Lives 1st

The powers of mind, spirit, and body with which we have been created, and which we use in religion and politics, belong to us simply because of who we are. Simply by coming into being as a human we have them. We have the right to keep these powers permanently – that’s what the words “endowed by the Creator” mean in the Declaration of Independence . Any effort to take these powers away from someone is an effort to rob him of his fundamental human property. This leads us to the two of most challenging questions Americans have ever faced. 1. How is it that we come into being as humans in the first place? 2. And how is it that we come not merely to have these powers of mind, spirit, and body but also to have a right to them? In the Declaration of Independence these questions, in turn, lead us straight back to the Creator. “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable R...

As a former pastor and law enforcement chaplain, why something bad thing happened was a question I was asked many times. Many of the answers people give are directly linked to the five belief options below. Keep in mind that the answers are Institutional Truths, Personal Opinions or combinations of both . Making clear distinctions between the type of information beliefs are based on is one of the most important skills you can develop for dealing with the massive amounts of information you encounter every day ( click here for more information ) . Belief Options About the Role God Plays in Human Actions Today Option #1 : People have freewill to do good or bad things. Bad things happen because people chose to do them or nature caused them – There are reasons that things happen . Option #2 : People have freewill, but God intervenes in events from time to time. Option #3 : God predetermined all human actions at the creation; every person is born with a prewritten, but unk...

Chaos is defined as a state of extreme confusion, disorder and unpredictable behaviors in which chance reigns supreme. The chaos we are witnessing today in America is driven by “ conflicting versions of what reality actually is ” – embedded in streams of information people delivered through mass media and social media devices . Chaos is created through tsunamis of conflicting information . Creating order requires focusing on the specific pieces of information within those waves, identifying what type of information it is and identifying the source of the information. Making accurate distinctions between types of information increases certainty and decreases confusion. As certainty increases chaos decreases. We are dealing with three types of information: ● Fact based information. ● Institutional truth based information. ● Personal opinions . Our brains treat all types of information as if they are of identical value, that’s why creating chaos ...

We are one of many genetically hardwired creatures with the capacity to exercise power . We live in a power matrix environment in which we are either exercising power or power is being exercised against us . P ower is the ability of a creature to get what it wants . Humans have two options for exercising power. ● Persuasion is exercised against a human mind primaily through words or symbols. In the world today, the most powerful form of persuasion is money . The second most powerful form is belief in a god . ● Force is exercised against the human body through physical actions . The most powerful forms of force in history kill people. The most powerful options for killing people are nuclear and biological weapons. The Laws of Power 1. Power Concentrates . Power feeds on itself and compounds . 2. Power Justifies Itself . People invent stories to legitimize the power they have or the power they want to have. 3. Power Is Infinite . There is no i...

The tensions created by the presence of good and evil can be seen within all humans and in all groups – from the highest to the lowest . Even at the bottom of the abyss, they are clearly exposed and laid open in the horrible conditions that exist in concentration camps. Look for the appearances of good and evil in the stories below . Who is doing them to whom? Identify the relationships between them. How do those not directly involved react? The following stories are told by prisoners who were there. The first three stories are told by Witold Pilecki , a Polish man who volunteered for an audacious mission – to assume a fake identity, intentionally get captured and sent to Auschwitz . At that time he was a thirty-nine-year-old Polish resistance fighter – and he is not Jewish . First Story “On either side of the entrance into Auschwitz, newly arriving prisoners walked past a line of German SS guards , who were often smoking and laughing among themselves. On this day, they...