Category Archives: Spiritual

This category is for those Blogs that relate, not to Religion, but to the Spiritual realm of belief.

Banning Abortions

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                Banning Abortions

I ask —– What next?

If the birth child is NOT wanted, then what happens?

Is the child taken to a fire department building and left there, or to a church, or an ER doorway? OR, does the back alley abortions return and become an answer?

If the banning results in a birth, how is the child to be cared for from infancy to adulthood?

A ward of the state, an overburdened foster care system, an orphanage with many other unwanted children?

Where do the funds come from to address this problem? Higher taxes, of course, is an answer but not towards the whole problem.

Find out who is the mother AND the father and somehow require them to pay, or make the father responsible for an 18 year time period, HA!!!! or put the arm on the grandparents, nah!!!!

The many economic issues will be another problem overall for society and the mother who will be mostly low-income mothers.     

The banning of abortions without considering the overall ramifications is irresponsible, shortsighted, and just plain stupid!

Besides being an affront to every female that should be in control of their own bodies this issue should not be left in the hands of mostly white, well to do, asshole politicians.

Jesus and His Dying

Posted in Religious, Spiritual by

Jesus and His Dying                                        

   History:                             Sin goes back to the story of Adam and Eve, which represented original sin and its ramifications.   How does this related to Jesus dying for our sins?

Our sins keep us away from God, whereas sin corrupts us.  We, as a people and as children of God want to do what we want to do, be what we want to be, etc. in all respects.

We want power, we want wealth, we want so many things for ourselves, are examples and we do NOT take care of what God gives us as gifts, in general.  What we DO have are all the things that God does give us.

God wants/desires that we are reunited with God, and it was His son Jesus Christ, who came to Earth to make that reunification possible.

At the time of Jesus, sacrifices were made of perfect animals without blemishes as gifts to God to atone for different sins done by his children.

By coming to Earth as a human being and as a man-God, Jesus reunited us through the ultimate sacrifice with His own life.

In John 3:17, it is stated that “God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world be saved through Him.”  To me, that is the reason for the Jesus of that time and of our time today.

He, Jesus, sacrificed Himself and took the punishment for ALL of our sins at once.

The ultimate sacrifice, which satisfied, once and for all, the demands of God’s required justice. In Jesus’s resurrection, we see, good triumph over death, which promises eternal life for all of us.

Through Jesus, we have received the most wonderful gift God could ever give us.

Did Jesus have to die?             YES

Did His death by the powers of state and religion have to be done with the excuses given?    YES

Do I believe Jesus died for my sins?      YES

Do I believe that there is life after earthly/worldly death?     YES

It happened again!!!!

Posted in Religious, Spiritual by

It Happened Again!

I gave an individual (male) one of the crosses I make, after he commented on the one, I was wearing. He told me he did not know if he could wear it ever, though he said he was a Christian. I told him the things about my doing so, wearing the cross. So I related again what I thought.

First, I explained to him that being a Christian automatically makes a person a disciple of the Savior Jesus, in my opinion. It does entail many duties and a follower of Jesus that includes the declaration they are one and encouraging others to be “fishers of men” and that is discipleship.

I also told him that I wear a cross, not to just show others that I am a disciple of Christ, but something else in the process.

In the Bible in Ephesians 6:16 it states, “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”  I interpret this (for me) as “wear a cross”

It is difficult for me to be a hypocrite and do or say things that contradict the teachings of Jesus Christ, and I wear the cross to fend off those acts. It is there for me to see and feel and I try to be a disciple of Jesus.

Do I always succeed?! NO, I do not, BUT the cross I wear also reminds me I am forgiven through the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.

This guy looked at me, did accept the cross I had for him, put it in his pocket and said, “I will consider it.”

Thanks be to God whom I have submitted myself to and to Jesus who I have surrendered my life to his glory.

So be it!!!!!!!!!!

Self and God

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                Self and God

We have so much to learn and should not allow the rigors of gaining knowledge distract us from the process of reality.

I have found God, because I found my Self and because I found my true Self, HAVE found God.  Self is the object of its own reflective consciousness of one’s whole being in a personal spiritual identity and getting to know your Self is the beginning of wisdom and the understanding of life.

Sounds complicated but in delving into the Self, it becomes clear and not complex.

 God    IS   alive, God    IS     aware, God    IS     active and always present, 

Thanks be to God…………

The Light

Posted in Religious, Religious type, Spiritual by

We are ALL on a ride to a destination! The journey is a short one in comparison to the existence of time itself for how long we exist, here on Earth.

The trip is loaded with experiences, both good and bad. How we handle the bad gives credence to how good things are appreciated and enjoyed to a degree.

In essence, we allow all the various episodes we have in life to somewhat control our actions and feelings, and that is probably normal.

We also allow our lives to go on, move forward to the next levels of life that occur to have feelings of positive consolation and desolation, which is a negative event.

Since we are creators of our very daily lives, we could demand of ourselves the ability to dispose of the bad and resolve to make the good things prosper. That is sometimes a hard task to follow.

The light of the light can help us overcome the darkness that tries to bring us down. This darkness could be a black pit of despair that overcomes us. 

As John said in Chapter 1:5 in Scripture, “The light shines, in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” And sometimes, neither do we when the darkness invades our minds. I could also quote from John 8:12, when Jesus stated “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

I do not believe he meant that we will always be free of the anguish of bad things happening, or bad negative experiences in general, which could be looked at as periods of darkness. I do believe if we follow Jesus, we will have a positive light that will persevere and the outcome of our journey, although a short one on Earth, will be a very long one in eternity.

Jesus is the spiritual illumination and light of the world then in His time, now in our time and will forever be the hope for humanity and all creation.

So be it!!!!

Heavenly Thoughts

Posted in Religious, Spiritual by

                                                                       Heavenly Thoughts                                                        

For this discourse, let us agree/submit that there IS a life in the hereafter and let us call it Heaven (H).

When souls arrive in (H) do they leave the Earthly beliefs and their bad actions behind?

All the politics, hatreds, prejudices, thievery, abuses, religious differences, and all so many more,  Earthly human tendencies and other things that prey on our dispositions.

If so, how can this be so?

Will the Earthly person, all of a sudden, have a (H) soul that sees the light of all understanding? Or, does the final trip just erase those Earthly and human traits in the process of acceptance in (H)?

But, or, so again, how can a racist person full of prejudice, an abuser of any sorts, a thief of renown, or any person full of hatred of their fellow man, become, all of a sudden, a righteous person in (H)? How can this person mingle with those they hate in an environment of love, knowing that those around them are the people they despised and acted against on Earth?

I don’t know how this could be so, but still wonder what the ground rules are in (H) for existing there. I know someone who thinks everyone goes to (H), but I doubt if they know the rules either and how it works there.

The great mysteries of life are still there to be found eventually and it will be exciting to find out someday, but I am not in a hurry to learn them right now.

Spiritual vrs Religious 2019-008

Posted in Religious, Spiritual by

Spiritual vrs Religious  2019-008

 

I believe Spirituality is the merging of the Self with the Holy Spirit, but the definition is at best sketchy and hard to agree on by many.

Being Spiritual, is the process of becoming closer to God overall, and entails many practices or actions. I wrote about this at one time and stated. “Being of the spiritual mind, involves being driven by the Holy Spirit or being animated by God.”

Being Religious, to me, involves those things that pertain to a particular religion of the Christian faith, though it could pertain to other faith beliefs. It also requires one, to be involved in various practices that the religion requires or dictates.

As to being Spiritual or Religious, I claim to be involved in both. My journey of getting closer to God is mine to own and travel and others have their own to be involved in life. My involvement with Religion is personal and fulfilling with supporting a church that is involved in many service projects and allows me to worship in this House of God.

There are many other factors on both and much more I could add to this

 

Peace,

 

Den Betts

bettsden@gmail.com       email

TheBettsDen.com              blog site    

Why Believe or Connect with God 2018-96

Posted in Contemplation, Religious, Spiritual by

Why Believe or Connect with God           2018-96

This is a simple question that came to mind when surfing the Web the other day.

An article stated that many millennials (Born between 1980 and 1990’s) do not go to church or any religious place, due to many reasons that were listed. Not only is that a fact but they list “No Religion or belief” as a reason, in most cases.

The thing that was interesting were the comments below the article which were stated by various people responding to the article. I scrolled down and read them, and my first thought was a little over the top of understanding. The reasons were bonified, but they or many of them, were pure hokum. 

Some were legitimate, and I agreed that they had a case, but not against all religions regarding the church portion.

First off, it DOES take “FAITH” to believe in a God or in his son Jesus Christ, the man-God.  Nobody has the ability to look back in the past and see the wounds that Jesus Christ had from the Cruxificition at that time. So, doubting Thomas did and it convinced him that Jesus was who He was, at that time. We today do not have that luxury of seeing and believing with something right in front of us. So, I can understand, somewhat, why the lack of faith is present in society today.

But, using the reasons for not going to church that were used, is a stretch.  I will list some now and explain my thoughts. I could probably write a full discourse about each item, but will not do so now, and only a concise, short thought for each of them.

1. Churches are hypocritical in their thinking.   There are some churches and people that go to them that are hypocritical in practice.  That is not right but is a fact. I will repeat this— NOT ALL are that way. To use this broad statement is not only incorrect, but inconsistent with reality.

2. Churches are money grabbing and should be taxed.  Churches need money to exist, support community endeavors and pay for other needs.  To tax them is not going to do anything, except put many out of existence.  If any church DEMANDS people to give money to them or to tithe at 10%, then that is THAT church or religion, NOT ALL of them. If you tithe fine, if you give what you can, fine, if you just go to church and not contribute, fine, so be it.

3. People are judgmental.   Not right, but is so in some cases where humans are going to and exist. This is true in society as a whole, not right, but a fact. But NOT ALL are that way. People being judgmental exists everywhere, so saying a church or religion is so, is a fact, but not the absolute truth.

4.  People in churches are prejudicial towards gays and blacks (if a white church). Not right, but if so, they do NOT represent the majority or churches in general, as a whole. There ARE churches in most locations of the country that have an accepting attitude of everyone welcome; they have to be found and usually on the internet  they state this fact.                      

5. Children are molested by leaders in the church. This HAS happened and is wrong and sometimes, even covered up, but does NOT represent churches in general.  I would think that this is even a rare factor overall for churches in general; sad but true.

6. Too many rules, regulations, dictates, and laws. The only list that counts are the Ten Commandments, for the individual, and internal church ones are subject to change if needed and desired. There has to be some way of guidance for any organization to run and function. Many churches have “Constitutions” that show how the church is run, how it should react to situations, and these are needed, just like the country of the United States, has now.

7. Too many churches with just old people in them. That is a problem for some churches in certain locations, again due to the times.  Getting younger couples to attend is difficult if there are none now in a particular church. Maybe if those young people attended, that church would change for a betterment.

8. Fake stories in the Bible equal lies.  The Old Testament has many “stories”, which are there to make a point, but they do not mean the story is accurate or absolutely true.  They are stories; period. Some religions have beliefs that everything in the Bible is correct, which is wrong in my mind.

9. No proof of Jesus being the Son of God.  There is no birth certificate of Jesus; again, Faith works. The desire to believe also has to be there, and if not, well that is too bad.

10. God does NOT show Himself or talk to us today.  Hmmm, I will deny this as a fact and say that maybe the person did not look or listen, therefore did not see or hear. God is everywhere and most importantly, always Present, always aware, always active, for those that need. He is also alive, to those that will just give Him a chance to react to our needs.

ll. Prayers not answered.  Depends on the prayer and circumstances, which may or may not be accurate of a statement.  God does His thing in His way and in His time, so this is not an absolute. If a prayer for winning the lottery, for instance, to a certain person is not answered, it does not mean He is not there, just was not your time to win. If a wife or mother died and you prayed that they would not, perhaps it was time for them to go; sad!!!  God works in His way, not ours and that is hard to understand for many.

I would rather those that commented did so with honest reply’s, instead of personal hokum type responses. To give a reason for not believing or not going to church for a GOOD reason is one thing, but I don’t think many of the above, are bonified reasons overall.

If it is easier to sleep in, go play golf on Sunday morning, or attend a soccer team match at your kid’s high school, but these are excuses, not reasons for not going. It is also easier to not believe, because believing DOES require commitment and action on our part, which many refuse to do; also sad!!!!

If you just plain don’t believe in God, again, I understand, and both of us will find out someday which was correct. 

Peace,

Den Betts

                                bettsden@gmail.com      = email

                                thebettsden.com             = Blog site

Jesus is the Light 2018-93

Posted in Contemplation, Religious, Religious type, Spiritual by

Jesus is the Light   2018-93

I have heard this expression before, but never gave it much thought, through ignorance of either not caring or not knowing.  Anyhow, something lit up in my mind and this thought that Jesus is the Light is something that triggered my brain to contemplate what it meant.

First off, I looked up “Light” in the Bible references and the three passages listed at the end of this discourse, came up to give me illumination of the question, why is Jesus the Light of the world.  

Well, at that time, for Him to declare himself the Light of the World meant that He was the exclusive source of spiritual life and no other source was available to mankind then, or even now.

In His time, he was saying that the light of His TRUTH, the light of His WORD, the actual eternal LIFE was what He declared of Himself, the very light of the world and anyone that perceives the true light, will NEVER walk in spiritual darkness.  

Of course, we will walk in darkness if it is dark outside.  A fact! BUT, we, with Jesus being the one we will follow, we will have the light, the truth and most importantly, eternal life.  Yes, eternal life will be the opposite of darkness, the light of eternal life…  Simple as that.

That means something about us too.  Just like the moon reflects the light of the sun, we as followers of Jesus Christ, will reflect the light of Jesus so that all can see it in us as believers. Through the Holy Spirit, we do things, we do deeds based on faith, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the light of Jesus shines through us to others.

This is somewhat of a burden for us in a way. To be witnesses to the world ourselves, we must be people of faith, honor God, be trusting, honest in all that we do and say. We want or should want the light we have, that is given to us, be there for all to see and enable others to also leave the darkness and come into the light of love, through Jesus Christ, the savior of mankind.  We WILL become sons and daughters of light, if we try to do so.

I had some help from the Scriptures in writing this, based on various passages, which I admit.

 

JESUS IS THE LIGHT!!!!!

John  8:12   “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life”.

John  12:36 “Put your trust in the light, while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.”

John  12:46 “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in the darkness.”  

Listening to Hear 2018-92

Posted in Contemplation, Religious, Spiritual by

Listening to Hear    2018-                                                               10-26-18

Events in life, sometimes make one pause and take stock in life, about living. Too many take life for granted, and in doing so, go through living, without truly experiencing life itself.

How so?  Well, one way is in bypassing the things that make life interesting. Letting schedules go, routines, rules to dictate how we see life going on around us are some ways.

Taking time to bend down and actually smell the flowers that we pass by on a walk in the woods or nature trail is an example of slowing down in life.  Taking the time to stop and listen to a little child when they ask us a question, instead of saying “later, not now” to them.

I find myself still not expecting an answer when I pray to God. It may be due to my not taking the time to listen for a reply. Yes, He does answer our prayers, if we try to hear what He has to say. It is still eerie to have Him comment on what I asked Him, yet I admit, I do not listen enough.

Part of taking life for granted is not expecting something to happen. Therefore, we continue on our way, oblivious to what goes on around us.  Such as hearing God tell us something we could hear if we listened.

Many of us are fixated on conversing with our I-Pad, tweeting and liking on FB, which I will not criticize other than say it is a way of communication that is different than in the past. Some things are lost in the process, which is sad, but a way of life now.

If we become techno-nerds, and lose sight of those things around us, it will be a loss for all of us. I think that keeping in touch in whatever way we do is not bad, but we have to realize there is a cost to all of us in doing so.

What cost? It is different to all of us, and individually, we have to account for the price we pay.

Take time to hug a kid, a mother, father, or loved one and look into their eyes and see the appreciation of your doing so with them. Say hello to God sometime and, well, take the time to listen and you MAY hear Him reply to your prayer.  It does take work in this respect.

Peace,
Den Betts        betttsden@gmail.com =   Email

                           thebettsden.com          =  Blog