So I fell...

...Out of a plane!! I did it, finally went sky-diving! After all the years of saying one day I'd do it I now can say I've done it. Really, there are no words to accurately describe it. Its amazing, surreal, adrenaline-pumping, but peaceful all in one. Literally heaving my body out of an airplane at 14,000 feet is something I'll always remember and I got to do it with one of my best friends, Kevin.




The wind rushing up at your body is the first real sensation. Its like putting your head out of the car window while driving down the highway x10. Its so loud as the wind rushes by that I couldn't even hear my own yelling. Then after what seems like forever (really 50 seconds) the chute is pulled and the real G-forces kick in. The actual fall didn't really have any G's, quite peaceful. But after the parachute came out it became a roller-coaster like sensation as I started flying it around. I had a good instructor who remained calm through the whole thing for me. Steering the parachute really allows for some massive G's, though, after landing I was glad I didn't pass out, seriously. They told me lots of people do from the G's after pulling the chute.
Scariest plane ride EVER, such a tiny plane with no seats so we're all just laying down. The ascent was like the worst roller coaster "click-click-click" ever. Kneeling on the edge of the door right before the jump was ... insanity at its most beautiful. You're first thought is, "Whoa, beautiful view"...quickly followed by "No way am I actually going to fall out of this door," ....followed by "AHHHHH---ahhhh----WOO". That was pretty much my thoughts. Needless to say I prayed almost the whole time on the plane ride up, haha. Best answer to prayer ever (I lived).

Investing Lessons that HURT

I've always had an interest in business, finance, and economics. I was an economic major at UGA, I've interned at Morgan Stanley/Merrill Lynch, and my dad has been a financial advisor for almost thirty years. Needless to say I've already "learned" a lot about the subject; however, I'd say that my real learning started happening when I started using my own money to invest.

I saved up a lot of money from my sales job at Mattress Firm and since I benefited from a nearly zero fee account with my dad, I began investing. Well those "lessons" were paid for with my own money. Sometimes I'd make huge profits. Sometimes I'd make HUGE losses. I'd make plenty of dumb mistakes that could only be learned from actual experience. I decided that since these lessons were expensive (some of them too expensive in my opinion...) I should write them all down so that I wouldn't forget them. All of them I can honestly say that I've either learned after prayer (from God), or from mistakes (from me). So this post is really for myself, however I do hope that these may be of some benefit to anyone who invests. Hopefully you can avoid some of the dumb mistakes I've made.
Disclaimer: This list will probably be continually updated as I am always continuing my investment education. Now in no particular order:

1. ONLY use OOM calls with a clear catalyst trade. Out-of-the-Money and At-the-Money Covered Calls are made up of a huge % premium. These then lose their value everyday as the call approaches expiration. I've lost WAY to much money with these, being right on my prediction, wrong on timing. ONLY use these for a catalyst and only right before (1 day max) the catalyst; so that the premium time problem doesn't affect the trade.
   
   However, if playing a good catalyst like Earnings Announcment, its much better to use these than Deep-in-the-money, because they give more bang for your buck. You can have less exposure with more potential upside. Because a catalyst trade is a bit of a win/lose trade. In past experiences I've found that even with ITM calls I pretty much lose all if I'm wrong, so with that in mind, I might as well leverage the potential upside with an OOM call (not too much). That way on a win I'm leveraged much better.
   
   
2. Instead of buying stocks, buy a deep In-The-Money call options. This gives much more leverage, you get 3 to 1 and sometimes up to 5 to 1 leverage because each call represents 100 shares of stock. Buying deep in the money makes it so almost the entire price of the call is made up of intrinsic value- so the option trades 1 to 1 with the stock. The premium can't eat up the option over time, so its basically a stock replacement system (thanks Jim Cramer).You buy these one month out (lowest premium..remember premium = bad) and deep enough in the money that there's not much danger of being stopped out to zero. Remember this is a replacement for stocks, not a speculative bet. If stock A is currently at 100, and I buy the 70 calls, I get stopped out at 70. To zero. So make sure to go deep enough, don't get greedy and confuse this strategy with speculation.
   
3. Getting back to Even doesn't work. There have been many times when I made a bad trade and my security went down. The worst thing to do here is to hold onto that security and wait until it "goes back up" to break even. First off the market doesn't understand or care about you breaking even. It might never go up; and holding onto it hoping it does it more an emotional denial to accept the loss. The reality is that when you're security drops in value the loss has already occured. You aren't "holding it off" by keeping the security. In fact there have been many times I could have made it back by switching the funds into a different security. Here is the rule: At all times, make sure to own investments which should grow the fastest in the near term and forget the emotional ties to "getting back to even" from previous mistakes.
   
   Example: I'm watching security A, B, and C. I buy security A before a catalyst. It drops significantly. Afterwards I need to start over mentally and think, at this point in time is security A, B or C more likely to grow quicker? Many times the answer is B or C, in which case I need to sell the remaining A and shift to one of them. Always be on the fastest train. (self note: remember bidu at 65)
   
4. BUYING and SELLING should almost always be done with emotion. How does this make sense? Well when I feel ECSTATIC about a huge rally I should be selling. When I feel SCARED about the depth of a pullback and my sentiment is reflected in mainstream thought...I should be buying. When I look back at every trade I've made. I always see that when the market or stock topped out was when I felt the best (think bidu after split). When I could have made the best buys were when I was super scared, not just worried, and the talking heads on CNBC were even more scared than I was (think flash crash or S&P 1010 in july). At that point it's so hard to buy because I'm scared to death that the market will fall even more...so is everyone else... I remember at S&P 1010 I heard the talking heads saying how we'd probably fall down to 900 at this rate and head to a double dip. It was a bottom. While I'm not a bottom fisher, I do think its wise to buy STRONG trend-stocks when the market is down here. Rule of thumb: When No one is buying, I should buy. When no one is selling, I should sell.
   
5. Diversify with at least 7 securities. AT LEAST. Far too many times I've lost money putting all my eggs in one basket. Painful note to self: Netflix back in July earnings....ACK. But diversifying to seven puts the odds in my favor since I only use great stocks. Putting too much % in any one stocks is GREEDY. And pigs get slaughtered right?
   
   
6. Only use the best stocks. I've made the most money using HOT stocks instead of bottom fishing for possible reversals. The market is never logical in my experience, so why vote against it? Why try to bottom fish a stock that represents a good company thats been hammered by the market because I think it should go higher? Instead, I need to find stocks that represent AWESOME companies that the market LOVES with strong charts!
   Then I have not only good fundamentals, but a great strong trend behind me! Forget trying to predict bottoms (or tops for that matter) because I'm not very good. However I am great at finding trends and hot stocks.
   
   
7. PEG. This ratio has really helped me see when a stock has become too expensive. What is a stock? Actually I've found that the stock price more represents Earnings per Share and Percieved Growth than the actual company. Well EPS can easily be measured, but I've found the traditional P/E ratio to be useless because it fails to account for growth. People pay LOTS for growth! So we have to divide the P/E by the Growth to get the true valuation. Logically a perfect PEG should be 1. I've found in reality that hot stocks can (and do) go up to a PEG of 2 before the market really pulls back on it. Thats paying a P/E multiple of twice the growth rate. The sweet spot here really seems to be between 1 and 2 for some reason though. I originally thought it would be below 1 because it means the growth is undervalued, but I've found that stocks with PEG between 1 and 2 are usually the winners. I theorize this is because these stocks are usually more popular and have a broader market exposure after passing 1.
   
   
8. EARNINGS...I've been burned bad holding an option through earnings, I've also made a huge profit. If you plan to hold an option through earnings conference call, know that you're making a speculative play that could shoot you in the foot even if the call is good. Sometimes I've seen great stocks fall off a cliff after a GREAT conference call. This is a good buying opportunity but a danger of holding thru earnings. Its best to diversify among different company earnings (7 at least) not all on one. Also consider, after earnings announcement you're in a MUCH more knowledgeable position about the health of the stock. If guidance is good, estimates are beat, and the stock rallies then I know the stock is still a good buy. Repeat situation with a stock sell off, EVEN BETTER BUY! But bad earnings and/or poor guidance and I put the stock in "time-out" until maybe next quarter.
   
   

Forget WWJD...how about HWJV

Unless you have been living under a rock lately you know that politics, especially with the upcoming midterm elections, is on everyone's mind and tongue. I myself have really been drawn into it thanks to Glenn Beck's show on Fox. I think a lot of other people who usually don't pay attention to politics are getting interested because our country's unemployment rate is staying so high and so many people are out of a job.

I've always been very opinionated about politics, having been brought up on conservative values. But lately I've been trying to approach my political views from a faith perspective and I've been having some trouble... What Would Jesus Do --- or rather How Would Jesus Vote? Now obviously I know that realistically Jesus would want us to focus on spreading the gospels. When Jesus was alive he wasn't involved in politics and when questioned about it (about paying taxes to Caesar) he pretty much responded be a good citizen and obey the laws.

But what I'm trying to iron out is this, if you are someone who tries to follow Jesus example, what would that look like as it spills over into your political views? Now I've been conservative most of my life and recently more specifically libertarian because I want smaller less powerful government and more protected liberties for citizens. I don't like the government getting involved in the private sector and our personal lives. So here is where my internal conflict is... if I believe something is morally wrong, does that mean I should want government laws ENFORCING morality? To me, that sounds dangerous. But at the same time I imagine society would be much better in a situation like that.

To my knowledge from reading the Gospel, Jesus never pushed for right and wrong to be enforced through the Roman Government. It was quite clear he wanted people to decide themselves how to act, not to be forced into it. Does that mean he didn't care? No, it means he wanted them to have the freedom to choose. He wanted them to have the ability to choose life or death through accepting or rejecting him. He never told his disciples to force people to believe in him. So this leads me to think that a government should protect people's freedom to choose right or wrong. Problem with this is if you go extreme, you do away with laws against murder, theft, and all sorts of crime. So where is the line? Conservatives tend to want more government laws that enforce this type of morality. Problem with this is if you go extreme, you start seeing laws enforcing religion. Religion HAS to be a choice. It cannot be forced on anyone.

For example: I don't think the government should EVER have a law that businesses have to be closed on Sunday. That's enforcing religion. God never tells us to enforce our religion on others, but rather, to be an example for them. "A light of the world"(Matthew 5:14-16). There's a huge difference there.

So HWJV? I think he's already voted! God already gives us (humans) the freedom to choose good or evil, right or wrong. While there are consequences for actions, God doesn't strike down people who sin. He lets them choose sin if they want. Why? So that they have the freedom to instead choose him. So God already gives people freedom to do right or wrong.

So with that as my foundation I'll expand on what my views are now. Just as God gives us the right to choose (the freedom to choose), I think the government needs to give people the freedom to choose. However, I do think that people need to be given the right to life and the pursuit of happiness. So in order to protect that life, there need to be some basics. There needs to be laws that enforce no murder, no violent crime, no rape, no theft ect ect. So sure, make laws against actions that hurt other people, but other than that I'd say "Government, leave it alone!"

This would include things that I am against! For instance I am against gay marriage and I believe it is a sin. However, that sin does not hurt another person. The government shouldn't be involved on the morality of it. Is it a sin? YES!! Does it hurt the foundation of marriage? YES!! But people should have the freedom to sin, as long as it doesn't infringe on another person's freedom of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. God gives us the freedom to choose poorly, even terribly. I think the government should reflect God a bit. I'm sorry that this might offend my fellow Christians but sin should be legal. God needs to be the judge of sin, not government (man). If you get all caught up in the fact that not having those laws means we are giving sin the "ok", thats nonsense. Is God giving sin the "ok" when he gave us the ability to choose it? NO, of course not! Well neither would the government be in that situation.

Trust God to be the judge, not the government. Know that there are earthly consequences for sinning and its up to each person to decide for themselves. Its not the govt's job to stop people from sinning, it is however, the govt's job to protect people's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. (not happiness itself) If this ruins your hope that someday the united states would be a perfect...God fearing...righteous...non sinning Nation. Then you need to GIVE IT UP! That will NEVER happen until Jesus returns! Stop depending on the government for what only God can do!

So examples of common conservative topics and where I stand?...

-Gay Marriage: Should be legal
-Abortion: Illegal (babies life needs protecting)
-Murder: Illegal
-Prostitution: Legal
-Gambling: Legal
-Using Drugs: Legal
-Intoxicated in Public (including driving) : Illegal (endangers others' lives)
-Health care/Financial Reform: Do away with it
-Violent Crime/Sexual Crimes: Illegal
-Welfare: Do away with it
-Government Education: Do away with it (let private sector take this one)

This is most closely tied to Libertarian views, so that is how I'll be voting.

Getting Connected

I've really been trying to get connected lately. I really enjoy being around people and lately because of circumstances I've been doing a lot by myself. One thing specifically I want are more christian friends. Its strange to think that pretty much all my life I've only had like one or two christian friends... that just seems strange to me.

Its like ever since I was little whenever I started to really get connected in a church my parents would switch to another and I just became used to never connecting to anyone. Throughout grade school and even through college I really had no friends who shared my faith. And while I have no objections at all to having non-believing friends I realize now that I really don't have many people outside my family I can talk to about spirituality. Which makes me sad.

So I took the awkward plunge recently and I joined a small group at Buckhead Church with a group bunch of guys. Its been really nice talking to people in my stretch of life about God. In fact I feel like I have definitely missed out from not always having this. And now I realize its def no coincidence that I was denied this at earlier times. It was calculated. Nonetheless never too late to start building those good relationships.

I even went to a singles Fusion gathering tonight. I was really worried it would be very awkward but I actually met a lot of nice guys and girls. I'll absolutely go to the next one. Its kind of weird when people ask if I'm new in town (because I don't know anyone) and I never know what to say, because I'm not new to the church, been going to North Point Church campuses since middle school. I'm not new in town, been in Atlanta since I was five...so I never know what to say. Not new. Just tryin to get connected!

I have to confess that lately thoughts of my ex-girlfriend have been floating around my head. Its really hard not to miss her. I still can't look at any pictures of her, too hard. Probably a good thing that she un-facebooked me and cut off all contact. I just hope she doesn't hate me for breaking up. I mean I really loved her but I knew deep down we weren't right for each other. Hard situation, I hope she understands one day and forgives me. And here comes the real shallow part of me -- I hope the next girl I date is at least as beautiful as she is. Can ya blame me? I was with a Russian princess, basically. /sigh Must block out those thoughts....

Science, Math, and God

OK so awhile ago I had thought. Like a really really big thought. I told my mom about it and she thought it was pretty profound and told me to write it down so I wouldn't forget it. Well I've almost forgotten it, so I'm going to do my best to remember it and write it here. Hope it makes sense somehow, its kind of a complicated subject.

Here goes...

So I had been thinking about the school of thought that a lot of scientists have. The universe, the earth, and all creation is random chance. Everything just matched up perfectly in physics so that we exist. I could write an entire blog about that topic alone, but believe me when I say that the mathematical odds of that happening on its own isn't great. You could Google it if you like, its fascinating. Anyhow, scientifically it is possible though.... or is it? Is it mathematically possible? This was my train of thought when I kind of stumbled on what I think is an epiphany.

Statistically....Nothing Should Exist and Nothing Should Ever Happen.

Does that sound absurd? Follow me down this rabbit hole, lets see where it goes. How can I say that statistically nothing should ever happen? I mean we see stuff happening constantly. The Universe is happening. Well let me use an analogy to explain kind of what I mean that nothing should ever happen.

Lets say that you are sitting on a park bench and you decide to toss an acorn. You toss the acorn and it lands somewhere. Lets say it landed exactly 5 feet from you. What were the odds of it landing in that spot? Well this can get tricky and I promise I won't get too mathy on you--- but if we assume that the maximum distance possible given that amount of force applied to the toss is 10 feet and the minimum is zero (say it slipped), then what were the odds of it landing right at 5 feet? 1 out of 10? No, because that assumes there were only 10 spots, in fact we now have to find out how many possible spots there were that it could have landed in. Lets call that "Z". When we find Z, we know that the odds were "One out of Z" right?

Here's the problem. Z is infinite. But wait, that can't be right, how can there be an infinite number of spots, shouldn't it stop somewhere in the millimeter measurement or something? No, technically not because lets say we have a perfect machine that can measure from the first atom in the acorn to the first atom in the park bench. In that case is there ever going to be a situation where we have a defined number of possible spots? No, mathematically we can always go halfway from the first spot to the second spot, and make a new spot in between. In essence you can always divide by 2 to get another spot. ALWAYS. So that means between the maximum of 10 feet and us there are INFINITE locations that the acorn could have landed in....

1 out of infinite is undefined...meaning it won't happen. You can't divide a number by infinity, because the answer nonsensical. So actually, the acorn shouldn't land anywhere because any exact spot is statistically impossible. But, we don't ever think that way, we are so used to stuff happening; like the acorn landing somewhere, that our thinking is warped and we always assume it's logical for things to occur.

If that didn't make sense, let me use an easy example. If you win the lottery and you find out that only 10 people played. It's not too surprising. If 10,000 people played, well that's pretty special that you won. If 1 billion people played, well its almost supernatural that you actually beat out that many people. If 100,000 billion people played, its unfathomable. if infinite number of people played, then its impossible that you won. Well that's what we deal with everyday in our existence. Things happen. Anything that actually happens shouldn't happen. You can replace the Acorn Analogy with any known thing happening in our reality and if you go down to the math you realize that it shouldn't be possible. So if an acorn landing somewhere is that statistically impossible then looking at how our planet formed and our brains and the perfect balance of gases in our atmosphere there is no question that it even more so should never have occurred nor should it exist.

Before I go further, here is a common argument to this thinking that seems logical. "Well, something has to happen, if you throw the acorn is has to land somewhere!" I think this logic is actually faulty, but since we are so used to observing it in our everyday experience we accept it. Forget experience, think logically. Just because you threw the acorn doesn't mean it should land in any one spot, because after it lands in that spot it has achieved the impossible. After landing, something impossible just occurred. Why didn't it land in the infinite other spots? How is it that it didn't land one billionth of a millimeter to the left? And we are only talking about a 2d landing spot, factor in 3 dimensions and it really gets crazy. Factor in time (4th dimension and its insane) Is it really logical to think something impossible will always happen? .... Because we all do, everyday only because the impossible DOES always happen in our experience. That's the only excuse.

So if you understand how anything and everything is impossible, then how is it so that we see these impossibilities happening every second of our experiences? Here's my answer, and I actually am going to go into a little Quantum Mechanics to explain it. If any bored scientists have wondered onto my blog and are now reading this sloppy explanation of Quantum Mechanics, please excuse me. Here is an excerpt from Nasa.gov on the subject:

In quantum mechanics, the observer and the system being observed became mysteriously linked so that the results of any observation seemed to be determined in part by actual choices made by the observer.

They have proven through rigorous experiments that someone actually being aware of a subatomic particle, changes its properties. That should blow ....your...mind. What that means is that the things that we consider to be our reality...the stuff that makes up atoms, actually CHANGES due to observation!!! This is not science fiction, I recommend that you pick up a book on quantum physics, fascinating stuff. In fact much of quantum mechanics explain how your Ipod works, so don't write it off as theory mumbo jumbo. Ok so back to Observance changing reality. What is observance? Its Conscience Thought. A rock wouldn't count as an observer. Somehow consciousness actually changes reality on a subatomic level. Mind over Matter isn't just a nice slogan anymore...

Now lots of people took this and ran a crazy direction when they discovered this. They came up with "The Secret" and the Law of Attraction and basically a lot of jargon saying how people can control the universe with their thoughts. While there might be a tiny speck of truth to this (and I do mean a speck), I want to take this much further and in a more expansive direction.

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17)

Scripture is very clear that God is literally, not figuratively, holding everything together. And now we put all the loose puzzle pieces together. We have consciousness because God created us in his image(Gen 1:27). Just like we are conscious beings, God is a conscious being. So how do impossible things happen every second?... Something is making them happen. Well since consciousness changes reality it could be the culprit... Quantum Mechanics give support to that. But who could possibly have enough Consciousness and Power to support the INFINITE amount of possibilities going on and make everything happen? God. No one else could. God's consciousness allows the acorn to land somewhere even though it statiscally shouldn't have happened. He allows possibilities out of the infinity to be singled out and occur in reality.

So here is where we have arrived. Statistically, nothing should ever happen. Nothing should ever happen in our universe. Quantum Mechanics show us how consciousness changes reality. The bible tells us that God holds all things together, all creation. God's consciousness literally holds reality together and accounts for the reason why we take for granted the fact that THINGS HAPPEN. Science is slowly discovering God.

If you took the time to read through all that, kudos to you, b/c I know I can have trouble explaining it. Now just reflect; isn't it absolutely incredible? God is literally holding the universe (reality) together consciously, as in the same way you can consciously think of a red apple. (bet you just pictured it didn't you!) So its not some far out figurative way in which he's somehow in control of things the way a school principle is somehow in control of the school. No no no, its so much more direct! The same way a baby is literally held up by its mother, God holds up creation.

--Tomorrow I'll write a bit on a scary mind shattering kind of thought I had after realizing this...I'd write it here but I think I'd be pushing on novel length if wrote anymore--

Omelettes are Evil?

Had a good day today, woke up and made some great stock trades thanks to my prayers. There is absolutely no way that I could pick stocks that well if not for God. So made a little bit of money. Then went to meet up with my scene partner, Vivi, from acting class to work on our scene.

Its interesting to me that I'm at the point in my acting career where I can almost completely get into my character and forget myself. Its exhilarating. Especially since its between two young lovers. Without the training I've gotten I don't think I would have been able to kiss someone and be sincerely affectionate without laughing or blushing. So progress is being made!

Had an interesting conversation with her about abortion. As she got me started on the subject I learned something about my views. See--I'm a pretty strong Libertarian and I am completely against the government taking ANY freedoms away from its citizens. I'm all about freedoms of the people, and thus, for a long time while my stance on abortion has been that its morally wrong, I didn't think the government had any place making laws about it. To my defense, I don't want the government making ANY laws about religion except to protect it. The freedom to practice your religion in peace....

BUT -- then i realized, since I believe abortion is murder of an unborn child.... anti abortion laws protect the liberty and freedom of the child. I'm all for that. I think its surprising that in our country its punishable by jail if you destroy an eagle egg but if you destroy a human egg (embryo) its just fine and peachy. (thx for reference glenn beck)

However I will still say that the mixing of religious laws and government laws is dangerous. The only religious laws that should be made into government enforced laws are those that enforce the inalienable rights that God gives us. So then we're left with the obvious ones, aka Bill of Rights.

OLD BLOG!

So today I discovered my OLD blog! Funny thing is I actually had forgotten that I even had one back when I was a hs senior/college fm. Its crazy reading all of my old thoughts. Almost like I was a different person, but not quite.

I must say I was a pretty depressed kid in high school and I was Mr. Happy in college. Makes me want to go back. Hrmmm, speaking of which, I've been half heartily throwing around the idea of going back to Georgia to get a masters degree. Reasoning? I miss college, haha. Not a good reason to acquire more debt. Not even sure how much having a masters degree would even help anything. Its not like I'm actively pursing a job right now, trying to focus on acting and stock trading.

Both are going flat but I'm optimistic that they'll take off soon. Going back to my old blog, I had forgotten how much I loved acting back then. Its actually pretty encouraging to see that this isn't some new interest for me.

For anyone interested, you can click HERE to see my old blog.

Celebrated Steve's 21st bday today at dads. He got a super nice bible and was excited about it. Times change eh? Who woulda seen that coming a few years ago!

Pirates arr Bad

So the other day I was thinking about how much of the things we own now are media/software type stuff. It used to be that the majority of the stuff my generation owned was stuff like CDs, video games, VHS movies, sporting equipment ect. But these days most of the stuff I own is more intangible. Computer software, mp3s, movies in digital format, apps, ect. What struck me as odd is how "ok" everyone is (include myself on this) with stealing now that stuff is more intangible.

I mean think about it. Anything that you have to pay for retail-wise that you somehow obtain for free is stealing. For instance, I'd never ever think about breaking into a music store at night and stealing some of their CD's but I have many many times downloaded mp3s off p2p programs like limewire and napster illegally. But the reality is that THIS IS THE SAME THING! I mean cmon, do we all think that in the stealing CD's example that the store and music producers would be mad only about the physical cds themselves? Duh, no. Those are super super cheap, its the media on them that has value. So in essence we do the same thing but in this case its very hard to be discovered.

I mean I myself have used these p2p programs to download probably hundreds if not thousands of dollars of media over the past 10 years and I even used IP Blocker programs to cover my tracks! All without even realizing or accepting the fact that I was stealing. I think I was trying to blind my own self from the truth. Software piracy is stealing. Downloading mp3s without paying for them is stealing. Using bit torrents and the like is stealing, and I think we all do it without really thinking about it. I mean its so common. Even more so in Asia from what I hear.

I don't know how I went all these years without coming to this realization. But the truth is the truth. And the truth sucks, haha, because its sooo hard to pay for something that you can steal so easily without anyone finding out. But in your heart you know, and God knows too for that matter.

So I say if you're gonna stay a digital "Pirate" and steal media online and the like....at the very least ADMIT to yourself that you are stealing. Don't try to rationalize it (oh those companies make millions, they won't miss a few bucks here) You can't rationalize away stealing. If we continue to steal, we have to be honest and admit at least to ourselves that we are Pirates.

And not the cool Johnny Depp kind, the low life criminal evil kind.



Arrr matey's! I'm abandonin da ship!
I QUIT
I WON"T BE NO PIRATE NO-MORE!

Jesus - Do you Pinky Promise???

Ok so I've been really caught up/exploring one subject in the Bible. Its logical....it makes sense.... and its completely insane by standard Christian traditional thought. (at least the Christians I talk to) Follow me here:

-God is Perfect. Meaning he cannot sin. No iffs ands or buts about that one.
-God is omniscient which means he knows everything, even the future. (i know i know, all common knowledge...follow me...)
-God makes us (his followers) Promises throughout the Bible.
-God cannot break his promises because that would be a lie and God cannot sin. (So God doesn't have to "Pinky Promise". His word is absolute)
-God knows the future so he knows he can keep these promises even before he made them.

-So the fact that God even made us promises MUST mean that he wants us to know them and to hold him to it!! Otherwise why even make a promise in the first place?

Example: If I make my brother a promise that I'll always pick him up if he's in a bad situation; I'm promising him that so he REMEMBERS it, USES it (if needed), and KNOWS that he can count on me to keep it. So if I do that with my promises, wouldn't a perfect God who knows the future WANT us to know his promises and use them?!

Its interesting to me that it makes people uncomfortable to say "I'm holding God to his promise", almost as if they are controlling God or being unfair to him. That's plain ridiculous. God made the promise so he's in control. He already knows the future and knows we'll hold him to it, so why would we be ashamed to hold him to it?? I think we're completely missing the point here. He's probably proud of anyone who DOES know his promises and holds him to them because it shows their faith in him. It has nothing to do with controlling God.

Now does that sound fair? If so, I'm about to make most Christians really uncomfortable now because I'm going to list one of his most controversial promises (excluding of course our Salvation through Jesus --I'm assuming if you're reading this you already believe that promise as all Christians do) This is a promise that Jesus himself gives us from his own mouth and its recorded in many different scriptures:

Matthew 6:7-8 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

Matthew 18:19 "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."

Matthew 21:22 "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

Mark 9:23 "...Everything is possible for him who believes."

Mark 11:23-24 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Luke 11:10 "For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

Luke 17:6 "He replied, 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it will obey you'."

John 14:13-14 "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

John 15:7 "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."

John 16:23-24 "In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."

Phew, that's a lot of verses. Why did I post them all and not just one or two? The reason is that I want to show the repetition to make it obvious how simple and powerful and NOT OUT OF CONTEXT this promise is... The promise is so simple and pure but I don't think many Christians sincerely believe it.

If you pray for anything in Jesus name, you will absolutely 100% receive it as long as you truly believe it. Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute there Chris. You can't just ask for ANYTHING, that's manipulating God. We have to make sure its God's Will first right? Right??? Well, what does Jesus say? Read those verses up there, and even read the entire bible chapter if you like to assure yourself that they are not all out of context. I can tell you they are not. Jesus says over and over again that we receive whatever we ask for in prayer. He never mentions God's Will. In fact, the only requirement of this promise is that you believe it. Belief or Faith is always mentioned by Jesus as a requirement of the promise.

So hold on, how does this work? Lets go extreme then, really extreme. Can we pray for God to sin? No, of course not. God is holy and perfect and cannot sin. Is this a hole in the promise then? No. You have to understand who Jesus was making these promises to. He wasn't promising these to any old guy off the street. This was a promise made to people that had received the Holy Spirit of God. This was implied from who Jesus was talking to but just so we have proof read John 15:7 again. He starts with, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you..." So clearly he is talking to true Believers with the Holy Spirit. So I don't think this would be a problem.

But lets get back to this, because this is HUGE, and life changing. This promise is SO generous and SO powerful because it gives us assurance that our prayers will be answered if we believe. The two reasons I think Christians really feel uncomfortable with this are 1: It seems as though we are controlling God and 2: Many people's prayers are not answered!

So how do we deal with these two issues? Well for the first one I actually feel that God gave me a great analogy to give it clarity. Lets say that there is a father and his son. The father promises the son that anytime he asks for it, he will give the son $10. This is a promise that's made out of love so the son will always know he can depend on his dad. Lets say the son needs a new t-shirt because his ripped and so he asks the dad for $10. Will his dad give it to him? Of course! He promised. Lets say the son wants to buy some candy for a sweet tooth. This is a selfish motive, so when he asks the dad for $10 what will he say....he'll say yes of course! Why? Because he promised! NOW lets say that the son is older and wants to buy some illegal drugs (extreme). He asks the father for $10. What will the father say? Will the father refuse him now because of his terrible motive? NO! The father will keep his promise while pleading with his son not to go down that dark path. Why won't the father just refuse the son? Because he promised!!! Does God keep his promises because WE ARE GOOD, or because HE IS GOOD? His keeping his promises has to do with HIS HOLINESS and PERFECTNESS, not to do with us! Does this make sense? If the father were to refuse his son the $10 because of his son's bad motivation, this would be BREAKING HIS PROMISE. See? God has to keep his promises to us because of HIS holiness!

Now the good news is that unlike the father in the example, God is omniscient and knew the future when he made the promise. He knew every single time someone would hold him to his promise and knew he could and would keep it. But here is something that you probably haven't heard before; just as God lovingly gave us free will to make good and bad choices, he also gives us the free will to use his promises wisely and unwisely. This means that you can potentially use this promise (and others) to pray for things that aren't necessarily in our best interests but God will still keep his promise. So it is very important that we seek out God's will first so that we can enjoy his plan for our lives.

This truth should be LIBERATING because it is a blessing that he has given his people. We should be joyful in knowing that we can put our whole weight on God's promises and he will keep them because he is perfect. We can know that if we really believe in our hearts, we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer in Jesus name.

So then what about the 2nd issue most Christians have with this point. All the unanswered prayers???!!! I mean its not like every single prayer is answered, I've sure prayed things that weren't answered and I'm sure others have as well. The answer is simple, we really didn't believe the way Jesus described. It would take too long to write down, but if you look at all the miracles Jesus does in the New Testament they all make it a point to record Jesus telling people it was because of their faith that the miracle was performed.

If our prayers aren't answered I'll go out on a limb and say its because we didn't have the faith Jesus talked about when he said"...does not doubt in his heart..." However, it might also be because of a common phrase people often insert in their prayers: "Your will be done". Praying for God's will gives God the opportunity to say no to our request. I'm not arguing that we should then not pray for God's Will, praying for God's Will and guidance for our lives is a great and wise thing to do. However, I am arguing that this explains why some of our prayers are not answered.

I think that true faith is something of a scarcity in reality. When we pray do we truly believe we've received what we asked for the moment we ask for it? What would it look like if we really did? Would we worry? Would we doubt? No. So maybe its not as easy as it sounds. But Jesus promises us that if we can manage to have faith, it will be done.

If this makes you uncomfortable or bothers you, take it up with Jesus not me. I'm quoting directly from him. If what most Christians say about how we can only pray for God's Will is true than taking Jesus' words literally makes him out to be a liar. If you don't believe Jesus, that's your own decision, but I for one do believe him. Are there other people who are recorded to have believed this amazing promise? Yes, in fact there are a LOT. Daniel and the lions den, Elijah's prayers causing a 3 1/2 year drought, Shadrach Meshach and Abednego being untouched in the fire, Moses and parting the Red Sea, Joshua and the sun standing still....ect ect. Do you think these people were special? Different than you and me somehow? No they weren't. They were regular people who trusted God. Take God's promises seriously and trust him recklessly and you won't be let down.

Romans 10:11 "As the Scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

Obey God. Eat Cake.

So I've been listening a lot to a preacher named Doug Batchelor who is probably the BEST bible teacher I've ever heard. He really brings the scripture to life for me...which is great because in the past when I tried to read or understand the bible it was like trying to read a Calculus book or something....not easy.

Anyhow, he really brings it alive in an exciting way. Go to his site www.amazingfacts.org and check it out! But one thing that he teaches and backs up with scripture is that Christians still need to follow the ten commandments and the one commandment that's been forgotten by most people is the fourth one, to "Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy". He claims that the Sabbath was originally made by God as a holy day and it was specifically made on the 7th day. Well my brother and I did the research into history and its pretty clear that the 7th day is Saturday, not Sunday. We looked everyone in the bible and could not find anywhere that it was changed from Saturday to Sunday! In fact, the reason Christians celebrate on Sunday is b/c the day of worship was changed by Constantine of Rome back in like 320AD to accommodate the Pagans! Well we went to a lot of people who know the Bible better than us for an explanation and to our surprise no one could give any biblical evidence that the Sabbath should be Sunday.

So we started observing the Sabbath on Saturday, doing our best to follow it. Not working, but also not doing anything that wasn't focused on God. We even, yes I know this sounds nuts, we even got Georgia Football tickets for free and missed the game one Saturday in order to keep this. Needless to say we were really really devoted to keeping it.

Well, a few days ago I went running and as is my normal routine I prayed while I ran. But this time I specifically prayed that God would explain to me about the confusion of the Sabbath and if it's really Saturday and why if its so important Jesus never spoke of it in the New Testament. Well I felt the Holy Spirit really speaking to me on my run through my thoughts. This is what he said:

God's Law is eternal and will always be so. Not one tiny bit of the least commandment (dietary jewish laws come to my mind) will ever be taken away from it. (Matt 5:18) However, God's Law changed its form through Jesus.

I didn't quite understand this and asked that the Lord use an analogy...since that's kind of how I think. So this analogy came instantly to my mind. The Old Testament Law (including the 10 commandments) are like ingredients for a cake. Each commandment is an ingredient and is perfect. In a way that can be hard to comprehend Jesus IS the law (even before his birth; John 1:14) and when he was born he still is the law but fulfilled the law. (Matt 5:17) He became the cake. So the Law changed form from ingredients into a completed, baked cake. All the original ingredients are in the cake, no one would ever argue that any individual ingredient is missing from the cake, right? Well in the same way, all the original commandments are "baked" into Jesus.

Thus the "new form" of the Law is made through his death and resurrection. But in this argument I am specifically not talking about salvation. All believers know that we are only saved through Jesus death for our sins. Rather,this is more about how to be obedient. Anyone who truly has the Holy Spirit in them and loves God wants to be obedient to him. Well, this shows that obedience does not have to be from the old form of the Law but the new form. "Eating Cake" instead of the old ingredients and the way we "Eat the Cake" is by following Jesus' commands. And Jesus' command was always to Love God and Love others. (Matt 7:12 and John 15:12) So if a Christian wants to be obedient to God, he shouldn't look to the Old Law ( that law is written on the heart anyway; Hebrews 10:15-16) but to the new form of it which is To Love! Here is the proof, read Romans 13:8-10.

So what does this mean? Well to a Christian who wants to obey God this changes EVERYTHING. We don't have to focus on those old ingredients of the Law's original form, but we can have the liberty to focus on the new cake that the ingredients formed. Loving God and Each Other.

My brother and I no longer have to worry about keeping the Sabbath to obey God. (and actually keeping the Sabbath the way it was commanded in the old testament is HARD...trust me on that). Nor do we need to get caught up on focusing on the 10 Commandments. Whoa, did I just say that? Does that mean Christians can go and just break all of them now? No. If you are loving God and loving others you won't be breaking any of them. Who can love someone and lie to him at the same time? What about kill him? Or covet what he has? Can we love God and put idols or others before him? No. While I don't understand on a logical level how this also fulfills the Sabbath rest commandment, I'm confident that it does. So while I do feel that going to church to worship God and setting out a day that we won't work is a great thing, we should be more focused on obedience through loving others than on not breaking a sabbath.

While that sounds easy, I have found it is not. Its hard to love the guy who cuts you off in traffic and gives you the finger. Its hard to love someone who lies about you and slanders you. Its hard to love people who ridicule you, take advantage of you, cheat you, hurt you, and do wrong to you.

So with that being said, just as much tenacity as the Jews tried to keep the old form of the law Christians should keep to the new form. God's Law is eternal and never changes, it wasn't a mistake that God corrected. It always has been and always will be the same, however God changed it's form from the original tough to eat ingredients to the new delicious cake! Same stuff but...I like cake more than flour/salt/yeast/ect on their own.

OBEY GOD!! EAT CAKE!!!


(can also cite Romans 7:4-6 and Romans 10:4)
(The reason I cited so much scripture in my blog is because this can be a controversial subject among Christians so I can only stand on scripture, not my own understanding)

Why blog?

Ok, so the "big thing" to do right now is to have a blog. I've been avoiding making one because it seemed so cliche and why would anyone want to read my thoughts anyway? But after seeing how much joy my mom has gotten from starting her blog ( www.theopenlatte.blogspot.com ) and since I do enjoy writing I figured I could use it as my personal journal.

If anyone gets some enjoyment from reading them, then great. But know that I'm really just writing these for myself. So why name it Freed in God? Well I like to make puns, and I figure its a good one since I'm a Freed and I have the Holy Spirit of God living in me from my faith in Jesus; and also there is great freedom in knowing God and having a relationship with him through Jesus so....yeah so that's my attempt at creativity.

So what will I be putting here? Probably mostly random thoughts, situations that go on in my life, and a lot of my growing faith in Jesus. I really feel that I've been seeking God lately, more than usual. I've been a Christian from the first moment I could really understand anything, but kind of fell away from it all in high school and college. I had (and really still have) almost all non-believing friends so it was easy to fall away. But within this past year, since I quit my job at Mattress Firm and especially since I broke up with my ex-girlfriend I really have felt God pulling me back to him.