NCarolinian

“They’re right.  The rules have changed.  In a single generation, revolutions in technology have transformed the way we live, work and do business.  Steel mills that once needed 1,000 workers can now do the same work with 100.  Today, just about any company can set up shop, hire workers, and sell their products wherever there’s an Internet connection.” [I hear – Adapt Or Get Left Behind] “What’s more, we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea -– the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny.”   [What If We Allowed God To Shape, Mold, and Give Us The Plan for Our Lives, instead of little ole me, WOW!] “We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.    We have to make America the best place on Earth to do business.  We need to take responsibility for our deficit and reform our government.  That’s how our people will prosper.  That’s how we’ll win the future.”  ...

From observing Scripture it seems that God's essence/nature "yesterday, today, and forever does not change".  He is always good, faithful, just, loving, and so forth.  However, His mind on certain matters seems influenced/altered by human prayer's.  Or is it?  Being an all-knowing God, He knew these prayers were going to be prayed a long time before the need for them arose.  So, was God's mind really influenced/altered?  Has God's mind, then, ever been altered? I don't think so.  God has always had a plan and what we think was a deviation from that plan was still His original plan.  Can God's plans be thrwarted?  I don't think so.  He was before the plan and He is already at the end of the plan and He is presently overseeing the working of His plan in the meantime.  There are no surprises with God, The God that stands outside of time and within it, because He made it and space too. So, because there are no surprises with an...

"I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. ['For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.  If we live, we live to the LORD; and if we die, we die to the LORD.  So, whether we live or die, we belong to the LORD.'-Romans 14:7] Correct me, LORD, but only with justice - not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing. Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob [Israel]; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland." -Jeremiah 10:23-25

My definition of the word idol is – a person, thing, or concept that holds sway over one’s life instead of God; a substitute considered of highest value/worth over the one true God; a major distraction that causes us to take our focus off of God and place it on something or someone else. Now, that stated without going to the dictionary, let’s look at what the dictionary does say. –noun 1. an image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed. 2. Bible . a. an image of a deity other than god. b. the deity itself. 3. any person or thing regarded with blind admiration, adoration, or devotion: Madame Curie had been her childhood idol. 4. a mere image or semblance of something, visible but without substance, as a phantom. 5. a figment of the mind; fantasy. 6. a false conception or notion; fallacy. (Source: http://www.dictionary.com/ ) As you can see from number two and letter “a”, my definition was a little wordy compared to theirs but I ...

With the amount of potential talent and/or skill that Carolina has on that basketball squad, plus the coaching quality, I viewed this game as the Tarheels playing down to the level of Virginia and VA having a couple of hot shooters that we did not guard well at all.  And those shooters that were hot, guess what specialty they executed in - that's right, the three point shot!  They also had the easiest of times driving the lane late in the game - gotta correct that. Our big guys contributed nicely down low the first half of the first half, but after that the whole team caught the "I can't hit the broad side of a barn disease" and could hardly buy a basket until the middle of the second half.  Here the table finally switched (ah, you thought I was going to say turned) and UNC had to make up an 11 point deficit, which they did, with help from foul line appearances and held on to secure their first ACC road win. This year is not going to be pretty. Next is VT ...

In my reading the Bible all the way through for the third time (I think), I am in Isaiah.  Specifically I just completed chapter 37 and that is where I will reference from in this writing. The following is a combination of paraphrasing and quoting from Isaiah 37.  Hezekiah had received an intimidating letter from Sennacherib, king of Assyria and this was Hezekiah's response. Hezekiah spread out the letter before God and prayed....... Master of Everything, God of Israel, who has not been dethroned, you are sovereign.  You are Creator God.  Please see me and hear me as I read this insulting letter from Sennacherib to you. [Letter is read] It is true God that his army has laid waste to the nations around us.  The Assyrians have even claimed victory over each nation's god, which is not that hard seeing that they are made out of wood and stone.  Prove that you are God, Maker of the Wood and Stone that the other gods were made from and Creator of all...