Monthly Archives: June 2011

Random Thoughts, Religion

To Be Selfless

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Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber ...The path of Righteousness, a path seldom followed and is not an easy path to travel. To be selfless, humble and full of compassion for both your friends and your enemies. To put everyone else before your own seems to be against the nature of most people. To put aside judgment of others so that you will not be judged by the same conditions as well as not seeing your possessions as your own. To seek wise counsel and avoid being deceived along the way.

“(Proverbs 3:3) Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart”

it seems so much easier to be selfish, greedy and full of loathing. It is far easier for one  To take instead of give and to hurt instead of heal. To take care of your own and let others suffer in hunger and poverty seems to be the safest route. Yes to live in lust and partake in all the pleasures is far more entertaining than to refrain from such things. To enjoy the pleasures of your spouse is good but to enjoy the pleasures of others is not. It is a betrayal of not only your spouse but of your own self and the vows you made.

Our Lord and Savior died and paid for our sins so we could be redeemed not so we could be careless and be foul. Sure no man can be without sin, It is in our very nature to sin and it is also within our power to abstain from sinning. We must do our best in avoiding sin and we must repent for the sins we commit when we fall. Teach righteousness and avoid being judgmental of sinners for you will be judged by god in the way you judge others.

 “Matthew 7:1-3 Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others. Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye?”

In a world so full of injustice and a world lacking in love and compassion we must live. We have a choice to either be like the world we walk in or to be like the one who saved mankind from its sinful nature. Our hope is in Jesus Christ and without it we could not have the promise of salvation or being worthy of Heaven.

“(Colossians 2:13) And you, being dead in your sins and the un-circumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.”

 

May God Bless you and yours.
Raymond Barbier

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The Voice that calls out

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009I hear a voice, a voice calling out from the concrete wilderness. A voice warning us of our possible demise, warning that if we don’t wake up we may not have a chance to do so later.  A solitary voice trying to get the message through that we are heading down the wrong path. That the path we follow will most certainly lead us to a very hostile future. A future in which our home mother earth will not be able to support life or the needs of the human race.

I hear the voice calling out to us as I watch us all sleep through the beginning of a future nightmare. It cries out about how the few are leading the many into a dark and dismal future. How greed and lust for power has corrupted the ideals of the people of earth, So few people seem to have so much control over what is and will be. We seem to let those few choose the destiny for all of us without any care or protest. The few that rule and run this world rape the land for wealth and allow children to starve as well as the old to live in poverty. They worry over their own positions and their own agendas but not about the welfare of those they rule over. The very few among them that do care either are ignored or eventually give in to the corruption.

The Voice that calls out from the concrete wilderness call to all of us, those few that rule to change their ways and to the rest of us that seem to be sleeping while our world becomes more violent and unbalanced before us. Hopefully the few will find wisdom and we all wake up to see the truth that is before us. Human beings as a species can achieve some amazing things when we join together as a whole. And I believe it will take a world-wide effort to make the changes needed to save our wonderful blue planet called earth.

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Be true to who and what you are.

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023  Be true to yourself, do not hold back the real you within. The person you are that you hide from the world in fear of not being accepted or being the odd man out. If you put on a mask in order to fit in or to be liked then all you’re doing is living a lie. Appearing to be what you’re not is the most ineffective means of being happy. Withholding your true feelings out of fear or not expressing your true opinion is but a quick way to both low self-esteem and unhappiness.

There will always be those that don’t like you no matter what you say or do. I ask, does it matter if they like you or not if they wont like you for who you really are? The people who like the real you are the only true friends you have. those who seem to like you because you put on a mask or because you pretend to agree are not friends at all. Plus it is nothing but a disservice to them if you are not being the real you and so is falsely agreeing with them .

There is no pride in being the social actor and yes man/woman. Be proud of who and what you are, for you are a unique and special individual. You have purpose and you are an important part of this world we live in. Every one of us are unique and we are all special in the fact we are part of the great experience called life. Worry not so much about the opinion of others for the only opinions about you that matter is your own.

Focus on your good points and learn to overcome the shortcomings you can and accept those you can’t. Forgive yourself for the mistakes you make and avoid repeating the same ones over again. Learn to love yourself as well as others, For we all are human and we all make mistakes.

Be true to who and what you are.
Raymond Barbier

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Many days were wasted

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HPIM0109 The older I get the more I realize how much time I wasted in my lifetime. Wasting time on worry, anger, fear and self-doubt. I spent way too many hours worrying about what other people think about me or if I was accepted or not. Many days were wasted fearing things that either were unlikely to happen or were out of my control. I spent too much time and energy on being angry at how my life isn’t what I planned or being angry at someone over something trivial. Though anger in me is usually short-lived it still is a waste of time far as I am concerned.

So much time I wasted on useless things that could have been used to enjoy life and to enjoy the people who I am around. To live for the day or seize the moment is the philosophy I try to follow. Though there is times I still get hung up on the past or have a little fear of what may come it usually has a very short half-life. I am trying to focus on the positive as well as embracing the blessings that are before me. The past is said and done and the future can wait for tomorrow.

Enjoy those who are in your life as you embrace the blessing that you have been granted. Forget about the curses that may plague you for they will pass. Don’t allow yourself to make life any more complicated than necessary. Happiness is as much of a choice as being unhappy and life is what you make of it.

 

Well enough Random Thoughts for now.
Raymond Barbier

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I kind of like knowing the man who is leading my church

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Christ's Charge to Peter by Raphael, 1515. In ...Small town church vs. Mega church, which is a better experience for the congregation? I would vote on a small town church any day, when any church grows too big it looses the closeness and community feel it should have. I would think it would be next to impossible for a pastor to know each and every member of his church if he has numbers in the thousands or some as large as a 40 thousand members. I guess mega churches serve a purpose but it seems to me that priorities may go awry when there is so much cash flowing in. I guess I am old-fashioned and see a church as no where above about 100 members or maybe a little more.

I kind of like knowing the man who is leading my church personally and have one that is approachable along with down to earth. If I am to trust my religious teachings to someone I would like to know what kind of person he is and have one that is more middle class or lower in annual income. Though I can not tell you what a pastor of a mega church makes but I have known of a few that lived in mansions and has sport cars and even personal jets.

Now I will not say that all Mega Church pastors are rich or see money as more of an issue than their faith. There are plenty of good servants of god who may be pastors of such churches. Many souls have ben saved through such ministries and a lot of charitable works have been done by them too. There are always a few bad apples in a barrel but the rest of the apples are still ripe. Just my personal preference is a smaller more personable church.

 

Well that’s all for now.
May God be your guide through life.
Raymond Barbier.

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NBC made a big mistake

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The Pledge of Allegiance in the United States ...

NBC made a big mistake when they tried to edit out the words one nation under god from the televised pledge of allegiance before the US open. Political correctness is getting out of hand and censoring out any reference to a religion is nothing but plain discrimination. I know that there are those who do not believe in a god or in the same god as the Christians and I respect their choice to believe in the way they choose. I do not see how having the word god in the pledge can be considered offensive to anyone. It isn’t stating your pledging allegiance to god, it’s a pledge of allegiance to our country which is under god. I will even go as far to say if you don’t agree with the god part of the pledge then when you say it then you can omit it but don’t remove it from the pledge and or edit it out when its broadcasted via television or radio.

Our founding fathers were Christians and they believed in the separation of church and state. They meant far as political control, they believed in religious freedom and so do I. To say having the 10 commandments in a court-house or city hall is wrong is taking it to an extreme. To be perfectly honest if a city hall in the us wanted to put a quote from the holy scriptures of any other religion on their walls I personally would not be offended. That’s freedom of religion in my belief. Far as prayer in school I support the idea with the condition that the child can elect to either pray to the god of their choice or abstain from prayer if they are atheist or they don’t want to pray.

NBC of course made a sad attempt at apologizing and even pulled the big business “we will deal with it internally and not publicly” speech. That’s basically saying they supported the actions of the individuals responsible. More and likely nothing will happen to those who chose to edit out god and eventually this will fade away from the minds of Americans. Sad to think that God has become like a dirty word in our modern world. Far as boycotting NBC as suggested by some of the outraged viewers, that’s no problem for me for NBC hasn’t had any shows I liked on it for quite a while.

NBC has the right to edit out what ever they choose, They just have to deal with the backlash created by their editing. Hopefully the lesson has been learned from this incident, I feel that it hasn’t but I always try to be positive. This little editing job I believe is just the beginning of the removal of religion from the airwaves. I pray to god I am wrong, only time will tell.

Well have a good day
Raymond Barbier

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Just a Monday night Political Rant

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Paul Jacob, during oral arguments of U.S. Term...

We allow greed, fear and the lust for power to be more important than community, family and common sense. We seem content in leaving the great decisions such as which freedoms are to be had as well as which freedoms are withheld from us. We complain endlessly about how ineffective our governments are yet we continue to vote for the same candidates over and over again.

We seem to have become apathetic and we seem unwilling to be a part of change. We all seem more into letting things stay the same or get worse than to stand up and get our voices heard in Washington. We allow news agencies to shape our opinions instead of seeking out the facts and making our own. We are like a nation of sleeping people who needs to wake up before it is too late. Many nations have walked this path and many of them are waking up to reality and are in turmoil due to the fact they slept too long.

Wake up America and seek out the truth about our congress and the capital hill gang. They are out of touch with what is really important. I don’t know if they are ignoring the people the represent or if the people are just not expressing their selves enough to get them to listen. But if enough people shout they will have to listen or they will be voted out next term. That’s the reality of politics and one of the good parts of our nations political system.

I believe that both the house representatives and senators have been in office too long. There should be term limits on congressional seats so there can be fresh blood and ideas flowing through each term. I also believe that their pay should be based on performance so they will work harder for the people who elected them as well as pay their paychecks. I also thing that there should be more regulations on the lobbyist. Laws that are brought up  should be simplified and have no ear marks or hidden clauses. We don’t need a 3000 page law. If the congress does not read the full thing then it should not be allowed to be voted on or passed.

 

Okay enough ranting for now
Raymond Barbier

Green Issues, Random Thoughts

If they are unaware or if they just don’t care

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012   Another day has passed and I have done my usual feeding of stray cats at work and have done my daily roadside photography. Thoughts of how people can abandon their animal companions in a parking lot as well as litter the streams, rivers and mountain sides of their beautiful home still disturbs me. So much love those pets had to give and the were thrown away like trash and so much beauty all around and they neglect it as well as abuse it thoughtlessly. No thought of the damage done to the things they abuse and no idea of the wonderful things they have cast a side. I don’t know if they are unaware or if they just don’t care. I really hope they are ignorant of what they do, I would hate to believe such malice could be in the hearts of so many people. At least I do know there are those who try to restore the beauty of the natural wonders around us as well as try to take care of the abandoned pets that roam out streets but there is so much that needs to be done.

For a species capable of such fantastic and wonderful things we still have along way to go when it comes to being responsible for the world around us. If we can send men to the moon and robots to mars, why can’t we take care of our beautiful blue planet and all the animals that live on it. It is time for mankind to grow out its teen years and become mature and wise enough to set the correct priorities. If we take care of our home and all that lives within it then the earth will provide us with what we need in return. Of course if we continue to ignore the problems created by our neglect and abuse of this blue planet we will sooner or later  start paying the price.

God has given us this planet to live on and we should take care of such a wonderful and rare gift so the future generations will have a place of wonder and beauty to enjoy.

Just some Tree Hugging Thoughts For The Day

Peace

Raymond Barbier

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To put blind faith in a human being is not a good idea at best.

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I am not a great fan of organized religion,but I am a great supporter of religion on an individual/personal level. Organized religion gives too much power to the church over the beliefs and doctrine of individuals. Each person should have their own personal relationship with Jesus and God (or the god of their personal choice). I am a firm believer in freewill and the right to choose you own spiritual path to follow. No man should have the right to force his own beliefs upon another. This is not to say I am against spreading the word of your chosen religion, just you should respect the rights of others to believe differently.

I have seen too many times people putting faith into religious leaders who wind up leading their followers into hateful and hurtful beliefs and actions. There have been many of times that religious leaders have led their followers to mass suicide or created holy wars that caused the destruction and killing of many innocent people. To put blind faith into God is okay but to put blind faith in a human being is not a good idea at best. No man is without fault and no one man should be followed blindly. Read your scriptures and keep faith god will reveal truth to you so you may not be deceived by man or any other force out to lead you astray. Use that freewill god gave you to seek out the truth along with the right path for you to follow.

I believe freewill was a gift to us from god and he gave us the right to choose our own way to live and believe. Freewill is a great blessing but it has the cost of being wrong or making the wrong choices and having to pay the price for such. Luckily most of us live long enough to make many mistakes along the way and learn what is and isn’t the right path hopefully before our time is up.

Though I know my opinions are not always  right or popular , they are of my own choosing.

May Truth be your Guiding light
Raymond Barbier

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The future is never set in stone

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011 Every day we wake up is a blessing and is another chance to start again. Each morning we start off with a blank slate and have the opportunity to change not only our own lives but the lives of all those around us. Before the day is through we will make choices and take actions that will affect everyone and everything within our world. Every positive or negative word, attitude and action we take can shape the future.

What we have said and done in the past is what helped us get to where we are today and still has some influence on where we may be tomorrow. The good thing is the future is never set in stone and what we do today can change what tomorrow has in store for us. Of course there are some things that are beyond our control or influence and all we can do is to try to handle those as well as we can. One thing I have learned is the closest one can get to a perfect life is when they have  learned to live life being happy with what they are blessed with.

Just some thoughts for you to chew on.

May you count your blessings and learn to overcome your curses.
Raymond Barbier

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