Unsettled Earth

(via reflectivegentleman)

whatareyouwearingbenedict:

In which Benedict has a BAMF-off with a lovely old man. Check out that pipe action!

(Source: controlled-burn)

C. S. Lewis

(Source: , via reflectivegentleman)

IS JESUS YOUR GOD?

A good question to as yourself. The classical belief for Christians is that Jesus is the fullest revelation of God (meaning that he embodies in every way the very person / character of God). Now at this point many Christians would be shouting “Hallelujah” and raising their hands, but do they know what they are affirming? What this means is that Jesus, the character revealed through Scripture, is God: Plain and Simple. So things which are contrary to the character of Jesus (EVEN IF THEY ARE IN THE BIBLE) are not true. For example, lets take the commanded human sacrifice (hrem in Hebrew) of Jericho in Joshua. God asks that all the people be put to the sword or utterly destroyed or totally destroyed (depending on your translation). This would insinuate that it pleases God to have human sacrifice, and that God himself was a murderer. Is this picture consistent with the character of Jesus Christ in the NT? Answer: No.

HOW HERE’S THE POINT: If JESUS is your God, then you will be unwaveringly committed to him and his character. If he is not, and the bible is your false God instead of Jesus, then you will try to include this monstrosity into God’s character.

treeporn:

Submitted by (another) Ben Roberts.

(via reflectivegentleman)

I want every room I own to look like this

(Source: dailydoseofstuf, via reflectivegentleman)

Every leader is the same false imagination

You want a new train heading for the same station

You point fingers of blame; boy you know it’s a shame

Cuz the problem comes back to you

This government does not exist for its people

It serves not the man, nor the giant steeple

Its god is the dollar bill, founded on Capitol Hill

Is this a system worth saving?

We cannot sit by in lamentation

While the fat cat bleed out our nation

Abandon ship, Tear down the bricks

There is no hope for that creation

Our government is not a holy relic-

-which is our god, given as angelic

Jesus did not give us democracy, to say so is just a mockery

So head to the life rafts or swim

Certainly, we live in a world which is fallen

No system is perfect, just look at Stalin

But this is no excuse, It’s time to be recluse

And leave these broken vestiges behind

Our pacifies us just enough

To keep our anger from raising dust

We stand in lines, and wipe their behinds,

And in the end we bend over

A brand new original! Check it out.

Self Esteem is one of the largest cultural problems in North America. This is shown most clearly in the teenage demographic. At that age the human truly beings to be cerebral about who they are and where they belong. Never before has the culture around a person offered so little concrete evidence for someone’s identity.

My assertion is that self esteem (the confidence, understanding and valuing of the self) is deeply rooted in identity. Identity (the context, and subsequently the ordered understanding, of life) is deeply rooted in community.

What we see currently is a breaking of all three essential components (Esteem, Identity and Community). Our culture’s entire focus from preschool to marriage is the ECONOMIC / SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT of people. This is blatant in our school system. What are the two things which are valued most in school? Popularity and Grades. Why? Popularity = Confidence, value and social power. Grades = Eventual economic gain, confidence and value.

As Christians, we have been blind to these cultural values. Both home-schooled students and public schooled students are victims of these cultural values. Because these are ultra-conditional, so the self-esteem and identity of the modern child becomes.

Our culture is so pluralistic, yet it seems like many traditions have fallen into these two cultural presuppositions. Because of these factors, because children are brought up without a unified community and are often treated badly due to conflicting views, a child’s sense of community becomes distorted.

After the child has lost their sense of community, soon self-esteem and identity follow. If one does not understand their community, they have no context or understanding of life. Once this falls away, there is no context through which to ascribe value to the self.

In this nebulous and destructive process, what should one do? I would suggest several options.

1. Develop a caring, open and yet not smothering home atmosphere
- Have the home be a place where the surrounding culture is critiqued by both children and parents alike. Develop an open atmosphere were mistakes and problems can be spoken about openly without enforced consequences. Reward honesty and discernment. Avoid smothering at the same time, not forcing openness but allowing it to flow from your own openness.

2. Live communally
- Live in a home where there is more than a single family, even if it is a single renter. A families interaction with a group larger than itself illustrates a larger sense of belonging than just with the family. Engage with community beyond Sunday’s at church.

3. Base success on love, and moral action
- Our culture bases value and success by the rewards received which is runs counter to the gospel. Reward children when they act loving and resemble Jesus in life. This is our measure of success and where we derive our value. Exhibit forgiveness and grace unconditionally.

A short remix of Deadmau5’s strobe. Enjoy:

An old one but I really like it. hope you enjoy.

Before the reader gets up in arms about some “end of the world” or “apocalypse” prediction, that is not what this blog is about. This blog post will simply analyze several cultural factors which are currently leading us towards a reshifting or reorganizing of society, and how they will explode in the next 40ish years.

One of the biggest factors in social upheaval at this moment is that this current generation is peeking behind the viel of the American capitalist dream which was set before our grandparents, and we’re seeing its empty promises for what they are. Two generations ago, the dream was alive and well. The dream went something like this: “Get born -> Get Educated -> Get Specially Educated -> Get a well-paying job -> Financial Security -> Family, Trips, Retirement -> Long life and a good death.” And for our grandparents generation, this was true. They lived in a burgeoning north america where entrepaneurs and local business were demanding professionals of every single discipline. If you were educated, you WOULD have a job it’s as simple as that.

However, things started to shift with our parents generation. Because of the ridiculous amount of personal wealth and prosperity, our parents generation became one of the most selfish and self-serving generations which have ever existed. The American Dream became “streamlined”. The high value of marriage and family became side-lined because of the desire for personal wealth. Children and Spouses were simply to encumbering to be apart of the dream. While many held on to vestiges of the family and marital values, many were willing to sacrifice them for the sake of the dream. (Which is why our generation has inherited one of the most broken family situations that has ever been recorded). Another shift which happened in our parents generation was the “business shift”. It was no longer good enough to be the expert helping a local business and getting paid fair wages, because all the experts and professionals saw how their bosses were reaping the cash, and paying out minimally to their employees. So the intelligent experts which were once fair paid partners and employees now were breaking away from their old companies and starting their own. This trend was brought out of the aforementioned selfish desire for personal wealth. So what we inherited from this trend is that the “business degree” and the “business man” were now replacing the professional or the expert of a certain field.

Now comes along our generation, one of the most angsty and jaded generations yet. We have inherited the myth of the american dream but nothing more. No longer does good education equate to a good job, no longer does a good job equate to a good life (in fact, many are in contradiction with one another now). We have experienced all the bankruptcy of both our grandparents and our parents generations, and feel as though we can do nothing about it. We are so mixed up in the myth of the american dream, but we are feeling NONE of it’s benefits. We watch as billion dollar playboys strut around as poster boys for what is impossible for 99%. In our generation it does not pay to become educated, it only pays to somehow exploit the system more than our competitors. The corporations of our generation do not want experts in a field, they do not want professionals, they want cattle. Unintelligent, low functioning robots who can be cheaply paid to work outrageously while they reap the benefits. AND OUR GENERATION SEES THIS! We are not like our parents who still retained some vestiges of benefit from the system, we are a surpressed generation.

For these reasons and more, I argue that there will be a gigantic social and economic upheaval in the next 40 years, minimum. It will likely be violent, although I do not desire any such upheaval. Our generation is growing restless against the growing “Corportocracy” or a government run by rich corporations, and the empitness of their promises for good life. We grow restless against the seeming impossibility of living a different life apart from our money hungry overlords. Mark my words, there will be upheaval on a scale which we have never known in America.