How strong is your belief in God Almighty? Is it only this much?

Popular beliefs about Odin : (You believe this crap?)

The chief divinity of the Norse pantheon, the foremost of the Aesir. Odin is a son of Bor and Bestla. He is called Alfadir, Allfather, for he is believed to be the father of the gods. With Frigg he is the father of Balder, Hod, and Hermod. He fathered Thor on the goddess Jord; and the giantess Grid became the mother of Vidar.

Odin is a god of war and death, but also the god of poetry and wisdom. He hung for nine days, pierced by his own spear, on the world tree. Here he learned nine powerful songs, and eighteen runes. Odin can make the dead speak to question the wisest amongst them. His hall in Asgard is Valaskjalf (“shelf of the slain”) where his throne Hlidskjalf is located. From this throne he observes all that happens in the nine worlds. The tidings are brought to him by his two raven Huginn and Muninn. He also resides in Valhalla, where the slain warriors are taken.

Odin’s attributes are the spear Gungnir, which never misses its target, the ring Draupnir, from which every ninth night eight new rings appear, and his eight-footed steed Sleipnir. He is accompanied by the wolves Freki and Geri, to whom he gives his food for he himself consumes nothing but wine. Odin has only one eye, which blazes like the sun. His other eye he traded for a drink from the Well of Wisdom, and gained immense knowledge. On the day of the final battle, Odin will be killed by the wolf Fenrir.

Have a strong faith in The Almighty God. If you have that, then you can go about preaching Him to others, else you might end up as the person in the above cartoon, losing his own faith.

What is your vocation? Are you sure?

When talking about a Christian’s understanding of work and vocation, the focus is naturally on a person’s major occupation, and this is where our emphasis will lie. It is necessary to keep in mind however, that all useful activities whereby we sustain or improve the life of others are work and that in this over-all context the Christian reveals his faith by his works. Vocation also refers to a ‘calling’ and originally in English, to a religious calling. But for the Christian, a calling is not so much to a specific occupation, religious or otherwise, but to a faith and a life-style which, of course, are reflected in a person’s particular occupation. Christians are called to express the kingdom of God in the kingdom of this world.

This wider perspective becomes particularly important when we realise the varying amounts to which people are able to express themselves in their major employment. Students, artists, writers, musicians, and so on, may work so as to live, but find their major fulfilment elsewhere. Others, unable to do other than repetitive, non-creative work, need to have wider frame of reference in which to fulfil their calling to work. And, of course, this applies to some degree to all occupations. A Christian view of work is finally not taught but caught-or, rather, we are captured by it.

It is also important for Christians to understand the fundamental issues concerning their work and vocation because of our current unsettled scene. Unemployment, automation, management, worker conflicts, and economy versus quality pressures, may affect all workers to some degree, and if the Christian view of work is not clear in a person’s mind, they will inevitably react to the pressures, rather than live out their Christian values.

A skeptic is one who prefers beliefs and conclusions that are reliable and valid to ones that are comforting or convenient, and therefore rigorously and openly applies the methods of science and reason to all empirical claims, especially their own. A skeptic provisionally proportions acceptance of any claim to valid logic and a fair and thorough assessment of available evidence, and studies the pitfalls of human reason and the mechanisms of deception so as to avoid being deceived by others or themselves. Skepticism values method over any particular conclusion.

Selective thinking is the process whereby one selects out favorable evidence for remembrance and focus, while ignoring unfavorable evidence for a belief. This kind of thinking is the basis for most beliefs in the psychic powers of so-called mind readers and mediums. It is also the basis for many, if not most, occult and pseudoscientific beliefs.It should be noted that selective thinking works independently of wishful thinking and should not be confused with biased thinking, whereby one seriously considers data contrary to one’s belief, but one is much more critical of such data than one is of supportive data.