Category Archives: Bible

* Co-creators with God

May 24, 2014Bible, Get on your feet, Poverty, Squalor, The Way of PeaceAlfred Tennyson, Ambrose Worrall, Cosmology, Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, Jesus, Mark 7, Paul, PrayerWilliam Tell

From “Learning to pray:” “[T]he most common mistake I observe in other folks’ prayers [is] an assumption that God is distant and apart from human beings.”

My belief is at the opposite extreme.

On the one hand, God’s omnipresence means that God is fully present to every cubic centimeter of empty space, to every atom and electron of your being.

If, as I believe, God is All — which must be so, if God is infinite, since if God is truly infinite there cannot be any thing that is not part of God — then every speck of matter that exists is actually part of God.
Continue reading * Co-creators with God →

* “Just how bad do you think you’ve got it?”

May 10, 2014Bible, Get on your feet, Homelessness, Poverty, The Way of PeaceAttitude of gratitude, Bootstraps, Life force, Parable of the Talents, StewardshipWilliam Tell

At the shelter, we’re required to attend chapel for an hour every night. I normally find it just as edifying as a traffic jam.

The group from “Guilford” presents on the fourth Monday every month. About a dozen of them come. Their leader is J_____ R__. Different ones preach in different months. When J_____ R__ preaches, the message is always the same.

“Just how bad do you think you’ve got it?”
Continue reading * “Just how bad do you think you’ve got it?” →

* Easily breakable

May 7, 2014Bible, Get on your feet, OUR BEST POSTS, Poverty, SqualorParable of the Talents, Stewardship, Why have nots have notWilliam Tell

(Originally posted 08/25/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 09/13/18.)

06/25/12 I had to buy another flash drive.

I was downloading the music for The William Tell Show. I backed up the .mp3 files by attaching them to e-mails to myself. Problem: some files, such as the first movement of Tchaikovski’s violin concerto, exceed 25 MB and can’t be attached to a Yahoo! e-mail. What to do? Get another flash drive, to back up just those files.

My current flash drive consisted of an aluminum sleeve wrapped around a flat plastic stick. The stick had the USB contacts at one end, and the other end was shaped into a hook. By moving the sleeve back and forth, you could either expose the USB contacts for use, or hide them and expose the hook, to clip the drive onto, say, a key ring for storage.

The clerk offered me a different kind, with no hook or loop or anything that would let me attach it to something for storage. I don’t want to carry the drive around loose in my pocket or bag. So I asked for another like the one I already have. She said people have had trouble with those because “they’re easily breakable.” She said the staff at the Public Computer Center had seen this so much that they asked for the new kind instead.

I smiled and said nothing.

The drives aren’t easily breakable. Rather, some people easily break them.

Continue reading * Easily breakable →

* How I became homeless

April 26, 2014Bible, Homelessness1 Corithians 10:24, Astrology, Defects of character, Entitlement, God's plan, God's will, Homeless, How I became homeless, Monthly, Paul, Philippians 2:4, The Four Spiritual Laws, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

This is the second of three posts about entitlement:
04/19 – “Entitlement(s): Attitude and policy”
Today – “How I became homeless”
05/03 – “When needs are met”

This is a long post. One may want to avail oneself of a navigation resource here.

———— ♦ ————

I don’t write about easy things.

At this writing, a more immediate question is how I’ve stayed homeless, which has prompted no small amount of anger and depression in recent weeks. The short answer appears to be that I’ve stayed homeless the same way I became homeless.

Continue reading * How I became homeless →

* When prayer backfires

March 29, 2014Bible, HomelessnessA.A., Auras, Dreams, Healing, Jesus, John 5, Mark 10, Names, Prayer, Precognition, TelepathyWilliam Tell

One is unlikely to understand this without first reading “From my diary: Learning to pray.”

Bookmarks:
1. Don’t come uninvited.
2. You don’t need an invitation to love people.
3. Name names.
4. Word for word.
5. What you “see” is what you’ll get.
[Conclusion]

I consulted several Wikipedia articles in preparation for this post. All turned out to have been written by people who are hostile toward reports of anything that might involve a spiritual world.

As much as I try to give credit to all points of view, I cannot adopt the same position. My earliest memories are of the conviction that there is more to the world than we perceive with the five senses. Since I began practicing silence, I have seen auras. I have had precognitive visions and telepathic dreams. I was compelled on one occasion to pray for my worst enemy, only to learn later she’d just been through an event I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. In the fall of 1990 I was compelled to pray day after day for a woman I’d not met and had never heard of; only to find, when I moved to another state in January ’91 to attend grad school, she was one of my classmates and had an intense interest in healing prayer, as I also did. To deny these facts, I’d have to lie to myself more than I’m willing to.

There’s still the puzzle of unanswered prayer.
Continue reading * When prayer backfires →

* Stupid psychics, and other briefs

March 17, 2014Bible, Clippings, National politicsAstrology, Clairvoyance, Economic stimulus, Enhanced interrogation, Meditation, Presence, Proverbs 3:5, Race, Russell Simmons, Silence, Smoking, Teresa GiudiceWilliam Tell

Bookmarks:
“The stimulus debate continues”
“Lean not unto your own understanding”
Russell Simmons on silence and presence
Teresa Giudice update
“Enhanced interrogation” back in the news

Continue reading * Stupid psychics, and other briefs →

* McDonald’s commercials have changed; and other briefs

March 10, 2014Bible, Clippings, Local news, National media, Science, SqualorBig Bang theory, Choosing feelings, Creation, Evolution, Julius Henson, McDonald's, McDonald's #2763, Panhandling, Self-segregationWilliam Tell

Bookmarks:
McDonald’s commercials have changed
The crazies and the stupids
Creation vs. the Big Bang?
Julius Henson in the news again

Continue reading * McDonald’s commercials have changed; and other briefs →

* A short route to agony

February 22, 2014Bible, Music, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of Peace"Bad", 1 Corinthians 12, Acceptance, Indulgence, Love, Paul, Romans 7, Self-love, Suicide, U2, WisdomWilliam Tell

On one occasion sometime between 1983 and 1990 — I can recall where I was living, but not where I was working — I came home from work and became suicidal. I don’t recall the basis of my agony, but it almost certainly pertained to certain foibles of “the flesh” that my “spirit” seemed powerless to overcome.

A former student had left a cassette tape at my door that day, full of music he wanted to share with me, beginning with “Bad” by U2. I had a second floor apartment, and had sometimes heard this from the boom boxes of people who walked by outside; and I knew what effect it would have on me, particularly the opening section, with the bells. Given my state, for that reason I intentionally delayed playing it.

When I couldn’t bear the pain any more, I put it on, and was at once transported from the pit of despair into a place of perfect peace. I count this as a case of divine intervention: by means of that young man and that music, God saved my life.
Continue reading * A short route to agony →

* Polar bears aren’t teddy bears; etc.

February 10, 2014Bible, Clippings, JusticeBail, Charity, Environmentalism, Global warming, Judaism, Paul, Polar bears, PredatorsWilliam Tell

Bookmarks:
To get bail, money talks
Polar bears aren’t all warm fuzzies.
Private planes are nice, but won’t make you happy
A Jewish view of charity

———— ♦ ————

To get bail, money talks

Bottom line: all across the country, tens of thousands of men and women are behind bars who are not guilty of any crime.

They’re there because they couldn’t post bail.
Continue reading * Polar bears aren’t teddy bears; etc. →

* The dark side of EQ

February 8, 2014Bible, Get on your feet, Homelessness, Justice, Poverty, Science, The Way of PeaceAnimal souls, Emotional intelligence, Empathy, EQ, Jesus, Karma, Paul Bloom, WisdomWilliam Tell

Adam Grant, The Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman, An Antidote to the Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence

Dilemma: a hammer can be used either to build a house or to destroy priceless heirlooms. Possessing the tool of emotional intelligence does not mean one will use it favorably. What makes the difference?

In anticipating this post, I searched for a traditional term for “emotional intelligence.” I decided that the traditional term for it is wisdom. The Old Testament consistently refers to people who have emotional intelligence as “wise.” Those who lack it, it calls “fools.”

In the previous post, we saw that emotional intelligence, or wisdom, is a major determinant of personal effectiveness and success in life; in short, of prosperity. To the extent one wishes all people to prosper, it seems desirable that all people be wise.

In short, the wise prosper.

But the wise aren’t necessarily good, and the good aren’t necessarily wise.
Continue reading * The dark side of EQ →