God's Love Letter

Father's Love Letter My Child ~
You may not know me, but I know everything about you ~ Psalm 139:1
I know when you sit down and when you rise up ~ Psalm 139:2
I am familiar with all your ways ~ Psalm 139:3
Even the very hairs on your head are numbered ~ Matthew 10:29-31
For you were made in my image ~ Genesis 1:27
In me you live and move and have your being ~ Acts 17:28
For you are my offspring ~ Acts 17:28
I knew you even before you were conceived ~ Jeremiah 1:4-5
I chose you when I planned creation ~ Ephesians 1:11-12
I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live ~ Acts 17:26
You are fearfully and wonderfully made ~ Psalm 139:14
I knit you together in your mother's womb ~ Psalm 139:13
And brought you forth on the day you were born ~ Psalm 71:6
I have been misrepresented by those who don't know me ~ John 8:41-44
I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love ~ 1 John 4:16
And it is my desire to lavish my love on you ~ 1 John 3:1
Simply because you are my child and I am your father ~ 1 John 3:1
I offer you more than your earthly father ever could ~ Matthew 7:11
For I am the perfect father ~ Matthew 5:48
Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand ~ James 1:17
For I am your provider and I meet all your needs ~ Matthew 6:31-33
My plan for your future has always been filled with hope ~ Jeremiah 29:11
Because I love you with an everlasting love ~ Jeremiah 31:3
My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore ~ Psalm 139:17-18
And I rejoice over you with singing ~ Zephaniah 3:17
I will never stop doing good to you ~ Jeremiah 32:40
For you are my treasured possession ~ Exodus 19:5
I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul ~ Jeremiah 32:41
And I want to show you great and marvelous things ~ Jeremiah 33:3
If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me ~ Deuteronomy 4:29
Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart ~ Psalm 37:4
For it is I who gave you those desires ~ Philippians 2:13
I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine ~ Ephesians 3:20
For I am your greatest encourager ~ 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles ~ 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you ~ Psalm 34:18
As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart ~ Isaiah 40:11
One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes ~ Revelation 21:3-4
And I'll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth ~ Revelation 21:3-4
I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus ~ John 17:23
For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed ~ John 17:26
He is the exact representation of my being ~ Hebrews 1:3
He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you ~ Romans 8:31
And to tell you that I am not counting your sins ~ 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled ~ 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you ~ 1 John 4:10
I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love ~ Romans 8:31-32
If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me ~ 1 John 2:23
And nothing will ever separate you from my love again ~ Romans 8:38-39
Come home and I'll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen ~ Luke 15:7
I have always been Father, and will always be Father ~ Ephesians 3:14-15
My question is ~ Will you be my child? ~ John 1:12-13
I am waiting for you ~ Luke 15:11-32
                                                                               Love, Your Dad, Almighty God

Human Population: Just cause for Abortion?

 I once got into a conversation about overpopulation in Africa with a student.  They apparently watched a documentary which talked about the need for family planning, suggesting that religion has allowed the poor people to have 7-16 kids at a time.  And of course, as documentaries are good at doing, they introduced them to a man who had 38 kids from 6 wives. He was muslim and apparently was only allowed to have 4 wives at a time, and so divorced two of them.  The student went on to talk about how it was dumb to have kids you can not feed, and how having TOO MANY PEOPLE WAS A PROBLEM FOR AFRICA.

  My instant response was ---- It is just stupid to complain that peopel are alive.  I am actually digusted with that mindset, that someone who is only here because they themselves have been given a life, dares to say that others shouldn't be around.  There are ''too much'' of others. 

  Without too much knowledge, I proposed that there is enough food in the world.  Then the student countered with it is not the world's obligation to take care of people's children (I then said you just layed out a perfect argument against Socialism), but continued by saying that, of course not, providing for your children is a problem. But without life itself, there would not be hunger.

   Life is the first, Life is the way.  So is the problem indeed that there too many people? Or that there is life? 

   From the start, people have always have had big families, and under-fed children.  Is it a problem? Of course it is, but it is human anyway, and the response to it shouldn't be to prevent more humanity!

 Where is the sense to say, I should not have a life because it will hunger, so I will dispose of the life.  When if born, it will always have a potential to be saved or fed, but in death, it is robbed of this potential.

 So does it make any rational sense to decide the value of life based on taking away its potential to either be hungery or to be fed, when without life it has no chance for hunger or feeding? 

  The world is what it is today because of the way people procreated and lived.  So to say that Africa is wrong to have so many kids, is to say that humanity was wrong for the first hundreds of thousands of years.  And if the first man was told about 'overpopulation' and that it was a problem, then the vast majority of us wouldn't be here today.

It is ANTI-HUMAN, to think that overpopulation is WRONG!

Secondly, I came to discover: There are more reason to see that this anti-human position as just false and misguided:

 

ONE THERE IS IN FACT ENOUGH FOOD:  NOW  (STUDENT'S ANSWER TO THIS WAS THAT IT WAS THE PROBLEM IS FOR THE FUTURE)

     http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/climate-conversations/is-there-enough-food-for-a-world-of-7-billion

FROM FINANCE.COM:

    The problem isn't even explained as a problem of Family Size:

Causes of poverty in Ethiopia:

Some of the causes of poverty in Ethiopia are:

• Arid conditions leading to irregular production in the agriculture sector.
• Improper marketing strategies of agricultural products.
• Degrading ecology
• Technological know how being poorly developed.
• Transportation facilities are poorly developed.
• Failure of the rural people in participating in awareness programs meant for them
• Absence of sufficient rainfall
• Shortage of food products owing to several conditions.
• Absence of proper socio economic infrastructure. This includes lack of potable water, proper education and health programs.
• Unstable political scenario.

  THIS IS THE PROBLEM: 

1)   SHOULD IT BE OKAY FOR PEOPLE TO HAVE KIDS WHEN THEY CAN NOT PROVIDE FOR THEM?

     It is dead travesty that people don't think about what they can do for their own kids (who do not choose to be born), but there could be prosecution on child abuse and then adoption.  Adoption is an option, so the first step could be said that the authororites can make sure the children are fed

  But there are more ways to do this than adoption and state involvement, the state has a responsibility to develop itself to meet the needs of hunger, as outlined here

There are several solutions to this problem -- NONE OF WHICH IS OVERPOPULATION!!!  In fact, Europe is in trouble for the opposite reasons -- de-population

The DATA IS OUTSTANDING!

Indian economist Raj Krishna estimates that India alone is capable of increasing crop yields to the point of providing the entire world’s food supply

http://www.nolanchart.com/article6112-old-myths-die-hardespecially-overpopulation.html

http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/29/overpopulation-is-a-myth-plenty-of-food-and-space-exists/

UNITED NATIONS SAYS IT WAS WRONG ABOUT OVER-POPULATION

Overpopulation

UN admits it was wrong about overpopulation

Vatican (CWN) -- In an unprecedented admission, the United Nations Population Fund has acknowledged that its previous frightening predictions about a "population bomb" have been inaccurate. And the organization has also acknowledged that its latest estimates have also exaggerated the growth of world population.
In 1994, the Population Fund estimated that worldwide population growth would be approximately 94 million each year, until easing back to 85 million around the year 2020. But last year, world population growth amounted to only 81 million-- 20 percent below the UN estimate. In 1989, the Population Fund predicted that by the year 2000 the world's population would be 6.25 billion; the latest figures suggest that that estimate is high by at least 160 million-- a figure roughly equivalent to the population of Brazil!
The latest statistics, published this week by the UN, demonstrate that Pope John Paul II and his allies were correct when they said, in preparation for the Cairo conference on population growth, that international agencies were grossly exaggerating the trends in world population.


FINAL COMMENTARY:  THERE ARE SOULTIONS... AFRICA MUST DEVELOP ITSELF, AND THEN THE FOOD PROBLEM WILL GO AWAY, AND PEOPLE HAVE THEIR CHILDREN...

IN FACT, THE MOMENTUM IS THERE, IT WAS REPORTED BY THE UN, THAT THE AFRICAN UNION NOW STATES THAT EACH AFRICAN COULD HAVE 20 DOLLARS A DAY!

Ability to see Through Things

           ''Humor is not comic --- it is the ability to see through things '' - Archbishop Fulton Sheen



1 Corinthians 2: 14, 15
   14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he will instruct him?

   Today I read about Elijah

   I wondered, ''Is this for real?''

  Jesus is noted to be like no one else in history, as he died, then resurrected and never died again.  But 'even greater' Mary his mother and Elijah, never died at all.

  Or is it greater? Jesus died and rose and ceased to die all by His power.

  Elijah and Mary were given the glory of such distinction of life without death. But how glorious it is to never die.

  But, ''Is this for real?''

  What is lost in all this is the mysterious wonder of God.  We will never understand !  We have sciences which we can not learn more than the attributes of creation itself.

  We have philosophy which we can find reason by deductive equations, and discover rational truths, but we can not find the answer of the supernatural.

  The Middle Ages are often looked down upon these days by modern minds, in relation to their world view.  The superstitions and ignorance of the Middle Ages is critiqued adamantly.

 Truth is, it was the Middle Ages that gave us the system of universities.  To think them as ignorant, is itself an ignorant thought.

  What is splendid of the Middle Ages is that it seemed to have a great respect for mystery and power of God.  That anything is possible in creation by the Creator.

  You see beauty and splendid majesty in the culture.

  Why is knighthood even today glorified?  Because the pageantry captivates the imagination.

  It is in the imagination of the Middle Ages that is so wonderful. Just look to the churches built in the Middle Ages to the modern churches today.  I prefer the Middle Aged churches, I do not think I am alone, nor in any form of a minority with that opinion.

  See what glory there was.  Why do we plague our vision today? Where has this glory gone?

  I think, that is the greatest difference between us and the Saints.

  The Saints, no matter how studied, no matter which age they live in, had so much trust in God, that they found themselves a spirituality where they do not dare question, but submit their will to God and His powers.

  A Saint would not question God, would not question His Glory or the Glory of His Creation.

  A Saint is a painstakingly loyal servant and slave of power and mystery.

  In 1 Corinithians (1: 18-31, 2 )there is a great notion of faith and belief in the majesty. Yet, we are not to have faith without reason as in Isaiah 45: 18-19 says, invites us to seek Him in chaos.

Isaiah 45:18-19: For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): "I am the LORD, and there is no other.  I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, `Seek me in chaos.' I the LORD speak the truth, I declare what is right.

  Further reflection on the matter:

  Jesus says we are to love as a child.

 I play a game with my son, something I just started recently.

  When he is talking I tell him to that he is quiet, when he is silent I say, 'shh' you are loud.'
  
  He cracks up.

  But why does he see the contradiction? Because I told him first that loud means boisterous, and quiet means silent.

  So he first believes me, and does not question me when I say what I say.

  Only when he believes in my first order of definition, does he see the contradiction as he still has faith in my first words.  If he is faithful, why does he not believe my words of contradiction?
  
  He simply he believes in me, because he knows me, trusts me, loves me.

  Eventhough it is still my words which speaks to him, he still must follow his faith in me to understand me.  To understand that I am speaking in contradictory terms, so he laughs at me for joking with him. The contradiction does not rattle his faith. He believes his first lesson.  That truth is in what his father teaches.

 And by his great faith in me, he does not let contradiction alter his faith, he is true to me, and he understands me.
       
 How great is the love of a child? As great of the Saints to God.

  In my role as a father, I have found, if He displeases me and I punish him or let him know I am not happy with him. 
  He gets sad.  As a three year old, he does not know self-reflection, he does not know forgiveness.  Yet, he only knows he wants me to accept him again.

  So in the pain of sadness, he comes to me and shows me he wants me even when I am displeased with him.

  It is a natural relationship my son has with his father.

  He seeks me, because he needs me.  

  What great love is that?  Not needing forgiveness, not needing explanation, just needing to seek me and have my love.

  God is our Father.  We are his children.  

 How do we understand the contradiction of mystery and worldliness? By keeping faith in His word that His words are true, and contradiction is not His Truth, but in our understanding.

 The saints understand as a child, they rely on the Father. How glorious is the Faith of the Saints of our times, they must have found that Middle Aged mysticism. 

  Pablo Pio, St. Therese of Lisieux, the children at Fatima.

 The rest of us seek understanding in our world apart from the majesty that is in the Creator, and we then miss God's Divine 'humor.'