Undeserving

Social Masks

All glory to God.

UPDATE, September 8, 2025...

UPDATE, September 9, 2025...

There's only one heart in this body. Have mercy on me. ("Connor" in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby)

UPDATE, September 10, 2025...

One year ago (😊)...

Then (☹️)...

I knew what you were up to and we had fun.

I knew what your purpose was for being in Midland and knew you would be leaving soon.

I knew you wanted to keep things private and did my best to honor that desire.

There was no betrayal. You imagined that.

If you wanted to end things, you should have said so.

But you didn't.

Cutting off all communications (for a year) was very hurtful. It was cruel. Friends don't do that. They talk things out. Needing space and giving space is normal and fine.

"Ghosting" is unhealthy for all concerned. It is a horrible and destructive behavior that has become far, far too common in our culture. It is unacceptable.

I would like to be friends. Friends talk. Friends get to know each other. Friends care about each other and do things to build up their relationship.

You know how to get in touch with me and where to find me.

I dearly hope to hear from you soon.

😊

UPDATE, September 12, 2025...

I believe this was your goal and why you ran away:

The Root Cause of Unhappiness According to the Bhagavad Gita: How Desire Traps the Mind

Desiring me was diametrically opposed to your mission and you realized you had "sinned" by entertaining those desires. You had to get back on "the higher path."

I am not going to judge you. If you find happiness by meditating and seeking The Divine, that is your choice. I do not believe it will ultimately work, but you need to explore those things for yourself.

My mind is not trapped by my desire for you. Our mutual friend in the coffee shop says you have been very good for me. I am not angry, far from it. Through you I have become more enlightened and have learned a lot.

I would like to continue our friendship and talk about these things, like we did. I know more about it now and can more intelligently consider your perspectives. I think we are more aligned in our thinking than you may realize.

Please text me. I still have your ringtones on my phone and hearing your text notification sound would absolutely thrill and delight me. 😊

... And I still mean and stand by what I said.

UPDATE, September 13, 2025...

I recently acquired a new hat from a budding entrepreneur in the mall where the coffee shop is located. Uncharacteristically, I took a "selfie" photo wearing the hat and posted the photo as my profile picture on Facebook. That resulted in 20 "likes" and one "heart" (21 total), so friends and relatives seemed to enjoy it.

This morning I realized that hat is a "social mask," which explains why I have not been comfortable wearing it.

It isn't me.

It is a prevarication.

What a lesson! As Carl Jung said...

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

The hat will probably end up in the closet and only be used on rare occasions.

Supporting the business of my entrepreneur friend was a delight, however.

Thomas

(Source)

“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” (John 4:48 NIV)

(Link: Gum)

God gives us remembrances. Some are physical and some are just memories. He wants us to believe what He has done.

God wrestled with Jacob, and did something to his hip to make him limp. That limp would remind Jacob, whom God renamed "Israel," that the event really happened.

When the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry ground, God had them take up twelve stones from the middle of the dry river and put them where they camped that night, to serve as a sign and reminder of what God did to stop the water flowing in the river.

When Jesus fed 5000 men by multiplying five loaves and two fish, he had all twelve of his guys pick up leftover pieces, and they each filled a basket. He gave them all that memory.

When Jesus repeated the miracle, he fed 4000 men with seven loaves and a few small fish, and He had them pick up the leftovers. They filled seven baskets. Do you suppose seven of them did not believe the first miracle so they got a second opportunity with the seven baskets?


Martyrdom of Saint Thomas (Rubens) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Why The Michigan Assembly may be "the most targeted Assembly in America" (Article #4777)...

Friends, I think you have a massive gold hoard scuttled away by Navy Officers, hidden somewhere in Michigan. I would be willing to bet money on it. And they are still guarding it, for their British Territorial U.S. Government and King Charlie.

...

They don't want us to be in Session in Michigan when the music stops, because our State Assembly there would claim it back for America, not Britain. They couldn't claim it was abandoned property.

...

If I am right, there's around 8 Billion with a "B" Metric tons of gold in Michigan and they can't get it out of there without some kind of narrative and they can't claim it without some excuse. I think they planned to quietly place a claim on abandonment on it, using their song and dance that we are "missing" and our government is "in interregnum" but they can't do that with a State Assembly in Session.

So the next best thing they could do was exactly what they have tried to do three times in a row --- establish a tight knit and highly controlling group of former military and agency operatives in control of The Michigan Assembly, so they could just play dumb, make sure that you never raise your hands, and declare a recess or an emergency to shut the Assembly down --- then just cart everything back down the St. Lawrence, probably to Canada, the British Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico, then "home" to London.

...

So, for the record, if I am right, tomography and Lidar has already revealed the existence of a huge gold stash in Michigan, probably close to the Canadian Border... [emphasis added]

So, how much is "8 Billion with a 'B' metric tons of gold?"

That's 8,000,000,000 tonnes.

8,000,000,000,000 kilograms.

17,636,800,000,000 pounds.

The specific gravity of gold is 19.32. Water is 1.00.

That calculates to 414,078,675 cubic meters or 541,594,459 cubic yards. (Somebody please check my arithmetic.)

That is a cube with sides of 2445 feet.

Compared to Michigan Stadium ("The Big House") in Ann Arbor

Where did this gold probably come from?

India

Location, location, location

Defeating a CIA operation...

while playing this song over and over and over again, during the only significant blizzard of that particular winter...

All glory to God.

UPDATE, September 9, 2025...

Source

Prevarications

Working Out Karma

But the [Holy] Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4:1-5 NASB, emphasis added)

I typically do not pay any attention to Bible "commentaries" written by people. I prefer to let the Holy Spirit teach me and counsel me as I read and think about what The Bible says.

The fourth book I obtained was The Second Coming of Christ, The Resurrection of the Christ Within You by Paramahansa Yogananda, a two-volume set. It focuses on "the teachings of Jesus," which are contained in the first four books of the Greek writings (New Testament): Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Although there are a few references in the footnotes to the Hebrew/Aramaic writings (Old Testament), the commentary focuses only on what Jesus said when he walked the earth with his guys.

Here is a graphical representation of the number of pages in each book of the Bible (printed version of the New American Standard Bible, 1997). Not all of the books are listed on the left, but the number of pages of all 66 are represented by horizontal bars...

Click to enlarge.

The green bars in the middle are the pages considered by the author of the commentary.

He did not study the rest (blue). Of the 876 pages, he only considered 10%.

This is taking things out of context.

The entire Bible is about Jesus. The early parts explain why he needed to come and contain predictions about his coming; the later parts explain his impact. Focusing on just a small part in the middle does not tell the full story.

Karma is a euphemism for sin. According to some religious beliefs, people "work out" their bad karma by doing works. The Bible says that is not possible. People need a savior, not a guru (teacher).

Despite the author's best efforts, the idea that the Bible and the Hindu scriptures are equivalent and say the same things is a gross prevarication.

All glory to God.

Reading Assignments

A friend recently recommended I consider these books, and the Spirit prompted me to obtain and read each one of them.

The first was David Hawkins', Power vs Force, The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior. Very enlightening. Yes, that is humor. The book is about achieving enlightenment.

I recently heard about and experienced "energy" and have wanted to learn more. My friend said this was a great place to start, and it was.

The Map of Consciousness was very intriguing. The concept that "Power" (from energy) will always prevail over "Force" made sense and reminded me of my posts about Power and Authority.

The Hawkins book made a case that power "is" while force must be applied. It also said "love" is a high, positive form of energy, and "shame" manifests as very low, negative energy -- close to death. Perhaps that is why those in states of "guilt" and shame are at risk of ending their own lives, whereas the Apostle Paul proclaimed "Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:8).

The book also discussed a form of "truth test" that apparently works without regard to people's beliefs or even who does it, provided they do it correctly. It reminded me of the Urim and Thummim Yahweh prescribed through Moses for the Israelite Priest (Aaron, Moses' brother) to use for making decisions. That became known as "casting lots" and was used by many Israelites, not just the Priest, up until the time the Holy Spirit was given. There was a brief period in my life where I personally found casting lots to be quite effective, until a pastor pointed out we do not need the method anymore because the Holy Spirit testifies about all Truth directly to our own spirits, provided we have Him and are listening to Him.

Hawkins described his personal experiences of encountering states of enlightenment and his views seemed to line up with some of what I have observed in my own life.

I recently learned I crave transformation, and in order to do that I must learn from others about their experiences in the world so I can compare them to mine and discern Truth.

The second book was Clint Rogers' Ancient Secrets of a Master Healer, A Western Skeptic, An Eastern Master, And Life's Greatest Secrets. It was written as a true, autobiographical story of a PhD university researcher's encounter with a man who knew how to heal people from the inside out using wisdom and techniques thousands of years old. Reading the book was a walk next to a fellow skeptic as he encountered what seemed to be impossibilities to those of us who were brought up in western culture. As he tried to make sense of how touching parts of someone's body six (6) times could result in healing, I found myself comparing it to my experiences of laying hands on people and seeing them instantly healed. My constant question throughout the book was, "How does this line up with the Bible?"

It does. Jesus told people if they have faith they will be able to do anything. I have been learning that is true. The people described in Rogers' book had faith in the methods presented by the ancient healers and their faith made them well. This is a true fact of the created universe but these things are secrets because people do not believe.

The ancient secrets also include a lot of wisdom about treating our bodies properly and avoiding destructive behaviors. I have been applying similar wisdom, such as my morning walks without wearing glasses and traveling around by walking, like Jesus did.

I think I need to stop eating popcorn before bed, which is what I believe led to my dad's cancer. He used to eat a lot of it and his illness appeared within a few years of the new practice of industrially harvesting corn by killing it with glyphosate ("Roundup") to make it easy to desiccate and harvest. He suffered from Lymphoma.

Getting back to the book, it is very sad and suspicious that a very healthy man who was famous for using ancient secrets to heal people collapsed from an apparent heart attack while he was by himself in a Mumbai airport on February 19, 2020, ... right before the so-called "pandemic" was forced upon the world. I believe he was eliminated; the timing was too coincidental.

I have yet to open the other two books, but they are next. I plan to start with the autobiography. I feel a craving to learn about eastern culture because I sense a calling to eventually go there. God knows what gets my attention. Boy, does He ever!

I plan to update this post after further reading.

All glory to God.

UPDATE, August 27, 2025...

I just finished reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, book #3.

I never would have even thought about acquiring this book if it had not been for her.

I consumed it urgently because I desired to know the kinds of things she has been taught.

These were some of my blog posts that came to mind as I studied the book...

Who Is It?, August, 2016.
Owner's Manual, August, 2016.
Eyes, November, 2016.
It's Your Move, October, 2016.

Readers can find those posts in the "BLOG ARCHIVE" on the right side of the web version of this blog.

UPDATE, Labor Day, September 1, 2025...

(Source)

People enjoy experiencing the physical pleasures of Creation.

Some have learned there is more to Creation than just what can be physically perceived, as the books in this reading assignment explore.

The Bible acknowledges all of this. For example, Jesus came and went inexplicably in the presence of his apprentices, Philip disappeared and showed up someplace else, and Paul boasted about visions and revelations. These things are common, as many people around the world have discovered in their own ways. "Enlightenment" is simply becoming aware of what is around us.

But enlightenment does nothing to deal with our sin problem.

When we sin against someone the only way to deal with it is to repent.

Without repentance there is no forgiveness.

The Bible tells us how to be freed from our sins...

Good God, April, 2021.
Apprentice of Jesus, May, 2018.

I truly and lovingly forgive you. Please come home.

Whom Do You Serve?

Private link:

https://ediswswithanaich.blogspot.com/2025/07/taboo.html

All glory to God.

UPDATE, July 22, 2025...

My people are destroyed because they lack knowledge.

UPDATE, July 29, 2025...

...but, it's not "the universe." It's the One who made the universe.

Old Heavens, Young Earth

Source: NASA

The Book is full of examples where The Creator used people to demonstrate his character, purposes and glory. He loves metaphors, as do eastern people.

Most western people are linear thinkers, which comes from Greek tradition and teachings.

The God of the Bible is not a linear thinker. He does what he wants, how he wants, when he wants. He is not constrained by time and age because he made those things.

People have been taught to believe the earth must be billions of years old because what they can see in the night sky is very old. As mankind has learned ways to see farther than is possible with their naked eyes, they have realized many things are many "light years" away. A light year is the distance light travels in one year, which is nearly six (6) trillion miles.

Space telescopes have photographed objects billions of light years away. Our solar system is in the Milky Way galaxy, which is just one of essentially countless galaxies. The telescopes have recorded images of billions of galaxies, clusters of galaxies and weird things called "quasars."

If a cluster of galaxies is 7 billion light years away, its light requires 7 billion years to travel that distance to us.

People conclude the earth and those distant objects were created in the same instant, and The Book generally agrees with that presumption.

People also conclude the earth and those distant objects have aged at the same rate, at least that is what linear thinkers think.

But what if those distant objects aged faster than objects here on earth? How is that possible?

Well, with God all things are possible, but we do not need to rely on his ability to instantly create something out of nothing.

Weird things happen at "event horizons." Time slows down for one thing.

What is an event horizon? It is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer, according to Wikipedia. Light cannot escape, and this is due to the presence of large amounts of mass. When a large star "dies" and stops shining, the matter of the star collapses in on itself, and if there is enough matter present a "black hole" results. This is all theory, of course, and nobody has ever witnessed it actually happening.

Black holes have been inferred by something called "gravitational lensing." The top photo of distant galaxies demonstrates this phenomenon. The same galaxy shows up three times in a ring near the center of that photograph, according to the text at the link above and in the photograph caption.

The earth with its solar system home must be young; it cannot be billions of years old. Tidal friction is making the earth's rotation slow down. The moon is measurably moving away from the earth and the sun is shrinking.

This is consistent with The Book. Its overall context and chronology support a young earth only a few thousand years old.

Modern pseudo-science's fanciful stories of "carbon dating," "geologic columns" and "geologic period" designations of rock formations are un-testable and lack objective means of calibration. They are simply made up. The question for people espousing those notions is, "How do you know? Were you there?"

I believe in the Bible and in a young earth. I also believe scientists when they show me evidence of gravitational lensing and photographs of galaxy clusters billions of light years away. I believe in an aged heavens.

Before God said, "Let there be light," there was water. Did he create all of the matter of the universe as water and have it all in one place? I believe he did. From there, he stretched out the heavens.

That much water would have been enough mass to create an event horizon, and if God expanded everything instead of allowing it to collapse in on itself, it could have been a "white hole" instead of a black hole. The white-hole event horizon would have remained at the center, where the earth was, and time would have slowed down in that region of the universe. Simple: young earth; massively aged quasars. This allows enough time for the light from those quasars and galaxy clusters to travel to the earth for us to see.

I have a book of an account by a physicist with biblical beliefs, and he convinced me this is plausible (Starlight and Time, Solving the Puzzle of Distant Starlight in a Young Universe, by D. Russell Humphreys, Ph.D., 1994). That resource, along with others, helped me move from being a cynical "evolutionist" to a man of childlike faith. These things are not a contradiction to me; they are opportunities to believe and be at peace.

Many people refer to the earth as our "mother." She is our home, and I believe she is feminine. She nurtures us, protects us, and lets us grow.

Yehoshua (Jesus) told his apprentices about The Father, his father. The Book describes Yahweh in majestic and masculine terms.

I think I like the metaphor He may be planning...

We shall see what happens.

This is so much fun!

All glory to God.

UPDATE, July 20, 2025...

Bingo!

Thanks, LJ!

Majesty

(ESA/Hubble)

We live in the midst of at least forty (40) powers of ten (orders of magnitude).

(Cosmic Voyage, IMAX, 1996)

The Book explains in simple terms how all of that came to be.

It took six (6) days from our perspective here on Earth.

In an older post, I explained how a very young Earth and a very old universe are not a contradiction.

The Book says mankind is God's ultimate creation.

It also says he used part of the man to create a woman. He created her for him.

That means making a woman was God's final act of forming the universe.

So, near the middle of those 42 majestic powers of ten, The Creator carefully placed his ultimate creation...

you

He did this all for His Glory, and I am overjoyed.

Red Pants

All glory to God.

Shadow

His apprentices did not have faith...

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:14-20 NIV)

The woman with an infirmity had faith...

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. (Matthew 9:20-22 NIV)

Peter eventually had faith, and so did the people who saw what he did...

The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. (Acts 5:12-16 NIV)

When our shadow is changing lives, we can be confident we have faith. Until then, we must ask for more.

The Pharisees knew the Scriptures, but they did not have faith.

Jesus came to show us how to do our jobs. His Father will put us through tests to build our faith.

All glory to God.

Emcee Squared

(hint)

All glory to God, of course, the one who made it.

Tee hee 😉

Stallion

Andromeda

UPDATE, June 15, 2025...

Spiritual shackles.

Self Will

Many of us quote Jesus and say to our Father, "Your will be done." But do we really mean it? Do we, instead, end up doing our own will anyway?

I needed to go to the grocery store yesterday, and had been putting it off for several days.

My wife and I went to Kroger a lot before she died, but she also went to Family Fare occasionally. She liked how FF was quiet and relaxed, ... and not busy. Apparently their prices are higher so fewer people shop there.

My wife died during the "plandemic" hysteria and Kroger (incorporated) played the hoax to the hilt. They shut off the bottled water station, pushed face-coverings and continually made announcements about the "virus" propaganda. I got tired of it and started going to Family Fare myself, just to get some peace. Kroger was also the place where my wife collapsed and where I had to go to retrieve our car.

It's been over four years since my wife departed, and I have shopped at both Family Fare and Kroger. Both were providing me with personalized coupons based on my previous purchases, which is pretty creepy if you think about it, but in the past few months FF stopped sending them.

I ran out of a certain type of sriracha sauce I had found at FF and have not been able to find it elsewhere, so yesterday I decided to go to FF to get my bottled water and groceries. I knew I had the Kroger coupons, but I left them at home. As I was getting ready to back the car out of the driveway, I struggled to remember I would be going to FF. I knew if I had proceeded without thinking my constantly-running intuition would have taken me to Kroger. I had to think about driving and making navigation decisions.

When I got to FF, I loaded up a shopping cart (trolley) with my nine empty gallon bottles and went into the store. When I got to the bottling station there was a notice taped to it saying it was out of order and apologizing for the inconvenience. I chuckled and realized I had been waived off of going to FF for a reason.

So, I wheeled my cart back to the car, reloaded the bottles and drove to Kroger. Once I was at Kroger, I obtained a cart, loaded it with my bottles and ... realized I did not have my Kroger coupons. Ugh.

I put the bottles back into the car, returned the cart to the parking lot livery and drove the half-mile back to my house, retrieved the coupons, and then proceeded to return to the store and go through the ritual with the bottles again.

Once inside the store, I started shopping for vegetables because they are just inside the door, and realized my bottles were still empty. My usual practice is to fill them first, but I had not done it at Kroger in quite some time so I was disorganized. My intuition and thinking processes were not meshing.

I should have gone to Kroger in the first place. My will was to go to FF, but The Spirit wanted me to go to Kroger. Why, I did not know, but I presumed He knew what He was doing.

I filled my jugs, got my groceries, went home, put things away, and then went to the coffee shop to say goodbye to a friend who is moving out of state. When I got home again, I took a nap.

Upon waking from the nap, I knew I was supposed to walk to my daughter's house and offer her my wife's patio furniture. I knew they would be there (both of them), and it was something I was supposed to do. (My girls are still not talking to me after four years, as I discussed in other posts.) It was clear to me it was the Father's will that I do that, and the interaction took place. I believe He prepared me to hear Him through my self-will experience regarding Family Fare and Kroger.

I did what I was led to do with my daughters and it is in God's hands now. I can move on.

This morning, I realized why I was supposed to go to Kroger and not Family Fare. This song was playing in Kroger as I shopped...

https://vinyldialogues.com/VinylDialoguesBlog/the-backstory-behind-the-hit-sara-smile-by-hall-oates/

... Another "wink".

All glory to God, as usual.

Root Beer

These irises were in the gardens around our house when we moved in during the Spring of 2006. At some point, I transplanted them to their current location.

Early on, my wife bent down and smelled one of them. She said they smelled like root beer.

She was right.

Some people call them "flags," which is probably because they are up around Flag Day, a week from tomorrow.

Spring is especially melancholy for me. Flowers. She loved them and the senses they invoked.

I miss her.

All glory to God.

Claimed

The Light shines in the dark, but The Darkness has not comprehended it.

All glory to The Father.

Patience

The Seven Virtues

God promised Abram something...

“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3 NIV)

Later...

The Lord said to Abram after Lot [his nephew] had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” (Genesis 13:14-17 NIV)

Abram remained childless, but God told him...

...a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:4-6 NIV)

But, Abram doubted, so God told him to prepare a particular animal sacrifice, something Abram would culturally understand. Then God caused him to fall into a deep sleep, and he said...

...“Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation¹ your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:13-21 NIV)

Abram would always remember that experience. The carcasses would still have been there the next morning, so he would have known it had really happened.

But, Abram was impatient. He listened to his wife who told him to use her servant to produce a child. That resulted in problems, and a son named Ishmael.

Thirteen years later, God reminded Abram about the covenant and he changed Abram's name to Abraham, which means father of a multitude. He also said...

...“As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him. (Genesis 17:15-22 NIV)

Isaac was born in God's timing.

God makes known the end from the beginning, but he doesn't tell us everything. He leaves out details for his reasons.

When God drops something into our lap we have been desperately yearning for, we may doubt. Perhaps it is too good to be true. Is it a trap? Are we being set up? Are we dreaming?

We need time to come to terms with reality, to figure things out and to let God teach us what he wants us to know. God also needs time to bring other people along, and to allow evil to reach its full measure so he can act.

Patience is a virtue. God develops it in those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

All glory to Him.

UPDATE, May 19, 2025...

¹ This piqued my interest and I did a search of how long the Israelites were in Egypt. I knew it was around 400 years (due to a fun Bible-teaching game I experienced early in my faith walk), so "the fourth generation" seemed too short.

I like the conclusion of the linked article, which readers can contemplate for themselves.

Labels

Do we get labeled?

Are we told we are defective, that we are no good?

Do people tell us we are weird?

What if some people do not naturally fit into the "boxes" others want them to fit in?

What if a child's natural, God-given personality does not conform to the model The System requires?

Are the public schools designed to indoctrinate children to "sit down, shut up, and obey"?

Are those who will not or cannot do that shamed into compliance?

If shaming doesn't work, are they drugged into compliance?

The video says one in twenty (20) people "have ADHD". Some personality types are very rare compared to that...

Are some of them seen as "weird"?

When we comprehend what is going on and who we are actually dealing with we can stand up and say, "No more."

All glory to God.

UPDATE, May 16, 2025...

Chose some different and additional words.

UPDATE, June 4, 2025...

The video says people "with ADHD" tend to be...

Curious

Creative

Enthusiastic

Those are not signs of disease or abnormality. They are characteristics of personality.

I took a "test" to determine my "personality type," and found out I am "INTJ". That label stands for: Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging, and I believe it describes me very well. This helps me understand who I am and why I do what I do.

There is no wrong personality type; it's just how people are.

Here is a link to the test I took: https://www.humanmetrics.com/personality.

Here are some resources I used to learn about my personality type and those of people around me:

Typically, if I am in a group of 100 people, there might be one other INTJ like me. We are rare...

So, what's your personality type??

UPDATE, June 10, 2025...

... And I'm not a pricker bush.

Tee hee. 😊

UPDATE, June 23, 2025...

Here is some wisdom about prescription drugs...

Article 5423, Jettison Worthless Drugs, June 23, 2025.

UPDATE, June 29, 2025...

Was Nikola Tesla ENTP?

(source)

I'm reading a book about him right now.