Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Family, Church, and State.

This post is going to stray from my Frisbee theme a little...  And go to the other theme of my Blog - Theology and Philosophy.  Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary states one of the definitions of 'Philosophy' as being - "an analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs".  So I'm going to try and analyze for you guys the current state of the Family, Church, and State, and also what their Biblical roles should be.  So bear with me.  :)

The first thing to note is that the Bible clearly defines what the different roles of the different institutions are.  When it says that one realm is responsible for X, the other realms are not to assume that X is within their jurisdiction.  Although the way it is set up in the Bible - they all hold each other accountable.

~How it should be~

Family - Fundamental. (serving as an original or generating source.)  There's no doubt that the family is the fundamental institution behind all of the other realms - without family, there is no Church or State.

(Education)  Parents are responsible for teaching their children (Psalm 78:5).

(Inheritance)  The men of the family are supposed to provide for their family, even their widowed mothers/grandmothers (1 Tim. 5:3-8), but they're also supposed to lay up an inheritance to give to their children (Deut. 21:15-17 ).  The last sentence makes sense because - 1. The young cannot support themselves.  2. The working father is fully capable of supporting his living ancestors, descendants, and himself.  3. the aged and infirm cannot support themselves.  So, the man (if he wants his children to provide for him when he is old) must set aside an inheritance for his children.

Andrew Carnegie is an example of the opposite side - he made a lot of money in his time (He sold his steel company to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480,000,000!  During his retirement, he gave most of his money away to create libraries, help charities, support world peace, and the like.  At his death, his last $30M was given to foundations, charities, and to pensioners.).  But his philosophy was this - To get all the education you can get, then make all the money you can make, then give all your wealth away to worthwhile causes.  As far as I can research, he didn't leave an inheritance to his only daughter, or his grandchildren!  He left behind a legacy of squandering the money that God had given him through his hard work.

(tithing)  the family should tithe back to God by giving the Church at least 1/10 of what the Lord has blessed them with (Numbers 18:21, Hebrews 7:5).


Church - Spiritual.  (of or pertaining to the spirit as the seat of the moral or religious nature.)

(Spiritual responsibility)  The leaders of the Church are responsible for watching the souls of their flock (Hebrews 13:17).

(Receiving/distributing tithes)  I'll skip over going into detail on this point, since it was discussed somewhat on this Blog in an earlier discussion.  But the question is if the Church should be the ones funding places like hospitals, or should individuals/family make that their business?

State
- Physical.  (of or pertaining to that which is material)

(Punishment of evildoers) The government, made up of kings or governors, is supposed to punish evildoing (1 Peter 2:13-14).


~How it is~


Family -
(Education) The Family has left the education of their children to the State and Church.  Churches have age segregated youth groups and Sunday Schools, and the State has government-run public schools.

(Inheritance) Families have taken the inheritance out of the picture.  Children aren't looked at as responsible to care of their parents outside of putting them in nursing homes.  The fathers have put their money into IRAs and Social Security, because the State has taken over more of the Family's roles.

(Tithing) The Family is now tithing to the State because the State has made it mandatory to give it a portion of your income (part of the State taking over the Church's role).  There are surveys out there that state - "
Religious observers (those who attend weekly services) give 3.4 percent of income annually, while nonreligious people give only 1.1 percent to 1.4 percent. (The Gallup Organization)"  It goes on to say that - "If historically Christian church members had given 10 percent of their income to the Church in 2004, it would have added up to an additional $164 billion."

Church
-

(Receiving/distributing tithes)
The Church has been limited by the State taking the Church's tithe (by taxation).  Our government has started (it hasn't always been this way) taking our money and taxing everything, making it harder financially for families to tithe to the Church...  Messing up the whole system, and making our dependence on the State greater.  The Church then isn't able to do the things that they should be doing.

State
-
(Punishment of evildoers) The State seems to have kept this one pretty well...  Until you look at all the laws that we've passed in recent years.  The recent legalization of same-sex marriage in some states (a thing to be despised by Christians), for one, and then we have legal murder in the form of aborting unborn babies.  :(  It's sad.  Which brings me to my conclusion...


The State has become centralized.  Meaning that it has taken the power of the other institutions...  Or they have given their power away!  The reason that the State has taken the place of our regular institutions is because every realm has turned from God and have set up their own system against God's standards.

Let's go back to the Bible and study and learn and reclaim the system!  It's time to look more in depth at the Biblical principles governing these realms.

This was a kinda long one.  :)  I had an off day from work at CFA!  ;D  I hope you enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to reading the discussions afterwords.

~Jay

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

PICS! Friday - May 13

I finally moved the pics of Frisbee down to our "Internet" computer from the old one upstairs where my sis had put them...  I love hide-and-seek!  not....  Anyways, here they are!  =)


Friday Frisbee ~ May 13, 2011


 Eric gets the bomb-block


 Gene-O jumps up for a catch


 Danny grabs the Frisbee


 Mr. Skills himself!  Daniel makes a nice catch


 Mr. Skills' dad shows where he got it from


 Sic looks past Gene-O


 Jay flicks it past Gene-O


 Kennie makes a showy grab


 Jay snags it in front of Gene-O


 Kennie makes another catch in the air


 Roger with a jumping pancake-catch


 Rocky with a jumping(?) pancake catch


Jay twisting to get around Gene-O
 
Soooo...  Give it up for Mom-O!  =)  She's getting better at shooting Frisbee.

I just noticed that in the pics I took of people looking to throw it, Gene-O's guarding most of them!  He was team captain by the way....  WAY TO GO, GENE-O!  Setting the bar higher for us.  =)

I hope you liked this little glimpse into the Friday Frisbee world.  =)

~Frisbeeman

Monday, May 23, 2011

May Frisbee Tip

So, Frisbee is now in full swing and I haven't posted any tips this year.  :(  Sorry about that, but I've been busy and haven't really thought about it much....  Until now...
=D

Tip - Experience is very helpful (I know, it's nice of me to say so...  right?) in getting the most out of your game.  Be committed to learning while you're playing.*
OK...  This one needs an explanation.  =)  I've played 115 games in the past 5 years (I didn't keep track before then), and I've played Ultimate for about 8 years!  Thus I can be considered very *experienced* by some people.  And In all my experience, I've learned this - that experience goes for nothing unless it is helped along by knowledge and a desire to learn.

I can play a million games and still be a mediocre player.  Or I could play only a few games, gain some basic knowledge of the game, learn how to respond when different situations arise, and be a phenomenal player!
Some people enjoy getting out there and just playing with friends...  I'm not one of those guys.  While I do value friendship and being with my friends more than I like to play Frisbee (Really!  No joke.  Frisbee is just one of the many tools available to me.), I can't just simply play a game for that reason.  I have to be analyzing the field, cutting to where I know I can get the Frisbee, and trying to learn new ways of playing optimally.

Therefore - *Be committed to learning while you're playing...  It's really not hard to think through things while you're running around on the field.
(one basic way to start is this: when the other team scores a point, ask yourself this question while you're walking back to your end-zone - "How did they manage to score around my team?"  That should lead to a few more questions that are answered in your mind in less than a heartbeat - "Who was guarding X when they caught it?" - "Who was I guarding?" - "Are we as a team guarding specific people, or are we just doing a 'zone' defense?" - "Was the thrower giving signs of where they wanted to throw before they threw it?"...)
Ask yourself some of those ^ if you're committed to making experience count more for you than it does in the next guy.

There's only so much you can learn by simply doing something repetitively.

~Frisbeeman

P.S.  The pics are almost ready for me to post them...  *Suspense...*  =D

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Frisbee!

So, tonight we had a really good game of Frisbee!  :)  And mom got some EPIC shots of the game!

I should have them up here next week...  :)  I'm taking a little rest now.  *relax...*  =D

See y'all in 2 weeks @Frisbee!

Frisbeeman