And let me start off by making something perfectly clear:
The Blogging From A to Z Challenge is Not an April Fools Joke!
I just wanted to get that out right away lest anybody fear I was a practical joker. When I came up with the idea for the Challenge I wondered if anybody would take it seriously or would they think I was joking. Fortunately it didn't hinder anybody that I know of and I am so glad that we have so many great participants.
For those of you unfamiliar with Tossing It Out, each Thursday is "Debate Day". I pose a question, give a few arguments for one side or both sides, and then leave it to readers to tell me what they think. Sometimes we get into some pretty heavy topics and other times, like today, the topics are relatively light.
Here is the question for today:
April Fools Day jokes-- are they fun or do they annoy you?
I suppose one of the things that annoys me more than being tricked on April Fools Day is being pinched on St. Patrick's Day. When I was a kid I was always very careful to wear green on March 17 because I was in mortal fear of being pinched. And I don't really enjoy being the butt of an April Fools joke either. A common one that I recall as a kid was being told that my fly was down and naturally I would look and be assailed with a loud attention-getting cry of "April Fool". I'd fall for it every time. The receiving end of any of the April Fools jokes for me was embarrassing because I didn't like being the fool.
However, I delighted in being the perpetrator of said jokes. I would wake up in the morning of April First and try to devise totally credible jokes to play on people and get a big charge when I successfully made someone else look like the fool. It would be fun for a few times, but even for the jokester it soon got old. April Fools is mostly a morning event.
When the childish games of April Fools Day start entering the world of adults I begin to have a problem with it. The co-worker who pulls juvenile pranks at the expense of others is usually inappropriate. When cheap laughs are garnered by the embarrassment of another coworker, the jokestering crosses the line. I can certainly appreciate a good joke and visual slapstick humor, but when done to embarrass another person it can make me uncomfortable.
Frequently, morning radio programs or other media forms will play an April Fools Joke on the audience. I will admit that at times they are inventive and humorous, but when they actually sound like news it can lead to bad situations. I can recall hearing something that I thought was true and telling others something that I thought was true. Credibility of all parties can become damaged and the potential for dangerous results is real.
There is a list of the 10 worst April Fools Jokes at museum of hoaxes . And as bad as these are I don't even know if they are the worst.
For me, the bottom line is April Fools Day is silly childhood fun, but it really doesn't have any place in the adult world.
What do you think?
Challenge update:
I'm still getting queries about joining the challenge. Since notice of this challenge only went up last Saturday, many fellow bloggers are just finding out about it, so I'm allowing stragglers to join up until Monday April 5th.
I've been following blogs off the list on my sidebar or when I see them pop up on my Google Reader. Since this type of communal blog activity is new to me and I'm no computer wiz, I'm not sure what the easiest way to keep track of other blogs is. I plan to check about the McLinky but have not had time yet. Hopefully this isn't presenting too much of a problem for anyone.
How do you go about checking what the other participants are doing? Have you checked any others? I've looked at 6 posts that have already gone up as of this writing and I have been impressed. There is some really good stuff out there. Soon the creativity is really going to flow and you should let others know what you think.
Friday April 2 is the letter B as in Be ready!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Update: Blogging From A to Z Is Taking Off!
The posts for letter "A" have already been appearing and the challenge is on. I wanted to get this update posted earlier today but for some reason Blogger was down, at least for me. But here are a few sites I have noted:
Check out Yvonne's Welcome to My World of Poetry on Tuesday she promoted the A to Z challenge in a wonderfully clever poetic way and then if that were not enough she contributed a second plug in poetic form on Wednesday. Yvonne's going to be one to watch as she comes up with a poem a day in alphabetical succession.
Fifi Flowers has already started getting ready for her April in Paris virtual trip with two wonderful posts-- you really need to check them out.
Other nice mentions came from Carol's Corner, Slushpile Slut, Mary McDonald's Write Stuff, The Watered Soul, This Journey Called Life, Blabbin' Grammy, Bombastic Bandicoot, Porch Ponderings by Rae, Gospel Driven Disciples, Kelly's Home, Patricia Stoltey, and Third Times a Charm .
Also, we have gotten encouragement already from the cheering section with posts like the one The Going to be a New Me,
Thanks to everyone participating. Please let me know if your link has not been noted on the blog roll or if there are any other problems. My aim is for this challenge to be fun and also rewarding for you and your readers. See you next post with the letter "A".
Check out Yvonne's Welcome to My World of Poetry on Tuesday she promoted the A to Z challenge in a wonderfully clever poetic way and then if that were not enough she contributed a second plug in poetic form on Wednesday. Yvonne's going to be one to watch as she comes up with a poem a day in alphabetical succession.
Fifi Flowers has already started getting ready for her April in Paris virtual trip with two wonderful posts-- you really need to check them out.
Other nice mentions came from Carol's Corner, Slushpile Slut, Mary McDonald's Write Stuff, The Watered Soul, This Journey Called Life, Blabbin' Grammy, Bombastic Bandicoot, Porch Ponderings by Rae, Gospel Driven Disciples, Kelly's Home, Patricia Stoltey, and Third Times a Charm .
Also, we have gotten encouragement already from the cheering section with posts like the one The Going to be a New Me,
Thanks to everyone participating. Please let me know if your link has not been noted on the blog roll or if there are any other problems. My aim is for this challenge to be fun and also rewarding for you and your readers. See you next post with the letter "A".
Toronto Oratorio
When I think of Easter, I think of Toronto, Ontario. It's not because of the o's that are kind of like eggs or the t's that are similar to crosses. It's not because Ontario is almost like oratorio and when I think of oratorios I think of Handel's Messiah which is frequently performed at Easter. It's just my weird personal connection.
Foremost I think of Jesus Christ and what He did for us. That is what Easter is all about. But today I am not talking about the meaning of the day, I'm talking about some of the memories Easter evokes for me. Of course I think of the traditional popular images of bunnies, colored eggs, candies, fancy clothes, and ham dinners--those are images many of us grew up with. Then, as we grow older, other memories begin to take the place of the childhood memories. These are memories of times and places and the experiences that went with them.
So what's with Toronto. During most of the 1980s I managed a touring show and for some reason our schedule used to always find us in Ontario during the Easter break. I'm not sure about the reasoning behind this. It may have had something to do with the fact that the week prior to Easter may have not been a good time for booking our show, but the weeks prior to Easter break week and afterwards were good times. This was one of my theories. Also since the Canadian dollar was not very strong against the U.S. dollar maybe the off week worked better in Canada so they could pay the performers and the expenses in Canadian funds to avoid having to exchange too much currency into U.S. and lose money. All theories and really it didn't matter that much. I liked being in Ontario.
For the off week, Toronto seemed the logical place to go. There was a lot to do to there to keep us all entertained. Toronto's a great city -- one of my favorite places. Eventually I started arranging accommodations at one of the Marriotts or Holiday Day Inns on the north side of the city right close to the 401 expressway which runs across lower Ontario. That way we would have easy access to the freeway on the days we were traveling out of town to work. Also, truck parking was easier and we got better hotel rates. One day I'd like to talk more about our times in Ontario and Toronto, but today's post focuses on Easter since this coming Sunday is Easter.
On Easter day, it seemed like almost everything was closed in Toronto. There were no stores that we could ever find open on that day and even open restaurants were scarce. It was a day to sleep late. I recall attending church--a mass at a catholic church--one time in all of those years. Living on the road is a peculiar life. When you're not driving or working, you feel essentially homeless, but able to stay in nice hotels and eat in restaurants. In our time off we might stay in the hotel room for a while, but especially when you have children like we did, you have to get out some. In Toronto around Easter this often meant going to shopping malls. Some years it was warm enough to go to parks and other outdoor environments, but not usually. So on Easter Day we might take the kids and walk around shopping malls, which were open, to look at the stores, which were closed. Then we'd look for an open restaurant at the mall or drive to someplace where we would find a restaurant open. There was never a home to go to, just a room.
In 1986, the night before Easter, we had tickets to go see Canadian singer-songwriter Murray Maclaughlin in concert. We were always on the lookout for concerts during the days we were off. This particular year I noted in some Toronto entertainment publication that Murray would be playing Easter Eve at a college near to where we were staying. Murray Maclaughlin was an acquired taste--I didn't care for his country style music at first, but then it really grew on me and I began buying all of the cassettes I could find by him. I was anxious to see him in concert.
That Saturday evening, when we arrived at the venue, we discovered that the concert was being held in some sort of large classroom or lecture hall. There were probably about 300 seats with those little flip up desk tops between them. This was the first odd thing that struck me. The second odd thing was that there was only a grand piano and a guitar on the stage. There were no drums, banks of amplifiers, other instruments, or any kind of stage lighting. It was a simple stage area where a professor would stand behind a podium and occasionally go over to a blackboard and perhaps write something to illustrate what he was talking about. I realized why the tickets had been so inexpensive. I was disappointed.
The concert started precisely on schedule. Maclaughlin came out onto the stage with no fanfare and picked up his guitar. For the next two hours we were treated to one of the finer evenings of entertainment that I've ever experienced. He played most of his most popular songs, switching between guitar and piano accompaniment, and told wonderful stories. The audience was totally engaged by this talented and affable fellow. One of the most unexpected surprises of his performance was an extraordinarily beautiful rendition of "On the Strreet Where You Live" from the musical MY FAIR LADY. It was a song I would have never expected to hear by an artist like that.
I don't why I think of Toronto at Easter, but I suppose it is like any other set routine or tradition to which you become adapted. Even though I watched the 90s pass and I established certain traditions for my children to make their Easters special and then later got married to my present wife and we have made the tradition of attending our church not just on Easter, but every Sunday; the memory of Toronto stays with me. There is noone there that I know, I have nothing there that is mine, and yet that city strangely draws me and to me it's really just a place, a time, a memory.
The Blogging From A to Z April Challenge
I want to thank everybody who has joined up so far. This was such a last minute thing with no real planning involved. Please make sure the link to your blogsite is listed in my sidebar if you are a participant or a supporter. I've been trying to carefully keep up with this, but I may have missed someone and I certainly don't want to do that.
Also, if there are other things you can think of to make this a better experience for all of us, please let me know. I am not real computer savvy so there may be some tricks that I am missing. For example someone mentioned a Mclinky thing-- seen 'em but don't know much about 'em. So if you have a suggestion for poor ol' computer challenged me let me hear it and if I don't know what your talking about please forgive me.
I encourage all participants to jump over to each other's blogs and get to know one another and become followers. And definitely leave some comments. The comments make the blogging experience more fun, satisfying, and even educational-- but I'm sure I don't have to tell you that.
I'll continue to add new participants until Monday April 5. If it looks like we're just having more fun than you can stand and you want to jump in a little late, well, I think that would be okay. So tell your friends, family, or whoever you think might like what we're doing (and who in their right mind wouldn't?) so they can join us as we go Blogging From A to Z in April.
Foremost I think of Jesus Christ and what He did for us. That is what Easter is all about. But today I am not talking about the meaning of the day, I'm talking about some of the memories Easter evokes for me. Of course I think of the traditional popular images of bunnies, colored eggs, candies, fancy clothes, and ham dinners--those are images many of us grew up with. Then, as we grow older, other memories begin to take the place of the childhood memories. These are memories of times and places and the experiences that went with them.
So what's with Toronto. During most of the 1980s I managed a touring show and for some reason our schedule used to always find us in Ontario during the Easter break. I'm not sure about the reasoning behind this. It may have had something to do with the fact that the week prior to Easter may have not been a good time for booking our show, but the weeks prior to Easter break week and afterwards were good times. This was one of my theories. Also since the Canadian dollar was not very strong against the U.S. dollar maybe the off week worked better in Canada so they could pay the performers and the expenses in Canadian funds to avoid having to exchange too much currency into U.S. and lose money. All theories and really it didn't matter that much. I liked being in Ontario.
For the off week, Toronto seemed the logical place to go. There was a lot to do to there to keep us all entertained. Toronto's a great city -- one of my favorite places. Eventually I started arranging accommodations at one of the Marriotts or Holiday Day Inns on the north side of the city right close to the 401 expressway which runs across lower Ontario. That way we would have easy access to the freeway on the days we were traveling out of town to work. Also, truck parking was easier and we got better hotel rates. One day I'd like to talk more about our times in Ontario and Toronto, but today's post focuses on Easter since this coming Sunday is Easter.
On Easter day, it seemed like almost everything was closed in Toronto. There were no stores that we could ever find open on that day and even open restaurants were scarce. It was a day to sleep late. I recall attending church--a mass at a catholic church--one time in all of those years. Living on the road is a peculiar life. When you're not driving or working, you feel essentially homeless, but able to stay in nice hotels and eat in restaurants. In our time off we might stay in the hotel room for a while, but especially when you have children like we did, you have to get out some. In Toronto around Easter this often meant going to shopping malls. Some years it was warm enough to go to parks and other outdoor environments, but not usually. So on Easter Day we might take the kids and walk around shopping malls, which were open, to look at the stores, which were closed. Then we'd look for an open restaurant at the mall or drive to someplace where we would find a restaurant open. There was never a home to go to, just a room.
In 1986, the night before Easter, we had tickets to go see Canadian singer-songwriter Murray Maclaughlin in concert. We were always on the lookout for concerts during the days we were off. This particular year I noted in some Toronto entertainment publication that Murray would be playing Easter Eve at a college near to where we were staying. Murray Maclaughlin was an acquired taste--I didn't care for his country style music at first, but then it really grew on me and I began buying all of the cassettes I could find by him. I was anxious to see him in concert.
That Saturday evening, when we arrived at the venue, we discovered that the concert was being held in some sort of large classroom or lecture hall. There were probably about 300 seats with those little flip up desk tops between them. This was the first odd thing that struck me. The second odd thing was that there was only a grand piano and a guitar on the stage. There were no drums, banks of amplifiers, other instruments, or any kind of stage lighting. It was a simple stage area where a professor would stand behind a podium and occasionally go over to a blackboard and perhaps write something to illustrate what he was talking about. I realized why the tickets had been so inexpensive. I was disappointed.
The concert started precisely on schedule. Maclaughlin came out onto the stage with no fanfare and picked up his guitar. For the next two hours we were treated to one of the finer evenings of entertainment that I've ever experienced. He played most of his most popular songs, switching between guitar and piano accompaniment, and told wonderful stories. The audience was totally engaged by this talented and affable fellow. One of the most unexpected surprises of his performance was an extraordinarily beautiful rendition of "On the Strreet Where You Live" from the musical MY FAIR LADY. It was a song I would have never expected to hear by an artist like that.
I don't why I think of Toronto at Easter, but I suppose it is like any other set routine or tradition to which you become adapted. Even though I watched the 90s pass and I established certain traditions for my children to make their Easters special and then later got married to my present wife and we have made the tradition of attending our church not just on Easter, but every Sunday; the memory of Toronto stays with me. There is noone there that I know, I have nothing there that is mine, and yet that city strangely draws me and to me it's really just a place, a time, a memory.
The Blogging From A to Z April Challenge
I want to thank everybody who has joined up so far. This was such a last minute thing with no real planning involved. Please make sure the link to your blogsite is listed in my sidebar if you are a participant or a supporter. I've been trying to carefully keep up with this, but I may have missed someone and I certainly don't want to do that.
Also, if there are other things you can think of to make this a better experience for all of us, please let me know. I am not real computer savvy so there may be some tricks that I am missing. For example someone mentioned a Mclinky thing-- seen 'em but don't know much about 'em. So if you have a suggestion for poor ol' computer challenged me let me hear it and if I don't know what your talking about please forgive me.
I encourage all participants to jump over to each other's blogs and get to know one another and become followers. And definitely leave some comments. The comments make the blogging experience more fun, satisfying, and even educational-- but I'm sure I don't have to tell you that.
I'll continue to add new participants until Monday April 5. If it looks like we're just having more fun than you can stand and you want to jump in a little late, well, I think that would be okay. So tell your friends, family, or whoever you think might like what we're doing (and who in their right mind wouldn't?) so they can join us as we go Blogging From A to Z in April.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
What State Is Bigger Than Alaska?
On Saturday I told you that today I'd be visiting Alaska on this blog space, but I've decided to postpone this visit. What's the delay? Well, Alaska's a really big state, but I've discovered there's a bigger state. Wait a minute, you say, what state? It's the state of Blogs and there's big doings here with the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge and right now I guess Alaska can wait (sorry, Sarah Palin).
I'm getting a lot of interest in this blog challenge for the month of April and I want to take as much time as I can to make sure we get it off the ground properly and that everyone gets proper credit. In the sidebar I have a list of participants so far. If you have agreed to blog along with us and your link is not there, let me know so I can get it up there. If you still want to join up in the challenge then let me know and I'll get your link on the roll. So far I only have one blogger who has committed to be a supporter by following participants and commenting on our posts. There have been several who said they are going to follow, but give me the commitment that you wish to be recognized as an official supporter so I can get your link posted to the list.
Thanks to Dee at THE REDHEADED STEPCHILD OUT OF THE BASEMENT and SAY ANYTHING for creating the very appropriate logo for the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge. I'm not too swift when it comes to doing these things but I loaded it on my sidebar right there at the top. I encourage all of you who are participants to add it to yours as well so you can be clearly be identified as such. Thank you Dee-- I put both of your sites in the sidebar because I could and because you made the logo for us. I encourage everyone who sees this to go to Dee's site and participate in her Taboo Tuesdays or Saturday Sharing -- these are both opportunities to promote your blogs.
Many of our talented participants have already been promoting the challenge on their sites. Check out the post by Fifi Flowers -- she's already got her bags packed as she'll be taking the A to Z theme overseas with April in Paris--sounds like a really creative approach to the challenge.
Trevor Peck and his Love in the Truth will be joining us from Canada. He posted his Blogging from A to Z(ed) I'm a Canadian yesterday. As did The Alliterative Allomorph from Athens, Greece--she made her announcement yesterday and she's all ready to go.
Then there's Bud Ezekial H. at B-E-ing Transformed --he posted on the challenge topic yesterday as he prepares for the month ahead, but reflects on the challenge that he will be facing personally. Lisa at the Bombastic Bandicoot had the challenge blaring across her page yesterday and announced that she was in and wanted others to join her. I got a kick about what she said about the letter "J" and I can relate to that one as well. Also, Tori Cooper from This Journey Called Life put up a very nice announcement.
Be sure to check the links on the sidebar to see if there are any additional new posts for Tuesday and Wednesday. If you post about the challenge on your blog but are not participating I will make sure to add your link to our cheering section.
Jump on board with us now if you haven't yet. The fun begins on Thursday when we start the first topic based on the letter "A". And if you absolutely don't feel you're up to the challenge, but still want to read the posts and support the bloggers let me know that you are going to do that and I will put your link on that list.
I'm getting a lot of interest in this blog challenge for the month of April and I want to take as much time as I can to make sure we get it off the ground properly and that everyone gets proper credit. In the sidebar I have a list of participants so far. If you have agreed to blog along with us and your link is not there, let me know so I can get it up there. If you still want to join up in the challenge then let me know and I'll get your link on the roll. So far I only have one blogger who has committed to be a supporter by following participants and commenting on our posts. There have been several who said they are going to follow, but give me the commitment that you wish to be recognized as an official supporter so I can get your link posted to the list.
Many of our talented participants have already been promoting the challenge on their sites. Check out the post by Fifi Flowers -- she's already got her bags packed as she'll be taking the A to Z theme overseas with April in Paris--sounds like a really creative approach to the challenge.
Trevor Peck and his Love in the Truth will be joining us from Canada. He posted his Blogging from A to Z(ed) I'm a Canadian yesterday. As did The Alliterative Allomorph from Athens, Greece--she made her announcement yesterday and she's all ready to go.
Then there's Bud Ezekial H. at B-E-ing Transformed --he posted on the challenge topic yesterday as he prepares for the month ahead, but reflects on the challenge that he will be facing personally. Lisa at the Bombastic Bandicoot had the challenge blaring across her page yesterday and announced that she was in and wanted others to join her. I got a kick about what she said about the letter "J" and I can relate to that one as well. Also, Tori Cooper from This Journey Called Life put up a very nice announcement.
Be sure to check the links on the sidebar to see if there are any additional new posts for Tuesday and Wednesday. If you post about the challenge on your blog but are not participating I will make sure to add your link to our cheering section.
Jump on board with us now if you haven't yet. The fun begins on Thursday when we start the first topic based on the letter "A". And if you absolutely don't feel you're up to the challenge, but still want to read the posts and support the bloggers let me know that you are going to do that and I will put your link on that list.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Blog Boggled: Blogging From A to Z April Challenge
I Challenge
You
If you subtract Sundays from April, you then have 26 days--one day for each letter of the alphabet. Using this premise, you would start this Thursday April First with a topic themed on something with the letter A, then Friday the second a topic with the letter B as the theme, and so on until you finish on Friday April thirtieth with the theme based on the letter Z. It doesn't even have to be a word--it can be a proper noun, the letter used as a symbol, or the letter itself. The theme of the day is the letter scheduled for that day.
Most of you are probably familiar with Sue Grafton and her best selling series of detective novels known as the "Alphabet Series" that started in 1982 with "A" Is For Alibi up to her most recent "U" Is For Undertow". She has made a franchise with the series and there have been other authors who have taken similar approaches. This Blogging From A to Z Challenge will be in the same vein.
I was inspired to put forth this challenge after reaching my 200th follower on Saturday and as I near my 200th post later this week. Not one for contests and the like, I thought it would be fun and helpful to celebrate with my fellow bloggers in some special way. We know that blogging can be fun and what fun we can have merrily blogging together with a common purpose--something where we can keep up with each other's work and share in a common experience. Any of you who participated in NaNoWriMo know what that can be like.
But perhaps even better than the fun, will be the usefulness of the exercise. Several times I've read where bloggers said they couldn't think of anything to blog about. Writers often engage in exercises which involve prompts, or suggestions for topics. There are books, blogs, and websites devoted to providing prompts to be used as topic ideas. Using the letters of the alphabet you can just think up words for each letter and pick one to write about. If you're still stumped scan a dictionary or encyclopedia. Come on!--the prompts are everywhere.
To provide an example: My "A" topic will be my regular Thursday debate using the topic of April Fool's Day. On Friday when I often write about mysteries I will be talking about Babylon. On Saturday I always have a review of my past week's posts and the upcoming posts so on April 3 my topic will be Capsulization. I will resume the challenge on Monday with one of my Persnickety Penman installments-- D as in Dictionary. See how easy it is. I don't really have to change my format of what I normally write, just come up with topics that correspond with the letter of the day. I printed out a calendar grid for the month of April and x'ed out the Sundays and wrote the letters in each of the daily squares. In less than an hour I came up with all of my topics for each letter. And I can still change them if I want---I probably will change some. It was fun just filling in the 26 topics and imagining the possibilities.
Try to be inventive and surprise us. Hopefully your posts will be at least 100 words to show that you really put some kind of effort into your post. But if all you do normally is post a quote, then keep it in the alphabet theme. Don't worry about subject matter-- this will work for absolutely any blog. If you only post about food or animals or crafts or whatever, you can come up with alphabetized themes.
"But I only post poetry," you might say. You can easily post poetry about any topic, right? Yvonne at Welcome to My World of Poetry does it all the time and she's going to be joining our challenge.
Or what if you have a photoblog or just post artwork? It still works the same--creativity is creativity no matter what you do.
So are you up to the challenge? Do you have what it takes? Even if you start and don't finish that's fine. Or will you just support us and pledge to follow our challenge? Mention it on your blog and link back to this post. If you plan to be a participant or pledge to cheer us on (and give us comments) let me know in the comments of this post and I will add your link to the sidebar of my blog.
Just one more thing for this tech-challenged blogger: If anyone knows how to create one of those "buttons" or logo-thingies that participants and supporters can put on their sites, I would love to get your help for that.
Let me know if I have overlooked anything or if you have any suggestions. Thanks to all of you who will make this a smashing success.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
The Holy Spirit In Your Life
I am hesitant to expound too much upon this topic because of a lack of understanding or perhaps a conflict of understanding between what I have tended to believe and what I am reading in some of the sources of my current Bible study. This is where I look to some of you who are more adequately studied in this than I. I hope I can get some answers from my readers or that I will be further enlightened as I go through my lesson.
Today's verses are from Galatians 5:16-25:
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16-25 (New International Version)
The meaning of these verses seems pretty clear to me. Human nature is inclined toward sinfulness. If we are going it alone our tendency will be to defy God's commandments and be subject to God's judgment of our actions. However, Jesus Christ died to provide salvation from the punishment of the exacting of the law. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, we belong to Him and He absolves us of our sin. To give us strength to resist sin and temptation God has given us the Holy Spirit to live within us. The "acts of the sinful nature" must be resisted for this Spirit to do its work in us. If we resist temptation and sin, then the Spirit will produce "fruits" that are listed in verses 22 and 23.
Here's where I need some clarification. I know there are different schools of thought on this so my confusion is not unique. My sense is that the Holy Spirit is a power from God and of God, a distinct personage with attributes that can be defined in human terms. Whereas, the source upon which my Bible study has been based seems to indicate that the Holy Spirit is an actual person. This does not sound logical to me unless I'm just misunderstanding the semantics in what is being presented. If my source is saying that the Holy Spirit is a personage metaphorically speaking, then maybe they and I are on the same page. But if they are saying that the Holy Spirit is a distinctly one tangible person like Jesus Christ I am not getting it.
If the Holy Spirit is a corporeal entity, that is a tangible object that exists in the physical world then how can the Holy Spirit live in all of us? I do believe that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself in a physical form just as evil spirits can. If evil spirits are said to be able to do this, then certainly the Holy Spirit could do the same. Spirit comes from the Latin word for breath which is typically thought of as invisible. Where exactly is the Holy Spirit?
Next week I'll have some additional verses on this topic. For now though I want to see how much more insight I can gain on this topic. In my Sunday morning study group I will see what ideas come up there. Then I'll put that knowledge with whatever I can learn from you, any additional points of view I gain in the upcoming week's research, and whatever is revealed to me by the Holy Spirit.
God bless you all.
Today's verses are from Galatians 5:16-25:
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16-25 (New International Version)
The meaning of these verses seems pretty clear to me. Human nature is inclined toward sinfulness. If we are going it alone our tendency will be to defy God's commandments and be subject to God's judgment of our actions. However, Jesus Christ died to provide salvation from the punishment of the exacting of the law. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, we belong to Him and He absolves us of our sin. To give us strength to resist sin and temptation God has given us the Holy Spirit to live within us. The "acts of the sinful nature" must be resisted for this Spirit to do its work in us. If we resist temptation and sin, then the Spirit will produce "fruits" that are listed in verses 22 and 23.
Here's where I need some clarification. I know there are different schools of thought on this so my confusion is not unique. My sense is that the Holy Spirit is a power from God and of God, a distinct personage with attributes that can be defined in human terms. Whereas, the source upon which my Bible study has been based seems to indicate that the Holy Spirit is an actual person. This does not sound logical to me unless I'm just misunderstanding the semantics in what is being presented. If my source is saying that the Holy Spirit is a personage metaphorically speaking, then maybe they and I are on the same page. But if they are saying that the Holy Spirit is a distinctly one tangible person like Jesus Christ I am not getting it.
If the Holy Spirit is a corporeal entity, that is a tangible object that exists in the physical world then how can the Holy Spirit live in all of us? I do believe that the Holy Spirit can manifest itself in a physical form just as evil spirits can. If evil spirits are said to be able to do this, then certainly the Holy Spirit could do the same. Spirit comes from the Latin word for breath which is typically thought of as invisible. Where exactly is the Holy Spirit?
Next week I'll have some additional verses on this topic. For now though I want to see how much more insight I can gain on this topic. In my Sunday morning study group I will see what ideas come up there. Then I'll put that knowledge with whatever I can learn from you, any additional points of view I gain in the upcoming week's research, and whatever is revealed to me by the Holy Spirit.
God bless you all.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
200 FOR ME AND A CHALLENGE FOR YOU
....................200.....................
Sometime, somewhere I had stated that I wanted to reach 200 followers by April 1. Yesterday I reached that stated goal. I've tried to find where I made that statement, but I could not find it anywhere in any of my blog posts. Perhaps I mentioned it in a comment. I guess it really doesn't matter because I am there. I want to thank everyone of you who have signed on to follow Tossing It Out and hope that you will continue to stop by every now and then and leave a comment if you have time. I always like to hear from you.
Now, I don't do contests or any big whoo-hoos to celebrate my achievement, but I do feel pretty good about it. Yesterday as I was taking my daily morning walk, I started thinking of something special to do and I came up with an idea for a blog challenge that I am going to do in April. I would like to invite any of you who are interested to join me in this because I think it could be not only fun, but also an inspiration for your blogging activity.
Many of you are aware that I've been blogging every day since I first started last September. April has thirty days with four Sundays. On Sundays I do my Bible Study and many of you don't post at all. Since I've got my Sundays covered, that leaves twenty-six more days of blog posts for me to fill--that's one post for each letter of the alphabet. In April I've decided to do a Blogging from A to Z theme and I'm inviting any of you who think you have what it takes to join me. In other words, I challenge you to join me--I double dog dare you!
The challenge would entail that each day participating bloggers post at least 100 words based on the letter of that day, starting with "A" on April 1 and ending with "Z" on April 30. Does that sound too difficult for you? Actually I think it gives you a prompt to make inspiration come more easily. Let me know what you think. I will post more about this on my post coming up this Monday, which will be another in my Blog Boggled series. I want your ideas on this since I've never done anything like a challenge before.
If you didn't see my Blog Boggled post last Monday, it was called In a Buggy and Not Even Amish-- okay, I thought the title was kind of clever and if you're curious go back and read the post. Last Tuesday I talked about End of the World movies . Next Tuesday I'll be visiting Alaska--on the blog, not for real. Then on Wednesday we'll go across the North American continent to Toronto where I will talk about some of my memorable visits to that beautiful city. If you missed my post from last Wednesday, you missed a wonderful visit with L. Diane Wolfe and you must go back now to read it.
This past Thursday we had a lively debate about taking vacations and we had some really great comments that you might want to read if you missed them. Yesterday I looked at some of the strange creatures that people have claimed to have seen. Next Thursday begins my Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Appropriately, the first post will be A as in April Fools Day and this will be a debate topic. Friday's post will be B as in Babylon and this will be a topic of mystery. Then a week from today I will present my weekly blog overview in C Is For Capsulization. I hope you will be joining me.
And Now Another Award!
The Beautiful Blogger Award
I've told a lot of things about myself on this blog but I'll try and dig and come up with something, but I don't know how interesting they will be.
1. I attended the University of Tennessee for 5 years in the early 70s but never graduated.
2. I got my B.S. in Business Management from the University of Phoenix in 2005.
3. Dodgeball was my favorite activity in Physical Education.
4. I was the first chair violinist in my elementary school orchestra.
5. I've owned two dogs named "Blackie".
6. I used to drink Tabasco Sauce out of the bottle, but not any more.
7. I once picked up two hitchhikers dressed in white robes--they said they had sat around a campfre with Jesus the night before.
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Now, to nominate 7 truly beautiful bloggers and certainly more interesting people:
1. Yvonne at Welcome to My World of Poetry -- she's almost to 100 followers! Join her blog!
2. Ron at The Old Geezer -- he may not look so beautiful, but a lot of folks think the world of him.
3. Leslee at Life at Number 10 she could use some more followers
4. Karen Walker at Following the Whispers for her caring heart.
5. Greg at Gospel Driven Disciples -- He puts a lot of thought and care into his posts and his comments
6. Debra at Dream Weaver she's coming back after a short time away and she's always been so nice
7. Ginny the Sock Monkey How can I resist a name like hers ----it's beautiful.
Hope everyone will drop by and give these bloggers a word of encouragement. And you award winners: relish it, display it proudly if you want to, and pass it on to some others if you want to take the time to recognize bloggers whom you appreciate.
My thanks to all who visited today and I hope to hear some input about my Blogging From A to Z Challenge. Do you post at least 6 times per week? Are you ever stumped for blog topics?
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