anger is a sign of weakness

Everything God commands us to do is for our own benefit. For instance, When told God wants our praise, responded, why was that? Was God having a problem with His self worth? That was the response of the atheist I was at the time. However, if we lift God up in praise we a have to lift ourselves up in the effort as well. Consider forgiveness. Only God can forgive but if we can forgive we forgive ourselves. Everything God commands us to is for our benefit.

the natural struggle of events

It is the function of suffering that it makes it easier for those who greatly love their body to divorce the reluctant body from the spirit...like being born again.

competing with Christ

I used to wonder why if Christ suffered on the Cross for us what were we doing trying to compete with the crucifixion by picking up our cross and following Him? 
But there it was, I am not a chapter and verse man, Jesus Himself said it so how was I to resolve that? If one does not have enough faith to accept healing then picking up one's cross and following Him seemed the only way for a believer to handle suffering. 
I do not believe God allows suffering. It is introduced by others like the prince doubter and is a way to deal with it if one does not have enough faith to overcome it. Healing occurs according to our faith, as Jesus said be it done to you according to your faith.

The greatest gift of all is God's existence and the existence He has given us. Recall a man of whom it was said he had no children but rather had many spiritual children. 

major key is clear definitions

For me suffering is linked to worship, and faith to healing. Case being made is the definition of worship to primarily include the term love, deep all encompassing love based in the appreciation for the Cross and explanations for the Holy Spirit..

the suffering and worship onnection

Current key words are, suffering, worship, faith and healing. Suffering is one of the great stumbling blocks but I never found it so. Simplistic and incomplete definitions of what one means by the term God, is the problem evidenced in many churches. 
(See Jesus Talking after this date.)

the way we pray

Faith, the great divide. 

I strongly suspect the foremost major concentration of all prayer attempts are for healing. Prayers are offered up in assembly trying to talk God into healing them,  or someone else. In these prayers they spend an inordinate amount of time and emotional effort telling God what He already knows. Seldom mentioned are any promises or covenants God, who cannot change His mind, has already made. Their entire emphasis is on God, what He can do, so why doesn't He do it? 

Since there are so many accounts dealing with how Jesus related to healing, one would think there would be more concern about His methods of thought than there are. I also hear the word "just" jumping around, in and out. It sounds like they want to say only but I am not sure what is intended by so many "justs" . In any event, it sounds a little wimpy to me, and definitely does not seem destined to take heaven by force. 

The most often impression left with me after healing entreaties is that the great physician does it all. After all, He is in control. But a quick review reveals a little more to it than that. 
See Manna after this date.

opposite conclusions from identical information

There are two views of Jesus each purporting to prove opposite conclusions from the same witnesses. Some conclude that because there are several factual differences between the gospels, that this proves the story is a myth.

But differing witnesses are notorious for their differing views since, after all, their views come from different perspectives like separate planets each having a different view of the same star they each orbit. This then proves their stories are not made up because their views are not in synch.

Little Faith and Great Faith
In like manner, by changing the time frame for answered prayer one view concludes God did not answer and the other that He did not answer yet. The first says any claim of answered prayer is a lie and the second says persistence is the bedrock of faith.    

no copycats

We are alive such a short time compared to how long we are dead. From the moment we are conceived we are in a constant activity of change. We are well known, for the most part, to only a comparatively small number of people, many of whom will fade in and out of memory in a lifetime. It is hard to make a lasting impression beyond a local weather report. Many do of course, but not many compared to all those who could be known. Julius Caesar comes to many as a popular but remote second to Jesus of Nazareth. Both experienced a hastened death but only Jesus was reported to have returned to many witnesses. It is significant that no one before nor hence is remembered to have done the same. 

each day another life to be lived

a gentle sleep begat violent dawns

How do we predict the future when all we have to work with is the past? Follow the flow is apparently our only recourse. The sun will rise in the morning, but we cannot count on it being exactly the same as the day before. When it does not, then who is there that will speak about it tomorrow?

We swing though each day as a life to be lived until the sun goes down, and near death comes hidden in our sleep. Why do we do this? Is it a rehearsal showing us the future of our bodies? Someday perhaps our dreams which seem so real in sleep, that will upon waking, be more real.

who are we without our memories?

Top of the World, Thule AFB Greenland

As time slips further out, circling more distant orbits and everything in our memory frames recede, just like the images they throw off, they get smaller until they are,well I guess they are, disappearing into their tiny quantums like little lost black holes. It has to be vitally important to remain on our radar very long. How long can we manage it? Who are we without our memories?

thinking in the letter vs the spirit

Somewhat scary that the physical body can overtake the spirit so easily and bring one's concentration back into a fine point upon itself. To what end? To what end does pain drag the concentration so quickly back into the temporary body? Am I on the right track here?

Had lunch one particular time, lost in memory now, but upon leaving it suddenly thrust itself into my realization that he was talking the entire time in the letter and I was talking in the spirit. This is the way it worked out. I mentioned that C.S. Lewis had a crisis in faith when his wife died. Faith and the achieved strength of it is often my primary concentration. But I quoted Lewis as saying it was all a fine kettle of fish. 

Whereupon my companion exclaimed Oh Spence I doubt if he said that. My first reaction was, yes he said exactly that. Then it hit me. He was in the letter all the time while I'd been talking in the spirit. So what did Lewis say then? Was it a fine can of worms, which is the same thing? What did he say? I have no idea what he said letter-wise, but the spirit of the matter was that the entire situation was a fine kettle of fish which captured the spirit of the issue quite precisely. Probably pick this up eventually in Memorist.