Justification

My supervisor is writing an essay on Justification. I thought that I would take a swing at how I would explain Justification.

God created the world with a certain form and structure. At the time that mankind ate the fruit off the tree of Good and Evil, that form and structure became completely twisted up. Since then, mankind has been functioning within a screwed up form and structure that has a lot of nasty side effects such as violence, immorality and finally death.

Jesus is our living incarnation of the correct form and structure. He's been functioning within the correct form and structure for the past two thousand years (or throughout all of history? I'd have to say both.). At the moment that a person takes their hat off to the man upstairs through faith in Jesus and concurs with the message that God created a much better form and structure than the one that we are living under, that person is justified.

The paradox comes in when you add in the fact that everyone throughout history who ever took off sed hat was chosen before it all got started. This is only a paradox in a human sense because of the limitations of human logic. It was God's will, so he's got a handle on what's going on. He doesn't seem to use the word paradox much in his writing, but for us, it seems like a good word to describe the mind bogglingness of it all.

Once a person takes off their hat in recognition of the humbling reality, they are enrolled in the sanctification program. Sanctification is a life skills and experiential learning program that God runs and it's primarily aimed at the Justified population. The program can involve a number of corrective measures to aid a person in changing the way that they are thinking about things, such as forcing them to wander in the desert for life or giving them something that they really needed at the last possible moment in some surprising way or just about anything else that might lead the incumbent towards the correct form and structure.

I don't know if anyone has ever actually completed the sanctification program. Maybe some of those who have followed after Christ in being a martyr had reached perfection. I don't know.

Misery Is The River Of The World Lyrics

Artist(Band):Tom Waits

Misery's The River Of The World
Misery's The River Of The World
The higher that the monkey can climb
The more he shows his tail
Call no man happy 'till he dies
There's no milk at the bottom of the pail

God builds a church
The devil builds a chapel
Like the thistles that are growing
'round the trunk of a tree
All the good in the world
You can put inside a thimble
And still have room for you and me

If there's one thing you can say
About Mankind
There's nothing kind about man
You can drive out nature with a pitch fork
But it always comes roaring back again

Misery's The River Of The World
Misery's The River Of The World
Misery's The River Of The World
For want of a bird
The sky was lost
For want of a nail
A shoe was lost
For want of a life
A knife was lost
For want of a toy
A child was lost

Misery's The River Of The World
Misery's The River Of The World
Everybody Row! Everybody Row!
Misery's The River Of The World
Misery's The River Of The World
Everybody Row! Everybody Row!
Everybody Row! Everybody Row!
Everybody Row!

Poop Happens - From Geoff's site, completely appropriate

Story of how a good idea is born

Working in a fertilizer plant, I can attest that this is fact.

In the beginning was the Plan and then came the Assumption.

And the Assumptions were without form, and the Plan was completely without substance, and darkness was upon the faces of the workers.

And they spoke amongst themselves saying, �It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh.�

And the workers went unto their supervisors and sayeth, �It is a pail of dung and none may abide the odor thereof.�

And the supervisors went unto their managers and sayeth unto them, �It is a container of excrement and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it.�

And the managers went unto their directors and sayeth, �It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength.�

And the directors spoke among themselves saying to one another, �It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong.�

And the directors went unto their vice presidents to sayeth unto them, �It promotes growth and is very powerful.�

And the vice presidents went unto the president and sayeth unto him, �This new plan will actively promote the growth and efficiency of this company, and these areas in particular.� And the president looked upon the Plan, and saw that it was good.

And the Plan became Policy

And this is how Shit Happens.

A whole library of crazy videos about homelessness right here:
http://homelessnation.org/flexinode/list/1

The Effects of recent cuts to funding on homeless people

Everyone must see this!!!
Click here to see a video put together by Youth Skills Zone in Toronto talking about the work that they have been doing and the effects that the funding cuts will have. They seem to be talking as if there could be a chance of continuing the SCPI funding, but the story that I heard is that it's already cut. SCPI is also where the funding comes from for the work that I have been doing helping people find and maintain housing and doing life skills workshops.

In conservative theory, as it has been explained to me, in absence of government support, the people would take up the slack and help one another. So, where are these hypothetical people?

The truth heals, and sometimes it doesn't even have to be absolute truth!; an experiment in thought

Does a statement have to be 100% absolute truth in order to be helpful?

Not always.

I was thinking specifically about two schools of thought where this seems apparent. I am not an expert on Alcoholics Anonymous or on Buddhism, but with a great deal of arrogance, I am going to say that both of them hold to teachings that are not absolute truth and yet are helpful to some people in some situations.

First Alcoholics Anonymous: It seems like people who go through this program often have learned a lot of thinking that is very helpful to them but seems kind of unexplainable to others. ie, the idea that if you have a drink then you will relapse. This prominent belief amongst recovering alcoholics confuses me. I would think that it has nothing to do with the drink but rather the desire to drink. I would think that rather than continuing to believe that you are an alcoholic in remission and that you are only one drink away from relapsing, it would be much better to just find something better to focus your energy on, forget about alcohol entirely and become indifferent about it through the realization of the absolute truth that alcohol is not the solution to your problems or what you are looking for. All that said, some people find this kind of thinking very helpful and who am I to judge, I haven't walked a mile in their shoes.

Second Buddhism: Specifically I'm thinking about the four fold path that Buddha taught. I may not be reflecting on this deeply enough, but I don't think it absolutely true that life is all pain and all suffering or that all desire leads to suffering. That said, these can be very helpful meditations in some situations, especially when you are trying to find an escape. Quite often people who are trying to escape their suffering need to open their eyes and look around and realize that their is suffering everywhere and that escaping it is not a realistic option. For a person to realise that it is their desire that is causing their suffering can be a real motivator for change.
I've read somewhere that Buddha's four fold path was actually written out in the form that they would write out solutions to medical problems. I think that's sort of what it is. It's an early formula for helping a lot of emotional problems.
What about when things are going well? Should a person still go around thinking that life is all pain and all suffering and that all desire leads to suffering? I don't think so, but it's something to remember from time to time to avoid taking an escapist route. Ultimately, life is difficult and you're best to stick things out, keep a steady course and don't get knocked around by life's waves. Don't spend a lot of time thinking that your suffering is worse than other peoples or that there are easy ways to get around pain. Accept life's suffering and find ways to be at peace in the middle of it rather than running from it.

In my thinking, not every statement has to be absolute truth in order to point towards a righteous life.

For the record, I also believe that these types of non-absolute truths can be used by God to lead a person towards greater absolute truths such as a love for christ and other human beings. but that's another post so I digress.

I'm 1/4 scottish

(My last name's not Rattray though)
Super sidera votum = “Our hopes are beyond the stars” or “My hope or desire is beyond the stars”, on another site as "my wishes are above the stars".
If anyone is intersted, read about what all the symbolism in these logo's mean here.






Kind of intersting stuff to learn about, anyway.

Storage built for homeless staying at library

This was an interesting article. I found it searching for information on strategies for helping homeless people store thier belongings.

---

CHRIS WETTERICH STAFF WRITER The State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) November 7, 2006

Copyright 2006 The State Journal-RegisterAll Rights Reserved

---

Two Springfield homeless shelters and the head of the mayor's task force on homelessness are trying to resolve a problem for people who spend the night on the plaza around Lincoln Library - where to store their stuff.

Library patrons, including the homeless, have long been allowed to put their coats, book bags, briefcases and other items in a small closet on the first floor.

But the closet got so full that items were spilling out into a hallway, creating a hazard, library director Nancy Huntley said Thursday. So the library decided that only coats and hats would be allowed.

Huntley said the closet never was intended as a storage space specifically for the homeless, but because they patronize the library, they have the same right to store their things there as anyone else.

The library has put up yellow caution tape and a sign warning patrons of the restriction to only coats and hats.

The library did not permit overnight storage in the closet. Items left there after closing were eventually given to The Salvation Army, Goodwill or another social service agency, Huntley said.

A potential solution presented itself when an anonymous donor gave $400 to build a storage shed outside the Helping Hands and Contact Ministries shelters at 11th and Adams streets, said John Kelker, chairman of the homelessness task force and president of the local United Way.

A United Way staff member and several of the homeless people built the shed Wednesday, and it became available for storage starting Thursday, Kelker said.

He said advocates for the homeless met with Huntley earlier this week and learned of the new closet rule. He said he understands the library's position.

"We realized we wanted to offer an alternative," Kelker said. "We met with the leadership at Helping Hands and Contact Ministries, and very quickly things turned positive."

Still, some current and former homeless people outside the library said they fear their possessions will be stolen out of the shed.

Norman Adkins, 57, who was homeless until five days ago, said the people who live outside the library look out for one another and watch over each other's possessions.

"We're going to worry every day that people are going through our personal belongings," Adkins said of the new shed. "Here, we always have somebody walking in and out. There, we're not going to be able to watch our stuff."

The homeless at the library have been an issue ever since Ward 5 Ald. Joe Bartolomucci proposed banning them from the plaza, arguing that it's not an appropriate place for them because of possible sanitary issues and the fact that children and families are regular library users. The idea was shot down by the city council.

The number of homeless spending the night outside Lincoln Library seems to have increased in the past five years but has been pretty steady of late, Huntley said.

The reasons they prefer to stay there, as opposed to a shelter, vary from person to person. But many say they don't like the shelter rules or have been banned from the shelters because of substance abuse problems or behavioral issues.

Bill Johnson, 62, who said he has been homeless in Springfield for more than five years, said he started sleeping outside the library because he knows others who regularly sleep there, and it feels like one of the safest places in town.

Huntley said she realizes the fact that the homeless are almost always there makes some library patrons uncomfortable. But she sees them every day, and "a lot of people we have at least a nodding acquaintance of," she said.

"We all have that same feeling that this is not a good situation for anybody," Huntley said, though she added, "I don't feel personally threatened."

VISIT SJ-R.COM to vote on if the city should ban the homeless from camping at the library.

A different reason for not pirating

There is a completely different way of looking at piracy that neither supports the corporations nor the piracy. This was my logic for a while while in school, but it's only realistic when you have a shortage of time.

Time=Money
Therefore, if I don't have the money to buy the media in question,
then I probably don't have the time to waste on it.

Obviously, you don't see any anti-piracy commercial promoting this kind of thinking because they want people to have time to waste on thier media products.

poverty and church charitable status

There is a new motion being considered in the states that will require religious institutions to help the poor in thier community in order to maintain their charitable status. Here

some youtube videos on a piracy theme

I still really want to see some good unbiased information on media piracy and Canadian law. I've tried googling it and can't find anything that could be considered a non-biased source or any quotations from actual Canadian laws. If anyone knows where this is found online, give me the link please.

The logic in the comercials goes, "Downloading is stealing. Stealing is illegal", but how do we know for sure that downloading is stealing? This is generally the point where people say that it costs jobs and revinue. When since is something stealing simply because it costs jobs and revinue? By this standard, automation could be considered stealing.

It's neither illegal nor a sin to drink a cup of coffee (in my opinion), and yet there are a number of ethical questions to consider when drinking a cup of coffee.

The people who pick coffee beans are treated unfairly by corporations... heck, the people who develop software applications are, in my opinion, treated unfairly as well (but they don't have to keep working endlessly to pay off debts to a farmer for food or medicine.... they just have to pay back the student loan people. I digress...)

Just because there are some inconveniences caused by piracy for a segment of the population does not neccissarily mean that it is stealing anymore than it would mean that drinking a cup of coffee is stealing. I think that it might change things a bit if you are using pirated media to earn a profit. If the peice of media is really really good and it's something that you are going to make use of for a long time or want to keep, you should probably buy a copy and show your support. I think that where digital piracy changes things is that people become less prone to buy a peice of media just to find out if it is good or not. If the media is good, there are still a lot of reasons for a person to purchase an original copy.

Dominion Christian Centre of Canada

More evidence in favour of the Dominion Christian Centre of Canada.

They have posted a page of positive feedback that they have recieved since the w5 program aired.

I'm still sort of fence sitting and looking for more evidence on this one, but I still can't see a lot wrong with this group.

The only two red lights for me are that some people claim that he has discouraged people from associating with their families (this one's kind of a grey area for me), and that he doesn't seem like the perfect model of humility (but what pastor these days does?).

As I said before, even the most pacifist parents probably wouldn't try to kidnap thier child if they joined the army. People move on. How is this any different?
I do however, feel that pastors should encourage families to support one another, and not try to split them apart. I also see why a literal interpretation of one of Jesus' teaching would lead to the conclusion that you need to leave family behind sometimes to move forward with God's work.

In conclusion, I think that the proper response to a group like this is to support them in prayer. whether you like them or not... Just as you should pray for political leaders even if you don't agree with them because you want God to provide support and direction to that person in authority.