Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in mwilliamslive's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, February 13th, 2011
7:37 am	MY ULTIMATE DESTINY Can it be true that I originated from nothing, which gradually “evolved” from absolute nothingness, slowly undergoing random changes caused by evolutionary forces unguided by any intelligence until, after 13.8 billion years, here I am: alive, intelligent, having aspirations for something better and more permanent than what I now experience? And where is “evolution” headed? Sometimes I think I was born too soon to enjoy evolution’s full potential. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
7:35 am	GOD AND ME If it is really true that God exists, and God really did make a revelation, then God must be as his revelation claims him to be. He is the only God that exists, powerful beyond all imagination, intimately aware of everything he created, operating through love, loving himself, loving everything he created, desiring me (actually commanding me) to love him with my whole heart, my whole mind, my whole soul, and to love my neighbor as I love myself. He wants me to invite him into an intimate presence within my soul; to be my constant companion, a loving friend, an inspiration, as I gradually become more and more like him due to his influence until, finally, I am like him, displaying only what pleases him, displaying nothing that, even in the slightest way, displeases him. Not a bad opportunity for someone that started as far out in left field as I was. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 16th, 2011
1:22 pm	ANOTHER EXPLANATION Consider for a moment, if Holy Scripture really is the word of God, then what can it teach me? It teaches another explanation of why I exist in contrast to what I hear from the scientific community. It teaches that the origin of all material in the universe is due to the creative activity of God. When God created the first two humans, he blessed them and gave them a commandment that they should not eat the fruit of a single tree. At that time, God had already created purely spiritual beings—angels, and gave them a similar commandment. Fully one-third of the angels refused to obey and departed from God. Sad enough that they departed, they also became hostile to God. Their leader decided to entice the first two humans to also disobey God: “God knows that, in what day so ever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.” God punished my first parents for disobeying by rescinding some of the blessings he bestowed on them, and I inherited that condition. I have to toil by the sweat of my brow. I will experience sickness and pain. I will surely die. God also punished Satan and cursed him: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between her seed and your seed. He (her seed) will crush your head. You (your seed) will strike his heel.” My first parents, eager to know good and evil, wound up experiencing good and evil, they and all there seed after them, including me. No longer having mastery of my body and emotions, I have to deal with undisciplined passions that require a determined effort on my part to control. I am also influenced by other humans who are no better than me. If that is not enough, I am also influenced spiritually by fallen angels who are still hostile to God and all that God has done. So here I am saddled with three strikes against me, immersed into this monumental struggle between good and evil, oppressed by fallen angels, every one of whom was perfectly aware of God’s existence when they rebelled against God; and me, already exiled from God, never having any direct perception of God. These rebellious angels brought evil out of good when they rebelled against God. I suppose I have the opportunity to bring good out of evil, if I decide to choose God in spite of my handicaps. Perhaps this is the bottom line of knowledge of good and evil, this struggle between the powerful first born sons of God and us humans. What a different perception of the meaning of my existence than I hear from our scientists. What an immense challenge for me! Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
1:21 pm	EVIL VERSES GOOD There is much speculation about the nature of “evil,” and how “evil” contrasts with “good.” To my mind, I think both concepts have their main meaning in reference to God. God is “good.” Being the only divine being in existence, there is no other thing to measure God against. God simply being God is “good.” I think it stands to reason that anything compatible with God is good; anything contrary to God is evil. If I choose to resist God and go my own way, this would be evil because it would be contrary to God’s will. If going my own way means that I will take what belongs to others, exploit them, or use them for my own selfish interests, I think everybody would agree that this is evil. Prior to God’s creation of the universe, there was never any resistance to God’ will, never any “evil.” Evil is possible because we created persons have been given the option to refuse to comply with God’s will. Scary thought! For an eternity, an immeasurable duration of time before creation, there was no such thing as evil. Only God existed, and God is perfectly compatible with himself. With creation came the possibility of evil. Too many created beings choose against God. Fully one-third of the angels and also our first parents chose “evil,” and all of our first parent’s descendants came under the spell of evil. Choosing against God has its consequences, as is all too apparent in the manifold dimensions of evil that plague the human race. God is good even by our own perception, as is evident in the moral code that God commands us to accept and in the forgiving, long-suffering toleration of our evil actions by God as he patiently waits for a hoped-for change of heart on our part. Throughout the entire course of this present life, we have both “evil” and “good” operating in our lives as we, individually, make up our minds to comply with God’s desires or to refuse to comply. This won’t go on forever; sooner or later God will decree “enough!” and he will sort us out. Some will inherit unimaginable joy and dignity because they chose God of their own free will out of the midst of evil operating in the world. Others will inherit—what? There is no evil in God. There was never any evil in God, only good. A sobering thought. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
1:18 pm	FOUR CHALLENGES When God created the first humans, he blessed them and gave them a commandment that they should not eat the fruit of a single tree. They disobeyed and God punished them and all their descendants, including me. God also punished the fallen angel, Satan, who tempted the first humans by putting enmity between him and the woman, between her seed and his seed: “He (her seed) will crush your head. You (those who follow your temptations) will strike his heel.” As a result I have to master my passions and my emotions. I have to resist the example of other humans who are no better than I am. I also am influenced spiritually by fallen angels who are still hostile to God. So here I am saddled with three strikes against me. But there is more: I have a fourth monster to deal with, one that requires that I fight this battle mostly by myself: I must conquer my pride, my self image as someone having sovereign rule over my free choices. I must subdue this perception so that I can whole-heatedly subordinate my aspirations to the aspirations of God. This is a real challenge. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
1:17 pm	WHAT I KEEP I think it’s true that God created me from nothing. God didn’t even have my consent when I was created. There was no “me” to give consent. Everything I have was given me by God. Apart from God, I truly am “nothing”. But God gave me one thing that puts me on firmer ground: I can choose. I think God did that so I could have the dignity of knowing I respect and obey God, love him and serve him because I freely choose to do so. I’m not merely a “thing” that God created; I am a free person. That’s a very nice dignity to have for someone who came from nothing. However, there is a big price to pay for that dignity. This ability to choose for myself will stay with me forever. If I choose not to obey God, I don’t think God will remove my freedom to choose. I think I will retain it forever, but God will not forever tolerate my refusal to obey. A dreaded time will come when God decides: enough! From that time on, if I don’t want to recognize who God is and what I am, I will have an eternal stand-off with God. God commands my obedience. I say “no!” I think that’s the only thing I retain over and above my nothingness. If my pride inclines me to try to be on a par with God, this eternal “No!” is all I will have. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
1:13 pm	REALITY If the revelation attributed to God really is true, then God always existed. At some point, God created the physical universe. Prior to its creation, nothing in the physical universe previously existed: matter, energy, space, and time—all are created things. They were conjured up in their entirety by God, who could have crated things very much different than they are. It seems like God is the ultimate reality. What I see in this life, this physical universe, does not exist in its own right. It is temporary. It exists only because God wants it to exist. So, as I grapple with reality, it would be smart for me to put first things first. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
1:09 pm	WHAT IF IT'S TRUE There is a lot of argument today about the existence of God. What if it is really true that God exists? And God made a revelation? What if that is true also? His revelation teaches that God is the only thing that exists by his own nature. Everything else in the entire universe was created by God and created from nothing. God was presumably free to create the universe any way he wanted. There was no pre-existing natural laws or moral obligations, etc. that God had to abide with. Everything, even those laws, was created by God. God had no need to create anything. He existed for all eternity before he created the universe. Why, then, did he create the universe? The only way I can know is if God revealed why. He claims that his nature is love. He operates on love. He created the universe, and me, out of love. He wants me to share in his life, to experience his interior love, his love for me, his love for every person he created. Surprising! I would not have anticipated this. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
1:06 pm	CERTAIN FAITH They say “faith” is a gift from God. Without “faith” one cannot understand God. I wonder if I have faith. I would not, I presume, be able to discern if the “faith” I have is a direct gift from God. Maybe I have to struggle on my own, to do my part, so to speak, in order to arrive at certitude about matters of faith. Zeroing in what Jesus taught. If Jesus really is God become human, is there anything Jesus taught that could possibly be in error? If he had a teaching on anything, a surefire way for me to approach “faith” is simply take what he said as Gospel truth. Using what he said as the foundation of what I’m willing to believe and rejecting anything that contradicts it is an effective step to be sure that I tap in on “faith.” Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
8:59 am	SPIN In the political arena, description of certain events are frequently worded in a way that adds a bias to them, “spin” as the saying goes, so that they imply something that was never intended when the events happened. The ultimate spin occurred in the Garden of Eden when Satan answered Eve: “God knows very well that when you eat this fruit, you will be like God, having knowledge of good and evil.” The spin implied that God was withholding something desirable from them. So they ate the fruit, and they gained knowledge of good and evil. Since that first act of disobedience, they and every one of their descendants down to the present day, know what it is like to experience evil in their lives, both evil inflicted upon them and evil generated within them. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
8:58 am	SIMPLY OBEY It seems that God wants us to obey him even when it concerns something we are fully capable of doing. His command to our first parents was “Do not eat the fruit of this tree.” There was nothing harmful in that fruit. The command was simply to provide an occasion where our first parents could willingly avoid something they were fully capable of doing simply because they wanted to obey God. I think it was a test of obedience, nothing more than that. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
5:39 pm	MAKE IT TRUE If something is not true, I cannot make it true no matter how much I dwell upon it. On the other hand, if something really is true, it is true no matter what I think of it. Constantly telling myself that certain things are true simply because God revealed them will eventually ground my thinking onto a solid foundation of truth. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
5:36 pm	STRUGGLE WITH SATAN I think one of the chief tasks in my life is to gain mastery over my sinful nature: my tendency to do what I know God does not want me to do. I think God permits this struggle. This struggle puts me in opposition to Satan who, for whatever reasons he has, does not want me to succeed. If I do succeed, heaven awaits me. If I don’t succeed, or worse, don’t want to engage in the struggle, endless grief awaits me. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
5:33 pm	PROGRAMMED God endowed animals with instincts that guide them in their choices, like they are programmed to recognize correct choices and inclined to make them. Why did God not provide me with similar instincts in choosing what God wants me to choose and rejecting what God wants me to reject? Good question! Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
5:32 pm	SELF-DISCIPLINE To qualify for God’s heavenly kingdom I would have to discipline myself so that God and everyone else in his kingdom can trust me totally. God does not want to have me constantly observed to be sure I do not betray him. God does not want to employ a police force, a criminal justice system, prisons, lawyers to argue cases, nothing like that. God gave me free will and commands that I use it in disciplining myself, under my own volition, to obey his commandments. If I never want to comply with that, the end of the road for me is eternal damnation. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
5:29 pm	SATAN AND BAPTISM Why does our entry into the Church through baptism start off with vows renouncing Satan, his pomp and works? It seems this struggle with Satan must be an integral part of the human experience while we are in this mortal life. Renouncing Satan is almost the first step in building a relationship with God. If Satan really exists, we know from the start the challenges we face. If Satan does not exist, wouldn’t that indicate that much of Christianity is based on make belief? Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
2:32 pm	REAL FIDELITY Everyone is challenged by unruly desires of the flesh, bad example of others in this world, and temptation by the Devil, not to overlook the obstacle their own pride presents to them in surrendering to God. Under those circumstances, it would be impossible to fake a fidelity to God. Our handicaps push us to the limit of our ability to where either we are fully committed to God or we stop short at some point comfortable to us. I think God, however, wants our total fidelity, and that is difficult to give, especially when we do not have anything other than Faith in God’s word to encourage us. Isn’t it possible that this is why few are chosen? Few trust God strongly enough to surrender everything to approach God. And yet, when everything is said and done, we all should know that God is true to his word. Big challenge for me! Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
2:29 pm	HEAVEN Jesus said “Many are called but few are chosen.” I wonder if this implies a lot more than most people presume. It might not imply simply that people are called to enter God’s heavenly kingdom where only the righteous are chosen (the rest presumably going into perdition). Perhaps it means that many are called to share in the saving ministry of Jesus, to become wedded to him, so to speak, and spend their energies doing only what Jesus would do if he were in their flesh. This position would then involve not merely escaping eternal damnation, but something special: a very close union with Jesus becoming instruments Jesus uses to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. This would be quite a challenge for me. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
2:27 pm	CERTAINTY Scientists gradually learn what nature is like bit by bit, and they constantly improve their theories as new information is discovered. On the other hand, the creator already knows everything about the universe he created. He does not need to discover anything to deepen his understanding of what nature is. Therefore, if the creator reveals some information for our acceptance, it is not possible that his information is incorrect. Accepting what God has revealed on faith is a sure way to fully appreciate what God has done and to understand details that would never have been discovered through human reasoning. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)
2:22 pm	SELF PRIDE God created everything from nothing and, in his own words, endowed humans with “being made in the image and likeness of God.” Among other things, this could be understood in the sense that humans are not merely things that have been created, but are, like God, persons in their own right, given personal identity and ability to choose for themselves what they want. God would then deal with humans as sovereign persons. No wonder God loves humans so much. We are free to love God and willingly serve him, but we are also free to spurn God and go our own way. What a tremendous gift this is to those who are willing to love and serve God. What a perilous chasm it is for those who, through self-pride, choose to reject God. Maurice A. Williams (Comment on this)