My Warning

This post will be a little less about my thoughts on things, and more about my experiences. It will also serve as a warning. I will tell you a bit more about me here. And about some troubles I went through.

If you have read my blog at all it should hopefully be very obvious that I am a Christian. However, it is only recently that I have felt so strongly about being a Christian (I'm talking about in the last few months before writing this). The reason is because most of the message I had heard all my life, about Jesus Christ dying for my sins, had been watered down so much. I would hear it repeated again and again that He died for my sins, but without the background behind any of this being explained, it all seemed very unimportant (for lack of a better word) to me. Yes, I knew what everyone said was true, but it carried very little meaning.

Whenever I went to church or heard someone read from or quote the Bible, it was almost always out of the New Testament and from many of the same passages. The meaning behind these passages and even the entire New Testament was never properly explained to me. What do I mean by properly? I will get to that shortly.

I did study the Old Testament, and I also knew most of the Bible stories as well (or better than) other kids. However, it was treated as something to talk about and "learn" from on Sunday's or neat little stories to tell kids before bed. Oh boy, have my perspectives on those stories changed!

This is where my warning comes into play. Many, if not most of all Christians, are doing this. They are making these stories, these very valuable and historically true and scientifically accurate stories, seem only as children's tales. They are also making the Old Testament unpropotionately weak. And worse yet, the biggest problem I had to overcome, was the fact that othe Christians were unknowingly downplaying the Almighty's power. That is part of the reason I myself rarely use the terms "God" or "Jesus", is because they were the only terms I heard most of my life, and they have lost meaning to me. As hard as that is to admit, it is true. So instead, I choose to use other names for our Creator.

Now what I mean by downplaying the Almighty's power is the fact that it is not mentioned enough, and when it is, not emphasized enough. Yes, I know that in church miracles are spoken of all the time! Jesus rising up from the dead, turning water into wine, feeding thousands with almost nothing, and several others. The problem is, at least it was for me, is that no one put nearly enough empasis on any of these. The sermon would always lead into how He loves us and died for us, and all that. Since I already knew that and had heard it dozens of times (and had already accepted Him), it was difficult for these to have lots of meaning for me.

There were the periodic sermons that would spark an interest when someone really went into the power of the All Powerful, but it didn't happen enough. And I hardly remember at all anyone making the "children's tales" in the Bible seem as they truly were, miraculous examples of the power and might of the Lord of Heaven's Armies!

This doesn't make any sense at all! When you look at the Bible, first off you notice it starts in the Old Testament. Also, it starts by showing the Almighty's power! What happens first in the Bible? Creation. Everything from nothing, because of a supernatural act on the part of the Creator. In the Old Testament (which is far larger then the New Testament), you see example after example of the Almighty's power and justice. You also see some of His love for us and some glimpses at His mercy. His love and mercy are shown most in the New Testament, through the Messiah. However, that is after thousands of years of history and well over half of the Bible. Everything else, all these examples of His undeniable power, lead up to this.

So why all my life did people ignore everything leading up to the ultimate example of love and mercy in Christ? After all, the All Knowing didn't. Why then do we?

Well I can tell you this, it kept me a weak Christian. So please to not make the same mistake. Do not ignore the power of the Almighty! Speak of it first and foremost, and those who listen will always hear. Heed my warning, maybe others will be saved years of learning as I have.

Now, everything really hit me all at once just a few months ago. I was on vacation and was reading some books, one in particular was a commentary on the book of Job. Unlike other commentaries talking about the faith of Job and such, this commentary showed how the book of Job was "one of the most historically and scientifically accurate records of the ancient world". It focused more on the power, wisdom and knowledge of the God of Job. That was the biggest turn-a-round points for me. I devoured that book! Then I devoured the actual book of Job, rereading large portions several times. I had never read the Bible so passionately.

Within weeks of each other, event after event occured which made me more passionate about the Bible and my Christianity than ever before. I even began studying the Bible to help me better write my own books! In a period of several weeks, I felt more fear than I ever had before. And by fear, I mean fear of the Lord. I caught glimpse after glimpse of just how powerful He was. One example may be found in the first chapter of Genesis. During the creation account, it is said that "He [God] created the stars also". With that little sentence, the Almighty describes Himself creating most of the universe! Our little planet earth, which is so small it should hardly be given any thought in the Milkyway Galaxy, and that one galaxy out of so many hundreds of billions of others that it shouldn't be given any thought; this little planet was deemed so much more important than the rest of creation that the rest of the entire universe was pretty much described as "He created the stars also"!

I still have not fully grasped the signifigance of that one sentence, but the more I understand it the greater it is! The fact that He would create so much, yet choose this one little speck in the corner of the universe as the location where those who He made in His own image reside, is just astounding. This fear of Lord has put things into better perspective for me. There are times where anything beyond the moment doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I have, how long I'll live, where I'll go when I die, or even if I'm a "good person". There are times where I am simply frozen in sheer awe at His power. Those are the best times of worship I have ever had. Where I am simply overwhelmed with the knowledge of how insignifigant I am, in terms of power. Compared to the universe and all that the Creator controls, I seem as nothing!

Now, I am still studying farther and have more and more revalations of His power since these events. I mainly study the Old Testament, to learn the history and signifigance of the New Testament. Reading of the miracles and power surrounding those such as Noah, or Abraham, Jacob, and others has been a great experience for me. And for once, I read these stories not as children's stories, but as HIStory. Some days I still struggle to actually pick up my Bible, but when I do pick it up, it is with great enthusiasm.

Overall my warning is to make sure that things to not repeat. Christianity once seemed almost boring for me. Everything in the New Testament was dull. Now that I am studying the Old Testament and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is constantly giving new life to the New Testament.

Also, my hope and prayer for eveyone who ever reads this is that they will also one day be able to experience what I am experiencing. This closeness, understanding and fear of their Creator. Not fear of retaliation or harm, but a fear composed of awe and wonder at something so much greater than ourselves! That is what Christianity is about! The most powerful being to ever exist, who created the universe and defined the laws of physics, who caused time to begin and to one day end, who can wipe out everything that exists with a mere thought; Christianity is about this All Powerful Creator wanting to know us. To know me...

The Great Footnote

Let me take you back to the beginning really quickly:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"
Yes, when I said "Let me take you back to the beginning" I meant it. Back to the very beginning.

I will just be going back over my thoughts I've had recently.

So for anyone who truly believes what the Bible says, the Almighty created the universe and all that is in it. That obviously includes the stars and the galaxies. Now to just step back, and consider what that means. When you step out at night and look up at the sky (provided you are somewhere that allows you to see the sky) the moon plus every single speck of light was created with merely a few words. It was created with such ease, the Almighty didn't even lift a finger. Now, these little specks of light aren't really so little. Here's a video that should better illustrate this:


Now when it went from our moon to Mercury, I was already thinking "Why even bother?" I'm not entirely sure what that meant, but I think it meant "Why even try to do anything impressive", or something like that. But, the moon to Mercury was only the first comparison in that video. I can't even remember which part of the video I just stopped trying to comprehend the size of the planets and stars compared to earth. By the time it got to Canis Majoris, I had completely stopped even trying at all. My mind almost turned off. Canis Majoris is believed to be big enough to contain over seven quadrillion earths. That is over 7,000,000,000,000,000 earths that could be fit in there! Oh, and the most important part. VY Canis Majoris is just one star.

There are believed to be at least 100 billion stars in our galaxy. This post here even estimates up to over 400 billion: http://www.universetoday.com/30305/how-many-galaxies-in-the-universe/
That same post also states that some estimates say there are over 500 billion galaxies out in the universe. And we live in just one galaxy, which we will never, ever fully explore. So basically they believe that for every star in our galaxy, there is an entire galaxy filled with hundreds of billions of stars. Now, I personally take that a step farther. I believe it is possible that there are hundreds of billions of these humongous galaxy clusters/universes! As long as the entire universe is smaller than the Almighty, it's possible. Oh wait, the Creator has no end. I guess that means the universe doesn't need one either. We will just never know how big it is.

I can't really find the words to express the thoughts going through my head about how big the universe is and how insignifigant I am, so I'll just spam the videos I've been watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0lxbzgwW7I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ya12I036lg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQELxMFBpY4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l4leBHRvI4

These are just a few of the videos I've seen that have made me feel so overwhelmed. These are the ones that deal with just the stars and galaxies alone. To paraphrase what was said in the second to last link "I could sit here all day trying to find ways to describe the Almighty, but his universe already does that for Him"

So now to close this up, the reason I named this post.

"God made two great lights--the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars..." The Almighty creating virtually the rest of the universe was put in as almost nothing more than a foot note in this verse. All those hundreds of billions of galaxies out there, each filled with hundreds of billions of stars, many of which able to contain hundreds of billions of earths, was simply explained as "oh yeah, He made all that stuff too". If there is a God, and He is so powerful as to consider the rest of the universe so insigfigant as to only give it a simple mention during the creation, who are we?

The Warrior, the Beast, and the Voice.

I was listening to music and looking at pictures one day, when I came up with an idea for a video. I had been looking at pictures from the Hubble Telescope and listening to the song "Angel" song by Jackie Evancho. Here is a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwSd6pd5UAQ

I was listening to that while looking at the pictures of space. It was really wonderous. So I got the idea to share that experience with everyone and make a video. Here it is:


Hubble Telescope - Angel - Jackie Evancho from Murry Folt on Vimeo.

[Edit: I had to upload the video to Vimeo because the original was taken of Youtube]

The reason I'm telling you all this? Because I am still wondering why it all happened; and at how good it turned out for how little work I put into it. I have a very strong feel the Creator wanted to show off a small aspect of his creation. So he guided my time so I would be listening to that song while looking at the Hubble pics, and then get the idea for the video. It really is quite an interesting thought, isn't it? And if you don't agree to my theory, and think it was just coincidence, then say something. I would like to have a good, respectable debate with someone. I won't change my mind, but it would still be fun.

Now, there is more reason to why I brought all of this up. Not just to say I made a video or how good I think it is, but to explain more of my thoughts behind it. This blog is called "De' Tinker's Thoughts", after all.

I find it very incredible that even with such high detailed pictures as the ones I found, there are still a poor representation at just how large and grand everything out there is. The largest picture I found was over 200 megabytes, and came out to being nearly half a billion pixels large. It may seem as though it showed a lot, but in reality, it showed an infinitely small portion of the universe. Yet, even the smallest nebulaes in the picture were likely hundreds or thousands of times the size of earth.

The purpose of this post is really just to try and comprehend how great the Creator is, as this post seems to be doing now. So you are about to read the same thoughts that go through my head. I'll just type out how amazing I think it is.

I still can't wrap my head around the size of some of the objects in these pictures! This one is my favorite:


Source: Hubblesite.org

How large is that field? I really don't know, and I don't want to cheat on Google. All I know is that it's larger than I can imagine. It looks like a painting. The vast amount of colors all flowing and blending together, the strange and exotic shapes, the bright points of light from stars, all of it! We are very fortunate that we found it, yet how many more grand paintings are we missing in a galaxy so large? I feel sorry for those who feel these are there without cause. I truly do.

Here is my favorite picture with a story in it that I see:


Source: Hubblesite.org

I see it as a battle in the heavens. On the right we have one heavenly being who is bent down on one knee, with his back turned facing the left. He is using his back and arm as a shield to protect himself from the being on the left. This being on the right, who is red, appears large and muscular, with large beard and long hair. I imagine him as an old warrior, with grey hair, who has lived a long life of war. This warrior has power that can only exist in the vastness of the heavens. He is even more powerful the the gods and goddesses of the Greeks and Romans. He is a warrior of the stars.

On the left I see another heavenly being. It has the head of a bear, the wings of a dragon, and the arms of a great warrior. This being is attacking the warrior with a force that has put the great warrior on the defence. That great, bright light in the center is the blast issuing forth from the beasts's hands, and it spreads out and around the warrior on the right, who is defending himself. The beast has other heavenly forces surrounding him, which swirl around him as different colored lights and gases. They appear as strange shapes surrounding the beast.

The warrior also has other beings fighting with him. Both behind and in front of him, I see other faces moving towards the beast and his companions. Both these faces and the other beings behind the beast are as spirits it seems. The do not take forms we are used to. Even the beast and the warrior are as spirits, for neither of them look like anything we see on earth.

Okay, I let my imagination run wild up there, but that is what I see. There is so much more as well, I just can't find a way to describe it! And this was one picture! I have run out of words for this right now, but maybe another time. So for now, I will discuss the music!

The little girl who sang the song, Jackie Evancho, is only 11. Or at least at the time both that PBS performance was shot and this post was made, she was 11. I hope she will live well beyond that. Anyway, I find it difficult to describe the music now as well! The Creator seemed to have taken one of these spirits, or beings, or something from the heavens above, and put it in this little girl when she was a baby. Just as the warrior and beast I mentioned above can't be contained on earth, it seems this voice can't either. I believe this to be so because the Creator Himself sings with her every time. This is why when people hear her, they immediately describe it as heavenly, angelic, and beautiful.

Her voice in adding to the grandeur of this video is amazing! Many of the words in the song also fit perfectly with the images. I didn't pick the song either. It is what I "happened" to be listening to at the time. Take a guess at who really picked the song? Jackie really adds the heavenly touch to these pictures. Either are great by themselves, but together they are wonderful as well! After describing the battle above, I don't have the words to describe the voice narrating it. Well, maybe another time. I might make a whole post just for this "Angel" among us, as many like to say.

One final closing thought. That video I posted above, I didn't make it. I couldn't have. Yes, I downloaded the pictures, I put them in the video, I put the music on, I rendered the video, I uploaded it to youtube, all of that. By I didn't make it. The Alighty did. He wants people to look up to Him once again and simply say, "Holy, holy, holy..." He is tired of those who can look at His creation and say, "There is no God!" He gave us these beautiful landscapes in the heavens, and he gave us what many call "an angel among us", Jackie, to bless us with her voice. Yet people deny Him. Is that why my video exists?