Highest Honors

March 29, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Welcome to the Omniallinfinitude™ Blog Experience.

Start your Journey here.

Highest Honors is the first of the twelve Omniallinfinitude™ Journeys.  Each Journey is presented through 16 blog posts. Even though we are now blogging live a different Journey, we highly recommend you proceed through this Blog Experience starting with Journey 1 – which is right here!

Each Journey is made up of Journey Elements – you can view this list in its entirety, like a Table of Contents, on the left sidebar.  You can also view or download the PDF version of this Journey by clicking the Highest Honors graphic at the top of the left sidebar.

Here’s how to participate:

  1. Read each blog post in the order they were posted. Some of these blog posts will be longer than what you would expect to find in a normal blog – but then again, this is not a normal blog….so make sure you take the time to read the whole blog post.
  2. Complete the Journey Elements contained in each post. Each Journey covers one attribute group and one spiritual practice.  All of the Elements relate to these in some way.
  3. Return to the Blog Post – we encourage you to comment based on the specific assignment.  Read other’s comments and engage in an online conversation. These posts and comments are ongoing.
  4. For more information see How Does This Work on the Main Omni page.
  5. Then move on to the next post. You can access the individual post pages from the top menu bar under Journey Elements, or by clicking the Element name in the Table of Contents on the left sidebar.
  6. When you complete a Journey – move on to the next Journey.  The format and Element structure will be the same in all the Journeys.
  7. Each Journey will also have its own blog, and each post will have its own page, in addition to appearing in the complete blog.  This will make it easier to complete the blog at your own speed, as well as for others who start later.  We will eventually have 12 active blogs with people participating in all of them at the same time.

Complete the Blog Posts below in this order:

Click on the links to go to the individual blog posts with their respective comments. Once you click to the Journal pages, scroll up to get to the beginning of the blog post.  Each Journal post will also appear on the Journey Element Page that it follows. For example, Journal 1.1 will appear on the same page and directly under Remember and Read.

 

Highest Honors 1: Remember and Read

Highest Honors 2: Journal 1.1 – Proof of Life

Highest Honors 3: Analyze – Color Coding

Highest Honors 4:  Journal 1.2 – Full Disclosure

Highest Honors 5: Investigate – Most High and Glorious and 10 Things

Highest Honors 6: Journal 1.3 – The Problem with The Most High God

Highest Honors 7: Practice: Solitude and Silence and Why?

Highest Honors 8: Journal 1.4 – Wrong Thinking

Highest Honors 9: Inventory – Your God History

Highest Honors 10: Journal 1.5 – Right Thinking

Highest Honors 11: Adventuring – On Assignment

Highest Honors 12: More Cool Stuff – Math and Music

Highest Honors 13: Lyrics

Highest Honors 14: Journal 1.6 – Glimpses of the Most High God

Highest Honors 15: Journal 1.7 – Nitty Gritty

Highest Honors 16: Closure

While we encourage you to leave Comments, we totally understand if you want to participate anonymously.  This format also works well for small groups meeting in person.  It’s ok to print out the PDF – just remember to keep a copy on your computer so you can use the links.

Credits for quotes, music, lyrics and videos appear in the Credits section in the back of the PDF. Omniallinfinitude™ material may be reproduced as long as credit is given. There is no fee for using this material.

Enjoy the Journey…..take your time….but take the Journey!

Highest Honors 16: Closure

March 25, 2011 in Closure with 3 Comments

closure

Because it matters what we think about God

We have come to the end of Highest Honors, the first of the 12 Omniallinfinitude™ Journeys.

This journey has caused us to Remember “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise, His greatness no one can fathom.” (Psalm 145:3) and Read Genesis 1-3 and John 1. We Analyzed by Color Coding and Investigated the Most High and Glorious as well as Practiced Solitude and Silence. We also took Inventory of our God History and went Adventuring On Assignment. It has challenged and intrigued us with the More Cool Stuff of Math and Music and has spoken to our souls as we pondered the Most High through music and Lyrics.

The Journal guided us through discovering Proof of Life – both ours and the Most High’s, as well as our tendency to Think Wrongly about Him by creating designer gods. It helped us to understand why we do this and then how to Think Rightly about the Most High. We were challenged to get Him out of the boxes we confine Him in and investigate all His Attributes, not just the Glimpses we readily see and like. We now know He is bigger than what we can get our hearts and minds around. He is transcendent above all. We also know we have just begun our journey and have many questions and much to learn and discover.

Now it’s time to think back over this part of your journey and reflect on what you have discovered and learned.  The categories below may help jog your memory.  Describe the details of any areas that apply to you.

 

New Things I Learned

 

 

Old Things I was reminded of

 

 

Questions I have

 

 

Areas I was challenged in

 

 

First steps I took

 

 

Areas I would like to study more

 

 

“AHA!” moments

 

 

Dreams and visions

 

 

COMMENT: (In the PDF, your journal, or in the Comment section of this post)

Please share any personal reflections in the above closure categories.  This is the last post for Journey One – Highest Honors.  Please join us next at the Journey Two – The One and Only blog, for The One and Only 1: Remember and Read.

Highest Honors 15: Journal 1.7 – Nitty Gritty

March 22, 2011 in Journal with 3 Comments

The term Nitty Gritty means to get to the heart of the matter, the basic essentials or realities of something. The concepts below are the main points or the Nitty Gritty of the Highest Honors journey you have almost completed.  Take some time to review them.

1. An attribute is something that is true about God. 

2. Everything we know about God we know because He has disclosed it to us.

3. Proof of Life for the Most High includes creation, natural laws, moral laws, music, math, miracles, the Bible, the Church, fulfilled Biblical prophecy, Jesus Christ and you.

4. Wrong thinking about God creates faulty and incomplete views and beliefs resulting in our creating gods in our image.

5. We want God to be everything else but God. Holding an incorrect view of God is idolatry and is forbidden by God. It dishonors God and obscures His glory.

6. God is not equal to man. He is transcendent to all His creation, which includes us. We will never fully understand, although the Holy Spirit will reveal truth to us as we journey.

7. For Further reading: Isaiah 55: 8-9; Jeremiah 33:25; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Romans 1:18-28; Exodus 20:3-7; I Corinthians 13:12.

8. Extra Credit Reading Recommendation: Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus.

 

COMMENT: (In the PDF, your journal, or the Comment section of this post)

Please share which concepts presented above were new to you, challenged your current thoughts about the Most High, or refocused you on areas from which you may have wandered.  Please share any other concepts from this first journey that have impacted your concept of the Most High. Make sure you can Remember the verse.  Also make sure you have completed all the Journey Elements and Journal readings for Highest Honors. Our next post will be Highest Honors 16: Closure.

Highest Honors 14: Journal 1.6 – Glimpses of the Most High

March 18, 2011 in Journal, Lyrics with 5 Comments

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the Blind Men and the Elephant.

One blind man touched the elephant’s side and exclaimed with conviction,
Why, an elephant is like a wall!

Another, feeling the tusk disagreed. He shouted his truth:
An elephant is round and smooth and sharp. An elephant is like a spear.

Another, trying to get hold of a writhing trunk,
decided that an elephant is like a snake.

Another, feeling a leg and knee,
was convinced that elephants are like trees.

No, no, no, said another who was enjoying the breeze from a flapping ear:
An elephant is like a fan.

Another, who was holding onto the tail, argued
that it was more like a rope

and still another, whose cheek felt the swish of the tail’s tuft, argued,
Elephants are like paint brushes.


Not one of us, from our limited vantage points, can grasp the whole – but we can catch glimpses and explore facets of the Most High God. When we initially respond to God and begin our journey with Him, it is usually because we were attracted to one of His attributes. This may be because of our personalities, our strengths, or our needs at the time, but this often becomes our primary picture of all that God is.

We will be in trouble if we stay there, and unfortunately many of us do. Some of His attributes we like and can relate to and some we don’t understand, don’t like and then reject altogether. Yet, we now know what the blind men did not know – that each of us possesses only a sliver of the truth.

God is bigger than what we can get our hearts and minds around.

He is the Most High – transcendent above all, truly receiving the Highest Honors. This has been our first attribute to study, the fact that He is totally unique, so far beyond what we can imagine, so amazing in quality, so high and lifted up.

He is unfathomable and yet He wants to journey with us.
To try to live on your own without God will lead to wrong thinking.
Does it matter?
Continue with your journey and find out.

Your turn:

Give an example from your own life where you had limited information about something and it distorted your ability to see what was really going on OR to respond appropriately.

COMMENT: (In the PDF, your own journal, or the Comment section of this post.)

Please share your responses to the Your Turn request above. It’s time to start wrapping up Journey One, so review to make sure you have completed all the prior Journey Elements and commented on the blog posts. Our next post will be Highest Honors 15: Journal 1.7 – Nitty Gritty.

Highest Honors 13: Lyrics

March 15, 2011 in Lyrics with 5 Comments

lyrics

You might wonder why lyrics are included in a study like this.

We believe lyrics,
or poetry put to music,
as well as the accompanying music,

have always been used by the Most High to impact our hearts and minds –

either by our part in its creative process –
or through our participation in its expression –
or through our pleasure, as a recipient of its sensory benefits.

 

 

Clicking on the song titles will take you to another page to listen and watch a music video of each song.  The lyrics and questions that appear below will also appear under each video.

The lyrics may not always be spiritual in their original context – but much can still be gained from applying them to how they describe and point to the Most High God.  Please return to this page to enter your Comments.

 

I Saw the Lord

Lyrics and music by Dallas Holm

 

The place was white as snow and pure as finest gold.
It had the look of new, yet had the look of old.
I felt like I was home, but felt so far away,
In fear I thought to leave, but felt the urge to stay.

And then a silence fell like none I’d ever known.
I stood among the millions, I stood there all alone.
His face was like the sun, His eyes were like the sea,
His voice was like the thunder rolling through eternity.

And… I saw the Lord
He was high and lifted up
and rightfully adored

And… I saw the Lord
and He saw me

And then from sleep awakened, I looked into the night.
The darkness overtaken, by a bright and shining light.
I couldn’t understand it, I couldn’t reason how,
And then my eyes beheld Him, I wasn’t dreaming now

And… I saw the Lord
He was high and lifted up
And rightfully adored,

And… I saw the Lord 

 

c. 1981 by J.T. Benson Publishing Company

 

What does it mean to you to lift up and adore someone?

What kind of person would you lift up and adore?

How would you do it?

 

Out of Time

Lyrics and music by Matthew West and Helen Darling

 

So, you’re hungry for a taste of the other side,
Where the grass is thick and green,
But your feet are on familiar ground, Frozen and afraid of what you might lack,
Oh, if that’s all that’s holding you back

[Chorus]Come on, step out of time, Fall out of line
Leave a mark they can’t erase, Find your heart and lose your mind
Watch the journey unwind
And let it be a new day -  Out of time

How’s your story gonna read
When they call your name and it’s all there in black and white? Will you follow?
Or will you lead? Will you quietly disappear?
Or is this whole world gonna know that you were here?

It’s time to be free, It’s time just to live what you believe
What you gonna do with the life you’re living?
What you gonna make of the time you’re given?
When you are free, you have been forgiven
Now come on and step out of time

Once you go you’re gone forever
Don’t you know it’s now or never
But I can feel a change in weather
Now come on and step out of time

 

c. 2004 by Word Music

 

Behind the Song: Matthew 4:18-20

“I love the story of Jesus calling out to Peter and Andrew while they were fishing in their boats. He said, “Come, be my disciples, and I will make you fishers of men!”  Now, Jesus wasn’t just calling them to go to lunch together, or maybe a weekend trip. He was calling them to a totally different way of life – a new path – and for some of them it was a complete u-turn!  And when he called them, their reply was simple: “They left their nets at once and went with Him.”

Sometimes God calls us away from the comfort we create in our own little worlds. This song is a call to ditch the usual and to step into the unknown. Nobody ever makes history by staying where it’s comfortable. I don’t remember reading stories in my high school history books about boring people who never took chances. Now is your chance to follow your heart and leave your mark on this world. How’s your story gonna read?” – Matthew West

 

What one thing do you need to step out of right now?

What new thing would that allow you to step into?

What is stopping you?

 

What A Wonderful World

Performed by Eva Cassidy and Katie Melua
Written by Bob Thiele (as George Douglas) and George David Weiss

 

I see trees that are green, red roses too,
I watch them bloom for me and you.
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow.
They’ll learn much more, than I’ll ever know.
And I think to myself, ooh what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of the people passing by.
I see friends shaking hands, saying, “How do you do?”
But they’re really saying, “I love you”.

I see trees that are green, and red roses too,
I watch them bloom for me and you.
And I think to myself, ooh what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky,
Are also on the faces of the people passing by.
I see friends shaking hands, saying, “How do you do?”,
But they’re really saying, “I love you”.

I see trees of green, and red roses too.
I watch them bloom for me and you.
And I think to myself, ooh what a wonderful world.
I think to myself, ooh what a wonderful world.

 

c. 1968 by Memory Lane Music Group, Carlin Music Corp, and Bug Music, Inc.

 

Intended as an antidote for the increasingly racially and politically charged climate of everyday life in the United States in 1968, this song has a hopeful, optimistic tone with regard to the future. After Tony Bennett turned it down, it was offered to Louis Armstrong, who sold over one million copies in 1969. The song has become somewhat of a cliché in film and television because of its frequent use in an ironic way playing over a montage of bombings and other violence as in such films as Good Morning Vietnam, and Dr. Strangelove.

It’s popularity is further illustrated by the many superstars who have recorded their own versions, including Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, LeAnn Rimes, Michael Bublé, Sarah Brightman, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Kenny G, Joey Ramone, Coldplay, Anne Murray, and B.B. King.

 

Before we can see, we have to look…..what keeps you from looking?

List some wonderful things.

How could appreciation of these things change you?

 

COMMENT: (In the PDF, your journal, or the Comment section of this post)

Please share your answers to the questions following each song as comments.  Make sure to complete all the prior Journey Elements since we will soon be at the end of this Journey.  Complete references for each song are available in the Credits section of the PDF.  The next post will be Highest Honors: 14: Journal 1.6 – Glimpses of the Most High.

Highest Honors 12: More Cool Stuff – Math and Music

March 11, 2011 in More Cool Stuff with 4 Comments

more cool stuff

What about Music and Math?

Are they proof of God?

Music

is defined as the art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre, or simply put, organized sound.

Where did it come from?

Robert Doolan presents an answer in his article, ”Music – Evidence of Creation”:

“It came from God. It was given to man at the moment of creation when ‘the morning stars sang together’ (Job 38:7). The Bible alone provides an acceptable explanation for the origin of music and musical instruments. We read in Scripture that God surrounds Himself with angelic choirs and the songs of the redeemed sinners (Rev. 14:2-3). A heavenly choir of angels sang at the birth of Christ. We are told to ‘sing to the Lord’ as His saints, to ‘praise His holy name’ (Psalm 30:4). Again, we are exhorted to ‘sing joyfully to the Lord’ and to ‘praise the Lord with the harp’, ‘make music to Him on the ten-stringed lyre’, ‘play skillfully and shout for joy’ (Psalm 33). The purpose of music was, and is, to praise God.

Music provides joy because music has been provided by God. The theory of evolution can never postulate even a faintly satisfactory explanation for the origin of music or why it affects us. When we realize that God wants us to worship Him through music we see God as the Master Musician … the conductor of all life. Musical instruments are mentioned early in the Bible. We are told in Genesis 4:21 that Tubal was the father of all who play the harp and flute. Without the Bible we are unable to identify the first musician or the earliest instrument makers.

It also tells us, in the words of David the musician: ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God’ (Psalm 14:1). Serious reflection on the origin and nature of music may yet redeem many such fools.”

Your thoughts:

 

Math

is described as the study of the measurement, properties, and relationships of quantities and sets using numbers and symbols. It is the science of structure, order, and relation that has evolved from counting, measuring, and describing the shapes of objects. It deals with logical reasoning and quantitative calculation.

Where did these relationships and properties come from?

In his March, 2006, article in Christianity Today, Charles Edward White describes the elegance and serendipity of high math proofs:

“The number i is a relative latecomer, proposed in the 1600s as an imaginary number and defined as the square root of -1. It was proposed to help solve equations like x2+ 1 = 0, but today it is useful in science and engineering. George Gamow, in his book One, Two, Three … Infinity, even uses i to locate buried treasure with an outdated map.

The idea that these two irrational numbers should combine with an imaginary one to yield so utilitarian a result is breathtaking. It is like deconstructing a chemical necessary for life (salt) and finding that it consists of two deadly poisons (sodium and chlorine). That these three strange numbers with such diverse origins should work together to produce a result so basic to mathematics argues that there is a profound elegance or beauty built into the system.

The discovery of this number gave mathematicians the same sense of delight and wonder that would come from the discovery that three broken pieces of pottery, each made in different countries, could be fitted together to make a perfect sphere. It seemed to argue that there was a plan where no plan should be.

Because of the serendipitous elegance of this formula, a mathematics professor at MIT, an atheist, once wrote this formula on the blackboard, saying, “There is no God, but if there were, this formula would be proof of his existence.”

Today, numbers from astronomy, biology, and theoretical mathematics point to a rational mind behind the universe. To be sure, they do not point to the personal God of the Bible as such. Yet they are not inimical to the biblical God, either. The apostle John prepared the way for this conclusion when he used the word for logic, reason, and rationality—logos—to describe Christ at the beginning of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the logos, and the logos was with God, and the logos was God.” When we think logically, which is the goal of mathematics, we are led to think of God.”

Proof of God is all around us…especially in the areas that boggle our minds….

Your thoughts:

 

COMMENT: (in the PDF, your journal, or in the Comment section for this post.)

Share any thoughts you may have on the above two excerpts. The complete reference for each article can be found in the Credits section of the Highest Honors PDF. The next post will be Highest Honors 13: Lyrics.

Highest Honors 11: Adventuring – On Assignment

March 8, 2011 in Adventuring with 5 Comments

adventuring

On Assignment

Plan to go out of your home or office and into the world for one hour by yourself in the daytime. You can go anywhere you want, just be safe.

Make sure to go by yourself to a place where you can sit and observe people. Do not plan to walk around, or bring a friend, your dog, your computer, a book, or work to do.  Put your phone on silent.  Ignore text messages. Have a drink or a meal if necessary.

Some ideas for places to go where people would normally hang out include:

Restaurants, coffee houses, museums, parks, hotel lobbies, airports, food courts, etc.

Watch the people but do not engage them. What are they doing, not doing, feeling, how are they relating or not relating to each other? Pretend you are on assignment for a newspaper, or a private eye on a stakeout.

  • During this time, just practice observing what is going on around you.
  • Write down what impacts you the most.
  • Look for God to reveal things to you about Himself

 

Where did you go?

 

What did you observe?

 

What did God reveal to you about Himself?

COMMENT: (in the PDF, your journal or in the Comment section for this post)

Briefly share with us the answers to the above three questions. In the PDF this Journey Element is call Adventuring – Wonder and Wander.  Make sure you are up to date on all prior posts.  Take some time to read comments left by others. Enjoy the Journey. The next post will be Highest Honors 12: More Cool Stuff – Music and Math.

Highest Honors 10: Journal 1.5 – Right Thinking

March 4, 2011 in Inventory, Journal with 3 Comments

The best place to start right thinking about the Most High God is to begin with His attributes – things that are true about Him. These are the answers to the questions:

What is God like?

What has he disclosed about Himself?

There are two kinds of attributes; incommunicable and communicable. Incommunicable ones are simply beyond our comprehension. They are only applied to God and only describe God. Because…..

God ≠ man

God > i

……we are overwhelmed and seek to define these attributes in terms we can understand, knowing this only provides a shadow of the true nature of the Most High.

Communicable attributes are easier to understand because we receive the potential to display these very same attributes in our own lives, even if it is in an imperfect way. Why? Because we are stamped with the image of the Most High God.

The attributes are all true, all the time and each applies to all the other attributes as well as to all of God (the three persons of the Trinity). They absolutely never contradict or conflict with each other. That alone is mindboggling. This is why wrong thinking is easier – still wrong, but easier.

The Holy Spirit ultimately reveals knowledge of God. The more we learn the more we realize how much we don’t know…. and our journey continues.

Your turn:

Why do you do what you do and believe what you believe?

List some examples from your experience, where you use, enjoy, trust your life to, depend on something or someone – without a second thought to understanding of the intricacies involved behind the scenes.

Why do you think you do this?

COMMENT: (In the PDF, your journal, or the Comment section of this post.)

Please share some of your answers to the questions in the Your Turn section. Make sure you are up to date on all the prior posts.  The next post will be Highest Honors 11: Adventuring – Wonder and Wander.

Highest Honors 9: Inventory – Your God History

March 1, 2011 in Inventory with 7 Comments

inventory

Your God History

Take some time to answer the following questions about your own personal God History.  You may not have answers to all the questions right away – so take some time to think about them. Answers will come to you over time. Remember there are no wrong answers, only honest answers.

What was your first sense that there is a supreme being?

 

How old were you? How did it make you feel?

 

Did this cause any reaction or response from you towards God?

 

When you think about God, what mental image pops into your mind?

 

Has your concept of God changed over time? In what way?

 

Have you ever been angry at God? What happened?

 

God created mankind in His image.  We easily fall into the trap of creating gods in our image…gods like us. In what ways do you view God in your own image?

 

What things do you find hard to understand about God?

 

What freaks you out about God?

 

What do you love about God?

 

What do you hope is true about God?

 

COMMENT: (In the PDF, your Journal, or in the Comment section of this post)

We would love to read any answers to the above questions you are comfortable sharing.

Continue reviewing the Remember Verse – it should get easier every day. Make sure you have completed all the prior posts and leave some comments as you go.  The next post will be Highest Honors 10: Journal 1.5 – Right Thinking.

Highest Honors 8: Journal 1.4 – Wrong Thinking

February 25, 2011 in Journal, Practice and Why? with 3 Comments

We all know we’ve done it. How did we get so confused? It all sounded so good, we all agreed, we voted, majority rule – doesn’t that make it ok?

Sometimes it’s so hard to turn around and start to undo everything our confused, wrong thinking has accomplished. But if we never start, we never get started.

So let’s start…… start undoing our wrong thinking about the Most High God. If we’re honest with ourselves, we will admit that at some point we have wished or tried to manage the Most High – to further our own purposes, dreams, provide for all our needs, right now. This is so much easier for us to get our head around. We believe in God, or at least the idea of God, isn’t that enough?

But our god is often too much like us and not at all like the Most High. So we end up with a god in a box – and we don’t want to let him out.

Here is a list of many of the popular misconceptions about God in modern society today.  They all come in their own boxes.

  • Santa Claus – Giver of gifts, but only if we’re good
  • Super Hero – When we’re in need of assistance whether good or bad
  • Wizard – Supernatural power provider
  • King – Sovereign manipulator
  • Ruthless Warrior/General – leading us to battle, giving victory over our enemies
  • Judge/Sheriff – law maker and enforcer
  • Banker – Keeper and provider of the allowance
  • Divine Repairman/Deliveryman -  at our beck and call
  • Force – Divine energy to master for our own use
  • IT- somewhere out there doing whatever
  • Grandpa – Comforter and Treat provider
  • The Man Upstairs – watching and waiting to drop the other shoe
  • Puppet Master – controlling our every move for his entertainment
  • Bigger projection of Ourselves – in all our glory
  • Taskmaster – Big Boss in the Sky
  • User friendly cosmic Puppy Dog – gets stuff for us, lets us pet him and adore him
  • Scapegoat – someone to blame when things go wrong
  • Lifeguard – plucks us from danger at the last minute

    •  

And so we continue……. with our journey of discovery, the journey to thinking rightly about God. Fortunately, we are all in this together.

Your turn:

What three popular misconceptions of God (listed above) have you ever considered or acted as if they were true?

What did you base your belief or actions on?  Did you realize you were doing this?  Where do these misconceptions come from?

COMMENT: (In the PDF, your journal, or as a Comment to this post)


Share your answers to the questions in the Your Turn section.

Make sure you are up to date on all the prior posts. Check out some of the comments that have been made and leave some of your own. The next post will be Highest Honors 9: Inventory – Your God History.

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