What Role Does God Play in Human Actions Today?

As a former pastor and law enforcement chaplain, why something bad thing happened was a question I was asked many times. Many of the answers people give are directly linked to the five belief options below. Keep in mind that the answers are Institutional Truths, Personal Opinions or combinations of both. Making clear distinctions between the type of information beliefs are based on is one of the most important skills you can develop for dealing with the massive amounts of information you encounter every day (click here for more information).

Belief Options About the Role God Plays in Human Actions Today

Option #1: People have freewill to do good or bad things. Bad things happen because people chose to do them or nature caused them – There are reasons that things happen.

Option #2: People have freewill, but God intervenes in events from time to time.

Option #3: God predetermined all human actions at the creation; every person is born with a prewritten, but unknown to them, script of their entire lives – Everything happens for a reason.

Option #4: God and Satan are in a cosmic war for the souls of humans. God is actively engaged in influencing people to do good things, while Satan is actively engaged in influencing people to do evil things – The devil made me do it.

Option #5: People are animals with instincts and human nature.

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The lives of billions of people are directly affected by the five belief options above. They influence how people view things that are happening in the world, what they do about those things, what they do not do about those things, what they expect other people to do and what they think God wants them to do.

One of the most important things we must do

is clearly identify the belief option(s) our subconscious mind

uses to make decisions.

The next thing we can do is make sure the roles belief options play are part of conversations about things that are happening today. Those conversations are functions of the conscious mind (the rider), but it is the elephant (subconscious) that exerts the most power.

While we do the things above, we must also identify the sources of our belief options (especially those from institutions) explore their origins and histories. This brings transparency to our thinking process and exposes predatory institutions and individuals.

We are genetically hardwired to be “believing creatures.” We can’t help it. Facts make us aware of what exists in the physical world, but facts tell us nothing about what those things are, how they are related or what our strategies should be when we encounter them. Beliefs give meanings to the things we sensory perceive – and they insert things into our realities that aren’t sensory perceived!

Thank you for reading this. Please share and discuss it with others.

May your life be blessed with an abundance of TOV,
Jim Myers

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How to Create Order in the Midst of Chaos

Chaos is defined as a state of extreme confusion,

disorder and unpredictable behaviors in which chance reigns supreme.

The chaos we are witnessing today in America is driven by “conflicting versions of what reality actually is” – embedded in streams of information people delivered through mass media and social media devices.

Chaos is created through tsunamis of conflicting information. Creating order requires focusing on the specific pieces of information within those waves, identifying what type of information it is and identifying the source of the information.

Making accurate distinctions between types of information

increases certainty and decreases confusion.

As certainty increases chaos decreases.

We are dealing with three types of information:

● Fact based information.

● Institutional truth based information.

● Personal opinions.

Our brains treat all types of information as if they are of identical value, that’s why creating chaos is easy and it spreads like a wildfire through the masses.

● Fact based information are statements based on things that anyone with functioning sensory organs can perceive.

● Institutional truths are statements backed by institutional authority that are believed to be true.

● Personal opinions are statements made by individuals that are not fact based or institutional truths.

Almost all of the chaos we are experiencing today is linked to conflicting “institutional truths” that originated in political, economic and religious institutions. The primary institutional truths generating conflicts and creating chaos today are money, god and rights.

  

In biblical stories gods are sensory perceived entities, not things that must be “believed in.” In our world, gods are not sensory perceived entities -- groups of people do not see them with their eyes or hear them with their ears. Religious conflicts are really conflicts over “institutional truths about gods.”

Below are a few patterns history has documented many times about people that control religious and political institutions.

● They have institutional and personal agendas.

● They use both forms of human power – persuasion and physical force -- “to promote and protect their Institutional truths” and “to destroy opposing institutional truths.”

● As their institutions gain power and wealth, they invent new stories to legitimize, perpetuate and extend their dominance.

Transparency is an absolute requirement for decreasing chaos.

● Commit to making your belief system large enough to include all of the facts, open enough to be examined and questioned, and flexible enough to change when errors or new facts are discovered.

● Identify who exercises institutional power.

● Identify who benefits from actions of institutions.

● Identify who is hurt or harmed by the actions of institutions.

● Identify who created the institution and why it was created.

● Identify institutions that support it and those that oppose it.

● As you discover accurate information, share it with others.

Thank you for reading this. Please share and discuss it with others.

May your life be blessed with an abundance of TOV,
Jim Myers

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The Creator’s Vision and Values for Humanity

The Creator’s Vision & Values for Humanity is embedded in the stories of the Sixth and Seventh Days in Genesis 1:1-2:4a. It is one of the most powerful texts in the Bible and has influenced lives for over 2500 years. One of the most powerful phrases in the Bible is also in it – “the image of God.” Those words played a major role in the founding of the United States of America!

Below is a quick summary of key parts of the Creator’s vision:

1. Gender equality of females and males. They are two parts of ADAM (Hebrew word for “humanity”). They are counterparts created to work in harmony together as equals that are adequate for each other in every way. Equality and Male and Female working in Harmony are Lives 1^st Values.

2. Fathers and Mothers that work as a Team. They are to bring forth the next generation of children and be the caretakers, protectors, teachers and mentors. They are to meet all of their needs of the children – physical, psychological, and emotional. Parenting is a Lives 1^st Value.

3. Impulse Control and Self-Discipline. Humans are created with an Earth soul like the animals and the Spirit of the Creator. They have instincts that are driven by early appetites, desires and longings, while also being driven by the Creator’s Spirit to do things like the Creator that are TOV – protect and preserve lives, make lives more functional and increase the quality of life. Freewill and the Capacity to Do Things that are TOV are Lives 1^st Values.

4. Eat Green Plants and Fruit from Tree. Humans are to eat plant-based diets of green plants, herbs and fruit from trees. All of those things are to produce seeds that reproduce their own kind. A Plant-Based Diet is a Lives 1^st Value.

5. Co-Shepherds of all Life on Earth. Humans are endowed with godlike roles of acting as the Creator’s vice regents and Co-Shepherds -- exercising power like a shepherd exercises power over its flock by doing acts that protect and preserve lives, make lives more functional and increase the quality of life. The Shepherding Model for Exercising Power is a Lives 1^st Value.

6. Reflect the Image of the Creator on the Earth. Humans are collectively created “in the Image of the Creator” – ADAM. “The image of the Creator requires the presence of male and female humans – the minimum requirements for creating a new human life. Reflecting the “image of the Creator” requires male and female working together doing things that measure TOV -- protect and preserve lives, make lives more functional and increase the quality of life. Reflecting the Image of the Creator on Earth is a Lives 1^st Value.

7. Recall and Teach the Creator’s Vision. Humans are to gather, recall and teach the Creator’s Vision on the Seventh Day. They are to let the entire community hear the ancient words read aloud weekly, do their best to make it a reality in their lives, and pass it down from one generation to next. Sharing the Creator’s Vision is a Lives 1^st Value.

Of all people on earth, the Jewish people know the power of holding fast to a vision of God. They held his vision of restoring them to their homeland from 450 BCE until 1948 CE – before it became a reality.

How would you like to live in a world described in the Creator’s vision? In many ways, it reminds us of descriptions of what Heaven is supposed to be like. The Creator’s vision is about life on Earth while we are alive. It is about what the Creator wants all people to experience while they are alive!

Words become thoughts,

thoughts become mental images,

mental images become plans,

and plans + actions become realities.

In closing remember this, the man and woman created in Genesis 1 never say or do anything. They are not Adam and Eve. The words the Creator spoke about them are his vision for what human lives should be like. From the perspective of the Creator’s vision – Adam and Eve blew it! But by reading their lives in light of the Creator’s vision, readers learn much more about to live their lives. That’s what the stories were written to do!

Thank you for reading this. Please share and discuss it with others.

May your be blessed with, and bless others with, an abundance of TOV,
Jim Myers

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We are Power Creatures Living in a Power Matrix

We are one of many genetically hardwired creatures with the capacity to exercise power. We live in a power matrix environment in which we are either exercising power or power is being exercised against us.

Power is the ability of a creature to get what it wants.

Humans have two options for exercising power.

● Persuasion is exercised against a human mind primaily through words or symbols. In the world today, the most powerful form of persuasion is money. The second most powerful form is belief in a god.

● Force is exercised against the human body through physical actions. The most powerful forms of force in history kill people. The most powerful options for killing people are nuclear and biological weapons.

The Laws of Power

1. Power Concentrates. Power feeds on itself and compounds.

2. Power Justifies Itself. People invent stories to legitimize the power they have or the power they want to have.

3. Power Is Infinite. There is no inherent limit on the amount of power people can create.

Together, these laws create a cycle of monopoly and monopoly busting — the power cycle that is at the very heart of political and religious histories.

● All societies, left to themselves, gravitate toward a state of hoarded, monopolized, dramatically unequal power. (Laws #1 and #2)

● Power is not zero-sum; new power can be created from thin air. People can always bypass, displace, or upend a prior state of monopoly. (Law #3)

The tendency in civic life is to get stuck after Law #2 kicks in.

It allows incumbent holders of power

to perpetuate and extend their dominance.

But Law #3 can save us from Laws #1 and #2 — if we remember it, can persuade others to adopt it and organize them to implement new power.

Raise Your Awareness of the Power Matrix

Power is to humans what water is to fish. We are constantly immersed in power-driven activities -- popup ads, commercials, robo calls, weaponized memes, fake news, taxes, licensing, propaganda, fines, interests, usury, etc. Are you beginning to understand how intense the Power Matrix is in our lives?

One thing they share in common is the fact that political, religious

and educational institutions do not educate the masses about or protect them

from the social media driven aspects of the  Power Matrix.

I wonder why?

The answer is found in Laws 1 & 2 above –

All societies left to themselves, gravitate toward a state of hoarded,

monopolized, dramatically unequal power

Thank you for reading this and please share and discuss it with others.

May your be blessed with, and bless others with, an abundance of TOV,
Jim Myers

☼ Your help would be greatly appreciated! Click Here to Donate.

☼ Subscribe to the TOV Center Mail List -- Click Here. (Subscriptions are FREE!)

☼ Please like our Facebook Page by clicking here.

☼ Visit the TOV Center website (Click Here).

* SOURCES & RECOMMENDED READING

● TOV Center Series on Power and How Humans Use It

● Your’e More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen by Eric Liu.

How to “BS Check” a Belief

Most people I know, select belief model in picture #2” when they read the word “Earth” in Genesis 1:1. Actually the Earth God created is in picture #3. Find out how to do “BS Checks” to make your beliefs much more accurate at

https://mailchi.mp/e266ec6e53bd/how-to-bs-check-a-belief