Tweets - July 20th - Tested

Reading this bit about the Sahara stirred up a bit of nostalgia in me, and still does. It isn't part of the beginning of your walk, but it is part of mine. It is part of my roots, part of the strength of my foundation, part of what I would become, part of what I will become.

My goal always is to be acceptable to God; if I am acceptable to God, then I am acceptable to the Garden of God (Christ, the Messengers, You).

I have no real control of these things. The Garden requires integrity, and my integrity will be tried again and again. I am what I am being made to be. The goal belongs to God and it is shared with us. My desire still is to be acceptable - stretched, tested, refined and polished.

The beauty of being tried and tested by God, is that you are never tested to see if you'll pass or fail some test, nor are you ever encouraged to do what you hate.

You are tried and tested (if these are even the best words for it) to reveal to you plainly and clearly who and what you are as a person. In this way, "testing" upbuilds, corrects, heals, and brings about integrity. We are talking about God AND decency here.

I find that story of Abraham being told by God to sacrifice Isaac a vile form of testing. Firstly, it teaches us that we cannot always trust God, as God is a sadistic game player. If one cannot trust God fully, then faithlessness becomes an acceptable response.

Secondly, it teaches us that we should not treat others in ways we ourselves would want to be treated - so long God commands it. If you do not see a problem with this, it is only because you are without genuine care for people (as you would hate if God told someone to harm you).

Thirdly, it teaches us that God is an awful authoritarian - the worst of any man. The impression this would have left on Isaac (being under a knife-wielding dad at God's command) would not create a gentle personable adult. It would have left something destructive in this world.

Christ rejected such stories about God. To know God is to know when someone is telling a bullshit story about God. But you can't go on telling a priest that his traditions and stories are bullshit, and convincing his children of the same, without being nailed to a cross.

Tweets - July 12th - Consider the Inconsiderable

The word of God has been, "YES!". To angels, to Christ, to everyone who walks with God, the word of God is, "YES!". Even in God's profound and severe, "NO!", there is still to us given, "YES!!!"

It is by faith that the world is judged, and the world is judged by Christ and by those who walk with God; as God entrusts them with this Garden, giving life to seed-bearing flowers and fruit-bearing trees whose petals and leaves never fall or discolor.

It was by faith that the Jewish prophets spoke of the end of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and it was by faith that the angels spoke to them. No matter where in God you look, you will find forward-movement and light, even in God's deep quietness, even in God's deep darkness.

I sometimes disagree strongly with peoples' philosophies, especially regarding "vanity". This is something I discussed with heaven a week or 2 ago, in that, "Everything is important."

To truly consider the beauty of the Garden of God, you must also consider the inconsiderable.

I live near a creek, and summers bring on a ton of mosquitoes.

So for the last 4 years I've bought the "Off" brand outside spray fogger to repel mosquitoes, and that works well while I'm outside, but I do sometimes need to spray again if I'm outside longer than an hour. I'll go through 4 or 5 cans of the stuff over a summer.

But yesterday, I considered the inconsiderable, and I discussed a strange thing with God. I presented my case and asked if my flesh could be changed to repel biting insects.

Afterwards, out of curiosity, I checked to see if there were other land animals that repel mosquitoes (there are several species of plants that repel them, such as citronella - but I had never heard of, or even considered, animals whose scent repel them as well).

There are, in fact, people whose sweat produce scents that are un/less-appealing to mosquitoes: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/news-events/how-mosquitoes-smell-human-sweat

But while I wait for such a transformation to be completed, I'm wondering, how I will know when it has taken place? I don't currently plan on sitting outside without spraying first.