Body to Soul.

Never think that the bodily position makes no difference to your prayers; we are human beings and whatever we do with our bodies directly affects the state of our souls. It would be a great lie to say that being tired or awake, hungry or full, or dead or alive have no impact on the state of our souls. These "small" things have too great of an influence. Get down on your knees and pray. You will soon understand in a physical, metal, and spiritual sense that praying on your knees makes all the difference.



Burton 261E

Hungry? Chew on this.

If we are hungry and we deny ourselves the nutrition needed to sustain our bodies, it forces our souls to cry out and ask God to sustain us. The hunger is our bodily function and the denial of this hunger is our soul function. The denial of this hunger is our soul function because it does exactly the opposite of what our bodily organs are telling us to do, which is to depend on something other than mere matter and to depend on what is unseen. The soul functions to unite us with the living God, and when it cannot bring us into His presence it is because we have our bodily functions functioning on a level too high, overpowering the objective of the soul function. Turn down your bodily function or crank up that soul function!



Burton 261E

Grand Desire.

One of God’s greatest desires is to fill the world with a vast amount of miniature duplicates of Himself. Miniature figures who model their Creator with their lives, not because they are required to model Him, but because in the depth of their hearts they freely want to conform to His will. Miniature figures who serve God not with the intention of looking full on the outside, but because they are so richly fulfilled from their relationship with Him on the inside. This is one grand desire.



Burton 261E

My Acronym for Easter.

E ternal
A tonement
S urrounding
T he
E verlasting
R esurrection of Christ


How glorious for the world to have remembered this remarkable day!
Christianity and the faith of all of its followers primarily hinges upon the extravagant atoning work of the resurrected Christ. Without the resurrection we have no hope. And without hope, life is truly meaningless. Thank our God in heaven that He has given us hope, and more than just hope; a deep, unwavering, and intimate relationship with the hands that fabricated the entire cosmos! Amen.


Burton 261E

Tears of Joy

Since the beginning of last Fall semester the fear of losing my Dad to cancer weighed very heavily on me. When my Dad told me about his condition I was forced on my knees to cry out to God. It's been a rough seven months since that day, but God has ALWAYS been faithful to me and my family. He has carried us through this, and has brought us out of all of this so much stronger. This morning my Mom left me a voicemail. She said that Dad's doctor's report was great! His doctor indicated his blood report was normal and his spleen was not enlarged. He will take the Rituxan next week and should be in remission for years. God is so good! I can't believe that I'm going to have my Dad around for more years to come! God I can't thank you enough! Thank you to all who prayed faithfully for my Dad, thank you! Thank you for this wonderful moment of bathing in these tears of joy.

PSALM 66:16-20
All believers, come here and listen,
let me tell you what God did for me.
I called out to him with my mouth,
my tongue shaped the sounds of music.
If I had been cozy with evil.
the Lord would never have listened.
But he most surely did listen,
he came on the double when he heard my prayer.
Blessed be God; he didn't turn a deaf ear,
he stayed with me, loyal in his love.


Amen.


-burton 261E

Good. Bad. Both?

What makes up good theology? What makes up bad theology? How are we to know if theology is good or bad when one individual claims that God has led them through revelation to believing something and another person claims that God has led them through revelation to believing the exact opposite of the theology of the first person? In logic, it is impossible for both sides to be right and one of the two must be wrong. But what if by chance, both sides are wrong? It may be more profitable then to place higher emphasis on the reading of the holy scriptures above the theology of the next person to see what God has to reveal in your own understanding of theology.

Presence

It's encouraging to hear from God, to know that He is with you always, to know that He is speaking to you, to know that He is confident in you, to know that He will never depart from you, to know that He loves you.

I was reading in Joshua today and I want to put up something that absolutely stuck out to me. No real reason for this post other than that. Enjoy..

Joshua 1:5-9 (NASB)
5 "No man will {be able to} stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
6 "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go.
8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."


Burton 261E

Must God exist?

In logic:

1. The universe exists.
2. The universe cannot be infinitely old; because if it were infinitely old, it would have entered into a state of entropy a long time ago.
A. What is entropy? Entropy is the second Law of thermodynamics stating that all things are moving toward chaos and degradation. In other words, the universe is breaking down over a period of time and the energy in the universe is declining.
3. The universe is not in a state of entropy, it is in a state of constant expansion; therefore, it is not infinitely old.
4. Since the universe is not infinitely old, it had a beginning; it had to start somewhere.
5. The universe could not have created itself.
6. Something before the universe and greater than the universe had to bring the universe into existence, because without that something the universe would have no way of existing.
7. That something is and must be God.


Burton 261E

The Reality of God.

God is real, and I truly believe that with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. However, when I say a statement as bold as this with such great confidence, I do not in any way just believe that God exists ever so blindly. My faith in God is legitimate, it is reasonable and immensely thought out. It requires more reason and less faith to actually believe in God than it does to believe that there is no God and that every living and non-living thing happened by accident, caused from nothing or was caused by an explosion of nothingness (Since when has any 'ka-boom!' ever created something in the history of the universe as we know it?). If you happen to think that there is no God, I would love to talk with you about why I believe in God, and hope that we can have both a well-educated and open discussion on the why's and the why not's of the existence of God. As for anyone else, I'm open to talk to you as well. I love God, and I would like to share my knowledge of Him with you, in the hope that you might see His glory the way that I see it, and experience His love in a similar way that I am experiencing it.


Burton 261E

Why I think you should use your brain.

-Because you have one.
-Because you have a 'working' one.
-Because other brains can and will learn from your brain.
-If you stop using your brain, your neurological pathways will eventually cut themselves off and the connections will be lost which results in you being unable to carry on with specific functions of your brain.
-If you learn something now, you can use it later. The more you know now, the more you will be able to accomplish later. Don't you want to accomplish something BIG?
-"Use it or lose it!" as Einstein once said. If you don't use your brain, you wont have a brain, so get on it! It's like playing a musical instrument or learning a sport. The more you practice, the better you get. The less time you spend practicing, the worse off you are. Use your brain!

I don't know why I am writing about this in my blog, but I think it's something important to keep in mind (no pun intended).


Burton 261E

Answer.

I've cried out, and heard nothing. I've cried out, and felt nothing. But I'll keep holding on because I know You're still there and I'm never going to be alone, no matter what I "feel". It's unexplainable and incomprehensible, but I trust You.

This experience shows me that much more that Love is not just a feeling, nor can it or should it be. If I were to base my relationship with God off of me 'feeling' His presence, our relationship would be totally and completely based off of that "feeling" that I am getting from God, and if God decides to cut off that feeling then hypothetically I would stop "loving" Him. Praise God that this is not how love works! Love is not selfish! It is NOT a feeling!
Love is a choice! It is a decision that every person must make. It should not be based off of a feeling because feelings are fleeting and constantly changing. A firm decision is meant to last. True love lasts. True love is a choice.


"I once was blind, but now I see."

-Burton 261E

not N-Sync

It's by far the worst feeling in the world to feel out of sync with God. To feel separated from Him in the midst of spending time with Him. Today has been one of those days. I just can't find that rhythm. I've tried every beat that I know, and still nothing sounds right. And at last, I am on my knees crying out in desperate need for His presence, waiting for the slightest bit of understanding from God as to why I have been feeling this way for such a long time. I'm in need... please help me. Meet me where I'm at. I just can't seem to make it any closer to You.


Burton 261E