Everything happens for one reason Apr 13, 2005
The more I think about it and the more I pray about things, the more I realize that everything happens for one reason:  the same reason, which is to bring all people to a realization of their need for God and a savior.  I wrote about this before concerning sickness.  But even more than that, everything else in life happens for this same reason.  Death, for example, occurs in order to show us that we won't be here forever.  When people die and we're unhappy, it's normal; it's showing us that we don't want to die either and that we wish that person was still around.  This is saying two things:  we wish people could be around forever so we could enjoy them as we always did, and we're afraid of dying because we don't know what happens afterwards.  God's solution:  we go to heaven after death if we put our faith in God and his savior, and we don't need to worry about other people because our level of enjoyment in heaven will far surpass any amount of enjoyment had during this life.  But this is just death.  What about everything else?  We get sick to show us that we won't be around forever and we need to put our faith in something eternal.  We experience unhappiness to lead us to God's joy.  We go through tough times with money to make us not depend on it, but to depend on God.  We're put in uncomfortable situations to make us stronger so that we can stand for God.  Some people enter our lives to teach us to react in such a way that would be contrary to how we're tempted to act, so that we can love God's people.  This is a short list of things that happen all the time.  I noticed this every time I pray because I say things like, "God, please use this situation to bring people to You."  I've said that on so many occasions, that it made me realize that everything happens for the sole purpose of bringing people to God. #religion
Bible errors Apr 13, 2005
I'm really not a big fan of errors in books.  I'm so painstakingly anal retentive that whenever I read anything, whether it's a book or a magazine or a presentation at work, I always find mistakes.  Always.  It would be good if my job was as an editor, which I actually do occasionally at work.  So it really makes me mad when I find errors in the most important book on earth, the book that my whole life is based on:  the Bible.  I've never found an error in the actual physical Bible (the one with a cover and with pages and stuff).  But I've found errors in two other Bibles:  the online Bible and the Bible on CD.  The errors I've found are tiny; they don't change any meaning or hurt the reader in any way.  The thing I don't like is that the Bible is meant to be a reliable book.  The ancient Jewish scribes used to make copies of it, and they didn't take it lightly.  That's why there have been so many manuscripts found that are all identical:  no mistakes were allowed.  So that's what really gets me.  Not only this, but when I point out these mistakes to the people who run/own these sites/products, they don't even respond.  It kills me.  Here's an example:  Galatians 5:23 says: "gentleness and selfcontrol. Against such things there is no law."  Any idiot can look at that and realize that "selfcontrol" is spelled wrong:  it needs a hyphen.  Also, any idiot can type that into Microsoft Word and the automatic spell checker will tell you it's wrong.  So when I filled out the "Typographical Errors" form on their website on March 1, I was hoping they would quickly and easily fix the problem.  But now that it's quite a while later and they still haven't fixed it or responded to me, I doubt they'll ever do anything.  That makes me mad.  Now there's Zondervan, who makes the NIV Audio Bible Voice Only CD.  It's a great product.  I listen to it all the time now because I can't stand the radio.  But the problem is that I found an error in Titus 3:5, which is supposed to say, "he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."  On the CD, it says "washings" instead of "washing."  That might not sound like a big deal, and it's really not.  But think about it:  the only reason I noticed this error was because I happen to have this verse memorized.  What about the tens of thousands of other verses in the Bible that I don't have memorized?  This is exactly what I wrote to Zondervan on 3 separate occasions:  February 3, March 10, and today.  I would just like a response from them; something to at least acknowledge that they received my email, and maybe that they'll look into it. #religion