Sunday, November 9, 2014

Special Announcement | Change Coming | Frequency And More... Inconsistency here I come!

Change by ehpien

Change Coming

There is a change coming to the frequency of my posts, but also the content and quality.

I don't know what this means yes, or looks like yet. So here are my thoughts... raw and semi-unfiltered.

I've grown tired or writing one post a week that is all nice and formula driven. I could not care much less about Google traffic or the business of blogging. If no-one ever reads this blog... I want to keep writing it for myself. Express my ideas as they come... than after a period of time those ideas will fertilize and grow into something new.

No more posts that all look alike.

No more pretty packages, or attempts at them.

I am inspired to write more like Seth Godin... big today, small tomorrow, what comes as it comes. I think that's one of the reason I like reading Seth, he's an ideas guy.

Ideas and Concepts

I recently Discovered, that one of my core themes is that I am an Ideas and Concepts person. I'm not always the one who will execute those ideas and concepts, I need to partner with that person. My wife is a Developer (concerned with what is, and the potential one has - real and present), I'm an Ideation person (concerned with what could be - theoretical and abstract).

I want to ask questions that I don't have the answer to yet, just to get the question out there and let it percolate. I am a fellow traveler, seeking answers myself, not a sage with all the answers. I'm willing to learn from you? I'd love to ask some questions and have YOU tell me some things that help us together find the answers.

The world of questions and ideas and concepts and abstracts is the world I thrive in. It's why I'm bother by most schools now. They are teaching kids answers to tests, instead of teaching them how to think and explore ideas. I'd like to see more philosophy in schools were the teacher NEVER gives the answer, not even by the end of class, but only teaches the kids how to explore the questions and ask more questions.

My posts grew boring to me, because I think, unintentionally, I was trying to be the sage instead of the traveler.

Expect the Unexpected

My new goal: Inconsistency!

Really?!

Yes!

If I am growing, learning, pushing the boundaries of thought, life, mind, and spirit... It will by nature require inconsistency.

What do I mean?

If I think the same way a year from now, that I do today... I have failed. I stopped pushing the mental, spiritual, and emotional limits of my mind and spirit. I MUST grow, and to grow I MUST change. I must be allowed to post something today, and then two weeks from now post something that contradicts that first post.

This contradiction may come from me learning more about that topic, growing in maturity, or simply disagreeing with my earlier self.

I want to post my thoughts as they come, not after proper filtering. I want to be free to post once this week, and 6 times the next week. Raw. Unfiltered. Inconsistent. As It Comes...

If THAT is not the journey you signed up for... I understand, please remove yourself from the mailing list, or take me off of your RSS feed. If, however, that sounds like fun... welcome to the journey.

What are some of the life questions YOU would like to explore? Comment on this post to tell us?

Inconsistency: Here I come...

In other words... will I #BeStillBeLed?

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By Darrell Wolfe

About This Blog, and Darrell.

This Weeks Resource:

Grace: The Power To Change, Dr Jim Richards

Affiliate Disclosure:
I earn commissions off of some of my suggestions. Full Disclaimers (Click Here)
See my Store for more suggestions (Click Here)

Written November 09, 2014 by Darrell G Wolfe

News & Events No comments

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Amazing Grace | Amazing Husband | Church Notes 11/08/14

Pastor Robert Morris Gateway Church 11/08/14

Gateway Church | Southlake Texas | Saturday 11/08/14

Series: Amazing Grace
Message: Amazing Husband

These are my notes from service this weekend. They will not be a point by point synopsis; rather, they will be the things that stuck out to me, as they occurred to me, in no particular order.

Notes:

Law gives strength to sin. When we focus on the rules and do's and don'ts, we actually give power to the force of sin and temptation. Grace shows us that Jesus died for sin... all sin. All the sin I every have done, am doing, will do, is paid for in the blood of Jesus. He is not judging me based on my sin. He is seeking a relationship. He is showing me that I can come to him as I am, without trying to change. That doesn't just apply to the sinner getting saved, that applies to the religious Christian, who's been serving God for decades, and "trying so hard" to be a good Christian. There is no point at which my actions or behaviors or habits, or sins are within my ability to change. I can and must take certain actions toward change, but the action I take to change is not to alter my behavior, it is to surrender that behavior to God. I come to Him, and ask Him to do in me, what I cannot do for myself. The first three steps, of the famous 12 step program "AA" are based on this key of Grace:

We admitted we were powerless over "xxxx(fill in the sin)"—and that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

(The blood of Jesus)

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

(I will understand God better today than I did 10 years ago, and better tomorrow than today. It's merely important that I start, not that I start perfectly or with perfect knowledge.)

1 Corinthians 15 Message Version

But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I'll probably never fully understand. We're not all going to die— but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it's over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we'll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true: Death swallowed by triumphant Life! Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who's afraid of you now? It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!

As love grows cold more law is necessary, grace has more power to govern than law. Where grace is absent, tolerance and anti discrimination laws increase. As we are motivated by love, we automatically seek to do right by others. As more people reject God and Jesus (Love Himself) they are rejecting love and replacing it with tolerance. Tolerance is the evil twisted version of Love without God. Tolerance is by nature, intolerant of anything and everything. There are laws popping up all over the land that are actually hindering people's free speech and ability to discuss ideas openly and honestly, all in the name of tolerance. That is what happens when a society abandons Love Himself... they become law conscious.

1 Corinthians 15:56 NET Version

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

Law is your old spouse. Try serving your new spouse by serving your old spouse. Doesn't work. Your wife would not be happy if you spent all your time trying to make you old wife happy. Stop trying to serve law, rules, do's, don'ts, etc. Instead, surrender to Love and Grace.

Galatians 3:1 Message Version
You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.

Thinking of right and wrong is law, life is relationship. If I said to my wife: "Honey, I will never cheat on you, even though I really want to, because the law says not to..." would that bring comfort to her? NO! You'd be divorced soon after, probably. But if you said: "Honey, I will never cheat on you, because I love you, and I'm committed to loving you through thick and thin no matter what." That is a better response. It is one born out of Love, not Law.

Galatians 3:5-6 Message Version
Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

Depending on my own ability is what Law is all about. Whereas, LOVE is about surrendering to Him. The more surrendered I am to him, the more I will be like Him. And my behaviors will change to be like him, without my effort.

Galatians 3: 2-4 Message Version
Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

How do we receive?

Galatians 3:2 ESV Version
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Knowledge vs Life | Law vs Grace

Romans 7:6 ESV Version
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Married to Law or Grace, choose one it cannot be both.

Romans 7:4 ESV Version
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

The key to living successfully in the Kingdom of God: #BeStillBeLed?

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And now I leave you with a question:

What do you think about Grace?

To Respond Leave A Comment on This Post

By Darrell Wolfe

About This Blog, and Darrell.

This Weeks Resource:

Grace: The Power To Change, Dr Jim Richards

Affiliate Disclosure:
I earn commissions off of some of my suggestions. Full Disclaimers (Click Here)
See my Store for more suggestions (Click Here)

Written November 08, 2014 by Darrell G Wolfe

Spiritual Growth No comments

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Elections 2014 | My Appeal to Politicians Everywhere | Special Edition Post


I voted by Tony Alter

Vote - it doesn't matter if we agree, but don't complain if you don't like what is happening and you did not vote. Tony Alter

2014 Mid Term Elections

By all projections, the GOP (republicans) will have picked up seats in both the House and Senate races. It’s possible that when it’s all done, they will control both houses. I wish I could say I was glad. Quite often, when we take control we bicker and fight and get nothing done. We spend more time blaming and finger pointing than actually providing meaningful solutions. I wish there was a party that was neither republican or democrat that I could vote for. I’m nearly done with both of them. Then, after two years of getting nothing done, and providing no real solutions (even though we have them), America tries the democrats again, because at least they speak with one voice and have a plan (even though it's the plan that will lead to more destruction). Republicans are their own worst enemy.

Appeal One: PLEASE don't screw this up!

You see, there’s two problems.

1. I don’t trust MOST republicans, or nearly any democrats for that matter. Democrats, in general, are notoriously for things I can’t stand by, and continuously push a socialist state, increasing the power and role of government. The old time republicans (Rhinos as they are called) are for big government too, just in different ways. Very few have the small government mindset we need to get this country on track again.

2. Meanwhile, the new republicans, (Tea Partiers) are too busy barking at the wrong trees, and fighting battles that they were never going to win, to seize this opportunity to lead the country.

Leadership Bypassing Washington

My hope, is that a select few will lead through the people. Go out and start conversations on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus hangouts. Gather intel and ideas and crowd source solutions. Hold press conferences outlining the most recent plans to move the country forward. If you can’t have productive conversations with your fellow leaders, have those conversations with America, and let America put that pressure on their individual leadership to follow suit.

Appeal Two: Market Your Solutions To The People

Let’s STOP talking about what the other person or party did (is doing) wrong, and let’s start talking real plans for real change, growth, and healing for this nation. Show me the leader who will spend more time pointing to the future, and not the past or present, and I will show you my vote for 2016 (as long as that leader is conservative). Stop blaming, start solving. Don’t tell me what they did wrong, show me what we can do? I’d love to see a campaign built 100% on the solution, and 0% on pointing fingers.

One thing you learn in a call center is to address the human need, but bring the call “back to business”. It’s called the Human/Business model for call flow. In Good to Great Jim Collins discussed the Stockdale Paradox, where you must face the facts with both BRUTAL honesty and UNWAIVERING hope. So let’s address the ugliness of human need in this country. The picture is bad, and it’s getting worse and not better. Despite attempts by the media to mask it, we are headed for several cliffs and will absolutely face another big recession sooner than later. This country is not on the road to recovery, it’s on the road to more misery. The choices we’ve made are not sustainable. However, there IS hope. There is a bright future, if we will lay aside our ideologies (on both sides) and work toward a reasonable solution.

Darkness has no choice, in the face of light, but to flee. Let’s bring the light. Let’s stop fearing religion and use it. Let’s let charities and churches do what government never should have been doing. Let’s privatize things the government has no business doing. Let’s start partnerships with Government/Business/Non-Profit’s together to make things work. In the same way that private business moved farther in one year into space technology, than 30 years of government run NASA, so too, charities do a better job of caring for the poor, and other non-governments do better at lots of other things.

At the same time, governments do better at building and running roads, and utilizes than business do. Would you want to drive a Toll Road everywhere you went? Don’t think so! And yet, even here, in Texas, competition with electric companies keeps costs down considerably. Free Markets, with proper restraints to protect people, are the solution to the future. Not more government.

Let’s make a decision that we will NEVER AGAIN bail out a company with public money, no matter how big they are. Let’s let the market correct itself and stop interfering in it with government easing. Let’s open the pipeline and get jobs flowing again, and move America off of eastern oil forever, but at the same time, provide meaningful incentives for real profitable businesses to reduce oil dependency. Let’s clean out and close down agencies that the government isn’t doing well with. Let’s put the same restrictions on them that any business would have to face. Run in the black, or get cut down or off. Let’s make a decision that this country will not borrow more money, ever again.

Let’s start talking about the problems facing this country (without assigning blame to parties or peoples), let’s discuss the ideas and concepts (not the parties or peoples), let’s discuss the problems as they are, in all their ugliness. Then let’s ALSO discuss some ideas to solve them. These are not going to be simple discussions, but trust the American people to have that conversation, and crowd source solutions.

Show me that leader, show me a person who is conservative with real ideas, who’s not afraid to be wrong, admit it, and change… show me honesty, integrity, and someone who can talk without reading a queue card. I’ll vote for him or her.

Darrell

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And now I leave you with a question:

What would you do, if a poltitician was crowd sourcing ideas to improve America?

To Respond Leave A Comment on This Post

By Darrell Wolfe

About This Blog, and Darrell.

Written November 04, 2014 by Darrell G Wolfe

News & Events No comments

Monday, November 3, 2014

Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us | Talk Video | TED.com

Playing sound effects both pleasant and awful, Julian Treasure shows how
sound affects us in four significant ways. Listen carefully for a
shocking fact about noisy open-plan offices.

http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us?language=en

DarrellWolfe.com via Mobile

Written November 03, 2014 by Darrell G Wolfe

Research, White Noise No comments

How Sound Affects Your Brain

Instead, you can use a concept called "brainwave entrainment" to get the same effect.

Brainwave entrainment is any method that causes your brainwave frequencies to fall into step with a specific frequency. It's based on the concept that the human brain has a tendency to change its dominant EEG frequency towards the frequency of a dominant external stimulus (such as music, or sound).

The type of sound frequencies that are typically used in brainwave entrainment are called "binaural" beats. The way that these work is that two tones close in frequency generate a beat frequency at the difference of the frequencies.

I know this sounds complicated, but it's pretty simple to understand when you think about it. For example, a 495 Hz audio tone and 505 Hz audio tone (whether overlaid in music or in a sound frequency) will produce a 10 Hz beat, roughly in the middle of the alpha brain wave range, like this:

http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/05/how-you-can-use-sound-and-music-to-change-your-brain-waves-with-laser-accuracy-and-achieve-huge-focus-and-performance-gains/

DarrellWolfe.com via Mobile

Written November 03, 2014 by Darrell G Wolfe

Research, White Noise No comments

Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us | Talk Video | TED.com

Playing sound effects both pleasant and awful, Julian Treasure shows how sound affects us in four significant ways. Listen carefully for a shocking fact about noisy open-plan offices.

http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us?language=en

DarrellWolfe.com via Mobile

Written November 03, 2014 by Darrell G Wolfe

Research, White Noise No comments