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You will not be able to overwhelm the whole world
You can’t overtake everyone in the competition
You won’t walk on water, so don’t go overboard
People are not afraid of your overwrought reaction
Overcomplicated is a real turn-off
Overlooking is flat-out annoying
Change is to come. Get over yourself.
Find your weakness, and deal with it before you find yourself over the hill.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
(3642)
If you are in search of the ultimate right, all you will discover is the ultimate wrong.
Trying to purify humanity into a collected horde, responsive to a single code of behavior, is not only futile, but Jesus declares it fatal.
“Judge not lest ye be judged.”
And Jesus did not leave that statement open for interpretation. He went on to explain that the way we judge–the approach, the intensity, the verbiage, the facial expressions and the incrimination–will be identically applied to how we are evaluated by people and spirits.
This is why Jesus said that he, himself, does not judge. He insisted that he could, and would work very hard to make it just, but it’s absolutely useless.
Here’s why: God does not give the same amount of grace to everybody.
It’s one of the foolish teachings being propagated in the Christian church today. God does not pour out 14.2 ounces of grace for every convert and call it a day.
Some people get more grace.
Some people can do shit that you and I cannot get by with, and receive no judgment from their heavenly Father whatsoever, while there are those who had better not misquote a scripture, or they might be in danger of great tribulation.
For you see, grace is not a gift. It is a heartfelt consideration from a Creator who loves us, who only seeks one fruit from the human race: humility.
You may possess great Bible knowledge, and have never, ever looked at a piece of pornography in your life, but if you try to enforce that conduct on other people, you will be judged harshly merely for missing Sunday School. Grace will only be trickled your way and you will discover that the forces that be, including Mother Nature, resist you.
The deal that Jesus was making with his disciples in Matthew the 7th Chapter, when he told them not to judge, was not a “liberal, devil-may-care, who-has-the-right-to-throw-the-first-stone” proposal.
Rather, it remains the realization that as humans, we are required to exude a humble spirit, or else those around us will plot our destruction.
The Good Book says clearly, “God gives grace to the humble.”
The more we judge, the more we drain our humility.
The more we critique, the less able we are to bow our heads in comprehension of our own weaknesses.
You and I do not have the same amount of grace.
But since in our life span, gracious mercy is needed, our goal should be to stay simple instead of aggravating the journey of those around us.
Our mission?
To discover the many ways that we can remain humble.
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Jonathots Daily Blog
(2213)
… and then a remarkable occurrence …
Man and woman, expelled from the Garden by choosing the knowledge of evil and good over life, were thrust back out into the jungle for survival.
They were ill-suited.
Being monkey-angels, they had limited capacity for the grit of everyday sweat and pain involved in scrounging on their own. This introduced many scenarios–most of them dire.
But the remarkable part of the story is that rather than becoming extinct in an environment contrary to their natures–instead of sitting around blaming one another for misdeeds and weak character–they took the one enduring ingredient of the Garden which was formerly their home and carried it into the next part of their experience.
Love.
Man and woman loved each other.
Escaping the foolishness of finger-pointing and accusing arguments, they returned to the essence of why they came together in the first place. Realizing they knew too much and that this burst of information only made them feel despondent and worthless, they turned to one another to discover purpose.
Like “grandparents” of the entire human race, they acted out a living lesson of what makes our species valuable:
1. Who are we?
Not “who do we want to be?” Nor “who do we think we should be?” But instead, “who have we become?” minus shame over our nakedness.
2. What do we know?
Lacking pomposity and false bravado–just a simple inventory of the knowledge we possess that enlightens us instead of diminishing our capacity.
3. Where do we start?
First with each other. We aren’t going to make it out here in the jungle, to someday be worthy of the Garden, if we are constantly alienating ourselves from one another.
Man loved woman. He called her “the mother of all living.”
Woman loved man.
They trusted each other to be strong and were fully cognizant of each other’s weaknesses. They undergirded one another’s efforts.
And even though their bizarre selection of choosing to include evil in their thinking set the human race on a precarious journey into unnecessary failure, their love sustained us, pointing in the direction of life.
I know it is popular to glorify the Creator for His genius and generosity. Certainly He is worthy of all praise.
But let us not forget that our salvation story did require human beings to survive and prosper until such a time that the restoration of all things could be offered back to us … from another tree on a hill far away.
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After I set up my equipment last night at the church, the fine pastor posed a question. “How will you be sharing the gospel message in the morning?”
I understood. He was basically curious about whether I would be preaching or teaching. I don’t preach, although I admire and honor those who do. Preaching, to me, is like walking into a room with a loaded gun, convinced you’ve gained the advantage, only to discover that the room is filled with those holding pistols. Not for me. And, there is no more honorable profession than teaching, but my inclination lies in stirring the hearts of people instead of engaging their minds.
My message transformed when I did. It was when I finally accepted that God is my Father, earth is my mother, Jesus is my elder brother, you are my brothers and sisters and I am a child who is wanted, appreciated and granted promise.
Theologians and philosophers would listen to that profile and deem it child-like. To that I would respond, “Thank you.” It is not that I am incapable of studying or comprehending deeper matters of spirituality, theology or even church history. It’s just that my journey has caused me to doubt the value of such eternal introspection, which doesn’t offer much internal peace of mind.
I don’t know what God did before He decided to be my Father. I think it would be a very bratty thing for a child to investigate his parents to find out all the hidden secrets of their particular lives–exposing them for who they are. I know God has a history. I will leave that to Him, as fortunately, He has forgiven mine. I am reassured that at some juncture, He decided to become a Father instead of just a universal Creator or a “sin-thumper.” I am glad He got together with Mother Nature and birthed a son named Jesus who became my brother and the “first fruits of many creatures.”
I stay away from two subjects–God and heaven. The debate and frustration that human beings have over those topics has generated more wars and discomfort on this planet than any other argument. To me, God is my Father … and that’s the end of it.
If you want to bring up the Old Testament or the thousands and thousands of interpretations of His persona by other cultures, you may feel free to do so. But I believe that knowledge which only produces aggravation is useless to those who only are able to relish mortality. If you wish to speculate on heaven, you may proceed with all liberty to do so. But eventually you will end up discovering that heaven is a place beyond comprehension, individualized to each believer in some magnificent, unique way which is beyond our understanding and devoid of sight or hearing.
It is a human journey we are on and when we fail to study our humanity, we actually cease to comprehend our Father. He wanted to start a family. Maybe you choose to believe that He “settled down” from previous escapades. It makes no difference. True spirituality is the study of humanity without fear or condemnation. When you try to delve into the supernatural, you fail miserably because you quickly realize that you are not super and therefore have lost sight of all the beauty of our natural world.
I did not give the minister of the church this particular answer. But I share it with you today because his was a good question. What IS it we want to share with our fellow human beings? What IS the good news?
Stay away from discussions on God and heaven. What we don’t know won’t hurt us. Because someday we WILL know.Am I afraid of the future and the unknown? No. Because after all, He’s my Dad.
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Jonathan wrote the gospel/blues anthem, Spent This Time, in 1985, in Guaymas, Mexico. Take a listen:
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To see books written by Jonathan, click the link below! You can peruse and order if you like!
We made a mistake. We do that every once in a while … just to maintain an obvious profile of needful humility.
On Thursday night we told two ladies where we were going to be on Friday night, but unfortunately, the information we gave to them was incorrect. And also, the starting time of the event was actually a half-an-hour earlier. We didn’t do this to be mean or evasive–we did this because it was our time to establish our quorum of stupidity. When we returned to our motel room we realized our error, but it was too late because we didn’t know who the ladies were or how to get ahold of them.
Move ahead to Friday evening. I was about half-way through our program, in front of the delightful and inspiring folks of Port Charlotte, Florida, when in walked those two charming women whom we had accidently misled. Even though I was singing a song at the time, I had to chuckle in my spirit. I started thinking about what these two individuals had gone through to actually find out where we were, arrive and come through those back doors. First they went to the wrong church, sat in a dark parking lot, coming to the conclusion that this must not be the place. Then, checking all of their GPS information, they came up with the correct location, only to arrive and find that the program had already begun because we told them the wrong time. What remarkable human beings.
So after the program, when I was at my book table, they came up and were so gracious about the whole event that it nearly brought tears to my eyes. As they were about to leave, one of the pair whispered across the table to me.
“And by the way … you’re not ugly.”
Now that might seem like a strange statement unless you understand that in my program I make it clear to the audience that I am not a physically attractive person and being beautiful is not my aspiration. I’ve never had any problem with that. Actually, I’m quite amused with desperate candidates who are always trying to win the beauty contest of life. I work on my love of people, my talent and my flexibility much more than I do my appearance. I’m not ugly–I’m just homely. “Homely” is about two fewer bumps and bruises from ugly, and about a mile and a half down the road from good-looking.
It has actually done me well. For in my case, all the Monica Lewinsky‘s I have encountered have actually wanted to be an intern to my ministry and business–to learn what I know instead of desiring to give me a personal “inter-office memo.” You see, that’s good stuff. (One of the easier ways to avoid sexual misconduct is to be a whole lot less sexually attractive. Then you never have to find out if you’d actually slip-slide away…)
So when she said that to me–“you’re not ugly”–I laughed. She was so sweet and gentle, but it just doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to me. What did register on my awareness scale was her and her friend–making such a noble effort to reconnect with us and spend a few more minutes together before our earth passages end.
Don’t give up on humanity. You may feel free to turn your back on organizations and those who have incorporated their ideas into a cement block–but don’t ever give up on people. For I will tell you two certain things right now: (1) Never over-estimate the willingness of any system to actually adapt to what needs to be done; and (2) never underestimate the power of an individual (or in this case, two) who want to overcome the dorkiness of a system.
There you go. Oh, and I thought of a third one:
By the way … you’re not ugly.
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Jonathan wrote the gospel/blues anthem, Spent This Time, in 1985, in Guaymas, Mexico. Take a listen:
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To see books written by Jonathan, click the link below! You can peruse and order if you like!
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
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| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
 | Jonathan on 1 Thing You Can Do When Your F… |
| Anonymous on 1 Thing You Can Do When Your F… |
| Anonymous on 1 Thing You Can Do When Your F… |
| Anonymous on 1 Thing You Can Do When Your F… |
 | Nolan on 1 Memory About Jonathan Richar… |
 | Maxine Mantooth on Drawing Attention … Dece… |
| Steve on From the Stacks … Octobe… |
| Maxine Mantooth on Scrambles … October 20th… |
| Maxine Mantooth on From the Stacks … Octobe… |
| Maxine Mantooth on Scrambles … October 13th… |
A voice writing in the wilderness
Jonathots Daily Blog 
G-Poppers … April 27th, 2018
Jonathots Daily Blog
(3655)
It is totally unrealistic to believe that we can tout our strengths without having our weaknesses show up sometime in the heat of the struggle.
There is a healthiness to being positive about our gifts and talents. Yet without understanding the darker side of our character, we can mislead ourselves into thinking that matters are much better than they truly are.
It’s the difference between “scoring” and “scouring.”
G-Pop knows when to score; in other words, those moments when some self-promotion and blowing one’s own horn comes in handy so people recognize possibilities instead of being in the dark about his potential.
But likewise, there is the need to scour–to scrub the emotions, motivations, and buff up honesty in order to create a clean heart. Unfortunately, most friends, family and even strangers become somewhat miffed if G-Pop becomes too self-aware, or in their opinion, self-critical.
They ask him if he’s “going through a bad time.” They want to know if he’s been offended. They think his moments of scouring are useless, and could be better applied to more scoring:
America is full of those who score and rarely scour. What is scouring?
Today G-Pop recognizes that he needs some scouring. There are some trailing lies, misconceptions, fears and aggravations that cling to the corners of great plans, preventing them from gaining flight.
Without this scouring, scoring starts to be a memory of the past and a false projection of what might be.
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on April 27, 2018 at 3:00 pm Comments (1)Tags: aggravations, clean heart, emotions, false projection, G-Poppers, honesty, motivations, passion, progress, scoring, scouring, self-criticism, self-promotion, strengths, weaknesses