Wisdom continually reaches everyone

Proverbs 8

1. Doth not wisdom cry? And understanding put forth her voice?
2. She standth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths
3. She crieth a the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.

God’s support and guidance is more than earthly active it is absolute, at every instant is it there. The error comes when man turns from these calls.

-High places- are those seen easily, it is a guide and a call from a place of perfection.

-Places of the paths- we are all travelers, and the end is eternal life, wisdom is along this place guiding us as we need. Even along the path to eternal life in Christ, guidance is Truth realized.

-Gates- the place of justice in those times, the gathering place

-entry of city- at the edge of collection of people

-coming in at the doors: into ones home

Wisdom and understanding continually cry out at all locations, all are reached by this divine and powerful message and it only takes but acceptance of this and rebuke of the material things to find happiness.

Our demonstration of the pure and perfect life is an example to those in need, but our gratitude is the proof of value and joy. Our gratitude is our contribution.

march 30- ramblings

March 30, 2006

I am grateful for the demonstration/conformation of God’s justice and mercy. Jill Carrol’s release is an example of, not the end example of his capacity. Truth is truth at all levels of demonstration. I am grateful for the kindness and openness of those in the community. How they are willing to reach out to the community for helping and caring about others. I am grateful for the enthusiasm about the idea of reaching out to others. I am grateful for the idea that I can do “nothing” while doing so much.

Jill Carrol’s release is a practical example that the God protects those qualities that represent him. It is not the matter that is important, but the real man. This is a victory over a false reality in error, but a conformation of power.

· I john 5:4 for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith

· BBE I john 5:4 anything which comes from God is able to overcome the world, and the power by which we have overcome the world is our faith

Yesterday I felt overcome by a sense that the injustice seen in the world was greater than what God could supply. The idea from S&H that in reality there is no mortal mind, and therefore no transfer of mortal thought and will power helped me to realize that error is just that, error. That injustice we see is first accepted in our and others thoughts. It gives another a power greater than God. The person that is doing the action is at a higher place than the action would represent. The true justice of the situation comes through Love, when we see that person as a spiritual individual. The error that has attached itself, in our conscience, will slip away, leaving only a perfect demonstration of God. Paul/Saul switch is a perfect example. I know in my own life I have made many mistakes, and if I held myself responsible I would spend all days just getting forgiveness. Instead it is best to live the Christ and forgive others. Bringing ourselves into connection with the Lords omnipotence is a breath of fresh air. The difficult part of that idea is that we can never hold someone responsible for things of the past, in our own observations. If we do, we keep that error with them. As a man will overcome his false idea of sickness we do not want to remember his as sick. Along the same lines we do not want to judge another as still “evil”.

Today’s lesson is on the tares and the wheat.

Different thoughts as to the meaning are (from concordance)

-the Church will never be free of offenses, so the church will have to arm themselves with patience and steadfastness.

-that as we are growing in spirit, not to let Animal Magnetism remove us from our path. Any false evidence that seems to reside with Truth will fall away as we grow. The tares were thrown in the world, not in the heaven

The harvest seems to mean something in a far off time, and for now we must suffer. The purpose of the harvest is to collect substance, to gather. If we are considering the harvest a daily operation, when we gather or get information is should be only spiritual. If we see another doing something wrong then our observation should only be of what they are doing right, and to see them as perfect and capable of receiving the good. The harvest is the right we know exists. If I see myself as sick, I am separating myself from the bounty that God has provided. He has made me whole, and the understanding of Christ and its healing saving power will take away the tares leaving the wheat. The harvest is now.

· 207:16 The Science of being repudiates self-evident impossibilities, such as the (action) of Truth and error in cause or effect

· 343:14 Jesus strips all disguise from error, when his teachings are fully understood. By parable and argument he explains the impossibility of good producing evil; and he also scientifically demonstrates this great fact, proving by what are wrongly called miracles, that sin, sickness, and death are beliefs- illusive errors-which he could and did destroy

Note- these are my thoughts, not those of the church or others, I am a student and am learning. please post any questions or comments

God is all, evil does not exist, by Albert Einstein

A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question. "Did God create everything that exists?"
A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"
"God created everything?" The professor asked.
"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."
The student became quiet and did not answer the professor's hypothetical definition.
The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question, professor?"
"Of course", replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"
The other students snickered at the young man's question.
The young man replied, "In fact, sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.
Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat. And all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"
The professor responded, "Of course it does."
The student replied, "Once again you are wrong, sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."
Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"
Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."
To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light."
The professor sat down. The young man's name -- Albert Einstein

Thank you, arigato, yewo, zikomo

I want to take a short minute out to extend my gratitude to all that offered help during my time away. There are so many wonderful examples but I thought I would touch on a few.

Many Malawians opened there houses to us and gave what little they had.
My parents continuously sent me updates and spiritual materials which helped me through many different challenges.
Random people helped out with things like rides after an accident, directions, food, money, clothing and more.
A family in Nairobi and a RPCV in Kampala housed me for a while.
I could sense tremendous spiritual prayer while I was experiencing hard times.

It is said that charity is the greatest thing we have to offer or recieve. God Bless all.

Home at last

well the trip is over, 2 and a half years of vacation in sunny africa. I spent my last day in Egypt at a place called the Blue Hole, a coral reef in the shape of a circle with beautiful fish and rainbows of coral. Great snorkling.

My journey home was peaceful and free of some of the overwhelming conditions that seem to go with this type of return. I owe this to my loving family, taco bell, and previous travel experiences.

I was greeted into the US of A by friendly people of all ethnicity, though speaking a wonderful NY english. Elton John poured out of the speakers and I knew I was back.

It is great to be home with my family and to have a chance to relax and catch up on all the wonderful things that have happened since I was gone.

Just a few thoughts on travel. Some of my best moments were when I was in an unfamiliar situation, all by myself, needing to rely on others. This was when you recognize a deeper beauty in humanity, when someone who does not speak your languages smiles at you and helps you the best way they can. They are not motivated because you are a tourists or rich, just because they are kind. A great example of this would be walking the streets in the morning looking for a small sidewalk food vendor, where you will find the salt of the earth going about their daily lives. People were so welcoming.

Another thought would be about traveling in tour groups. the benefits are the freedom from worry and responsiblity as everything is taken care of. Most likely you will never find yourself stepping off a ferry at dark in a strange city with no where to go. At the same time you sacrafice the natural experience of real existance. The tours will find "cultural" experiences but they are staged and lack the roughness or normal living. There are amazing people out there, and in experiencing that hospitality unbridled, we see the presence of a higher harmony. There is the oppurtunity for exchange with local people when you travel in small groups. As a solo traveler people approached me for some wonderful, though sometimes wacky, conversations. It is definetly more work but greater growth results.

The only thing that I can use to describe the pleasures and troubles of travel would be the amount of dust that settles on you. Airplane travel is fast and convient though it shields you from the main mode of travel in most countries. buses can be dangerous crowded and smelly but this is the way of the people, especially in Africa. the people you meet on buses are usually very willing to help. You spend more time with them. You see the place, not just the highlights.

In summary, there was always a question, what is the difference between a tourists and volunteer. both are transit, one is trying to work with the people. In the end, I always felt partially as a tourists. It was there lives and we just were observing it for a bit.

My trials and joys were filled with blessings. Love was shown from Malawians and visitors alike. A great amount of support came from those in the states and for that I am grateful. You cannot imagine how helpful it was to recieve a letter or email of encouragement, with something as simple as "keep up the great work" or "we are proud" or "stop wasting our tax dollars." Well maybe not the last.

Upon returning to the US I get the feeling that I will always carry part of Africa with me. The struggle, the triumph, the anger, the love, the ease of life, and the stubbornenss.

Snow and surf, Dahab - Sinai

Hello all, greetings from Dahab, on the eastern side of the Sinai peninsula along the sea. It is a wonderful small comfortable feeling place for just about anything.

The Sinai area is very dry, with the exception of the coast and a few oasis. It is by no means flat and the scenery is stunning. It is dusty, sandy, colorful place with camels wandering about and local people living around oasis miles from anywhere. It is what i thought pakistan would be like. The coastal area is stunning with different blues of the sea. Off in the distance is Jordan mountains.

I recieved a bit of a scare. My first night in town, I was walking down the waterfront walk and a few arab gentleman said in passing "tomorrow it will all be over". now for a bit of history, a few months ago there was an attack in this area and the government is warning USA citizens to use caution and stay away from certain sites. I spent quite a bit of time, in my own mind at least, to try and remove any differences I saw between myself and any others here. I also tried to recognize a universal harmony that exists. The next night/day all passed with calm.

Two tough days of fun here. The first existed of canyon trips. A place called colored canyon, and it was. It was a mile walk down a deep water carved canyon which required some tight squeezes and some scrambling. We stopped at a small Bendouin(local people) village for lunch. It was a bit ironic because it was established as this beautiful out of the way oasis and behind the hut they had electricity and a satelite dish. The local people are having a tough time as development comes. They have less places to go and are forced to stop being as nomadic and are releasing thier camels, which are seen all over just wandering.

The next day was a trip to the St Catherine monastery (http://www.geographia.com/egypt/sinai/stcatherine.html) and Mount Sinai (Mt Moses). This is the place from history where Moses saw the burning bush and spent many days on the mountain and recieved the Ten Commandments. They are not sure if the bush is a decendant or not or if it is for sure this mountain but the general area is right. It is a beautiful isolated place. The bush was not burning when we were there though we did have quite a bit of excitement when we saw a firetruck heading up towards the monastery:).

The idea of the trip is to climb the mountain to see the sunrise or sunset. Our trip was for the sunset and by the time we got to the top it was soo cold(remember i have been in africa for a while). It started snowing at the top. The view was almost forever and if I had to pick a place to stay for forty days that would be it.

Today after the cold of the mountains I think I will go and try some snorkling at a place called blue hole.

Stay well.

random thoughts
-our minibus driver from the monastery almost hit a camel, big white easy to see camel.
- my name, Matt, means death in arabic, and this gets a bit of a chuckle when i tell it.

Picture of Rock Hewn Church in Lalibela, Ethiopia

I was somewhat fascinated by Matt's post regarding Ethiopia and the Rock Hewn churhes- I did a little research- and here is a picture I found.

Ken

End of Ramadan

I happen to be in Egypt when the festival at the end of Ramadan started. It is a celebration/feast of the time when Moses was given a sheep to sacrifice, instead of his own child(best guess).

To kick it off they slaughter cows, goats, and sheep. You can find large carcasses hanging throughout the cities including Cairo where a big shop will have 10. The hotel that I stay at slaughters animals and then gives the meat to the poor. And I do not mean that the animal is slaughtered elsewhere, nope right in front of the hotel. The hotel has two doors that lead to two different alleys. Early morning they started on first cow and about 2 hours later nothing remained except washed pavement. In the other alley they started midday and decided that it is better to take your time, and not wash down the alley. Women in really duded up clothes were stepping carefully through this. One interesting custom is for the cutters to put there bloody hands, on peoples backs.

After some other guests and I returned from a tour we were greeted by what looked like a mob scene. I thought for sure something was wrong. Nope they were giving away meat to the poor. They ended up locking the door to keep people out.

Today people were out everywhere, smiling, laughing and kids up to no good. In one park people were picnicking, dancing, singing, clapping and there was a fake sword fight using sticks. One of my favorite ways of celebration was minibuses, loaded with children signing and yelling, door open, driving in caravans around town.