Upward Thought

I have often mentioned the theme "sing according to the song of your heart." I have also made several videos on the topic of preaching the gospel in your own terms, receiving light that God sends to you from various sources, consolidating it, and rebroadcasting it in your own style, vocabulary, and contexts. I wanted to share with you just a few versions of this. I want to make clear that while I know and have corresponded with each of these people, we are all free and independent thinkers. I don't want to incriminate any of them as endorsing anything I say. All of these people have every right to disavow any view of mine, and I may or may not agree with anything they say. You might find some echoes of what I say in what they say, but you'll probably find them saying it better than I have, and they could have heard it right from the source, not from me. That should be a sufficient disclaimer to avoid anyone thinking any worse of any of them because of what they think

On YouTube, someone asked me "Are you an angel?" There are two principles I will apply in answering this question. Principle one: do not care for what a person claims to be, but what they do First, rather than using the verb "to be," we are better off using the verb "to do." Jesus is "that I AM," but when asked who he was, he instead described what he did. For example, consider that when the disciples of John the Baptist asked him whether he was the Messiah, Jesus did not say yes or no, but instead rehearsed the public works he had performed: 19 And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 20 When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 21 And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave s

All of reality is governed by laws of cause and effect. Insensible people choose causes that they have the ability to predict will not yield the effects they seek. Stubborn people continue in causes that have proved unable to yield what they seek. Here are a few relationships of causes that fail to deliver what is sought often enough that far fewer should continue attempting them. Things that should not surprise anyone: - When you never say no to your kids, and they end up entitled. - When you don't require your child to work, and they end up unemployed or lousy employees. - When you feed your child anything they want, and they end up obese. - When you send your kid to public school, and they end up with mental and/or emotional dysfunction. - When you remain aloof from teaching you child the timing and details of wise spouse selection, and they marry an idiot. - When your child marries an idiot, and then gets divorced, or is too poor to have children or have mom stay home, or all o

I made a video on this topic.

I posted this  this video before . I was just thinking on some observations about a group of things. The wheat and the tares are planted together at the same time, albeit from different sources. At the time of planting, a seed just looks like a seed. Even when they sprout, they are indistinguishable. I have shared this before, but I will tell it slightly differently now: the Lord once came to me with his hands cupped together, holding a bunch of seeds. He said, "what kinds of seeds are these?" I said, "I don't know." He said, "how would you find out?" I said, "by planting them and seeing what grows." He said, "so it is with all mankind. You can't know who they really are until you incrementally offer them better things over time." It is amazing to me to reflect on my time here, thinking about all the situations where a difference was made between undifferentiated things: an idea, a set of ideas; a person, a group of people; a th

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With the help of google, I was trying to reconstruct a long-lost memory of a choir teacher I had in elementary school. Apparently, a more modern artist made a song with similar lyrics to the ones I was unsuccessfully searching for. Here's gem a found on the way: When it comes to life, almost everyone is like almost everyone: bland, monotonous, drab. In a world of lackluster people, be the girl in the pink . All of those kids are singing "nothing is going to steal my joy," but it seems to me only one of those kids believes it. As disciples of Christ, we have a rich inheritance that is designed to stretch us in every direction, as Jesus was stretched figuratively in life and literally in death. The call to us it follow him, replicating in the details of our own lives the same qualities of his. This pulls us in many directions at once until and unless we come to discover and experience the unity in Christ, who draws together all things in himself. Certainly included in the p