Apr 2007
The Terabyte
04/09/07 06:35 PM Filed in: Technology
Hitachi Ltd., based in
Japan, is a diverse company that produces anything
from batteries, lamps, kitchen appliances, power
tools, remote controls, industrial construction
machinery... they'll even remodel your home if you
want them too! They're also the parent company of
Hitachi Automotive Products, which manufactures the
parts for a car I'm sure all of you have heard of:
The Ferrari.
For being a company that produces such a wide variety of products, the first thought that comes to my mind is that they aren't good at any one thing, thus they have to cover all the bases to keep revenue coming in. Just the opposite with Hitachi. All Hitachi products that I know of are top of the line.
It's no surprise, then, that since Hitachi has it's hand in every other production market, it might as well be in the electronics/computer business as well. Let's talk about Hitachi Hard Drives.
Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital, and Hitachi are, in my opinion, the "king's" of Hard Drives, external and internal. Since Seagate recently bought out Maxtor, I guess that leaves the race down to three.
I think Seagate has always been the, "Get the biggest drive we can out there as quick as possible!" type. Granted, they're out there selling 400GB and 500GB Hard Drives while the rest are stuck back at 120GB, but the physical mass of a Seagate drive is usually quite a big larger than the other companies... which is logical.
Western Digital is all about a beautiful, sleek external appearance, and "whisper quiet." In general, Western Digital drives have a smaller capacity, smaller physical mass, and smaller price tag. Western Digital is also thought to be the most reliable and most trusted Hard Drive company on the market.
Hitachi Hard Drives aren't quite so common at a store like Best Buy, but that doesn't mean they're not up to par. In fact, most of the time you won't know you have a Hitachi Hard Drive, if you get one. Hitachi, like Western Digital has been known to do occasionally, releases it's drives under another case name. Simply put, it sells the drives to a drive case company and that company basically takes the credit (or heat) for the drive. Hitachi uses a company called SimpleTech most of the time.
Now, for the first time ever, you can buy a Hard Drive with a storage capacity of 1.0TB (Terabyte)! That's 1,000GB, 1,000,000MB, 1,000,000,000KB, or, in case you're curious, 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. There's potential for a lot of binary there...
For $399, you can own a 1.0TB Hard Drive from Hitachi. The first of it's kind, and the first of many to follow, I assure you. The prices should drop fairly quickly as Seagate and Western Digital strive to catch up. The release of the first Terabyte Hard Drive is a BIG DEAL! With everything moving to digital these days, Hard Drives have been the biggest issue. Always too small. Never enough space to fit ALL your programs, ALL your music, and ALL your movies on there. And with applications (and Operating Systems... *gag*) getting larger and becoming more and more of space (and MEMORY *cough*) hogs, bigger Hard Drives are definitely a necessity.
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB SATA Specification:
Capacity: 1TB (1,000GB)
Interface: Serial ATA 3.0GB/s
Rotation Speed: 7200 RPMs
Buffer Size: 32MB
Media Transfer Rate: 1070MB/s
Interface Transfer Rate: 300MB/s
Latency: 4.17ms
Seek Time: 8.5ms
For being a company that produces such a wide variety of products, the first thought that comes to my mind is that they aren't good at any one thing, thus they have to cover all the bases to keep revenue coming in. Just the opposite with Hitachi. All Hitachi products that I know of are top of the line.
It's no surprise, then, that since Hitachi has it's hand in every other production market, it might as well be in the electronics/computer business as well. Let's talk about Hitachi Hard Drives.
Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital, and Hitachi are, in my opinion, the "king's" of Hard Drives, external and internal. Since Seagate recently bought out Maxtor, I guess that leaves the race down to three.
I think Seagate has always been the, "Get the biggest drive we can out there as quick as possible!" type. Granted, they're out there selling 400GB and 500GB Hard Drives while the rest are stuck back at 120GB, but the physical mass of a Seagate drive is usually quite a big larger than the other companies... which is logical.
Western Digital is all about a beautiful, sleek external appearance, and "whisper quiet." In general, Western Digital drives have a smaller capacity, smaller physical mass, and smaller price tag. Western Digital is also thought to be the most reliable and most trusted Hard Drive company on the market.
Hitachi Hard Drives aren't quite so common at a store like Best Buy, but that doesn't mean they're not up to par. In fact, most of the time you won't know you have a Hitachi Hard Drive, if you get one. Hitachi, like Western Digital has been known to do occasionally, releases it's drives under another case name. Simply put, it sells the drives to a drive case company and that company basically takes the credit (or heat) for the drive. Hitachi uses a company called SimpleTech most of the time.
Now, for the first time ever, you can buy a Hard Drive with a storage capacity of 1.0TB (Terabyte)! That's 1,000GB, 1,000,000MB, 1,000,000,000KB, or, in case you're curious, 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. There's potential for a lot of binary there...
For $399, you can own a 1.0TB Hard Drive from Hitachi. The first of it's kind, and the first of many to follow, I assure you. The prices should drop fairly quickly as Seagate and Western Digital strive to catch up. The release of the first Terabyte Hard Drive is a BIG DEAL! With everything moving to digital these days, Hard Drives have been the biggest issue. Always too small. Never enough space to fit ALL your programs, ALL your music, and ALL your movies on there. And with applications (and Operating Systems... *gag*) getting larger and becoming more and more of space (and MEMORY *cough*) hogs, bigger Hard Drives are definitely a necessity.
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB SATA Specification:
Capacity: 1TB (1,000GB)
Interface: Serial ATA 3.0GB/s
Rotation Speed: 7200 RPMs
Buffer Size: 32MB
Media Transfer Rate: 1070MB/s
Interface Transfer Rate: 300MB/s
Latency: 4.17ms
Seek Time: 8.5ms
|
Entropy vs. Atheism
04/04/07 08:45 PM Filed in: Academia
| Indiscriminate
Let's start with a few
definitions to make things clear.
The Law of Conservation of Mass: Mass is neither created nor destroyed in any ordinary chemical reaction. The mass of substances produced (products) by a chemical reaction is always equal to the mass of the reacting substances (reactants).
The Law of Entropy: There is an inevitable tendency towards disorder within a closed system as potential energy gets "spent". "The physical Universe's macrocosmic proclivities of becoming locally ever more dissynchronous, asymmetric, diffuse, and multiplyingly expansive.
Entropy: A measure of the amount of disorder in a system.
_______________________
Let's Start With Entropy:
The Law of Conservation of Mass, put simply, (because let's face it, an actual definition is never put simply) basically says when you have a chemical reaction, you can't lose any atoms or molecules. If you start with carbon, you'll have carbon in the final product as well in some way, shape, or form. It may look different, and it may act different, but you can never just lose it.
The Law of Entropy simple says everything is constantly moving towards a state of disorder. Let's face it, if you leave your room for three weeks, the next time you go in there it's not going to look cleaner. In fact, it will be messier. It will be more disorganized until you put some energy back into it to reorganize it. Sadly, it's a law of nature and, thus, cannot be argued with. Just learn to deal with it.
With these two facts of life staring you in the face, keep in mind they are LAWS. There's no question about it. They've been proven millions of times. Any scientist you talk to will tell you, "Yes, those are laws. They cannot be disputed." So what does that mean for Evolution?
Evolution suggests that we're constantly evolving, becoming more developed and more complex. How does that work with the Law of Entropy? I usually define the evolution theory as, "Nothing exploded and created everything. Perfectly synced, perfectly built, perfectly organized. The everything that we know as the infinite(?) universe."
First of all, you're suggesting that in one instant things didn't become more disordered. No, in fact, everything came into perfect order, all at once. I can't get my mind to grasp that, and I've tried. That contradicts the Law of Entropy, and I don't think that the Law of Entropy was also "created" in the same instant the entire universe was.
Second of all, we're contradicting the Law of Conservation of Mass. According to that, I can't react two simple molecules together and gain or lose ANY of them. They must all stay intact. And you're saying, somehow, someway, absolutely NOTHING had a chemical reaction with NOTHING, exploded (because that's essentially what a chemical reaction is), and created all matter as we know it. Once again, you're contradicting yourself, and science says that if there's even a shred of evidence to contradict a law or theory, for instance, the Theory of Evolution, that theory is no longer acceptable. So why do we still accept Evolution and teach it in our schools when it's contradicted? Maybe I'm missing something... please point it out to me if I am. I'm open to opinions.
Sydney Harris, a popular, syndicated columnist once said, "There is a factor called 'entropy' in physics, indicating that the whole universe of matter is running down, and ultimately will reduce itself to uniform chaos. This follows from the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which seems about as basic and unquestionable to modem scientific minds as any truth can be. At the same time that this is happening on the physical level of existence, something quite different seems to be happening on the biological level: structure and species are becoming more complex, more sophisticated, more organized, with higher degrees of performance and consciousness."
I don't understand how you can say that. How can you say, "Well, yah, it is a law. But only here. Over there it's not really a law." It's like saying, "Well, officer, I'm from Montana, and we don't have speed limit laws there, so why do I have to follow your speed limit laws here?" You just do. It's a law. How much more obvious do I have to make it?!
I asked my Chemistry teacher, who introduced me to the Law of Entropy, "This is a law, right?"
"Yes."
"How does this work with the Theory of Evolution than?"
"Yah, the thing is, it really doesn't. Scientists will try and tell you it does, but it's bogus. They can't work together."
_______________________
And Then Move On To Atheism:
If you can convince me, and make me comfortable with the fact, that there is no God, couldn't be a God, and even shouldn't be a God, I will consider atheism.
Laws of science are great and all that, but they beg another question. Where does the law come from? What force makes that law a law? And how is it that the universe is infinite? How is it that something can't have an end? Everything has an end. This minute has an end. This hour, day, week, month. Life. Our minds are not built to grasp the concept of infinity, no matter how much Calculus tries to prove it. More importantly, that matter which we cannot gain or lose in a chemical reaction? Where did it come from in the first place?
Sure, a star is a burning ball of gas. And a gas is free flowing molecules that continuously circle around each other. And a molecule is a bundle of atoms. And atoms are built up of protons, neutrons, electrons, and a nucleus. So what? Where did the nucleus come from? What makes the nucleus? You can't even SEE the nucleus!! How do you even know it exists to hold the matter you're sitting on together?
How is it we have feelings? What are feelings? Where do they come from? From your emotions. What spawns emotion? Your brain waves, which are your thoughts. What are thoughts? Where do they come from? Are they molecules of some kind too? If so, how do they contain information?
Why am I not an atheist? After all, it would be so much more fun if I didn't have to believe in God, right? Life would be easier, and I could do whatever I wanted. No rules to bog me down... nothing. I'm not a Christian because my family are Christians. I'm not a Christian because anyone has made me a Christian. I'm not a Christian because I read my Bible, go to Church on Sundays, or pray before I eat a meal. I'm a Christian because science leaves too many question unanswered. There are too many open doors that scientists claim they can answer, but if you throw enough ten letter words that nobody knows the definition of into your explanation, of COURSE you sound like you know what you're talking about!! Among other things, I'm a Christian because, to me, it's the most sensible religion! Where did all these things come from? A supreme being, a being far beyond our comprehension, just like infinity, created them. That's why they don't make sense to us. Honestly, think as hard as you can. Give me another explanation that works as well as that one and I'll consider believing it. I'm a Christian because believing there is a supreme being, God, who created me and is watching over me and cares about me more than I could ever fathom seems a whole lot less scary to me than believing I'm alone and lost in this world. Just another nobody. Is that using God? I think so. But isn't that exactly what he wants?
When I think of atheism, I think of free falling without ground to ever be hit. You're falling, falling, falling... nothing to catch you, no reason to be falling, no reason to even exist, you just ARE. In the words of one of my good friends, "We're like rocks.... STUCK on the river." We don't serve a purpose, we just look kinda pretty. And some of us not even that.
I don't mind heights, but I hate falling. Especially when I don't know how far I'm falling. There's absolutely no point to do anything if you're an atheist. Sure, live for the moment, and do what feels good now. But the inevitable will happen someday. Just like everyone else you know, you too will die. What happens then? Do you believe in reincarnation? That's submitting to a higher being to reincarnate you, and then you're not a true atheist anymore. How do you KNOW you'll reincarnate? That's putting an awful lot of faith in a guess and hope! Are you just going to die and cease to exist? In a black nothingness? What does that mean? Where did that black nothingness come from? Are you going to have some sort of after life? What governs that after life? What made you die in the first place?! What makes you EXIST in the first place?!
Honestly, there are too many unanswered questions that no scientist will EVER, no matter how hard he or she tries, be able to convince me of an answer. I'm saving these questions for Heaven, because I'm convinced someONE must have had a say in the creation of me, everyone around me, and everything around me, and He'll know the answer to all of these questions.
Being an atheist would scare me. I, for one, hate being alone. Atheism seems lonely to me. I feel comfortable and safe knowing that I have a God who is watching over my life. I don't just think that, I can feel it. You can't know what I mean unless you experience it for yourself, because there's absolutely no way of describing it. It seems to me that believing in God is the only sensible solution. The only solution that works. And the only belief that doesn't scare me. So why is it that Christianity is the most targeted religion for persecution?
I can't understand why, if you are going to be an atheist, you would have morals. Seriously, if you're not believing in anything, and you're not living for anything but for yourself, others, and the moment, why have morals? Think of how much fun you could have. But what do you even try to base those morals on? A feeling in your heart that tells you, "Hey, maybe you should do this. That would be a good idea." OK... once again, where does that feeling come from? But basing a moral on a feeling is dangerous ground for yourself and those around you. I, for one, know how unstable feelings are. One minute you may say, "Hey, I am NOT going to touch that girl because... well, I don't know why, but it somehow just seems wrong is all." But what about when it's really late? And you're tired. What if she's wearing a really tight skirt, or a low cut shirt? What if she's just looking especially beautiful that day? What if she leans forward? Are your feelings changing now? Basing a so called "moral" on a feeling will most certainly hurt you, and will also those around you. My morals are based on convictions I have from the Bible, which is one of God's ways of communicating to me. Basing your morals on someone elses convictions doesn't work either, because either that persons convictions may change, or, like I stated earlier, you might get tired... you can't trust your own feelings.
Does all this make you uncomfortable? Does it scare you? It scares me. I don't think these are little questions. They're huge, life changing questions, and the answers, according to an atheist, are very vague, if not impossible. I could go on for quite a while, but I think the imagination is the most creative way to form any idea, so I'll leave the thoughts up to yourself. I don't have all the answers. I don't have hardly any of the answers.
Why am I not an atheist? Because I can't answer the question, "Why?"
The Law of Conservation of Mass: Mass is neither created nor destroyed in any ordinary chemical reaction. The mass of substances produced (products) by a chemical reaction is always equal to the mass of the reacting substances (reactants).
The Law of Entropy: There is an inevitable tendency towards disorder within a closed system as potential energy gets "spent". "The physical Universe's macrocosmic proclivities of becoming locally ever more dissynchronous, asymmetric, diffuse, and multiplyingly expansive.
Entropy: A measure of the amount of disorder in a system.
_______________________
Let's Start With Entropy:
The Law of Conservation of Mass, put simply, (because let's face it, an actual definition is never put simply) basically says when you have a chemical reaction, you can't lose any atoms or molecules. If you start with carbon, you'll have carbon in the final product as well in some way, shape, or form. It may look different, and it may act different, but you can never just lose it.
The Law of Entropy simple says everything is constantly moving towards a state of disorder. Let's face it, if you leave your room for three weeks, the next time you go in there it's not going to look cleaner. In fact, it will be messier. It will be more disorganized until you put some energy back into it to reorganize it. Sadly, it's a law of nature and, thus, cannot be argued with. Just learn to deal with it.
With these two facts of life staring you in the face, keep in mind they are LAWS. There's no question about it. They've been proven millions of times. Any scientist you talk to will tell you, "Yes, those are laws. They cannot be disputed." So what does that mean for Evolution?
Evolution suggests that we're constantly evolving, becoming more developed and more complex. How does that work with the Law of Entropy? I usually define the evolution theory as, "Nothing exploded and created everything. Perfectly synced, perfectly built, perfectly organized. The everything that we know as the infinite(?) universe."
First of all, you're suggesting that in one instant things didn't become more disordered. No, in fact, everything came into perfect order, all at once. I can't get my mind to grasp that, and I've tried. That contradicts the Law of Entropy, and I don't think that the Law of Entropy was also "created" in the same instant the entire universe was.
Second of all, we're contradicting the Law of Conservation of Mass. According to that, I can't react two simple molecules together and gain or lose ANY of them. They must all stay intact. And you're saying, somehow, someway, absolutely NOTHING had a chemical reaction with NOTHING, exploded (because that's essentially what a chemical reaction is), and created all matter as we know it. Once again, you're contradicting yourself, and science says that if there's even a shred of evidence to contradict a law or theory, for instance, the Theory of Evolution, that theory is no longer acceptable. So why do we still accept Evolution and teach it in our schools when it's contradicted? Maybe I'm missing something... please point it out to me if I am. I'm open to opinions.
Sydney Harris, a popular, syndicated columnist once said, "There is a factor called 'entropy' in physics, indicating that the whole universe of matter is running down, and ultimately will reduce itself to uniform chaos. This follows from the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which seems about as basic and unquestionable to modem scientific minds as any truth can be. At the same time that this is happening on the physical level of existence, something quite different seems to be happening on the biological level: structure and species are becoming more complex, more sophisticated, more organized, with higher degrees of performance and consciousness."
I don't understand how you can say that. How can you say, "Well, yah, it is a law. But only here. Over there it's not really a law." It's like saying, "Well, officer, I'm from Montana, and we don't have speed limit laws there, so why do I have to follow your speed limit laws here?" You just do. It's a law. How much more obvious do I have to make it?!
I asked my Chemistry teacher, who introduced me to the Law of Entropy, "This is a law, right?"
"Yes."
"How does this work with the Theory of Evolution than?"
"Yah, the thing is, it really doesn't. Scientists will try and tell you it does, but it's bogus. They can't work together."
_______________________
And Then Move On To Atheism:
If you can convince me, and make me comfortable with the fact, that there is no God, couldn't be a God, and even shouldn't be a God, I will consider atheism.
Laws of science are great and all that, but they beg another question. Where does the law come from? What force makes that law a law? And how is it that the universe is infinite? How is it that something can't have an end? Everything has an end. This minute has an end. This hour, day, week, month. Life. Our minds are not built to grasp the concept of infinity, no matter how much Calculus tries to prove it. More importantly, that matter which we cannot gain or lose in a chemical reaction? Where did it come from in the first place?
Sure, a star is a burning ball of gas. And a gas is free flowing molecules that continuously circle around each other. And a molecule is a bundle of atoms. And atoms are built up of protons, neutrons, electrons, and a nucleus. So what? Where did the nucleus come from? What makes the nucleus? You can't even SEE the nucleus!! How do you even know it exists to hold the matter you're sitting on together?
How is it we have feelings? What are feelings? Where do they come from? From your emotions. What spawns emotion? Your brain waves, which are your thoughts. What are thoughts? Where do they come from? Are they molecules of some kind too? If so, how do they contain information?
Why am I not an atheist? After all, it would be so much more fun if I didn't have to believe in God, right? Life would be easier, and I could do whatever I wanted. No rules to bog me down... nothing. I'm not a Christian because my family are Christians. I'm not a Christian because anyone has made me a Christian. I'm not a Christian because I read my Bible, go to Church on Sundays, or pray before I eat a meal. I'm a Christian because science leaves too many question unanswered. There are too many open doors that scientists claim they can answer, but if you throw enough ten letter words that nobody knows the definition of into your explanation, of COURSE you sound like you know what you're talking about!! Among other things, I'm a Christian because, to me, it's the most sensible religion! Where did all these things come from? A supreme being, a being far beyond our comprehension, just like infinity, created them. That's why they don't make sense to us. Honestly, think as hard as you can. Give me another explanation that works as well as that one and I'll consider believing it. I'm a Christian because believing there is a supreme being, God, who created me and is watching over me and cares about me more than I could ever fathom seems a whole lot less scary to me than believing I'm alone and lost in this world. Just another nobody. Is that using God? I think so. But isn't that exactly what he wants?
When I think of atheism, I think of free falling without ground to ever be hit. You're falling, falling, falling... nothing to catch you, no reason to be falling, no reason to even exist, you just ARE. In the words of one of my good friends, "We're like rocks.... STUCK on the river." We don't serve a purpose, we just look kinda pretty. And some of us not even that.
I don't mind heights, but I hate falling. Especially when I don't know how far I'm falling. There's absolutely no point to do anything if you're an atheist. Sure, live for the moment, and do what feels good now. But the inevitable will happen someday. Just like everyone else you know, you too will die. What happens then? Do you believe in reincarnation? That's submitting to a higher being to reincarnate you, and then you're not a true atheist anymore. How do you KNOW you'll reincarnate? That's putting an awful lot of faith in a guess and hope! Are you just going to die and cease to exist? In a black nothingness? What does that mean? Where did that black nothingness come from? Are you going to have some sort of after life? What governs that after life? What made you die in the first place?! What makes you EXIST in the first place?!
Honestly, there are too many unanswered questions that no scientist will EVER, no matter how hard he or she tries, be able to convince me of an answer. I'm saving these questions for Heaven, because I'm convinced someONE must have had a say in the creation of me, everyone around me, and everything around me, and He'll know the answer to all of these questions.
Being an atheist would scare me. I, for one, hate being alone. Atheism seems lonely to me. I feel comfortable and safe knowing that I have a God who is watching over my life. I don't just think that, I can feel it. You can't know what I mean unless you experience it for yourself, because there's absolutely no way of describing it. It seems to me that believing in God is the only sensible solution. The only solution that works. And the only belief that doesn't scare me. So why is it that Christianity is the most targeted religion for persecution?
I can't understand why, if you are going to be an atheist, you would have morals. Seriously, if you're not believing in anything, and you're not living for anything but for yourself, others, and the moment, why have morals? Think of how much fun you could have. But what do you even try to base those morals on? A feeling in your heart that tells you, "Hey, maybe you should do this. That would be a good idea." OK... once again, where does that feeling come from? But basing a moral on a feeling is dangerous ground for yourself and those around you. I, for one, know how unstable feelings are. One minute you may say, "Hey, I am NOT going to touch that girl because... well, I don't know why, but it somehow just seems wrong is all." But what about when it's really late? And you're tired. What if she's wearing a really tight skirt, or a low cut shirt? What if she's just looking especially beautiful that day? What if she leans forward? Are your feelings changing now? Basing a so called "moral" on a feeling will most certainly hurt you, and will also those around you. My morals are based on convictions I have from the Bible, which is one of God's ways of communicating to me. Basing your morals on someone elses convictions doesn't work either, because either that persons convictions may change, or, like I stated earlier, you might get tired... you can't trust your own feelings.
Does all this make you uncomfortable? Does it scare you? It scares me. I don't think these are little questions. They're huge, life changing questions, and the answers, according to an atheist, are very vague, if not impossible. I could go on for quite a while, but I think the imagination is the most creative way to form any idea, so I'll leave the thoughts up to yourself. I don't have all the answers. I don't have hardly any of the answers.
Why am I not an atheist? Because I can't answer the question, "Why?"
Will Someone Please Explain to Me Why It's Snowing
04/04/07 07:16 AM Filed in: Stories
I woke up late today.
It seemed to be a common theme. Jenna and Joey did,
as did the parents. My alarm initially went off at
6:30, but I stumbled out of bed and switched it to
7:00, subconsciously, of course. I woke up a bit
later and rolled over, glanced at the clock, at
noticed it said 6:59. Suddenly I panicked and jumped
out of bed and smacked my alarm off. No, I didn't
panic because I was late or anything. I just hate the
beeping noise it makes, and whenever I can wake up
before my alarm, my day just gets off on the right
foot.
I grabbed my Mae shirt and some jeans from the dryer and headed for the bathroom for a warm shower. After I was all clean, dressed, and smelling good, I went to the table for breakfast. The parents were just getting to the table as well. I ate my bowl of Wheat Chex, mostly in silence (I'm not a morning person 90% of the time). It was 7:30. I usually leave the house at 7:30. Somehow I wasn't in a rush. Perhaps because it was -3 degrees outside with the windchill, and it was snowing.
The munching stopped and Dad reached for his Bible. Usually I miss the morning reading because either I eat really fast and go to school, or Dad's already gone before I get to the breakfast table. Everybody was running slow this morning, so I actually got to sit in on it, which was good, because I didn't hadn't had time to read my own Bible yet.
Dad has this thing where he really likes "Our Daily Bread." I do too. It's quick and to the point, and usually a pretty good point at that.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. " — John 14:12-14
I think most of the time we take these passages out of context. Or we think of them as the "God for Me" verses, because they're all about what God can do for me, if I ask him for it. And I think most of the time we miss the bigger point, and we just say, "God's supposed to give us anything we ask for!" But I think the verse lays out some conditions, first of all. "He who believes in me," "In My name," "That the Father may be glorified in the Son."
Now it's not quite so easy. I mean, if you look at it, it's not really what God can do for us. It's what we should do for God so that the Father may be glorified. So we aren't even getting any of it (or we shouldn't)!
God's not saying, "Ask for stuff and I'll give it to you." I think the part that says, "The works that I do, he will do also" is pretty convicting. He's straight up saying, "If you believe in me, you'll do what I do." I don't know about you, but I do plenty of things I know God wouldn't do, or even be pleased with. "And greater works than these he will do." I don't know about that one. How are we supposed to do greater works than God?
We like to think of these passages for our bettering, and don't get me wrong, they are. But "our" bettering isn't always "God's" bettering, if you follow. If we truly abide in Christ, we won't ask for anything but what Jesus would ask for. But since we are inherently sinful, that can never happen. God's not saying he'll give us whatever we want, I think he's saying he'll give us anything that Christ would ask for.
On the flip side, he's also not saying he won't give us what we want. Sometimes I think we pray so hard for one thing, because we're sure if we just have that one thing, everything will be better, and that has to be God's plan for us, right?! Let's just throw an example out there that I'm sure nobody's ever done: A guy or a girl. Somehow we think that with our finite minds, we know what's really best for us. So we pursue one thing with all our heart. Not God's will, but our will. Maybe we're sure it's God's will though. So we pray constantly for it. Guess what, God may actually give that to you. He may give it to you saying, "I will give you what you ask for. You could have had something better, but you're so bent on having this one, here you go. That way next time you'll learn to ask in My name."
I think too often we pray for our wants and "needs", when in reality we should be praying for God's will to be done, just like in the Lord's prayer. "Our Father ... YOUR will be done." Don't get me wrong, God wants us to talk to him about our struggles, aspirations, dreams, little wishes, big wishes, and all that. But I think, even when praying for something we desire with all our heart, we need to finish it with, "... This is what my human nature wants, God. But my heart wants your will to be done, because your plan for me is perfect and is the best, and even if I don't see it all right now, I want your plan for my life to be fulfilled.”
In the words of my good brother-in-law, Stephen, "Jesus said to the Pharisees that they would have what they wanted, which was reward on earth, and that would be all they got." God has the best idea for your life, and it's fulfilled in Heaven. That's why we can't always see it. That's where our faith comes in.
I grabbed my Mae shirt and some jeans from the dryer and headed for the bathroom for a warm shower. After I was all clean, dressed, and smelling good, I went to the table for breakfast. The parents were just getting to the table as well. I ate my bowl of Wheat Chex, mostly in silence (I'm not a morning person 90% of the time). It was 7:30. I usually leave the house at 7:30. Somehow I wasn't in a rush. Perhaps because it was -3 degrees outside with the windchill, and it was snowing.
The munching stopped and Dad reached for his Bible. Usually I miss the morning reading because either I eat really fast and go to school, or Dad's already gone before I get to the breakfast table. Everybody was running slow this morning, so I actually got to sit in on it, which was good, because I didn't hadn't had time to read my own Bible yet.
Dad has this thing where he really likes "Our Daily Bread." I do too. It's quick and to the point, and usually a pretty good point at that.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. " — John 14:12-14
I think most of the time we take these passages out of context. Or we think of them as the "God for Me" verses, because they're all about what God can do for me, if I ask him for it. And I think most of the time we miss the bigger point, and we just say, "God's supposed to give us anything we ask for!" But I think the verse lays out some conditions, first of all. "He who believes in me," "In My name," "That the Father may be glorified in the Son."
Now it's not quite so easy. I mean, if you look at it, it's not really what God can do for us. It's what we should do for God so that the Father may be glorified. So we aren't even getting any of it (or we shouldn't)!
God's not saying, "Ask for stuff and I'll give it to you." I think the part that says, "The works that I do, he will do also" is pretty convicting. He's straight up saying, "If you believe in me, you'll do what I do." I don't know about you, but I do plenty of things I know God wouldn't do, or even be pleased with. "And greater works than these he will do." I don't know about that one. How are we supposed to do greater works than God?
We like to think of these passages for our bettering, and don't get me wrong, they are. But "our" bettering isn't always "God's" bettering, if you follow. If we truly abide in Christ, we won't ask for anything but what Jesus would ask for. But since we are inherently sinful, that can never happen. God's not saying he'll give us whatever we want, I think he's saying he'll give us anything that Christ would ask for.
On the flip side, he's also not saying he won't give us what we want. Sometimes I think we pray so hard for one thing, because we're sure if we just have that one thing, everything will be better, and that has to be God's plan for us, right?! Let's just throw an example out there that I'm sure nobody's ever done: A guy or a girl. Somehow we think that with our finite minds, we know what's really best for us. So we pursue one thing with all our heart. Not God's will, but our will. Maybe we're sure it's God's will though. So we pray constantly for it. Guess what, God may actually give that to you. He may give it to you saying, "I will give you what you ask for. You could have had something better, but you're so bent on having this one, here you go. That way next time you'll learn to ask in My name."
I think too often we pray for our wants and "needs", when in reality we should be praying for God's will to be done, just like in the Lord's prayer. "Our Father ... YOUR will be done." Don't get me wrong, God wants us to talk to him about our struggles, aspirations, dreams, little wishes, big wishes, and all that. But I think, even when praying for something we desire with all our heart, we need to finish it with, "... This is what my human nature wants, God. But my heart wants your will to be done, because your plan for me is perfect and is the best, and even if I don't see it all right now, I want your plan for my life to be fulfilled.”
In the words of my good brother-in-law, Stephen, "Jesus said to the Pharisees that they would have what they wanted, which was reward on earth, and that would be all they got." God has the best idea for your life, and it's fulfilled in Heaven. That's why we can't always see it. That's where our faith comes in.