Tweets - September 28th - Cheating Investors

It looks like the GOP isn't budging on this issue. You don't think the risks are too great, especially if this turns out to be failed strategy?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/22/politics/debt-ceiling-warnings/index.html

I know, America was built on risk and beating the odds - but today is a different day, one that we haven't seen before. Failure means cheating investors, especially since there are currently alternatives that may no longer exist if we allow shit to hit the fan.

I'm also concerned with the issue of myopia that plagues this place. People are afraid and they are angry.

The United States is a boiling-hot cauldron, and we are about to learn a harsh and valuable lesson in not dealing with fear, pain, maltreatment, and emotional instability and instead allowing it to bubble over into the fire.

Tweets - September 23rd - Power of Christ

Something as simple as not needing to take an antacid, a simple carbon and calcium based antacid, has had such a profound impact on me. It changed the way that I look at things.

I was concerned about Christ doing things to help me in my journey - in my walk with God. I figured that his involvement could confuse me, as my goal was to first and foremost understand the mercy and power of the Living God before I understood the mercy and power of Christ.

I sometimes feel late to the party, and that I should have known and understood things that I didn't. This then leads to feelings of judgment and humiliation. But that is me being unfair and unkind to myself.

So my path forward is to be completely OK with not knowing and not understanding, and to not be unfair or unkind to myself again. (I say these things to be of help to an unknown seedling.)

If someone is hungry, and I see them calling out to God asking for something to eat, would I stand back and wait for God to feed them if I'm able to similarly do so myself?

Of course not. I'm going to give them fertile land and set them beside a river with a boat and fishing rods, and set them among a community who can teach them how to care and sow and fish.

Christ does what he sees God doing. God does not prescribe antacids. So he has investigated and sought out understanding in order to know God and know God's power and God's method and God's way, and he imitates these things according to his understanding and power.

So then, to see and know the mercy of Christ, is to see and know the mercy of God.

(To be clear, when I say "Christ", I'm being inclusive of everyone above who walks with God.)

The Garden of God is filled with investigation, inquiry, testing, perseverance, and understanding - it is filled with the knowledge and care of God.

Tweets - September 3rd - U know these scriptures

A friend of mine whom I've known since we were teenagers sent me a link to this video and asked, "Now I know u know these scriptures so can u explain this to me"

https://www.tiktok.com/@child_of_yahweh7/video/6998495237513432322

I was tempted to give a terse response, but then I reconsidered because 1) it concerned him enough to bring up, and 2) I felt he could use more simple truths that are often denied him. I kept this as concise and as plain as I could for him while getting enough of my point across.

You know, I haven't been Christian in almost 20 years. I read the bible cover to cover all those years ago, and I came across too much contradiction (it's easier to see when you no longer hold the book in high regard - if you hold it high regard, there is no wrong to be found, not even in the passages where "God" commands the slaughter of peaceful people and commands the rape of women and young girls):

"Kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man and kill every male among the little ones, but keep the virgins for yourselves... divide them up evenly." Numbers 31:17

"Now go and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." 1 Samuel 15:3

"In the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them." Deuteronomy 20:16

These verses, including the ones where "God" teaches people how to enforce slavery (in those same books where "God" teaches people how to kill gay folk), is historically the reason why the U.S. exists as it does. Without justifying the mistreatment of folks using these, the U.S. wouldn't exist - definitely not as it does. Many people would have a good idea how to be decent human beings. But instead, they'll hang your child from a tree and smile while doing it - THAT is what this book gave them.

Most of the books in the bible were written by men who judged humans for being human - condemning children for being children. Those men saw a world and a culture in their imagination, where naked humans and free children did not belong. So they controlled and manipulated people into living in their world, and their children control and manipulate their own children - leaving a broken world, this world. Liberty (freedom in choice and expression), justice (making right what is made wrong, restoring what is destroyed, repairing what is broken), and kindness (treating others the way we'd want to be treated), these all come secondary to culture and religion.

If those people could condemn a dog to hell for barking, they would.

None of the gods ever speak as far as they were concerned, and none of the gods have ever stood on up on the treestump where they're carved and ordered anyone to do anything, so those men took it upon themselves to be the hands, warriors, and mouthpiece of their god. Then they wrote a book, set it on an altar, and called it "the word of God" - but it is no word of God.

Their own prophets said as much: "How can you say, 'We are wise, and the law of God is with us'? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie." Jeremiah 8. Jeremiah was the son of a high priest in Israel, and he called "bullshit" on several of their traditions.

The book of Leviticus that the guy mentioned in the video is filled with sacrificial laws (killing animals for the forgiveness of sins) - it's how the church came up with the "sacrifice of Jesus" - being the ultimate sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins - in an attempt to rationalize his death. But according to Jeremiah, the sacrifice laws were bullshit too:

"Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.'" Jeremiah 7

Tweets - August 17th - Persevere

If you find yourself resting in the Garden of God and you want to split an unsplittable stone, then persevere - keep moving forward - and don't grow tired of moving forward. The outcome will astonish you every time, and you'll be eager to share what you've accomplished.

How amazing the kindness and honesty of God in all these things. God required my forward movement and not my worry; and the same effort in movement is required for the upbuilding of the Garden and the salvation of our race. But at the moment, I'm completely exhausted.

Aim higher, aim for the perfect outcome. There's no need to settle for "good enough" because of fear, worry, or exhaustion.

Sometimes you'll feel like you're taking a 10-mile uphill walk on the edge of a cliff a thousand feet in the air; you'll feel it all in your stomach, and that's OK. Just keep walking, you won't be destroyed nor will you destroy.

Not entirely true. You might destroy (incidentally) in order to further repair; and you might be destroyed in order to be further saved according to a Higher standard. None of these things are in your control - thankfully.

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You made your decision, and you could only ever make the decision you made. Free will... does God even have free will? I don't know. I suppose if God is able to un-change all that changes in the universe.

As for you, if you lived the same life a thousand times, with the all things being as they are - environment, culture, coin flips and all - you'd make the exact same decision a thousand times. So you can only move forward or stay in one place.

"What if" was always an impossibility for you. I've found it best to accept my position, where I am, and move forward.

Tweets - August 12th - Scared Flower

There was a flower thriving in a dry place. The flower was afraid of the drying Earth; afraid that it would whither up and be no more, so it cried out to God.

There was a friendly passerby who saw the flower; she uprooted the flower, walked down a few hills, and planted it beside an ever-flowing stream. You see then, that God is glorified through the flower, the friend, the hills, and the water.

The day came when the heat of the sun became so hellish that birds fell out of the sky. The flower said to itself, "I am ruined! For not even the birds can survive this heat!".

As the flower waited, it realized the humidity from the stream and the shade of the hills were keeping the air moist and cool - so not even a single petal was burned.

The winds came, and they became so strong that even steel beams bent under their forces. The flower said to God, "I am nothing! For even the strongest buildings cannot stand!".

As the flower waited, it realized that its stem became strong from the nutrient-rich waters, and the hills were positioned in such a way that the winds moved around the flower - so not even a single petal was lost to the winds.

Tweets - August 9th - Acid Reflux

Yesterday evening and night (before I went to bed), I had acid reflux. Before my diet change 5 or so years ago, it was pretty common to have acid reflux while in bed depending on what I ate.

A heavy or tomato/fatty/rich meal would mean sitting up all night in bed. But I haven't had acid reflux like that in years, and yesterday's came out of the blue while it was still light outside.

I did have acid reflux, maybe last year when I ate a lot of fat-free dairy alongside something acidic, but it was nothing like yesterday. I don't eat rich meals any more - not for years.

For dinner I made Dominican rice and peas and had a leftover chickpea and kidney bean burger that I made the day before; dessert was a raspberry sorbet.

I have a fairly simple solution that I've used for years for both indigestion and acid reflux, and that was to take an antacid. Now, I have these 2 large containers of antacids that I purchased many years ago to replace the antacids I had previously consumed.

Since I don't have acid reflux much anymore - the containers are nearly full and expired. On the rare occasion I've needed them, I've taken them.

I was outside talking to heaven about this world and the Garden, then I felt the acid reflux bubbling up in my esophagus, and I reminded myself that I would take some antacids before going to bed (as it was close to my bedtime).

Thinking about what could have caused it, a spacecraft became very luminous and shone very brightly for a few seconds. How weird and unexpected. But seeing the spacecraft inspired me to change my thinking and so I thought to myself, "discuss it with God".

I told God that I wasn't sure what caused the indigestion and acid reflux (as to be sure that I would never cause it to happen again), and I asked God to take it away so that I wouldn't need to take antacids anymore - so that I could sleep peacefully.

Instantaneously, the bubbling stopped. The reflux went away. I sat outside amazed.

Now that the reflux was gone, I still felt some mild indigestion in my stomach. At this point, it was just a matter of waiting for God to complete what God began.

I knew God would complete what God began - but I still had these small thoughts of doubt (not that God wouldn't complete it, but that God wouldn't complete it before I fell asleep).

To be granted something so quick and so soon, because I am dependent on it, has been a very uncommon thing for me, and I wasn't too sure what to expect. But I went to bed last night and slept peacefully throughout the night (as God's mercy has never been dependent on my faith).

Tweets - August 8th - Gift Giving

The Garden of God is gift-giving; gift-giving with honesty, gift-giving with integrity, gift-giving with effort and care. Even the Garden's systems and structures are founded on efforts of gift-giving. In this, we imitate God - treating one another the way that God treats us.

Yes, there is exchange and trade between persons and peoples and races; not as a means to provide what another lacks for survival - exchanging labor, struggle and information for basic necessities like food and shelter (this is the vile godless foolishness of this exiled world); but rather a means to share in our unique excesses and creations, and to offload what we no longer require or desire (and for other reasons, I'm sure).

God will have a Garden in the Earth, and it is going to be both beautiful and devastating to watch God change the stubbornly warped hearts of man. We will be like the psalmist who rested safely and securely in the midst of a city under attack (Psalms 31).