!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> rachman-unprecedented: March 2007

rachman-unprecedented

So what is this going to be? A little bit of everything I think. Maybe that's it. What I'm thinking. What I'm believing. I hope what I'm knowing. And why would anyone care what I think I know? There's no reason in the world that you should. But then why are you here? Cuz you have to be somewhere I suppose. I've never been here before. I may not be back. I might get too busy to care; time is short. That's fine. Nobody can deal with it all at once. There is a lot to deal with.

About Me

My Photo
Name:
Location: The Great Plains, United States

I try not to take myself too seriously, but I know I have far too much. So I'm trying to learn how to laugh again, as I had forgotted for a while there. Also I'm relearning to enjoy life; you know, like when we were kids. The biggest challenge ahead is learning how to love God with all my heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. This one is not really that hard when you know the truth. But along with it comes learning to love others as I love myself, and that one is, as they say, "a horse of a whole different color." I think I need to learn to love myself a little more, but the problem may be that I know all these facts about me. Sometimes the facts are simply wrong or they are just stuck in the past. I'm trying to get my facts to line up with the truth. As someone once asked a great man, "what is truth?" If he had only known.

rachman's weblog

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Spring at Last!


Spring is an exciting time. Many things are happening, or are about to happen. Of course it can also be a little too exciting in this part of the country, as the often colliding forces of nature have produced frightening thunderstorms, baseball-sized hailstones, wind storms, and tornadoes. This year has been no different only earlier. Aah, spring when a young man's fancy...

"In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." Spring is the season for love and this line is from the poem, “Locksley Hall,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. I wish I were in love again this spring, but then I say that every spring. I suppose that spring, at least for me, brings back renewed longings. Renewed feelings. Thoughts of...oh my god! April 15th, tax day, is just a few days away.
.
I always do my taxes early. (The afternoon of April 15th at the latest.) But to be honest, I think I like the deadline. I used to enjoy seeing all my "last-minute" friends in line at the post office on the 15th, as we made sure that our paper work, even if it was just an extension, was postmarked on that infamous date. (We didn't want Uncle Sam to get our money any sooner than necessary either.) Now that so many do their taxes online, the "holiday" seems to have lost its festive quality. No matter. Traditions must be upheld. I still have seventeen days left. Plenty of time! Aah spring! I may find love yet, or at least brush up on my poetry. Oh yeah, and find my rain coat while I check out the threatening afternoon skies.
.
.
~ rachman
.

posted by rachman | 10:04 PM | 2 comments

Sunday, March 25, 2007

The Cosmic Mind



The challenge is to keep the Cosmic Mind engaged. He needs to see things that interest Him happening down here. Just an everyday world going about its everyday stuff gets dull after a while. On the other hand, angels singing His praises all day can also get rather tedious. But an earthly being doing a Godly act -- now that's something to wake up about.
.
.
~ wisdom from the web
.

posted by rachman | 12:01 AM | 2 comments

Monday, March 19, 2007

Forget Garbo. No One Wants to be Alone!


You are a member of God's very own family and you belong in God's household with every other Christian. ~ Ephesians 2:19


If you have made Jesus your Lord, then this verse applies to you. You are part of the "church," and the church is one of God's greatest ideas. When the New Testament refers to the church, it sometimes means the "universal church," but it is usually speaking foremost to a local body of believers. The church is a family and God expects you to be a member of the family. Every believer needs a church family, and in fact, a Christian without a church family, is an orphan alone in the world without help or support in the time of need.


Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ~ Romans 12:4-5 (NIV)



I became a Christian by committing my life to Christ. I became a member of a church family by committing myself to other Christians. Membership is a commitment to other people, and in the truest sense I belong to them and they belong to me. The word "belong" means "to be appropriate, or suitable. To be in an appropriate situation or environment. And to be a member or a part of something else." For me not to be a member of a local body of believers would mean that I am not living appropriately. That I am not in an environment which is suitable to my needs. And that I am not a part of something or anything greater than myself. I would become very self-centered. This would be an emotionally unhealthy time as well as a lonely time.
.

It would also be an unproductive time. Commitment is a spiritual force that enables you to produce more. It is a fact that married men earn more than single men. It is not just that married men need to produce more, but it is the synergistic effect from two people joining together that produces more. So it is with a commitment within the body of Christ. Commitment is a spiritual force that enables your faith to produce more.


Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. ~ 1 Peter 3:8 (NLT)



You become what you're committed to. You become one mind. If you have been led by God to the body where you belong, then put down roots and stay there. Sympathize with each other. Learn to love each other. You will become more than you would have ever done on your own.
.

The way that you stay committed to each other, that you learn to love each other, and to sympathize with each other is two fold: keep a tender heart toward your family and keep a humble attitude toward yourself. Neither you nor your family will be perfect, but you will be "one big happy family."
.
.
~ a strategy session with my mentor
.

posted by rachman | 8:03 PM | 2 comments

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Darkness & Freedom



Free choice lies at God's essence, for He alone is a truly free agent. From His essence, He breathes into Man's nostrils and Man too becomes free to choose his destiny. And in that choice lies the Essence. The darkness, the confusion, the possibility of evil then has a purpose of its own--and that is to be the stage to Man's free choice, to allow God's essence to enter. And if a person would choose evil? Would God's essence then be revealed? No. For in evil alone there is no light, and without light nothing is revealed. Only when the choice is to do good, then light comes and reveals the essential truth of the darkness.
.
.
~ ancient wisdom
.

posted by rachman | 1:06 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Fruit of Your Mouth


A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled. ~ Proverbs 18:20

For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. ~ Matthew 11:23

You don't get saved, healed, delivered, or get answers to prayer simply because you believe. Most people think this is the case, but it is not what the Bible teaches. Jesus doesn't end Mark 11:23 by saying that you can have whatever you believe. He ends that verse by saying that the man "will have whatever he says."

For the literary types in the crowd, W. Somerset Maugham made the same mistake in his novel, Of Human Bondage. The lead character from the book, Philip Carey, a young boy with a club foot, prays after reading this verse from Mark, eleven, that he would be healed of the ailment. When he is not healed by a certain date, he loses his faith. It would be hard to have more faith than a child, but his understanding of scripture was limited, as was Mr. Maugham's.

Faith is always expressed in words. The words that you speak--not just on Sunday or in prayer, but the words you speak everyday at home and on the job--determine what you have in life.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. ~ Proverbs 18:21

So if you are having some problems that you can't seem to "get a handle" on, perhaps you should take a look at the words that have been coming out of your mouth lately. Words can bless or words can curse. If we are not careful we can curse ourselves as well as those around us. Look at your words. See if you can turn things around.

Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. ~ Proverbs 21:23

.
.
~ rachman
.

posted by rachman | 4:49 PM | 6 comments

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Potential vs. Fear


Just as the olive yields light only when it is pounded, so are man's greatest potentials realized only under the pressure of adversity. ~ The Talmud
.
This picture of three Jewish students in one of the ghettos of Eastern Europe, was taken by Roman Vishniac, just prior to the Holocaust, around 1938. Their potential would never be realized because they lived, not just under adversity, but under a regime of fear. Nothing stops potential faster than fear, whether it is the potential of the oppressed or of the oppressor.
.
.
~ rachman
.

posted by rachman | 12:40 AM | 6 comments

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Stirred; Not Shaken

Came across this the other day and thought that it was "way cool!" Well, anyway, I thought that it was extremely accurate. All right, put it this way: as far as the beauty part goes...let's just say that it's a rugged beauty. In any case it made me want to check and see if I had any vermouth.


How to make a rachman
Ingredients:

3 parts friendliness

3 parts courage

3 parts beauty
Method:
Stir together in a glass tumbler with a salted rim. Add a little curiosity if desired!

posted by rachman | 11:37 PM | 0 comments

Words, Words, Words


I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

Matthew 12:36-37


Words are a lot more important than most people realize. Words can make us or break us. A man named Job, once said to his "friends," How long will you torture me? How long will you try to crush (or break) me with your words? ~Job 19:2 (NLT) Everyone has heard the old line that goes, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." We use this logic to soothe the hurt feelings of little children, but the reality is that words can and do break us.
.
The importance we give to the individual speaking determines the credence we give to their words. Children often are the product of their parents' words. Young people can be the product of their friends' words, if there is no other voice speaking into their lives. As adults today we are the product of the words we spoke yesterday. If we don't like our life today, we need to change the words we are speaking for a better life tomorrow.
.
Words make us or break us. Words strengthen us or weaken us. According to the wisdom of the Bible, words can destroy us, or words can cause us to be full of life, happiness, and health. In Mark 11:23, Jesus said that "we will have whatever we say." This phrase could be spoken like this: We will have the WORDS that we speak. What words have you been speaking of late? When you have that inner dialogue running in your head, what words are spoken? When you speak out loud about yourself, is it just the old garbage others have told you in the past or is it something new.
.
If we want something new to say, we must make Jesus the Lord of our lives, and let His words become more important than those old words spoken by parents or friends, or even the current words coming from a spouse or from our own heads every minute of the day. Jesus said, "I came that [you] may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). (John 10:10) That's pretty powerful. Instead of making up "confessions" or "affirmations" that we might be able to believe or we might not, let's take a look at what God has said about us. God said "my purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." (John 10:10) Some folks are afraid of what God may want for us, but if words mean anything, and they do, then we know what God wants for us. We must meditate on those words and then speak them out of our mouths. We will have the words that we speak.
.
.
~ rachman
.

posted by rachman | 1:25 AM | 6 comments