Thoughts and Confessions

I have moved:

2010-05-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Reformed Revivalist
http://reformedrevivalist.wordpress.com/

-burton 261e

The Problem With The Problem of Evil

2010-04-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

Currently writing a paper with this title as the title of my thesis. I will post it up when it is finished (Should be done by May 17th).
Wrapping things up with my final semester at the University and final semester as President of the Fraternity. Things are VERY busy...

-burton 261e

I Would Be a Sceptic, Had God Not Shown Me Grace.

2010-02-23T15:10:00.000-08:00

I will finish this thought when I have more time. Right now I have a meeting with a professor. But I wanted to get it started now so that I do not forget about it.

The discussion will be on what I think is the highest form of human reasoning, namely, the tradition of "Pyrrhonian skepticism" and I will show how human reason in all of its wisdom is not sufficient enough to know that God exists, therefore God must reveal Himself to His creatures in order to be known by them.

-burton 261e

God and the Existence of Evil

2010-02-23T14:15:00.000-08:00

We have all often heard this question. And many of us have even asked this question.
It always shows up looking like this, to a greater or lesser degree:

"If God is a good God, then why does He allow evil and suffering to exist in His world?"

The main point of this question (or statements and arguments like it), is that if God exists, then He would not allow evil to be present in the world because God is perfect/good/etc. The implication of this type of question/statement/argument is that, since evil is present in the world around us, God does not exist. God, if He did exist, because of His good nature would stop it, and it would no longer exist. When we look at the world around us, we see a world full of hatred, rape, murder, and ... chaos. Therefore, the obvious conclusion is that God does not exist, and if He did exist, then God is not a good God because He would have created a world that was without evil in the first place; therefore, again, God does not exist.

Now, for the longest time I have split hairs over this question and have been unable to provide an adequate answer to it. Until a few nights ago...

So the question is, "Why does God allow evil to be present in this world?"
Before we try to answer this question, we must first define what "evil" is. Evil then (At least in its tangible and observable form), is anything that hurts or damages or defiles or deprives or impairs or injures God's creation, which is mankind and the universe or world that we inhabit and anything that is against the God that created what does exist. Now, when we examine ourselves, and we take a look at relationships between human beings, we see that much damage and destruction is done and has been done. Marriages fail, and even marriages that haven't failed come with much strife. Friendships deteriorate or contain backbiting at times. We see people get along, and then the same people get along no more. There are occasional or frequent "brush ups" with all human beings. It is the state of being human. There is much damage done among us. All around the world the innocent suffer, and the guilty get away with doing things that they should not have done. We see a world full of hatred. If we watch the news for no more than 5 minutes, we see a world full of rebellion. A world full of destruction. A world full of chaos. And what is the root cause of this chaos? God? No. Man. Man is the source of this evil, because we wrong one another and we even sometimes wrong ourselves without trying to do so. If we examine our thoughts, and truly look at them, we see that they are often times full of wickedness. If you disagree with me on all of this, then let me take all of your thoughts, from when you were a little child all the way up until now, and let me put every thought that you've ever had on a giant movie screen so that others may observe your thought life. If you have lived a life without one wicked thought, or one thought that did not seek your own good above someone else, then you are right and I am totally wrong. But I think that you would agree with me, that your thought life does contain evil at times, and you would probably not want others to see some of the things that you have thought about because they are in fact very evil. Man is guilty then, of what the Bible calls "sin," which is doing what is contrary to God's will or falling short of God's Holy law (or God's will). If evil then, does exist, and it exists in mankind and manifests itself as sin (or rebellion against God), then all of mankind is evil. All of mankind (whether man, woman, child, or infant), are evil, and are then "sinners."

If we accept this to be true (Which to be honest, is a very hard truth to swallow and one that does offend the self-righteous), then we must agree that God, being the good God that He is, has every right to blot out mankind from existing on this earth. We see that, God, could eliminate all of mankind, and remain just in doing so.

Genesis 6:5-7 sheds light on this notion:
"The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

Let's go back to the original question: ""Why does God allow evil to be present in this world?"
The answer is: because of His grace. If God had decided to eliminate evil from this world, He would have to eliminate us [all of mankind], because man is the root problem of this present darkness. Man is responsible, personally responsible, for thinking and doing evil. Thanks be to God then, through Jesus Christ, that He has NOT eliminated us all from this earth, and that He has given us the opportunity to turn from our sin (or repent for our sin against Him and others) and turn to Him for forgiveness of our sin, by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, and in the end, receive a gift that we do not nor ever could deserve: life now, and life eternal after.

-burton 261e

Powerless god or Powerful God?

2010-01-15T15:11:00.000-08:00

If God can't make a man go to heaven by the free choice of His will, then He certainly couldn't have the ability to send a man to hell either. God is rendered powerless by such a doctrine, and a powerless god is no god at all! The God of the bible is powerful and has every right over His creation. He may send whomever He wishes to heaven or hell. Those that go to heaven; are deserving of hell but receive mercy and are filled with gratitude. Those that go to hell; go where they willingly wanted to be [namely, where God isn't] and receive their just punishment. All are hell-bound without the hand of God. All fall short.

-burton 261e

The Predestinated Free Will Paradox.

2009-10-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

The sin of men "was rendered possible by the fact that God gave them free will" (C.S. Lewis in Miracles), however, "a man cannot rise of his own will as he fell by his own will" (St. Augustine in On the Free Choice of the Will). The first act was of free will, every act after, is in bondage to the fallen will. That is why a man cannot turn from his own sin, apart from the grace of God. Faith must be given for the dead to rise.

Genesis 3:6
"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate."

Ephesians 2:1-10
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

-burton 261e

ὐμᾶς ὄντας νεκροὺς, χάριτι ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι διὰ πίστεως· ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ
"you were dead, by grace you are saved through faith in Christ Jesus"

[*Scripture quoted from the ESV translation]

Recent Quotes by me.

2009-08-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

"It's not until everything of value to you is forcefully stripped away, or voluntarily pushed aside, or unexpectedly trampled upon by the foot of men, or suddenly removed; and all of your desires are strenuously cast down at the foot of the cross, that you begin to see, rather clearly, the invaluable and inimitable beauty of the precious Christ. His love truly is never ending and is always abounding." -August 12, 2009

"You are only entitled to what God has given you, and even that is to be received with thanks and even given back to God if He so desires. Nothing is yours. You have no rights that are not gifts from Him. You are his bondservant. But, He has given you... HIMSELF and He has even said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5) Therefore, He is more than enough." -August 11, 2009

"How can a stubborn boy who has decided and purposed in his heart that "God is a fairytale" and that he hates the very idea of God come to the point of believing in God? The answer is: grace. And, I was that boy. It is an absolute miracle ...that I, a boy who turned his back on religion and a former atheist, ever became a "Christian." If you want proof of God's existence, look no further than that." -August 4, 2009

"Most people think that winning the argument is what matters, not learning the truth. I could care less about the argument, just give me the truth! I would rather be called an idiot and have the appearance of knowing nothing than live to portray to know all things and in the end have it shown to me that I am nothing." -July 31, 2009

-burton 261e

One Cliche with a Bite of Truth.

2009-08-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, for all of us sons, the cliche statement "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" is for the most part, painfully true and we are a lot more like our fathers than we ever may want to be. My dad used to always say to me that he "never wanted to be like his father," yet with his actions he would do just as his father did to him, to me. Discouragement and a spirit of criticism prevailed all throughout my childhood years, through high school, and even up to about a year ago and placed in me a severe lack of confidence resulting in much insecurity and a huge problem with performance. It wasn't until my father was diagnosed with cancer (at the end summer just before the Fall 2007 semester) that he began to see areas of his own brokenness and lack of forgiveness (harboring bitterness) toward his earthy father that he began to realize his need of letting God become a Father to him so that healing within himself could take place and restoration in his relationship with me might be possible. Jesus is more than willing to reconcile us to God, for He has already done so upon our believing in what He has done for us on the cross through faith in Him, and He is more than capable of reconciling us to any person where there might be much damage and destruction, if in the end it brings much glory to Himself. It's all in His timing and it's all about Him; for His glory. I'm so thankful that we have a Father in heaven who, no matter what our earthy father may be like, is always able to show us His love and provide for us the comfort and confidence we need in ways that we most need it, through His son, the Savior that has already done more than enough to make us perfect, without spot or blemish, in the sight of a holy God.

-burton 261e

A Wonder of God's Grace.

2009-08-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

It is an absolute miracle that I, a boy who turned his back on religion and a former atheist, ever became a "Christian." It was not something I ever searched for or wanted for myself. In fact, I rejected it, ran from it, hid myself from it, and attempted to avoid God and all talk of God at all costs; blocking out all concepts and ideas of Him in my mind whenever a conversation with a "believer" would present itself; ignoring anything and everything that had to do with Christianity, and yet He still managed to overcome all of my disbelief, every bit of my hatred, and my rebellious shouts against His existence by stripping me of every silly argument, cutting me off from every form of worldly pleasure so that nothing could please me but would only reinforce my longing for something of a different sort, and by removing my thoughts of comfort and safety by my own means of self-sufficiency, He showed me what, or better, who, I really am. I was left barren, empty, discontent, helpless, hopeless, and alone. It was then, that I saw Him for the first time. And when I looked at Him, I saw my own brokenness, my own despair, my own weakness, my own inadequacy, my own heart in all its twisted and warped deceitfulness, and all of the destructive and corrupt practices that I had been living in, that had been controlling me, that I had been submitting to; I saw them as they truly were. I felt the weight of my sin, and it drove me to tears and moved my heart to utter grief. In the anguish of my condition, I cried out for mercy! At that moment, I knew that a most glorious Savior had come to rescue me, to save me from myself, to free me from a life of bondage. Apart from God we are left to corruption. Apart from God we are without hope. Apart from God we are without life. But it was then, and ever since then, that I have begun to know a most loving, holy, just, and gracious Father. Thank you Lord for both your mercy and grace! You have given me the very thing I do not deserve, the very thing that I could not deserve even if I tried, and although I at one point had tried, it was my effort that kept me from receiving from your hands true life. Thank you.

Hellish Thoughts From Two Perspectives.

2009-07-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

For the Christian, a sinner saved by grace through faith in Christ, hell is a place that tells of Jesus' all-conquering and amazing love for him. Hell is a place that he deserves to fall into by the mere weight of his sin alone, yet, Christ bore all of his sins and satisfied the eternal wrath of God by dying in place of the believing sinner at the cross. When the Christian thinks of Hell, he rejoices that he does not have to endure it for all eternity, and that the only hellish thing he will have to experience is this brief life on earth which is full of many rebellious, God-hating, and hell-bound sinners.

For the sinner, a religious or natural man who rejects Christ and trusts in his own good deeds to propel him to heaven or denies the supernatural altogether, hell is a place that tells of God's terrible and horrifying eternal judgement and wrath meant specifically for him. When the sinner thinks of Hell, he either denies that Hell is a real place apart from the silly religious fanatics' imagination, thinks that a "loving God" would never send him there because he thinks it unjust for God to do so based on his own definition of "love", or believes himself good enough to avoid it. What he doesn't realize is that, by trusting in any of these things, he has denied his only way out of Hell, namely Christ, and will be thrown into the very place that he thinks himself free from.

-burton 261E

My Opinion of the Bible.

2009-06-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

The Bible is the most extraordinary book of all time. Read it. Read it. Read it. And when you've finished reading it, read it again. And even after all of that reading, you won't be finished reading it, but will only have begun to read it for all it's worth.

-burton 261e

When the New is Old and the Old is New.

2009-06-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

This world is marked with the forgetfulness of all of its inhabitants and embroidered with the worthlessness of human wisdom within it. Every road has already been trampled upon by those that came before us. Any new thought, any new idea, is just a an old idea that has been recently forgotten so that it appears to be something new and fresh, 'original' even. However, that same thought or idea can be seen written more freshly and newly on the pages of ancient history.

No man has in himself anything new, apart from God.

-burton 261e

Every Day.

2009-06-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

How faithful is God?:

Every day, He has wholly provided for me.
Every day, He has been there with me.
Every day, He has fully loved me.
I, however, cannot say the same about myself.
Every day, I have refused to give Him all of my provisions.
Every day, I have left Him on numerous occasions.
Every day, I have at most only partially loved Him.

I am forced to hold fast to God because I know myself, and myself, I know I cannot trust.

In Christ alone.

-burton 261e

Aristotle and God.

2009-05-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

We have no record of Aristotle writing anything. All we have is the lecture notes of his students. We have recovered nothing, whatsoever, that he wrote himself, yet we still believe he exists, without question. Philosophers do not dare to question the existence of Aristotle. We have the writings of his pupils, his students, and that's all that is needed to know that Aristotle did in fact exist and he did in fact establish the foundation of logic and reason and that he was, in fact, a man that lived long ago.

Do we not also have writings from Jesus Christ's pupils, his students? If I'm not mistaken we have 4 accounts of men that documented the ministry of Jesus and the most important times of his life. Do we not also have records, and much more numerous in number and stronger in validity and reliability, of what the God of the Hebrew Bible did in relation to all of humanity over a period of thousands of years and with various authors that do not contradict one another? And yet, the most brilliant philosophers would never dare acknowledge the existence of such a God based on this evidence, even though it is even stronger than that of Aristotle, because the documents that we have talk about a man who claimed divinity and the documents that we have tell of a God who brings both justice and mercy. Could it be His judgement that men fear, and that's why the idea or mere concept of such a God must be eliminated and wiped away from all of true history? The claim often made is that there is no evidence whatsoever for His existence, and if there were any, then there is not enough to draw such an absurd conclusion. Yet, we did so with a man...why can't we do so with a man who was God?

That amazes me. It simply amazes me...but at the same time it doesn't surprise me...

Unbelief doesn't surprise me, it doesn't shock me. Men will always find every reason to doubt, and men will ignore all of the reasons to believe.

------------
Lord, help this unbelief. This society is treacherous. It hates you and it despises you. It tries to do everything it can to undermine you, to question you, to ignore you, but God, show them mercy. Open up the eyes of men and women who have the ability to make history and bring truth back into this godless culture.
Amen.

-burton 261e

Eternal man. Eternal God.

2009-05-13T15:00:00.001-07:00

I have confidence in one thing, that there is life after death and that my soul is eternal. That being said, your soul is eternal as well.

I know that I am an eternal being, because nothing on this earth satisfies my longing soul. Nothing here brings genuine satisfaction. Every passion I pursue and every desire that I crave, once it has been obtained, leaves me with the same feeling of utter disappointment and dissatisfaction which I formerly had before the pursuit and before the craving. It might as well have been that I had no passion or desire in the first place, so that I wouldn't end up with a bitter taste in my mouth, but that is not how things are. No. Every craving that we have and every passion that we feel, has been placed on our hearts for a purpose. That purpose being there to show us that nothing in this life brings true satisfaction. Nothing in this life can bring us to perfect completion for the very reason that this life is imperfectly incomplete, and there lies a perfectly complete life beyond this one. There is more to this life, there is a hereafter, because this life is unsettling. In this life, we run around aimlessly in circles, learning something and relearning that very thing over and over again, until the day we die as if nothing mattered in the first place. But that, right there, that yearning for something more, is what matters most. The fact that we have a sense of longing and a sense of yearning means that there truly is something that belongs after us, waiting beyond the small horizon set before us to meet us. I know that I have a soul that outlasts this miserable body because every pleasure that I have felt has left me without peace, without happiness, without joyfulness, without love, without all of those things that my mind and my heart and my soul cry out to the great beyond with such assurance and confidence for! We would not grab for these things if they were to always remain out of our reach. I know this because, if I am hungry, I can find something to eat. If I am thirsty, I can find some water to drink. But when I desire love or want joy, I cannot find these things anywhere in this visible world, in this present life. They are nowhere to be found here, and for that reason they must be found somewhere else but here, and most probably over there, with God! We have these longings, they are without a doubt there, and for no other reason than to show us that they do exist, but cannot be fully experienced until this life is over and the next is eternally lived out, and then our souls will be satisfied, for God satisfies the longing soul.

"He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, without which man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11

I am also convinced, that God has done so much from before time existed until it's present and past it's end that we would be unable to fully grasp it unless we had all of eternity to be with Him in order to understand it.

-burton 261e

Worldly Systems Will Never Reach the Heights of Heaven, So Why Try To Do The Same In the Name of Jesus?

2009-04-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

If the scientist cannot rise above rational probability by any and all means of his empirical investigation, why should the Christian attempt to do more using this same method?
If the philosopher cannot rise above reason and logic itself by any and all methods of his rational inquiry, why should the Christian think he can reach any higher using this same process?
If the moralist cannot rise above the universal ideal of ethical theory that governs society by any and all means of his own system of knowledge, why then, should the Christian try to prove a God that transcends the constraints of the universal box by using this same set of rules?
Why do we try to fly higher than the systems of men in order to reach the heights of heaven when the wisdom of God has been unleashed by the power of the gospel of Christ in simplicity and foolishness at the base of the ground?

We attempt to rise higher than other men, only to find that by rising above we have not risen at all, and have lost all power that is capable of bringing life to the spiritually dead, including ourselves. We may be waging war with more advanced natural weapons, but they are nonetheless, natural weapons and are not spiritually empowered. Natural weapons that, no matter how far advanced, are useless and ineffective in bringing about the salvation of souls. Our attempts are weak, futile, worthless, human, and the only thing that stems from these things is impossibility, especially when it comes to fighting the darkness of the world. The main problem with our attempts is that, no matter how high they may fly, they can never go beyond the heights of what is reasonable or what is probable. The problem with what is reasonable or what is probable is that, no matter how convincing anything may ever be, it always ends with a "probably." Now, a "probably" that results when considering the subject of God's existence or the subject of Christ Himself, means that God or Christ and any of the presumed works that they have done (Either in Creation or Redemption) all hinge on what is “probably” true. This means that, when we fly, we are basing the foundation of our faith, that which we label truth, on what is not explainable by the methods of our attempts and expect it to yield fruitful results, when in fact the opposite is the only reality. A proof can neither prove that something is true, nor can it prove that something is not true, it can only prove that a "probably" is probably true. Truth that is probably true is just as much truth that is probably not true, and therefore, is no standard of measurable truth at all. No, truth that is probably true is indefinitely no truth at all. A truth such as this cannot rest on what is probable. It must be definite. What is definite cannot be proven true by any given "probably."
So, why then do we fly?

We fly because we think that we must. We think that we must because we do not trust. We do not trust because we suffer from lust. It's the same lust that took Eve and ensnared Adam. The same desire that has captivated all of humanity and has manifested itself as a four letter word: P-R-I-D-E and the sinful nature that we all inherit. Our pride causes us to fly. We think that we can do this on our own, and in that we fall and fail at bringing others into the obedience and humble submission of Jesus Christ. We have fallen and continue to fall. We think our power is still found high up in the sky of human discovering and human reasoning and human governing, when in fact it is found at the base, the foundation, the very cornerstone of Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:18 "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise."

-burton 261e

Unexpected Expectations.

2009-04-11T21:05:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest discoveries that I have ever had in my short 2 1/2 years of following Christ is also one of the most grievous discoveries that my heart has ever felt. I have noticed, that the more time elapsed with my nose pressing hard against the rich pages of the biographical accounts of Jesus' life [the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John] and the numerous hours my mind has spent twirling in certainty and uncertainty over what is clearly and plainly written before my eyes, the more I have begun to realize how far away this world of Christendom that I have both involuntarily been surrounded with and voluntarily immersed myself in truly is from "the way" that is depicted in the teachings and revelations of this remarkably divine text. It is evident that the culture in which the bible was written is nothing like today's culture, and yet, so many are guilty of reading a twenty-first century framework into each author's first century intent, contorting the pure form of Christ on the basis of presumption and presupposition, and thus, leaving behind an impure distortion of what one chooses to think of Him under false pretenses which ultimately and undoubtedly creates an alternative form of Christ that fits neatly and cozily into one small compartment of the large complex of a twenty-first century Christian mindset. Beyond and also in the midst of this obvious cultural contextualization puzzle lies the grievous discovery that I am referring to in the first line above: that we are recklessly guilty of doing just as the Jews did upon the long anticipated first coming of the Messiah--Jesus Christ. The Jews, using their own human ingenuity, generally (I say generally because of the four known major sects of Judaism at the time [the Sadducee's, Pharisee's, Essen's, and Zealot's] each independently desired a different form of Messiah, each wanting one pertaining to their own idealized persona which naturally resembled their own style of community of righteousness and I have lumped these four into one category: the Jews) anticipated a Messiah that was to come in power who would descend from the line of King David, restore the sovereignty of Israel, gather all of her people back into the promised land from every dispersed region of the earth in which they lived, recommit to total observance of the Law [the Torah], and bring peace to all of humanity. Due to the Messianic standards that the Jews had preconceived, when the Messiah [Jesus of Nazareth] had finally come to gather his lost and scattered sheep, he was, to them [the Jewish religious leaders of the time], altogether unrecognizable. He was not seen because they did not have the eyes to see Him, for their eyes were shut by their own predetermined and obstinate biases. In a similar way, I'm afraid that far too many Christians, myself included, are guilty of not seeing Jesus for who He really is and for who He says (and others say) He is. The mistake that the Jews had made in reference to the coming Messiah was basing the total focal point of who their Messiah was on one aspect of Messianic prophecy when there are undeniably numerous aspects that the Messiah has and each of those aspects are not determinate on any specific group or individual's own expectations of the Messiah. Christians do this exact thing by grabbing hold of one aspect of the character or teaching of Christ and advocating for that precise thing without taking into account the whole of who Christ is and what He taught. What is so treacherously terrifying about this is that far too many Christians are guilty of adhering to only some part or parts of Jesus' teaching while, at the same time, they neglect the rest of His teaching, and some even do this intentionally based on personal discomfort or a reluctance to change! Too often Christians read what the sacred text says and only adopt those sayings or teachings that fit into the preconceived belief system that they already have, and in so doing, either consciously (If willfully one is to resist the teaching at hand) or unconsciously (If unknowingly one resists the teaching at hand by not investigating due to laziness or apathy) pervert the beautiful portrait of Jesus Christ. It would be as if a skillful artist were to place a freshly brushed painting in front of a small child, only to have the child smear the finished work all over the floor and thus, blemish the painting right in front of the master. Although the small child would gain two hands full (and then some) of paint immediately, the child would never have grown up to witness the beauty and glory of what the master had done for him and would never be able to properly receive the gift that was already given. Unfortunately, it is inevitable that many will continue to view Jesus in this way. If you are reading this and are among the many, I implore you to consider asking yourself if your own expectations are in the way of you seeing Jesus, and if they are, then you must look to see which teachings of His you are playing down and which teachings of His you are accentuating too much. If you are guilty as the Jews were and as many Christians are of having unexpected expectations about Jesus, you must also carefully search for the truth and never cease to ask Jesus to show you more of Himself. We must not be lazy any longer. We must not neglect full knowledge of the truth when the truth is right before us and even within arms reach. Ask, seek, knock. The door will be opened fully, but, in His due time and in accord with His glorious grace.

For a rather scary, but sobering reality that is only slightly related to the condition mentioned above:
"If one wanted to be brutally honest and reflect the dynamic of the first century, one would have to say that the conservative, evangelical Christian, the one who today has a very high view of Scripture and wants, in detail, to apply it to every aspect of life, is probably the closest parallel to the ancient Pharisee. How shocking, then, when such people at times fall into legalism and are accused of perverting what is intended to be a vibrant relationship with God into a religion of a long set of dos and don’ts."
--"What Life Looked Like In Jesus' Time," Dr. Craig Blomberg, a distinguished professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary in Littleton, CO, USA

I am quite sure that Jesus wasn't a huge fan of the Pharisee mentality and posture in relation to the kingdom of God. One quick skim through any one of the gospels will convey that fact. Jesus was not against the Jews. He was a Jew, however, He was against the attitudes that the Pharisees had acquired and came to lay down and become the very foundation of truth which was strongly opposed to such attitudes. Check yourself, repent, and begin to pursue and believe in the One who is truth.

-burton 261e

The Human Heart In All It's Glory.

2009-03-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

The human heart is dark, disillusioned, distant, and alone. It cares not for anything other than grabbing hold of its own disturbing desires. It seeks after pleasure and cannot remove its eyes from her smooth skin. Its vision is so narrow that it cannot even conceive of any other possible routes other than the one it's on. Unable to turn a degree to the left nor the right and with no lever to change direction in sight, it tramples upon everything that gets in its way and travels without mercy. It has one purpose: to bring pleasure to itself. It has one method: consume, use, take. It has one thought: mine. Fueled by obsession, the human heart seemingly stops at no end. As it gains speed down the long, stubborn terrain it enters into a tunnel. At first the lights of the tunnel shine fairly bright. One light after another goes zooming by. After just a short while, each tunnel light becomes more and more dimly lit, until quite suddenly the last light goes out. Racing at a great speed down the dark tunnel, the human heart knows not where it's headed. Blindly moving through absolute darkness at its own presumptuous pace, it becomes complacent, helpless, and ignorant of its own condition. There the human heart lies embodied in its own deception. Thinking of itself to be paramount in its own existence, it travels deeper into a highly distorted and sickly deformed dimension of human selfishness. This is the state of the human heart at it's highest.

-burton 261e

Percieving The Bible As The Word of God.

2009-02-24T22:49:00.000-08:00

The Bible contains within it the very mind of God himself. When opened, one is immediately lifted up into the benevolent thoughts of the Narrator who has by His own soft words spoken the greatest and most powerful love story ever told. Each and every part within this great masterpiece contains within it the most resounding and astounding message of hope that could ever be offered to all of mankind. If then, such a book is within the reach of any man or woman here on earth, and whether this book be found on an old dusty shelf or on a freshly swept desk, one might care to listen to the kind voice offering to him the salvation of his soul, saying, "Take and read; meditate on my ordinances, my law, my commandments, my truth, my revelation, my beauty, my heart, my mind, and come to know My Son, who has died and risen just for you, please, meditate both day and night on these things, that your life may be made complete, that you might have unending joy in this life and in the life to come."

Perceive the Bible in a way such as this, and you will most certainly experience Jesus much in the same way as that generation of men who personally encountered him face-to-face:

"...what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life..." - 1 John 1:1

-burton 261e

Abandoning the Tool Shed and Leaving All the Tools Behind.

2009-01-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

It has been said that with intensively laborious effort we are to strive after holiness. We are to seek after perfection using all of the tools within reach of the tool shed next to us. If we use the right tool at the right time, that is, if we can find the right tool at the right time, we might hope to take one more step up this dysfunctional ladder that leads to perfection by fixing the step right above us, resulting in one stride nearer to that one area we are explicitly told that we cannot reach, even while using all of the right tools in the tool shed at once, at the right time, in the appropriate manner. If we accidentally grab the wrong tool, we rightfully accuse the tool for our own lack of reaching perfection. If we happen to grab the right tool, or the tool that we are convinced to be the right tool, and the tool again [to our own astonishment] fails us, we instead blame the tool shed for our inability to reach this standard of ultimate perfection. We "ought to" rigorously pursue the unobtainable, and when we fail to reach the apex of this incomprehensibly impossible pursuit, we slip down from the lowest point of the ladder to the base of the ground [which to our surprise wasn't as far down as we had thought] and feel a superb sense of overwhelming frustration and anger at the current position of helplessness and abasement that we find ourselves in. When we hit rock bottom, we are forced to see that no tool or tool shed could ever elevate us to the height of the top of this unpleasantly tall ladder, for the top of the ladder is simply too high, the only way to the top has too many steps to remodel or fix with our inadequate tools, and we are incapable of accomplishing this eminent achievement with all of the determination and idolization that could ever be mustered, tried, or admired with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. After the cloud of frustration has cleared away and every method of human pride has been tested and has both miserably and irrefutably failed, we are then susceptible to a small bit of humility to enter into the core part of our inner being. It is all now too clear: The only way to the top of this ladder is through another possibility that was formerly unseen, one possibility that has the potential to lift us up to the top without much goodwill, without any laborious effort at all. It is when we see this possibility that the door behind the base of the ladder is opened and we are given the opportunity to walk down the short hallway and step into the elevator that effortlessly rises to the height of the top of the ladder outside. This process is the stepping stone into a new way of life. We must realize that the Christian life is a life lived not in the flesh, not in a life domineered by the law, but through the outpouring of the Spirit which empowers us with a supremely boundless life. We ought to not strive harder, we ought to not try fancy new tools with the same basic function as the former, we ought not to draw from an old, outdated tool shed, but we OUGHT TO cease striving and know that Jesus Christ is God and let His Spirit reign in our lives. If only we allow it to happen...if only we rid ourselves of all pride and do away with the old way of living...the old way of habitually thinking...we would then reach the epitome of present joy and peace of mind, and would truly partake in the easy yoke, where there is true and immediate rest for the soul.

--Psalm 46:10--

burton 261e

Playing By the Rules Won't Cut it.

2009-01-18T01:17:00.000-08:00

One of the most difficult things to comprehend as a Christian is the simple fact that when you seem to do everything by the book, follow every principle or guideline that exists, and attempt to obey all of the rules, you still find yourself sick, unfulfilled, and still somehow missing the mark (Note: A surprisingly short self-checkup is needed to notice this if you are currently unaware of it's deep manifestation). After scanning through every list, principle, or rule possible, you realize that all of that is not only not enough, but it isn't even the point at all. You can't possibly measure up to those things and even if you could you wouldn't be following them with the right motives to drive the action. And that's when the world as you so surely thought you had "figured out" may come crashing down. It is then that you realize the only reason that you are a Christian is because He first called you child, because He suffered for you, and because He is fighting for you. And that's precisely when Christianity begins to make sense. It begins at the cross, it suffers with the cross, and it lives in light of the cross. He promised that He would send us His Spirit. He did. He promised us a life of abundance. It is here, and it can be experienced now. All that is required of us is a redeemed and willing ear that is ready to listen to the whispering call of the Father. This life was never meant to be lived out by playing off the instructions of an owner's manual. What's abundant about a to-do and not-to-do list? This life is meant to be lived out by conversing with the Maker of the game.

-burton 261E

Descartes' Ontological Argument.

2008-12-09T20:24:00.000-08:00

Descartes’ Ontological Argument
by: Nick Davis

In Nolan’s article on “Descartes’ Ontological Argument,” the author provides an excellent breakdown of Descartes’ so-called proof for the existence of God. He diagnoses Descartes’ argument by breaking it down into three separate parts; the first part being the simplicity of Descartes’ argument, the second the distinction between essence and existence, and the third providing various objections and replies between skeptics and Descartes himself. This paper seeks to illustrate a fair account of Nolan’s deduction of Descartes argument as well as establish its own grounds for the validity of Descartes’ ontological argument.
First, let us begin this deduction by defining what ontological is. Ontological (or a priori) is to be defined as knowledge that can be known without any empirical evidence. Now, as for the subject of ontological arguments, Descartes’ is not the only one to formulate one. An earlier version of this type of argument existed with St. Anselm in the eleventh century and had long since died out; however, Descartes’ denies any ties to this traditional argument (p. 1). Descartes’ ontological argument holds that the existence of the concept of God entails the existence of God, and according to Descartes, to conceptualize something posits that this certain something must exist. Thus, most simply stated, because there is a clear and distinct idea or concept of a supremely perfect being (namely, God), God must exist. Descartes also suggests that his argument is not a formal proof at all but is a self-evident axiom obtained intuitively by a mind exempt from philosophical prejudice (p. 1)
In the first part, Nolan claims that Descartes’ version of the ontological argument is simplistic in that it compares the way we ordinarily establish basic truths while using arithmetic and geometry (p. 2). This holds that God’s existence can be fundamentally known through human intuition. We are capable of attaining knowledge of God’s existence by learning that the clear and distinct idea of a supremely perfect being is found in apprehending necessary existence, just as Nolan writes “if I am able to clearly and distinctly perceive that necessary existence pertains to the idea of a supremely perfect being, then such a being truly exists (p. 3).” However, the premise for necessary existence to be conceptually linked to God’s existence does not depend ontologically on anything, for He is omnipotent and exists by His own power, and if God did not exist on His own initiative then it would be impossible for God to be omnipotent (p. 4). On page 5, Nolan states that Descartes further develops his previous analogy between the ontological argument and arithmetic. In this section Descartes suggests that there is one group of “meditators for whom God’s existence is immediately manifest” through his demonstration of a triangle whereas the latter group of “meditators…require a proof to attain the requisite clear and distinct perception” through looking at the Pythagorean Theorem to see God as self-evident (or as having necessary existence contained in the idea of supremely perfect being) (p. 5). Nolan points out on page 6 that Thomas Aquinas rejected the claim that God’s existence is self-evident because what is self-evident cannot be denied without contradiction, but God’s existence can be denied. Quite frankly I would have to agree with Aquinas on this point as existence can be denied; however, merely denying that something exists doesn’t mean that that something doesn’t exist. Take a car on an empty tank of gasoline for example. Merely thinking or believing with your ability or willpower to deny that your car is not out of gasoline wont get you any closer to your destination. Denying the reality of having no more gas won’t put more gas into your tank, nor will it mean that gasoline doesn’t exist. Denial does not evoke non-existence; it only posits an opinion based upon your perspective. In Descartes’ defense, Nolan points out that he does not hold that God’s existence is immediately self-evident or self-evident to everyone, but only that it can become self-evident with meditatiors that free themselves of all philosophical prejudices (p. 6).
In the second part, Nolan shows Descartes traditional medieval perspective on the distinction between essence and existence. On this notion, it is held that Descartes believed in a version of the Theory of Rational Distinction, which articulates that “a mind is merely rationally distinct from its thinking and a body is merely rationally distinct from its extension” (p. 8) and that in the abstract essence and existence are distinctly different, but in reality they are completely identical (p. 9). From Descartes viewpoint, “God is merely rationally distinct from his necessary existence, while every finite created thing is merely rationally distinct from its possible or contingent existence” (p. 9). By holding God and created beings on these two separate grade levels, this perspective allows Descartes to account for the theological difference that God independently exists of Himself and that His creation is entirely dependent on Him for existence (p. 9). God is distinguishable because of His higher level of existence and independent being. The result of this principle leads to the belief that ontological arguments cannot be conjured up for created substances or beings but only for God (p. 10). A finite thing cannot have an ontological argument produced for it because a finite thing is dependent on God, whereas the whole idea of a supremely perfect being containing necessary existence rests upon an ontologically independent argument (p. 10).
In the third part, Nolan draws out two necessary and sufficient conditions for Descartes’ version to be held prestigiously superior to his predecessors. The first condition is the theory of innate ideas and the latter the doctrine of clear and distinct perception. These two conditions protect Descartes’ ontological argument from the charges that were made against Anselm as well as provide the tools for answering any other objections. These conditions safeguard Descartes’ argument from suffering the objection of fictional ideas by purporting that the idea of God is something innate to the human intellect (p. 10). Among the other objections, there is “the claim that even if we were to concede that necessary existence is inseparable from the idea of God, nothing follows from this about what does or does not exist in the actual world” (p. 11) of which Descartes’ responds with the principle of clear and distinct perception, which bridges the gap between mere thoughts and reality (p. 11). Another objection which is much more difficult to respond to is Immanuel Kant’s objection which states “Whenever we think of anything, we regard it as existing, even if the thing in question does not actually exist. Thus, existence does not add anything to the concept of a thing (p. 13).” This very same objection was later refined by Bertrand Russell, claiming that “the statement “God exists” is not ascribing existence to a subject, but asserting that a certain description (in single quotes) applies to something in reality (p. 13).” Nolan goes about responding to this fine objection by first, prior to mentioning how Descartes might defend himself, noting that the “question at issue is typically framed in non-Cartesian terms and thus often misses its target (p. 14),” or more plainly stated, the question (or objection) is irrelevant to Descartes’ intended framework because his argument was never meant to be picked apart by logical issues when the argument itself was constructed on subject-predicate logic inherited from Aristotle (p. 14). If Descartes were to answer the question, nonetheless, he would have defended it by conceding to certain aspects of the objection such as the point that existence does not add anything to the mere idea of something and the notion that a thing cannot have properties unless it exists (p. 14). Conceding to these aspects asserts that the distinction between a substance and its existence is limited explicitly to thought or reason, therefore rendering a substance as its existence in reality (p. 15). Nolan concludes his deduction of Descartes’ ontological argument not by demanding the verdict for the case as true but to show that Descartes had a sophisticated and systematic way of treating existence (p. 15).

Work Cited
Nolan, Lawrence. “Descartes’ Ontological Argument.” Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. 15 October 2006. Stanford University. 13 October 2008

2008-12-08T16:38:00.000-08:00

Professors get lonely. Visit them if you can. It will affect them more than you know. - Dallas Willard

Good Ol' Clive.

2008-12-07T19:11:00.000-08:00

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."
-C.S. Lewis

True Love.

2008-10-16T12:53:00.001-07:00

Love is not desire, as Professor Dallas Willard would say. Desire seeks to have it's way with what is desired. It wants to eat it. It craves it, but it does not love it. Desire does not want to serve the beloved, for the beloved is not a beloved at all but is rather the belusted; treated by the one desiring it's own way without any respect for her at all.

Love seeks the good of that which is loved.

True love is marked by giving, not getting. Just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for us, so we too are to exemplify His love for one another by living for one another in an exceedingly sacrificial way. Go above and beyond in loving one another. Evoke the beloveds' beauty with your love. Bring out the best in the one whom you love. If you want to love as Christ loves, you must give your whole being to the practice of love, treating others as you would want to be treated. You cannot do this apart from God. You need His generous love abiding in you in order for you to truly love as Jesus has loved. The more time you spend in the presence of the One who is Love [God], the more readily you will become a loving being. Dwell with Him, love Him, and learn to love like Him.

-burton 261E

The University of Knowledge.

2008-10-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

It brings me great grief to be amidst the presence of a handful of students and a professor fifteen years older than I all laughing at the pitiful and hopeless people who still hold some kind of belief in "God," equating this belief with the belief that Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy actually exist. They laugh as though those people who place their belief in God do so with hardly any thought past "He just does.", and that the thought that those people do put into His existence contains little, if any, depth at all. The professor rips away any bit of potential evidence for God's existence, extracting a well constructed thesis out of context and picking bits and pieces out of history as though these small chunks contained the real remnant of truth. The very basis or starting point of most arguments that aim at destroying belief in God begin with false pretenses, and they do not give even remotely a fair representation of the biblical view of God in relation to humanity. To rebuke such false statements is difficult when the starting point of the statement claimed starts with a lack of the bigger picture. I want to so desperately present the whole picture in its entirety, but in order to do so requires an audience that is willing to listen. Thus far, I have found nothing but meaningless knowledge and questioning that leads herds of beautiful minds nowhere.

We all place our belief in something. It may not be God, but every human being believes in something as the ultimate cause or the primary source of all living things, and if he does not believe in an ultimate cause or a primary source then he believes in nothing, and to claim belief in nothing is still claiming belief in something. It is impossible to believe in nothing unless you also (along with that belief in nothing) don't believe in your own existence (or don't believe that you do exist), thus if you believe in your own existence you believe in something--namely, yourself. When I was religious, focusing on morality and obeying rules, I placed my trust in the law. When I was an Atheist, I put all of my trust in myself and it brought me much depression, purposelessness, and pain, for I knew that with all of the powers I could personally gather, those powers, in the end, matter very little at all in relation to everything else that has gone on over the progression of time. Now that I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, I put all of my trust in God and He has given me hope, joy, peace, and a great sense of purpose. Where are you putting your trust? Is it in yourself, humanity, material objects, rules, or people? Examine yourself and see what you believe in, what you hope in. Would you die for that belief? I will die for mine.

-burton 261E

My Apologies.

2008-09-17T23:44:00.001-07:00

I do want to apologize for my lack of updating this blog. It's been quite some time now, and for many different reasons it makes complete sense to me as to why it has been so terribly long.
I have been on a wonderful quest of learning, and upon this quest I have begun to make numerous discoveries through which my eyes have seen a much larger horizon that is greatly beyond me. It's difficult for me to explain right now, but my time is going to be better spent gathering my thoughts and writing them in the form of a book for a while, and whence this book is filled with all of its pages (however many pages that may be), I will then, once again, continue to post regularly.
If I had all of the time in the world to write bits and pieces of my thought processes, I would, but life is such that I am forced to many other obligations as well as time commitments and must spend this short time that we call life as efficiently as possible.

Hope to return sooner, rather than later (or rather than never again),
burton

P.S. Please keep me in prayer.

The Great Confirmation.

2008-08-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

No feeling in the world is greater than when the Lord confirms His work in and through you. When the Lord God Almighty tells you firsthand that He is with you and that He has gone ahead of you to clear the way for His marvelous plans to be executed for His great glory. What a wonderful emotion, experience, and moment is this.

-burton 261e

2008-07-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

A Wonderful Take on the Human Condition.

2008-07-16T11:24:00.001-07:00

This quote is such a wonderful take on the human condition (Our condition :P) in relation to the absolute necessity of a life lived in full dependence on God and pure relationship with Him to live in a manner worthy of the calling in which we have been called:

"How slothful and unfit we are for this blessed work.
Only the Spirit of God can enable us to do right."
-Andrew Murray (Pg. 10, With Christ in the School of Prayer)

The "knack that you never want to come back."

2008-07-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

I believe that all of us, have at the very least 'jumped the gun' once on God. What I mean by that is we sometimes get so caught up in our own desire, that we tend to play God and go for that desire without waiting on Him long enough; without consulting Him properly through His own, perfect, God-like timing.

In 1 Samuel 14, King Saul, just after being anointed and appointed King over Israel, 'jumps the gun' on God and in turn, becomes His own God.

Saul's son, Johnathan, caused a great commotion North of the Israelites encampment where the Philistines had a garrison, and had slaughtered twenty men with only himself and his armor bearer. When the first twenty fell, the whole Philistine garrison trembled and the ground shook with panicky footsteps. When Saul's watchmen noticed the scattering of the Philistines, Saul quickly counted heads to see whom of the Israelites was missing. When the heads were counted, sure enough, Johnathan and his armor bearer were gone. In verse 18, Saul called for the Ark of God, which meant that His first reaction to what was happening around Him was to consult God. This is good. However, in verse 19, Saul tells the priest to remove his hand (or put the ark back where it was) because of the urgency of the moment and rushes straight into battle without God's permission. He decides that listening to the voice of God would have taken too long and it would have ruined his military advantage. The problem with Saul's actions is that he didn't obey the voice of God and didn't depend on Him. Yes, Saul's first thought was to seek God's advice, but he did not go any further than that initial thought. Instead, Saul acted on his own insight and broke his commitment to obey God, He broke his dependence with God and chose independence from God; Saul was not a man after God's own heart.

The point of me writing about Saul's disobedience is to provide a biblical example of how we, as humans, have a knack for determining what's right or what's wrong in our own eyes without first asking God what His verdict is. If you recognize the prideful tendencies in your own heart, and you repent and ask God to change them, then I pray that this will be one knack in your life that will never have to come back.

Stay humble, be obedient, ask God what He desires for your life, and pursue just that.

-burton 261E

Once, For All.

2008-07-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

God doesn't need us to do anything magnificent, unbelievable or miraculous; nor does he ask of us for such things. He only needs us to stand obedient to His calling, to perhaps plant a seed whenever given the opportunity, and allow for Him to work His inexplicably marvelous miracles in the middle of our lives.

There is never a day when I feel perfectly adequate or feel that I measure up, but I am continually renewed and forever reminded that God has never asked me to be adequate. He has asked me to be absolutely flawless, and His Son has already ever so flawlessly and perfectly carried out this requirement for me, by the tree at Calvary. I need to do, no more.

"Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself." (Hebrews 7:27 with emphasis added)

Christ died, once, for all.

-burton 261E

The Cause of Loneliness and a Cure for Change.

2008-07-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

For the longest time I have been struggling with friendship. I'm not talking about that surface-leveled type of friendship, where news, sports and pointless facts or takes about so-and-so revolve around every facet of conversation. I'm talking about my struggle with an intimate form of friendship; the kind of friendship that reaches right into the core and center of who we are and allows for true relationship to occur through a long-suffering process of human engagements, honest experience, and convivial change.
My struggle has caused me to be in a state of proverbial loneliness. Nothing to the extreme of depression, no, I have God and He is sufficient, but loneliness in the sense of lacking forms of genuine companionship that make up community; the designated community that God experiences within Himself and desires for us to experience. As far as I can remember, I haven't truly experienced what its like to be in such a form of community, but only because I haven't allowed myself to be a part of this style of community. The reasons for this are quite obvious: Self-protection. I'm afraid of getting hurt, and I'm afraid of allowing others into this dark, grim, and disseminated mess that is my heart because I have convinced myself into believing that there is no other human being on this earth as unpleasant and horribly repugnant as I am; as my sin is.

But then it occurred to me:
Maybe you are feeling so alone because you never actually extend an invitation into your own life for others to enter into. You never give anyone the opportunity to love you. You just keep things at a distance and allow for others to let you into their hearts while concurrently locking the door of your own.

A voice spoke:
Open your arms, unlock your heart, and never fear, for God is here.

"Its not the nature of love to force a relationship but it is the nature of love to open the way." (Pg 192, The Shack)

-burton 261E

No-God Desires to Mo-God Desire.

2008-07-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we are so reluctant to just simply go to God. We duck and dodge, play hide and seek, and throw whatever we can in front of Him so that we don't have to look at Him. And when we see deep down in the bottom of our broken and messy hearts, we know that it's time to stop hiding, but we still persist in throwing more and more objects in front of us, avoiding Him at whatever cost. And when we are chasing after whatever our No-God desires may be, we happen to rather unexpectedly run right into Him, not realizing that He used one of those No-God desires that we decided to let into our lives and were aimlessly searching after to lead us back to Himself. And as we are kneeling down looking up at the face of God; we see our brokenness. We are allowed one more glance at the huge mess that we have secluded and locked inside of the deepest chamber of our hearts. For this moment our eyes are opened wide to look at this mess and we find out that this mess is the result of our own self-sufficiency, and our lack of God-dependency. At this time, we know that something must change. We cry out to Him and repent of our disobedience, our lack of faith, our lack of trust, our avoidance of His perfect relationship. We are then almost instantaneously stirred by the power of His love and shaken by His overwhelming presence. "Why have I avoided this for so long? Why have I been so reluctant, so set in my own ways, so right in my own eyes, and why, oh why have I neglected you?...My heart craves You, I was made for you." The three words "I love you" travel down into every part of our whole being and warm the center of our messy hearts; we know that we are loved. And then the moment has passed. We have experienced both our past and our present colliding into one another so that by moving into the rhythm of His grace we might together with Him bring about a most perfect, extravagant future.

-burton 261E

Just A Thought, Nothing More Than That.

2008-06-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

Truth is the only foundation for confidence, humility, and distinguishable open-mindedness.

Christ is the sole basis of this truth; for He is truth.

From Hearing to Mere Trust.

2008-06-21T14:25:00.001-07:00

Some people might say that it's impossible to hear from God, especially in the sense of His voice communicating directly into your mind.

Being the logical and rational being that I am, I have always assumed this. Then, something, among many other recent things happened...

On Tuesday night, I heard a distinct voice.

It spoke to me in a gentle and reassuring spirit the words, "I have a plan for your life; it's not what you think, but it's good."

When I heard this statement, my initial reaction to it was one of disbelief. How can God say something to me without using scripture, an experience, or other human beings? How do I know it's not the devil trying to deceive me through the use of my thoughts? How do I know its not just my own thought, such as my flesh?
Then I thought it through a little bit, and came to the conclusion that it has to be God because right now, this statement doesn't make much sense to me. And when something doesn't make complete sense to you, you can trust that it's God because His thoughts are not our thoughts. When Satan puts a thought into my mind, or when a thought is explicitly from me [the flesh], it usually is phrased in such a way that allows me to still have control over my life, and it never has me trusting in its plan because the plan is always attained by my own means.
However, the sentence exclaimed above allows for me to have no control; It only contains trust. When something requires trust, it asks for faith. When faith is needed in something [such as your future], it must be God; for only He requires our belief. And that's how I know this voice was in fact the voice of God.
Thus, God still speaks, and yes, He's immensely personal.

-burton 261E

The Theory of Physical Touch.

2008-06-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

A Scientific Approach [And by This I Mean an Experimental Approach] on How to Know You Are Wired for Relationship:

Have you ever tried to give yourself a massage? Have you ever attempted to tickle yourself? What do you find when you try both of these things by yourself?
Absolutely nothing.
No pleasurable sensation whatsoever occurs.
When you massage your own arm, you feel almost nothing and you are no more relaxed than you were when you started applying pressure.
Now, when another human being comes along and gives you a massage, you feel something don’t you? You certainly feel as the massaging progresses, and as their touch sooths your needs, relaxation occurs.
And as you probably have experienced, when another human being comes along and tickles you, much happens. Your body reacts in a rather spontaneous (but hilarious) way to that other person’s tickling action.
Two is always better than one, even in the realm of sensational touch.
There are many other instances where physical touch has wonderful sensations and reactions, but let’s save using those anatomical instances for your marriage with your current or future husband/wife.

We are undoubtedly wired for relationship; this study only demonstrates a few reasons for humans being externally wired for it.

-burton 261E

God: good

2008-06-15T15:13:00.000-07:00

God is the source of goodness. When present, we see what goodness actually looks like; apart from him there is no goodness. When absent, we are overwhelmed with evil and begin to lose sight of what goodness originally looked like. That's why when we are willingly away from Him, we begin with compromise and follow it down the seemingly harmless country road until we are caught speeding on the more dangerous freeway of regret. It is then that we understand that we cannot have goodness apart from the one that is truly good. Realizing this, we take the next exit, make a U-turn, and drive back into the arms of He who never wanted us to go in the first place, only to once again, find ourselves forcefully wiggling out of his arms, hopping into our car, and chasing after His absence until finally, through experiencing what His absence feels like and having this awful taste linger in our mouths for a while, we are craving for His goodness all over again.

-burton 261E

The Decision of A Broken Soul

2008-06-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

Date Written: Sometime around a week and a half ago.
Status: In bed fighting off a terribly long-winded cold with a fever, headache, sore throat with bloody mucus, and all kinds of symptoms and feelings that any number of people would deem as utterly evil; or at least agonizing to say the least.

I realize that my life, the deteriorating physical body that contains the contents of my eternal soul, is but a wisp of thin air, lasting no longer than the blink of an eye facing a swift, bursting wind. A mortal being am I. Now, sickness is quite an interesting circumstance. It comes about so unexpectedly, yet always appears to produce the expected results of which go by the names of Pain and Suffering; both of whom, after working their treacherous jobs for a while, ultimately resolve in death of the body. The actual job description of sickness, however, is not what makes it an interesting circumstance. What makes it such an interesting circumstance is that the products of sickness [Pain and Suffering] enter into our lives to accomplish one goal: To defer us long enough so that at the end of our lifetime we have fully forgotten who the God that has brought us this far is. Unfortunately for us, failing to notice that He is still there, regardless of how hard Pain and Suffering are working in our lives at that moment in time, will have us winding up in a different world full of unimaginable sickness; a world where Pain and Suffering never stop working, and the God who loves is not present. The worst part about such a place as horrifying as this is that we are given the opportunity, the freedom, and the ability not to choose it, and still, there are people who choose it.

“Ignorance is bliss?”
...I think not.

Make life count; it has potential to end rather abruptly.

-burton 261E

Spilt Milk.

2008-05-24T01:09:00.000-07:00

I often find myself wondering whether she still feels the same way I do. Although, if I knew the answer to this question it would make little or no change, so I don't know why I'm left wondering this silly question. A probable explanation is that I miss her and wish for a quicker remedy, one that includes her and dismisses any other possibility. Another explanation is that I miss her and want to know that I'm not alone in this painful form of agony, and that she's right there beside me in trying to press on to the future apart from one another. Maybe it's because in both explanations, she's still with me in some way. Unfortunately this hopeless romantic type of thinking winds up getting nobody anywhere. Don't cry over spilled milk. God's already sorting all of this out. Just wait. Wait for Dad to either clean up the milk that's been poured out on the counter or pick up the mess and replenish the glass with new milk entirely.

Romans 8:28
-burton 261E

Personal Statement.

2008-05-22T03:37:00.000-07:00

I don't have enough faith to be an Atheist and there's just too much evidence of God's existence for me to sit on the fence by being an Agnostic who remains utterly indecisive on such an important matter.

-burton 261E

Note to Self:

2008-05-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

Read, read, read, read, read, read, read...

And when you've finished reading, read more.

-burton 261E

Proper Desire.

2008-05-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

If we were able to rid ourselves of our desire for earthly things, we would then be able to fully attach ourselves to Christ with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we kill and do away with our earthy desires, we will have the absolute freedom to experience indefinite peace and joy on earth and have the capacity to concentrate a great amount of our thoughts on our innermost being. We might actually begin to truly renew our minds.

If only we weren't so preoccupied with gratifying our own desires and too concerned with a world full of passing things, then we would have more than just a piece of Godliness this side of heaven; perhaps multiple pieces, or even the whole puzzle!

What do you desire most? Will it pass away after you obtain it? Will you want something more after you have it? Will it satisfy?

Strive to have a proper desire for God; be content, and seek nothing else.

-burton 261E

Unreservedly Yours.

2008-04-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

"Speak God. I'm your servant, ready to listen."

-burton 261E

No-emo-tion.

2008-04-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I tend to think that we would be better off if we didn't have emotion. If we didn't have to deal with the feelings that motivate us in positive and negative ways. If we didn't have to experience the pain of sorrow or the agony of depression, or go through trials and tribulations and feel what seems like inescapable sadness at times. And without emotion we would be able to think objectively, hopping over emotional attachment and using pure reason and logic to bring us to truth instead of wondering if we are truly being brought to truth by our feelings. Of course with the removal of these negative feelings come the taking away of the positive ones as well, but to me this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. We could truly base love off of being a choice rather than off of feelings which are the product of loving someone. Sure we would be emotionless beings, but then we wouldn't have this huge struggle of being whipped around on an emotional roller coaster on a daily basis. It's an interesting thought to say the least.

-burton 261E

Godly Godlessness.

2008-04-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

"But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness" -2 Timothy 2:16

Gossiping about the present or boasting about your past does nothing good for the kingdom of God, nor for your own walk with Christ. It leads you down a dark and dangerous path, corrupting the godliness that has been brought upon you by His grace and covering you in a distasteful form of Godlessness. Instead, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, submitting every little thing to the One who cares for you; to the One who loves you. Abstain from wickedness.

-burton 261E

Adonai

2008-04-21T01:25:00.000-07:00

My Lord.
My King.
My Rock.
My Fortress.
My Sanctuary.
My Redeemer.
My Savior.
My Friend.
My Father.
My Grace.
My Love.
My Life.
My God.

Amen.

-burton 261E

True Brotherhood.

2008-04-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

Imagine in your mind what it would look like for you to be surrounded by a group of men who are absolutely devoted to loving one another and who encourage one another to go above and beyond culture's standard of living and instead pursue the standards that Christ has placed for the role of men as spiritual leaders. Imagine a collective group of men, dissatisfied with the general status quo and striving to be set apart in every aspect of life so as to bring the most glory to God and the least glory to themselves. Picture a group of brothers who genuinely care for each other and will without hesitation lay down their lives for one another. Think of men who lift up the weaker brother, don't meddle with mediocrity, leave behind a life of complacency, stand for integrity, fight for accountability, live for serving opportunity, give themselves to loyalty, stop at nothing until they reach Christ-centrality, trust genuinely, and above all else love honestly. True brotherhood I have found.

The Authentic Meaning of Faith

2008-04-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

I have constructed 'faith' into the three following meanings:

1) Faith is certain that God is authentic, true, and correct in every situation or circumstance, no matter what the condition may be.
2) Faith obediently receives whatever God may command, prohibit, or warn against, because it knows that God’s way is authentic, true, and correct.
3) Faith starts with the promise of God, lives in the promise of God, and ends with the promise of God, and without God’s divine intervention no promise can be inherited by the one to whom the graciousness is promised.

For faith in the living God seeks a life that is far beyond the boundaries that are in place to protect those who trust in God and seeks instead after a life centered on personal relationship and a response of wholehearted brokenness as the result of the gracious promise that has been mercifully offered by God through the work of Christ. Mercy is to be defined as not getting what one does deserve and grace is to be defined as getting what one doesn’t deserve, so that through both the mercy and grace of Christ the promises of God might be received by the one who believes as an undeserved and unearned gift, resulting in real, genuine, indestructible, and unmerited faith in the living God.

-burton 261E

Too Few.

2008-04-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

It’s amazing to me how few of leaders there are in both Christian and secular roles among the masses. Very few of the individuals in society are willing to step up to the challenges that face the leaders of this day in age. Why does this world have so few of the people that are required to lead it? In Matthew, Jesus states in a parable “Many are called, but few are chosen.” God appoints those who lead, and those who lead should be equipped with the predetermined desire to serve their Master with total reliance and trust in Him.

-burton 261E

Where am I?

2008-04-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

I have been utterly broken and am at the point of seeing how self-obsessed I am, how selfish I am, and how little my life really has to do with the things of God. I have begun to realize how much my life and thoughts revolve around me, and how badly my walk with God is defined by my performance for Him. My relationship with God has been defined by my output for Him, and although doing things for God isn’t a bad thing, my heart behind the matter is. I have been trying to get closer to God by doing things for Him, but the fact of the matter is that nothing I do for God will ever bring me closer to Him. I have been caught in this trap of defining my relationship with God by who I am and what I do for Him, rather than by who God is and what He has done for me. My whole pattern of thinking has shifted off of what God has done and has shifted onto what I am doing. That’s self-obsession. I have been brought to a place of repentance, and am truly experiencing what it means to be in desperate need of the love and forgiveness of Christ.

-burton 261E

Religious Laundry.

2008-04-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

We live in a world full of description. Everything has a label, everything has a price. If something is in our world we have to define it in order to understand it. In order for something to exist it must have substance, and this substance of matter comes from the words used to describe what is seen. Everything must be known, and if something can't be known then it's automatically thrown into the religion basket. Now let's look at science. Science is a method used to understand our world through experimentation; trial and error, correlation, prediction with evidence. In order for a scientific hypothesis to become a reality it must be proven through the scientific method. Therefore, science avoids getting thrown into the religion basket because it's entire process is composed of description, which is understood as a reality to us because description can be seen. So the only reason science cannot be written off into the category of religion is because it is built upon a process that makes it appear as though it has substance. Science is quickly hidden under the blindness of description. If its very structure is masked in visible substance yet the result of a scientific proof is still described as a theory and cannot be known for certain, why is science not tossed into the religion basket? I think it's time for some scientists to wash their dirty laundry.

-burton 261E

Future.

2008-04-02T20:22:00.001-07:00

I think that those who don't know what they're going to do after college haven't found out what God has called them to do yet, and that's exactly why they have such a problem with planning out their career. These students ask the question "How much income will I earn with the least amount of effort put into the job and how can I be successful?" rather than "What can I do to change the world and how can I best use the time, talent, and resources that have been given to me?" God is trying to give them the opportunity to seek His will but they just haven't asked how to serve Him yet. They haven't asked Him what He created them for. Instead, they are looking at how they can best serve themselves. Whether that's by providing for their family or in buying a brand new sports car, they pursue the dream of being "financially secure", which is an unattainable and entrapping dream in itself. The love of money is the root of all evil. That love starts with a 'pursuit' and results in a life tainted with bitter emptiness.

-burton 261E

Body to Soul.

2008-03-29T02:54:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-03-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-03-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-03-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-03-13T01:15:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-03-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-03-06T18:37:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-03-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

-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.

2008-03-06T00:18:00.001-08:00

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

2008-03-03T01:50:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-21T11:54:00.001-08:00

Psalm 101:3-4 (NASB)
"I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;
I hate the work of those who fall away;
It shall not fasten its grip on me.
A perverse heart shall depart from me;
I will know no evil."

Burton 261E

2008-02-10T21:46:00.002-08:00

"Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God."
-Bruce L. Shelley

Its God in human form was punished by Roman capital punishment specifically for individuals considered to be the very worst criminals. He was most brutally scourged and crucified on the cross for all humanity.

Burton 261E

2008-02-10T21:46:00.001-08:00

Feeling Empty? The Accuser: Sin

2008-02-10T01:11:00.000-08:00

Sin is a beautiful deceiver. It tells you that you can have exactly what you want if you follow it. It makes promises to you that seem like such blessings; but when you choose to follow after sin it leaves you with a feeling of emptiness deeper than any other. As revelation of this condition is made known, you find yourself already trapped; unable to unravel the rope that's been choking your neck so tight. The knot is now tied. Your life is not your own.

Burton 261E

The Devil and Me

2008-02-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

If the devil throws at me all kinds of things to tempt me and wont stop at anything to distract me, God must have a really great plan in store for my life.

Think about it. The devil wouldn't be so diligent about distracting us if God had some boring plan for our lives.

In fact, if this were the case, here is what life would look like: If God's plan were boring, the devil would simply allow us to seek after God until we see that God is completely overrated. We would see that God is ten times worse than a retirement home and eventually tell God to screw off. Satan could relax and play around in Hell while all of mankind would join him after evaluating God's brilliantly boring plan.

As you probably know, this is not the life that we live. No, no, no, in fact,
Satan probably carries more stress on him than a single man going through a midlife crisis who just got fired from a job that he's had for over 30 years along with the responsibility of providing for 8 kids (2 in college, 3 in high school, 2 in jr. high, and 1 in kindergarten), 9 cats, 2 dogs, 4 horses, 3 pigs, 2 donkeys and a penguin. He also just found out that he's been diagnosed with cancer and has AIDS.
That's a lot of stress, and Satan is definitely not relaxing in Hell right now. He is working hard to get you to say no to God's incredible plan for your life. Don't fall into the devils trap. Say yes to God; it's without a doubt worth it.

Burton 261E