedom of guilt and others. The sun shines on those that do evil as well as those that do good. The good and the evil both aquire wealth. The Christian aquires wealth but the actions done with the aquired wealth can be used for good. The wealth that is aquired by the evil person can be used for good. However, since everyone is welcomed into the family of Christ then evil does not exist.
Wisdom comes in handy. To realize that evil is ignorance. The enlightment of wisdom sheds a light on the darkness of ignorance. However, when one is no longer ignorant and has the light, but continues to live in the darkness this can be considered evil. Moreover, that person that has the light but lives in darkness stiill has the ability to come into the light.
To have the light but to turn that light off and live in darkness is a living hell. A human can not have two masters they will always be in conflict within themselves.
A city is a light in the darkness of the wilderness. In that light of the city there is a darkness that makes a person prefer the darkness of the wilderness and carry the light within them self. Overall the city is a light that is born from darkness therefore no matter what is done in a city the foundation is not for the betterment of humanity but for the few.
One small example, a city is a hub for commerance. You go to the city for the things you want. To covet is a violation of the ten commandments. There is a profound difference between what one needs and wants. A Christian will provide the needs of an individual and teach them how to get those needs and the word of GOD. When it comes to want, what are those things a person should want. To seek the kingdom of God is what a Christians wants.
What comes first to need or to want? The chicken or the egg. In the modern technological world we have been thrust into the darkness of what are needs and want. There are things we do just to enjoy life and the creations of GOD.

I am led to look at the principles of a Free grace model that allows one to sin freely without losing salvation and the lordship salvation model that state those that are saved will emit the ways of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savoir. There is a combintion of the two with wisdom a gift from the spirit one will know where the two collide and continue to lordship salvation.