Monday, May 31, 2010

Must Have Energy!

Well, today has gone fairly decent. I haven't had so much numbness and pain going through my body, thank God. I think the cyst is calming down because most of the swelling has gone down a bit in the back of my head (on the exterior) I mean. So, I decided to take it and run with it..the good feeling that is. I did about 20 minutes of low impact exercising. I lifted some ten pound weights, did a lot of stretching, around 70 crunches, and some meditation sort of things to go along with it to keep the oxygen a flowing. I am now drinking some water and seeing how my body is reacting. I actually feel rather good and hope that things continue on that path. I really have it in my heart and soul to not let this bring me down. I want to get my muscle back where I had it where I was feeling uber good. I'm thinking that I'm going to start a diet that consist of mostly protein based things. Sort of like the Atkin's diet, but putting my spin on it. High in protein, low in carbs, and I think I should be ok. We'll see how that pans out. Maybe if all is well, in the morning I can go to the gym and try some cardio.
So, that's what my mind wants to do...lets see if my body cooperates ;-)

Just a tiny mid-day update. Much love, Susan <3

Watch what You say

The last few days have been rather a battle as far as me gaining energy. Lately, the feeling of little pins and needles in the back of my head from this thing has been very annoying. The good news is though, that today I'm not in so much pain that I can't handle. All I've really felt like doing is sleeping and I can really sleep anywhere from 9-12 hours at a time. I suppose my body really needs it or something. I plan on calling the Penn Hospital up in Philly and talking with a Dr. Stacy Horn ( believe is her name) to see if its possible for me to go up there and get the surgery done. Hoping that works out because I'd really love this Cyst in my head to get drained and get to feeling healthier again. That would be great so I can have more energy and get back to doing normal things, like walking without my foot going whacko.
Other than that, something has been running through my mind the last month because its really been a trial here. I was walking through the double doors at work and this person (shall remain nameless) made a comment, which I am hoping it was only in jest as he has no clue what's going on with my health. He said that if I were a horse or something that they'd have put me down by now because there's always something wrong with me. Now, I really hope that he didn't mean that but as things are seemingly crashing down around me, it did get to me. I won't lie about that. The only thing I'll really say about that little comment is that I wish people would really watch what comes out of their mouth. You really don't know what you might be planting in someone's head. Half the time, people will walk around with a smile and you'll never really know what the hell they might be going through.
All in all, I'm going to try to let it not get to me so much and just concentrate on my health and getting better. Praying that I get some sort of relief and this doctor up in Philly will see me and do the surgery. Its quite a distance from me but it'll be worth it if she does it.

Aside from that, I've been trying to do what I can around the house and keep it clean. Going to try to at least lift some 10 pound weights and keep my arms in shape I hope. I don't want my muscles to lose their density through all this.

Anyways, until next time my friends. Much love, God bless, and be mindful of what comes out of you're mouth...You really don't know how much what you say affects those you verbalize it to.

Love, Susan.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Hell is a Real Place

Hell

by Matt Slick

Hell is one of those subjects that makes people uncomfortable. We hear stories of hell being a place of fire, demons, and endless torment. Throughout history many authors have written about it -- Dante's Inferno, for example. Western culture is very familiar with the concept Even Hollywood has made it the subject of many movies. Whatever the context, whatever the belief, hell is definitely taught in the Bible. But even the doctrine of hell is not without its controversy. Some say it is only the grave with no consciousness. Others say it is a place of correction and punishment that is not eternal. Others say it is an endless agonizing punishment in fire. Whichever it is, hell is the total absence of the favor of God.

The words associated with Hell

Gehenna
In the OT the word for hell is 'ge-hinnom', meaning "Valley of Hinnom." It was a place to the southwest of Jerusalem. This place was once "called 'Topheth' and derived from an Aramaic word meaning 'fireplace.' It was here that some pagan kings practiced human sacrifice by fire (2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31; 32:35).1 This is probably why in the NT the word came to be associated with destruction by fire. The word 'gehenna' is found in the NT 12 times and every instance is spoken of by Jesus. In the NT, "gehenna" is used of a condition and never of a place.

Hades
This word only occurs in the NT, ten times, and corresponds to the OT word "sheol." Jesus uses the word four times: Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23. The other six occur in Acts 2:27,31; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13,14.

It was probably the "subterranean abode of all the dead until the judgment. It was divided into two departments, paradise or Abraham's bosom for the good, and Gehenna or hell for the bad."2 In particular, in the account of Lazarus and the Rich man of (Luke 16:19-31), it is the place of the conscious dead who are wicked.

Sheol
"The Hebrew word Sheol is probably derived from a root "to make hollow," and was seen as the common receptacle of the dead and in the great many places the word appears in the OT, it is referring to the grave.3 It is a place and is mentioned in Gen. 37:35; Num. 16:30,33; Psalm 16:10, etc. Sheol has many meanings in scripture: the grave, the underworld, the state of the dead. It was supposed to be below the surface of the earth (Ezek. 31:15,17; Psalm 86:13).

Is Hell Eternal Conscious Torment?

There are some Christian groups and many cults that deny the idea that hell, in the general sense, means eternal, conscious punishment. Some maintain that God's eternal punishment is annihilation, or non-existence. Others say it is temporal and that eventually all will be saved out of hell. Perhaps the most common objection is that a loving God would never punish people in eternal torment. We agree that God is love (1 John 4:8), but He is also just (Neh. 9:32-33; 2 Thess. 1:6), and eternal (Psalm 90:2; 1 Tim. 1:17 ). God punishes the evildoer (Isaiah 11:13) and this punishment will be eternal. But the question remains, is this eternal punishment conscious or not?

There are verses that can be interpreted to support the idea that the dead are not conscious after death: (Ecc. 9:5 - the dead know nothing4 and Psalm 146:4 - their thoughts perish, are good examples.) Other verses compare the dead to sleep: Acts 13:36; 1 Cor. 15:1-6; 1 Thess. 4:13, etc. But these latter verses are merely comparing the similarity between the appearance of the dead and the appearance of someone sleeping.

The Dead are Conscious After Death

The wicked descend alive into Sheol
Num. 16:30, "But if the Lord brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the Lord . . . 33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly."

Cast to outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth
Matt. 8:12, "but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Those cast into the fire suffer consciously
Matt. 13:41-42, "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” See also Matt. 13:50.

Cast into a tormenting fire
Rev. 14:9-11, "And another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 "And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."” See also, Rev. 21:8.

Hell is a place of eternal fire and punishment

Unquenchable Fire
Matt. 3:12 "And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Fiery Hell
Matt. 5:22, "whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell." See also, Matt. 5:29,30.

Fiery Hell
Matt. 18:8-9, "And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire. 9 "And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into the fiery hell."

Eternal Fire
Matt. 25:41, "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

Eternal Punishment
Matt. 25:46, "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

The word "eternal" in both places is "aionios" which means 1)without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be; 2)without beginning; 3)without end, never to cease, everlasting. The word "punishment" is the word "kolasis" and it means "to punish, with the implication of resulting severe suffering - 'to punish, punishment.'"5

Eternal Fire
Jude 7, "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire."

Lake of Fire
Rev. 20:15, "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Luke 16:19-31, Lazarus and the Rich Man

In Luke 16:19-31 is the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Basically, Lazarus is a poor man who suffers during life. The rich man is, of course, rich. They both die. The rich man goes to Hades. Lazarus goes to Abraham's bosom, another term for paradise. In Hades, the rich man lifts up his eyes and sees Lazarus far off. He cries out to Abraham and asks for mercy because he is in agony in flame. Abraham says no. Then the rich man asks if someone from the dead were to rise and go tell his brothers not to come to this terrible place. Abraham teaches him that that will not be done either.

Some say that this is a parable. However, if it is, it is unique because no other parable actually names a person. It isn't a story. It is history. It really happened. But many who believe in no consciousness after death will say it is still a parable. The question is then, if it is a parable what is it teaching? If hell fire is false and if self-awareness after death is also false, then Jesus is using false doctrines to teach a truth. Parables illustrate truth. If it is a parable, what does the consciousness after death symbolize? Also, what does the agony in flame symbolize? Are they not real? Of course they are.

Conclusion

Hell is a real place. It is not mere unconsciousness. It is not temporal. It is eternal torment. Perhaps that is why Jesus spoke more of hell than heaven and spent so much time warning people not to go there. After all, if people just stopped existing, why warn them? If it was temporal, they'd get out in a while. But if it were eternal and conscious, then the warning is strong.

Jesus said, "And if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 "And if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, and throw it from you; for it is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to go into hell," (Matt. 5:29-30).

This article is also available in: Español

1. Achtemeier, Paul J., Harper's Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1985.
2. Unger, Merrill F., Unger's Bible Dictionary, (Chicago: Moody Press), 1966, p. 437.
3. Vine, W. E., Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell), 1981.
4. Ecclesiastes is a book that is addressed as things appear "under the sun" (Ecc. 1:3,9,14, etc.). In fact, the phrase "under the sun" occurs 29 times in Ecclesiastes, a book written from the human perspective that boldly states that all is vanity.
5. Louw, Johannes P. and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains, (New York: United Bible Societies), 1988, 1989.

http://www.carm.org/hell

This was taken from Matt Slick's CARM site. I read through it and it intrigued me. Basically, Hell is a real place. It is also a place I never want to go. The Article was written by Matt Slick (references included)..I'm just merely doing a cross-post. I take no credit for this, just wanted to make people more aware of the realities of such a horrid place.

God bless and love,
Susan

Just some Random Videos I watched today

Brain Malfunction

Well, this is my first blog on this site and I've really not written a blog in a very long time. I used to keep one at my myspace but I haven't even check that in so long, I don't even remember the last thing I even posted on there, honestly. Life has gotten a bit crazy as of late and I haven't had a lot of time to just sit back and relax without worrying so much. Yes, I know that worry is about as effective as chewing a piece of gum to solve an algebraic equation.
Just a summarized version of everything, I've been dealing with sickness and pain for the past few years now. I didn't know exactly what was going on. I was told that I just had migraines that were severe and there was no other explanation after having CAT Scans, MRIs, and Gastrointestinal tests, blood tests (I'm sure that I've had ...Lord I can't tell you the amount of viles I've had extracted from my veins), and all that sort of thing. To make a long story short, I've been diagnosed with what they call an Arachnoid Cyst which is in the posterior fossa on the right side (back of the brain) and there it sits at a size of 3.5cm x 3.0 cm. At first, they told me that this surely couldn't be the cause of all my problems but I beg to differ. There are over 1,000 people world wide that have this same thing with the same symptoms. I stumbled upon this site when I first found out about it, decided to do my own research. I mean. you got something on your brain how could it not be causing some sort of problems. So, right now I'm going through a lot of tests because I do have numbness, black outs, and that of the like accompanying them. I'm in the search for a doctor that will get the fluid off my brain so I can function like I used to be able to.
The good news is that this thing is not cancer. Its benign. Its there, it shouldn't be there, and I want it gone. I don't want just any doctor getting in my head so I'm being carefully and incredibly choosy over who I do go to for the surgery.
I'm not really that depressed that its there, I'm more sad honestly because I find myself not being able to do the things that at one time I never had a problem with doing. Its just strange how frail our bodies are. One moment, you're strong and feel as if you can take on any thing that life throws at you. Some days, I don't really feel that strong but I will fight this thing and will get it taken care of. In the end, I'm not giving up hope and even at my worst, I think and believe that God will see me through this in some shape or form. After all, He is in control of everything. :-)
Now, don't get me wrong. From a human standpoint at times, I do get sad about it but that is only a passing moment. Things will work out for the best and according to His plan.
In any case, that's pretty much what I'm dealing with at this point. Just taking one day at a time and doing the best that I possibly can. My mother always did say that she was proud of me as long as I did my best...and that ...at this point in my life..is exactly what I'm trying to do.
Keeping my faith in God, loving Him and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, clinging to my family and the best friends I could ever hope to have. Love is a powerful thing and can walk through fire without blinking.
Until next time, love Susan.
http://arachnoidcyst1.com/articles.html
The above is a link to the Arachnoid Cyst support group and forum that I've joined. Many wonderful people there.