Peace Be With You

May 4, 2024

...and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).

 What is the "peace of God"? It's what God actually gives you to help you deal with life on life's terms. Tragedy and suffering will happen. So will laughter and joy. Whatever life throws at us, we can handle it well. The peace of God will strengthen us, and we will be able to trust Him no matter what life throws our way. Such a gift is invaluable, for many reasons. The closest single word I could find to describe this peace, is serenity, implacable serenity, the kind that enables virtues like courage in the face of evil, or when faced with a difficult decision. 

Trust Issues?

    I have heard that Jesus can do great things for me, if I put my trust in him.  No, not by winning the lottery, getting a good paying job, girlfriend or wife, etc., but truly great things that will grant me peace, transform me in any number of positive ways...really, I'm not sure what trust in this matter entails. These rewards or gifts are desirable indeed, but how do I trust Jesus? 

    It's a question I've only recently dealt with, largely due to critical thinking, and a desire to be precise and clear. So when a pastor of a church says "Trust Jesus/God", I ask myself, what does that mean for me? How do I act this out? 

    Pastors also say you have to trust with your entire being that God has your back. Here's another idea that sounds good, but is vague nevertheless. What does "entire being" mean? Usually people mean "mind, body and soul" to refer to one's entire being, and that's vague as well. What does it mean to love God with your soul? What is a soul? How do I love God-or anything-with all my soul? 

Pro-abortionists: You Sanction Murder for Convenience

1. There was never a "right" to abortion in the US Constitution, neither explicit nor implicit.  A right to kill an unborn child? Where in this document does it say this is OK, or that abortion is a right that the government should defend? 

2. In the case of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, many people feel that the woman-or girl- involved should not be saddled with carrying such a burden and restriction on their lives. Time and money at her expense, an interruption of her life, etc., etc., as well as the psychological damage this might cause her. All of these arguments simply state that a human being born from rape or incest does not have the right to live, if the mother so chooses. Of course all of this is horrible, a hideous thing to happen to a woman or girl. Does that mean that the baby should die? The pro-choice people say "yes". 

The Fall

        Jesus overcame death. This is a cardinal, fundamental belief in Christianity. My first question was, why did God create us with mortality? Why do we have to die in the first place? Why did Jesus (the son of God, mind you) have to die, and then be resurrected? Could it be that's just what God had to work with, with the instability of organic compounds? Probably not, because I'd imagine that the creator of the world-and the universe-could overcome it. No, there's a reason personal to God here. According to the Bible, God did this because of Adam and Eve's disobedience by eating fruit from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"' and also, the "tree of life". It's vitally important, since this story comes right after God created Adam and Eve. Watch the video below for a thorough covering of these subjects.

Perspective

Can we ever reach the stars by conventional ships? No, it's not conceivable, except for the words themselves describing the actual thing: the nearest star is 24.9 trillion miles away from the Earth.  It would take close to 79 million years to reach this star at the average speed of a rocket ship. Other notable places in the known universe are much farther. Travelling at the speed of light, it would take "only" about 4.4 years to reach the nearest star (Proxima Centauri). Physicists claim, based on our current  knowledge, that matter-all matter-becomes infinitely massive as it approaches the speed of light. A ship, therefore, would not only become infinitely massive, it would require an infinite amount of energy to maintain it's speed. In other words, interstellar space travel for humans is either outright impossible, or insanely impractical and expensive as to be impossible. 

The same physics would apply to alien races on alien planets, if they are out there.