Less inspiring, no less interesting

When I started this blog, I felt it would be important to monitor where my traffic (visitors) came from--or at least how many visitors I had.  I thought that's what the SiteMeter widget would do.  It doesn't.

However, some time between when I last blogged frequently and now, blogger has added a sweet analytics interface to my admin dashboard.  And what I can see is super cool.  Since this architecture was implemented, I can track my most frequently read posts, and the sources that send people to my blog.  Yay for Google buying blogger and integrating GoogleAnalytics into the blog interface!

That said, why is "Unclog the Flow" my most-read post?  Please comment, I'd love to know your thoughts.  (Although if you do so anonymously (i.e. don't have a gmail account for some odd reason (WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?)), please leave some hint for me to know who you are.

Jesus Logic

At first this may sound a little blasphemous. It's not, I promise. (As an aside, I freaking hate toaster ovens. I can't even toast things properly.)

In Toronto I met a lot of people whose opinions about Jesus varied. "He was a good guy." "He was a fraud." "He taught good things." "He was the Son of God." "He was a charlatan."

While opinions are well and good, we can know Truth. We can know exactly what Jesus was/is/will be. The Spirit will guide us to this knowledge as we are prepared.

However, what helps me is whether things make sense. Regardless of what my mother claims, I feel I am a logical person whose opinions are based in fact and reason. Thus we shall take a lawyer-influenced look at Jesus and His claims.

We know Jesus taught many things taken as truth and as beneficial. However, are they really? Can we really trust a man who claimed he was the Son of God? In a court case, if a witness is proven to have lied on the stand, even once in hours of testimony, the entire testimony is often discounted and the witness is assumed to have lied about everything. This must happen because picking truth from lies is impossible.

Similarly, we can put the testimony of Jesus on trial. Without doubt, the claim that he was the son of a God and a mortal woman is the most questionable he ever made. If someone can disprove that claim, the entirety of his teachings falls apart. Thus the Beatitudes become useless--for they are obviously taught by a liar, His commands to love one another become unnecessary, etc.

Following that track, any teaching that has come since derived from Jesus' words is also false, any teaching from other perceived great men (Ghandi, Confucius, Mohammad, etc) agreeing or citing Jesus must also be taken as false. As you can see, claim Jesus is only a great man and not 100% what He said He was leads to the disruption of much of the moral code the world follows.

However, if He is the perfect Son of God--a knowledge any willing person can gain--all of His teaching (even the ones you don't like) must be true (because He could not lie) and must be followed in order to gain the Eternal Life He promises to His disciples. This is the case because the Son of God would have full authority to speak on any subject, and His words would be eternal law. Thus evaluating Jesus' claim to divine sonship is the crux of most arguments about Christianity.

So the decision comes to you. Will you throw away the morality of the world by believing He is less than what He claimed to be, or will you discover whether He is the Son of God?

My knowledge is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He died and was resurrected so each person who ever lived may gain Eternal Life by following His teachings. Logic supports it and the confirmation of the Spirit irrefutably confirms it.

Accountability

Any of you who have had an in-depth discussion with me recently know I have been on a kick about agency. You ask me, "what should I do?" and, like a very wise person I know, I answer, "Do what you want." Well, at least that's my answer to most people who already have an idea of what they ought to do. For people who are completely unsure or who I think need guidance I am an endless source of unwanted advice. That said, I still try to end the discussion with "Do what you want."

I take great comfort in the fact we must each answer for our own choices. It makes sense. If my friends came to me for advice and I had to answer to God for their choices, I would not have any friends, nor would I choose to share my opinions. But we will each answer for our own choices. Therefore we have two burdens on us: (1) choose to do what is best for us in all situations and (2) suggest people do the same--this is an action we must answer for also.

So when it comes to you to choose, do what you want. But want to do your best and what God wants you to do.

Mr. Finnagan, Begin Again

Maybe it's time to start this thing up again. But not tonight.

Frequent inconsistancy

I love how my blogging inconsistency is so consistent. Things happen in my life and you know where they go? My journal. Where else?

So the questions becomes, what is blogging really for? I suppose it's a passive way to tell the world what's going on with your life. But why? Wouldn't they ask if they cared?

Or do we do it to entertain others? I'd be surprised if more than ten people end up reading this. (To prove me wrong, leave a comment. (And I'd be happy, albeit surprised to be proven wrong.)) But how do we try to maintain semi-anonymity (the internet is dangerous, despite what some may think) and still share personal experiences? It is possible?

Can I do anything except ask rhetorical questions?

(Might a blog be a place for debate and discussion? A forum of ideas? Mmmm...)