Thursday Devotion- April 23

Hey guys, I'm doing a blog post every Thursday. It will be a weekly blog post that will probably last until next year. It is a really good topic and will help us in areas of our lives that we might struggle in, I know I struggle with some of the stuff we are going to talk about. Ok first thing you need to know I will be writing my posts from a really good book, but I give full credit to the author of this book: Richard Carlson PhD. This man is a Christian if you were wondering.  Ok let's begin with the introduction of the book.

--------------------------------------------

 "Whenever we're dealing with bad news, a difficult person, or a disappointment of some kind, most of us get into certain habits, ways of reacting to life -- particularly adversity-- that don't serve us well. We overreact, blow things out of proportion, hold on too tightly and focus on the negative aspects of life. We are immobilized by little things-- When we are irritated, annoyed, and easily bothered-- our (over) reactions not only make us frustrated but actually get in the way of getting what we want. We lose sight of the bigger picture,focus on the negative and annoy other people who might otherwise help us. In short, we live our lives as if they were one big emergency! We often rush around looking busy,trying to solve problems, but in reality, we are often compounding them. Because everything seems like such a big deal, we end up spending out lives dealing with one drama after another. After a while, we begin to believe that everything really IS really a big deal. We fail to recognize that the way we relate to our problems has a lot to do with how quickly and efficiently we solve them. As I hope you will soon discover,when you learn the habit of responding to life with more ease, problems that seem "insurmountable" will begin to seem more managible,and even the "biggies" things that are truly stressful,won't throw you off track as much as they once did.

Happily, there is another way to relate to life-- a softer more graceful path that makes life seem easier and the people in it more compatible. This "other way" of living involves replacing old habits of "reaction" with new habits of perspective. These new habits enable us to have richer, more satisfying lives.

I'd like to share a personal story that touched my heart and reinforced and important lesson- a story that demonstrates the essential message of this book. As you will see, the events of this story planted a seed for the title of this book you are about to read. About a year ago a foreign publisher contacted me and requested I attempt to get an endorsement from best-selling author Dr. Wayne Dyer for a foreign edition of my book "YOU CAN FEEL GOOD AGAIN" I told them that while Dr. Dyer had given me an endorsement for an earlier book, I had no idea whether or not her would consider doing so again. I told them, however, that I would try.

As is often the case in the publishing world, I sent out my request, but did not hear back. After some time had gone by, I came to the conclusion that Dr.Dyer was either too busy or unwilling to write an endorsement. I honored this decision and let the publisher know that we wouldn't be able to use his name to promote the book. I considered the case closed. 

About six months later, however, I received a copy of the foreign edition and to my surprise, right on the cover was the old endorsement for the earlier book from Dr.Dyer! Despite my specific instructions to the contrary, the foreign publisher had used his earlier quote and transferred it to the new book. I was extremely upset, worried about the implications as well as the possible consequences. I called my literary agent, who immediately contacted the publisher and demanded that the books be taken off the shelves. 

In the meantime, I decided to write Dr.Dyer an apology, explaining the situation and all that was being done to rectify the problem. After a few weeks of wondering about what his response might be, I received a letter in the mail that said the following:

"Richard. There are two rules for living in harmony. #1) Don't sweat the small stuff and #2) It's all small stuff. Let the quote stand. Love Wayne."

"That was it! No lectures, no threats. No hard feelings and no confrontation. Despite the obvious unethical use of his very famous name. He responded with grace and humility; no feathers ruffled. His response demonstrated the important concepts of "going with the flow," and of learning to respond to life gracefully with ease. For more than a decade I have worked with clients, helping them to approach life in this more accepting way. Together we deal with all types of issues-- stress, relationship problems, working related issues, addictions and general frustration. In this book I will share with you very specific strategies-- things you can start doing today-- That will help you respond to life more gracefully. The strategies you are going to read about are the ones that have proven themselves to be the most successful by clients and readers of mine over the years. They also represent the way I like to approach, the path of least resistance. Each strategy is simple, yet powerful, and will act as a navigational guide to point you in the direction of greater perspective and more relaxed living. You'll find that many of the strategies will apply not only to isolated events but to many of life's most difficult challenges. When you don't "sweat the small stuff", your life won't be perfect, but you will learn to except what life has to offer with far less resistance. As we learn in Zen philosophy, when you learn to "let go" of problems instead of resisting with all you might, your life will begin to flow. You will, as the serenity prayer suggests," Change the things that can be changed, except those that cannot, and have the wisdom to know the difference." I'm confident that if you give strategies a try, you will learn the two rules of harmony. #1) Don't sweat the small stuff, and #2) It's all small stuff.  

As you incorporate these ideas into your life you begin to create a more powerful a loving you."

--------------------------------------------

This is some powerful stuff, and he puts it in a very simple way that is easy to understand. I hope that you will enjoy going through this book, with me, that Richard Carlson wrote.  All this book is really about is "Simple ways to keep little things from taking over your life."

I can't wait to dive into chapter 1 next week. Hopefully you are as excited as I am!!

- Sophie Shearman.

Two Genders

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

When God created the world, he created two genders, male and female. He put this in the bible because it is important for us to know. Today this world has messed that up and says that you can be any gender you want. One survey said that there are over 70 genders and some people even say that there is no fixed limit to the amount of genders there are. There are even people who say that they identify as animals! Even if everyone agreed that there are two genders, there are men who act like women and women that act like men.

1 Corinthians 11:14 -15 “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.”

The bible says that it is a shame for a man to have long hair and it is a glory for a woman to have long hair. This can also go backwards meaning that it is a shame for a woman to have short hair and a glory for a man to have short hair. Now the bible doesn’t say how long is long, or how short short is, so use you best judgment on that. This also goes for clothing too.

Deuteronomy 22:5 “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”

These verses tell us that men and women should act and look different and this is just one of the many things the world ignores but as Christians, we need to do what these verses say. This could mean not hanging out with some of out friends or deleting social media profiles.

2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

If you are reading this and you are confused about your gender, talk to your parents, your pastor and most importantly, God and if you know someone who is confused, talk to them and pray for them.

-Isaac

AI–Looking at Artificial Intelligence through a Christian Lens

AI is everywhere–banking, coding, automatic emails–and has become a hot topic lately. If you follow AI news, you may know Anthropic just released Claude Mythos to certain companies to begin enhancing their security because Claude Mythos is so good at hacking. It is a little scary! Many people believe AI is going to one day become self-aware (become alive and able to think for itself) and eventually take over the world. Today, I, somebody with technological and programming experience, want to take a look at these claims and disprove them with not just logic, but also the Bible, because as Christians, we should be ready to counter this argument.

I’m not going to give you an in-depth discussion on what AI is, simply that it is a program that uses pre-given examples and training data to determine the next most probable world in a sequence (the AI’s response) based on the given data (your messages). All programming and code, including AI, is simply 0s and 1s–binary code. A 0 represents off in the circuit, 1 is on. At its core, AI is nothing but on or off on a circuit. Speaking with technological understanding, I say with absolute certainty, AI will never become self-aware. It would take so much technological improvements that the Earth will not still be in its current fallen state.

The Bible never mentions humanity being destroyed. The 7 years of tribulation, the final years of the fallen world, happen to people, not robots, meaning that humanity will not have been eradicated by AI.

Now, another large topic is the ethical concerns of AI. Some people believe it’s evil. Now, everyone has their own preferences and can decide if they like AI or not, but it is not inherently good or bad. Do you say guns or swords are bad because they can be used to commit murder? No (if you do… read your Bible a bit more, specifically Joshua and Judges). AI is just software, like your browser or file explorer, simply more complicated. It’s just a tool, not bad, not good. It all comes down to the way the person uses it. A gun can be used for murder, or it can be used for fun at a shooting range. AI can be used for evil purposes, planning how to commit a crime, or cause harm, or it can be used for doing long, complex math quickly, helping in medical scenarios, and performing tedious tasks no person wants to. The Bible doesn’t ban the use of something just because it has the ability to cause harm; your hands can kill somebody, and you probably use those all day (you’re probably using it now to scroll through this post!).

Now, the final point I want to look at is a topic a lot of people get worried about, and that is the fact that AI can, has, and will take away jobs. It can simulate thinking and it learns over time, meaning it is going to replace humans. AI doesn’t complain, isn’t lazy, and doesn’t want a pay raise. It simply does what it’s told, meaning that it is better than people for some tasks. But just because it will take away people’s jobs doesn’t mean we should declare it evil. Cars took away jobs from people, and almost nobody today says ‘cars are evil and shouldn’t have been made’. In the short-term, yes, AI will make some people’s life difficult because they will be out of a job, but in the long-term, it will make people’s life easier.

So, let’s wrap things up. Is AI going to take over the world? Absolutely not. Is AI an evil creation that must be removed from the face of the Earth? No. Is AI dangerous? Yes, it can be. It all comes down to how it’s being used. I’m not saying you can’t dislike AI, and AI will never replace human creativity, ingenuity, and uniqueness. AI is simply a new tool in this world. Its impact on the world won’t be of its own doings, fundamentally, but of what people do with it.