Chrissy

Before I think too hard about what God wants, I guess I could remember that love is the fulfillment of all rules, all the Bible. But love is not thoughtless. So thinking is important after all.

This morning I was doing laundry and doing homework on my floor and eating junk food for breakfast. I was considering moving off the floor and getting breakfast because white flour cookies are not an ideal breakfast. I have recently been thinking that eating badly is evil. But I decided that being extreme was more exciting and not bad.

In class I decided I shouldn't eat the cookie and I was thinking about how black and white religious rules weren't reality, and we need to make our own guesses at the big picture of what is best. But then I ate the cookie anyway because I felt like I should, and I realized that my will power wasn't enough when I didn't have someone telling me that it was wrong. Even if I had all the will power in the world, I had no direction for my will power because I was only going off of what I thought was right at the time, which was based off of what I thought was 'instinct' or 'feelings' - and which was really just "what I wanted to do most." Sometimes even my rules that I make up are just "what I want to do most," in masochistic, perfectionist form.

SO - we need other people to give us some black-and-whites, even if they're not entirely true.
After all, God gave people black and white rules in the OT. Is the NT different? Actually, maybe it is different. Jesus broke black-and-white rules... and he only gave us 'heart' rules like don't lust and don't hate and don't call people names like 'raca' aka 'worthless'

Is it ok for businesses to let in people of only certain beliefs?  Can a doctor refuse to perform an infertility procedure if he doesn't believe in it but the government does?  What if there is a business that has a religion that does not allow them to accept interracial couples?  Why have we drawn such a distinct line between THINGS THAT HURT PEOPLE and THINGS THAT ONLY HURT ONESELF?  I guess we have done it for the sake of liberty.  What is the cost?  There is no free lunch...

AN EMAIL I GOT ABOUT FAITH IN POLITICS
It is odd:  Our society is increasingly filled with different faiths, contrasting and clashing moral communities.  And yet powerful forces increasingly demand public conformity.  Religious people may believe what they must, and can practice their quaint beliefs in private, but in public life a single standard of nondiscrimination rules.  No opposition to sex outside of marriage, no protection for traditional religious convictions, is acceptable. Government must compel conformity, a uniform public moral code.

The California Supreme Court recently ruled against Christian doctors who, on grounds of conscience, would not perform a certain infertility procedure for an unmarried woman.  The woman, a lesbian, successfully sued, relying on the state law that forbids businesses from discrimination in services.  No matter that the doctors had religious scruples or that they helped the woman to get the procedure elsewhere.  No matter that sexual orientation was not a protected category when the doctors said no.  The California courts have decided to forbid even behavior not labeled discriminatory in the law.  As one commentator admiringly observed, the state has even prohibited a car wash from lowering prices for women on Ladies Day

Note, too, an idea floating around in law journals.  By making private donations to charities tax-deductible, the government supposedly is subsidizing the nonprofit organizations and it must ensure that they serve the common good.  Surely it can't be in the common good for a faith-based organization to discriminate in hiring based on religion or sexual orientation. Gays and lesbians and people of all faiths are subsidizing the charity through the tax deduction and yet they cannot even get hired by it!  So-called discriminatory charities should lose the tax benefit.

Similar is the notion that a faith-based organization, if it receives government funds to provide social services, must be stripped of its freedom to take account of religion in hiring staff.  It is, the critics say, immoral for the government to support such discrimination.  Surely the organization has become an arm of the government by taking the funds to perform a service specified by government.  It violates the common good for an organization subsidized by all the taxpayers to refuse to hire some of those taxpayers merely because they have the wrong religion.

The view seems to be that in public life we are essentially identical and must be treated the same. No business may refuse to serve us.  And since government must serve all equally, private groups supported by government also must serve everyone equally.

But this public conformity concept of the common good is unsustainable.  It is a new secular theocracy.  Against it there is a strong commandment.  The commandment is the First Amendment of the Constitution, which protects religion from government imposition--protects not only religious belief but also religious exercise.  It protects doctors whose conscience forbids certain procedures and it protects religious charities when they insist that only applicants who share their convictions can join their staffs.

When government honors religious exercise in this way, some citizens will have to go to another doctor's office instead of this one, and some citizens will find they cannot get jobs with some nonprofits.  Not being welcomed everywhere seems an intolerable imposition to the proponents of uniformity.  But it is the real consequence of protecting religious freedom.  There would be no need for the constitutional protection if religious freedom did not sometimes require some people to give way.

We must face the reality.  America is home to several moral communities.  The government should not be used to enforce a single code of behavior that denies the deep religious convictions of many people and institutions of faith.  The common good that the government must foster and protect is not homogeneous but includes diverse contributions from a diverse civil society.  The common good is comprised of multiple colors.
 
--Stanley Carlson-Thies
   Director of Faith-Based Policy Studies

They would say look at your life. Tim E would be more moderate

My point: you can't eliminate pain. Their point: you aren't sure yet and you don't have to be.

My dad was right when he said sleep normally, stay healthy. My dad was smart when he said to remember that conversations

The army and Christians

For the healing of the nations last verse equality mutualguy

Walmart pharmacy Mon to Fri- 9 to 9 Sat 9 to 7 Sun 10 to 6

Stage 18
Summer, Act 2

Setting: Hope College Michigan
Characters: Tim Ellis, Sue Ellis, Jay, Jenny, Ashley, Danielle (prayer), ___ (God's Blogs girl from Arkansas), Breanna (she learned about forgiveness, I learned about discipling)

Themes:
Act 1: Busy, kids, trusting, confidence, flipping kayaks like a beast

Act 2:
Running, fulfilling your potential, personality types, caring about each other, getting to know one another

Conflicts:
Act 1:
Paying attention to needy kids or treating all equally?
Act 2:
Wanting people to care about my problems

Old kenwon classes district of c hair keikos half birthday nov 15

Orchestra. Pam cares.

Pang christmas carols in front of p with y and the russian studies major

Parents pressure their kids. Books inspire. temp influences. Should parents motivate their kids like that?

I am thankful.. That i'm incapable.. Of doing anything on my own. Lord I'm so thankful

Our lack of a relationship in public might be classified as not opening up to others? It'll come?

List of philosophies, the world might not turn out okay, whether chrissy.s efficiency is bad for her friendships

If i'm going to c leave. Remember water and food and book.

Prakash giggins irene wilburn jacob forrest smith jeffrey ffej caplan

Say that there were other reasons for me changing my mind. I think it was partially due to his hard work. It is difficult to win

When I'm at lunch, I laugh at dirty humor. When I'm at church, I make fun of things in my head. Is this good? Making light of serious things, some would say. Others would say I'm killing sacredness- is nothing sacred?

I think you should be able to laugh at aspects of Christianity and of churches. But I don't think I should belittle people or church choirs, even in my head.
I think I should not laugh at certain humor but I don't think I should show people that I think worse of them because they make jokes below my standards. That would be awful.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
aka Just because something sounds positive to me doesn't mean it is. i shouldn't shape my idea of what God wants around what seems good to me - well, maybe I should do that sometimes when I'm pretty sure something is good... I think I should also shape my ideas about what is good around what I hear God wants, even if I'm not sure what God wants.
Life is dangerous. Be careful of your assumptions, try not to get too comfortable, and don't worry! The paradox of living with a parent who has strict rules, little enforcement, and who doesn't show you the big picture completely until you're dead and in heaven! I guess we get glimpses of the big picture and of the rules of right and wrong.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you, do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat and drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. ARE YOU NOT MUCH MORE VALUABLE THAN THEY? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his (or her) life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies (and Queen Anne's Lace) of the field grow. They do not bargain shop or sew. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and mowed tomorrow, won't he make sure you have enough clothes to get through the semester without doing laundry once a week? Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
And in my opinion, you should plan for tomorrow. I believe that planning is different from worrying - I also believe that buying textbooks online and using the money for something else is good for society and God likes it.

"Each day has enough trouble" - Weird way to say that! it's not something a "religious person" would say... Since when does Jesus talk pessimistically? My days are fun- his are trouble?

Unplug stuff? Or does this text consume more energy than could be saved by unplugging?