What Gives Our Lives Meaning?

What Gives Our Lives Meaning?

One of the downsides, or so I am told, about losing faith in faith is that when you allow that to happen, you lose all meaning in your life.  It doesn't occur to some that it is not meaningful to base a life on something others say is just around the corner, over the next hill or to shortly come to pass and it isn't.  Sincere people who always look to the future for fulfillment and do not live in the present, which is the only real time there is, run the risk of almost having a life, but falling short.

How often in the last 50 years have you and I heard, "Time is short?"   Time can't be short of course, but what that meant was that our time is short or that this time in history is short or mostly that the gap between now and second coming has now grown short and soon it will all be ok.  Of course, "time is short," and "the things which must shortly come to pass," has been 2000 years in the making.  Humans don't see 2000 years as short.  Three to Five seems to be what short means to the piously convicted and  that "almost here" will occur in their short time span of life.  

The Apostle Paul just knew time was short.  He told the single to stay single, the married to think as if they weren't, the young women to think about Jesus and the young men to leave the young women alone.  The problem turns out to be that Paul was very wrong.  Time was not short and once he woke up to that fact, he left the scene bragging how he had kept the faith (the one he made up from his own view of the Cosmic Christ,) and that he had made it big time.   I wonder how many lives and relationships his "time is short" phase ruined?

This was after all, a man who thought marriage was so one could avoid fornication.  I still say Paul was a repressed gay man, but I spare you.

The entire New Testament, mostly written by Paul was very wrong about it's view of meaning.  Meaning in life for the characters in the NT was to make it into the Kingdom.  To hang in there.  Those who asked, "where is the promise of his coming?" were vilified and.  They were the "scoffers" whose end would be very very bad.  I guess it never occurred to anyone they were right.  The price for noticing that time was not short, Jesus had not returned as advertised by Paul and others and people were getting old enough to die in the faith was being told  their god was their belly and their end would be destruction.  Only when or if the Apostle declared that time was not short after all could the lucky brethren say it too. But you didn't think it before the guru gave you permission or he did not get the credit for coming up with it. 

However, the scoffers were correct in their observations. I can't find any apology from the Apostle Paul to the brethren at the end of his life for misleading them or for telling to be and act in ways that were going to cost them big time later as life ground on and Jesus still had not been given permission by God, who only really knew when, to return.  

If only God knows the day and hour, how come so many guys think they do too?  Oh I forgot, of the day an hour knows no man, but that does not mean we can't know the month or year.  Silly me.  

I still am enjoying watching the very Two Witnesses of Revelation, Mr. and Mrs. Ron Weinland (Ron I knew you when you were a kid, what happened to your mind?) come unglued.  Ron can't even get his sound systems to work consistently or his appendix to behave.  How is he going to come to strike the entire earth with fire, plague and fleas? 

 How does the COG manage to give birth to so many odd minister types? 

 I used to swim against Dave Pack. Could never beat the boy so I concentrated on beating my own times in events. What happened to that kid?  Was I really sitting in a hot tub in Chicago in the 70's with the future true and only Apostle of God on Earth and didn't know it?  Naw.....  What happens to people?  And who are the people that follow them and insist on hurting themselves with their continued support of said prophets, priests, apostles and kings?  

So back to the question.  Once you lose faith in the Plain Truth, which really would better to have been called the Present Truth, what meaning can your life possibly have?

The bottom line is that we actually assign our own meanings to life.  We even do that when we think we have found the one true way to be and think Biblically.  We find that for us and assign that as our meaning.  For others, it is meaningless to them.  

This is a very big topic, so I won't pretend to address all it's many aspects.  But I'd like to give one example of how life can have real meaning to any individual who has lost "the big picture,"  "the faith" or finds himself "off track" as we always used to hear when the work of the church was put back on another wrong track.  

Church of God members have been around on so many final gun laps that most have simply run out of  final lap bullets. That's not their fault, nor has it been mine. 

I just want to leave you with a story that spoke to me for some reason.  Maybe it touched the raw nerve of abandonment or resentment gone crazy.  Perhaps it raises the fact for me that I have failed myself in some important areas and let others down in my life.  The story made me feel like anything can be fixed if those who want to wish to.  It touched my "what is the meaning of all these crazy experiences?" button.  It's a Sunday morning. It's very quiet and it's just me and my new dog Chewy sitting here.  Well she is sitting her and it is actually me, not her doing the writing :)  I have eyes full of tears and a heart that just wants to understand what the hell happened over all those years?

So this story gives me meaning.  It must or I would not have reacted to it as I have. Perhaps it will give you some meaning, in the present,  as well...

James 2:15-17: "If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." ...and please, don't someone say, "it only says if they are a brother or sister in the Church...please don't say that...The last phone call I ever got from WCG when asking about retirement etc, the minister on the other end said, "no, but we will be praying for you and wish you the best..."

            "I was day tripping to Vancouver from Seattle 

and stopped in for lunch at a little cafe. 

From my window I saw a young teenage girl out in the cold, 

squatted down in a closed up business's doorway, 

holding a small bundle in her arms. 

She was panhandling, people were mostly walking by ignoring her. 

She looked just broken.
I finished up my meal and went outside,   
went through my wallet and thought I'd give her $5 for some food. 
I got up to her and she was sobbing, 
she looked like she was 14-15. 
And that bundle in her arms was a baby wrapped up. 
 I felt like I just got punched in the chest. 
She looked up putting on a game face and asked for any change, 
I asked her if she'd like some lunch.  
Right next door was a small quick-Trip type grocery store, 
I got a can of formula for the baby (very young, maybe 2-3 months old.), 
and took her back to the cafe though I'd just eaten. 
She was very thankful, got a burger and just inhaled it. 
Got her some pie and ice cream. 
She opened up and we talked. 
She was 15, got pregnant, parents were angry and she was fighting with them. 
She ran away. 
She's been gone almost 1 full year. 
I asked her if she'd like to go home and she got silent. 
I coaxed her, she said her parents wouldn't want her back. 
I coaxed further, she admitted she stole $5,000 in cash from her Dad. 
Turns out $5,000 doesn't last long at all, 
and the streets are tough on a 15 year old. 
Very tough. 
She did want to go back, 
but she was afraid no one wanted her back 
after what she did. 
We talked more, 
I wanted her to use my phone to call home but she wouldn't. 
I told her I'd call and see if her folks wanted to talk to her, 
she hesitated and gave bad excuses but eventually agreed. 
She dialed the number and I took the phone. 
Her Mom picked up and I said hello, 
awkwardly introduced myself and said her daughter would like to speak to her. 
Silence, and I heard crying. 
Gave the phone to the girl and she was just quiet listening to her Mom cry, 
and then said hello. And she cried. 
They talked,  she gave the phone back to me,
I talked to her Mom some more. 
I drove her down to the bus station and bought her a bus ticket home. 
Gave her $100 cash for incidentals, 
and some formula, diapers, wipes, snacks for the road. 
Got to the bus, and she just cried saying thank you over and over. 
I gave her a kiss on the forehead and a hug, kissed her baby, 
and she got on the bus. 
I get a Christmas card every year from her. 
She's 21 now and in college. 
Her name is Makayla and her baby was Joe.

Now let me ask you a question - would you feel like your life has meaning if you could do something like that for another human being?  This person spent a few hours, and a few dollars, and he changed not one but two lives, and probably the lives of her parents as well. 

 
You might be thinking, "How can I possibly duplicate that?" 

 
It would not be that hard to find someone to help. It would give you a good dose of meaning in life...

DenniscDiehl@aol.com 

Vital Tools For Modern Day Apostles (UPDATED)

Updated with final auction prices

More important tools 

that every modern day Apostle needs 

to 

preach the gospel 

about 

"A Strong Hand From Someplace."

Click on picture once to enlarge, then again for x-large closeup's

 Victorian Gilt Centerpiece  1888

Goddess Ceres in a field of wheat

$8,000-12,000

Sold for $23,300.00

 

Victorian Silver Four-light Candelabra  1857

$20,000-30,000

Sold for $57,500.00

 Victorian Silver-mounted Frosted-glass Claret Jug and Stand 1845

$4,000 - 6,000

George IV Silver Egg Cruet 1820

$2,500 - 3,500

(HWA had this on his breakfast table in the kitchen for his soft boiled eggs)
Sold for $27,600.00 

 Victorian Silver-gilt and Agate Desert Service 1854

$3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $4,370.00

 Victorian Silver Vase 1874

$2,000 - 3,000
Sold for $2,700.00
Edward VI Silver-gilt Warwick Vase
$5,000 - 8,000
Sold For $5,650.00

George IV Silver-gilt Wine Coolers 1826

$50,000 - 80,000
Sold for $74,000.00

Regency Silver Salver 1813

$7,000 - 10,000
Sold for $24,150.00

George IV Silver Tea and Coffee Service

$10,000 - 15,000
Sold for $16,100.00

Important Regency Silver-gold gilt Candelabra 1812

$80,000 - 120,000

Sold for $222,500.00

Ok, Who's Tellin' Fibs???

Ok, Who's Tellin' Fibs???

In my last posting about why the very plain statements made in the Gospels about prayer fell short of their goal no one really bothered to address the plainly stated scriptures.   Instead of any sane discussion about why these rather plain and unambiguous statements about prayer don't seem to be how prayer really works, it was a food fight.  I was attacked for being stupid enough to ask the questions and others were attacked for having their own perspectives which others thought were stupid.  Obviously we are not dealing with a naturally theologically curious audience at times.  

So let's try again.  Who's tellin' fibs here?  Luke the author of the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's apologist or Paul himself?

Let us begin.

After his conversion, did Paul go directly to Jerusalem to meet with those who were Apostles before him and actually are said to have known Jesus personally and spent much time with him?  Paul was the persecutor of the Christians and the Church before becoming a follower of it.  Paul never met Jesus personally and in all his writings, never quotes Jesus, tells of his life, miracles, healings or teachings.  Paul fails dozens of times to quote Jesus when it would serve him well to do so.  The fact is that Paul never heard the Gospel accounts of Jesus physical life. For Paul, Jesus came to him in hallucinations and visions. Paul died before the Gospels were written. 

At some point in his life Paul evidently "saw the light."  No really, he saw the light and heard the voices in his head.  Depending on which account you read, others with him either did or didn't hear the voice or see the light or stay standing or fall down, but that is another story.

But what did Paul do after he was converted?  Paul says of his own conversion...

Galatians 1:15-20 

 

¹⁵ But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. ¹⁷ I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
 ¹⁸ Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas^a] and stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹ I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 


Here Paul says plainly that what he is saying is no lie.  I suspect some one must have been accusing him lying about this or he would not have been so vehement to say he wasn't.  


Paul plainly says that he did not see any of the Apostles for three years.  Paul plainly says he went directly to Arabia, but fails to tell us why.  All sorts of crazy ideas have been put forth as to his reason for this trip and stay, but he simply does not say why.  Then, after three years, he goes to Jerusalem,  see's Cephas and stays with him for 15 days but sees no others except James the Lord's brother.  


That's pretty simple.  Paul said he was called from his mother's womb (Like Jeremiah, Jesus and John--how humble of him).  There is no hint of the Damascus road story.
ON THE OTHER HAND....


Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, which tells a  really short story to get the Jerusalem Apostles off the stage while the real and much longer majority of the story is mostly about the Apostle Paul. 


According to Acts 9, IMMEDIATELY after Paul converted he spent some time in Damascus "with the disciples," and when he left Damascus he headed IMMEDIATELY to Jerusalem where he met the apostles of Jesus  (Acts 9:19-30).  On all counts and every w


Did Paul spend time with the Apostle immediately (Acts) or not (Paul in Galatians)?  Did he go straight to Jerusalem (Acts) or not (Paul in Galatians).  Did he meet with a group of Apostles (Acts) or  just with Peter and James  (Paul)?


In fact, Paul, who is not lying, appears to want it made clear that his Gospel did not come from any of Jesus Apostles. Paul wanted his Gospel to be clearly understood to have come through him.  Paul makes it clear that to disagree with him is to disagree with God. Paul calls Peter, James and John "reputed pillars."  Paul goes on in Galatians to say, "who they are makes no difference to me. I learned NOTHING from them."   


Clearly Paul thought he was Herbert Armstrong, Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack and Ron Weinland preincarnated.  


Luke, on the other hand, makes every effort to make what was not true, that Paul and the Jerusalem Church were on the same side, to seem true.  Luke does his best to show that Paul and the Jerusalem Church were team players, spoke the same thing and had the same Gospel message.  There could be nothing more far from the truth than this fairy tale Luke has made up in the Acts of the Apostles.


Both accounts of Paul's conversion cannot be true.  Either one is true and one is the lie (Paul said his version was not the lie), or both versions are false and the truth lies elsewhere unknown to us.  They can't BOTH be true.  They simply are two completely different accounts of how Paul is said to have come to be converted to the Jesus movement and what he did immediately after. 


So which is it?   


If I had to pick, I'd say Paul would know his own story best and since Paul actually did write Galatians, he would know. Someone was calling Paul a liar. (Not the only time by the way) and indeed, Paul did lie from time to time but we will save that for another time. 


Luke's version is the false version. There was no Damascus Road event according to Paul. If you look at Luke's accounts of that tale, you will see Luke could not get it straight with the telling. But that's another story.    
So who's fibbin' and why?

DenniscDiehl@aol.com 

UCG Tonga Resignation

COGaWA (WCG2)Premiers It's Website

WCG2/Church of God a Worldwide Association has its new official web site up.  You can follow along as little Joel talks about his superfantastic trips around the world and Ralphie talks about single life.  Such fun!

 

Church of God a Worldwide Association 

An Angry Reader Responds

From: juanwhoknows@_____.com
To: DenniscDiehl@aol.com
Sent: 2/10/2011 12:02:12 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: your hwa banned blog

I've been reading your 'anti-armstrong/no-god' blog for some weeks, following the UCG-COGaWa debacle, and since you're into highly original comments, here's one I bet you haven't heard (1000 times yet):

Psalms 14:1  ... The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

This pretty much sums up your blog....foolish, bitter, myopic, predictable, rambling, and often typographically-challenged (lots of misspellings)....

Even with all the mutual 'crap' you've compiled from myriad other myopic self-promoting vilifiers, your personal scope of the entire HWA-WCG experience can never be more than very minuscule, personal and hopelessly arbitrary.

Even if what little you say about HWA and the WCG and splinters is basically true, the remaining 99.999% of the unfathomable experience goes completely unconsidered....so much for minimal accuracy (less than 0.001%) and objectivity. You should reconsider such a colossal blunder of short-sightedness; its as if you are STILL operating like a WCG minister.

To live a life of no hope (atheism) is miserable compared to an active life of FAITH.  When a believer is in trouble he cries out "O 'God,' help me!"  And when he is eventually saved, he is thankful.  What do you cry out?  "Oh God" or "G. D. it," I'm sure....because you can't completely wipe out the pre-programmed knowledge of the Creator from your mental ROM, can you? Because HWA didn't put THAT there.

Since no one will know that there is "god," until he sees him in the flesh or dies (no I didn't just contradict myself), a wise man chooses to believe in the Creator rather than not.  He reasons that the positive benefits of a life of FAITH greatly outweigh the crushing loneliness, purposelessness and bitterness that always accompany ATHEISM.  And if there turns out to be no 'god' in the end, it was still a greatly improved life. If there is 'god,' then the 'unprofitable servant' goes into an unimaginable bonus round.

Yet, so what if there's no reward after this life? If you're doing it for the reward, is that agape love? or, like all the self-seeking folks you describe in your blog, just for personal gain?  FAITH in the Creator is a worthwhile mindset even without the resurrection, pal.

The bottom-line question for me: is the m.o.of your blog really any better than that of the people whose actions you consistently paint as diabolical, stupid, and clueless?  Are you not doing the same thing that you did when you were a WCG minister? Then what a waste of time if you believe what you blog....

Because, like Job (another guy who thought he had this 'god thing' figured out), you might actually be WRONG about all this 'religion is big business' and 'the opium of the people' stuff.

For me, if a life of great joy, accomplishment, and worthwhile experiences, plus agony, long sadness, hard times and tragedy (most of which was my own fault) has not dimmed my faith in the Creator, how could your little toxic blip of a blog possibly hope to make a dent in anyone else's? 

If there is "god," you're still serving his purpose in another way without knowing it. If there is no "god," then you're still blogging about NOTHING after all these years and that every single day.

Again, what a waste of life....why not tell us about your stamp collection or how you felt when you first became a father?  Contributing something positive to the aggregate....

"A-dios!" whoops, sorry, "A-nihilos, amigo!"

_________________________________________________________________________________
FYI Juan:


I don't expect you or anyone else to agree with what is posted on this blog. One of the main problems with Armstrongism is that people checked their brains when they were baptized or whenever they read the latest booklet put out by one of the various "One and ONLY True Ministers of God left on earth today." 


The Armstrongite thought process only involves the 'revealed word of HWA, Meredith, Flurry, or some other leader who has interpreted the Bible according to THEIR viewpoint.  The members of these churches are expected to follow THEIR rulings and doctrines.  Reading other literature, theology books or writings done by non-COG members is frowned upon and blatantly forbidden by some.  Questioning is NOT an option in Armstrongism.  It wasn't under HWA at any point in time.  It still is not under Meredith, Flurry, Hulme, Pack, Cox, etc.


Real spiritual seekers continually ask questions, and have no problem in wrestling with scripture and doctrine   If you truly believe the Bible stories you read you would quickly see that many of  those men and women wrestled with, argued with and bargained with their God. You would see that more than 5 different writers contributed to Genesis.  That there were several authors to Isaiah, that many of the days and traditions kept by the Israelites were patterned after neighboring 'pagan' peoples, that James and Paul argued over who knew Jesus the best and how to interpret his word.  You would know that much of the Bible is myth and allegory. And, if you knew the meaning of myth and not today's meaning you would find value in these stories even though they aren't literal.  You would also know that the Bible tells the story of messy people, living messy lives who never quit got it right. It is not a story about people living lives of perfection or constantly having to DO the right thing.


I spent over 45 years in Armstrongism.  I was two when my mother joined and we drove 150 each way to church.  Grew up in the church, came to its Pasadena campus, worked for the church and even work in HWA's home for close to 15 years.  I can tell you stories that make anything posted here look like nursery rhymes.


I am not angry with the church.  There were some good times to be had.  I would never have traveled around the world like I have if it wasn't for the church.  However, there is regret for the lost and wasted years, the lost opportunities and a screwed up faith that was damaged by the cultish irrelvent nonsense of Herbert Armstrong and his minions.  I learned a long time ago to laugh and and have fun with the crap we all put up with.  That is the only way you can retain your sanity. Those of us that have recovered  from the filth now don't want to see others hurt by it.  So we post the silly happenings, the arrogant words, and  the lies of the various splinter cults and their leaders so it is all in black and white for the world to see.


Yet through it all, I never lost that spark that keeps me coming back to God.  That's why I am a lay minister in a local church, serve in numerous ways in the church and in the community.  I would much rather surround myself with agnostics, atheists and those that question their beliefs than those who are so mind numbingly close minded they refuse to use their brains.


I may not agree with everything Dennis writes, but the majority I do.  Those things that I don't agree with I look at as a new way of looking at things I had never thought about before.  I may not agree, but I do allow it to cause me to think.


Dennis is more than welcome to post there.  When he can jar the minds of those entrenched in the ethically and morally bankrupt churches of Armstrongism then he is welcome to post any damn time he wants.


This includes the other people that send me information too!


Gary

UCG: Everything is all Daffodils and Cute Bunnies

Reading UCG Realtime you would think UCG has had only a minor little hiccup in their organizational structure and everything is phantasmagorically fabulous!  Pretty daffodils and bunnies playing in the fields of the Lord....

Here is their list of hiccups laid out:

For your information, in early 2010, there were 492 credentialed elders in the United Church of God, an International Association. Of that number, 323 (66%) are still with UCG. Of that total, we have retained 62 of 131 salaried field ministers (47%); 15 of 20 elders salaried by the home office (75%); 9 of 14 retired elders (64%); and 237 of 327 non-salaried elders (73%).
In the United States, we have retained 250 of 382 elders (65%). Of that total, we have retained 46 of 100 salaried field ministers and 180 of 248 non-salaried elders (73%).