Praise for God

     Recently I had a conversation with a friend about what it means to 'Praise God,' because we were having a conversation about corporate churches with paid pastors. My friend pointed out something that I misunderstood because when I hear the phrase 'giving praise to God' I immediately get this image in my head of standing in a building with a bunch of fellow believers, singing with the choir with our hands raise...

      I shared that with my friend, and he reminded me that doing that was only a single form of praise. It got me to thinking about how I don't do that, and I started to wonder how I do praise God if I don't do that.

     What I just thought about a moment ago was the fact that when I hear somebody talk about the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I feel this thing happen inside of me that is hard to explain. I feel like crying, or shouting "YES!" or doing something that feels so over the top that I can't put it into words. What's funny is that I've found recently that once I hear that truth, I want to share it with everybody. I want everybody to hear this truth that I just heard, hopping beyond hope that they get the same feeling...

     I think that may be another way of giving Praise to God, but not only God - Jesus too. Jesus, what he did, what he was all about, how he loved in ways that I could only hope to love one day. I think that's my soul giving Praise to God when I feel that... Who could ask for anything more then to feel their soul giving Praise to God? The very essence of ones being, crying out in joy to the truth of Jesus Christ, and his Father!

It's a little late, and I'm kind of tired. It was a long day, but I wanted to write something about that and publish it to the web before I went to sleep so that I can hopefully build on it later.

Nothing New

I haven't written anything lately because nothing new is really going on. That isn't to say that there isn't something new happening all the time, but as far as my life goes it's kind of the same shit with slightly different events, yet the same result ever time.

The thought that at the end of our lives all we're gonna have are memories, it is a shame that these last few months aren't gonna be anything really worth remembering.

Somebody made a comment today as I was walking by them. They said "You don't look very happy," and my reply was "Typically I'm not." Last I asked myself "Why am I not happy? What's going on? Am I stuck in a 'I'll be happy when' rut that really doesn't have an end to it other then death?

I can either back track these past few months and try to figure out why I'm depressed, or just take the steps to get out of this "depression" and move on.
It's sad that I can't just answer the 'what are you gonna do?' question...

Sympathy vs Empathy - A.A. & N.A.

I just got done reading a publication about Sympathy vs Empathy and because I don't have a huge database of references to pull from, I have to connect that information with biblical scripture as well as Anonymous Recovery terminology because basically.. that's all I've got.

The first thing that came to mind as I was finishing the article about the difference between sympathy and empathy is the relationship I see between the A.A. and N.A. "Oldtimers." (Alcoholics Anonymous & Narcotics Anonymous.)
I don' t know how true the accounting is, but I've been given a few different stories as to why there is such a rivalry between the two fellowships.

Before I turn this into a research paper, I kinda just wanna state my case and leave it at that so I can get back to doing my homework, which I've been lacking on for the past few weeks..

An alcoholic can have sympathy for somebody that's been addicted to narcotics, but would not necessarily share an empathetic perspective unless the person with a narcotic addiction had experienced an addiction to alcohol as well.
A person that solely used narcotics addictively would not share an empathetic perspective with somebody that only drank alcohol. In that case, only a scene of sympathy could be present in the addict.

Unless these emotional states are present in either of the persons, no sense of compassion will manifest and a desire to find differences will pervade. That being the case, ethnocentrism will be the result, and there will be no chance of recovery.

Why that's relevant, or even worth writing anything about, is because I wonder where the children caught in the crossfire sit. Those that have drank alcoholically as well as used narcotics addictively.

People like me don't really have a house to claim, which is why I've found my recovery in Jesus, NOT RELIGION OR CHURCH.

After reading the bible, and being around both the N.A. and A.A. communities, I've learned that they too, like church's, are subject to the folly of religious practices.
You will get you're head torn off by the statement: "We're spiritual, not religious" if you ever make mention to the similarities, but they are there if you know what you're looking for.


The article I read can be found HERE:
http://robin.hubpages.com/hub/Sympathy_vs_Empathy