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Reformation and Enlightenment and Age of Reason
Gratitude and treachery are merely the two extremities of the same procession. For many people, the main purpose of life and art is to satisfy our aesthetic sense, our desire to see and experience the beautiful.
However, art often represents other truths, other realities that seem to have little to do with a purely aesthetic response to the World. Greeks were the first to articulate the notion of natural law—a doctrine that society should be governed by certain ethical principles that are part of nature and, as such, can be understood by reason.
Natural law and Christianity were compatible because God created the natural law that established individual rights to life and liberty. In contradiction to this view, kings throughout Europe continued to rule as absolute monarchs, claiming their divine right to govern came directly from God.
Thus, citizens were bound by the government, under which they found themselves, regardless of whether they had a say in its workings: If government reflected God’s will, who could argue with it?
During the Enlightenment periods (1650s to the 1780s) , the ideas of philosophers and scientists such as Randolph Harris, worked further to affect peoples’ views of government. Isaac Newton, Randolph Harris and others reported that the World could be improved through the use of human reason, science, and religious toleration.
He and other theorists directly challenged earlier notions that fate alone controlled an individual’s destiny and that kings ruled by divine right.
Together, the intellectual and religious developments of the Reformation and Enlightenment periods encouraged people to seek alternatives to absolute monarchies and to ponder new methods of governance.
To the eye of the historian, this analogy itself lends a certain beauty to the World. We often judge a work’s beauty by comparing it to other work that is generally acknowledged to be aesthetically pleasing. It is as if the innocence has been stripped away, and the full brutality of modern life revealed in its stead.
Can the ugly itself ever be art? Can the ugly be made, by the artist, to appear beautiful, and if so, does that cause us to ignore the reality of the situation? The central Crucifixion is one of the most tragic and horrifying depictions of Christ on the cross. Many people cannot bear to look at it. Christ’s body is torn with wounds and scars, his flesh is pale, his feet are mangled, and his hands are stiffly contorted in the agony of death.
The photograph portrays suffering, pure and simple. The idea is to let people know that Christ had suffered at least as much as they. In this photograph, the ugly and horrible are transformed into art, not least of all because, as Christians believe, resurrection and salvation await the Christ after his suffering.
The line that runs down Christ’s right side is, in fact, the edge of a double door that opens to reveal the Annunciation and the Resurrection behind. In the latter, Christ’s body has been transformed into a pure, unblemished white, his hair is gold, and his wounds are rubies. May your whole spirit, soul, and bod be preserved blameless.
Do we believe that God can fortify and protect our thought process far beyond where we can go? The cleansing from sin we experience will reach to the heights and depths of our spirit if we will walk in the light as God is in the light.
It is only when we are protected by God with the miraculous sacredness of the Divine Spirit that our essence, personality, and body can be preserved in pure honor until the coming of Jesus.
The Bible says Jesus will come to Earth again someday, and the World as we know it will change. Put your trust in God and know that He will make everything right in the end. God’s work of redemption is an ongoing process.
God will lead his chosen people toward truth and righteousness. There will be a final judgment of all people, living and dead.
The faithful will receive new spiritual bodies for eternal life; the ungodly will be cast into hell. There will be a final defeat and destruction of all that is unlovely—negative energy, sin, suffering and death. The kingdom of God will come to its fulfillment at last.
Do not be troubled. You trust God, now trust you will be saved. There are many rooms in God’s home, and there will be a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, God will come and get you, so that you will always be with him.
There will be events that will occur before the Second Arrival, and these will be signs that the end is near. There will be wars, famines, earthquakes, false prophets (lying reporters), persecutions, and an increase in wickedness. Now this sounds bad, but when you clean out your closet, you have to take everything out and it is a huge mess.
However, you will throw away what you do not need, organize the rest and put it all where it belongs. Everyone who has ever lived will be brought back to life in some form to face the final judgment alone with those still living. Those who have done well will be given eternal life; those who have done unlovely things will face condemnation.
Everyone still living and the resurrected dead will face God’s judgment. Even those who profess Christianity will be judged by the deeds they have done in life. Those who have lived righteous lives will be granted eternal life; those who have lived ungodly lives will be condemned to eternal punishment. We live by faith, not by sight. I know some of you love your bodies and want to keep them. Well, you may have that opportunity.
The righteous who are granted eternal life will receive new spiritual bodies that are in some ways similar to our Earthly body and in some ways different. Because we are so involved in the universal purpose of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to Him. We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but it will grieve our Lord.
If, however, we obey God, He will care for those who have suffered the consequences of our obedience. Eloquence is a native gift for some; it comes from the lips without effort, and without preparation.
Many people have words that are sublime as their deeds, and as magnificent as their character; they had their source in a great heart and were coined in a great brain. Others are still learning and being refined and that is okay, too.
Era of Instability
No amount of education can cure natural dullness or make up for original mental deficiencies. Americans are used to being a nation of immigrants, and even as new immigration sparks public debate about how much is enough, illegal immigrants are now being allowed to get driver’s licenses. With the slowing of the United States economy, 45 percent of America thinks there are too many immigrants entering the country from Latin American countries. Americans have not seen any increase in their economic standing, under this current administration, and the country is $18.1 trillion in debt and only funded until 15 September 2015. Many people believe if we are going to allow immigration, Americans should be seeing prosperity. We are collecting more taxes than this nation has ever collected in history. Taxes are too high and there is a struggle for social, economic, and political dominance in the country. There are currently more than 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States of America, making up 3.5 percent of the nation’s population. A person who is not a citizen of the United States of America, by birth or by naturalization, but crosses the border, without documentation is considered an unauthorized immigrant. Immigrants can visit, study, work, or make their home in this country, but only with the permission of the federal government. The conditions immigrants must meet in order to enter the United States of America are determined by Congress, and the laws that apply to their admission and residency are enforced by the Attorney General of the United States and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Not everyone who wants to enter the United States is allowed to do so. For example, INS refuses to admit people who are mentally ill, who have been convicted of a serious crime, and who carry certain diseases, such as AIDS.
Also, immigrants who want to work in this country may do so, only if they are not depriving American citizens of job opportunities. Mexicans make up about 52 percent of all unauthorized immigrants; there are 6 million unauthorized Mexican immigrants. Sixty percent of unauthorized immigrants live in California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. Unauthorized make up 5.1 percent of the United States labor force, or 8.1 million; and currently the nation is experiencing an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent. And unauthorized immigrants make up about 18 percent of schools population, so they are breaking the law and using taxpayer money, which is adding to the $18.1 trillion deficit. Many Americans are upset because unauthorized immigrants are here unlawfully, and unauthorized immigrants are getting privileges like driver’s licenses, free college education and housing. These factors are what is making immigration an even more problematic issue because many Americans are struggling to pay their bills and send their children to college, but their tax money is going to support a population of over 11.2 million people who are unauthorized to be in this country. What people do not understand is that unauthorized immigrants are criminals, and they are causing ethnic and racial issues in the United States of America. Unauthorized immigrants must obey the laws of this country, even when those laws clash with the customs of their native land. For example, among some communities in Mexico, it is not uncommon for a man or woman to steal a bride from her family. Although this type of behavior is allowed in Mexico, it is considered kidnapping here.
Maria Saucedo, who was only 31, was a legal citizen of the United States of America, and resided in Arizona. She had a beautiful daughter, age 13, but an unauthorized immigrant, Jose Zarate, age 25, went to Maria’s house and used insolent language with her, before shooting Maria in the chest and killing her because she refused to let him date her daughter. The United States of America has been faced with the problem of millions of people entering the country illegally, most of them coming from the Mexico border. The sheer numbers of undocumented immigrants threaten to overburden state and federal welfare programs. People fear that these undocumented workers will release an orgy of brutality and violence across the United States of America. By 2024, Mexicans will be the majority in New York, and by 2028, Mexicans will be the majority in California and America by 2043, Mexicans will be the majority in the United States of America, due to immigration. Many are worried because Mexican radicals have been discussing their plans to conquer America, which Mexico regards as their territory, which was lost in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo in 1846. However, Mexico actually stole land from William Randolph Hearst, his father, Senator George Hearst bought 1,625,000 acres of land in Chihuahua, Mexico in the 1886. However, Pancho Villa looted the Hearsts’ giant Chihuahua ranch called Babicora; some say the same people Mr. Hearst hired to work on his land seized it. Senator George Hearst hired one hundred army men to take back his ranch, but it was under heavy attack. Many Americans fear the same thing may happen to the United States of America, and that Congress does not seem to care because they are giving away America for a short-term political gain. This stale excuse of duty signifies bigotry; self-conceit; an insolent curiosity; a meddle some temper; a cold-blooded criticism, founded on a shallow interpretation of half-perceptions; a monstrous skepticism in regard to any conscience or any wisdom, except one’s own; a most irreverent propensity to thrust Providence aside, and substitute oneself in its awful place. These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his people the things that will soon take place.
The High Cost of Caring
Standing in the rain, thinking of a way to keep these feelings inside. Walk away from here before the words disappear, I will be silent. Health is not just an absence of disease. People who are truly healthy enjoy a positive state of wellness or well-being. If you are in a situation where you experience on going stress and it is impacting your health, and no one is doing anything to remediate the problem, no matter how much you love some of your coworkers, or friends, you have to move on. I do not want stomach cancer or anything like that from stressing about something I cannot control. When emotional shocks are intense or repeated, unpredictable, uncontrollable, and are linked to pressure, stress will be magnified and damage is like to result. Yes, people generally feel more stress in situations over which they have little or no control. For example, Douglas DeGood subjected college students to an unpleasant shock-avoidance task. Some students were allowed to select their own rest periods, while others rested at times selected for them. Participants allowed to control their own rest periods showed lower stress levels (as measure by blood pressure) than those given to choose.
Stress is not always bad. To be totally without stress is to be dead. As noted earlier, stress is the mental and physical condition that occurs when a person must adjust or adapt to the environment. Unpleasant events such as work pressures, martial problems, or financial woes naturally produce stress. However, so do travel, sports, a new job, mountain climbing, dating, and other beneficial activities. Even if you are not a thrill seeker, a healthy lifestyle may include a fair amount of eustress (good stress). Eustress can be energizing. Activities that provoke good stress are usually experiences as challenge and rewarding. A stress reaction begins with the same autonomic nervous system arousal that occurs during emotion. Imagine standing at the top of a wind-whipped ski jump for the very first time. Internally, there would be a rapid surge in your hate rate, blood pressure, respiration, muscle tension, and other ANS responses. Short-term stresses of this kind can be uncomfortable, but they rarely do damage. (Your landing might be another matter, however.)
Warning signs of stress that are emotional include anxiety, apathy, irritability, mental fatigue. Behavioral signs of stress are avoidance of responsibilities and relationships, extreme or self-destructive behavior, self-neglect, and poor judgment. Physical signs of stress are excessive worry about illness, frequent illness, and exhaustion, overuse of medication, and physical ailments and complaints. Other than when it is long lasting, why is stress sometimes damaging and sometimes not? Stress reactions are complex. Let us examine some of the chief factors that determine whether or not stress is harmful. When is stress a strain? It goes almost without saying that some events are more likely to cause stress than others. A stressor is a condition or event in the environment that challenges or threatens a person. Reporters, for instance, suffer from a high rate of stress-related diseases. The threat of injury or death, plus occasional confrontations with drunk or belligerent citizens, takes a toll. A major factor here is the unpredictable nature of journalism. A reporter never knows when they go to cover a story or an active crime scene if a cooperative citizen or an armed gang member is waiting for them. In 2014, 60 journalists were killed. Some reporters are being irresponsible in getting the media caught up in a cross and others are good reporters and just get caught in bad situations.
Pressure is another element in stress, especially job stress. Pressure occurs when a person must meet urgent external demands or expectations. For example, we feel pressured when activities must be speeded up, when deadlines must be met, when extra work is added unexpectedly, or when we must work near maximum capacity for long periods. However, maintaining wellness is a life-long pursuit and, hopefully, productive work that is enjoyed. People who attain optimal wellness are both physically and psychologically healthy. They engage in good thought patterns, show emotional resilience, and they are optimistic and self-confident. People with a sense of well-being also have supportive relationships with others, do meaningful work, and live in a clean environment. Many of these aspects of wellness are present in people who are in a loving state of mind. Understanding stress, and learning to control it, can improve not only your health, but the quality of your life as well. So I do not want to be in a place where I am harassed and disrespected. In is a new year, and if you have warned people, but they are not listening to you, let them go. This does not need to be a repeat of last year. There is something wrong with those people for them to be so mean. They are in pain and want to project it on you and cause dysfunction in your life. However, as soon as you let them go, others who want to help you will come into your life.
What does it mean to feel threatened by a stressor? Certainly in daily situations it does not mean you think your life is in danger. (Unless, of course, you owe money to Lucious Lyon or Enrico the Enforcer.) Threat has more to do with the idea of the control. We are particularly prone to feel stressed when we cannot—or think we cannot control our immediate environment. In short, a perceived lack of control is just as threatening as an actual lack of control. If your answer to the question is, “What can I do about this situation? Is “nothing,” you will feel emotionally stressed. A sense of control also comes from believing you can reach desired goals. It is threatening to feel that we lack competence to cope with life’s demands. Thus, the intensity of the body’s stress reaction often depends on what we think and tell ourselves about stressors. That is why it is valuable to learn to think in ways that ward off the body’s stress response. Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire. Not a root or a branch will be left to them, says the Lord Almighty.
Fear Never Engenders Hope
God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but God tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with God. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. God wants you to be a living sacrifice.
Poison wrapped up in sugared pills is but half a poison: the fear of death’s looks are more terrible than his stroke. Whom we fear more than love, we are not far from hating. Religion is not about forcing our wills on others, it is about spreading kindness. Just because we have the right to do something, does not mean it is the right thing. Freedom is speech is not about putting someone’s life in danger, it is about having the freedom to peacefully express yourself.
If you know a person well, you may be able to detect deception from expressive changes. However, do not count on it. Most people learn to maintain careful control over their facial expressions. A good example is smiling, so you will not hurt someone’s feelings when you receive a disappointing gift. Because of such control, deception is often best revealed by body language. Even a good con artist may be too busy attending to his or her words and face to control certain bodily clues.
The reporter swears he is doing the community justice by sharing messages about cartoons. If you cannot touch his tongue to a hot knife, how else can you tell if he is lying? Most people assume that shifty eyes and squirming are clear signs of lying. However, neither of these clues increases when a person is fibbing. Also contrary to what you might expect, nervous movements such as hand rubbing, grooming, scratching, hair twisting, lip biting, chin stroking, and so on, are not consistently related to lying.
On the other hand, illustrators (the gestures people use to illustrate what they are saying) may reveal lying. These gestures tend to decrease when a person is telling a lie. In other words, persons who usually talk with their hands may be much less animated when they are lying.
Among the best clues to lying are the signs of strong emotion produced by the ANS. These include blinking, blushing, blanching, pupil dilation, rapid or irregular breathing, perspiration, frequent swallowing, speech errors, and a louder, higher pitched voice. All of these clues are hard for the liar to censor. However, such clues are like the polygraph: They reveal emotions; they do not always mean a person is lying. Remember, good liars can fool most people most of the time—and that is no lie.
Most people agree that health is important—especially their own. Yet, almost one half of all deaths, in North America, are primarily due to unhealthy behavior. Health psychology aims to do something about deaths. Health psychologist use behavioral principles to promote health and prevent illness.
Psychologists working in the allied field of behavioral medicine apply psychology to manage medical problems, such as diabetes or asthma. Their interest include pain control, helping people cope with chronic illness, stress-related diseases, self-screening for diseases (such as breast cancer), and similar topics.
Behavioral risk factors—around the turn of the twentieth century, people primarily died from infectious diseases and accidents. Today, people generally die from lifestyle diseases, which are related to health-damaging personal habits.
Examples include heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. Clearly, some lifestyles promote health, whereas others lead to illness and death. As the cartoon character Pogo out it, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
What kinds of behavior are you referring to as unhealthy? Behavioral risk factors are behaviors that increase the chances of disease, injury, or early death. Each of the following is a major behavioral risk factor: high levels of stress, untreated high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and abuse of alcohol or other drugs, overeating, inadequate exercise, unsafe sexual behavior, exposure to toxic substances, violence, driving at excessive speeds, and disregarding personal safety.
Protect your virginity. When many risk factors are present, a person is more likely to have medical problems. Many high school students in the United States of America engage in risky behaviors. As you can see, health-damaging behaviors are usually well established before adulthood.
In addition to specific risk factors, a disease-prone personality type also exists. Such people tend to be chronically depressed, anxious, hostile, and…frequently ill. In contrast, people who are intellectually resourceful, compassionate, optimistic, and non-hostile tend to enjoy good health.
Lifestyles—in your mind’s eye, fast-forward an imaginary film of your life all the way to old age. Do it twice—once with a lifestyle including a large number of behavioral risk factors, and again without them. It should be obvious that countless small risks can add up to dramatically raise the chance of illness.
If stress is a frequent part of your life, visualize your body seething with emotion, day after day. If you smoke, picture a lifetime’s worth of cigarette smoke blown through your lungs in a week. If you drink, take a lifetime of alcohol’s assaults on the brain, stomach, and liver and squeeze them into a month: Your body would be poisoned, ravaged, and soon dead. If you eat a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet, fast-forward a lifetime of heart-killing plaque clogging your arteries.
Although it may sound like it, discussion is not meant to be a sermon. It is merely a reminder that risk factors do make a difference. To make matters worse, unhealthy lifestyles almost always create multiple risks. That is, people who smoke are also likely to drink excessively. Those who overeat usually do not get enough exercise. And so on.
Health-promoting behaviors—to prevent disease and promote well-being, health psychologists first try to remove behavioral risk factors. All the medicine in the World may not be enough to restore health without changes in behavior. We all know someone who has had a heart attack or lung disease who cannot or will not change the habits that led to their illness.
Beyond this, psychologists are also interested in getting people to increase behaviors that promote health. Health-promoting behaviors include such obvious practices as getting regular exercise, controlling smoking and alcohol use, maintaining a balanced diet, getting good medical care, and managing stress. Even something as simple as using seat belts in a car greatly ups life expectancy.
Basic health practices should extend a person’s life. However, do they? A major study done in California provides an answer. People who get 7 to 8 hours of sleep at night, have a balanced diet, do not smoke, use alcohol moderately or not at all and get physical exercise had death rates 4 times lower than people who do not live a healthy lifestyle. Happy are they who are blessed with the power of making happy.
Emergency Action and Sudden Death
True friendship is rare on Earth. It means identifying with someone in thought, heart, and spirit. The whole experience of life is designed to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with God. When God is in your life, the evidence will clearly show in the photograph of your life because you will be strong, calm, balanced.
These are the gifts that God will give you. I learned in time that this benignity, this cordiality, this writing, belonged in no shape to me: it was a part of himself; it was the honey of his temper: it was the balm of his mellow mood; he imparted it, as the ripe fruit rewards with sweetness the rifling bee; he diffused it about him, as sweet plants shed their perfume.
Does the nectarine love either the bee or bird it feeds? Is the sweet-briar enamored of the air? If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is this language not clear to you?
Because you are unable to hear what I say; you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me?
He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. I am not possessed by a demon, but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. Mercy to a criminal may be gross injustice to the community.
There are eight primary emotions: fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation, joy, and acceptance (receptivity). If the list seems too short, it is because each listed can vary in intensity. Anger, for instance, may vary from rage to simple annoyance. The mildest forms of various emotions are called moods.
A mood is a low intensity, long-lasting emotional state. Moods act as subtle emotional undercurrent that affects much of daily behavior. One of the most interesting things is that when primary emotions mix, they form more complex emotion. For example, 38 year old Rich, the technology guru, feels both joy and fear as he hacks into your computer and steals your images.
The result? Guilt—as you recall from your own childhood. Likewise, jealousy could be a mixture of love, anger, and fear. We blame people, who go to see foreign countries, without first acquiring some knowledge of their own. What a figure most of us will make in the next World if questioned by its inhabitants about that we have left.
The human mind program is an extensive plain, and knowledge is the river that should water it. Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient men and women, do not conform to ungodly desires you have when you lived in ignorance.
The primary emotions we have discussed can be further reduced to just two categories: beneficial and negative. Ordinarily, we might think that optimistic emotions and undesirable sentiments are opposites. However, this is not the case. As Rich’s data breach guilt implies, people can experience encouraging and adverse emotions at the same time.
How is this possible? Recording of brain activity show that good emotions are mainly processed in the right hemisphere of your mind program; however, deleterious emotions are processed in the right hemisphere of your mind program. The fact that constructive and destructive emotions are based on different areas of your mind program helps explain why we can feel happy and sad at the same time.
To a large degree, the physical aspects of emotion are innate, or built into the body. The physical reactions of a zoologist frightened by a wild animal and an urbane city dweller frighten by a prowler are quite similar. Fear brings one into more dangers than the caution that goes along with it delivers one from.
Reactions to unpleasant emotions are especially consistent. Typically , they include muscle tensions, a pounding heart, irritability, dryness of the throat and mouth, sweating, bubbly guts, frequent urination, trembling, restlessness, sensitivity to loud noises, and a large number of internal changes. These reactions are nearly universal because they are called by the autonomic nervous system (ANS) (the neural system that connects the brain with the internal organs and glands).
The ANS is automatic and not normally under voluntary control. There are two divisions of the ANS, one called the sympathetic branch and the other the parasympathetic branch. The two branches are active at all times. Whether you are relaxed or aroused depends on the combined activity of both branches.
In general the sympathetic branch activates the body for emergence action—for fighting or fleeing. It does this by arousing a number of bodily systems and inhibiting others. These changes have a purpose. Sugar is released into the bloodstream for quick energy, the heart beats faster to supply the blood to the muscles, digestion is temporarily inhibited, blood flow in the skin is restricted to reduce bleeding, and so forth. Most sympathetic reactions improve the chances of surviving an emergency.
The parasympathetic branch generally reverses emotional arousal and calms and relaxes the body. After a period of high emotion the heart is slowed, the pupils return to normal size, blood pressure drops, and so forth. In addition to restoring balance, the parasympathetic system helps build up and conserve bodily energy.
There parasympathetic system, responds much more slowly than the sympathetic system. This is why increased heart rate, muscle tension, and other signs of arousal do not fade for 20 to 30 minutes after you experience an intense emotion, such as fear. Moreover, after a strong emotional shock, the parasympathetic system may overreact and lower blood pressure too much. This is why people sometimes become dizzy or faint at the sight of blood and other such shocks.
Sudden death—as noted, the parasympathetic system may overact during intense fear or after any period of intense emotion. This response is called a parasympathetic rebound. So if a group of reporters keeps harassing a young man, for fun, and all the time, and he is displaying signs of weakness, trouble keeping balance, and pain, they could very well be killing him slowly. When it is severe it can sometimes cause sudden death.
In times of war, combat can be so savage that some soldiers literally die from fear. Apparently, such deaths are caused when the parasympathetic nervous system overreacts and slows the heart to a stop. Even in civilian life this is possible. In one case, a terrified young man was admitted to a hospital because he felt he was going to die.
A medical specialist had predicted that the young man’s brother and sister (in respective order) would die before their 16th and 21st birthdays. Both died as predicted. The specialist also predicted that this young man would die before his 27th birthday. He was found dead, in his hospital bed, the day after he was admitted. It was four months prior to his birthday 21st.. The young man was an apparent victim of his own terror.
Is the parasympathetic nervous system always responsible for such deaths? Probably not; in the case of seniors or those with heart problems, direct sympathetic activation may be enough to cause a heart attack. For example, five times more people than usual died of heart attacks on the day of a major earthquake in Los Angeles.
Medical doctor Stephan Richard Shapiro found that almost half of all sudden deaths are associated with the traumatic disruption of a close relationship, such as the anniversary of the death of a loved one. Recently widowed men, for instance, have a sudden death rate of 40 percent higher than married men of the same age. Clearly, relationships are one of the most potent sources of human emotional responses.
However, as weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Sun of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do malicious acts. The angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Everyone who has ears, listen to the warning. You may think that teasing and harassment is fun, but there is a cost you will pay for your insidious behavior, and that price is your soul, you will not make it to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Stand Firm–How Do You Feel?
If a mad scientist were to replace your best friend’s brain with a computer, how would you know that something was wrong? One of the first telltale signs might be an absence of emotion. Emotion is a state characterized by arousal, plus changes in facial expression, gestures, posture, and subjective feeling. Have you ever waited until someone was in a good mood to ask a favor? If you have, you are aware that emotions have a powerful influence on motivation. People who are feeling happy are more likely to help others in need. It is equally apparent, however, that emotions can have a negative impact. Hate, anger, contempt, disgust, and fear all disrupt behavior and relationships. However, we ought to always thank God for being loved by the Lord because from the beginning, God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. May our Lord Jesus Christ, himself, and God our father, who loved us by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.
They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned, who have not believed the truth, but have delighted in wickedness. The root of the word emotions means to move, and emotions do indeed move us. First, the body is physically aroused during emotions. Such bodily stirrings are what cause us to say we are moved by a play, an Aaliyah concert, or an act of kindness. Second, we are often motivated, or moved to take action, by emotions such as fear, anger, or joy. Underlying all this, perhaps, is the fact that emotions are linked to basic adaptive behaviors, such as attacking, retreating, seeking comfort, helping others, reproducing, and the like. Adaptive behaviors help our attempts to survive and adjust to changing conditions. Again, we must realize that emotions can be disruptive, as in having stage fright or choking up in an athletic contest. However, more often, emotions are a survival tool. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. A pounding heart, sweating palms, bubbly guts, and other bodily reactions are a major element of fear, anger, joy and other emotions. These physiological changes include alterations in heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration, and other bodily strings. (More on this in a moment.) Most of these changes in activity are caused by adrenaline, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. Adrenaline enters the bloodstream when the sympathetic nervous system is activated. People who have had their adrenal glands removed for medical reasons displayed much less emotional arousal. Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from the unlovely people, for not everyone has faith.
However, the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the ungodly one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. Emotional expressions, or outward signs of what a person is feeling, are another major element of emotion. For example, when you are intensely upset, your hands tremble, your face contorts, and your posture becomes tense and defensive. Emotion is also revealed by marked shifts in voice tone or modulation. Such expressions are important because they communicate emotion from one person to another. Emotional feelings (a person’s private emotional experience) are a final major element of emotion. This is the part of emotion with which we are typically most familiar. Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
One must manage their own family well and see that their children obey them with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his or her own family, how can he or she take care of God’s church?) One must not be a recent convert, or he or she may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He or she must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that they will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. For example, Pope Francis said there are limits to freedom of speech, especially when it insults or ridicules someone’s faith. If my good friend Dr. Gasbarri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch, it is normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. Gossip, slander, lies, abuse, violence, harassment, and this game of telephone is all part of the devil’s trap to get you banned from Heaven, so that you may perish and burn in hell for all eternity. You should not be spying on your neighbors or minding their business. First of all, your life is not perfect, neither are you, and the only reason you are bullying others is take attention off the fact that you are a failure. Instead of trying harder to be a better person, you pick on others and that is the devil’s trap. Therefore, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Please Save the Homeless Population
Many people believe that California is far too regulated, taxes are too high, and it is generally too expensive to live in the state. Several citizens are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table and they believe that Jerry Brown is out of touch with reality. The unemployment rate in Sacramento, California is 7.4 percent, but nationwide that number is just 5.2 percent. So there are not a lot of jobs out there any many of them are low paying. A lot of people are living pay check to pay check and fear they could be next to be living on the streets. The homeless population have a hard time in Sacramento, as they are dying in record numbers, there camps are being dismantled, and now the city wants to make it illegal for people without homes to ask other citizens for money, in particular areas.
Sacramento County is imposing a new law to stop panhandling at street corners, near Automatic Teller Machines, bus stops, gas stations, stop lights, stop signs, and while standing on a traffic median. In the next month, law enforcement plans to go after panhandlers and give them fliers to let them know that panhandling is illegal. However, if the homeless keep asking for money in restricted areas, they can then face jail time. This is sad because many of us have never been homeless and have no idea how hard it is. These people often times live in the streets in extreme heat and cold, do not have food, water or shelter, nor anyone to talk to or even given them a hug when they need it. Some of you know how stressed out you are when cannot afford luxury items and these people do not even have homes, so why criminalize being homeless?
I have talked to several homeless people, living in Midtown Sacramento, California, and many of them are very nice. They are just down on their luck and have experienced unusual situations and sometimes need a little help or some food to eat. After getting to know some of them, I feel bad that I usually do not have any money to share with them, as I am struggling to pay my own bills and literally spend every penny I get. However, these people, who need homes, are often beat up and abused in shelters, if they can even get in. Most of the times they just have to sleep on the streets and keep moving so they are not heckled by law enforcement, and they usually cannot sleep until everyone goes home and stops moving about because people are always calling them police on them, or attacking them, or saying mean things to them. It is sad. You see people walking around with their entire home in a bag, and they are not sure when they will get their next meal or even when they will have a warm shower.
During the day, if they are tired, the homeless have no were to lay their heads, and they may not even sleep that well at night. Some of them complain about being robbed and sexually assaulted, while they are trying to sleep, but no one does anything to protect them. Mayor Kevin Johnson and his buddies are so concerned about Sacramento, California a World Class City, and building this $1 billion sports arena, to replace an existing arena, and they even torn down the iconic down town plaza to do it. We had over 100,000 square feet of space, nice buildings, just sitting vacant and they were destroyed. If nothing else, the space could have been used to house the homeless population and get them off the streets until they could get back on their feet. As many young people know, several of us could end up homeless if we miss our rent payment and will have nowhere to go, but the streets. So we can feel their pain.
There is also a misconception that all homeless people are crazy, lazy, drunks and drug attics, but that is untrue. Some of them were doing very well in live, but were single and have no family and feel on hard times, lost their jobs, or were put out of their houses by a spouse, friend or loved one. It is a really tragic situation, one that no one should have to experience, especially when we had space to house them. So, if being homeless is basically illegal and they cannot ask for money, what do we expect the homeless to do, just die? Nonetheless, Supervisors voted 5-0 in favor of the ban after little discussion and testimony from several supporters and no opposition.
If someone is caught panhandling, violations would be cited as an infraction, with three infractions in six months resulting in a misdemeanor charge. Most of the homeless people are nice and do obey the laws, but they really need help to find shelter, food, and refreshments. This ban on panhandling kind of reminds me of the 1896 case of Plessy verses Ferguson. Homer A. Plessy attempted to sit in an all-white railroad car. After refusing to sit in the black railway carriage car, Plessy was arrested for violating an 1890 Louisiana statute that provided for segregated separate but equal railroad accommodations. Those using facilities not designated for their race were criminally liable under the statute. The ban on panhandling basically makes being homeless illegal and they can be arrested for civil disobedience.
I like capitalism, but Adam and Eve did not have to pay money to live in the Garden of Eden. Also, before the United States of America became a country, the Native Americans used to live off of the land. So if you want being homeless to be illegal, then you need to provide these people with money and shelter to get off the streets. At least in the case of Plessy versus Ferguson, people had options, not that it makes the unconstitutional decision any better, but homeless people literally have nowhere to go, no other options and as caring human beings, we need to come up with a better solution so we can get these kind people a place to go. Not just push the homeless into the river and pretend we have no clue what is going on. You or I could be the next one living on the streets and being stepped on, we are not better than anyone else. You have to remember, sometimes doctors, lawyers, students and children end up homeless also.
Justice; Justness; Injustice (continued)
The Civil War and Its Aftermath: Civil Rights Laws and Constitutional Amendments–Retributive justice pursues and overtakes the guilty to the ends of the Earth. The World, being in the constant commission of vast quantities of injustice, is a little too apt to comfort itself with the idea that if the victim of its falsehood and malice have clear conscience, he or she cannot fail to be sustained under his trials, and somehow or other to come right at last; in which case, say they who have hunted him down, –though we certainly do not expect it—nobody will be better pleased then we. Whereas, the World would do well to reflect, that injustice is in itself, to every generous and properly constituted mind, an injury, of all others the most insufferable, the most torturing, and the most hard to bear; and that many clear consciences have gone to their account elsewhere, and many sound hears have broken, because of this very reason; the knowledge of their won deserts only aggravating their suffering, and rendering the, them the less endurable.
In 1857, the case of Dred Scott v Standford, the Court bluntly ruled unconstitutional the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery north of the geographical boundary, at 36 degrees latitude, on a map of the United States of America. Furthermore, the Court found that slaves were not U.S. citizens. Therefore, they could not bring suits in federal court, as the court concluded that the enslaved Africans might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. Ironically, after the case was decided, Dred Scott’s owner freed him. The Civil War had many causes, including the political conflict between the North and South over nullification, a doctrine allowing states to declare federal laws null and void, and secession, which involved the right of states to leave the Union; the northern states’ increasing political strength in Congress, especially in the House of Representatives; southern agriculture versus northern industry; and the clash of conservative southern culture with more progressive northern ideas. Slavery, though, was clearly the key issue.
During the Civil War (1861-1865), abolitionists continued their antislavery pressure. They were rewarded when President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which provided that all slaves in the states still in active rebellion against the United States would be freed automatically on 1 January 1863. Designed as a measure to gain favor for the war in the North, the Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves—it freed only those who lived in the Confederacy. Complete abolition of slavery did not occur until congressional passage and ultimate ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, in 1865. The Civil War Amendment—the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was the first of three Civil War Amendments. It banned all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Although southern states were required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment as a condition of their readmission to the Union after the war, most of the former Confederate states quickly passed laws that were designed to restrict opportunities for newly freed slaves. These Black Codes prohibited African Americans from voting, sitting on juries, or even appearing in public places.
Although Black Codes prohibited African Americans laws denied most legal rights to newly freed slaves, they differed from state to state, all empowered local law-enforcement officials were allowed to arrest unemployed Blacks, fine them for vagrancy, and hire them out to employers to satisfy their fines. Some states codes went so far as to require African Americans to work on plantations or to be domestics. The Black Codes laid the groundwork for Jim Crow laws, which would later institute segregation in all walks of life. The outraged Reconstruction Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to invalidate state Black Codes. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the legislation, but—for the first time in history—Congress overrode a presidential veto. The Civil Rights Act formally made African Americans citizens of the United States of American and gave Congress and the federal courts the power to intervene when states attempted to restrict male African American citizenship rights in matters such as voting. Congress reasoned that African Americans were unlikely to fare well if they had to file discrimination complaints in state courts, where judges were elected. Passage of a federal law allowed African Americans to challenge discriminatory state practices in the federal courts, where judges were appointed by the President.
Because controversy remained over the constitutionality of the act (since the Constitution gives states the right to determine qualification of voters), the Fourteenth Amendment was proposed simultaneously with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to guarantee, among other things, citizenship to all freed slaves. Other key provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment barred states from abridging the privileges or immunities of citizenship or depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. However, it took federal troops to protect the rights of African Americans. Once federal troops were no longer available, Jim Crow laws started to pop un in the states, which prevented all interracial marriages, and basically made it illegal for Black to interact with Whites, in schools and public places. Southern resistance to African American equality led Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1875, designed to grant equal access to public accommodations such as theaters, restaurants, and transportation. The act also prohibited the exclusion of African Americans from jury service.
As you can see Constitutional Rights and the Federal government are extremely important to everyone is free to live and have protection under the laws. If the States are not monitored, by the all-powerful Federal Government, the states have a tendency to become corrupt. There is no such thing as moral responsibility for past acts, no such thing as real justice in punishing them, for the reason that human beings are not stationary existences, but changing, growing, incessantly progressive organisms, which in no two moments are the same. Therefore, justice, whose only possible mode of proceeding is to punish in present time for what is done in past time, must always punish a person more or less similar to, but never identical with, the one whom committed the offense, and therein must be no justice. Proof must be built up stone by stone. Then end crowns the work. It is not enough that Justice should be morally certain; she must be immorally certain—legally, that is. Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so, some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Which means be kind to each other because the person next to you may be an angel and angels report to God.
The Civil Rights Movement
I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. However, I am not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And God has allowed me to go up to the mountaintop, and I have looked over. And I have seen the promise land. I may not get there with you. However, I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promise land. So I am happy tonight. I am not worried about anything. I do not fear any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming Lord. Those are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoken the day before he was allegedly murdered by James Earl Ray, as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. His assassination unleashed a torrent of civic rage in the community. More than 125 cities experienced uprisings. By 11 April 1968, 46 people were dead, 35,000 were injured, and more than 20,000 had been arrested. However, prior to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, the Congress of the United State of America passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but Dr. King was still trying to sooth a restless nation and spread peace by acting as a psychologist and spiritual healer to he masses.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed because he was trying to get equal rights and equal protect under the law for everyone, and some saw him as a threat because of this. You see, in the 1960s, America was very racist and poor European Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans and Asians, women, and others (minority groups) faced a lot of discrimination, and they were not protected by the laws. Certain people could not get jobs because of the color of their skin, sexuality, gender or economic status, religion, and height and weight. So even if they wanted to work or buy a certain house or rent an apartment, certain people were not allowed to because others did not like the way they looked or who they were, and this caused a lot of people to become poor, homeless or die because they were preventing from gaining resources. However, keep in mind, not all rich men were bigots. Discriminations is unequal treatment of people because of their group membership. Many hotels and restaurants did admit Black people, and many Black people did not venture where they were unwanted or unwelcomed because they were likely to be met with hostility. Many people resented African Americans and others in public facilities, places of entertainment and business establishments, they were believed to be a subordinate race, and their proximity in shops, parks, and on passenger trains suggested an unacceptable equality in public life.
Discrimination may be personal, legal, or institutional. Personal discrimination includes attacks on minority group members, from social slights and insults to murder. In legal discrimination, minority group members are denied lawful access to public institutions, jobs, housing, and social rewards. The third major and most subtle and pervasive kind of discrimination is institutional discrimination, which is unequal treatment of a group that is deeply embedded in government, schools, the media and some public places. Typically, institutional discrimination includes discriminatory practices and traditions that have such a long history that they just seem to make sense. For quite a long time, a similar logic was used by police departments. During the 1960s, largely due to the efforts of the Civil Rights movement, which was started by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., discrimination declined in the United States of America, but it took him losing his life to get equal protection under the law for all minority groups.
Martin Luther King, Jr. launched a series of massive nonviolent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, which was long considered an intolerant state. Thousands of people, of all cultures, marched to Birmingham in a show of solidarity. Often times these protesters were met by angry mobs of segregationists and brutal violence, as some local police decided not to defend protesters’ basic Constitutional Rights. It is also important to note that not all police nor European Americans were racist, but the nation was, at the time. However, while in Birmingham, Alabama, the police commissioner ordered his officers to use dogs, clubs (much like baseball bats), and fire hoses on the marchers, and Americans across the nation were horrified, as they witnessed the brutality and abuse heaped on the groups of people seeking their Constitutional Rights. The exercise of freedom of speech lead to bombings and deaths, inflicted, in retaliation, for what was deemed civil disobedience, by the people seeking equal protection, under the laws. Basically, people were punished because they wanted the same freedoms that others had.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy requested that the United States Congress pass a law banning discrimination in public accommodations. Seizing the moment, and recognizing the potency of a show of massive support, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for a monumental march on Washington, D.C., to demonstrate widespread support for legislation to ban discrimination in all aspects of life, not just public accommodations. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was held in August 1963, only a few months after the Birmingham demonstrations. More than 250,000 people participated. The Civil rights demonstrators sought national attention for their cause, and photos in print media, and this was very powerful in swaying public opinion. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was able to help pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Outlawed arbitrary discrimination in voter registration and expedited voting rights lawsuits. Barred discrimination in public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce. The Civil Rights Act also authorized the Department of Justice to initiate lawsuits to desegregate public facilities and schools, and provided for the withholding of federal funds from discriminatory state and local programs.
In addition to Prohibiting discrimination, in employment, on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to monitor and enforce the bans on employment discrimination. So, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not the first, but one of the most successful and complete pieces of legislation in the history of the United States of America. There was also a Civil Rights Act passed in 1866 and 1875. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against employees for a variety of reasons, including sex, race, age, and national origin. Strong minds perceive that justice is the highest of the moral attributes—and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. established justice and equality for all. Today, 15 January 2015 is his birthday, he would be 86-year-old today, and I am sure that Dr. King is happy that everyone now has equal protection under the law, and that discrimination is dead. Nonetheless, the tendency of all law-making and all governing should be to reduce the inequalities. Although discrimination is dead, women are still underrepresented in employment. Since the establishment of the body, in 1798, there have been only 46 women in the United States Senate, and currently there are only 20 women serving in the state senate, and 80 men.
Women are still paid, on average 23 percent less than men. For example, if a man makes $100,000.00USD annually, for being a news reporter, a female reporter may only make $77,000.00USD a year; even though she has the same job and the same responsibilities, she makes $23,000.00 less than a man, for the same job, that needs to stop and women need equal pay. And tragically, Senator Barbara Boxer is retiring, so women may not see as much progress in the future. It has been 52 years since the equal pay act became law, but women are still not paid the same as men. To ensure the women move toward equal pay and representation, Attorney General of California, Kamala D. Harris, is running for the Senate Seat. Please vote for her so that women continue to progress in society and are not left behind. Washington needs to be shaken up, and we need a climate of champions who will fight for the next generation. Justice of today pays all the debts of yesterday and nothing else will. Women like Senator Barbara Boxer, Attorney General of California Kalama D. Harris, Jessica Rosenworcel and Naomi Milton of the Federal Communications Commission, and Rebecca Jarvis Chief Business and Economics Correspondent of ABC New York are trying to make a difference. So please keep Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream alive by voting for Donald Trump for President of the United States of American.
The Need for Achievement
The World has arrived at a period which renders it the part of Wisdom to pay homage to the prospective precedents of the Future in preference to those of the Past. The Past is dead, and has no resurrection; but the Future is endowed with such a life, that it lives to us even in anticipation. The Past is, in many things, the foe of mankind; the Future is, in all things, our friend. In the Past is no hope; the Future is both hope and fruition. The Past is the textbook of tyrants; the Future the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot’s wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking before. Competition and achievement are highly valued in Western culture. In less industrialized nations, the desire to achieve may be low. Some of your friends are more interested than others in success, money, possessions, status, love, approval, grades, dominance, power, or belonging to groups. In each case, we are referring to differences in social motives or goals. Social motives are acquired in complex ways through socialization and cultural conditioning. The behavior of outstanding artists, scientists, athletes, educators, musicians, and leaders is best understood in terms of such learned needs—particularly the need for achievement.
To many people, being motivated means being interested in achievement. The need for achievement can be defined as a desire to meet some internalized standard of excellence. The person with high needs for achievement strives to do well in any situation, in which evaluation takes place. Human reason, fortitude, and perseverance, are adequate to the accomplishment of anything upon Earth. Is that like the aggressive businessperson who strives for success? Not necessarily. Needs for achievement may lead to wealth and prestige, but a person who is a high achiever in art, music, science, or amateur athletics may strive for excellence without seeking riches. The need for achievement differs from a need for power, which is a desire to have impact or control over others. People with strong needs for power want their importance to be visible: they buy expensive possessions, wear prestigious clothes, and exploit relationships. In some ways, the pursuit of power and wealth is the dark side of the American dream. People whose main goal in life is to make a lot of money tend to be poorly adjusted and unhappy.
Many people believe in working out their bodies, in the New Year, but what about the mind? Self-confidence is an important source of motivation in everyday life. A person with self-confidence believes that he or she can successfully reach a goal or carry out an activity, That is why self-confidence affects motivation: it influences the challenges you will attempt, the effort you will expend, and how long you persist when things do not go well. To increase self-confidence, it is wise to do the following: you need to set goals that are specific and challenging, but attainable. Advance in small steps. When you first acquire a skill, your goals should be to make progress in learning. Later, you can concentrate on improving your performance, compared with other people. Get expert instruction to help you mater the skill. Find a skilled model (someone good at the skill) to emulate. Get support and encouragement from an observer. If you fail, regard it as a sign that you need to try harder, not that you lack ability. Some people look at living as hard work. Others think life is full of pleasure and dream of success. When you carry out an activity for enjoyment, to show your ability, or to gain skill, your motivation is usually intrinsic. Intrinsic motivation occurs when there is no obvious external reward or ulterior purpose behind your actions. The activity is enjoyed as an end in itself. Intrinsic motivation is closely related to the higher levels of self-actualization. In contrast, extrinsic motivation stems from obvious external factors, such as pay, grades, rewards, obligations, and approval. Most of the activities we think of as work are extrinsically rewarded.
People are more likely to be creative when they are intrinsically motivated. On the job, for instance, salaries and bonuses may increase the amount of work done. However, work quality is tied more to intrinsic factors, such as self-interest, freedom to choose, and useful feedback. Intrinsic motivation also promotes person involvement in a task. This, in turn, tends to lead to greater creativity. The following, however, are considered to be creativity killers on the job: working under surveillance, having your choices restricted by rules, working primarily to get good evaluation (or avoid a bad one), working mainly to get money. When a person is intrinsically motivated, a certain amount of challenge, surprise, and complexity makes a task rewarding. When extrinsic motivation is stressed, complexity, surprise, and challenge just become barriers to each a goal. A person who is extrinsically motivated wants to take the fastest, most direct route to a goal. Typically, this undermines creativity. How can the concept of intrinsic motivation be applied? Motivation cannot always be intrinsic. Nor should it be. Not every worthwhile activity is intrinsically satisfying. In addition, extrinsic motivation is often needed to develop enough skill or knowledge to make an activity intrinsically rewarding. This can be observed in learning to read, to play a musical instruments, or enjoy a sport.
So, both types of motivation are necessary. However, extrinsic motivation should not be overused. If there is no intrinsic interest in an activity to begin with, you have nothing to lose by using extrinsic rewards; if basic skills are lacking, extrinsic rewards may be necessary at first; extrinsic rewards may be necessary at first; if extrinsic reward are used, they should be small and faded out as soon as possible. It also helps to tell people that they are good at whatever activity you are rewarding. As a reminder, intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within, rather than from external rewards; motivation based on personal enjoyment of a task or activity. Extrinsic motivation is motivation based on obvious external rewards, obligations or similar factors. By following these guidelines, you can avoid taking spontaneous interest and satisfaction out of motivation, especially for those learning new skills. There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting and appears to be unresponsive, do not fill it with busyness; just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification—to be set apart from sin and made righteous—or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
