Pastor kills man to collect on life insurance. I’m sad that I’m not surprised.

Today, as I was browsing my Facebook inbox I received a link from my friend that I found particularly disturbing, but sadly not surprising. According to Newser.com, a pastor in Baltimore, MD had a man killed in order to collect on the man’s various life insurance policies. Did I mention the victim was disabled and mentally challenged? Here’s the story:

(Newser) – Baltimore police say a pastor has admitted to killing a mentally disabled and blind man to collect on his life insurance money, theBaltimore Sun reports. Charged yesterday, Kevin Pushia, 32, confessed to hiring a hit man with $50,000 in church funds to kill Lemuel Wallace—one of several mentally challenged people who have listed Pushia as an insurance beneficiary.

Police found Wallace dead in a park bathroom. Following a tip, they searched Pushia’s townhouse and saw a note on a calendar: “L.W. project completed.” They also uncovered six insurance policies in Wallace’s name worth $1 million. Police are seeking other possible victims in Pushia’s alleged scheme. “We’re all kind of in shock,” said a former co-worker.

Let me just say that as of late, my faith in humanity is slowly dwindling to nothingness. This is a perfect example of how the people everyone looks to for spiritual guindance, are in need of some themselves. To be honest, makes me wonder about the foundations of all religions themselves.

If we look to man to be our intermediary with God, as in we go to church and listen to someone who says they are speaking “God’s word”, we seek advice from these people when it comes to our spiritual progression, who’s to say they are right? Human fallibility is understood, but for those whose convictions are not as strong as others and require help and leadership, can they really rely on pastors and priests who commit heinous acts like these? Shit like this is indicative of the times we live in. Comment in with thoughts…

Believe It or Not, The Christian Stereotype Is Not True.

The Christian stereotype is one that has been around for a while, and one that I have noticed since I became one in the 6th grade. I think we all know the stereotype. Crazed, fanatical, judgmental, out of touch with society? I am sure we dress like pilgrims is somewhere in there too. We all live on compounds, running around calling people heathens, and banishing you to hell for not listening to us. And yes there are some people out there who are exactly like that, but I assure you, it is not the majority. Now my next statement might sound “out-there” to you but I hope you keep reading. The main reason that one would think we are a bunch of crazies is…get ready…the media. Now wait…I am not going to go on a tirade about the evils of the media and the world at large. Frankly, it’s not even the media’s fault. When you flip on to the news what do you see? All the crazed cults who are being raided by the FBI for child molestation or are amassing enough automatic weapons to invade most of South America. You don’t really hear about local churches achieving great success in community outreach programs, making their local area much better. You don’t hear about how they have changed people’s lives, helping single mom’s make ends meet, starting programs to reach out to the homeless, or have started successful alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs. Churches, true churches that reside in communities and neighborhoods are a valuable asset to their respective local areas. 

The people in these churches aren’t really crazy either. They don’t run around shouting judgments at you, they won’t shove their faith down your throat. Remember, Christianity is all about FAITH. When I meet someone and I tell them I am a Christian sometimes they seem to want to try to convince me that I am either insane or wrong. I am neither, I just have faith in that what I believe is true. Just like you have faith that what you believe, be it evolution or Buddhism, or that slightly cool Star Wars religion is right, so do I.  Anyway, it’s nice I got that out of the way but I digress. Yeah we aren’t all crazy. I for instance, don’t dress like the characters in “The Village”, I shop at a lot of stores. I am not out of touch with society, I watch the news, I enjoy R rated movies (I am a pretty big Superbad fan actually…), I have an iPhone and even a Macbook Air. I listen to all kinds of music, even if it has the parental advisory. I don’t run around forcing my beliefs on you, and if you want to hear them that’s cool just let me know. But I assure you what you see on TV or in that moronic movie Saved (which in no way impacted my crush on Mandy Moore) is not the case. 

I was watching CNN today, and Rick Sanchez was interviewing Tony Alamo, who is being accused of child molestation and child pornography, among other things. Basically the entire time he went on about the evils of society, citing ludicrous examples and Bible verses taken completely out of context rambling on about all the “faggots” in the world, and how the “government is the anti-christ”, and basically telling Rick Sanchez he is going to hell. He kept his cool thankfully, but I almost wanted to call in and start refuting everything that man said and making a primary point that he does NOT represent us. It’s people, lunatics, like Tony Alamo, who take what we believe and spin it into a radical, tainted message for their benefit. They use The Bible to justify terrible acts, and to judge and push people away. This situation was the reason I decided to post this. I just don’t want true Christians, good, kind people to be unfairly grouped in to organizations like these.

Anyway, feel free to voice your opinion on this. Agree or Disagree? If you have a valid, calm, thought and present it like an adult I will be glad to hear you out and reply. I keep a very open mind so I value your feedback. If you are going to be a moron who wants to yell, scream and be ignorant, don’t even bother cause I moderate comments. Peace Out and thanks for listening. 

Hmmm…

When people read the Bible, they always notice how God literally speaks to His people. And even though today that doesn’t happen today I think God speaks to us in very different ways. Sometimes it’s so obvious that if we don’t listen it’s cause we don’t want to. And sometimes it’s subtle, something that we’ll hear a little later…when we are ready. I totally saw that happen this weekend. Just a thought I wanted to share…

The Large Hadron Collider Part I: Morally & Religiously Speaking…

Basically lets tackle this from a faith based perspective of the Large Hadron Collider. I am a christian so I am going to talk about this from my perspective, seeing as I am not going to go around speaking for other religions, that would be dumb.

It doesn’t say in The Bible that God will kill us all in a grandiose, getting sucked in to a black hole type of way. If there are Black Holes (and who knows at this point) they won’t be the downfall of mankind. I mean it’s pretty straight forward. This isn’t in the cards for us, period. Now what I do think is that in a way, this can be sort of considered a modern day Tower of Babel. In the story, human kind thought they could build a tower all the way to Heaven. Mankind, in it’s arrogance basically thought they could get to where God is without God’s help. God, being understandably upset, destroyed the tower and scattered the people all over the world, and having them speak in different tongues. In a way this is similar (the situation not God’s response). These scientists are basically trying to recreate particles from “The Big Bang” theory. This is where we walk the line between curious exploration and arrogance. Mankind has always worked to achieve something amazing. God has given us the gift of innovation and creativity. But these gifts tend to get to our heads when we start to think that we are either better than God and don’t need Him OR don’t think God exists hence believe we accomplished everything on our own.

Envy shoots at others and wounds itself.

I went to church this week after not going for a couple of weeks. And it amazes me that when I go there, the message for that night just hits me dead on. This week, a visiting pastor (who was a pretty cool dude) spoke about envy. That’s why I went with The Hulk, you know…green with envy. He was talking about how the basis of most, if not all, crimes committed is envy. He went on define envy as when someone wishes they had the blessings of one person, without realizing their own. How it was sort of our own prison, we were trapped on the inside, looking out. I found myself totally relating to what he was saying. I think more with the green monster within when it comes to life’s decisions. An example of that is my decisions when it comes to school. For the longest time I wanted to do whatever I needed in order to make money. I put off choosing one major because the other major would make me more money. But the fact of the matter is that I shouldn’t be choosing things like that. I need to choose what I love and more importantly what God wants for me. Of course I want the success and the house with the cars and all that. And if that’s what God has planned for me then He’ll give it to me when He wants to. We live in a society that emphasises status and wealth. And boy, when I see an Audi R8 driving down the street, it sure fires up that green monster within. I have had this mentality up until recently that making money defines a man. But honestly, I’d rather live paycheck to paycheck and be happy and healthy with a good family than be rich and miserable, or even worse, alone. When one envies the blessings of others, one usually shrouds their own. I am not rich, but I am healthy. I don’t have a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder (black with the black interior and the yellow stitching), but I have a good car that gets me where I need to go safely. I’m not famous, but I have a great family I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world, and the best friends a guy could ever ask for. So in reality, God has blessed me with so much more than money. And with that…I’m out.

Ch-Ch-Ch Changes.

Change is inevitable. What I grow accustomed to, and comfortable with will eventually change. Sometimes, I wish that things would stay one way forever. Be it because I am happy with it, and I don’t want anything else, or because I am afraid of how the change will affect me. I think everyone has an inherently selfish view when it comes to change in their life. We all have our comfort zones, and we all want those comfort zones to stay the same forever. Whether that comfort zone is place like your room, or if that comfort zone is a relative or a place, it will eventually change. We don’t want it to of course, cause then we wouldn’t feel comfortable anymore. Your room can change tomorrow, you can move to another one. Or you can lose it in a flash flood or a tornado. That someone you find comfort in won’t be around forever either. I think that the only thing we can take comfort in is God. We can take comfort in the fact that God doesn’t change. He’ll be there no matter what. And the best thing about God to take comfort in is when He does change something in your life, it’s because it’s good for you, even if you don’t see it that way at the time. Peace Out.

State of the Jorge Address

When we drift away from God, it’s not like we just rip free and drift off forever. We just have a lot of things that come in between. I can attest to that. I think that I let a lot of things get in between. All those things run through my head, and make so much noise that they drown out what’s important. It’s like trying to hear someone whispering to you during a Hockey game. You can hear over everything going on (especially if you have an obnoxious Devils fan next to you). The only thing left to do was to take stock of everything and just eliminate that which was coming in between God and I. My Bible teacher always used to say that in order to listen, you have to be silent. Well, actually my mother says that too but she means it in more of a “shut up and listen” way. As soon as I did that, as soon as I realized that I am not in charge and I needed to have more faith in God and less in me, then well, everything came together. It’s all good. Anyway, I’m out…super tired and I got work tomorrow. Peace!

Mind Venting…

So here are the random thoughts, ideas, and emotions running through my head. 

I think Hillary needs to come to the fact that she lost. Right now she is just making herself look bad by not conceding defeat. I think it’s great that Barack Obama got the nomination. I think it’s a HUGE step in the right direction for this country and for the way we are perceived around the world. Hillary needs to realize what’s best for the country and not draw this out any further and maybe he’ll be less annoyed and consider her for VP.

In a couple of hours it’s going to be 5 days till the 3G iPhone comes out. On the outside, I am calm and collected. On the inside, I can barely contain myself. This is going to be a great product. I admire Steve Jobs. The guy is a business and marketing genius. Apple loves to ride the wave of massive hype all the way to a single moment. And what sets Apple apart from Microsoft, from Dell, from HP, is at the end of it all, whatever they release surpasses the hype that they create. It becomes such a revolutionary product, that it forces the industry to evolve.

My biggest fear in life is not being able to hear God. But I think sometimes, it’s not that God has stopped talking, it’s that I have stopped listening. I have tackled this issue here before, but I think it’s definitely more about being silent. Sometimes, we fill our lives with some many things, we take on so many decisions on our own, thinking we’ll be ok, then one day, when we do need God, we can’t hear Him over all the noise. Trusting God with every facet of your life is SO important. Making a little time to be silent today, will make things clearer for you tomorrow. That being said, trusting God with everything also includes your finances. Since I started working again, I have decided that it’s time my tithe reflected it. So come payday, I will be getting my tithe on.

I think I am over MySpace. I keep it, just basically to say I have it. I don’t get comments on it, I don’t feel like changing the way it looks, and I like to swap the song out once a month. Everyone I know is on Facebook. I like it better actually, it’s more mature. I can see myself being on Facebook forever, I might delete my MySpace after I am 35 or something.

Thats about it…PO!

I am not in control…

I am a firm believer that when something doesn’t turn out the way you want it to it’s for a reason. Whether its a missed opportunity or a failed relationship or whatever, God has a specific reason that is above our understanding that justifies that particular situation unfolding the way it did. Sure, the reason why may shown to us later or not at all. Whether it’s missing out on a job opportunity because God has a better one in store for you, or ending a relationship because God is sending you the person you are going to marry. But sometimes, just reminding yourself that God has a plan and things happen for a reason doesn’t necessarily put a lid on the jar.

A problem I struggle with, and I am sure some people struggle with is that sometimes I dwell on a decision I made in the past, and I wish I had done it differently. I’ll sit there and dwell and say to myself “Well if I would have done THIS, then I would be here.” But the fact of the matter is that THIS turned out the way I wanted it to. THIS didn’t happen for whatever reason but in the end it’s not up to me, and if God wanted the THIS to happen, it would have happened. It’s like the left and the right side of my brain fight each other.

The logical part of my brain says…

“Jorge, I know you wanted things to work out your way. But God wanted them to work out His own way for a reason. He knows the reason, and maybe soon you’ll know it too. Pray and God will help you. “

But the emotional, stubborn part of my brain says…

“Jorge, you totally messed up, you did this, and that was so not cool cause you should have done this. And now, well your screwed, and you are going to be miserable now. You missed out. Go listen to your City and Colour CD and think about what you’ve done.”

Realistically, what I have done is what God already knew what I was going to do. My brain blocks that idea out of my head. I am the type of guy that likes to know that I am in control of whatever I do. I think Pastor Troy said it best when he said that we like to pick and choose what we trust God for. Not knowing what’s going to happen scares me. But knowing the what God does He does knowing it is for my benefit and that it will make me the person He needs me to be. And that is a great thing.

One Step Back.

I decided to fix things in my life. Get back on track, do what I have been promising myself I would do. It’s nothing dramatic, nothing major. I have noticed that for a while, that I have been basically living my own life. Doing what I want to do, when I want to, thinking that I am the one in control. 

News Flash. I’m not.

Living life with God in the backseat is, without a doubt, a harrowing experience. The scary part is when the voice you hear gets quiet. It happens over time too. Slowly, it gets quieter, and quieter until one day…silence. It so scary knowing that God and I are so far apart. And I know it too. I feel like my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, falling right back on me. Everything I do, I say, is not what it should be. The great thing though is, that no matter how many steps you take away from God, it only takes one step to go back. So I am taking that one step back.