MK Journal

This morning I read this article:

Jonathan Cahn’s Last Words to Obama and Charge to President Trump

I was drawn to this article by a book that was given to me at Faith this past Sunday called “The Book of Mysteries” by Jonathan Cahn.  Rabbi Cahn is a “Messianic Rabbi”, still Jewish, but believes that Jesus was the Messiah.

The article fires up the image of America as the “City on the Hill” that is to spread light around the world.  He laments about the Obama years as the bringers of darkness…in particular relation to two issues: Marriage and Abortion.

These are hot topics for Christians and to many others in the world.  Truthfully, my own thoughts on these issues are on the move…they are moving toward a more conservative viewpoint.  Though I feel strange about this, as for many years I have sided on the pro-equal marriage and abortion rights side of things, they seem to align to my thoughts about God more and more.

What I’m coming to realize is how powerful God really is.  I know to believers this is silly, but to me this is profound.  I have claimed to be a Christian for a long time, but yet I routinely deny the power of God by denying his commands for how I am to live my life.  I simply fail to see him as the powerful, univers-building being that he is.  Through this denial, I can act as I will and see no universal consequence.

While I do not believe that the purpose of our faithful lives on Earth is to be rewarded in the hear and now, there is a connection in the hear and now to what we do and what we get, we really do reap what we sow.  I believe that this happens in relationships, in finances, in moral behavior, and in every other aspect of life.  There is a balance to the universe that is built into all of its structures.  Opposing forces are constantly at play and our role is to battle for the “right” agains the “wrong” and there really are absolute “rights” and “wrongs”!

The article certainly continues to make the claim that America is God’s special country.  That somehow we have been selected as the example for the world.  In some ways, we are this.  This makes America great, but as any example, it is a great responsibility and others imitate us good and bad.  Look at the impact that great athletes who have fallen from grace have on children and young men who admire them!

Like it or not…we are example of the world.  The world looks to the thoughts, behaviors, actions, opinions, etc. of America as a guide.  We have to choose what kind of guide that is.

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Mark K.

I shared a great time with my daughter Mara tonight.  I am so proud of her.  She has such great energy and ambition for life.  She can get sidetracked easily, but that is something I can relate to.

She inspired the first poem out of me for quite some time.

We were talking about Adventure Therapy, and she is in the process of writing an article for a magazine about it (hopefully she will get it done!)

I wrote some lines called “Adventure Therapy”

Again, it flowed pretty easy…a bunch of edits the first time through and it is ready to go.  (At least to MY standards!)

I knew Mara was going to be home tonight so I made a deal with myself that I would not do any work.  I would make myself 100% accessible and available to her as she did her visit.  As it turns out, she is staying here for three days.  That will be cool.  We will have lots of time to connect outside of work.

I will need to spend time at work doing work though.  I still have to get my to do lists done!

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Today was filled with a lot of anxiety and pain (others’).

A student’s husband died of an overdose and she wants to talk about it in class.  This is causing some anxiety among the staff.  It is not that people can’t handle it, it is not that the staff does not have the boundaries or skills…but just like the first time I encountered real mental health issues in students, I did not expert, nor did I want, to deal with that in THIS job!

I had to do quite a bit of supporting today.

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I created a video about the ERT (Emergency Response Team) training we are supposed to do in class.  I sent it out to Kathy E. but I have not heard back.  I think it came out pretty well.

I did it in the format that I want to use for Psychobabble and found that it was not that difficult to pull together.  The story line came through as I was putting the slide show together and then I recorded the audio on the first take.

I think that when I get to do the Psychobabble stuff I will be able to do the voice overs without a script…though, it might be easier to use a script.  I can think through the stories and such as well.

I’ll do the slide show and then write the script.  It was fun to do and the results were pretty cool.  I think the Psychobabble thing is really going to work out well.

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Mark K.

Check out this quote from the devotional text of the Bible in a Year plan I’m on:

“Holy is the word that sets God apart and above our attempts to enlist him in our wish-fulfillment fantasies or our utopian schemes for making our mark in the world.”

WOW!

Talk about taking a moment to think about the motivations of my own goals.  Yes, I’m ambitious and I want to do things and leave my mark on the world, but the “wish-fulfillment fantasy” and “utopian schemes” really nail the reality of how much of my own ego is involved in my ambitions.  

The role of the Christian is to serve God, not to serve the self.  While motivations vary and I don’t think there is much necessarily wrong with the notion of being self-serving…it has to be second to the primary mission of us all…to serve our God.

We, ourselves, are holy to the extent to which we live to serve God.

Being in line with what God wants me to do means that God is on my side…who can be against me?  What could I possibly fear when the creator of the universe is on my side?  This is what is meant by being fearless…this is a degree of peace that we seek in our faith.

Jesus calls us to be ruthless in our effort to be holy (to live our lives in service to God).  This intensity is what he seeks…this is the intensity that will attract others.  When we see people who are very INTO what they are doing, we find it compelling and amazing.  We want to learn more, maybe even have a part of that wonderful energy that we have when we fully commit to something…when we are “ruthless” in our pursuit. 

We are to develop:

• Humility
• Tolerance
• Love
• Discipline 
• Peace
• Faithfulness

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One of the great challenges of my thinking is with the mechanisms of the universe that demand a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.  I can understand enduring sin and the fact we are born sinful.  Humans have been devolving in some ways over the generations due to sin.

What is it about the physical manifestations of good and evil in the world that usher in the need for sacrifice.  Are there patters of power and energy that emanate from “good” and “bad” acts?  Can this balance be offset by the instance of “sacrifice”?

I consider the energy that goes out when we hear of a personal sacrifice.  This giving of self, everything from simply doing a favor to giving one’s life, has a ripple effect in the world.  More so than simply doing good (which may have selfish motivations along with good ones.). Sacrifice, one would assume, entails that I am not that comfortable with the thing that I’m losing.

Our own trek to be holy involves an imense amount of personal sacrifice.  We are to give up our selfhood, our desires, our needs.  These things we do with joy and willingness and out of a pure desire to serve God.

There is something, however, mystical about blood.  Scientifically, it is the liquid tissue.  It is a transportation system that moves nutrients, oxygen, and waste all over the body.  Blood is a miracle fluid.  It is connected, in composition, to the she and the initial creation.  To spill blood (as in murder) is to defy God, to spill blood in sacrifice is the ultimate glory to God.  It truly is the leaking away of our life.

In the ancient world, blood sacrifices pervade the Old Testament.  This is so strange to our modern ears.  But in the day, blood was mysterious.  It is also connected to the creation so the use of it in sacrifice recollects the connection we have to the initial creation.

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Just read that we are the “salt of the earth”…we are to have “salt” in us.  Consider this in light of the fact that salt intensifies the eating experience.  It causes us to salivate more thus aiding in the breakdown of the chemical make up of our food and allowing our tastebuds to process more information.  We are to be the “salt in the oats” that lead others to be thirsty.  May they look at us and be thirsty for what we have!  

We will bring others to Christ not because we have convinced them of the need they have for Christ, but because we will be the salt that causes them to thirst for him!  Like moths attracted to a flame, we are the flame that attracts others to Christ.  We have to burn, we have to give light.  And by giving light we bring attention to the shadow (for without light there is no shadow and all is in darkness.)

Mark K.

So here I am using the WordPress App to do a post into my Blog.

This is pretty neat.  I think I can simply take pictures with my iPad as well.

…well I tried to post a picture and it didn’t work.  🙁

I guess I will have to keep trying.  This is pretty cool though.

Well, that effort for a picture worked.  It might be that they can’t be too big.  Here is the cover of my second book of poetry, Poems 2, with the image on the cover created by Stephen Larochelle.

I can put something in a block quote like this!

I can make lists!

• First
• Second
• Third

Mark Kavanaugh’s Website
Mark K

So, just to see how it might look I want to do another post right after the “First Post Ever”, hence the title.

I’m also attempting to use Blogo, an app for my iPhone and iPad that will allow me to post to this blog.  It does not seem to be working because of an Error 412.

Had I known…

🙂

So here is my first blog post.

This blog is meant to serve as a Journal, of sorts, for me.  Here I will record my thoughts, goals, reflection, etc.  More of a record for myself than for other publishing purposes.

Mark K