Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Was Jesus aware that he was sinless? Did it ever occur to him?
Jesus was after all, supremely human. Although he was the son of God, he was still human. As such, he was, as Hebrews 4 says, subject to sin as we are. Yet he didn’t sin.
1 Peter 2:22 says He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. He lived as a human, subject to the same temptations and problems as we are, yet he never even told a lie. He never sinned. He was sinless.
He had to be sinless in order to be the perfect sacrifice. But in order to be sinless, he had to have the capability to sin, or it would have been worthless. The whole incarnation would have been worthless if he could not have sinned or if it was easy to not sin.
After all, Hebrews says, he is like us, tempted in every way, yet without sin. If it were easy, that statement would have no power. If being sinless was something so easy, he yawned at it, it would be worthless.
But did he know he was sinless? As he started each day, did he say to himself, Well, I better be careful today. I don’t want to blow all the stuff God has given me to do.
Did it even occur to him that he had not sinned? I believe he found out the mission God had given him when he was baptized by John the Baptizer. It was that realization, I believe, that drove him to the wilderness for 40 days.
In the wilderness he came to grips with what he had come to earth to do. but I believe he didn’t know when he would die or necessarily many of the events surrounding his death, or even, at first, that he would die.
It became apparent that he would. He began to mention it as he goes on, especially after he has gotten a couple of years under his belt. But that wouldn’t take divine knowledge. He knew the religious people hated him and murder was their modus operandi. So that wasn’t out of the question.
But did he know he was sinless? Was it a conscious effort? Or did he have such a relationship with God that he remained sinless?
I read a book in which a man went to heaven. After a bit, he found out he was a saint. He said, I never wanted to be a saint. The angel near him said, Oh, we never let people be saints who want to be. Nobody campaigns to be a saint. You are because of your life.
The same goes for people who campaign to be leaders in a church. Paul says for one to desire to be a bishop is good, but not necessarily that he campaigns to be. Those people are position junkies, not leaders.
I don’t think Jesus knew he was. If someone had told him, he probably would have been surprised. He did all the things humans do, yet never sinned. He had the perfect fusion of God and man and it all worked together well.
It may have been easy, or that might explain the long periods of time he spent in prayer. I don’t know.
But he was sinless and because of that has the mandate from God to make us sinless. That’s good enough.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
daily java
Daily Java: For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)
There are times when we worry that we will not be able to understand the word of God. In fact, that is the excuse so many use for not going to church or being a Christian. “I just can’t understand that stuff.”
And that is right. You can’t. as far as your power is concerned, it is all gobbledygook. You can read it all day and all night and maybe get some idea of something basic, but you will never understand it. At least, not without the power of God in your life.
God gives understanding. It can only come through him. The word of God is the word of the Almighty God, after all. It is his words and his thoughts ad his message. And he is God.
This is the same God who spoke light into existence, who created the world and all in it. There is no way our finite minds could ever understand the mind of God.
Unless, of course, he lets us. Unless he gives us understanding. It can only come through him.
The best thing is that he will give it to us. If we ask him, if we allow him into our hearts and lives, he will give us understanding. But it will be his light shining into our hearts to give us light of his knowledge of his glory of the face of Christ.
We cannot do it. We cannot understand it. We cannot figure out the mind of God by ourselves. But with his light shining out of darkness, we can and we will.
When we are in him, we understand. That sounds mystic and all, but, well, it is. The fact that there is no way to understand God except through God’s agency and gift of knowledge doesn’t make it a bad thing. It just means that you are granted entrance into the mind of God and into his knowledge when you ask him.
When we come into him, we see the light and the glory and the face of Christ. Praise the Lord.
There are times when we worry that we will not be able to understand the word of God. In fact, that is the excuse so many use for not going to church or being a Christian. “I just can’t understand that stuff.”
And that is right. You can’t. as far as your power is concerned, it is all gobbledygook. You can read it all day and all night and maybe get some idea of something basic, but you will never understand it. At least, not without the power of God in your life.
God gives understanding. It can only come through him. The word of God is the word of the Almighty God, after all. It is his words and his thoughts ad his message. And he is God.
This is the same God who spoke light into existence, who created the world and all in it. There is no way our finite minds could ever understand the mind of God.
Unless, of course, he lets us. Unless he gives us understanding. It can only come through him.
The best thing is that he will give it to us. If we ask him, if we allow him into our hearts and lives, he will give us understanding. But it will be his light shining into our hearts to give us light of his knowledge of his glory of the face of Christ.
We cannot do it. We cannot understand it. We cannot figure out the mind of God by ourselves. But with his light shining out of darkness, we can and we will.
When we are in him, we understand. That sounds mystic and all, but, well, it is. The fact that there is no way to understand God except through God’s agency and gift of knowledge doesn’t make it a bad thing. It just means that you are granted entrance into the mind of God and into his knowledge when you ask him.
When we come into him, we see the light and the glory and the face of Christ. Praise the Lord.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
daily java
Daily Java: Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. (John 3:20-21).
We lived in Houston for most of our early lives. Houston is a wet climate and because of that has roaches. They are large and dark brown and ugly. The sight of a bunch of them makes your skin crawl.
The problem with Houston is that everybody has roaches, or at least is just a short time away from having them. It is part of the climate. There are just so many roaches that it is easy to become infested without realizing it.
No one wants them, but they are always there ready to jump out.
Our first house (which I bought for $12,100 on GI Bill) in South Houston had a real problem with them. It wasn’t apparent when we bought the house and moved in, but soon they were everywhere. When you would walk into the kitchen at night and turn on the light, they would scurry everywhere trying to get back into a dark place.
Roaches really don’t like the light. They like the dark.
When we would turn on the kitchen light, we would keep our eyes closed until we knew they were gone. It took a lot of work to get rid of them. To this day, almost 40 years later, I still tend to bang the cabinet door before opening it. After a couple or roaches dropped into the food on the counter, I figured that out.
Evil is the same way. Just like roaches hate it when you turn on the kitchen light, so evil hates it when you point it out. The light of truth comes into the room and evil runs away and tries to find a dark sorry place to be.
Walk into your average bar and turn on a large light and see what happens. “Well, let’s see who’s in here. No. Most bars are dark for a reason. The people in them are hiding.
Those who love God love truth. They welcome the light. That doesn’t mean they are masochists always looking to learn what they are doing wrong and always welcoming correction. They aren’t goofy. But they want to know what is right.
The child of God doesn’t want to live in darkness. It is not in his spiritual nature. His spiritual nature is light. Jesus came into the world as the light. John 1 says in him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The darkness hated him because he exposed it for what it was: evil.
Again, that is why Hollywood and others like them hate Christianity. They want to do wrong and Christianity points out what is right. When the light shines and exposes the deeds of darkness, the stupid and wrong stuff that is being done, they hate it and try their best to stop it.
But it will not be stopped. It has not been stopped for almost 2000 years and will continue despite predictions to the contrary until Jesus comes again.
Praise God for his Son who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9).
We lived in Houston for most of our early lives. Houston is a wet climate and because of that has roaches. They are large and dark brown and ugly. The sight of a bunch of them makes your skin crawl.
The problem with Houston is that everybody has roaches, or at least is just a short time away from having them. It is part of the climate. There are just so many roaches that it is easy to become infested without realizing it.
No one wants them, but they are always there ready to jump out.
Our first house (which I bought for $12,100 on GI Bill) in South Houston had a real problem with them. It wasn’t apparent when we bought the house and moved in, but soon they were everywhere. When you would walk into the kitchen at night and turn on the light, they would scurry everywhere trying to get back into a dark place.
Roaches really don’t like the light. They like the dark.
When we would turn on the kitchen light, we would keep our eyes closed until we knew they were gone. It took a lot of work to get rid of them. To this day, almost 40 years later, I still tend to bang the cabinet door before opening it. After a couple or roaches dropped into the food on the counter, I figured that out.
Evil is the same way. Just like roaches hate it when you turn on the kitchen light, so evil hates it when you point it out. The light of truth comes into the room and evil runs away and tries to find a dark sorry place to be.
Walk into your average bar and turn on a large light and see what happens. “Well, let’s see who’s in here. No. Most bars are dark for a reason. The people in them are hiding.
Those who love God love truth. They welcome the light. That doesn’t mean they are masochists always looking to learn what they are doing wrong and always welcoming correction. They aren’t goofy. But they want to know what is right.
The child of God doesn’t want to live in darkness. It is not in his spiritual nature. His spiritual nature is light. Jesus came into the world as the light. John 1 says in him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The darkness hated him because he exposed it for what it was: evil.
Again, that is why Hollywood and others like them hate Christianity. They want to do wrong and Christianity points out what is right. When the light shines and exposes the deeds of darkness, the stupid and wrong stuff that is being done, they hate it and try their best to stop it.
But it will not be stopped. It has not been stopped for almost 2000 years and will continue despite predictions to the contrary until Jesus comes again.
Praise God for his Son who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9).
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
daily java
Daily Java: The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14).
There is a reason Hollywood cannot make a decent movie for Christians. It is because it doesn’t understand them. To understand God, a person must have God in them.
They try and try. But the movies either have a stupid caricature of Christians as the bad guys, or maybe as sappy people that look goofy, or overboard or something. Movie Christians can never be normal people.
On the off chance that a movie is made where Christians look normal, people go to it in droves. It makes a lot of money. The same with a movie about a Bible character that is well-made. People go to them and they make money.
Hollywood thinks that, when they see these movies, if they would use the “formula” they see on screen. They too can make money. So they bring out some Bible characters or some kind of Bible situation and bomb. And they cannot figure out why. To them Christianity is alien.
Without the Spirit of God inside your heart, God makes no sense. Spirituality makes no sense, either. That is because his Spirit gives you understanding of him that you can’t have otherwise.
There is no “formula” for doing things in a Christian way. There is no “formula” in making a Christian movie. Movies that succeed with Christians are usually made by Christians who understand the dynamics and motivations of being a Christian.
To the world, Christianity is worthless. All they see is a bunch of don’ts. They also see the end of their self-centered lives and they hate it. So when they make a movie, it is always about a guy who is telling them in some mean and authoritarian way what they cannot do.
It may be a “Christian” president that is trying to turn the country into a theocracy, or a preacher that is trying to keep the kids from having fun, or a mother who makes her daughter be a freak for God. These movie characters are always stern-looking. They have an exalted view of their own ability to force other people to obey God. They shout scriptures and have “holy stuff” all over the house.
In other words, they are not real. Probably no more than 5 percent or less of Christians may even come close to that but Hollywood sees all Christians as that way.
That is because they are afraid of them and see them as no more than adversaries. Hollywood wants to make movies about sex and pleasure and stuff and Christians don’t want to see that. Christians in general love their country and want the best for their children. Hollywood wants to tear down our morality and values.
The ironic thing is that Hollywood could not thrive and be as big as it is except in a Christian nation. In a Christian nation, there is tolerance and acceptance of people. This would never happen in a Muslim or Hindu nation. They are too strict as a culture and wouldn’t allow it. And in a Muslim nation, the folks in Hollywood would be killed.
Without the Spirit, there is no understanding.
Oh, God, that your Spirit may come into this world and fill us all with understanding and with your love.
There is a reason Hollywood cannot make a decent movie for Christians. It is because it doesn’t understand them. To understand God, a person must have God in them.
They try and try. But the movies either have a stupid caricature of Christians as the bad guys, or maybe as sappy people that look goofy, or overboard or something. Movie Christians can never be normal people.
On the off chance that a movie is made where Christians look normal, people go to it in droves. It makes a lot of money. The same with a movie about a Bible character that is well-made. People go to them and they make money.
Hollywood thinks that, when they see these movies, if they would use the “formula” they see on screen. They too can make money. So they bring out some Bible characters or some kind of Bible situation and bomb. And they cannot figure out why. To them Christianity is alien.
Without the Spirit of God inside your heart, God makes no sense. Spirituality makes no sense, either. That is because his Spirit gives you understanding of him that you can’t have otherwise.
There is no “formula” for doing things in a Christian way. There is no “formula” in making a Christian movie. Movies that succeed with Christians are usually made by Christians who understand the dynamics and motivations of being a Christian.
To the world, Christianity is worthless. All they see is a bunch of don’ts. They also see the end of their self-centered lives and they hate it. So when they make a movie, it is always about a guy who is telling them in some mean and authoritarian way what they cannot do.
It may be a “Christian” president that is trying to turn the country into a theocracy, or a preacher that is trying to keep the kids from having fun, or a mother who makes her daughter be a freak for God. These movie characters are always stern-looking. They have an exalted view of their own ability to force other people to obey God. They shout scriptures and have “holy stuff” all over the house.
In other words, they are not real. Probably no more than 5 percent or less of Christians may even come close to that but Hollywood sees all Christians as that way.
That is because they are afraid of them and see them as no more than adversaries. Hollywood wants to make movies about sex and pleasure and stuff and Christians don’t want to see that. Christians in general love their country and want the best for their children. Hollywood wants to tear down our morality and values.
The ironic thing is that Hollywood could not thrive and be as big as it is except in a Christian nation. In a Christian nation, there is tolerance and acceptance of people. This would never happen in a Muslim or Hindu nation. They are too strict as a culture and wouldn’t allow it. And in a Muslim nation, the folks in Hollywood would be killed.
Without the Spirit, there is no understanding.
Oh, God, that your Spirit may come into this world and fill us all with understanding and with your love.
Monday, September 27, 2010
fruit of the spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-25)
You can sit and talk about being baptized in the Spirit all you want, but if the fruit is not there, the Spirit is not there.
That is not judging. That is fruit inspecting. By their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:20
You can sit and talk about being baptized in the Spirit all you want, but if the fruit is not there, the Spirit is not there.
That is not judging. That is fruit inspecting. By their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:20
i'm a good guy. leave me alone.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:21)
Well, you know, I’m a pretty good guy myself, you know. I don’t lie too much, not bad lying anyway. Just little white lies so as to not hurt people’s feelings or do stuff I don’t want to do.
I don’t steal. I mean, I fudge a bit on the income tax, but who doesn’t. And yes, I did forget to pay for that case of Cokes that was under the buggy that I didn’t notice until I got out in the parking lot. They should have been more observant.
But, overall, I am pretty good.
Of course, I do have a pen collection that I got from the office, and I drive pretty fast. The speed limit is kind of a guideline, isn’t it? I have never cheated on my wife. I usually keep myself occupied with my porn links on the computer, but that isn’t really adultery. I sure don’t kill anyone, even that stupid piece of junk guy at work that I wish would have a heart attack. I probably wouldn’t kill him. Maybe wound him pretty bad.
I’m not that bad. You can find guys worse than me at every WalMart. What a bunch of losers!
I think God will not look too bad on me. In fact, I have been meaning to go to church again soon. And anytime I do go, I always drop a ten-spot in the plate. I’m not made of money, you know.
Grace? I guess for those who need it. But I am pretty good myself, if I say so myself. All my friends say so. On Saturday nights, when we’re getting hammered down at the club, they all speak highly of me. Especially when I buy a round for the house.
Jesus? A good guy, yessir. I say his name a lot. God’s name, too.
Who was he? He was the sonagod. Who else? Who was he, ha! I know that kind of stuff. After all, my parents crammed church down my throat all my life. I got all that stuff. I let my kids choose whether to go to church or not. And they’re okay. When Bill gets out of prison, he has a good job waiting for him at the bakery. And as soon as Jack gets through with this IRS foolishness, he will do fine. Last time I heard from Margaret, she was fine. She was living with a good guy.
Why did Jesus die? To save us from our sins, of course. You must think I am a moron. I know all that stuff. I can even say most of the New Testament books too. I get kind of hung up at the last part, but in general, I’m not stupid or ignorant.
Why did Jesus die? I don’t know. God told him to, I guess. For pete’s sake.
Would you leave me alone. I am fine. Go find some sinner to hassle. I’m busy.
Well, you know, I’m a pretty good guy myself, you know. I don’t lie too much, not bad lying anyway. Just little white lies so as to not hurt people’s feelings or do stuff I don’t want to do.
I don’t steal. I mean, I fudge a bit on the income tax, but who doesn’t. And yes, I did forget to pay for that case of Cokes that was under the buggy that I didn’t notice until I got out in the parking lot. They should have been more observant.
But, overall, I am pretty good.
Of course, I do have a pen collection that I got from the office, and I drive pretty fast. The speed limit is kind of a guideline, isn’t it? I have never cheated on my wife. I usually keep myself occupied with my porn links on the computer, but that isn’t really adultery. I sure don’t kill anyone, even that stupid piece of junk guy at work that I wish would have a heart attack. I probably wouldn’t kill him. Maybe wound him pretty bad.
I’m not that bad. You can find guys worse than me at every WalMart. What a bunch of losers!
I think God will not look too bad on me. In fact, I have been meaning to go to church again soon. And anytime I do go, I always drop a ten-spot in the plate. I’m not made of money, you know.
Grace? I guess for those who need it. But I am pretty good myself, if I say so myself. All my friends say so. On Saturday nights, when we’re getting hammered down at the club, they all speak highly of me. Especially when I buy a round for the house.
Jesus? A good guy, yessir. I say his name a lot. God’s name, too.
Who was he? He was the sonagod. Who else? Who was he, ha! I know that kind of stuff. After all, my parents crammed church down my throat all my life. I got all that stuff. I let my kids choose whether to go to church or not. And they’re okay. When Bill gets out of prison, he has a good job waiting for him at the bakery. And as soon as Jack gets through with this IRS foolishness, he will do fine. Last time I heard from Margaret, she was fine. She was living with a good guy.
Why did Jesus die? To save us from our sins, of course. You must think I am a moron. I know all that stuff. I can even say most of the New Testament books too. I get kind of hung up at the last part, but in general, I’m not stupid or ignorant.
Why did Jesus die? I don’t know. God told him to, I guess. For pete’s sake.
Would you leave me alone. I am fine. Go find some sinner to hassle. I’m busy.
daily java
Daily Java: Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load. (Galatians 6:1-5)
It is called shooting your wounded. That’s when someone has problems and is caught in a sin and the church dumps him.
Instead of helping him to come back to God, he is cast aside.
That’s an old trick of war. You have three men on patrol and the enemy wounds one. That way the other two are burdened with trying to carry the wounded man along. The solution to this sometimes is to go ahead and shoot him. He is dead then and you don’t have to worry about him.
The church is bad about this. Someone has a problem, is caught in a sin – a big splashy one or maybe a small one – but he is wounded.
The church has the responsibility of helping those who have problems. And we all do. But sometimes, the problem is such that it may be hard, or embarrassing or it just may be that the church is just lazy and doesn’t want to be bothered by it. Christianity to them is a happy, smiley thing and not real life.
After all, a person caught in a sin is a black mark on the church and we want success. Nothing worse than a failure story hanging around the church.
So we dump him. He needs help, maybe financial, maybe just emotional but he is a drain on us so we dump him. He is wounded and we shoot him.
Now that he is dead, he is no bother at all and we can get on with the work of serving the Lord more easily.
That is not Christianity. That is selfishness and sin in its own right.
You sin, too. Maybe no one sees you, but you do. They are no different from you. We like to think of ourselves as really good people above all that, but, as it says, if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
We fool ourselves, not God and not others when we pretend to be holy and righteous at the expense of helping others. Your only pride comes in knowing you are a child of God, not in comparing yourself to other people.
Our mandate from God is to help each other. Yes, sometimes the wound is big and messy, but that is a child of God you are dealing with and you cannot throw him away.
Those who are really spiritual will help. Those who are arrogant fools will shoot him. God will judge both and the ones who help will come out of the judgment well.
Jesus also said, in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:2). There will come a day when you need that love. And hopefully, it will be there for you.
When you do, when you help someone who needs that help living his life and overcoming his sin, you fulfill the law of Christ. We are not here for self-glory, we are here for his glory.
And there is no glory in shooting our wounded.
It is called shooting your wounded. That’s when someone has problems and is caught in a sin and the church dumps him.
Instead of helping him to come back to God, he is cast aside.
That’s an old trick of war. You have three men on patrol and the enemy wounds one. That way the other two are burdened with trying to carry the wounded man along. The solution to this sometimes is to go ahead and shoot him. He is dead then and you don’t have to worry about him.
The church is bad about this. Someone has a problem, is caught in a sin – a big splashy one or maybe a small one – but he is wounded.
The church has the responsibility of helping those who have problems. And we all do. But sometimes, the problem is such that it may be hard, or embarrassing or it just may be that the church is just lazy and doesn’t want to be bothered by it. Christianity to them is a happy, smiley thing and not real life.
After all, a person caught in a sin is a black mark on the church and we want success. Nothing worse than a failure story hanging around the church.
So we dump him. He needs help, maybe financial, maybe just emotional but he is a drain on us so we dump him. He is wounded and we shoot him.
Now that he is dead, he is no bother at all and we can get on with the work of serving the Lord more easily.
That is not Christianity. That is selfishness and sin in its own right.
You sin, too. Maybe no one sees you, but you do. They are no different from you. We like to think of ourselves as really good people above all that, but, as it says, if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
We fool ourselves, not God and not others when we pretend to be holy and righteous at the expense of helping others. Your only pride comes in knowing you are a child of God, not in comparing yourself to other people.
Our mandate from God is to help each other. Yes, sometimes the wound is big and messy, but that is a child of God you are dealing with and you cannot throw him away.
Those who are really spiritual will help. Those who are arrogant fools will shoot him. God will judge both and the ones who help will come out of the judgment well.
Jesus also said, in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:2). There will come a day when you need that love. And hopefully, it will be there for you.
When you do, when you help someone who needs that help living his life and overcoming his sin, you fulfill the law of Christ. We are not here for self-glory, we are here for his glory.
And there is no glory in shooting our wounded.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
trying to make peace without God
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
I just wrote a post (the one just below) about trying to make peace come through our own efforts.
Then this comment came almost immediately:
“The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.” (from philoofalexandria.wordpress.com)
This fits in perfectly. You cannot make people become something by giving them the things other people have. The War on Poverty has been a dismal failure because it relies on giving people stuff so that they will be like their neighbors.
You cannot make people like other people by giving them what the other people have. They have what they have because they worked for it and earned it. To give what they have to someone doesn’t make that person like them, it makes that person dependent upon you to get it.
We can take all of the swords and spears and make them into farming implements, but that will not make the warriors farmers. They will only become farmers if the desire to be farmers is within them.
We can only have peace if the God of peace controls our lives and our culture. He will never control our culture here on earth as much as we might want him to. Jesus says in John 18:36, My kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom is heavenly. The only way to have it is in the heavenly realm.
It is impossible to mandate the will of God. We cannot pass laws and make people Godly. We cannot require people to do things to become Godly. We cannot do anything to effect the will of God. It can only be effected by having his law and his will within our hearts.
We can want it. We can dream of it. We can work for peace and we should. It was Jesus who said blessed are the peacemakers. But we have to know that there will be no peace until Jesus comes again and puts the enemy, the devil, the antagonist under his feet.
Then and only then will their be peace. Because then and only then will it be in our hearts and in our minds.
Until then, we dream of the day when all war ceases and peace reigns. Until then, Matthew 24:6 says You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. They will happen because we are human and as such flawed.
But all the laws and peace accords in the world will not make what only the Kingdom of God can make.
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
I just wrote a post (the one just below) about trying to make peace come through our own efforts.
Then this comment came almost immediately:
“The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.” (from philoofalexandria.wordpress.com)
This fits in perfectly. You cannot make people become something by giving them the things other people have. The War on Poverty has been a dismal failure because it relies on giving people stuff so that they will be like their neighbors.
You cannot make people like other people by giving them what the other people have. They have what they have because they worked for it and earned it. To give what they have to someone doesn’t make that person like them, it makes that person dependent upon you to get it.
We can take all of the swords and spears and make them into farming implements, but that will not make the warriors farmers. They will only become farmers if the desire to be farmers is within them.
We can only have peace if the God of peace controls our lives and our culture. He will never control our culture here on earth as much as we might want him to. Jesus says in John 18:36, My kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom is heavenly. The only way to have it is in the heavenly realm.
It is impossible to mandate the will of God. We cannot pass laws and make people Godly. We cannot require people to do things to become Godly. We cannot do anything to effect the will of God. It can only be effected by having his law and his will within our hearts.
We can want it. We can dream of it. We can work for peace and we should. It was Jesus who said blessed are the peacemakers. But we have to know that there will be no peace until Jesus comes again and puts the enemy, the devil, the antagonist under his feet.
Then and only then will their be peace. Because then and only then will it be in our hearts and in our minds.
Until then, we dream of the day when all war ceases and peace reigns. Until then, Matthew 24:6 says You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. They will happen because we are human and as such flawed.
But all the laws and peace accords in the world will not make what only the Kingdom of God can make.
trying to bring peace
In the last days
the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lordfrom Jerusalem.
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Come, O house of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:2-5)
This will never happen in our lifetime. It is for the Lord to accomplish.
A lot of the peace envoys quote this passage and see themselves as agents of the peace that comes by beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. They see their efforts as accomplishing this.
But we will never accomplish this. Only God will. there is nothing we can do to make this happen.
Yes, we can preach the kingdom of God, we can show people the grace of his mercy, we can talk about the greatness of the Lord – but we cannot make it happen, no matter how much we may want it.
And the actions of a few in having some leaders of countries sign some papers will not make it happen.
A UN official lately called on the world to quit being so materialistic and argumentative and said, in essence, “Why can’t we just get along?” the comment would almost have been funny in its naivete if not for the fact that the guy was so serious.
His idea? If we just quit wanting stuff and quit fighting, the world will be a paradise.
And he is right. It would be. But if it could have been, it would have been already.
It is in man’s nature to fight, to argue, to quarrel, to desire. That is his nature. We cannot overcome it. It is part of us. It showed itself first when Adam and Eve wanted some fruit so much that they fought against the will of God to get it.
From then on, it has been this way. and will be until God comes back. It is only he who can make things good. It is only the Mountain of the Lord, the House of the God of Jacob, that will do it.
He will judge, will settle, will teach. When his perfect comes, at his appearing, at his glory, at the end of all this that makes us so unhappy, then and only then will the weapons of war be laid down.
We can want it, but he will make it happen when he is ready.
Nothing wrong with trying to make peace. But we just have to remember that we cannot bring lasting peace. Only God in his time can.
the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lordfrom Jerusalem.
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Come, O house of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:2-5)
This will never happen in our lifetime. It is for the Lord to accomplish.
A lot of the peace envoys quote this passage and see themselves as agents of the peace that comes by beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. They see their efforts as accomplishing this.
But we will never accomplish this. Only God will. there is nothing we can do to make this happen.
Yes, we can preach the kingdom of God, we can show people the grace of his mercy, we can talk about the greatness of the Lord – but we cannot make it happen, no matter how much we may want it.
And the actions of a few in having some leaders of countries sign some papers will not make it happen.
A UN official lately called on the world to quit being so materialistic and argumentative and said, in essence, “Why can’t we just get along?” the comment would almost have been funny in its naivete if not for the fact that the guy was so serious.
His idea? If we just quit wanting stuff and quit fighting, the world will be a paradise.
And he is right. It would be. But if it could have been, it would have been already.
It is in man’s nature to fight, to argue, to quarrel, to desire. That is his nature. We cannot overcome it. It is part of us. It showed itself first when Adam and Eve wanted some fruit so much that they fought against the will of God to get it.
From then on, it has been this way. and will be until God comes back. It is only he who can make things good. It is only the Mountain of the Lord, the House of the God of Jacob, that will do it.
He will judge, will settle, will teach. When his perfect comes, at his appearing, at his glory, at the end of all this that makes us so unhappy, then and only then will the weapons of war be laid down.
We can want it, but he will make it happen when he is ready.
Nothing wrong with trying to make peace. But we just have to remember that we cannot bring lasting peace. Only God in his time can.
daily java
Daily Java: Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? (Galatians 4:16).
Shooting the messenger. People hate to hear bad news and sometimes will transfer their hatred of the news to the bringer of the news.
A preacher has that problem. His job is to tell people what God says. That in itself is a rather audacious thing, to claim to speak for God. However, it is one of the main jobs of the prophet.
In the Old Testament, the prophets that brought bad news knew that they did so at their own risk. People didn’t want to hear bad things. Sometimes they were persecuted, imprisoned or put to death. They would be told, in effect, change your prophecy and everything will be alright. Tell us something better and we will let you live.
That is kind of like shooting the doctor because he told you you had cancer. Or shooting the mechanic because he told you your transmission had gone out. It is foolish. And you still have cancer and a bad transmission.
Some preachers give in to it and decide that the hassle, the anger, whatever, is not worth it, and just tell people nice stuff. You can usually tell a church that only hears good stuff from the pulpit. It is dead.
Nice stuff has its place in preaching (reprove, rebuke and exhort, 2 Timothy 4 says), and you have to have a lot of it. But if that is all you do, the church will die and go to hell. And the preacher knows it will be on his watch.
The prophets in the Old Testament knew this and for the most part kept their mission strong. They did what God said and told people what God said. The people didn’t appreciate it for the most part, but those who listened turned from their sin and were saved.
Being a preacher is hard that way. You never know what you will say that will prick someone. They have a problem in a certain area and you preach on it, many times without even knowing it, and they get mad. “You just did that to make me mad,” they might say. Your response may even be on the order of, “Who are you?”
You may not even know them, yet what you said hit a sin problem within them. And they will be mad at you for pointing it out.
Quite frankly, people don’t pay preachers enough to put up with abuse. Preachers do it out of both love and commitment to the will of God. Just like those Old Testament prophets did.
Usually, the preacher is doing you a great favor by pointing this out. And usually, he does it in love and concern for your well-being. Oh, occasionally, some wacko will holler and point for the sheer pleasure of it, but that is rare.
And they are not your enemies when they tell you things you don’t want to hear. They are messengers of a loving God who wants you to change.
Shooting the messenger. People hate to hear bad news and sometimes will transfer their hatred of the news to the bringer of the news.
A preacher has that problem. His job is to tell people what God says. That in itself is a rather audacious thing, to claim to speak for God. However, it is one of the main jobs of the prophet.
In the Old Testament, the prophets that brought bad news knew that they did so at their own risk. People didn’t want to hear bad things. Sometimes they were persecuted, imprisoned or put to death. They would be told, in effect, change your prophecy and everything will be alright. Tell us something better and we will let you live.
That is kind of like shooting the doctor because he told you you had cancer. Or shooting the mechanic because he told you your transmission had gone out. It is foolish. And you still have cancer and a bad transmission.
Some preachers give in to it and decide that the hassle, the anger, whatever, is not worth it, and just tell people nice stuff. You can usually tell a church that only hears good stuff from the pulpit. It is dead.
Nice stuff has its place in preaching (reprove, rebuke and exhort, 2 Timothy 4 says), and you have to have a lot of it. But if that is all you do, the church will die and go to hell. And the preacher knows it will be on his watch.
The prophets in the Old Testament knew this and for the most part kept their mission strong. They did what God said and told people what God said. The people didn’t appreciate it for the most part, but those who listened turned from their sin and were saved.
Being a preacher is hard that way. You never know what you will say that will prick someone. They have a problem in a certain area and you preach on it, many times without even knowing it, and they get mad. “You just did that to make me mad,” they might say. Your response may even be on the order of, “Who are you?”
You may not even know them, yet what you said hit a sin problem within them. And they will be mad at you for pointing it out.
Quite frankly, people don’t pay preachers enough to put up with abuse. Preachers do it out of both love and commitment to the will of God. Just like those Old Testament prophets did.
Usually, the preacher is doing you a great favor by pointing this out. And usually, he does it in love and concern for your well-being. Oh, occasionally, some wacko will holler and point for the sheer pleasure of it, but that is rare.
And they are not your enemies when they tell you things you don’t want to hear. They are messengers of a loving God who wants you to change.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
daily java
Daily Java: All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." (Galatians 3:10-11)
Law never saved anybody. The only thing law can do is point out what is wrong.
When trolling for speeders on the highway, the police no option for releasing you from their tickets if you have been speeding. All they do is punish. All the law can do is punish. That is not because the law is bad. We need law. It is just because that is the way all law is built.
That’s because there is no mercy built into law, only the pointing out of what is wrong. Law tells us that this is wrong, or that is wrong, or this other is wrong. The only way to be redeemed under any kind of law is to never do anything wrong in the first place. Under law, you cannot be good by doing stuff, if you have broken a law. It is impossible.
Yet we have all done wrong things. Someone says, Well, I’m a good person. I’m a lot better than the guy next to me. But so what? A policeman gives a ticket to the guy going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit just like he does to the guy going 30 miles an hour over the speed limit. Both are lawbreakers. The fine may vary by the speed but both get a ticket.
We all stand before God as lawbreakers. If you have ever told a lie, any lie, no matter how small or well-meaning, you are a lawbreaker. John 8 says that the devil is the father of all lies. Revelation 20 says that those who go into the lake with fire and brimstone will be accompanied by all liars.
If you have ever lied you are a lawbreaker and your chance of being saved by being a good person is nil, zip, zero, nada – none.
If you have ever stolen anything, the same is true, even if it is a grape in the grocery store. If you have ever broken a law – even a minute one like speeding or lying on your income taxes even a little bit, adding some stuff to your resume, anything – you are guilty. 1 John 3:4 even goes so far as to say, Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. Law is law, no matter how small the infraction. We all have done bad things. Some big, some small, but all have sinned.
So there’s a problem. If we cannot be good, what do we do? The apostle Paul, writing here, says the righteous will live by faith
Faith saves us. We can’t do enough to be good. But we can accept goodness when God gives it to us.
God makes us perfect and gives us grace. He never meant for us to try to keep some system of rules. He knew we couldn’t. After all, he gave Adam and Eve one thing not to do and they couldn’t do it fast enough, even though it meant losing everything they had.
God knows we are weak and he knows there is no way we could keep rules long enough to live our lives. And he wanted us to be with him. So he sent Jesus to be good for us. We are good through Jesus and in that way get to be with God.
As he says in another passage, Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Law never saved anybody. The only thing law can do is point out what is wrong.
When trolling for speeders on the highway, the police no option for releasing you from their tickets if you have been speeding. All they do is punish. All the law can do is punish. That is not because the law is bad. We need law. It is just because that is the way all law is built.
That’s because there is no mercy built into law, only the pointing out of what is wrong. Law tells us that this is wrong, or that is wrong, or this other is wrong. The only way to be redeemed under any kind of law is to never do anything wrong in the first place. Under law, you cannot be good by doing stuff, if you have broken a law. It is impossible.
Yet we have all done wrong things. Someone says, Well, I’m a good person. I’m a lot better than the guy next to me. But so what? A policeman gives a ticket to the guy going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit just like he does to the guy going 30 miles an hour over the speed limit. Both are lawbreakers. The fine may vary by the speed but both get a ticket.
We all stand before God as lawbreakers. If you have ever told a lie, any lie, no matter how small or well-meaning, you are a lawbreaker. John 8 says that the devil is the father of all lies. Revelation 20 says that those who go into the lake with fire and brimstone will be accompanied by all liars.
If you have ever lied you are a lawbreaker and your chance of being saved by being a good person is nil, zip, zero, nada – none.
If you have ever stolen anything, the same is true, even if it is a grape in the grocery store. If you have ever broken a law – even a minute one like speeding or lying on your income taxes even a little bit, adding some stuff to your resume, anything – you are guilty. 1 John 3:4 even goes so far as to say, Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. Law is law, no matter how small the infraction. We all have done bad things. Some big, some small, but all have sinned.
So there’s a problem. If we cannot be good, what do we do? The apostle Paul, writing here, says the righteous will live by faith
Faith saves us. We can’t do enough to be good. But we can accept goodness when God gives it to us.
God makes us perfect and gives us grace. He never meant for us to try to keep some system of rules. He knew we couldn’t. After all, he gave Adam and Eve one thing not to do and they couldn’t do it fast enough, even though it meant losing everything they had.
God knows we are weak and he knows there is no way we could keep rules long enough to live our lives. And he wanted us to be with him. So he sent Jesus to be good for us. We are good through Jesus and in that way get to be with God.
As he says in another passage, Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
no direction in our culture
Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law. (Proverbs 29:18)
Why do people feel so rootless in today’s culture. I think it is because people have no direction. If there is no direction, there is no knowledge of where to go.
Different translations of the Bible use different words in this verse. Divine guidance, vision, prophetic vision, prophecy – all mean the same thing. Where there is no knowledge of where to go, people don’t know where to go. They become in essence, a milling mob, just moving around. Frustration and irritation become dominant and before long, anger.
People have to have direction. No one is comfortable, no matter what they may say, with a directionless life. If you do not know where you are going, how can you know if you have arrived? In fact, how can you even know where you are in life?
Spontaneity is good and fun, but it is only good when allowed within a framework of direction. When all of life is spontaneous, it ceases to be fun. When there is nothing to do, leisure is no longer fun. When there is no purpose, there is no freedom.
Freedom only comes in knowing where you are going. Absolute freedom, anarchy, is scary. There has to be order. Or society falls apart.
Children feel that strongly. They love the ability to be themselves, to be free spirits, to do their own thing (as we used to say), but where there is no order, these things are impossible. Life is lived with the grim knowledge that there is no purpose, no meaning, no form.
Give children the chance to not have any rules and their first inclination is Yay! Then they begin to realize that where there are no rules, there is nothing to stop people from doing bad things. And if people are not stopped from doing bad things, children could get hurt.
Freedom is only good inside structure, revelation, guidance, vision. Without these, there is no restraint. People begin to think they can do anything they want and no one can stop them.
If you don’t think this is true, look at our culture today. You see it coming big-time.
And without the revelation, vision, guidance, structure, there can be no blessings.
Why do people feel so rootless in today’s culture. I think it is because people have no direction. If there is no direction, there is no knowledge of where to go.
Different translations of the Bible use different words in this verse. Divine guidance, vision, prophetic vision, prophecy – all mean the same thing. Where there is no knowledge of where to go, people don’t know where to go. They become in essence, a milling mob, just moving around. Frustration and irritation become dominant and before long, anger.
People have to have direction. No one is comfortable, no matter what they may say, with a directionless life. If you do not know where you are going, how can you know if you have arrived? In fact, how can you even know where you are in life?
Spontaneity is good and fun, but it is only good when allowed within a framework of direction. When all of life is spontaneous, it ceases to be fun. When there is nothing to do, leisure is no longer fun. When there is no purpose, there is no freedom.
Freedom only comes in knowing where you are going. Absolute freedom, anarchy, is scary. There has to be order. Or society falls apart.
Children feel that strongly. They love the ability to be themselves, to be free spirits, to do their own thing (as we used to say), but where there is no order, these things are impossible. Life is lived with the grim knowledge that there is no purpose, no meaning, no form.
Give children the chance to not have any rules and their first inclination is Yay! Then they begin to realize that where there are no rules, there is nothing to stop people from doing bad things. And if people are not stopped from doing bad things, children could get hurt.
Freedom is only good inside structure, revelation, guidance, vision. Without these, there is no restraint. People begin to think they can do anything they want and no one can stop them.
If you don’t think this is true, look at our culture today. You see it coming big-time.
And without the revelation, vision, guidance, structure, there can be no blessings.
daily java
Daily Java: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
When you get married, you promise to meld your life with someone, to give your heart to another. You are no longer two people, you are a couple, a unit, a family. Your life is subsumed in another. It is no longer your life alone, it is yours and someone else’s life. You are no longer alone in your decisions, in your life management, in anything, really.
Even though you still have your life, you now share it with someone. You are dead to any other romantic relationships.
The same is with Jesus. When you come to him and give him your heart, when you accept his love and his salvation, you become, in essence, one with him. You now share your life with Jesus, with God, with the Divine.
Coming to Jesus is different in one way, though. When you come to Jesus, you die. Not literally, of course, but you put away all of the things that motivated you before and you become motivated by him and his desires, his wishes. He now lives in you. You are dead to any other motivation in your life. You live for him.
But not only do you live for him, he now lives for you. And he lives in you. Your life with him guiding becomes like a flashlight in a paper bag. The paper bag is there and you see it, but when you turn the flashlight on, the light comes through.
He becomes the internal light in your life. He lights and all see it through your life, your actions, your words. They may not immediately recognize it, but they will know that something is different in your life. If he is there, they will see him.
We live by faith in his ability to keep us and to motivate us. Just like a husband loves a wife, he loves us. And he gives himself for us daily.
When you get married, you promise to meld your life with someone, to give your heart to another. You are no longer two people, you are a couple, a unit, a family. Your life is subsumed in another. It is no longer your life alone, it is yours and someone else’s life. You are no longer alone in your decisions, in your life management, in anything, really.
Even though you still have your life, you now share it with someone. You are dead to any other romantic relationships.
The same is with Jesus. When you come to him and give him your heart, when you accept his love and his salvation, you become, in essence, one with him. You now share your life with Jesus, with God, with the Divine.
Coming to Jesus is different in one way, though. When you come to Jesus, you die. Not literally, of course, but you put away all of the things that motivated you before and you become motivated by him and his desires, his wishes. He now lives in you. You are dead to any other motivation in your life. You live for him.
But not only do you live for him, he now lives for you. And he lives in you. Your life with him guiding becomes like a flashlight in a paper bag. The paper bag is there and you see it, but when you turn the flashlight on, the light comes through.
He becomes the internal light in your life. He lights and all see it through your life, your actions, your words. They may not immediately recognize it, but they will know that something is different in your life. If he is there, they will see him.
We live by faith in his ability to keep us and to motivate us. Just like a husband loves a wife, he loves us. And he gives himself for us daily.
middle of the night rambling
I will sing of the Lord's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. (Psalm 89:1)
It is the middle of the night – 2:52AM to be exact – and for some reason I woke up. I was thinking about several things and figured I might as well get up for a while.
I was thinking about class tonight. A woman told me thank you for what I did. I asked what was it that I did. She said you listened to me ask my questions without laughing at them. I asked, what moron would laugh. She said a lot would. She felt her questions laughable in their simplicity and basicness (if that is a word)..
That was kind of sad. The only way to learn is to ask. A doctor was telling some people something about the man they were in the hospital with the other day and I stopped him and asked what a word meant. He looked a bit put out (primarily because he was full of himself and was talking to the unwashed) but answered me.
I do that a lot with Ella’s doctors. Since hers is a neurological disorder, there are a lot of specialty words that the doctors (I believe) like to use to show their learning.
Preachers do the same sometimes, and it makes people reluctant to ask questions. Theology is rampant with big words. When they cannot ask for fear of ridicule that means they have unresolved problems and end up wasting their time in the class. I want them to get something out of it beyond my own ability to conjure up big words.
The second thing I was thinking about was a check we got in the mail – totally unsolicited – from some friends in another church. We have convention coming up and I will be ordained. my rooms are taken care of as is my registration. I wasn’t sure how we were going to pay for gas and food. Now we do. God be praised.
It amazes me how this happens. We have a severe need and somehow, God fills it.
The other thing I was thinking about is that a church that recently opened a block away from us is having a tent revival. They are another Pentecostal organization and it took me back when they came in. There was an odd Lutheran building that was unoccupied that we had talked about the possibility of getting when we got large enough.
One day it was rented. My first thought was, Great. That is a sarcastic great, not a regular one. Just what we need.
When I came by and they were setting up the tent, I stopped to see. I have met the pastor before, and wanted to say hi. The man who had come from Arizona came out and talked to me for about an hour. He is a talker, so mostly I listened, a talent I have acquired within the past couple of years.
I worry about the reception it he neighborhood. A 60X60 tent on the parking lot of a church in a residential neighborhood could cause some problems, especially in today’s world of griping at churches being allowed.
On the one hand, I pray for their success. On the other, I hate the thought of similar-minded churches a block apart. They are a totally different denomination, but still.
The last thing is a new song I introduced last Sunday, one of my favorites. It has a catchy tune and a neat move to it. We sang it about 15 years ago a lot, but not lately.
The church loved it. I sang it again tonight before Bible class and they loved it. They want to sing it again next Sunday. I was glad. It comes from one of my all time favorite CD’s which is missing. That hurts since it is out of print (or whatever CD’s are out of) and I don’t know if I can get another copy. Fortunately, I have the book so the piano player can see the sheet music.
I think I might bring another out in a couple of weeks. This CD (Lion of Judah, by Dave Bell) really struck a chord with us.
One last thing. I need to restring my 12 string guitar. That is a pain in the neck, but it is beginning to sound like I am strumming guy wires or something. Just not good anymore. A 12 string lasts longer than a 6 string in quality, but it is not eternal.
It is 3:20. I wonder if I can go back to sleep now.
I praise his name and will sing of him forever.
It is the middle of the night – 2:52AM to be exact – and for some reason I woke up. I was thinking about several things and figured I might as well get up for a while.
I was thinking about class tonight. A woman told me thank you for what I did. I asked what was it that I did. She said you listened to me ask my questions without laughing at them. I asked, what moron would laugh. She said a lot would. She felt her questions laughable in their simplicity and basicness (if that is a word)..
That was kind of sad. The only way to learn is to ask. A doctor was telling some people something about the man they were in the hospital with the other day and I stopped him and asked what a word meant. He looked a bit put out (primarily because he was full of himself and was talking to the unwashed) but answered me.
I do that a lot with Ella’s doctors. Since hers is a neurological disorder, there are a lot of specialty words that the doctors (I believe) like to use to show their learning.
Preachers do the same sometimes, and it makes people reluctant to ask questions. Theology is rampant with big words. When they cannot ask for fear of ridicule that means they have unresolved problems and end up wasting their time in the class. I want them to get something out of it beyond my own ability to conjure up big words.
The second thing I was thinking about was a check we got in the mail – totally unsolicited – from some friends in another church. We have convention coming up and I will be ordained. my rooms are taken care of as is my registration. I wasn’t sure how we were going to pay for gas and food. Now we do. God be praised.
It amazes me how this happens. We have a severe need and somehow, God fills it.
The other thing I was thinking about is that a church that recently opened a block away from us is having a tent revival. They are another Pentecostal organization and it took me back when they came in. There was an odd Lutheran building that was unoccupied that we had talked about the possibility of getting when we got large enough.
One day it was rented. My first thought was, Great. That is a sarcastic great, not a regular one. Just what we need.
When I came by and they were setting up the tent, I stopped to see. I have met the pastor before, and wanted to say hi. The man who had come from Arizona came out and talked to me for about an hour. He is a talker, so mostly I listened, a talent I have acquired within the past couple of years.
I worry about the reception it he neighborhood. A 60X60 tent on the parking lot of a church in a residential neighborhood could cause some problems, especially in today’s world of griping at churches being allowed.
On the one hand, I pray for their success. On the other, I hate the thought of similar-minded churches a block apart. They are a totally different denomination, but still.
The last thing is a new song I introduced last Sunday, one of my favorites. It has a catchy tune and a neat move to it. We sang it about 15 years ago a lot, but not lately.
The church loved it. I sang it again tonight before Bible class and they loved it. They want to sing it again next Sunday. I was glad. It comes from one of my all time favorite CD’s which is missing. That hurts since it is out of print (or whatever CD’s are out of) and I don’t know if I can get another copy. Fortunately, I have the book so the piano player can see the sheet music.
I think I might bring another out in a couple of weeks. This CD (Lion of Judah, by Dave Bell) really struck a chord with us.
It is 3:20. I wonder if I can go back to sleep now.
I praise his name and will sing of him forever.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
the process of teaching
The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. (Psalm 119:130)
Someone not long ago asked me to tell them what the answers were. We were looking at the book of Romans in the New Testament and came upon some hard to understand points.
I was asking questions trying to get people to understand what the apostle Paul was saying in the passages. The discussion got a bit intense for one guy and he asked me to tell them the answers.
My answer: no. It is not my job to tell you the answers. He really didn’t like that answer, I could tell.
But it is true. It is not the job of the teacher to tell people the answers. It is his job to bring them to a knowledge of the truth.
You do that through several different methods. But the best is just asking questions until people kind of figure it out. That is how Jesus did it. He was a teacher in the Socratic method. That meant you just keep asking questions until the truth finally gets through.
It makes sometimes for what can be a difficult class. But if you listen, you can tell where people are coming from.
It sounds simplistic but it is true. You learn a lot from people by just listening to them. And if they talk long enough, they will sometimes tell you more than they intend.
And part of that is allowing them to ask questions. When they do, you listen to the question.
When people feel free to ask questions, they begin to learn.
Then again, there is no way you can understand, no matter how many questions you ask or answers you receive, until God opens it up to you.
The Bible is the written word of God, and as such is subject to his interpretation. He will open it to you if you allow him to. The process is called Divine Illumination. You are illuminated to the answers by God and his Spirit, not some guy. All the teacher amounts to is a conduit through which that Divine Illumination comes.
The teacher works together with the class and together they discover the will of God. And he opens it to both teacher and taught. All stand together as seekers of the divine will.
When we all get to it together, it is great. And we get light and understanding.
As long as we quit thinking that we have the answers and that it is our job to give them to others, we will learn the divine will of God.
Someone not long ago asked me to tell them what the answers were. We were looking at the book of Romans in the New Testament and came upon some hard to understand points.
I was asking questions trying to get people to understand what the apostle Paul was saying in the passages. The discussion got a bit intense for one guy and he asked me to tell them the answers.
My answer: no. It is not my job to tell you the answers. He really didn’t like that answer, I could tell.
But it is true. It is not the job of the teacher to tell people the answers. It is his job to bring them to a knowledge of the truth.
You do that through several different methods. But the best is just asking questions until people kind of figure it out. That is how Jesus did it. He was a teacher in the Socratic method. That meant you just keep asking questions until the truth finally gets through.
It makes sometimes for what can be a difficult class. But if you listen, you can tell where people are coming from.
It sounds simplistic but it is true. You learn a lot from people by just listening to them. And if they talk long enough, they will sometimes tell you more than they intend.
And part of that is allowing them to ask questions. When they do, you listen to the question.
When people feel free to ask questions, they begin to learn.
Then again, there is no way you can understand, no matter how many questions you ask or answers you receive, until God opens it up to you.
The Bible is the written word of God, and as such is subject to his interpretation. He will open it to you if you allow him to. The process is called Divine Illumination. You are illuminated to the answers by God and his Spirit, not some guy. All the teacher amounts to is a conduit through which that Divine Illumination comes.
The teacher works together with the class and together they discover the will of God. And he opens it to both teacher and taught. All stand together as seekers of the divine will.
When we all get to it together, it is great. And we get light and understanding.
As long as we quit thinking that we have the answers and that it is our job to give them to others, we will learn the divine will of God.
some pictures of my wife
I was just thinking about my wife, Ella Leigh. Here is a picture of her that I particularly like. In fact, two pictures.
I have always liked the way she spells her middle name, too.
sitting in my office area
I am sitting in the auditorium at my desk. I moved it out into a corner of the sanctuary and set up an office out here. The office that was used before is now a nursery and the one that replaced it is a corner room with one of the a/c units in it. No window. It is like a cave with a blower. Since I am mildly claustrophobic, it was a trial to do anything in.
Out here on the other hand, it is open and airy. There are two large widows with those up and down blinds, I forget what they’re called, that I can open to where I can see out from the desk, or I can just open up completely. It makes for a nice place to sit and work, read, mess around on the computer, whatever. Since we are a small church right now, it isn’t hard to do.
When we get larger, I’m not sure what I will do, but I like coming to an office, rather than just sitting at home doing stuff. Too many distractions and too much food nearby.
It also gives Ella time away from me. since she is disabled and can’t do a s much as she wants, we tend to sit in the same room a lot. I am sure she gets tired of me.
Outside one window is a large tree and grass and a view of houses. Out of the other is just a view of the parking lot, but it is sunny right now, so that’s nice.
When it rains, the sound of the rain is so pleasant. There is nothing like the sound of the rain on a church roof. Most church roofs are made with no insulation, so you can hear anything that happens on top. Even an acorn falling sounds.
Since I like the church, it makes it even better. It will be nice, however, when I have to move back to the cave or to another building. That will be good.
For now, it is so pleasant in here.
Out here on the other hand, it is open and airy. There are two large widows with those up and down blinds, I forget what they’re called, that I can open to where I can see out from the desk, or I can just open up completely. It makes for a nice place to sit and work, read, mess around on the computer, whatever. Since we are a small church right now, it isn’t hard to do.
When we get larger, I’m not sure what I will do, but I like coming to an office, rather than just sitting at home doing stuff. Too many distractions and too much food nearby.
It also gives Ella time away from me. since she is disabled and can’t do a s much as she wants, we tend to sit in the same room a lot. I am sure she gets tired of me.
Outside one window is a large tree and grass and a view of houses. Out of the other is just a view of the parking lot, but it is sunny right now, so that’s nice.
When it rains, the sound of the rain is so pleasant. There is nothing like the sound of the rain on a church roof. Most church roofs are made with no insulation, so you can hear anything that happens on top. Even an acorn falling sounds.
Since I like the church, it makes it even better. It will be nice, however, when I have to move back to the cave or to another building. That will be good.
For now, it is so pleasant in here.
to a friend
To a friend:
Until about a year ago, it had been over 40 years since we last saw each other. We were excited about life and ready to go. Life had an anticipatory tone. Nothing really was wrong, we were healthy, having a boyfriend or girlfriend was at the top of our priorities, kissing a good looking girl was an earth shaking experience.
A job was necessary, but mainly for spending on the girlfriend and some good looking clothes, gas for the car, etc.
Life in America was simple. No one much locked their houses or cars still, children for the most part did not misbehave, gas was cheap, things in general were affordable.
There was the war in Vietnam but it in general was somewhere else. Unless you knew someone in it, it really did not touch you. Of course, if you were a guy 18 years old, you were afraid of it, but more in the line of something that could happen to you, like getting hit by a car or something like that.
On a great day, our hair went right, no one was mad at us, there were no tests at school, we went on a date. Then we graduated and began life.
Forty years later, life has taken us for a ride. We bear the scars to show it. Life, for all its successes, seems to have taken on a sad tone.
You have had a brain tumor and a severely damaged foot, and your husband is sick. My wife is afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis and is in constant pain, financial problems have beset us both and my ministry is not where I want it to be. When we hugged each other to say goodbye last time we had lunch there was almost a clinging quality.
We knew each other when and I would like to think that we will meet again. I find myself loathe to not see you again, but do not know how I can, seeing as how we live far apart.
You are my oldest friend. Many were the lunches we had together in High School and many were the secrets we shared. You were even my first kiss so long ago. I do not have another friend that I have had as long as I have known you and I like you. I also pray that you have a good life and that your husband is healed and able to love you like you deserve to be loved.
And what a ride it has been. We cannot go back and take it again, no matter how we may want to, and all of the mistakes in the past are made. There are new mistakes in the future to be made and I know we probably will make them.
I just trust in the name of the Lord and serve him. He is my source and strength.
Don’t know why this came into my mind right now. No real point to it anyway, I guess. Just thinking about stuff.
Until about a year ago, it had been over 40 years since we last saw each other. We were excited about life and ready to go. Life had an anticipatory tone. Nothing really was wrong, we were healthy, having a boyfriend or girlfriend was at the top of our priorities, kissing a good looking girl was an earth shaking experience.
A job was necessary, but mainly for spending on the girlfriend and some good looking clothes, gas for the car, etc.
Life in America was simple. No one much locked their houses or cars still, children for the most part did not misbehave, gas was cheap, things in general were affordable.
There was the war in Vietnam but it in general was somewhere else. Unless you knew someone in it, it really did not touch you. Of course, if you were a guy 18 years old, you were afraid of it, but more in the line of something that could happen to you, like getting hit by a car or something like that.
On a great day, our hair went right, no one was mad at us, there were no tests at school, we went on a date. Then we graduated and began life.
Forty years later, life has taken us for a ride. We bear the scars to show it. Life, for all its successes, seems to have taken on a sad tone.
You have had a brain tumor and a severely damaged foot, and your husband is sick. My wife is afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis and is in constant pain, financial problems have beset us both and my ministry is not where I want it to be. When we hugged each other to say goodbye last time we had lunch there was almost a clinging quality.
We knew each other when and I would like to think that we will meet again. I find myself loathe to not see you again, but do not know how I can, seeing as how we live far apart.
You are my oldest friend. Many were the lunches we had together in High School and many were the secrets we shared. You were even my first kiss so long ago. I do not have another friend that I have had as long as I have known you and I like you. I also pray that you have a good life and that your husband is healed and able to love you like you deserve to be loved.
And what a ride it has been. We cannot go back and take it again, no matter how we may want to, and all of the mistakes in the past are made. There are new mistakes in the future to be made and I know we probably will make them.
I just trust in the name of the Lord and serve him. He is my source and strength.
Don’t know why this came into my mind right now. No real point to it anyway, I guess. Just thinking about stuff.
daily java
Daily Java: As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. (Ecclesiastes 10:1)
It doesn’t take much to ruin something good. A couple of dead flies in the perfume and the perfume, no matter how expensive is less desirable. A roach crawls across a sirloin steak and it is no longer appetizing. A crack is in a Waterford crystal vase and it is less valuable.
Somebody says something really stupid and it ruins any wisdom credits he has attained. He just looks silly, no matter how wise he looked before.
I have said things in my desire to be cute that removed the aura of wisdom and knowledge I had so carefully cultivated. This has not happened a lot, but when it did, I would almost give an arm to call the words back in.
As I said in an earlier post, I have a big mouth that sometimes, even now, seems to speak of its own volition. When it does, it makes me look foolish. And I hate looking foolish.
A preacher devotes his life to doing good stuff, but then has an affair. The rest of everything is overwhelmed by the affair. It now doesn’t matter to people how many people he has brought to Christ, or how well he writes, or how many degrees he has. He has committed an overt, public sin, and that folly outweighs all the wisdom and honor he may have had before.
The dead flies of his foolishness give his life perfume a bad smell.
The same with a public official who says something incredibly foolish, or is caught taking a bribe or something else foolish. It doesn’t matter what else he has done. A little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
A lie is told, something is stolen, someone is betrayed in some way – no matter how the person was before, this is now remembered. The dead flies and the little folly come in.
But it is not fair, the person says. And he is right. It is not fair to have a moment of weakness take over a person’s whole legacy. But it happens.
A prominent senator does a lot in his life, but there was a marital infidelity in his past that resulted in a car crash and the death of his mistress. He gets off due to family connections but his life is never the same. Even though he is respected, people still remember that.
A president has a moment of weakness with a young intern, and no matter what else happens, that is remembered.
A prominent minister is caught with a prostitute, and no matter his repentance, the damage is done and his ministry is forever altered. His church is a fraction of its former size.
A senator is caught on a boat with young woman and the picture is everywhere. No matter what he did before and the potential he had, his promising career is derailed.
It doesn’t take much. People are watching for stuff anyway. Sometimes you can overcome it by, if nothing else, sheer fortitude and hard work.
But the flies have ruined the perfume and the folly has outweighed the wisdom and honor.
Life is tough and then you die. And life is not fair. And you have to sleep in the bed you make. A hundred aphorisms come to mind. But the point is, watch your life.
And shut up once in a while.
It doesn’t take much to ruin something good. A couple of dead flies in the perfume and the perfume, no matter how expensive is less desirable. A roach crawls across a sirloin steak and it is no longer appetizing. A crack is in a Waterford crystal vase and it is less valuable.
Somebody says something really stupid and it ruins any wisdom credits he has attained. He just looks silly, no matter how wise he looked before.
I have said things in my desire to be cute that removed the aura of wisdom and knowledge I had so carefully cultivated. This has not happened a lot, but when it did, I would almost give an arm to call the words back in.
As I said in an earlier post, I have a big mouth that sometimes, even now, seems to speak of its own volition. When it does, it makes me look foolish. And I hate looking foolish.
A preacher devotes his life to doing good stuff, but then has an affair. The rest of everything is overwhelmed by the affair. It now doesn’t matter to people how many people he has brought to Christ, or how well he writes, or how many degrees he has. He has committed an overt, public sin, and that folly outweighs all the wisdom and honor he may have had before.
The dead flies of his foolishness give his life perfume a bad smell.
The same with a public official who says something incredibly foolish, or is caught taking a bribe or something else foolish. It doesn’t matter what else he has done. A little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
A lie is told, something is stolen, someone is betrayed in some way – no matter how the person was before, this is now remembered. The dead flies and the little folly come in.
But it is not fair, the person says. And he is right. It is not fair to have a moment of weakness take over a person’s whole legacy. But it happens.
A prominent senator does a lot in his life, but there was a marital infidelity in his past that resulted in a car crash and the death of his mistress. He gets off due to family connections but his life is never the same. Even though he is respected, people still remember that.
A president has a moment of weakness with a young intern, and no matter what else happens, that is remembered.
A prominent minister is caught with a prostitute, and no matter his repentance, the damage is done and his ministry is forever altered. His church is a fraction of its former size.
A senator is caught on a boat with young woman and the picture is everywhere. No matter what he did before and the potential he had, his promising career is derailed.
It doesn’t take much. People are watching for stuff anyway. Sometimes you can overcome it by, if nothing else, sheer fortitude and hard work.
But the flies have ruined the perfume and the folly has outweighed the wisdom and honor.
Life is tough and then you die. And life is not fair. And you have to sleep in the bed you make. A hundred aphorisms come to mind. But the point is, watch your life.
And shut up once in a while.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
naked women, part 2
Has it ever occurred to you that if a woman takes off her clothes in public in front of a bunch of people and they take pictures and give her money she will get arrested.
However, if she takes off her clothes in front of a movie camera, and people pay her money to see it, she might win an academy award.
A woman who takes off her clothes in public has a mental problem. We enable that mental problem when we watch her in a movie and enrich her at the same time.
One of the movie stars a few years ago was voted the woman most likely to be naked in a movie. Is that really how you want to be remembered.
On the other hand, I read an article about a woman in a movie who refused to do nude scenes shot from the back. Her solution: hire a body model. What is the difference? People who saw it would assume that it was you and the ethical approach you thought you were taking is dissolved.
I really liked what Ernest Borgnine had to say about profanity and nudity in movies. He said, in effect, who wants to be remembered for that trash? He wanted his kids to be proud of what he had done.
His movies were not stellar examples of goodness, but at the same time, that kind of attitude is one that should be the standard.
In the old days, movies were made with no nudity and no suggestion of anything inappropriate. Maybe they went a bit far, but they were good.
I suppose that the only problem is that, seeing movie stars and reading about some of the near scandals in the past golden age of movies, if it had been permitted, they would have done it.
They were no better, just more regulated.
Why demean these women? They have problems and need psychological help, not viewers.
A Pollyanna attitude, I know, but my very own Pollyanna attitude and I am proud of it. As the top of the blog says, everything I say here is my own opinion. Why in the world would I hold someone else's opinion? Go somewhere else for that.
However, if she takes off her clothes in front of a movie camera, and people pay her money to see it, she might win an academy award.
A woman who takes off her clothes in public has a mental problem. We enable that mental problem when we watch her in a movie and enrich her at the same time.
One of the movie stars a few years ago was voted the woman most likely to be naked in a movie. Is that really how you want to be remembered.
On the other hand, I read an article about a woman in a movie who refused to do nude scenes shot from the back. Her solution: hire a body model. What is the difference? People who saw it would assume that it was you and the ethical approach you thought you were taking is dissolved.
I really liked what Ernest Borgnine had to say about profanity and nudity in movies. He said, in effect, who wants to be remembered for that trash? He wanted his kids to be proud of what he had done.
His movies were not stellar examples of goodness, but at the same time, that kind of attitude is one that should be the standard.
In the old days, movies were made with no nudity and no suggestion of anything inappropriate. Maybe they went a bit far, but they were good.
I suppose that the only problem is that, seeing movie stars and reading about some of the near scandals in the past golden age of movies, if it had been permitted, they would have done it.
They were no better, just more regulated.
Why demean these women? They have problems and need psychological help, not viewers.
A Pollyanna attitude, I know, but my very own Pollyanna attitude and I am proud of it. As the top of the blog says, everything I say here is my own opinion. Why in the world would I hold someone else's opinion? Go somewhere else for that.
psalm 118:16-20
The Lord's right hand is lifted high; the Lord's right hand has done mighty things!"
I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.
The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.
The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
O Lord, save us; O Lord, grant us success.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you.
The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 118:16-29)
I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.
The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.
The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
O Lord, save us; O Lord, grant us success.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you.
The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 118:16-29)
daily java
Daily Java: Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you - for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others. (Proverbs 7:21-22)
It always bothers me when people say negative things about me, even when I know they are not true. In fact, the fact that they are not true doesn’t make it any better.
Recently, someone was trying to say something that would hurt me. He had decided he didn’t like me, so he chose words that he knew would hit to the heart of how I feel about myself and my abilities.
He did a good job. It got to me. Even though I knew they were not true (and so did he, for that matter – he was just trying to score points), they still hurt.
However, you just cannot put any real stock in what people say. If you hear nothing but praise, people are trying to get something from you. If you hear nothing but negativity, they are trying to hurt you. Either way, you have to weigh what is said and put it in perspective.
After all, you have done some of the same thing yourself. It is rare for a person to have lived his or her life without ever unduly criticizing someone else. There is some time in the past when you were snarky with someone, too. Or maybe you told someone else something and it got back to the person you were talking about.
When that happens, you don’t know what to do and wish you hadn’t said anything. Or at least you hadn’t said anything to that particular blabbermouth. But you did, and hurt is caused.
Rare is the person who spends his or her life in constant uplifting speech. Sooner or later, you mess up. When you do, you need to remember the times people said stupid stuff about you.
Now if they say it over and over in your life, maybe there is some truth in it. But in general, ugly criticism is intended to hurt. You can choose to be hurt, or you can choose to put it into perspective.
The guy who told me those things wanted to hurt me, and he did. For a while. But I know from the context of my life and what others have told me in the past that the things he said were just not true. They were delivered from a mean-spirited heart that wanted to do harm.
I am not sure why he did that, but he did, and I can choose to accept it or not. just like those I have talked against (not many, I hope) can choose to accept my words of stupidity or not.
Of course, in the same way, don’t pay too much attention to praise. That is the problem that movie stars and people in high position have. They begin believing their press. When that happens, there is almost always a bad fall. No one is as good or as bad as people say they are.
Just don’t pay attention.
It always bothers me when people say negative things about me, even when I know they are not true. In fact, the fact that they are not true doesn’t make it any better.
Recently, someone was trying to say something that would hurt me. He had decided he didn’t like me, so he chose words that he knew would hit to the heart of how I feel about myself and my abilities.
He did a good job. It got to me. Even though I knew they were not true (and so did he, for that matter – he was just trying to score points), they still hurt.
However, you just cannot put any real stock in what people say. If you hear nothing but praise, people are trying to get something from you. If you hear nothing but negativity, they are trying to hurt you. Either way, you have to weigh what is said and put it in perspective.
After all, you have done some of the same thing yourself. It is rare for a person to have lived his or her life without ever unduly criticizing someone else. There is some time in the past when you were snarky with someone, too. Or maybe you told someone else something and it got back to the person you were talking about.
When that happens, you don’t know what to do and wish you hadn’t said anything. Or at least you hadn’t said anything to that particular blabbermouth. But you did, and hurt is caused.
Rare is the person who spends his or her life in constant uplifting speech. Sooner or later, you mess up. When you do, you need to remember the times people said stupid stuff about you.
Now if they say it over and over in your life, maybe there is some truth in it. But in general, ugly criticism is intended to hurt. You can choose to be hurt, or you can choose to put it into perspective.
The guy who told me those things wanted to hurt me, and he did. For a while. But I know from the context of my life and what others have told me in the past that the things he said were just not true. They were delivered from a mean-spirited heart that wanted to do harm.
I am not sure why he did that, but he did, and I can choose to accept it or not. just like those I have talked against (not many, I hope) can choose to accept my words of stupidity or not.
Of course, in the same way, don’t pay too much attention to praise. That is the problem that movie stars and people in high position have. They begin believing their press. When that happens, there is almost always a bad fall. No one is as good or as bad as people say they are.
Just don’t pay attention.
Monday, September 20, 2010
hearing the speech of a fool
As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words. (Ecclesiastes 5:3)
As I walked through WalMart the other day, there was a woman who was yapping on cell phone. She was speaking loudly and about rather personal matters.
My thought was that she was a fool.
Someone once said that the nicest part of no being telepathic is that you don’t have to listen to the thoughts of fools. But no more. They are everywhere, talking loudly as if they were the only ones in the store. And with the advent of Bluetooth and the ear buds, they have the ability to really carry on a conversation with the air.
I remember the first time I saw a man talking on a phone without holding it to his head. At first I thought he was mad, but not many crazy people wear tailored suits (well, more than that – they just blend in well). He was a lawyer and had the latest in technology at the time.
Then, all of a sudden, there were a lot of people with earbuds and speakers on wires. Then Bluetooth and the madmen seemed everywhere.
The funny thing about it is that if you look at them while they are talking, they get irritated, like you are eavesdropping, when all you are doing is hearing the speech of a fool.
As I walked through WalMart the other day, there was a woman who was yapping on cell phone. She was speaking loudly and about rather personal matters.
My thought was that she was a fool.
Someone once said that the nicest part of no being telepathic is that you don’t have to listen to the thoughts of fools. But no more. They are everywhere, talking loudly as if they were the only ones in the store. And with the advent of Bluetooth and the ear buds, they have the ability to really carry on a conversation with the air.
I remember the first time I saw a man talking on a phone without holding it to his head. At first I thought he was mad, but not many crazy people wear tailored suits (well, more than that – they just blend in well). He was a lawyer and had the latest in technology at the time.
Then, all of a sudden, there were a lot of people with earbuds and speakers on wires. Then Bluetooth and the madmen seemed everywhere.
The funny thing about it is that if you look at them while they are talking, they get irritated, like you are eavesdropping, when all you are doing is hearing the speech of a fool.
the top hits of 1968 revisited
The Top Hits of 1968 revisited.
The long, cool woman in a black dress is in her 60’s.
Mustang Sally drives a Mercury now.
Jumping Jack Flash had knee replacements and cannot jump.
The House of the Rising Sun has been torn down for a WalMart.
The Dock Of The Bay was blown down in a hurricane.
The guy who was Born to be Wild is retired and lives in Florida.
The Magic Carpet Ride stopped when someone fell off and OSHA grounded it.
The Voodoo Child got a job with a marketing firm and owns a BMW.
The Games People Play now are shuffleboard and bunco on cruise ships.
Mrs Robinson lives in a nursing home.
Polk Salad Annie has been on Food Stamps for the past 35 years.
The Wichita Lineman is retired.
The Magic Bus had a wreck and is in a junkyard with a family of cats living in it.
The Son of a Preacher Man is in prison for extortion.
These Eyes are wearing trifocals.
Susie Q lives with her children in Iowa.
Elenore is married to a retired firefighter and lives in Austin.
The Angel of the Morning died of AIDS.
The House that Jack Built was torn down for a bypass.
Those Were the Days, My Friend. The Worst That Could Happen probably did.
And that is the Shape of Things That Were.
The long, cool woman in a black dress is in her 60’s.
Mustang Sally drives a Mercury now.
Jumping Jack Flash had knee replacements and cannot jump.
The House of the Rising Sun has been torn down for a WalMart.
The Dock Of The Bay was blown down in a hurricane.
The guy who was Born to be Wild is retired and lives in Florida.
The Magic Carpet Ride stopped when someone fell off and OSHA grounded it.
The Voodoo Child got a job with a marketing firm and owns a BMW.
The Games People Play now are shuffleboard and bunco on cruise ships.
Mrs Robinson lives in a nursing home.
Polk Salad Annie has been on Food Stamps for the past 35 years.
The Wichita Lineman is retired.
The Magic Bus had a wreck and is in a junkyard with a family of cats living in it.
The Son of a Preacher Man is in prison for extortion.
These Eyes are wearing trifocals.
Susie Q lives with her children in Iowa.
Elenore is married to a retired firefighter and lives in Austin.
The Angel of the Morning died of AIDS.
The House that Jack Built was torn down for a bypass.
Those Were the Days, My Friend. The Worst That Could Happen probably did.
And that is the Shape of Things That Were.
daily java
Daily Java: And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.- 1 John 4:16.
God loves us. Like any good parent’s love, his love is a challenging love. It gives a high standard to aspire to. It is not just an open love – do whatever you want – but a strong love, a call to a higher level. He will always love us, and wants us to be better than what we are.
When people preach God, they preach love. When people preach doctrine, and against things, and wrath – all parts of God, to be sure – but not God’ love, they are not preaching God. God’s nature is love. Without it, there is no God. It is a real love, wanting you to come to him.
The problem for the preacher is that it is too easy to preach the wrath of God. It thunders well, it is descriptive, it is more interesting. The love of God just seems wimpy.
I was preaching one Sunday several years ago. I had been in the ministry about 10 years and could thunder on the wrath and commandments of God with the best. One Sunday, for some reason, I spoke on his love. I had decided there needed to be some balance.
As I was at the back, shaking the church out of the auditorium, a man, a visitor that Sunday, came up and told me that it was a good sermon and all, but that we needed to hear more on the commandments of God and what he demanded of us, and less on stuff like his love and grace.
Guilt immediately surrounded me, and I agreed. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the man was a fool.
The Bible says the fool says in his heart there is no God. When he heard my sermon on the love of God and his mercy and grace, and said that God was more into stuff like Thou shalt nots, he proved himself to be a fool. And me, too, when I agreed with him.
At that point, the epiphany came in my way of thinking. God is not into stuff, God is into love. God is not stuff, God is love. The stuff God says is important, true, but it is out of love for us and is not his nature. His nature is love.
When my children were small, I told them to do things, and occasionally punished them. But that was not my nature. If my children were to say, our dad is tough and demanding. And other children were to ask, does he love you. And my children were to say, well, yes, but what he says is more important. Then I have missed the whole point of parenting.
I learned at one time that a parent cannot have zero tolerance for stuff. In fact, only fools try to maintain zero tolerance for stuff. There are too many variables.
My son was suspended for fighting in Jr High. He had defended himself when another child began to hit him. Because there were two involved, both were suspended. The school district was too lazy to sort out what was right and so had a zero tolerance for fighting.
I defended him to the school board, but they stood adamant. So I told them that I was proud of my son for acting like a man, an action in which they were remiss, and would encourage him to wear his suspension proudly and boldly.
There are always extenuating circumstances. Witness the reaction of Jesus with the woman caught in adultery in John 7 and 8. Even though she was obviously guilty of breaking the law, Jesus got everybody off her back about it and forgave her. That is because he showed the nature of God.
God would rather have the person love him than obey him, hard as that is to believe. Any fool can obey you, but not everybody can love you.
That is his nature. Of course, if you love him, you will obey him. That goes without saying.
I want to be like God. I want to love people.
God loves us. Like any good parent’s love, his love is a challenging love. It gives a high standard to aspire to. It is not just an open love – do whatever you want – but a strong love, a call to a higher level. He will always love us, and wants us to be better than what we are.
When people preach God, they preach love. When people preach doctrine, and against things, and wrath – all parts of God, to be sure – but not God’ love, they are not preaching God. God’s nature is love. Without it, there is no God. It is a real love, wanting you to come to him.
The problem for the preacher is that it is too easy to preach the wrath of God. It thunders well, it is descriptive, it is more interesting. The love of God just seems wimpy.
I was preaching one Sunday several years ago. I had been in the ministry about 10 years and could thunder on the wrath and commandments of God with the best. One Sunday, for some reason, I spoke on his love. I had decided there needed to be some balance.
As I was at the back, shaking the church out of the auditorium, a man, a visitor that Sunday, came up and told me that it was a good sermon and all, but that we needed to hear more on the commandments of God and what he demanded of us, and less on stuff like his love and grace.
Guilt immediately surrounded me, and I agreed. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the man was a fool.
The Bible says the fool says in his heart there is no God. When he heard my sermon on the love of God and his mercy and grace, and said that God was more into stuff like Thou shalt nots, he proved himself to be a fool. And me, too, when I agreed with him.
At that point, the epiphany came in my way of thinking. God is not into stuff, God is into love. God is not stuff, God is love. The stuff God says is important, true, but it is out of love for us and is not his nature. His nature is love.
When my children were small, I told them to do things, and occasionally punished them. But that was not my nature. If my children were to say, our dad is tough and demanding. And other children were to ask, does he love you. And my children were to say, well, yes, but what he says is more important. Then I have missed the whole point of parenting.
I learned at one time that a parent cannot have zero tolerance for stuff. In fact, only fools try to maintain zero tolerance for stuff. There are too many variables.
My son was suspended for fighting in Jr High. He had defended himself when another child began to hit him. Because there were two involved, both were suspended. The school district was too lazy to sort out what was right and so had a zero tolerance for fighting.
I defended him to the school board, but they stood adamant. So I told them that I was proud of my son for acting like a man, an action in which they were remiss, and would encourage him to wear his suspension proudly and boldly.
There are always extenuating circumstances. Witness the reaction of Jesus with the woman caught in adultery in John 7 and 8. Even though she was obviously guilty of breaking the law, Jesus got everybody off her back about it and forgave her. That is because he showed the nature of God.
God would rather have the person love him than obey him, hard as that is to believe. Any fool can obey you, but not everybody can love you.
That is his nature. Of course, if you love him, you will obey him. That goes without saying.
I want to be like God. I want to love people.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
rainy night in georgia
Brooke Benton on the radio just now, singing Rainy Night in Georgia. Talk about a flashback.
1969. I am at Fort Gordon, Georgia. Army AIT, our training school. I had been drafted and didn't want to be there. In general, though, it wasn't that bad. I met people and made friends and did stuff. I was in great shape, of course and it wasn't one solid misery.
However, I wanted to be home.
It was raining, a miserable night in general. I was homesick, sitting looking out the window, wishing I was home with my girlfriend and my family. Just when I didn't think it could get any worse, Brooke Benton began to sing. A rainy night in Georgia, such a rainy night in Georgia. Lord, I believe it's raining all over the world.
And, you know, I believe it could very well be. It was sure coming down in my corner of the world, sitting in an army barracks on a lousy army base, having to wear army clothes and eat army food.
I wanted to go home so bad. And every time I hear that song I get that feeling so bad again. Even though it has been 40 years, I can still feel the pull of that song, the feeling of being alone, and, at the time, so far from home. I didn’t realize I would go even further within the year, and over life.
But I did. And I lived through the rain that night and the intense loneliness the song evoked with me.
Late at night when it's hard to rest
I hold your picture to my chest and I feel fine
But it's a rainy night in Georgia, baby,
it's a rainy night in Georgia
I feel it's rainin' all over the world, kinda lonely now
And it's rainin' all over the world
Oh, have you ever been lonely, people?
And you feel that it was rainin' all over this man's world
You're talking 'bout rainin',
What a song.
1969. I am at Fort Gordon, Georgia. Army AIT, our training school. I had been drafted and didn't want to be there. In general, though, it wasn't that bad. I met people and made friends and did stuff. I was in great shape, of course and it wasn't one solid misery.
However, I wanted to be home.
It was raining, a miserable night in general. I was homesick, sitting looking out the window, wishing I was home with my girlfriend and my family. Just when I didn't think it could get any worse, Brooke Benton began to sing. A rainy night in Georgia, such a rainy night in Georgia. Lord, I believe it's raining all over the world.
And, you know, I believe it could very well be. It was sure coming down in my corner of the world, sitting in an army barracks on a lousy army base, having to wear army clothes and eat army food.
I wanted to go home so bad. And every time I hear that song I get that feeling so bad again. Even though it has been 40 years, I can still feel the pull of that song, the feeling of being alone, and, at the time, so far from home. I didn’t realize I would go even further within the year, and over life.
But I did. And I lived through the rain that night and the intense loneliness the song evoked with me.
Late at night when it's hard to rest
I hold your picture to my chest and I feel fine
But it's a rainy night in Georgia, baby,
it's a rainy night in Georgia
I feel it's rainin' all over the world, kinda lonely now
And it's rainin' all over the world
Oh, have you ever been lonely, people?
And you feel that it was rainin' all over this man's world
You're talking 'bout rainin',
What a song.
daily java
Daily Java: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 1:1-4)
It doesn’t matter how hard you try, you cannot seem to do the right thing. God knew this from the beginning. So again, from the beginning, he set Jesus up to help us.
When we are in him, there is no condemnation. Sure we sin, and we do stupid things daily, and at time minutely, but in Jesus and in his grace, there is no condemnation.
That means that when God looks at us, he doesn’t see the stupidity we have done, he sees Jesus. When he looks at us, he doesn’t see sin, he sees grace.
He looks at us through the filter of the blood of Jesus and that filter takes away all our sin. He just sees us.
We do the same thing when we look at our kids. What kind of parent, when he looks at his children, starts remembering all of the things the child has done wrong. I love my son, but I remember when he was 6, he broke my watch, or I remember last week, he tracked mud, or I remember the lies he told me, or… No real parent, or at least, no parent who loves their children, does that.
He or she sees the son, or the daughter. After all, you love that person. It is your son. It is your daughter. You went through a lot for them. Why would you dwell on all their problems and shortcomings. The rest of the world does that on a daily basis. They come to you for love and acceptance.
It’s the same with God. We come to him for love and acceptance. The idea of an angry God looking at us in condemnation is nowhere in the Bible. At least nor for his children.
His anger is for the unrighteous, for the ungodly, for those who live in blatant and uncaring sin, not for his children.
There is nothing you can do to make yourself loveable. You cannot get all your ducks in a row and come to God fine. You cannot do anything to make yourself fine. It is the grace of God given freely to all those who accept it that makes us righteous. We are made righteous when we accept him and his grace.
All who come to him and accept his love are made perfect and he loves them.
He loves them. He loves us. He loves me. With all my faults, with all my problems, with all of my stupidities, he loves me.
And there is no condemnation when I am in his grace.
It doesn’t matter how hard you try, you cannot seem to do the right thing. God knew this from the beginning. So again, from the beginning, he set Jesus up to help us.
When we are in him, there is no condemnation. Sure we sin, and we do stupid things daily, and at time minutely, but in Jesus and in his grace, there is no condemnation.
That means that when God looks at us, he doesn’t see the stupidity we have done, he sees Jesus. When he looks at us, he doesn’t see sin, he sees grace.
He looks at us through the filter of the blood of Jesus and that filter takes away all our sin. He just sees us.
We do the same thing when we look at our kids. What kind of parent, when he looks at his children, starts remembering all of the things the child has done wrong. I love my son, but I remember when he was 6, he broke my watch, or I remember last week, he tracked mud, or I remember the lies he told me, or… No real parent, or at least, no parent who loves their children, does that.
He or she sees the son, or the daughter. After all, you love that person. It is your son. It is your daughter. You went through a lot for them. Why would you dwell on all their problems and shortcomings. The rest of the world does that on a daily basis. They come to you for love and acceptance.
It’s the same with God. We come to him for love and acceptance. The idea of an angry God looking at us in condemnation is nowhere in the Bible. At least nor for his children.
His anger is for the unrighteous, for the ungodly, for those who live in blatant and uncaring sin, not for his children.
There is nothing you can do to make yourself loveable. You cannot get all your ducks in a row and come to God fine. You cannot do anything to make yourself fine. It is the grace of God given freely to all those who accept it that makes us righteous. We are made righteous when we accept him and his grace.
All who come to him and accept his love are made perfect and he loves them.
He loves them. He loves us. He loves me. With all my faults, with all my problems, with all of my stupidities, he loves me.
And there is no condemnation when I am in his grace.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
daily java
Daily Java: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. (Revelation 3:15-17)
Pitiful little church. You know what’s funny? The church in Laodicea, the church Jesus is talking to in this passage, was probably a big church. It probably had lots of programs and did a lot of stuff. It probably had a large ministerial staff and a good worship band. Everybody in town knew about it.
The problem? It was dead as a hammer.
They had plenty of money and considered themselves to be a rich church. But they weren’t.
They were a lukewarm church.
You ever drink something you thought was going to be hot and it turned out to be lukewarm? It is a real surprise. My first impulse is to spit it out. I don’t because Ella would be mad.
But it is a surprise. When God “tasted” this church, when he encountered it, when he saw it, when he heard their “prayers,” and saw the “worship service,” he knew it was dead.
It was like the guy who no longer loved his wife, but bought her token presents, treated her politely, took her to dinner, slept in the same bed with her every night.
But she knew he no longer loved her. She could see it in his eyes, in his actions, in his very politeness. The love was dead.
Passions cool when you get older, that is normal, but they mature into something better: a deep and abiding love. The church in Laodicea had allowed their love to not only cool, but to just plain die. They were going through the motions with God and with each other.
Now people probably enjoyed coming to church there. And I am betting they probably got a lot of new members from churches around because they were a fun church. Big youth group, big singles group, divorce recovery support group, overeaters’ anonymous, ex-inmate ministry – all those things; but no passion for God.
They probably had very few decisions for Christ, very few to answer the call to grace, very few to experience the infilling of the Holy Spirit. As the old saying goes, they were a mile wide and an inch deep.
Big church, no God. And he was ready to spit them out.
I wonder what happened to them? I sure hope they wised up.
Pitiful little church. You know what’s funny? The church in Laodicea, the church Jesus is talking to in this passage, was probably a big church. It probably had lots of programs and did a lot of stuff. It probably had a large ministerial staff and a good worship band. Everybody in town knew about it.
The problem? It was dead as a hammer.
They had plenty of money and considered themselves to be a rich church. But they weren’t.
They were a lukewarm church.
You ever drink something you thought was going to be hot and it turned out to be lukewarm? It is a real surprise. My first impulse is to spit it out. I don’t because Ella would be mad.
But it is a surprise. When God “tasted” this church, when he encountered it, when he saw it, when he heard their “prayers,” and saw the “worship service,” he knew it was dead.
It was like the guy who no longer loved his wife, but bought her token presents, treated her politely, took her to dinner, slept in the same bed with her every night.
But she knew he no longer loved her. She could see it in his eyes, in his actions, in his very politeness. The love was dead.
Passions cool when you get older, that is normal, but they mature into something better: a deep and abiding love. The church in Laodicea had allowed their love to not only cool, but to just plain die. They were going through the motions with God and with each other.
Now people probably enjoyed coming to church there. And I am betting they probably got a lot of new members from churches around because they were a fun church. Big youth group, big singles group, divorce recovery support group, overeaters’ anonymous, ex-inmate ministry – all those things; but no passion for God.
They probably had very few decisions for Christ, very few to answer the call to grace, very few to experience the infilling of the Holy Spirit. As the old saying goes, they were a mile wide and an inch deep.
Big church, no God. And he was ready to spit them out.
I wonder what happened to them? I sure hope they wised up.
Friday, September 17, 2010
daily java
Daily Java: Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)
There is a generosity that is present in the child of God that the world doesn’t understand.
Whenever people in the world see Christians involved in charity work, whatever it may be, they automatically suspect that the Christians are trying to proselyte people. They cannot believe that the children of God can possibly be doing anything but good.
And sadly enough the world would rather people die hungry or go without medical attention than have Christians do it in the name of God.
When it comes down to it, when Christians do stuff like feeding or helping, it is simply because Jesus told us to. We know that God gave us grace in great measure, so we want to give back. We also know that the mark of Christians is giving, so we give. And we know that the more we give, the more God gives to us.
We do it cheerfully because God gave cheerfully out of his bounty to us. We do it not reluctantly or under compulsion because it was given so freely to us.
In other words, Christians are givers. It is a fact that Christians give far more than their worldly counterparts. And the most amazing part of it is we do it on top of other stuff we give.
We give out of a giving heart recognizing what we have been given. Grateful people always are more giving.
Will people take advantage of you? Yes, they will. Does it mean you stop giving? No.
Case in point: Jesus healed ten lepers in Luke 17. Of the ten, only one came back to say thank you. Jesus asked where the nine were that were also healed. Probably they were running like crazy to do what he said – show themselves to the high priest. Only one recognized that Jesus was the source of it and thanked him.
Jesus didn’t take back the healing because people were ungrateful. He left it as it was. He did what he did out of love, not the need for recognition. That was his nature. He gives that nature to us. We give without really wanting the recognition. Nothing wrong with the recognition, of course, but if we just do it for that reason, Jesus said we are no better than the hypocrites.
What we do we do through love, just as God gave Jesus and Jesus gave his life.
And the more we give, the more we get. We might not get stuff like we want, necessarily, but a giving spirit never hurt anyone. It makes the giver better, more open, more loving, more aware of what he or she has in the first place.
Personally, I want to be a giver.
There is a generosity that is present in the child of God that the world doesn’t understand.
Whenever people in the world see Christians involved in charity work, whatever it may be, they automatically suspect that the Christians are trying to proselyte people. They cannot believe that the children of God can possibly be doing anything but good.
And sadly enough the world would rather people die hungry or go without medical attention than have Christians do it in the name of God.
When it comes down to it, when Christians do stuff like feeding or helping, it is simply because Jesus told us to. We know that God gave us grace in great measure, so we want to give back. We also know that the mark of Christians is giving, so we give. And we know that the more we give, the more God gives to us.
We do it cheerfully because God gave cheerfully out of his bounty to us. We do it not reluctantly or under compulsion because it was given so freely to us.
In other words, Christians are givers. It is a fact that Christians give far more than their worldly counterparts. And the most amazing part of it is we do it on top of other stuff we give.
We give out of a giving heart recognizing what we have been given. Grateful people always are more giving.
Will people take advantage of you? Yes, they will. Does it mean you stop giving? No.
Case in point: Jesus healed ten lepers in Luke 17. Of the ten, only one came back to say thank you. Jesus asked where the nine were that were also healed. Probably they were running like crazy to do what he said – show themselves to the high priest. Only one recognized that Jesus was the source of it and thanked him.
Jesus didn’t take back the healing because people were ungrateful. He left it as it was. He did what he did out of love, not the need for recognition. That was his nature. He gives that nature to us. We give without really wanting the recognition. Nothing wrong with the recognition, of course, but if we just do it for that reason, Jesus said we are no better than the hypocrites.
What we do we do through love, just as God gave Jesus and Jesus gave his life.
And the more we give, the more we get. We might not get stuff like we want, necessarily, but a giving spirit never hurt anyone. It makes the giver better, more open, more loving, more aware of what he or she has in the first place.
Personally, I want to be a giver.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
one of my favorite movies
One of my favorite movies is Cherry 2000. It is a rather silly vaguely 1987 sci-fi movie on one level, but one I enjoy almost every time I watch it. It could be rather graphic but it isn’t, so that is one reason I like it.
A man has a robot girlfriend who is perfect in every way including being programmed with the very things that please him most. This includes all the way from his favorite foods to other stuff.
One day he gets carried away kissing her and they fall amid the suds from the sink and she shorts out. He goes down to he repair shop but they don’t have any more of those classic Cherry 2000 models. They have just about every other kind – cheerleader, professional woman, etc – but no Cherry 2000. To get one of those, he would have to go into the Zone, a rather vague apocalyptic place that came out of the last big war.
He decides to try real women again, but the singles bar his friends take him to is a nightmare complete with lawyers drawing up contracts between men and women specifying what will and won’t take place during their date. He hates it and leaves.
He decides to go into the Zone and through a bunch of adventures meets a woman who is a Tracker who guides people. He falls in love with her and ends up abandoning his “perfect woman” complete with programming CD to leave with the girl.
It is a story of love, but it is also a story of finding what is real in your life. He realized that the “perfect” is not always good enough. The “real” has faults, yes, but it is, indeed real.
That is one reason you stay with your wife and she with you as you get older. Yes, there are millions of younger women who look better, but she is real and you love her. After the thrill of finding the “perfect woman” of over, you stay for the “real woman,” the one you love.
A neat movie all around. My wife will even watch it.
A man has a robot girlfriend who is perfect in every way including being programmed with the very things that please him most. This includes all the way from his favorite foods to other stuff.
One day he gets carried away kissing her and they fall amid the suds from the sink and she shorts out. He goes down to he repair shop but they don’t have any more of those classic Cherry 2000 models. They have just about every other kind – cheerleader, professional woman, etc – but no Cherry 2000. To get one of those, he would have to go into the Zone, a rather vague apocalyptic place that came out of the last big war.
He decides to try real women again, but the singles bar his friends take him to is a nightmare complete with lawyers drawing up contracts between men and women specifying what will and won’t take place during their date. He hates it and leaves.
He decides to go into the Zone and through a bunch of adventures meets a woman who is a Tracker who guides people. He falls in love with her and ends up abandoning his “perfect woman” complete with programming CD to leave with the girl.
It is a story of love, but it is also a story of finding what is real in your life. He realized that the “perfect” is not always good enough. The “real” has faults, yes, but it is, indeed real.
That is one reason you stay with your wife and she with you as you get older. Yes, there are millions of younger women who look better, but she is real and you love her. After the thrill of finding the “perfect woman” of over, you stay for the “real woman,” the one you love.
A neat movie all around. My wife will even watch it.
accepting the cross
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. (Psalm 127)
One of the hardest lessons learned is that it doesn’t matter how hard you work in the kingdom. If God isn’t with you and guiding you, it is for nothing.
Church growth principles, a charismatic personality, lots of money – all will lead to nothing if God is not in charge.
There is a tendency is to see the kingdom as a job. Or at least as the ministry as a job and the minister as a salesman or marketer.
The problem with that is that church growth is not dependent upon the minister’s ability or power. If it were so, it would be the minister’s church, not God’s. if a minister had the ability to build a church and lead people to Jesus, it would not be the power of God. It would be the power of the minister.
Unless God builds it, it is not his church.
In 1 Corinthians 1, the apostle Paul, a good church builder in his own right, said that it was not within his power to bring people to the cross of Jesus. It could only come from God. He said that we do not preach wisdom, or philosophy or anything that we think would be great. We preach Jesus and him crucified.
If they do not accept him it doesn’t matter how persuasive we are. Their acceptance has to be in faith and acceptance of the grace of God, the illogical strength from weakness, the power from strength.
Someone once said that if you could do it yourself, it would not be from God. And if you could build it, there would be no reason for Jesus to come and die.
It is his house and his city. I sure do want to help.
Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. (Psalm 127)
One of the hardest lessons learned is that it doesn’t matter how hard you work in the kingdom. If God isn’t with you and guiding you, it is for nothing.
Church growth principles, a charismatic personality, lots of money – all will lead to nothing if God is not in charge.
There is a tendency is to see the kingdom as a job. Or at least as the ministry as a job and the minister as a salesman or marketer.
The problem with that is that church growth is not dependent upon the minister’s ability or power. If it were so, it would be the minister’s church, not God’s. if a minister had the ability to build a church and lead people to Jesus, it would not be the power of God. It would be the power of the minister.
Unless God builds it, it is not his church.
In 1 Corinthians 1, the apostle Paul, a good church builder in his own right, said that it was not within his power to bring people to the cross of Jesus. It could only come from God. He said that we do not preach wisdom, or philosophy or anything that we think would be great. We preach Jesus and him crucified.
If they do not accept him it doesn’t matter how persuasive we are. Their acceptance has to be in faith and acceptance of the grace of God, the illogical strength from weakness, the power from strength.
Someone once said that if you could do it yourself, it would not be from God. And if you could build it, there would be no reason for Jesus to come and die.
It is his house and his city. I sure do want to help.
answering fools
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes. (Proverbs 26:4-5)
That’s the problem with talking to an idiot. If you answer him, you descend to his level. If you don’t, his stupidity goes unchallenged.
So what do you do? It seems that you cannot win either way.
When Jesus was faced with this problem, he did different things. At times, he would look at the people who said incredibly ignorant things and he would say, Have you not read? He made them look even dumber. Of course, they had read. They had triple doctorates in religion and theology. They knew a lot. So for this unschooled son of nobody to dare to ask them if they had read was more than they could handle.
The fact that he was right was even worse. Nothing is worse to an expert than to question his expertise, especially if he is wrong. It will infuriate him because it touches at the core of his self-image. It makes him sound like a new Bible student just come into Bible college. Guys with a lot of degrees hate to be shown up by someone with less schooling.
But what happens if you don’t answer him? When Jesus was faced with King Herod of Galilee, he said nothing the whole time, he just plain refused to answer. It made Herod so angry because he figured since he was a king and an Important Person, Jesus would be happy to show him whatever he needed to know. And when he did, it would be really interesting. Jesus would do some stuff and everybody would clap.
Instead, Jesus did nothing, said nothing, did no miracles. In fact, he just stood there. It infuriated Herod.
And then one time, when they asked him for his authority, he asked them a question about authority. When they wouldn’t answer, he said, too bad. He wasn’t going to answer them either.
So what do you do? answer or not.
If you answer, many times you get into an arguing match. It quickly devolves into stupidity and everyone looks dumb, including the smart people. But if you don’t answer, it sounds like you give tacit agreement with the fool. So people think you aren’t smart enough.
It is a situation where you are damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
I have had like situations and sometimes both approaches worked. And sometimes they didn’t.
No one can give you a one-size-fits-all answer. Each time is different.
It is getting to be the political season and you hear a lot of fools arguing. And it gets old. The world would be better off without fools.
That’s the problem with talking to an idiot. If you answer him, you descend to his level. If you don’t, his stupidity goes unchallenged.
So what do you do? It seems that you cannot win either way.
When Jesus was faced with this problem, he did different things. At times, he would look at the people who said incredibly ignorant things and he would say, Have you not read? He made them look even dumber. Of course, they had read. They had triple doctorates in religion and theology. They knew a lot. So for this unschooled son of nobody to dare to ask them if they had read was more than they could handle.
The fact that he was right was even worse. Nothing is worse to an expert than to question his expertise, especially if he is wrong. It will infuriate him because it touches at the core of his self-image. It makes him sound like a new Bible student just come into Bible college. Guys with a lot of degrees hate to be shown up by someone with less schooling.
But what happens if you don’t answer him? When Jesus was faced with King Herod of Galilee, he said nothing the whole time, he just plain refused to answer. It made Herod so angry because he figured since he was a king and an Important Person, Jesus would be happy to show him whatever he needed to know. And when he did, it would be really interesting. Jesus would do some stuff and everybody would clap.
Instead, Jesus did nothing, said nothing, did no miracles. In fact, he just stood there. It infuriated Herod.
And then one time, when they asked him for his authority, he asked them a question about authority. When they wouldn’t answer, he said, too bad. He wasn’t going to answer them either.
So what do you do? answer or not.
If you answer, many times you get into an arguing match. It quickly devolves into stupidity and everyone looks dumb, including the smart people. But if you don’t answer, it sounds like you give tacit agreement with the fool. So people think you aren’t smart enough.
It is a situation where you are damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
I have had like situations and sometimes both approaches worked. And sometimes they didn’t.
No one can give you a one-size-fits-all answer. Each time is different.
It is getting to be the political season and you hear a lot of fools arguing. And it gets old. The world would be better off without fools.
a sense of style
We were at the mall the other night and I was looking at people. It is just about my favorite thing to do for free.
One thing I noticed and notice from time to time. Some guys have a sense of style and most don’t.
It is not in wearing suits or expensive clothes. It really doesn’t matter how much you pay for your clothing, in fact. It is an indefinable quality. Some have it and most don’t.
Sean Connery recently turned 80. He has always had a sense of style. It comes from wearing what looks good on you and wearing clothes that are timeless. Fashion is good, but only if it fits you and your type of person.
For the most part a t-shirt and a pair of jeans look good. Style comes from a simple matching of what you wear. And wearing what looks good on you.
One thing I noticed and notice from time to time. Some guys have a sense of style and most don’t.
It is not in wearing suits or expensive clothes. It really doesn’t matter how much you pay for your clothing, in fact. It is an indefinable quality. Some have it and most don’t.
Sean Connery recently turned 80. He has always had a sense of style. It comes from wearing what looks good on you and wearing clothes that are timeless. Fashion is good, but only if it fits you and your type of person.
For the most part a t-shirt and a pair of jeans look good. Style comes from a simple matching of what you wear. And wearing what looks good on you.
reflections on a university campus
I went on the campus of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln yesterday. It is a major campus, 20,000+ students and it was an ant bed of activity. School had just started again and everybody was going everywhere.
UNL – The Cornhuskers. I suppose that is to evoke an image of a big rawboned farm boy, strong as an ox, and a little on the mean side when provoked. Beware of me: I husk corn. In my mind, it just brings up a picture of a bunch of people taking the husks off corn. Not particularly athletic or exciting.
Anyway, it was fun to see all the kids going about their business. There were a few things that really struck me.
First was how incredibly healthy, I mean robustly so, young people are. They looked absolutely beautiful, both men and women. BTW, FYI, they are no longer college kids. They are college men and women. I made the mistake of calling them kids back in the 80’s when I went back to college for my second degree. No, no, no. It is not the boys’ dorm or the girls’ dorm. It is the men’s dorm and the women’s dorm.
So, the men and women were incredibly healthy.
I noticed, too that not only were they healthy, they were large. Not fat, necessarily, although I saw entirely too many overweight kids, like I do everywhere these days. But they were big. I remember when I was one of the tallest people I knew in normal society. At 6’3” tall, I was one of the tallest in high school. Now it is not uncommon to see kids taller. I think sometimes we are moving into a race of giants.
I have always wondered what the little Oriental people who make our clothing think of them. Do they secretly suspect that we use them as tents? After all, a 6X shirt in a culture where the average person is 5 foot tall and small boned would be weird.
Another thing was the eagerness to answer my questions. I asked a young man where the Student Union was and he volunteered to take me to where I could see it. Back to the healthy side, he walked really fast. I forgot how I have begun to amble places. The more Ella has trouble, the slower I tend to walk to keep with her. One does not walk fast beside a WalMart scooter.
As we walked, I asked him where he was from. Omaha. Oh, why didn’t you go to school at UN Omaha? This is a better school, he said, and he liked Lincoln and besides (here was the crux) UNO was too close to home.
Ah, yes. That would have been my first comment when I was his age and if I had had the opportunity to choose.
I saw a building and asked a girl at random what was in there. It startled her because she was probably thinking of something else. Maybe calculus, or Occam’s Razor, or maybe the nature of being in Pascal. Or what Snooki was up to in Jersey Shore. I don’t know. But she was somewhere else, for sure. But she recovered abd told me and smiled and I thanked her and we went on. She went back to meditating on the many names of God, I suppose.
I did ask a girl in the Student Center if room 200 was down here or down there. She looked really perplexed and said, I don’t know. I think the rooms go up in number down there. She had a certain Valley Girl quality to her speech (out-of-date, I know, but I don’t care. I like the term and it is my blog) and appeared suddenly confused. I remembered that it doesn’t always take intelligence to get through college, just the ability to remember something for a little while.
Other things: the stores were huge. Although the ceilings were low, the bookstore looked as big as a smaller WalMart, and there was a Laptop Checkout Station over on one corner. Everybody had one. And – this was different – you could rent textbooks. That means that when they graduate, their old textbooks will not masquerading as real books in their professional libraries.
A lot of fast-food places, too. That could account for the reason they were so large.
I am going back next week. I look forward to it. Maybe I will see my friend from Omaha again.
UNL – The Cornhuskers. I suppose that is to evoke an image of a big rawboned farm boy, strong as an ox, and a little on the mean side when provoked. Beware of me: I husk corn. In my mind, it just brings up a picture of a bunch of people taking the husks off corn. Not particularly athletic or exciting.
Anyway, it was fun to see all the kids going about their business. There were a few things that really struck me.
First was how incredibly healthy, I mean robustly so, young people are. They looked absolutely beautiful, both men and women. BTW, FYI, they are no longer college kids. They are college men and women. I made the mistake of calling them kids back in the 80’s when I went back to college for my second degree. No, no, no. It is not the boys’ dorm or the girls’ dorm. It is the men’s dorm and the women’s dorm.
So, the men and women were incredibly healthy.
I noticed, too that not only were they healthy, they were large. Not fat, necessarily, although I saw entirely too many overweight kids, like I do everywhere these days. But they were big. I remember when I was one of the tallest people I knew in normal society. At 6’3” tall, I was one of the tallest in high school. Now it is not uncommon to see kids taller. I think sometimes we are moving into a race of giants.
I have always wondered what the little Oriental people who make our clothing think of them. Do they secretly suspect that we use them as tents? After all, a 6X shirt in a culture where the average person is 5 foot tall and small boned would be weird.
Another thing was the eagerness to answer my questions. I asked a young man where the Student Union was and he volunteered to take me to where I could see it. Back to the healthy side, he walked really fast. I forgot how I have begun to amble places. The more Ella has trouble, the slower I tend to walk to keep with her. One does not walk fast beside a WalMart scooter.
As we walked, I asked him where he was from. Omaha. Oh, why didn’t you go to school at UN Omaha? This is a better school, he said, and he liked Lincoln and besides (here was the crux) UNO was too close to home.
Ah, yes. That would have been my first comment when I was his age and if I had had the opportunity to choose.
I saw a building and asked a girl at random what was in there. It startled her because she was probably thinking of something else. Maybe calculus, or Occam’s Razor, or maybe the nature of being in Pascal. Or what Snooki was up to in Jersey Shore. I don’t know. But she was somewhere else, for sure. But she recovered abd told me and smiled and I thanked her and we went on. She went back to meditating on the many names of God, I suppose.
I did ask a girl in the Student Center if room 200 was down here or down there. She looked really perplexed and said, I don’t know. I think the rooms go up in number down there. She had a certain Valley Girl quality to her speech (out-of-date, I know, but I don’t care. I like the term and it is my blog) and appeared suddenly confused. I remembered that it doesn’t always take intelligence to get through college, just the ability to remember something for a little while.
Other things: the stores were huge. Although the ceilings were low, the bookstore looked as big as a smaller WalMart, and there was a Laptop Checkout Station over on one corner. Everybody had one. And – this was different – you could rent textbooks. That means that when they graduate, their old textbooks will not masquerading as real books in their professional libraries.
A lot of fast-food places, too. That could account for the reason they were so large.
I am going back next week. I look forward to it. Maybe I will see my friend from Omaha again.
running and hiding
I just read what has to be one of the most depressing articles I have seen. Molly Norris, the "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" cartoon artist, has “gone ghost.”
That means that on the advice of the FBI, she has disappeared, changed her name, assumed another life and no one knows where she is.
She drew this picture of the alleged prophet Mohammed and encouraged everyone to do so.
For some reason, in the past few years, Muslims have decided that pictures of Mohammed were blasphemous. This is in spite of the fact that there is almost 1300 years of artwork depicting Mohammed in various things, all from a Muslim perspective.
And they have also decided that it is blasphemous for anyone to draw anything that claims to be Mohammed. Not only that, if you do, they will kill you. It doesn’t matter where you live or what the culture allow where you live. Their ideas trump your ideas and if you go against what they say, they will kill you. It is called a fatwa, an order of execution.
Do you remember a few years ago, the Piss Christ? It was a crucifix in a jar of urine. There was also the picture of the virgin Mary painted in human feces. There was the series of Jesus as a homosexual, including a play on the subject.
A woman draws Mohammed and troops die in Iraq, the world stops turning on its axis and the woman has to go into hiding. A pervert draws a picture of Jesus and nothing happens. What was the difference?
Christians do not bomb and kill. No matter what Hollywood may say, the only place a diversity of faiths can flourish is in a Christian nation. In a Muslim nation, the women are invisible and the people are afraid.
Back in the 80’s when Salman Rushdie write his book on the Satanic Verses, which was uncomplimentary to Islam, there was a fatwa on his life. everybody got mad about it and voiced their displeasure. Today, it is amazing at the number of people who said, It is her own fault for being dumb enough to make Muslims mad.
Have we come so far in our culture that we are afraid to do things if there is a fear of retaliation? Of course, you can diss Christians all day long without fear of reprisal, but don’t dare do anything against Muslims.
We live in a pathetic culture.
That means that on the advice of the FBI, she has disappeared, changed her name, assumed another life and no one knows where she is.
She drew this picture of the alleged prophet Mohammed and encouraged everyone to do so.
For some reason, in the past few years, Muslims have decided that pictures of Mohammed were blasphemous. This is in spite of the fact that there is almost 1300 years of artwork depicting Mohammed in various things, all from a Muslim perspective.
And they have also decided that it is blasphemous for anyone to draw anything that claims to be Mohammed. Not only that, if you do, they will kill you. It doesn’t matter where you live or what the culture allow where you live. Their ideas trump your ideas and if you go against what they say, they will kill you. It is called a fatwa, an order of execution.
Do you remember a few years ago, the Piss Christ? It was a crucifix in a jar of urine. There was also the picture of the virgin Mary painted in human feces. There was the series of Jesus as a homosexual, including a play on the subject.
A woman draws Mohammed and troops die in Iraq, the world stops turning on its axis and the woman has to go into hiding. A pervert draws a picture of Jesus and nothing happens. What was the difference?
Christians do not bomb and kill. No matter what Hollywood may say, the only place a diversity of faiths can flourish is in a Christian nation. In a Muslim nation, the women are invisible and the people are afraid.
Back in the 80’s when Salman Rushdie write his book on the Satanic Verses, which was uncomplimentary to Islam, there was a fatwa on his life. everybody got mad about it and voiced their displeasure. Today, it is amazing at the number of people who said, It is her own fault for being dumb enough to make Muslims mad.
Have we come so far in our culture that we are afraid to do things if there is a fear of retaliation? Of course, you can diss Christians all day long without fear of reprisal, but don’t dare do anything against Muslims.
We live in a pathetic culture.
daily java
Daily Java: If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)
Somebody does something against you and the first inclination is to do something back. Tit for tat. He’ll get what’s coming to him.
What is hard to do is to ignore it and do something nice for him. That goes against the grain, it runs counter to everything we think we should do.
My dad, back in the 50’s, had an old Nash, a big ugly car with an undersized engine. I saw one, amazingly enough, about a year ago when I was working on the census sitting out in a front yard on the highway in Missouri. It was huge, and had a huge back seat. It had probably every bit as much room as I remember it having as a little boy.
My dad’s boss got a brand new Chrysler. He bragged to my dad that his car would run rings around that old car of my dad’s. Both were going to around the same place at the same time for a trip – don’t know what it was – but my dad’s boss talked about driving his car and how great it was going to be and how it was going to be so much better than my dad’s car.
Really rather a stupid display of pride. I will have to admit that I have trouble seeing the great burning desire to own a fancy car anyway. Probably a hole in my personality. I had my fancy new car - a 1981 black Mustang with T-Tops - which ended up almost owning me. When I got rid of it, I was through with fancy cars. In fact I bought a 1979 Dodge Dart when I got rid of it. A car is a car. Now I drive an older mini-van, the epitome of uncool.
Anyway, the day came. From what my dad says, we were driving along and around us pulls his boss with his brand new Chrysler, honking and accelerating. That Nash did well to drive down the street.
About an hour later, there was Dad’s boss sitting by the side of the road with a flat tire and no jack. My dad stopped, as he did for a lot of people when I was growing up, and changed the guy’s tire.
I don’t know what the reaction of the fellow was, but you can guess it was mortal embarrassment. It was the worst thing that could happen.
Dad could have continued on his trip, honking and waving, but he didn’t. By his helping change the tire, he had a victory over this guy that was greater than if he had outrun him.
Kindness is not always appreciated. But it is always good. Our culture doesn’t appreciate kindness and it is a shame. We value revenge, we value getting even, we value censorship if you don’t agree with me. We have also gotten to value pettiness. Hurting my feelings today is the mortal sin in our culture and we are the smaller for it.
But whether kindness is valued or not, as a Christian we do it. We help anyway. We love anyway. We change the idiot’s tire anyway. After all, we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. He was the one, you remember, that forgave the people who were killing him because he knew they didn’t really understand what they were doing.
He was always kind.
In 1 Corinthians 13, that great chapter on love, it says Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (vv4-).
Real love is going to be kind and a side benefit is that the guy you help who has been being bad to you will feel like trash. That’s okay. He needs to.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)
Somebody does something against you and the first inclination is to do something back. Tit for tat. He’ll get what’s coming to him.
What is hard to do is to ignore it and do something nice for him. That goes against the grain, it runs counter to everything we think we should do.
My dad, back in the 50’s, had an old Nash, a big ugly car with an undersized engine. I saw one, amazingly enough, about a year ago when I was working on the census sitting out in a front yard on the highway in Missouri. It was huge, and had a huge back seat. It had probably every bit as much room as I remember it having as a little boy.
My dad’s boss got a brand new Chrysler. He bragged to my dad that his car would run rings around that old car of my dad’s. Both were going to around the same place at the same time for a trip – don’t know what it was – but my dad’s boss talked about driving his car and how great it was going to be and how it was going to be so much better than my dad’s car.
Really rather a stupid display of pride. I will have to admit that I have trouble seeing the great burning desire to own a fancy car anyway. Probably a hole in my personality. I had my fancy new car - a 1981 black Mustang with T-Tops - which ended up almost owning me. When I got rid of it, I was through with fancy cars. In fact I bought a 1979 Dodge Dart when I got rid of it. A car is a car. Now I drive an older mini-van, the epitome of uncool.
Anyway, the day came. From what my dad says, we were driving along and around us pulls his boss with his brand new Chrysler, honking and accelerating. That Nash did well to drive down the street.
About an hour later, there was Dad’s boss sitting by the side of the road with a flat tire and no jack. My dad stopped, as he did for a lot of people when I was growing up, and changed the guy’s tire.
I don’t know what the reaction of the fellow was, but you can guess it was mortal embarrassment. It was the worst thing that could happen.
Dad could have continued on his trip, honking and waving, but he didn’t. By his helping change the tire, he had a victory over this guy that was greater than if he had outrun him.
Kindness is not always appreciated. But it is always good. Our culture doesn’t appreciate kindness and it is a shame. We value revenge, we value getting even, we value censorship if you don’t agree with me. We have also gotten to value pettiness. Hurting my feelings today is the mortal sin in our culture and we are the smaller for it.
But whether kindness is valued or not, as a Christian we do it. We help anyway. We love anyway. We change the idiot’s tire anyway. After all, we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. He was the one, you remember, that forgave the people who were killing him because he knew they didn’t really understand what they were doing.
He was always kind.
In 1 Corinthians 13, that great chapter on love, it says Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (vv4-).
Real love is going to be kind and a side benefit is that the guy you help who has been being bad to you will feel like trash. That’s okay. He needs to.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
some thoughts on romans 8:17-32
Romans 8:17-39: Life and Glory Through God’s Love
In the first part of this chapter, the apostle Paul tells of the goodness of the grace of God and how it overcomes the inner battle we have with our sin nature. The way it does that is to make us aware that we do not have to worry about trying to do good.
We just give ourselves to God and he takes up the slack in our lives by making us dependent on him, not our own performance. He ends by saying that we are children of God and, as such, heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ. If we suffer with him, we will also share in his future glory.
Suffering is not a pleasant thought, nor is it something we want to do. However, we follow a man who suffered and died for what he believed in. If we want to follow him, we have to be prepared for suffering (Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted 2 Timothy 3:12).
But we also have to realize that what little suffering we do here is nothing compared with the glory that he has waiting for us. There is no comparison.
That glory is what all creation has been working toward from day one. When we immerse ourselves in that glory, suffering and all, we overcome everything this world can throw at us.
We not only conquer, we more than conquer. Our conquest goes into the next world.
Our conquest is based on the fact that God will love us forever, that nothing can come between us and his love, not even ourselves. We live this short life for him, and gain eternity as our reward.
SOME QUESTIONS ON THIS PASSAGE FOR YOUR OWN PRIVATE STUDY;
1. Suffering is no fun, everybody knows that. But when it happens to us here on earth, it is happening at the center of our world. After all, we all feel things that happen to us more than things that happen to others. How does the comparison to future glory make suffering better?
2. V19-22 – Paul uses childbirth labor pains to give us an idea of what the coming of Jesus and grace is like. Why do you think he did that?
3. How is the creation liberated from bondage to decay? What does that mean?
4. What do you think it means to groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons? Do you ever feel that yourself?
5. What are the firstfruits of the Spirit?
6. How do you think hope can save somebody? All of us hope for stuff. Or is that the same kind of hope?
7. Have you ever felt the Spirit helping you pray? How does he do that? Is that the same as praying in tongues?
8. V28 – Does that mean that everything that happens to us is good? Sickness, premature death, financial ruin, rape, other tragedies – how can God work those for good? Why doesn’t he just remove them?
9. V29 – What do you think it means to be predestined? The Calvinists say that your salvation is predetermined before you are born. Is this the same thing?
10. The Universalists say that God loves us too much to ever condemn us to hell, that everybody will be saved in the end. Does the everlasting love of God mean that he will save us anyway, no matter what we do?
11. What do vv38-39 mean to you?
In the first part of this chapter, the apostle Paul tells of the goodness of the grace of God and how it overcomes the inner battle we have with our sin nature. The way it does that is to make us aware that we do not have to worry about trying to do good.
We just give ourselves to God and he takes up the slack in our lives by making us dependent on him, not our own performance. He ends by saying that we are children of God and, as such, heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ. If we suffer with him, we will also share in his future glory.
Suffering is not a pleasant thought, nor is it something we want to do. However, we follow a man who suffered and died for what he believed in. If we want to follow him, we have to be prepared for suffering (Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted 2 Timothy 3:12).
But we also have to realize that what little suffering we do here is nothing compared with the glory that he has waiting for us. There is no comparison.
That glory is what all creation has been working toward from day one. When we immerse ourselves in that glory, suffering and all, we overcome everything this world can throw at us.
We not only conquer, we more than conquer. Our conquest goes into the next world.
Our conquest is based on the fact that God will love us forever, that nothing can come between us and his love, not even ourselves. We live this short life for him, and gain eternity as our reward.
SOME QUESTIONS ON THIS PASSAGE FOR YOUR OWN PRIVATE STUDY;
1. Suffering is no fun, everybody knows that. But when it happens to us here on earth, it is happening at the center of our world. After all, we all feel things that happen to us more than things that happen to others. How does the comparison to future glory make suffering better?
2. V19-22 – Paul uses childbirth labor pains to give us an idea of what the coming of Jesus and grace is like. Why do you think he did that?
3. How is the creation liberated from bondage to decay? What does that mean?
4. What do you think it means to groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons? Do you ever feel that yourself?
5. What are the firstfruits of the Spirit?
6. How do you think hope can save somebody? All of us hope for stuff. Or is that the same kind of hope?
7. Have you ever felt the Spirit helping you pray? How does he do that? Is that the same as praying in tongues?
8. V28 – Does that mean that everything that happens to us is good? Sickness, premature death, financial ruin, rape, other tragedies – how can God work those for good? Why doesn’t he just remove them?
9. V29 – What do you think it means to be predestined? The Calvinists say that your salvation is predetermined before you are born. Is this the same thing?
10. The Universalists say that God loves us too much to ever condemn us to hell, that everybody will be saved in the end. Does the everlasting love of God mean that he will save us anyway, no matter what we do?
11. What do vv38-39 mean to you?
some thoughts on romans 8:1-16
Romans 8:1-16: Life and Glory Through the Spirit
Chapter seven ended with a depressed man who had done everything he could to do what God wanted of him. He tried hard to be good. But the harder he tried, the worse he did. He ends up saying, What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (7:24-25)
He does show a glimmer of hope, though, with his thanks to God through Jesus. He recognizes and wants to tell us that there is something better than trying to do what is right all by yourself: the grace of God.
In chapter 8, the depressed man begins with the fact that when we are in Jesus and his grace, we do not have condemnation. We are not saved nor lost by what we do. We are saved or lost by who we are. If we are in the grace, we are saved. If we are not, we are lost. It is grace that saves us, not our own strength. If it is up to us, life is depressing in our futility. But in Jesus it is joy.
Grace takes up the slack. It enables us to do what we want to but are unable to do because of our weakness. It is divine strength.
SOME QUESTIONS ON THIS PASSAGE FOR YOUR OWN PRIVATE STUDY;
1. V1 What does that mean that there is no condemnation? Does that mean we cannot do any wrong?
2. What about when we feel condemned ourselves, in spite of what God says? (cf 1 John 3:20-22)
3. If the law was so powerless, why do you think God put so much emphasis on it? Even in v4, he says the righteous requirements of the law must be fully met in us?
4. V5 How do you have your mind set on what the Spirit desires? What do you think that means exactly?
5. V7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. How is the sinful mind hostile? Is it a conscious decision or a lifestyle or what?
6. Why can the sinful mind not submit to God’s law?
7. There is a matter of control mentioned here a bunch of times. Why is the issue of control so important?
8. There is also a matter of mindset. How does mindset work in our Christian lives?
9. V12 says we have an obligation. What is the obligation? Why would he put it that way? Doesn’t that sound a lot like duty?
10. How does that Spirit of sonship work?
11. Abba means Daddy in Aramaic. What does this kind of relationship look like to you? Can we really have that kind of relationship with God?
12. The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children? How do you feel that work in your own life?
13. How are we co-heirs with Christ if we are subject to him?
14. Can you share in his glory if you never really suffer?
Chapter seven ended with a depressed man who had done everything he could to do what God wanted of him. He tried hard to be good. But the harder he tried, the worse he did. He ends up saying, What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (7:24-25)
He does show a glimmer of hope, though, with his thanks to God through Jesus. He recognizes and wants to tell us that there is something better than trying to do what is right all by yourself: the grace of God.
In chapter 8, the depressed man begins with the fact that when we are in Jesus and his grace, we do not have condemnation. We are not saved nor lost by what we do. We are saved or lost by who we are. If we are in the grace, we are saved. If we are not, we are lost. It is grace that saves us, not our own strength. If it is up to us, life is depressing in our futility. But in Jesus it is joy.
Grace takes up the slack. It enables us to do what we want to but are unable to do because of our weakness. It is divine strength.
SOME QUESTIONS ON THIS PASSAGE FOR YOUR OWN PRIVATE STUDY;
1. V1 What does that mean that there is no condemnation? Does that mean we cannot do any wrong?
2. What about when we feel condemned ourselves, in spite of what God says? (cf 1 John 3:20-22)
3. If the law was so powerless, why do you think God put so much emphasis on it? Even in v4, he says the righteous requirements of the law must be fully met in us?
4. V5 How do you have your mind set on what the Spirit desires? What do you think that means exactly?
5. V7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. How is the sinful mind hostile? Is it a conscious decision or a lifestyle or what?
6. Why can the sinful mind not submit to God’s law?
7. There is a matter of control mentioned here a bunch of times. Why is the issue of control so important?
8. There is also a matter of mindset. How does mindset work in our Christian lives?
9. V12 says we have an obligation. What is the obligation? Why would he put it that way? Doesn’t that sound a lot like duty?
10. How does that Spirit of sonship work?
11. Abba means Daddy in Aramaic. What does this kind of relationship look like to you? Can we really have that kind of relationship with God?
12. The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children? How do you feel that work in your own life?
13. How are we co-heirs with Christ if we are subject to him?
14. Can you share in his glory if you never really suffer?
do liberals crave a master?
Andrew Thomas wrote an article in americanthinker.com that was titled Do Liberals Crave A Master? It is a very good article. It starts off with:
“Contemporary liberals, having abandoned the belief in God-given inalienable rights, masochistically crave a worldly master. This master is a sadistic god-substitute who will provide the stern discipline needed to force economic equality and "fairness" by requiring painful sacrifices and bestowing government-created rights onto obedient and acquiescent groups of left-leaning masochists.”
I was thinking that after watching the celebs cozy up to Chavez from Venezuela and Castro and almost worship them, and Woody Allen talking about how nice it would be if Obama were emperor, I think I believe that liberals are desperate for a master.
They have given up God and need someone or something to take his place. Environmentalism is filling that void for some.
The problem is that God made us with a void that can only be filled with him. Liberals are miserable because they have tried to fill that void with everything else.
The things they fill it with are satisfying for the moment but they soon realize that they are empty calories.
It is really like being hungry and eating some Twinkies. For the moment, they are fine, but the hunger is still there. The programs and all feel fine for the moment, but in the long run, they do not fill the hole.
And the knowledge that others do not share their love for these is infuriating because it shows the emptiness for what it is. They see in others the emptiness and instead of admitting it themselves, they castigate the “non-believers.”
They are desperate for a master who is capable of leading them to a promised land. The problem comes when they do not know what the promised land is, nor do they know how to get there or what to do when they do get there.
On top of it all, the leaders have feet of clay and disappoint them with their lack of long-term leadership ability. They find that there is no purpose in life and no one to show them how to get a purpose in the long run.
A sad group of people, denying themselves the pleasures of life in the name of environmentalism or health, trying to deny others those same privileges and miserable anyway.
The comment section had some interesting additions. One of the comments said: “1 Samuel 8:6 ... Give us a king to judge us ... The outcome of all this 'lusting' for a leader will be ... slavery.”
Another said: “Leftists do crave a strong authoritarian leader. They love Castro, Chavez, and other commie leaders, and thousands of them traveled to communist countries to adore the strong man there. Leftists flock to Obama as their "leader". Just why this is I will not guess, but I do know that people who want to be told what to do are not good members of a society ruled by the people.”
Thanks to Dave Carter in ricochet.com for bringing it up. He was writing about something else, but the article he mentioned really hit me.
“Contemporary liberals, having abandoned the belief in God-given inalienable rights, masochistically crave a worldly master. This master is a sadistic god-substitute who will provide the stern discipline needed to force economic equality and "fairness" by requiring painful sacrifices and bestowing government-created rights onto obedient and acquiescent groups of left-leaning masochists.”
I was thinking that after watching the celebs cozy up to Chavez from Venezuela and Castro and almost worship them, and Woody Allen talking about how nice it would be if Obama were emperor, I think I believe that liberals are desperate for a master.
They have given up God and need someone or something to take his place. Environmentalism is filling that void for some.
The problem is that God made us with a void that can only be filled with him. Liberals are miserable because they have tried to fill that void with everything else.
The things they fill it with are satisfying for the moment but they soon realize that they are empty calories.
It is really like being hungry and eating some Twinkies. For the moment, they are fine, but the hunger is still there. The programs and all feel fine for the moment, but in the long run, they do not fill the hole.
And the knowledge that others do not share their love for these is infuriating because it shows the emptiness for what it is. They see in others the emptiness and instead of admitting it themselves, they castigate the “non-believers.”
They are desperate for a master who is capable of leading them to a promised land. The problem comes when they do not know what the promised land is, nor do they know how to get there or what to do when they do get there.
On top of it all, the leaders have feet of clay and disappoint them with their lack of long-term leadership ability. They find that there is no purpose in life and no one to show them how to get a purpose in the long run.
A sad group of people, denying themselves the pleasures of life in the name of environmentalism or health, trying to deny others those same privileges and miserable anyway.
The comment section had some interesting additions. One of the comments said: “1 Samuel 8:6 ... Give us a king to judge us ... The outcome of all this 'lusting' for a leader will be ... slavery.”
Another said: “Leftists do crave a strong authoritarian leader. They love Castro, Chavez, and other commie leaders, and thousands of them traveled to communist countries to adore the strong man there. Leftists flock to Obama as their "leader". Just why this is I will not guess, but I do know that people who want to be told what to do are not good members of a society ruled by the people.”
Thanks to Dave Carter in ricochet.com for bringing it up. He was writing about something else, but the article he mentioned really hit me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)