Daniel Fast - Day 15

Still at 271, BP is 100/64. Past the 2/3 mark last night. We had whole wheat spaghetti with home made tomato sauce for supper. Stir-fry and spaghetti have been the main-stays of this Daniel Fast for us.

Shoveled snow last night; this morning is 30 degrees colder (-9),so I'm glad we got that done before the cold front moved through. But as much as shoveling warmed me up, it did showcase just how out of shape I have become over the last 6 months. Too much sedentary living!

Church service last night was a prayer service; it was a good time of spiritual communion that I am grateful for.

Daniel Fast - Day 12

This morning's weight was 271, bp 94/72. We've gotten pretty much accustomed to the additional meal-prep time and clean-up, but since it has been tradition for the past 16 years to go out to eat after church on Sunday, this business of eating at home has been at least as big a shift as the American-to-vegan diet shift.

Note to self: Leave the nasty spinach out of the spaghetti sauce. It overwhelms the flavor of the tomatoes and makes the sauce turn a very unappetizing color.

Sundays, Pastor Todd has been talking about the role of the church. Last night's service was about the difference between what God has done IN us versus what God has done THROUGH us. He also said that if all of our prayers had been answered exactly as we prayed them last year, our families (and ourselves) would be much better off - but hardly anyone else would. That's probably true, and very convicting. We were not put here to flourish while everyone else fades; we were put here for a higher purpose.

This morning was the weekly Men's Prayer Breakfast. The boys and I went to prayer, but ditched the rest of the group for the breakfast part so that we could better adhere to the Daniel Fast thing. It has had some benefits other than the usual weight and BP that I've been documenting along the way - I do feel more spiritually attuned, and more convicted of the things that I know I need to change. And more willing to change. The "what" I know; it is the "how" that I am grappling with now.

Daniel Fast - Day 9

Up a bit today at 273.4, but the blood pressure is good - 94/73. My pulse is 76, an indication that I am very out of shape... Note to self - Do something about that!

Supper last night was chilli and Triscuits, then we did the grocery shopping for the week. Again, spent about $180 for family groceries - normal week is between $120 and $150 for us. So veggies are a little more spendy. And, since the supper last night didn't stick to the ribs quite enough, we had popcorn after the shopping.

I've been reading Dinesh D'Souza's "What's so great about Christianity?" this week - very good read, including a lot of history of religions and it addresses a lot of the issues that people bring up to argue against practicing the Christian 'religion'. Well worth the time invested.

Daniel Fast - Day 8

Yesterday, I was 274; today I am 272. I'm liking this weight loss. BP is 116/38.

Last night, we had whole-wheat spaghetti with sauce made from tomatoes pureed in the blender with mushrooms, onions, and spices. Add a side of cooked carrots and a salad, and we had a regular meal. Unfortunately, it didn't last - by the time church was over, we were all hungry again. So popcorn filled in the hollow spots. Breakfast is mostly oatmeal and fruit; lunch has been salads and leftovers - not sure what today's lunch will bring, because we didn't leave anything last night!

So far, I have been documenting mostly the health benefits of this diet - strict vegetarian and then some. But the real purpose of the Daniel Fast is to draw closer to God - and that is happening, too. Last night's service was a prayer service, rather than the usual Wednesday night bible study. It was a pretty awesome time, feeling closer to God than I have for a long time. And this is a good thing.

Daniel Fast - Day 6

This is why I never made it big as a blogger: Irregularity. Nothing to do with intestinal function, everything to do with not getting to this blog consistently.
Saturday stats: 275.4, BP 109/74
Sunday stats: 274.2, PB 112/77
Monday traveling
Tuesday - 274.4, 105/74

Sunday morning service was very good - Pastor Todd spoke of the difference between what Church should be and how we commonly perceive it. It was originally people-centric; we most commonly think of it today as an organization, a schedule, ritual attendance, and a physical location. Let's go back to thinking of it as people who have a relationship with God. The altar service was amazing; the spiritual implications of this Daniel Fast thing are starting to be very noticeable.

Yes, I know - it's not a "fast" if you're still eating. But "strict vegetarian for three weeks while you focus on the things of God" takes too long to repeat every time.

Daniel Fast - Day 2

After my last post, we had a snack of popcorn, with a bit of olive oil stirred in so that the salt would stick. Different taste, but very addicting. My lips are still 'tight' from OD-ing on salt.

Last night's supper was corn, beans, and re-heated baked potato. Pretty good, but we were feeling sort of put upon. Then Eric came home from work on his supper break, bringing baked Tostitos 'scoops' chips. After checking the ingredients on those and the salsa, we indulged, and I quit feeling quite so deprived.

I went shopping last night. I took Ryan with me since my darling wife (and primary grocery shopper!) was home in bed, feeling yucky. We spent about $50 more than the usual shopping trip, but we were stocking up on "Daniel Fast-Friendly" foods, so it was to be expected that we'd spend a bit more than usual.

We bought some 'experimental' stuff like Star Fruit, but mostly loaded up on veggies and fruit. This morning's breakfast was oatmeal again, but with blueberries, raisins, and bananas in it, and I used almond milk rather than fruit juice. Pretty tasty!
Stats: 277.2, 112/74 with a pulse of 71. I got a pretty good night's sleep last night, even though the alarm clock caught me on the wrong end of the sleep cycle. And my Sweetie is feeling much better than she has been, so things are looking up.

Daniel Fast - Day 1

This morning, I was up .6 pounds - before starting any Daniel-Fast-like behaviors. BP was 102/76, pulse 76, so insignificantly better than yesterday. All within normal variations.

Breakfast was raw oatmeal (I don't ever cook it...), but with fruit juice rather than milk. Not awful, but not what the tongue was expecting. Snacked on a few mixed nuts. Since my darling wife is battling "that thing that is going around", I offered to get lunch for us and the boys. Thursday is our routine shopping day, the fridge is characteristically empty today. Trying to find a Vegan meal when the house is empty proved to be a bit of a challenge. I found some tomatoes and a bag of salad - I located the olive oil and some white vinegar, mixed the two and added some pepper, minced onion, and something labeled "Italian spices" - details unknown. Made an acceptable oil&vinegar dressing. Added some Jalapenos to my own salad - not wise. But other than being a bit too spicy, it was OK.

Tonight, we shop for more veggies.

Daniel Fast - Day 0

I know that reading about someone's diet is as interesting as watching paint dry - but I feel compelled to do this for my own selfish reasons.
Tonight at 7:00 is the kick-off service for the church-wide Daniel Fast at Apostolic Faith Church in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The Daniel Fast is based on Daniel's three-week fast in the first few verses of Daniel Chapter 10. http://kingjbible.com/daniel/10.htm His fast ended on "the four and twentieth day of the first month" - which I assume is why Pastor Trapani selected the 4th through the 24th of January as the three weeks for this fast.

This morning, I weighed in at 277.6. My blood pressure was 111/82, and my pulse 80. I'm planning to keep track of the weight an the BP simply to document the physical benefits of this fast - but the more important aspect is the spiritual, which I will also report. And if I'm the only one who ever reads this, I guess that's fine.

There is one particular wherein I will not mimic Daniel in this, however. Daniel also refrained from personal hygiene for three weeks - that is, he did not anoint himself at all. I plan on bathing regularly... and you're welcome.

Javascript date as two digits

Javascript lacks some string manipulation functions that might be handy when trying to output a date as two digits.

I was trying to format a date as "YYYY-MM-DD" and discovered that there is no equivalent of right$ in Javascript. So I did it this way:

var day=new Date();
day>9 ? day.toString() : "0"+day;


If it matters, here is the code to render the date, making sure that days before the 10th and months before October include the leading zero character:

var now = new Date();
var month = now.getMonth()+1;
var day = now.getDate();
document.getElementById('date').value=now.getFullYear()+"-"+
(month > 9 ? month : "0" + month) + "-" +
(day > 9 ? day : "0" + day);

Why the Republicans are doomed

Bobo was an unfortunate child, born to unfortunate parents and given an unfortunate nickname. Because his parent's union was brief, and because they had little to contribute intellectually, he was raised mostly by the community. His body was not exactly deformed, but each feature tended towards the ugly side of normal.

What he lacked in brains, he more than made up for with hard work. Bobo lived with a traveling circus, a throwback to bygone days. He was up early, feeding the animals, cleaning up the grounds, and generally helping out wherever there was manual labor to be done.

He loved the elephants. He envied the handlers and their close relationship with the mostly gentle giants. For 50 years, he tended the elephants, carrying water for them to drink, and making sure that there was adequate straw.

One day, the ringmaster fell ill and died. The troupe that Bobo lived with was a close-knit group, and after a few generations had become somewhat inbred. This of course contributed to the posters that said "Bobo for Ringmaster! Vote Bobo!"

It was the accepted wisdom of the group that Bobo would be anointed as Ringmaster. After all, he had spent most of his life carrying water to the elephant. And of course, the common wisdom prevailed, and Bobo became the Ringmaster.

You can guess what happened next. Bobo had no Ringmaster skills. He couldn't schedule performances, he could not reconcile the differences between performers. He could not even make that snapping noise with his inherited whip. Performances suffered, ticket revenue plummeted, and one by one, the various performers packed up their trailers and went looking for another troupe to join.

---

The Republican party should not be a meritocracy. Leadership skills are not learned by endurance, but by experience. If you show up to every caucus, every convention, every lit drop, and every fund raiser, all that it proves is that you know how to work. Leading is not the same thing - that's why business is divided into management and labor. Each must bloom where they are planted.

I am a Republican, and I want it known that endorsing a candidate based on their ability to carry water to the elephant (a clever euphemism for supporting the party) is simply a dumb, inbred idea. It is group-think run amok.

In 1994, the Republicans stood Washington on it's ear with the Contract with America. Riding the tide of disappointment with "It's the economy, stupid!" President Clinton, Republicans swept the House and held a majority for the first time in 40 years. They then proceeded to balance the budget, at least for a few years. Then, the Freshman class of the 104th Congress set about turning into Democrats.

Power corrupts. Eventually, the Republican majority lost their vision and their memory of what they had come to Washington to do. And then they lost their seats. We need to take back the House in order to save America from rampant progressivism. But we also need to remember that even the best Republicans don't stay conservative for long after they get a taste for opium (OPM, Other People's Money). Put them in, but then flush them out before they get worthless.

And above all, don't vote for Bobo. A long history of carrying water to the elephant is not a substitute for leadership, integrity, and brains. We don't need strong backs in Congress, we need wise heads. Find one and vote for it, no matter the gender or the race or the party of the body that it is attached to.

If you don't, then the Republican party - and all the rest of America, in fact - is doomed.

How about this for a new law...

I just read about a wealthy man who stopped making payments on his house. He is upside-down in his mortgage, so he simply stopped making payments and is living cost-free in the house until the bank forecloses. That's a minimum of 6 months, probably more like two years because of the foreclosure backlog.

Meanwhile, the US Taxpayer is bailing out his bank.

That means a wealthy man who can afford the monthly payments is taking money out of our pockets to pay for a very nice house. Somehow seems wrong, doesn't it?

When the bank loans me money, their first collateral is my good name. They know I will pay the payments in a timely manner because I have a good credit score and I have some integrity. I don't just bail on a loan and let other people pay my debts. The secondary collateral is the house, because if they were wrong about my good name, there is still something of value that they can take and redeem to protect their other investors, and the taxpayer who is the ultimate fail-safe for the bankers.

I'd like to propose a new law that makes it a federal crime for a person or corporation to stop making payments on a taxpayer-insured loan when the borrower can clearly afford to make the payments. Since the risk has been spread to all tax payers, robbing from all tax payers by failing to make an affordable payment is tantamount to theft by swindle, and should be punishable as such.

"Taxpayer insured loans" include anything handled by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or insured by AIG, or made through any other bank that received TARP funds, or any other loan that ultimately will hurt the taxpayers if there is a default.

For punishment, I would suggest 25 years in prison (adjusted for the remaining term on the loan), and confiscation of all unencumbered personal property. Sell the personal property at auction to help settle the mortgage debt. Since the debtor will be in prison for the foreseeable future, they won't need that big-screen TV anyhow.

For corporations defaulting on such debts (and they do it with distressing regularity), the government should dismantle and disband that corporation and jail it's board of directors and every executive above the level where the decision to screw the taxpayers was made. Put some teeth in the law; too long the rich and the powerful have stolen from the masses using the law and the government as a stooge. Oh, that hurts the other employees and the investors? Yes. The investors took an educated risk when they loaned money to the company. The employees will be sold along with the division that they worked for.

Think what this threat will do to corporate culture. Suddenly the middle manager who proposes screwing the bank or the taxpayer is a pariah, rather than a hero. Integrity will increase. There will be a personal motivation for every employee and every stockholder to encourage corporate ethics. How is this a bad thing?

Perhaps I am too harsh on people who default on their loans when they can make the payments. After all, it's not their fault that the housing market plummeted, right? No, it is not. But it's not my fault that my son had an emergency appendectomy last year... but I still had to cough up the three thousand dollars that my insurance did not cover. It's not my fault that Haiti had an earthquake, but my tax dollars and my personal charity are going there. It's not my fault that Katrina hit New Orleans, but I got to help pay for that mess, too.

Being responsible and grown up means that you get to pay for things that were not your fault. That's how we are; we spread the risk. I don't mind paying to help after natural disasters. I don't mind paying for the guy who cannot get a job. What I have a problem with is paying for the mortgage of the person who has the financial resources to pay, and who promised to pay, but then changed his mind while he could still afford the payments.

My hope in asking for this law is that it will never need to be enforced; that the threat of consequences will deter people and corporations from demanding that all of us taxpayers foot the bill for their greed and foolishness. I may be a little naive here; perhaps there are people who are willing to risk it all to screw the rest of us. For those people, perhaps the Department of Homeland Security should be involved.

Who is with me on this?

The secret of prosperity

I've run out of text from the book that I once tried to write; it's time to move on to do some real blogging (not the copy-and-paste variety).

Recently I have been perusing a 2007 edition of a 400-year-old translation of a 13th century copy of a 2000-year-old document, and in doing so, I stumbled across the secret of wealth. It is something that anyone can do, but few want to.

Everyone wants money, and everyone who has it wants more of it. Most of us feel that we don't have enough money, so we fall victim to this scam and that program. We send money in response to various advertisements that promise to reveal the secret of wealth. And we do so with the suspicion that the secret might start out "First, take out an ad that starts with How to get rich..." No, that's not the secret.

But in these ancient writings, I have found the awful secret. The secret to prosperity is something that we've been conditioned to avoid. I know people who shun the very appearance of this secret thing that can, in fact, make you rich.

One of the reasons that the United States of America is in serious trouble today is because so many people make it their life's mission to avoid doing the one thing that could make them wealthy. The government for years has rewarded millions of people for not doing this one thing that could make them wealthy.

It started in the 1930s, when a few farmers were paid cash bonuses for not doing this secret thing. In the 1960s this program was expanded to include people in the cities, and has since increased to the point where the government spent $577,000,000,000 dollars just in 2009 to keep people from taking advantage of the one thing that could make them truly wealthy.

$577 billion dollars was about 4% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product for 2009. That means that out of every dollar's worth of goods that you produced, four cents went into a program that helps people to avoid wealth! How incredibly stupid is that?

You've read far enough. It's time to reveal the age-old secret to wealth that people have been trying to avoid. I'm not asking you to send me money, I'm going to tell you the secret for free. Be advised, however, that the secret to wealth is a four-letter word. This is not for the faint of heart - but for the few who have studied and perfected it's techniques, the rewards have been stunning.

Bill Gates does it. Warren Buffet does it. The CEO of IBM got there by doing it. And you can do it too - if you are willing to put aside your very natural aversion to it. Most people who do it freely admit that they will only do it as long as they absolutely have to, and they look forward to the day when they won't have to do it any more. We pity the poor fools who become addicted to it, and vow never to become one of them. It really is that bad.

Ready?

Here it is.

The secret to prosperity is . . .

Work.

That's right; I said it. Right out loud (as I was typing). I'm not ashamed of it. I enjoy it. And I look forward to doing it for as long as I can.

In the New Living Translation, Proverbs 13:4 says "Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper"

There you have it - from God's word to your eyes - the secret to prosperity is work. There are no shortcuts. Now, close the browser and go do some of it. That's what I'm about to do.

The book, chapter 4

Why we believe

Belief and faith go hand in hand; they are both translated from the same Greek word. Which English word is used to translate πίστις is largely a matter of context. Even though the same Greek word is used, in English ‘Faith’ is something that we have; ‘Believe’ is something that we do.

So why do we do it?

Predicting the future

God has created our brains to perform calculations at a rate that defies measurement. One of the things that the brain is good at is predictive reasoning. This is what makes driving possible – if you could not predict the motion of the other cars at an intersection, there would be far more crunched fenders.

Early in life, we learn to associate “hot” and “pain” by experiencing the two in close proximity. Some people learned to connect these two ideas by having their hands slapped as they reached for the hot stove. Others learned by actually touching the stove.

Similarly, we learn to associate grief with loss, pleasure with sugar, and certain unruly behaviors with severe tongue-lashings. In time, we develop the ability to predict the outcome of an action without having to experience it directly. I remember a childhood friend describing sliding down a razor blade into a pool of lemon juice – even though I am positive that he never had such an experience. Yet both of us made the expected noises and I know I shudder still at the thought. I cannot honestly imagine the pain that might ensue, but I can draw from other painful experiences in my life and extrapolate what it might be like.

The forcefulness of the predictive image is directly related to the seriousness of the consequences. When I was about ten years old, my Dad took the family in our four-wheel-drive pickup truck up a just-barely road to see a marble quarry in Colorado. As my four year old brother raced on ahead to see this wonderful site, a lady grabbed him by the arm and halted his progress. She looked at my parents and explained, “There is a drop-off there with no guard rail, and a patch of ice right before it.”

When we got to the edge of the quarry, there was indeed about a 50-foot drop straight down to a solid stone floor. And there was a frozen puddle about ten feet across just at the rim of the quarry. To this day, I still shudder at what could have happened there that morning. In my mind’s eye, I can still see my brother’s green sweater and the white marble with red streaks through it, the black ice, and the long drop to the stone below. Even though no accident befell us, the predictive ability of the brain clearly saw a dire consequence and imprinted these images where they will not be forgotten.

When things do not work out as our brains predict, we look for another explanation so that we can refine the process of predicting the immediate future. For example, experience teaches us that the cost of the things we buy will continue to go up in relatively small increments. When we see a price drop, we need to know why. Sales and negotiated discounts are familiar explanations, so they are included in the model of reality that the brain uses to predict the future. There are some products that defy the trend, like consumer electronics. So we add a clause to the mental rule, saying that prices go up, except for sales, model year closeouts, and computers.

Eventually, we develop a highly refined sense of how the immediate future should look. Little surprises us, because we have vast experience and a million corrective clauses to adjust a thousand situational rules. You might even say that we have faith that the near future will look pretty much like our predictions. And, for the most part, we are right.

So believing is, in part, based on those sets of rules that we have constructed from years of experience. Are those rules set in stone?

No, they are always fluid, because we are always finding new ways to tweak the rules that we use to predict the future. So when something does not quite fit the pattern we have imagined, it is no big deal. We revise the rule and keep moving on. If something is dramatically different than our predictions, that causes a little pain, because we have to totally re-examine the rules and all the little corrective sub-rules that explain things.

Superstition and magic are things that humans have invented because someone built a bad set of predictive rules, and those rules were seriously violated. If you break a mirror and there follows a string of ‘bad luck’, it is sometimes easier to add a rule to your predictive model that says “If you break a mirror, you get seven year’s bad luck” than to consider that breaking a mirror is nothing more than breaking a mirror. And of course, having heard the old superstition repeated often enough, some of us start cataloging all the bad stuff that follows a broken mirror as proof of the theorem. It becomes self-fulfilling prophecy.

Superstition is reinforced by inaccurate score-keeping. By being selective about what we define as ‘bad luck,’ we choose to reinforce the superstition rather than weaken it. Mental discipline can use this tendency to move in the opposite direction. By an act of will, we can choose to define broken mirrors and black cat path-crossings as simply ignorant beliefs of the superstitious. Having done so, we can choose to see how much good luck follows a broken mirror, and further weaken the grip that the superstitions have on our predictive reasoning.

It is this mental discipline that is all too often lacking in today’s busy world. “If you make people think they are thinking, they will love you. If you really make them think, they will hate you.” That quote is variously attributed to Paul Gaugin, Mark Twain, Don Marquis, Arthur Costa, Plato, and Aristotle. Whoever said it, it seems self-evident to me.

We love to think that we are thinking; it is the sort of bad score-keeping that allows us to believe that we are smarter than the average picnic basket. However, Paul reminded “…every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think…” (Romans 12:3). In context, Paul was speaking of getting puffed up about how much faith we have, rather than how much intelligence, but the same principle should apply.

Thinking can be hard work. It requires setting aside preconceived notions and telling that prediction engine to chill out and prepare to accept new information. This sort of thinking requires some uninterrupted time. When I am driving, my brain is furiously anticipating all the stupid moves that the other idiots on the road could make. I just know that half of the oncoming drivers are yakking on their cell phones, and another thirty percent are otherwise distracted. My mental energies are directed at keeping an escape route open. Sometimes, I am so wrapped up in how the other drivers could do something stupid that I do something stupid myself. This of course, reinforces the belief that all drivers – myself included - are just disasters waiting for the right opportunity. So I do not find that driving is a good time to ponder the deep philosophical issues of the day. I am too busy surviving to think clearly; I let the predictive engine run wide open.

Time to think
In our interrupt-driven world, there is rarely a time when we can focus on one thought for any length of time. Our attention spans have become shorter as our access to information has expanded exponentially. News sources feed us carefully filtered facts designed to lead us to some conclusion. Talk radio hands us our opinions fully formed and mocks the contrarian opinions of the many callers. Every Web site is a sub-set of information designed to convince us of something.

If you notice, there seems to be a defining theme for each time period. The late 90’s we were taught to fear the anarchy that would result from the Y2K computer crisis. No sooner was that fear safely past than September 11th, 2001 issued in a crisis so that we could fear terrorists. Not long after the Department of Homeland Security had been established, we had to go to war because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. After the American people wearied of hearing about the war, suddenly the price of oil doubled, raising prices at the pump dramatically. As I write this, the unthinking masses are being herded into pressuring Congress to open up costal waters and the Alaskan reserve so that we can drill for oil in those areas.

Sometimes, I stop to catch my breath. It is exhausting being stampeded from one opinion to another; I need to get some time alone to think.

Consider what this means. Shut out the world for a while, quiet the voice inside your head that bounces from topic to topic like a sugared-up toddler in a toy store. Slow your breathing, relax your muscles, and focus on one thought for a minute. Taking time to think is a lot like praying.

Jesus talked about entering our ‘closet’ of prayer in Matthew 6:6: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret…” This closet is an inner sanctuary where we can be alone with God. In our world, this may not be a physical location so much as a behavioral practice.

Communion with God is a good place to examine our preconceived notions. Ask Him if the future really has to be as we anticipate it. Discuss current events with your heavenly Father and seek His opinions on the things that we are being fed. But above all, be aware of that predictive engine running in your brain and challenge its rule set. Because those rules often take the place of thinking; we simply make assumptions about the future and wait for them to be validated.


Inhibitor to faith?

This amazing predictive ability of the brain is what prevents us from enjoying faith to the fullest. Because we have often seen similar situations and circumstances, we are convinced that the outcomes must follow the pattern that our predictions forecast. In a sense, we have faith that things will continue as they have… and so they do.

Thinking that all things will continue as they have is not an inhibitor to faith so much as an unintended application of faith. It rarely enters our awareness that expecting things to continue is a form of faith. After all, it takes so little faith to believe that nothing miraculous will happen today.

The opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt is faith applied backwards – doubt is faith that something will NOT happen, rather than faith that it will happen. For example, if I want it to rain, and pray for it to rain, and look out at the sunny sky and think to myself, “It’s not going to rain today”, then I have just put faith in failure. I have canceled out the effects of my earlier prayer by applying an equal amount of the substance of faith, but I applied it in the opposite direction. So doubt is a form of faith.

Fear is also a form of faith – a specialized subset of faith as a whole. Fear is faith in bad things happening. It has side effects like adrenalin fatigue, panic, or just a low level of constant stress. Fear is faith in personal harm, but it is a form of faith. Perfect love casts out fear because when we feel loved and protected, we are no longer thinking about being harmed.

So what can inhibit faith? Only a failure to think at all. If you can turn off your brain and park your body, you will have no faith. Other than that, if you are thinking, you can use your faith to change the world around you. For good or ill, whether we intend to do so or not, we do change the world around us with our faith. It is the way that we have been created.

The book - chapter 3

Chapter 3. The power of words

In the preface, I mentioned that spoken words control our faith. There is a relationship between faith and words; in this chapter, I want to show you the power of the spoken word.

Creative words
At the end of Chapter 1, I called your attention to the way that God created the heavens and the earth – He spoke them into existence. Many theological explanations exist for the concept of “Logos”, or the Word. But rather than go all mystical here, I would like to stick with the literal. The things that are written in the Word of God are often written in metaphors because they are true on multiple levels – the literal and the metaphorical. Focus with me on the literal for a few pages, and then you can go back to the deeper meanings.

While I am on the subject, I have noticed a definite human tendency to go all mystical and metaphorical on many matters. There is a book in print called “The Secret,” and a movie by that name. The basic premise of the book is that that there is some mystical power in the universe that brings us what we think about, so by changing our thoughts, we can change our lives. The “Law of Attraction” describes how this occurs. And it must be true, because so many people have said it was true.

Logically, there is a problem with this. When something is true, it is true regardless of popular opinion. Well, not everything. By definition, the current President’s popularity is true or not depending on popular opinion… but I digress. For most things, truth is not dependent on mass opinion, and the book “The Secret” is built on the premise that if so many people (some of them even famous people) believe it, it must be true. I would rather cite scripture and admit that if the Bible is wrong, then I am wrong, too. My personal bias is to accept the Bible as the word of God.

Interestingly, the concepts in “The Secret” do have some basis in scripture, as I am attempting to bring out in this book. It is not true because a lot of people think it is true, it is true because that’s how God put the universe together.

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). King David waxed poetic and described it in Psalm 33:6 as “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” In short, all that God made, He made by speaking it into existence. Then He turned around and made man in His own image, named him Adam, and put him to work.

Examples of words at work
Throughout scripture, there are descriptions of the power of the spoken word. In Numbers 20:8, God told Moses to speak to a rock. “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.”

Side note: “Ye” is plural. The translators of the King James Bible spoke a version of the English language that is 400 years older than what we speak today; we have since abandoned the idea of singular and plural forms of “you”. So literally, God told Moses that both Aaron and Moses were to speak to the rock. They didn’t; they spoke to the congregation and hit the rock with Moses’ rod, just like they had in Exodus 17:6. In Exodus, they were told to strike the rock; this time they were supposed to speak to it. This failing later cost Moses his ticket into the promised land (Deuteronomy 32:49-52). When God says “speak”, we better open our mouths and say something, and when He says whack the rock with a stick… that is when we should get all physical with the rock.

Jesus illustrated the point about faith and speaking when He told the disciples that “…If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20). He said something very similar in Luke 17:6: “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”

Transplanting trees and moving mountains are given as examples of what the voice can do, when faith is present in mustard-seed quantities. Mark 4:31 tells us that the mustard seed is the smallest seed of all, so I assume that the amount of faith required for these feats is also small.

But faith quantities are not the point here; the point is that Jesus said “say unto this” mountain or tree. Speaking is the tool that our faith uses to accomplish the work.

Verbal utterances are given great weight in the scriptures; consider the following list of verses about talking:
Proverbs 18:21 - Death and life are in the power of the tongue
Proverbs 15:4 – A wholesome tongue is a tree of life
James 3:5 - Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things
Romans 10:10 - …with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Clearly, the tongue is used in reference to speaking, rather than licking things here. James goes on to describe the tongue in more detail.
James 3:8 - But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. (9)Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. (10) Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

Clearly, the strength is there – what is lacking is direction. Our tongues should be wagging for good, not for evil.

Words cannot be recalled
There have been some times in my life when I wished I could go back and un-say something that I had said; often because it was hurtful or untrue. I have found to my great regret that words cannot be unsaid. Sometimes, you can smother them with more words, confessions, apologies, and so on… but that is not the same as un-saying them.

Isaac ran into this problem when he blessed the wrong offspring.
Genesis 27:36, 37
And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? (37) And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?

When Esau complained that his brother had been blessed, Jacob lamented that the words he had said could not be recalled; the blessing was given, the words spoken, and the children of Jacob are still stereotyped as wealthy… they are still blessed with corn and wine. Not only were the words “no deposit – no return”, but they were “no expiration date”… The blessings continue indefinitely.

Even God Himself cannot un-say words. In Isaiah 55:11, God says “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” In Isaiah 45:23, He says “…the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return…”

Because words are so durable and so powerful, we ought to watch them carefully!

The book, chapter 2, part 2

What is it that faith does?

Faith literally changes the physical world. It brings about healing in the body, it changes weather patterns, and it alters the state of matter. Since it does these things, it may be useful to think of faith as an energy field that can be manipulated by human beings.

Healing is the most frequently attributed evidence of faith in action. The four friends who let the man down through the roof, the woman with the issue of blood, and other scriptural incidents reaffirm that faith brings about healing. Healing is also the easiest evidence of faith, or perhaps another way to say it is that healing costs the smallest amount of faith.

When Jesus returned to Nazareth, he did no mighty works; he just healed a few folks (Mark 6:5). The reason given for the lack of mighty works is that the local folks had little faith: “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matt. 13:58)

How does faith work?

Faith works by tapping into the power of God. The woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, and he felt virtue go out from him (Luke 8:46, Mark 5:30). The Greek word used here, δύναμιν, is more often translated “power” and is the root for the English words “dynamic” and “dynamite.”

When Jesus walked the earth in human flesh, He subjected Himself to human limitations. He made it clear that human beings could do more than He had done: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).

If faith is the extension cord that plugs into the power, then when Jesus was in his own country (Nazareth) where the people had little or no faith, He endured the same limitations as the rest of us – he could do no mighty works, except to heal a few people.

Some commentaries say that He was unwilling to do the works; however, the text says He was unable – the difference between unwilling and unable is significant. Jesus said that all power was given unto him (Matt. 28:18), so our expectation is that he had the ability to do mighty works, but chose not to; that’s not what the verse said. It said that He could not do many mighty works.

The word for mighty works used in Matthew 13:58 has the same root as “power” – the word is δυνάμεις, just a different word ending than δύναμιν. The word translated as “power” in Matthew 28:18 is a different word - ἐξουσία – which is also translated as “authority.” Jesus has all power as in permission to do anything; His ability while clothed in flesh was limited to that set of abilities that are common to humanity.

Because there was so little faith available, He could not tap into His cosmic power to accomplish mighty works.

Volumes have been written about the dual nature of the man Christ Jesus; I will not delve into that topic here. Since He was both the omnipotent God and a limited human being, Jesus experienced some unique things. One of those things, in my opinion, was that feeling of power flowing from Him as the woman with the issue of blood touched him. As God, He is the source of that power. As a man, He could only tap into that power through the same set of tools He provided us all with. Faith unleashes the power of God. It is not itself the source of power, but merely a necessary accessory.

Electricity can be harnessed in many ways; humanity has been able to make electricity flow through wires or through the air. We use magnetic fields to transfer electrical energy from one voltage to another; we manipulate it in many other ways. But without some conduit, some conductor, some medium for it to flow through, it is worthless to us. On a hot day, having an electric fan can be nice – but unless it is plugged into the wall, it can be frustratingly still. The power is available in the wall; the fan is available, but if the power cord is missing, the voltage is useless; it cannot turn the fan because it cannot reach the fan.

Electricity is a parable, a model, a metaphor for the power of God, and an illustration of the way that faith works. If God’s power is electricity, then Faith is the wires. Faith is what brings the power to where it can be used. Faith is something that we can get more of, just like we can go to the hardware store and pick up more extension cords. How we grow our faith is through the words that we use.

The book, chapter 2, part 1

Chapter 2. What is faith?

We use the word “Faith” in a few different contexts; the nuances of the definition depend on how the word is used. For example, we speak of “The faith,” as a reference to the set of Christian beliefs. Sometimes, we use the word to denote denominations within the scope of Christianity. Faithful can be used as a synonym for marital fidelity. And sometimes, faith is used to define an emotion of confidence – as in, “I have faith that his check will be good.” This last meaning – confidence – at least comes close to how the word is used most often in the Bible.

This book is not about those other definitions. It is about that often unexplainable confidence that something specific will happen in spite of observable circumstances. The faith that I am writing about is not dependent on a specific denomination, or even on a Christian belief system. But more on that later.

Faith is, of course, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It says so right here in Hebrews 11:1. But I have often wondered, what is faith? Is it a liquid, solid, or a gas? Is Faith measured by the quart, by the pound, or by the cubic centimeter?

Not knowing how it is measured does not make it un-measurable. The first reference to faith in the New Testament includes the modifier “little” (Mat. 6:30). The very next use of the word is a reference to “great” faith (Mat. 8:10). Clearly, if faith can be little or great, then faith can be quantified.

More is better.

In so many areas of life, we automatically assume that more is better. Faith is one of those areas where it really is true.

Look at some of the words of Jesus as he dealt with quantities of faith:

Mat 8:26 - And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?
Mat 8:10 - When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
Mat 14:31- And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Notice the tone. When Jesus speaks of little faith, there is a hint of disappointment in his voice. When He speaks of great faith, his tone is approving.

In fact, there are even a few verses that command faith:

Mark 11:22 - And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

From these and other verses, it occurs to me that we ought to have faith in God, and that the more faith we have, the more God is pleased.

Perhaps I am guilty of stating the obvious, because churches have long exhorted us to have faith. Most of us already know that faith is a good thing, and that we need more of it. Knowing that we need more faith is like knowing that we need to eat healthy, or that we need more exercise. Knowing that we need more faith is a start, but knowing does not get it done.

Where does faith come from?

In the first place, we are given a little bit of faith to get us started. Paul writes in Romans 12:3 that “…God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Ironically, God wants it back. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please Him. Part of our stewardship, therefore, is that we are in charge of taking care of a quantity of this substance for Him.

God has given this measure of faith to every human. Most people manage to retain some quantity of faith, but Paul notes that there are some who have no faith. In 2 Thess. 3:2, Paul requests prayer “… that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith.” If not all men have faith, some of them must have lost that measure that God gave them in the first place.

So not only does faith come from God initially, it is clear that there are some things that people can do to reduce the quantity of faith that they possess. Since the Bible notes that some people have great faith and some have little faith, there must be a way to gain more of it after receiving that initial measure that is dealt out equally – one measure to everyone.

The book, chapter 1, part 3

Adam’s belly button
One of the deep, imponderable mysteries of the universe is that of Adam’s navel. Since he was created by the hand of God, he was not formed in a womb, and therefore had no need for an umbilical cord to nourish him. So - did Adam have a belly button? It would have been pointless… but I believe that he had one.
Adam was made in the image of God, according to Genesis 1:26. So if God’s image includes a navel, then Adam would logically have had a navel, too. So the real question is this: Does God have a belly button? Again, yes.

Consider this passage from Colossians, chapter 1:
(13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (14) in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: (15) who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature

Clearly, the passage in Colossians is speaking of Jesus of Nazareth, who was “made of a woman, made under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Since Jesus was born of Mary, it stands to reason that Jesus had a navel. And since Jesus is the image of God, the image of God has a navel. Finally, since Adam was made in God’s image, Adam had a navel.

While the belly button defense is a little on the silly side, it does serve to illustrate a point: God knows what He is doing, right down to the level of navels and hair inventory and sparrow counting. Nothing is beneath His notice.

God created
The heavens and the Earth were created by God with a level of detail far finer than Adam’s navel. So when He created man in His own image, the end product is, as David said, “…fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14).

I have heard it said that God spoke the universe into existence, but crafted humanity by hand. The rationale behind this argument is that God said “let there be…” to create things, but “let us make” when He spoke of Man. But a tour of Genesis 1 and 2 fails to support this observation - After God spoke each day, the account says something about what God had made. The tools that I use indicate that the same Hebrew word is used for “And God made the beast of the earth after his kind…” as is used for “Let us make man…”

Again, I am no Hebrew scholar, but it seems that the same Hebrew word, translated into the same English word, is hardly grounds for proving that there is a difference in the two uses.

However, while I do not see a difference in creation, I do see a difference in redemption. Humanity is not special in Gods eyes because He spent extra effort to make us - but we are special, because He went to such lengths to redeem us.

How it was done
Look for a moment at how God created the heavens and the Earth:

Genesis 1:3 “And God said…”
Genesis 1:6 “And God Said…”
Genesis 1:9 “And God Said…”
Genesis 1:11 “And God Said…”
Genesis 1:14 “And God Said…”
Genesis 1:20 “And God Said…”
Genesis 1:24 “And God Said…”

Notice a pattern? God spoke, and things happened.

God’s creative power was unleashed verbally. Commands went forth from the mouth of God, and the mountains rose from the seas, the grass sprouted, and the birds appeared. Every living thing began from nothing more than God’s spoken words. And God said it was good.

Finally, God reproduced a version of Himself. He made man in His own image – and He said it was very good.

How exact was the replica? How close to the original? The replica contained as much as would fit into the physical realm. The image of God that God used to create Adam was the man Christ Jesus. It stands to reason, therefore, that Adam had the authority - the power - to walk on the water, to calm the stormy seas, to bless or curse fig trees, and to ride unbroken donkey colts. The first Adam had all the features of the Last Adam; the difference being that the first Adam fell victim to a slithering salesman of sin, but the Last Adam redeemed us from that sin.

The book, chapter 1, part 2

Here is the second chunk of the book I once thought to write, continued from the last blog entry:

Adam’s purpose
When God created man in his own image, He also stated His reasons for doing so. Genesis 1:26 says “… and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

So when Adam was created, his position was over the fish, birds, cattle, and creepy things, and under God. In this sense, Adam was middle management. He had a boss that he reported to, and he had underlings that he was supposed to boss around.

The reason that Adam would use tools is that Adam was expected to get some work done - he was to dress and keep the Garden of Eden. I suspect that his tools were not all the physical accoutrements of gardening - rakes, hoes, and shovels - because he was to have dominion, which means he was the boss.

My observation of corporate America leads me to believe that talking counts as ‘work’. I have never been a manager, but I have seen management gather and process information, make decisions, and provide direction. Because a manager has dominion over a group of people, speaking certain words causes those people to take action and accomplish things. Move these over here, write that letter, create this software, reduce costs - these are all things that managers direct, and things get accomplished. To a manager, wielding this power must seem like magic. Speak, and see results.

Help wanted
That was Adam’s position, between God and everything else. Well, the local branch of everything else, at least - the universe is a big place. Adam was both a master and a servant by turns, dressing and keeping the garden and providing God with periodic status reports in the cool of the day.

Like many middle managers, Adam was feeling a little resource-constrained. Clearly, being the boss over every living creature and the dirt beneath them was a lot of work, so he met with God and discussed adding a head-count. With God’s approval, he placed an ad in the “Employment” section of the local paper.

The ad must have run for several days with no response, because there was “not found an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:20). Well, what happens when middle management cannot complete an assigned task? Upper management takes over. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and performed a little surgery. From the removed rib, God created Eve. Say what you will about a copy of a copy not being as sharp as the original, I still see some definite improvements in Human, version 2.0.

So, what was Eve’s position? Was she, as some would suggest, lower on the org chart? Or was did she report directly to God? Her job description was identical to Adam’s job description. When God gave them direction, he gave it to both of them. I’m going to suggest that Eve was at the same level on the organization chart, but with a dotted line to Adam.

Paul later would write that the man is the head of the woman, and the head of man is Christ. This reasoning follows the dotted lines, rather than the solid lines. When Eve talked to God, she wasn’t going over Adam’s head; she was talking with her boss. The dotted line on an org chart suggests direction, not responsibility. Eve reported directly to God, although since Adam was responsible to God for the garden, he would share with her what needed to be done, and together, they would do it.

Responsibility is one of those chain-of-command things. When Eve ate from the wrong tree, her boss was responsible for her actions. Adam, being only a dotted line, was not held accountable. However, since he participated in the same activity, both were punished. Ultimately, God Himself would have to wrap Himself in flesh and take the punishment for fallen humanity. This is the ultimate example of assuming responsibility.

The book, chapter 1, part 1

In the beginning
Once upon a time, God created the heavens and the earth. After all the oceans were filled and the animals were busy doing animal-like things, God added a man to oversee things.

Have you ever stopped to wonder what a day was like for Adam? He was in Eden - the perfect place, crafted by the hand of God, all fresh and new. So what does a man do all day in a place like that? Lounge around eating succulent fruit fresh from the trees, tanning on the beach, and sipping syrupy concoctions with little paper umbrellas in them? There was probably no lounging, and definitely no paper umbrellas.

The Bible gives us more than a few clues to what Adam was doing. Genesis 2:15 says that the reason God put Adam in the garden was to “dress and keep it.” That sounds like work.

In fact, Genesis 2:20 says that there was “not found an help meet for him.” No suitable helper seems to indicate that he was doing something that he could have used a little help with - and lounging around is not an occupation that needs much assistance.

Clearly, Adam was working in the Garden. Not only thinking up names for the plants and animals, but also managing the growth of the garden. Maybe this included irrigating, pruning, trimming the branches, and hauling away the debris. Whatever it was he was doing, it was not lounging. In fact, God made man to be a steward, placing the management of the garden facility under Adam’s control.

Language changes; sometimes words change in meaning. Biblical scholars like to refer back to the Hebrew or Greek to make sure that what the translation says is still accurate. I do not claim to be a scholar, but I do use an on-line source that compares several translations, and has multiple Hebrew and Greek texts available for comparison. A quick reading of the verses in Genesis comforts my conscience, because the words ‘dress’, ‘keep’, and ‘help’ have survived centuries of use without changing their meanings. You can use the same source; it is http://bible.cc. The address is very simple to remember, and the Web site is easy to use.

Since help still means help, and Adam needed help, then Adam was busy doing something in the Garden of Eden. Although the Bible does not specifically use the word, I am going to go out on a limb and call what Adam was doing “work”. Not the same sort of work that I do, because he had no computer… but he was still doing work.

Tools

One thing that makes humans different from animals is the use of tools. While a lower order primate may use a stick to poke ants from a rotting log, or a bird may use a stone to drop an oyster upon, the consistent use of tools is a uniquely human endeavor. Not only do we use tools, we tend to collect them, organize them, buy fancy cases for them, and resent lending them to the neighbors.

Adam had no neighbors to borrow his tools. He did not have a Home Depot to purchase them from, or a garage to store them in. Did Adam have tools? I know of no archeological or biblical description of a shovel, rake, or pruning shears in Adam’s time. But I do know that Genesis says that Adam was made in the image of God, and that God used tools. It seems logical that Adam would use tools as well.

Hold on there - God uses tools? Of course God uses tools; we just use different words to describe how He uses tools. Many people desire to be used of God. His tools are referred to as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We call them ministries, or we call them gifts, but the word “tools”, while not as lofty, still describes those who are used by God.

To be an instrument in the hand of God - such a noble sounding goal! Yet most people would reject the notion of being a tool or a puppet - those words do not sound as haughty in context, even though they convey the same basic meaning.

Going green

I've heard a lot recently about solar power and it occurs to me that nearly all of the power we consume is ultimately solar power. The sun shines, heating up the earth, causing the warm air to rise and cooler air to rush in to the lower pressure area. This wind turns turbines. When the warmed air cools, it's moisture condenses and the rain falls, powering hydroelectric plants. Rain causes plants to grow; over time, those plants decay and turn into oil or coal and produce natural gas.

So whether the power is photovoltaic, wind, hydroelectric, coal, oil, or natural gas - it is all ultimately solar energy. And as such, all ultimately renewable.

What we call "renewable" is simply a distinction in the time line. The sunlight that we use to make electricity today will still be there tomorrow, as will the wind. The rains will come again eventually, and as long as the plants keep growing, coal, oil, and natural gas will eventually be replenished - although it supposedly takes eons to do so.

The only non-renewable energy supply we have is nuclear. This energy is simply harnessing the decay of fissionable materials, and the energy density of radioisotopes is incredible.

Ironically, the non-renewability of nuclear fuels is a moot point; their effective life is on a par with the expected life of the sun, so as a race, we will run out of nuclear fuel when we run out of all of the other energy sources - that is, when the sun goes dark.

In my opinion, going green is a good idea for conservation, but it makes no sense in terms of energy production. Fossil fuels are the 'battery' - the long-term storage of solar energy. These will be depleted eventually. We do need to move to other forms of energy before that happens. And we ought to consume no more energy than the sun provides, just so that we can be good stewards of the Earth - unless we use nuclear.

So I vote for nuclear fuel. It is the only truly non-renewable fuel, but it is the one that gives us energy without slowing down the wind, holding back the waves, or shading the deserts. If managed properly, there is no environmental damage; spent fuel can be returned to the depths of the earth that it came from originally, doing no more damage than it did before it was extracted.

Ironically, nuclear is the greenest of the green.