Do you live in a country with universal healthcare?

There’s been a lot of debate here in the US lately about healthcare reform. As usual, our media has sensationalised the entire issue and focused on the extremists on both sides rather than talking about anything that actually matters.

I’m not 100% sure what countries actually have universal healthcare outside of Canada. There are a lot of Canadian people who write on here. There’s a lot of people from the UK as well, and I think they also have it. Why not just ask them?

So, if you live in a country with universal healthcare, tell me what you think about it. Are long waiting periods and rationing true or just an urban legend? What do you think of the quality of your healthcare? Are higher taxes really worth it? Tell me what you like and dislike about it. You can help me form an educated opinion.

Ephesians 2:8-9

I posted this as a comment on another blog. Thought I would post it here, too. It’s my first attempt at research into Greek anything and well, at the risk of being prideful…I am rather proud of it.

———————

If you look at an interlinear Greek NT, you’ll see the passage reads as follows: “For by grace ye are saved through faith, and this [τοØτο] [is] not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God, not of works lest anyone might boast.”

The pronoun τοØτο is a demonstrative pronoun. It points out a thing that is referred to. It is neuter in gender and singular in number, meaning it can only refer to one thing, not many things. It generally refers to concepts. It could be translated “this thing.” It is nominative in case (the subject of the verb). For example, “This thing is not of yourself, [it is] the gift of God.”

A person who values expository preaching like you do needs to correctly identify the antecedent of a pronoun to identify what a pronoun refers to. In this case, “faith” is the nearest one in the passage, but that means nothing in itself, because there many places in the bible where a given pronoun does not agree with the nearest antecedent.

There is a rule in Greek grammar: pronouns must agree with their antecedent in gender and number. Their case is determined by their use in their own clause.

We’ve already established that the pronoun “this” in verse 8 is neuter in gender. The word “faith” in verse 8 is FEMININE in gender. This effectively rules out “faith” as the antecedent because “faith” does not agree with the pronoun in gender. If Paul wanted his readers to understand the pronoun as referring to “faith,” then there is no reason why he would not have used the feminine form of the demonstrative pronoun, which would be the Greek word αυτη, because this would have settled it, and the verse would essentially read, “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and this feminine thing (in this case, faith), is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

However, Paul did not use the feminine pronoun. So, what’s he talking about? If Paul intended the pronoun to refer to the idea or concept contained in the verb, the neuter form would be the one to use, and that is exactly what he did use.

Going back to the fact that the pronoun τοØτο generally takes a conceptual antecedent, if we assume that Paul is talking about an idea, the passage makes more sense. Paul is talking about <b>how a person is saved</b>. That is his main idea. What we have here is not a dissertation on faith, but we do have a brief dissertation on salvation in general. Salvation is not of yourselves, it is by grace, it is through faith, it is not of works, it is the gift of God. Faith is mentioned because you obviously cannot talk about how a person is saved without mentioning it.

The gift of salvation has to be personally received, and it is received by faith in Jesus. What Paul is talking about in these two verses is salvation, not faith, because faith is not the gift, it is how we receive the gift.

A story…

…that deserves to be heard.

Click.

ps – Any comments should be directed to Kelly, not me. This is her story.

Humbled

I can only use one arm right now because of the surgery (which went well with no complications)…

…and I don’t think grace has ever been so tangible.

I’ve been lazy

It’s so easy to lose track of time.

My last post in here was over four months ago. Before that it was sporadic and I hadn’t posted anything of substance in a pretty long time. I’m not too sure how I feel about that. That makes me pretty disappointed because mostly it’s all been sheer laziness that has kept me from writing down some pretty important things.

There’s been a lot of conversation, a lot of movement from Him and a lot of growth. New friends and old have impacted me in different ways. The anniversary of my baptism passed virtually unnoticed. Lots of coffee conversations have gone unrecorded and late nights at Applebees have come and gone. I had my best semester of college in…well, ever.

It’s time to start keeping track again and to put the laziness away. I have opinions, they’re valuable and I’m allowed to express them. In fact, if I didn’t express them, I would be doing God, myself and others a pretty big disservice.

That’s not to say since I haven’t been writing that I haven’t been active. Far from it. There’s been a lot of growth at the CSU Lifegroup. I’ve been investing myself in peoples lives and some of the fruits of that are starting to show in their lives and in my own. 707 has been getting better and we’re continuing to go down the path He wants us to.

I just want to start keeping track of what’s been up. What’s going down and what God is doing. So I’ll be writing in here more often. For now I’ll try to keep it at least once a week.

Bring on the Kingdom.

My uncle plays the tumpet…

…on a television commercial for Sports Time Ohio.

Carboard testimonies

Every two and a half minutes. (Part 1)

Tonights service at 707 moved me more than any service in recent memory. The focus was on prayer and how God is close to us despite any circumstances that may exist in our lives. Lately my circumstances haven’t been perfect but when are they ever perfect? There are so many people in the world who have less than nothing, that die from preventable diseases, that haven’t yet broken free of addictions and that go to sleep every night hungry and wondering if they will have enough to eat the next day.

Most everyone who knows me knows that I was sexually abused when I was younger, I’m fairly open about it. It’s even been used against me before, to take advantage of my weaknesses, but I continue to be open honest and transparent about it because that is my calling. To be a light in the pitch black darkness for people who haven’t yet reached the point that I have, who are still living in despair, who haven’t figured out that healing isn’t just a dream it’s a reality and it exists in Jesus.

When you’re living in that kind of reality, when a crime has been committed against you that is so violent, so dehumanising, so disgusting that it truly makes you consider yourself the filthiest form of unclean you can imagined, you can do some pretty horrible things to yourself and to other people. manipulation, selfishness, pumping yourself full of drugs to ease the pain for just one fleeting moment, cutting, having sex with anyone who will hop into bed with you…the list goes on and on and on.

I’ve lived through that reality, and to an extent I still do, I still deal with the aftermath and the consequences of my actions every single day. There are days I wake up feeling like the filthiest piece of dirt on the planet at the thought of all the meaningless relationships that dulled my reality for a day, a week, maybe a month at most but after every one of them the result was the same. I felt empty again, alone, worthless and I didn’t want to live. Eventually, after I lived this way for years, I started realising that the things that I had started out using to cope were now using me. There came a point where I had to step back and admit I was getting nowhere and that I wouldn’t get anywhere if I kept looking in myself for the solution when the only thing that was inside me was the problem.

I found the solution in Jesus. I’m serious. I’m not the kind of person who is “in your face” with my faith. I think that far tool often people say a lot but don’t really say anything at all and I believe words are a gift best used sparingly and sincerely. I prefer to live by example and let a pattern of consistent actions speak the truth for itself. Sometimes that truth is Jesus and sometimes it’s not. I’m fallen, I’m a sinner and truthfully, I don;’t always live like I should or say what I mean. I do try though, to be the best example I can be.

Some people have asked me why I keep writing about this every so often. There’s a few reasons, some of which are admittedly selfish.

It helps me deal. Some word vomit on a page once in awhile helps me get thoughts out of my head that I’d rather not have and that aren’t in any way honoring to God.

It helps others. Every time I tell my story, I have no idea who is reading, listening or taking notes. If I help just one person out of however many people, then it’s worth it, because they know they’re not alone, they know someone else can identify with their struggle and they know that at the end of the day my efforts to save myself ended in complete and utter disaster and that Jesus made things right, that Jesus did the saving and that He deserves the praise for whatever I’ve done, whoever I’ve impacted of influenced. The ripples that this story makes in the huge and overwhelming sea of life makes no difference, it’s Jesus who gives me the courage to stand up and say I was abused and not care about the negative (and sometimes apathetic, far worse if you ask me) reactions, it’s Jesus who gives me the strength to endure the aftereffects of this that still exist almost 14 years later and it’s God who was with me even while I was destroying myself and spitting in His face trying to destroy myself, someone He loved to the point of sending His Son to die for.

If that isn’t love, then I don’t know what is.

I ramble too much. So, on to my point: Who do you know that needs this solution? Every two and a half minutes, someone in America is sexually assaulted like I was almost 14 years ago. Every two and a half minutes, someone has this same horrible and disgusting crime of violence committed against their soul. Every two and a half minutes, this pattern of destructive behavior might start all over again with someone else and it doesn’t have to.

As Christians we have a responsibility to help these people. But when was the last time you ever heard a pastor mention this in a sermon or anywhere else? If you have heard this mentioned, great, but by and large, this crisis is largely ignored in the church today and I think that is unacceptable and dare I say un-Christlike.

Every two and half minutes. That’s 24 people every hour, and over 210,000 people every year. Jesus loves these people. He died for them. He is the hope that they desperately need, and yet I can’t remember the last time I heard a pastor mention the word “rape” in a sermon.

What are you going to do about it?

What will we do about it?

A new addition

I’m an uncle times thrice.

Quinten Bradley Kozina
Born 12/22/08 @ 8:07am
7lbs. 5oz.

My brother holding his new son

My brother holding his new son

He already looks better than I do.

He already looks better than I do.

Quinten is either really small or my brothers hand is really big. Or both.

Quinten is either really small or my brothers hand is really big. Or both.

[caption id="attachment_68" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Quiet, my nephew is sleeping."]Quiet, my nephew is sleeping.[/caption]

And his nickname shall be…Q-Ball.

Psalm 107:1

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and I’m thankful.

I’m thankful we have a God who forgives time and time again, with a patience that never wears thin, never gets tired, never runs dry. I’m thankful that once I deserved death, but now I am washed by His blood and am now co-heirs with Him, and so now God sees me as clean, pure, washed, blameless.

I’m thankful for second, third, fourth, fifth, and seventy-third chances.

I’m thankful for the beautiful girl that sits next to me every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, for her friendship, her smiles and her passion for Him. She has a rash on her cheeks from her illness, but I only see a brilliant glow.

I’m thankful that my mother is still alive and I’m thankful that God is bigger than any cancer. I’m thankful for my dad, as fragile and strained as our relationship may be.

I’m thankful for being sober and for being able to truly feel alive. I’m thankful that I’m constantly reminded what that means and where I came from. I’m thankful that no matter how many times I relapse, God will be there.

I’m thankful for so many people that have cared about me, put up with me, loved on me, encouraged me and challenged me.

I’m thankful for being alive. For air and water, for light and darkness.

I’m thankful.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth

Worship the Lord with gladness
come before him with joyful songs

Know that the Lord is God
It is he who made us, and we are his
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise
give thanks to him and praise his name

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever
his faithfulness continues through all generations

– Psalm 100