dystopia

Ways to make a difference:

Help someone. Anyone, however you can. Whether that means by giving them a dinner, volunteering your time, donating clothing or money or whatever you have.

Plant a Tree. Help provide more oxygen for the planet and another tree that will not be cut down for lumber.

Donate to a charity. If you don’t have the money to, volunteer your time to a charity, even if it’s just a couple of hours on the weekend.

Recycle. Recycle paper, plastic and aluminum and glass. Recycle, reuse and reduce the amount of trash thrown away every year that rots in landfills.

Adopt a pet. There are so many homeless animals and animals in shelters that will be killed if no one takes them. Adopt a pet and see how much they can help you, as well as you help them.

Help yourself by getting out there and exercising. Walk, run, do cardio, jumping jacks, yoga, ride a bike, anything to get yourself moving.

Purchase a fuel efficient car that way you’re saving yourself money and you’re helping the environment.

Donate for free at click websites like hungersite.com and care2.com and freerice.com. You can go to these sites, click on their buttons and their advertisers will donate money to them for every click.

Smile. Be friendly. Greet everyone with a nice hello and actually care how they are doing.

Do something out of the goodness of your heart for someone else, like a random act of kindness. There are many different things you can do.

Buy someone a book to read. They will appreciate the thoughtfulness. Also, if you don’t have the money, give someone your time. Talk to them or teach them, provide a service for free to someone with whatever you know.

There is now another story out about another family that has apparently committed murder-suicide this week in Ohio. There was a family reported on in California, where both parents had lost their jobs and were unable to care for themselves or their children any longer. Instead of being able to get help, they felt helpless, even though they had reached out for help and failed to receive it. How incredibly sad and awful is this? This is truly disturbing that families are resolving to killing themselves, rather than disgrace themselves by not being able to provide for their families. This is such a shame. We cannot give up on ourselves or other people. We must persevere and realize we will all pull through this together.

We need to reach out and help people, even if we ourselves are struggling. We need to talk to family, friends, neighbors and spread the word that it will be okay, you just have to hang in there. It will get better! It may have to get worse before it gets better, but it cannot stay like this forever. This too shall pass. You cannot give up hope and result to killing yourself or your family. Surely, these people could’ve found help somewhere and if not, isn’t it better to be broke and homeless than dead? There are homeless shelters, there is family, friends, neighbors, kind people everywhere that are willing to lend a helping hand in times of need. Reach out and don’t stop reaching until someone grabs your hand and helps you up. I feel so sad for the families and friends of these people and the people themselves. They must’ve felt hopeless and like they had no other choice. People, we have choices, we still have some options. I know it may look bleak and uncontrollable, but that is no reason to give up so easily. 

I cannot imagine killing myself and my entire family because of money, lousy money. I’ve been poor before and I’ve known what it’s like to go through hard times, to be almost homeless, with no where to go, with only the clothes on my back. It can be very depressing and disheartening, but you cannot give up. Never, ever, ever give up. Please, if you know someone having a tough time and going through something really rough, help them, at least talk to them. Do whatever you can with what you have. Things of this world, money and material possesions are not worth dying for, never! Don’t let this happen to someone you know.

Anger can be so explosive and awful and yet I let it get the best of me many times. I get so frustrated and upset at someone or something that I just blow up. Most of the time it’s at another person that I blow up on because they have done something that has really hurt or upset or angered me. I instantly get an adrenaline rush, my face turns bright red, my body shakes, my heart beats out of my chest, my blood pressure rises and I can actually feel my eyes dialate. Maybe when I’m that upset I’m having some type of anxiety attack. This only happens when I’m really upset, but after it happens it’s like I have no self control after that breaking point. I’ve tried to calm myself and I try not to get so emotional or upset that I freak out, but this is very difficult for me.

Sometimes it does seem as though the whole world is out to get you or just the one person who you’re supposed to be able to trust is not there for you or not trustworthy. I feel almost like I’m going crazy now. I wish things could be different. I hope I’m making the right choices in life. I hope I won’t look back 5 or 10 years from now and be like, “wow, i made a huge mistake”. How can you ever know 100% you’re making the right choice though? All I know is I should try to get more control over my anger attacks when I’m upset with someone for my own well-being and my own health. I’m seriously scared I’m going to have a nervous breakdown like a family member did in the past or maybe even burst a blood vessel because I’m so upset. Maybe I need to be on anxiety medication, but I don’t think so. My anxiety is not all the time, just when someone really upsets me, I just break and go off. It’s almost like flipping a switch. It’s scary, I become a completely different person. I go from sweet and loving to enraged and belligerant. I found a good article on how to handle anger, maybe this will help: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Anger

More bad news comes today about Circiuit City, which is now going to have to liquidate due to not being able to find a buyer or being able to come up with another plan to get out of bankruptcy. It was just announced on Yahoo News! recently that they are now going to be liquidating the remaining stores they have left that are open. This is very sad, not only for the store itself and the owners, but even moreso for all the employees. According to Yahoo News! they employ more than 30,000 people. They are actually headquarted in Richmond, VA, where I live. This means more people in our area will be without a job soon. Another company in Richmond that recently laid off people was Genworth Financial. Although Richmond’s unemployment rate has actually been below the national average during the last year, I see that changing quickly. There are several companies in and around Richmond that have announced layoffs or went out of business within the last month, including MeadWestVaco, Genworth and now Circuit City.

It’s all very sad and troublesome. I just pray that it gets better for everyone in America. I feel everyone’s pain right now and their stife in the daily struggle to pull through this recession. I guess this is the part of the year where it’s getting worse before it gets better. You know what they say “When it rains, it pours.” It can only be bad for so long though, or at least that is my hope. Things have to turn around and get better. I’m hoping by May or June things will start looking brighter and begin to turn around. This recession makes me feel like I need to stockpile food and water, just in case of a crisis or if complete and utter chaos break out in society. Lets all hope and pray and stick together. I would advise people to not do anything desperate or stupid, even though our situation seems to be becoming more desperate every day. God will help us and take care of us, that much I know.

According to Science Daily ” Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of “green gasoline,” a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.

The challenge for researchers now is to efficiently produce liquid fuels from biomass while fitting into our current infrastructure. “Green gasoline is an attractive alternative to bioethanol since it can be used in existing engines and does not incur the 30 percent gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex fuel,” said John Regalbuto, who directs the Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program at NSF and supported this research.

If they can figure out how to mass produce this type of renewable green gas and then fit it to our current infrastructure gas could be much cleaner for the environment. Not to mention it could end our dependence on foreign oil or us making the choice to drill on our own land for a substance that will run out one day in the future. We have to come up with something that is renewable and can be used for energy for our future generations. Otherwise, we will doom them. Of this, I am convinced. Oil will run out and what will the future generations do then? Society would collapse because of their dependence on this substance. We need to figure out better and renewable sources of energy for everything we use and everything we do, from electricity to cars.

Quote of the day:

Sometimes we need to be reminded that we do not need a big screen tv or a brand new car and that is what has happened due to the current economic recession. I think many people who had the wool pulled over their eyes before are now beginning to see the light and the wrong in their ways. So many people have abused the system. Taking advantage of buying things they cannot afford. People have bought houses, cars and expensive luxuries, even meaningless crap to consume themselves with. All for what? Consumerism is a virus on America’s current society and it is a trap. We must turn from our ways of over consumption and over spending and become more realistic. People are living way beyond their means and now everyone is paying for it. The people whom have been living beyond their means are now distraught in panic because they’re losing their home or their job or their car and even people who have been living within their means are now losing their jobs/homes/cars all because others have made such bad decisions with their money. This recession must be proof that others in society have an effect on the whole. Maybe just one or two people do not affect an entire society when they do bad or wrong, but when a fair number of people engage in poor decision making, we all pay the price for it, every single person on the face of this planet is paying for it right now. The only good that can come of this economic downturn is that the hope that people will learn from their mistakes and not repeat them again. If not, we are doomed to another recession or depression in the years to come. There is hope though, because of the recession people are being forced to live within their means or at least downgrade. This recession serves as a wake-up call to millions who need it desperately. We can all learn from this, how to better budget our money, how to make wise decisions with our money and wise decisions when making large purchases (such as a house/car/education). We can learn what is truly important in life, rather than what can I buy or how much spending power I have. In bad times, it has always been shown that people do pull together to pull through and tough it out. People will realize that God, family, friends and that other people are important. I hope that many people will realize now what an effect they could potentially have on others by making bad decisions in their own lives. I don’t really understand it, how can anyone think that they only affect themselves? As if they live in some bubble world that revolves around them and that nothing they do could ever possibly hurt or affect another in a negative way? It doesn’t make sense to me. How could anyone think that way? How could someone in their right mind not realize that everything they do, every choice they make, not only directly affects their lives, but the lives of thousands and potentially millions.

More people seem to come to God and are willing to accept Him in hard times as well. Possibly because they can finally see the truth, the light at the end of the tunnel and that money in this life and existance are not everything. Money is not all there is to this physical life. People don’t realize they could experience so much happiness and joy if only they would only give their entire life over to God.  So many people, including me, have such a hard time giving their entire self over to God. You have that awful thought sometimes that somehow you know better than God, but that is not true, you don’t know better than God. If you would give it all to Him whole-heartedly, He would show you His way is the only way and the best way. His way will bring you the life that you want. Anything in  your life, whether it be finances, relationships, work or just life in general, give it all to Him and then you will begin to see how He’s working on you and your life from the inside out.

The 10 commandments come from Exodus 20:1-17. Here is the verse:And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the

land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
    
2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
    
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
    
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
    
5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
    
6. You shall not murder.
    
7. You shall not commit adultery.
    
8. You shall not steal.
    
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
    
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

The above commandments need no explanation. They mean exactly what they are saying. It’s quite amazing how many of these commandments are being broken on a regular basis, even by Christians themselves. If you look very closely at each of these commandments, they really do cover a broad spectrum as to what God is expecting from each one of us.They are good, basic laws that will help keep us right before God, and also help keep us out of trouble with ourselves, our families, our friends and our neighbors. God knows what is best for all of us and He simply wants all of us to stay out of trouble in order that we may be able to live in peace and harmony with Him and one another.The fact that God would go so far as to have these 10 basic commandments manifested on a stone tablet really tells me that they are very important, and that each Christian should know what they are and do their best to abide by them. Feel free to pass this list of the 10 commandments onto your friends and family.

Taken from: http://www.bible-knowledge.com/10-Commandments.html

Few passages in the bible are well known to the general public. Of them, the Lord’s prayer is one of the most well known passages. The importance of the Lord’s Prayer appears in the simple fact, that our Lord Jesus Christ delivered it twice with very slight variations. He who never spoke a word without good reason, has thought fit to teach us this prayer upon two distinct occasions. Twice the Lord God wrote the ten commandments on tables of stone. (Deut. 9:10; 10:4.) Twice the Lord Jesus delivered the Lord’s Prayer.

The first division of the Lord’s Prayer respects the God whom we worship. The second division of the Lord’s Prayer respects our own daily needs. The third division of the Lord’s Prayer respects our daily dangers.

According to Wikipedia, the Lord’s prayer is probably the best known prayer in Christianity. There are two versions that occur in the New Testament of the Bible, on in the Gospel of Matthew 6: 9-13 and the other in the Gospel of Luke 11: 2-4. There are a couple of versions of the Lord’s prayer in different languages.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. for ever and ever. Amen

Another version:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever. Amen

There are so many reasons to believe in the existence of God. I am currently reading a book by Francis Collins with the title: The Language of God. In it, Francis, a DNA scientist and Head of the Genome Project, talks about the evidence for belief in God. He cites many good reasons that you have to believe in God and to know that there is a way for science and religion to mix together and stop fighting about who claims to be ultimately right. Here are some reasons to believe in God: 

A “moral law” is something we all feel and is a universal feature of human existence. We all feel a tugging obligation of right and wrong in our heart and wish to do right, even though we do not sometimes. 

The idea of God is not just wish fulfillment. We all feel a desire in which we cannot satisfy. People or creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. We have a deep seeded inkling in our spirit that drives us to want more, something pointing us to something beyond us.  

People question why a loving God would allow suffering in the world, but God has given us free will to do as we please and much of the harm that is done to us is done by each other. We created guns and bombs. We create much of the suffering in the world.  

The universe, our DNA, everything in the world and the world itself suggest an intelligent design and intelligent designer who is aware of our existence and involved with us. Look at the complexity of nature, the complexity of the human being, the complexity of the universe. This all suggests a God that created everything and exists outside of the constraints of time.  

“The Big Bang Theory cries out for a divine explanation. It forces the conclusion that nature had a defined beginning. I cannot see how nature could have created itself. Only a supernatural force that is outside of space and time could have done that.” – Francis Collins 

“Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world. The details differ, but the essential elements and the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same; the chain of events leading to a man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.” – Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow 

There are, of course, many more reasons to believe in the existence of God and there is much more evidence to support the belief in God. I would highly recommend reading the book “The Language of God”. It is very insightful and will open up an atheist’s eyes to the possibility, as well as confirm what a believer already knows. If you have any doubts whatsoever, and even believers doubt sometimes, you should definitely check this book out. It offers lots of good information. 

6 Reasons to Believe That God is Really There 

http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html 

The Language of God 

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&ISBN=9780743286398&ourl=The%2DLanguage%2Dof%2DGod%2FFrancis%2DS%2DCollins 

To read an excerpt from the book “The Language of God” 

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2192678&page=1

C.S. Lewis : “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist.”

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis

“Life is suffering.” – Buddha

To be a Christian means accepting Jesus Christ as your lord and savior and following him and the world of God. The reality that constitutes becoming a Christian is the presence of the Spirit of Christ in the spirit of an individual who receives Him by faith. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (
Rom. 8:9), which means he is not a Christian. If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you are not a Christian.  

This indwelling of the Spirit of Christ in the spirit of an individual is the life and presence of the Person and Being of the risen Lord Jesus. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to evaluate whether they were really Christians, by asking, “Do you recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?” (II Cor. 13:5). The spiritual mystery of the gospel is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27); the basis on which Paul declares, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Gal. 2:20). 

Becoming a Christian is personal by coming to God in faith. Faith is not believing the accuracy of certain data about Jesus Christ, nor is it having an existential experience of ecstasy. Rather, faith is a willful choice of receptivity to the activity of Jesus Christ, willing to receive the redemptive efficacy of Christ’s death on our behalf, and willing to receive Christ’s life into our spirit. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born…of God” (John 1:12,13). “Having believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13). 

What does it mean, then, to be a Christian? Christianity is Christ! A Christian is one in whom Jesus Christ lives by His Spirit, and one who allows the life and character of Jesus Christ to be lived out through his behavior, in order to function as intended to the glory of God (cf. Isa. 43:7). This is how God wishes us to live, through him, to bring happiness and glory to him. God wants us to be happy and he wants to work in our lives, if only we would allow him to.