I just thought

Righteousness and freedom

2010-07-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Righteousness and freedom are intractably, inextricably linked. The popular notions of these concepts are disingenuous to the point that some work in definitions will be necessary before the link can be clearly seen.
Righteousness is the state of being in right relation with an external standard. The only external standard worth following is the highest standard, God. The common understanding of righteousness as either following a set of rules or attempting to coerce others to follow a set of rules is plainly inadequate and diabolical. God as Creator seeking the highest good of all sets the standard as unconditional love. In our aspect of being external to God we are objects of this love and observers of the most ostentatious display of good will. As emanations of God and inseparable from His being we are part of God, part of the celebration of love. Right relation, righteousness, is accepting instead of fighting this principle of the universe, love.
Freedom is the ability to choose. Every discrete intelligence seeks its own highest good. The question is, is our conception of our highest good congruent with reality? The concept of freedom has attracted some parasites. Things like materialism, patriotism, and environmentalism have attempted to conflate themselves with freedom. But it can never be as simple as an –ism because the ability to choose the highest good for an individual must be a unique set of values. Reality is unique to the perceiver. The highest good for God is to seek the highest good for His creation. Our highest good is found in that.
God created everything, sustains everything, is always present everywhere and God loves. As expressions of the divine personality we have freedom to say no to God, no to love because without freedom righteousness isn’t right. Where freedom is used to pursue notGod it devolves into dependencies, becomes slavery.
Freedom and Righteousness are not principles, because principles are drawn from a source. Freedom and Righteousness are a person, The Person. They are The Source. Since they are one and God is one they are intractably, inextricably linked.

National Day of Prayer vs. the Freedom From Religion Foundation

2010-05-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

JP - I just looked at the ffrf (freedom from religion foundation) website and contrary to c's assertion it looks like not just people who don't want to be bothered by religion but rather it portrays a group dedicated to removing religion from every aspect of society using any possible means including lawsuits, pressuring public officials, satire, mockery, historical revisionism, subject conflation and outright falsehoods. That said, I thank God for ffrf and the attention they have brought to the NDoP (National Day of Prayer). Finally, in a sense, religion is what you do consistently or to put it another way, religiously. Thus we all have a religion. A religion of purposeless meaningless no-reason for existence may justify inherent selfishness but just ask yourself if the religion of no-reason is really satisfying intellectually, philosophically or personally. We all search for the biggest thing in universe. The theist answer is God. The atheist answer is self. The practical outworking of believing that I am the most important thing is evident in the disintegration of society.

SP - But isn't God all powerful? If society is disintegrating, isn't God allowing it? Maybe it's what he wants.

JP - God's power is not reduced by his patience.
Not stopping something is not the same as wanting it to happen.
The stop-think employed by SP is Orwellian.

SP - Then what is God actually doing?

JP - He is patient, hopeful and kind. Patiently hoping that men and women will let Him give them rest. The rest of a clean conscience. Rest from guilt. He is kind enough to give good things even to those that hate Him. The sun and rain, freedom, choice, minds to think with, all come from Him, given out of kindness even when none is returned.

SP - Yes, but what about the bad things, why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people?

JP - God's point of view is eternity therefore what He considers evil can vary significantly from what we consider evil. Every inconvenience and thwart to our will can feel evil but can actually be for our ultimate good or could just be because stuff happens and we're not the center of the universe. His purpose is our highest good and that can vary significantly from our perceived good. This is the sticking point, to trust or to revile? If it helps, any God worth the name has to be bigger than we can understand.

SP - So we don't know what God considers evil, and he's bigger than we can understand, so why pray to him? Or worship him? Why would he care?

If his plan is already decided then it doesn't matter what we do, because that's what was going to happen anyway.

JP - God's purpose is our highest good. To that end He gave us free will. The inexorable abuse of that gift was also covered by Jesus' death in our place. The ball (sorry calvinists) is in our court. To accept that, though we don't deserve it, God has gone to great lengths to enter into relationship with us or to reject the possibility of relating to the eternal, omnipotent, immanent, holy God. Simple curiosity should lead us to at least ask if this is possible.

SP - But how do you know that Christianity is right and say, Islam, is wrong? There are clearly some contradictions between the two.

JP - I'm not an islamic scholar so if I'm gravely mistaken I apologize but as I understand it Islam basically says that if you are really good and do things right you might get to heaven. In contrast, Christianity states that no one is good enough but God would rather die (cross) than leave us that way therefore not because of anything we do or don't do we can have forgiveness and enter into relationship with Him.

Constitutional commentary

2010-05-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

The constitution was written to detail the limited powers of the federal government. The intent was to proscribe the actions of politicians and justices never to limit the freedom of citizens. The bill of rights was a controversial addendum precisely because it muddied the intent of the document by addressing rights of citizens rather than limits of government. The bill of rights was never intended to limit the free actions of people, rather it delineates, as examples, the sorts of things that the federal government is not allowed to stick its nose into.
Philosophically, in exchanges between divergent powers the more powerful gives to the less. The constitution empowers citizens by making them the grantor of limited authorities to the federal government. Which granting also means that upon these authorities abuse they can be revoked. The common misconception of the government as a grantor of certain liberties is exactly what the framers were trying to get away from. Let us please have no more talk about constitutional rights, since the idea is upside down. Let us rather speak about renewing our commitment to limiting the power of the juggernaut that once was and ought to be our, the people's, servant.

I didn't write this, but I wish I had

2010-04-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

The fewer the laws and the more clear and simple they are the less liberty is violated. All laws do violence to liberty, they are straight lines in a world where none exist. Both crime and the laws to deal with crime compromise liberty. When the laws do more violence to liberty than the crimes they prevent we have a dysfunctional government.

Today we have a government so dysfunctional we have laws written not to prevent crime but to create crime out of liberty itself.

“With liberty and justice for all” is an ideal better kept simple and imperfect. The only reason to improve justice is to enhance overall freedom. But we seek to perfect justice for it’s own sake freedom be damned.

Tyranny is justice thus perfected to the end the laws are repugnant not only to the ideals of freedom but to freedom in practice. The people have forgotten what government is supposed to be and what it is supposed to do.

Our modern quest for justice is not a noble quest. We seek to bring about less accountability and less responsibility by feeding on the fortune and freedom of our countrymen. A form of cannibalism of the spirit. A self deluding narcotic convincing us our safety and security is assured of only we as a people were not free.

All freedom is dangerous. Especially the freedom of others. Whenever a law is found lacking to intervene and prevent the least slight we enjoin our public servants to produce the remedy with yet another law. We are destroyed by laws. We destroy each other with laws. All injustice is intolerable and freedom is the first suspect in every crime real or invented.

It is an exercise in cowardice and petty power. Our public servants invite us to the feast of our neighbors. The laws they write are our forks and knives with which we carve out our share and ever more as we are able. We drink each other’s blood and devour each other’s flesh in an orgy of control. With unanimous consent we eagerly sacrifice our own liberty to take part in the consumption of America and her future.

Not Forsaken

2010-04-09T05:46:00.001-07:00

The majesty of mountains, the power in the sea, and the glory in a sunrise are all reflections of their Creator, and surety of His immanence. The care a new mother lavishes on her babe, the patience of a father with his toddler learning to walk, the love between a couple engaged to be married all reflect relationship in God and from God to man. Every day in thousands of ways we are surrounded by God. Even the most unrepentant, sinful, evil man has been cradled each day of his life in reminders of his Creator’s care and patience. We have never ever been forsaken.

There is one who was forsaken. He hung upon the cross and worse than any physical pain was the excruciating agony of a total separation from the Father that no living man has ever endured. The complete rejection suffered by Christ was exactly the punishment justice demanded from me. The pain of losing even the memory of beauty is what my choices and actions deserve. That Jesus would volunteer to suffer that for me, in my place, to save me from this fate is the greatest miracle. There is no adequate response to this.

We ought to be awestruck, but too often we have forsaken, ignored and marginalized the duty we owe to so great a grace. We have been unrepentant, sinful and evil. It shocks us to read of the soldiers who spit upon and beat Jesus. On the contrary, it ought not to shock, it ought to chagrin, for we are guilty of worse. They mocked without knowledge but we express contempt for the call of righteousness knowing full well the power of the resurrection. Those soldiers will stand in judgment and condemn us.

We live in a time of enervating hyperbole. We are so constantly deluged by over the top messages that we automatically take a notch or two of importance out of everything that vies for our attention. We must not do that with the message of God’s grace. I use strong language in describing our depravity and the contrasting grace and glory of God but even the most superlative verbiage falls short as a forty watt bulb used to model the sun. We should meditate on these things and allow a view from lofty heights to fill us with the mystery of the ineffable until it becomes a refuge of transcendence for our souls as we navigate the muck of daily life. Every time we hear, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” it should shake us to the core. Let us continually ask for hearts of flesh to replace the stony hearts we have tolerated too long.

Sola

2010-03-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

Is man a morally responsible agent with the ability to choose or predestined by eternal omniscience with only an appearance of free-will? This is obviously biting off more than I can chew but I think a few comments might not be too dangerous.

Since God is omniscient and omnipotent and desires all men to come to repentance how can we reconcile the fact that not all men will come to repentance? One point of view says that since God’s will cannot be thwarted it must be God’s will that only the elect will come to repentance. This slights the explicit statements of Jesus that God is not willing that any should be lost. On the other hand the view, that because God is not willing that any be lost God will eventually save everyone, denigrates the many statements in the NT that show that many people will not come to repentance but be eternally lost. Additionally, both views could lead to a sense that evangelism is not required or necessary which is directly opposed to Christ’s command to make disciples everywhere teaching them to obey everything He commanded us.

If then, a pure predestination view is unsatisfactory what part does the free-will of men play? First, let us understand that no act of human will can remove sin. In fact, we are assured that our will cannot turn toward God at all without the prevenient work of the HS. Our will did not figure in creation. There is in fact only one place where the will of man becomes visible, disobedience. What does it mean that man disobeyed God? Is it really about an apple? Isn’t the apple and all the following misery really about disbelief? God said, “don’t”, but man said, “I don’t believe you.” This is the essence of the problem thus the answer to the problem is belief.

All the things that we mess up by saying no to God, God went to extraordinary lengths to set right. Jesus became the propitiation to God becoming not only our priest but the very gift upon the altar. He provided every necessary thing to bridge the gap between us and Him, even the power to cross the gap. He redeemed us out a slavery we had sold ourselves into. The Father justified us declaring us righteous via the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. The only act of will we contribute is the smallest nod of assent. Which tiny act is itself only possible by the power of the HS, an act so small it’s as if God filled in the Grand Canyon and I added a teaspoonful of dirt on the top and thus claimed that I had a part in God’s work. And I surely did, for otherwise I had no part. This indication of belief suffices to bring the mighty works of God to bear on the believer’s life.

An objection to this is that it is unconscionable that human will should thwart Divine will. Does it impugn the omnipotence of God if human wills can resist His will? No, just as it takes nothing away from a strong man to be gentle with a baby, God’s forbearance and gentleness with men does not lessen or contradict His power. It is not and never could be that any one has the ability to resist God but he condescends to allow our will, infinitely miniscule by comparison to His, to impact our eternal destiny. As C.H. Spurgeon said, “Since expiation is made, God is able to forgive without shaking the foundation of His throne.”

What can I do?

2010-03-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

You're my summer day
Warm air
Soft breezes
You brought light
When my whole world was gray
But everyday has its end
We go to dream
As night decends
And every night I dream
I dream about you

What can I do?
I'm in love with you

The little birds that sing so sweetly
They sing a chorus that tells completely
All the things my heart is longing to
Your're the one with whom I share
The ups and downs
My joy and care
'Cause life's not life
If you're not there

What can I do?
I'm in love with you

How is this possible?

2010-03-12T14:47:00.001-08:00

A man sits on the steps of a courthouse with his face in his hands. A stranger approaches and engages him in conversation.
Stranger – Are you here to see the judge?
Man – (glumly) I’ve just seen him.
Stranger – How did it go?
Man – I was found guilty of burglary
Stranger – Have you been sentenced?
Man – (nodding) The judge said I have to pay restitution and a fine. I don’t have any money. I can’t pay it.
Stranger – What happens if you don’t pay?
Man – (sighs resigned) I will go to jail. (looks closely at the stranger) Say, you look familiar, do I know you?
Stranger – No, we’ve never met.
Man – (insisting) I’ve seen your face before.
Stranger – Well, you probably saw my picture.
Man – Where? Are you famous?
Stranger – No, I’m not famous but there are several pictures of me in my dad’s house, (emphasizing) my house.
The man is silent, stunned, the stranger continues.
Stranger – But you know, you have met my dad. He’s the judge.
The man jumps up.
Man – (startled, blustering) What do want? I told you I don’t have any money!
Stranger – Will you stop robbing people?
Man – What?
Stranger – Will you stop robbing people?
Man – Well, there’s no one to rob in jail.
Stranger – You don’t have to go to jail.
Man – I can’t pay the fine, the judge said I would go to jail.
Stranger – I already paid the fine.
Man – (Taken aback) Wait, what? But it was your house I broke into!
Stranger – I know.
Man – What do you want?
Stranger – I want to turn your life around.
Man – Why did you pay my fine?
Stranger – I want to turn your life around.
Man – I don’t know how to. I don’t have anywhere to go or any money. I’ll just wind up stealing again and I’ll wind up in jail sooner or later.
Stranger – Is that what you want?
Man – No, of course not but…
Stranger – Will you accept my help?
Man – Why would you help me?
Stranger – That’s just the way we are.
Man – Huh? We?
Stranger – My father and I
Man – Your father? But he’s the judge! He sentenced me to pay or go to jail but…but you…
Stranger – Paid your fine.
Man – I don’t understand.
Stranger – My father is perfectly just so he had to find you guilty and sentence you.
Man – But you paid my fine, (pause) how come your so nice when your dad’s so mean?
Stranger – (laughing) He’s the one who sent me to pay the fine.
Man – Now I’m really confused.
Stranger – No, now you are starting to get unconfused.
Man – What?
Stranger – Come to my house, dad wants to meet you.
Man – But I…
Stranger – The fine is paid, we forgive you, come on.
Takes the man by the arm
Man – How is this possible?
Both exit.

freedom

2010-03-10T15:35:00.001-08:00

The concept of freedom is a popular theme. It sells records and garners votes but what is it really and how does one get it? If freedom is anything, it is the opposite of dependency. Anything that we find necessary limits our freedom. Requirements for air, water and food are all physical dependencies. We also have many psychological and emotional dependencies. We find so many things we have to have. No wonder that yearning for freedom is a common human theme.

Where does the idea of independence come from if all experience is wrapped in layered dependencies? The concept of a being that transcends all experience and exists without dependency is unreasonable because it is contrary to experience, unless such a being exists. It follows that the desire to be free is also unreasonable if there is no possible fulfillment for the desire. Grant then, a being that is independent, self-existent, the ideal we yearn for.

Freedom cannot be accrued it can only be given. Any attempt to take freedom displays dependency on whoever it is taken from. Freedom can be given in the form of service that allows others to be independent. Since it cannot be taken, required or coerced without becoming dependency and can only be given from one who has to one who has not, the giver is necessarily more free than the receiver.

What is the point of freedom? Why should it be qualitatively better than dependency? The point is life. If we were free from having to eat we would have life without being dependent on food. It would not be possible to remove all dependencies since we are created rather than self-existent. It turns out however that all our real requirements for existence are supplied from the same source as our very existence. The one self-existent gives life and all needed to sustain it. It is possible to reduce our dependencies to a single point thus becoming as free as possible in this human life.

Our bread

2010-03-04T17:02:00.001-08:00

During the temptation in the wilderness Jesus rebuked the devil, “Man shall not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” I don’t want to be too pedantically literal but I would like to share a couple thoughts on a single word that proceeded from Christ. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray he gave them a prayer that starts with the words, “Our Father.” The word “our” in this context speaks to the unity of the church in prayer it also speaks to our position in Christ. Since Jesus died for us He is our priest before God, our intercessor. To stand alone before the awful majesty would be more than mortal man could bear but God is gracious and gives us Jesus who as the firstborn from the dead goes into the presence ahead of us and stands with us where alone we could not stand. Additionally, the word “our” reminds us of God’s triune nature. Jesus stands with us, the Spirit empowers us and our Father hears us. In one word “our” Jesus brings us into contact with the fullness of the Godhead.

During the temptation in the wilderness Jesus rebuked the devil, “Man shall not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Many have made much of the fact that Jesus had been fasting for forty days when this temptation occurred, prosaically observing that Jesus was tempted to satisfy a legitimate need in a wrong way. That is part of what was going on but there is more to the story. The devil believes that existence is about power and having more of it than anyone else. Anyone who could turn rocks into bread could feed the nations and make them all dependent on him thus accruing all the power in the world. In one sense Jesus came to rescue us from the devil’s power and here was the devil offering to give Him what he came to earth for and all without the cross. What Jesus knew was that physical bread satisfies one need but not the need we really needed Him for. Physical bread preserves physical life but we have physical life. We need spiritual bread to give us spiritual life and this is Jesus himself, the Bread of Life. And just as physical bread is broken in the eating of it, the Bread of Life had to broken on the cross to be efficacious in restoring life to us. Jesus is also the Word, He is the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God and by Him we live.

independence

2010-02-28T21:52:00.000-08:00

Air is a marvelous thing. It carries the life giving oxygen in a mostly benign soup of atmosphere. It flows in and out with the expansion and contraction of my diaphragm usually without conscious thought. How sad it would be if it left. Actually, I would only be sad for a few minutes before the blackness closed over. Air is a thing that although I take it for granted I am absolutely dependent on it.

In general we don’t like to think about the things we are dependent on. When we stop to think it through there are so many of them like water, food, heat, and light that are necessary to life and so many more that make up quality of life like health, love, money, entertainment, education and on and on that it can make you feel a little helpless.

Despite our multitude of dependencies, we have, we all have, an independent streak or at least we like to think that the systems we depend on we also contribute to. Unfortunately most of these systems would be just fine without us.

C.S. Lewis pointed out that in this universe where I find a desire I also find a corresponding answer. Where I hunger, I find food. Where I thirst, I find water. It seems incongruous to say that where I crave independence I find an entirely dependent mechanistic cosmos void of meaning. If independence is required and I don’t find it in myself (and I don’t) it must exist somewhere.

An independent entity would have no prerequisites for its existence. It would not require air or water. It need have no evolutionary ancestor. It would be without beginning because everything that begins has a precursor and this “Beginningless Independence” would not be itself if it had. It would be all-knowing and all powerful, perfect in every way. It would bear a mighty resemblance to God.

If God is the only independent being and I find in myself, highly dependent creature that I am, a need for independence then I conclude that what I seek is God himself.

Given that what I need is God and His independence any activity, attitude, thought or speech whereby I seek to make myself independent without Him is equivalent to seeking to make myself god. This most ancient treachery in many forms is the heritage of the race. Its continued utter failure notwithstanding we fight and we fight to make ourselves the center thus missing out on fulfillment of our basic needs.

I urge you as I urge my own treacherous heart, give yourself over to dependence on Him who alone has true independence and discover that so many idolatrous dependencies fall away like impurities in a furnace.

Ski day

2009-12-05T04:35:00.001-08:00

Glistening snow slides by under our skis. Happy chatter from my son and daughter breaks the quiet in the spruce and pine forest. My wife admires the perfectly blue sky, robin’s egg blue without even a hint of cloud. We are seriously inexpert on the narrow cross-country skis we’ve rented and the gentle downhill slope leads to several hilarious falls. Eventually, we come out of the woods and ski past a lift that is taking downhill skiers and snowboarders up the mountain. We continue downhill on a track that we have to ourselves, meeting only one group on snowshoes. The track takes us to a lake that is mostly frozen. The more open area around the lake allows the wind to remind us that we are playing in winter’s domain. At the dam side of the lake our track ends. The return trip is uphill and much warmer work. We quickly shed hats and open jackets. Mostly the slope is gentle enough to ski up. We pass the snowshoe group and the ski lift before arriving at the steepish hill where we get a lesson in how to herringbone up. It’s a little tricky and several more falls result but the soft snow makes it all fun. Back at the car our awakened appetites lend zest to our sandwiches. Tired but happy we drive down the mountain.

Oo’re the Britons?

2009-11-16T16:39:00.001-08:00

In Arthurian legend the king was the center of justice. His right to administer justice was upheld by his chivalry and nobility. Chivalry was a code of courtesy that recognized the importance of every member of society. It upheld honor and promoted equality. The nobility of the king did not accrue to him from ancestry but rather from action. The king’s acts were noble and thus the king was noble.

Knights and Lords were at the top of feudal society but if they were not to be tyrants they had to be cognizant that their lofty position was on the backs of many other portions of society. To consider a person is partly to scrutinize and partly to be considerate of. The lord of the manor had to consider the gardener and demonstrate understanding of their relative positions by considerate behavior. The gardener may not have a title but the lord eats from his labor. Knowing this is part of what is meant by chivalrous and noble.

One part of society that had to be considered, and thus to be considerate of, was the church. The nobles held their position upon the sufferance of the church. Not directly, of course, directly they were responsible to the king. The king was responsible to the church by the fact that if the church declared him or the country anathema then other kings and countries and even internal lords could count on the support of the church in attacks, usurpations, uprisings and the like. For the king to remain under the grace of the church he had to ensure that his nobles were not angering the church. Thus, a noble that fell afoul of the church might have his place removed by the king.

Another part of society that had to be considered was the merchants. The king was responsible for the wealth of the nation. Building wealth required strong trade. The king could levy taxes and impose tariffs but if these interfered with trade the merchants would just relocate to places with better conditions and the country would suffer. High taxes could reduce the number of markets. Fewer markets would lead to high cost of doing business and low prices. The farmers, miners, crafters, fishers, etc would simply produce less with a net effect of a poorer country. Increasing poverty and misery was a direct reflection on the king. Showing regard for the merchants was self-interest as well as chivalrous.

All of feudal society ran on the engine of work produced by peasants and craftsmen. A wise king ruled with respect for that fact. The glue of feudalism was fealty, but fealty is a two-edged sword. The peasants owed fealty to local lords who in turn owed fealty to earls and barons who owed fealty to the king. This fealty was due in the form of respect, taxes, and ability to contribute to the mutual defense of the country. If the peasants gave their labor and blood, the king gave every moment to making the country better by leading in war, using taxes wisely, forging relationships with foreign nations and many other sacrifices large and small that comprise the noblesse oblige. The king’s fealty was to every crofter, brewer, tanner, woodsman, farmer, blacksmith, teamster and every other person whose lives were given to making the country work.

Nobility is not bound up in titles. To be noble is to possess the characteristics of nobility such as righteousness, graciousness, decency and dignity. The king who would lead must lead in these aspects of nobility. To the degree the king displays them he can require them of his nobles and subsequently of all his subjects. To be deficient of nobility would deal a blow to the king’s ability to govern by undermining justice in the eyes of the populace. Those eyes see pomp and grandeur as part of their heritage and do not begrudge the cost of spectacle. They also see when lords commit crimes that are glossed over while petty thieves who steal for hunger’s sake are remanded to severe punishment. One inequality strengthens national pride but the other generates bitterness and breeds discontent. If the king’s word is law only equal enforcement of the law upholds the dignity of the crown. When this dignity is upheld it sustains the dignity of all whose allegiance is to king and country.

I started with Arthur because like the legendary king who lived in a land that never quite existed, my description is a sort of ideal conception. The ideal of justice upheld by courtesy and nobility is like Plato’s forms, ephemeral enough to elude becoming solid but solid enough to haunt society’s meta-nous. The search for a leader worthy of veneration is basic to human experience. It is not limited to feudalism or any autocratic government. It goes on in democratic venues as well. It is not isolated to national experience. It happens on large and small stages with wars, votes, sects and rebellions. It very much resembles man’s search for God.

Be still and know that I am God.

2009-11-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

What is it about people that makes them so self-destructive? We all do it. Cheating on a diet, avoiding exercise or playing video games instead of studying are all ways we do the wrong thing and avoid doing the right thing. Why is it that with obvious consequences looming over us we choose a momentary indulgence? Is there a rational basis for this pattern of behavior? What is the mental calculus for self-destructive action? The behaviors labeled self-destructive are apparently irrational but they are carried out by otherwise rational actors. It is plausible therefore that addictions, crimes, destructive relationships and so on are at least perceived as preferable to some alternative course of action. What need is great enough to trick the mind of a married person into cheating when the pain and destruction that will result is so easy to predict? We go to great lengths to avoid pain. The pain that drives us into obviously poor decisions must be terrible. This terrible pain is a great aching emptiness common to all people. Filling it, assuaging it is the primary occupation of the vast majority. Its manifestations are workaholism, anorexia, ennui, shadenfreude, religiosity, racism, environmentalism, and every other attempt to create a sense of value in a senseless, relativistic world. It is a need for meaning that drives junkies, presidents, teachers, preachers and tyrants. The shout into the void is universal. I am here, I matter, I count. We all cry out, hoping for an answer. The scramble to make noise, enough noise to drown out the despair, consumes us. Drama queens and CEOs are equal in the void.

Strangely enough an answer exists. There is a piece that completes the puzzle. The final piece is a creator. With a self-existent creator the world has meaning. Whatever the plan and purpose of the universe is the fact is there is one. Everything that exists was made for a reason. As part of the world, we are each made for a purpose and existence does have a point that is not related to action. Since we are created, it is enough to simply be. Doing may now have many uses but it is utterly unnecessary as a means of answering the emptiness.

Know a man by his friends

2009-11-10T21:18:00.000-08:00

Peter, James and John were apparently Jesus’ inner circle. They were the three who witnessed the transfiguration and they were the three with Jesus in Gethsemane. If birds of a feather flock together what does this suggest about the nature of Jesus?

Peter was impetuous and often fell into gaffes that led to correction from Jesus. However, he was also a natural leader and his boldness was used by God to draw many to Christ. James and John were brothers. Jesus nicknamed them the sons of thunder. They were the ones that requested positions of authority in Jesus’ kingdom. They were not afraid to thrust themselves forward. In later times James became known as The Elder, using his initiative to lead and care for the fledgling church. John became the disciple of love, so known for his deep relationship with Jesus and his care for the church that he is hardly recognizable as the man who argued with the other disciples over who would be the greatest.

Why did Jesus choose these men to form his inner circle? What light does this shed on the nature of Jesus and therefore the nature of God? It tells us that Jesus is a man of bold action. Far from being weak and mild he will overturn tables, heap scorn on religious hypocrites, and shun political power. It tells us that Jesus will claim what is his boldly. He accepted worship, he asserted his uniqueness saying that he is the way, the truth and the life and he used divine prerogative to forgive sins. The three apostles were fishermen. They knew hard labor in all weather, at all hours. In a similar vein Jesus grew up as a carpenter, working hard. In his ministry he often taught and healed till late at night and then rose before sunrise to pray. When his cousin, John the Baptist, was killed he went to be alone but the crowds followed him and he had pity on them because no matter how his grief weighed on him he was moved more by the lost state of the crowd.

We see that the characteristics the apostles possessed, the ones that drew them into simpatico with Jesus, Jesus displayed these characteristics on a perfected scale. He is bold, but without being a respecter of persons. He is meek in the sense of knowing who he is and owning the responsibility of that knowledge. The apostles, as fishermen and then as followers of Christ, knew and lived up to who they were, but for Jesus being meek meant proclaiming himself to be God incarnate. This is not a meekness anyone else could ever have, but Jesus has it perfectly. In the end the apostles found that association with Jesus deepened and perfected the things they naturally shared with Jesus and changed other things inside them to bring them more into alignment with Jesus. This process is a characteristic we all possess to some degree rubbing off on those we associate with. But again, Jesus possesses it perfectly bringing imperfect people who spend time with him, learning from him and of him, into greater alignment with God. The end of this process is identification so close that every action and reaction, every attitude and intent are identical to God himself. Can you imagine?

walk on

2009-11-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

One day I’m gonna go for a walk and not stop. From here to there my feet and I will find out what it means. Sunrise, sunset heel to toe that’s the way, I think. I’ll sleep beneath the stars dreaming of walking. Each day brings a whole new world that only I will see. Just beyond that next hill what’s waiting there, a sweeping vista, a herd of elk, a waterfall or just a comfy rock to rest on? In summer heat on a long dirt road with thirst and a long way to the next town will I regret my wandering feet and think that I should settle down? Get a job and a place to live, a car, a bar, some friends. But that road and this end the same only, what would I miss? A moose in the dusk or a kind stranger maybe are worth more than gold. This wealth I aim to collect in the basket of my memory starting with the day I go for a walk and don’t stop. I’ll walk from here to Canada along the nation’s spine. I’ll take a left and see how many steps it is from there to Oregon. South to the desert and east I’ll go, find myself in Orleans. Maybe then, after I’ve walked around the neighborhood I’ll be ready for a trip. Rio or Santiago might be cool to see. How far could I get on the day that I go for a walk and don’t stop? Walking is how you measure the world, only to find out that the height of everything is five foot seven, just like me. True freedom is found in unconditional commitment, the wise man told me so. I’ll not be free to do or be anything, anything but a walking geist, a locomoting phantom. But in that, free. There’s a lot written about freedom, there’s an awful pile of corpses about freedom, there’s being free or not and I’ll see if amounts to anything on the day I go for a walk and don’t stop.

Global Worming

2009-11-06T15:08:00.000-08:00

Scientists in many countries have discovered that the U.S. is the source of grant money for stupid schemes. In anticipation of the passage of the cap and tax legislation snake oil salesmen are already pimping their plans for orbital mirrors, sprinkler blimps and reforesting the Sahara. Salivating at the sound of money they are ready to save the world from climate change. What I would like to know is who will save us from these primate games. First, there is still no compelling evidence that climate change is happening on a significant enough level to require more than simple adjustments. Accelerated sales of air-conditioning units and maybe a program to provide swimming lessons to Floridians seems to be all that’s required. But consider if there is significant change. New York as the Venice of North America and vast tracts of permafrost covered land made arable by beneficent warmer weather don’t seem to be too unbearable as consequences of living well. But isn’t that the real problem? In the civilized west we live well and many are envious. The envious poor aren’t even the problem. They would be content to imitate us, using capitalist ideas in forwarding industry to bring the blessings of civilization home. No, the problem is those who foment envy in order to move capital from the west to the poor countries damaging both but allowing the opportunity to siphon off wealth for their own ends. The politics of envy are a bad means that for the west ends in less freedom and high taxes. And for the poor countries it furthers the learned helplessness that is the colonial heritage of the give a man a fish crowd. Posing as helpful heralds the prophets of doom profit by letting some of the cash bound for Africa to slip into their pockets. The cash is quickly translated into political influence and buys the media’s fawning support. Science and scientists don’t live on the pedestal public education built them. They are as vulnerable to temptation as any lawyer or politician. It just seems terribly unfair that phrenology should be such a sidelined pursuit while the lumpy headed warmologists benefit from political avarice and public gullibility.

solo gratia

2009-11-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

What price will I put on you? Is there a price I will not pay? Base treachery lurks in my heart and I fear greatly that I will fail. Real fear, justified fear, because I know my weakness. Am I a Thomas? A Judas? You know. You know my heart. Let my heart be clay in your hand, Master Potter. Shape me as you will and save me from the conforming power of the world and the willful waywardness of my heart. Change my mind. Crush me. I fall on you, my rock and embrace the breaking. I want to embrace the cross, to walk with you, to endure rejection, injustice, torture and death, all to be closer to you. I will do as you ask. I will be what you require. You are longing personified. Let me see your face. A word from you is the water I need. Will you be silent and hide your face from me? Isn’t it that you are speaking but my ears are stopped by the noise of the world, that you appear all around me but I am blind. Heal me, you who heals. Feed me Bread of Life. Quench me Living Water. I receive. I believe. Lead me Jesus. Hold my hand. Hide me in the hollow of your hand. My sin is always with me, like sucking mud it traps my faltering steps. How can I ask to be blessed by the presence whose purity would burn my soul to cinder, depraved and impure as I am? Because the cross consumes me, refining like a fire, you stand me up by your strong power because it pleases you to do so.

I am M

2009-11-03T20:18:00.000-08:00

There was a cripple who was the grandson of a deposed king. He lived in a hovel in fear that the new king would find him and kill him for being who he was. One day a messenger from the king appeared at his door. The young man was terrified. He could not run away since his legs were twisted from an accident suffered when he was a baby. He expected to die. The messenger produced a summons. He was to appear before the king.

The next thing that should have happened, chains, humiliation, being transported in a criminal’s cage, didn’t. To his consternation, he was placed in a divan, on soft pillows and carried to the palace like a prince. He couldn’t imagine what to think of this. He was carried into the presence of the king.

Of course he knew about the king, the famous battles, and equally famous songs. An artist, warrior and now king and the young man suspected, soon to be his executioner. What else could be the meaning of all this? Why not just send a soldier to remove this pathetic last vestige of the old regime? Apparently this king wanted to do the job himself, or at least have it done in his presence.

The young man reflected that it was even kind of admirable in this king that he is willing to face the dirty work himself and not just use proxies as so many princes do. Too bad, he thought, that he was the dirty work. The king began to speak to him and his tone made the young man look up from his prostration before the throne.

“You are the last living relative of my friend.” The king said. “I promised kindness to him and his descendants and I will honor that promise.”

The young man nearly fainted, it was lucky he was already lying on the ground. What could be happening? The king ordered a chair be brought for him and when he was seated the king questioned him about his life. Where did he live? How did he live? The young man stammered out answers as best he could from a whirl of disbelief. When the king’s questions were satisfied, the king ordered that family lands be restored to him and wonder of wonders; he ordered that the young man should eat at the king’s table every day!

The young man felt as though he were dreaming and he never wanted to wake up. He understood why the people loved their king. The king was not only a strong king who made the land safe but he was also good. He exercised mercy in justice and kept his word with honor. The young man spent every day at the palace but no matter how long he was there, the wonder of his life and the greatness of the king never left him.

What is within the purview of the church?

2009-11-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

The influence the church is responsible to wield can be conceived in three aspects or levels. In the first sense, the primacy of root causes lends authority to the church for every aspect of life and society. Then again in the sense that the kingdom of God consists of the invisible church the prerogative of the church ends at the figurative doors of the church. Finally, if each decision for Christ is an individual decision, individual development is the extent of church rule.

A tree can be cut back to the root but if the root remains it may grow up again. The problems of men and societies can be attacked from many angles by philosophies, governments and endless isms. These may be more or less successful at trimming back the branches but, the central or root problem facing man is sin. Man is unable to fix this problem without Christ. Since the work of Christ on Earth is accomplished by the church, the church has a responsibility to address every sin and accompanying ill. The havoc sin plays is found in every nook and cranny of lives and in every strata of society. Every place the rot exists is in the purview of the church.

The law never made anyone righteous. In fact the law only puts into high relief the depth of depravity all are in apart from Christ. The Lord does not expect right behavior from pagans. Rather, He told us to teach the world to obey His commands thus bringing them into the Kingdom. The law of any land extends only as far as its borders. The rule of the church is active only in those souls that belong to the Kingdom of God.

The activity of the Kingdom of God is to bring men into right relationship with the Father. The one on one relationship is the whole purview of the church’s writ. The value of an eternal soul cannot be calculated in familiar, earthly terms. Each soul is the whole work of the church because each soul is the whole point of the cross.

In the Kingdom of God there is one authority which has commissioned everyone in the church. As the body of which Christ is the head, the church cares for and by compassion assumes responsibility for all of creation in its fallen state. The bride of Christ bears an onus of chastity to her betrothed. The depravity of the world must not be found in her members. The whole Kingdom of God is present in the Spirit given to every believer and the maintenance of the Kingdom is the maintenance of a clean conscience toward God by each believer.

Happy Samhain

2009-10-29T18:49:00.001-07:00

We are the grass. To the elephants we are fodder. When they fight, whoever wins, we are trampled. In peace, our labor fills their coffers. In war, our bodies fill their coffins. They tell us we are free. I guess that means we are free to work and die while their freedom means they are free from responsibility for their thefts and murders. From sea to shining sea has become one big work camp with only varying levels of liberty doled out according to how well you lick their boots. Work, pay us and shut up is the undertone of every soap opera, sermon, sports event, reality show and news clip poured out on us. It is infoterrorism, dopium produced for us, the grasses.

There is no use throwing off our chains. History shows again and again that revolution doesn’t lead to freedom it only changes which elephants are feeding on us and fills many coffins. There’s no use protesting that one set of chains is easier to bear than another. For the mind enervated by the dream of freedom no chain could ever be acceptable. More oppressive situations can even be better because the hand that grasps so tightly lets more slip through. Heavy chains impress the mind more than light ones. It is the informed but not educated, comfortable but indebted, bled but not to death, disenfranchised by the very construct of empowerment, oppressed but unmotivated to change, middle ground where the horror of half-life, undead, zombielike mere existence finds its’ fullest pallid corpse-stinking flower.

It is possible that the self-deluded living death of Uncle Sam’s sharecroppers is the best possible outcome for the unwashed masses, although that would be a pretty sad commentary on the nature of humanity. Even the tomb builders of Egypt could pity us though we never feel the overseer’s lash on our back, they have a legacy while we have just to consume and consume without end under the mental lash of fear, fear of losing illusory freedom, fear that our oppressors will lose power, fear a fellow slave might have more gilding on his chains. The whole world envies our Mc Mansion and Escalade chains, little suspecting that golden chains are the heaviest kind. Our Pinocchio-like appearance of having no strings attached will be quickly falsified when the world clamors for a place on our stage. And they will not thank us when they have attained what they thought they sought. The engorged chain gang will encircle the globe, caught in a demonic conga of repugnance, driven by hobgoblins wielding whips of political promises and apocalyptic prophecies.

There is no hope in personalities. If a blade springs up from among us it must transform into an elephant to drive the other elephants away and then, will or nil, it tramples and feeds, usually in orgiastic auto-adulatory narcissism. If it should miraculously return to us, the space of breath gained only produces fatter fodder to gorge the inevitably returning elephants. To follow is to die, soon or late. Jim Jones showed mercy in alacrity. Our lifetime legislators, judges, sheriffs, councils, ad nauseam, exhibit no such soft tendency. They squeeze for every drop, all for our good, of course.

The demi-gods of state are mortal. The corpse of the elephant feeds the grass. The grave claims all. Is this what is meant by justice, equity, judgment? The final fraternity is perfectly egalitarian, a smooth lawn indeed with each blade cut down to the root. Our chains chafe raw wounds that suppurate and poison our blood while the knowledge that the powers are powerless is the balm, thin and stinging, given by the parsimonious cosmos.

Why do the gods need protection?

2009-10-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Events exist, to say that one event follows another denotes causation and highlights the determinism inherent in the mechanistic cosmos. The cosmos as mechanism begs the question of utility. The cosmos as a clockwork orange is despairingly unsatisfying.

Time is a construct that allows comparisons. One event follows another but for each ego common events or shared experiences only coincide against the measuring construct. There is no coincidence of experience in the personal event chain. The idea that two persons ever experience the same thing is false since experience is defined by the observer.

If one could grasp the gestalt of all of time and space, his understanding would still be limited because time and space have boundaries. The perfect observer sees all events and places simultaneously from the outside. He sees the miniscule and the whole with perfect resolution and perspective.

Ideals come from attributes. The partial comes from the whole. Reflection has a source. I exist, reflective, partial, idealistic, perceiving, limited, part of the universal machine. I am the embodiment of chaos, a random variable, indeterminate until observed. You who observe, determined, fixed, orderly, who created the universe, unlimited, all knowing, perfect, complete, the source. You alone stand outside time and space and know the end from the beginning.

There is no mercy, no truth, no knowledge of God in the land.

2009-10-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

Treading out the mud for bricks I dance the ancient dance woe, I am weary
My father and his father and his of old tread as I, here by the Nile
One day or many? The sun knows. Each is the same, here in the mud
My body was strong but now, it wastes away
I wish I could go but
Out there in the desert there is sand sand sand

Each step down in the mud could be a step away from here
Tonight I will eat melons and leeks as the mud dries on my heels
The early sun will see I dance the dance aright, just as my father
Dawn comes sooner each day, the gods hate
I wish I could go but
Out there in the desert there is sand sand sand

I dream of milk and honey I dream of figs and vines
A land of my people, forests and seas, mighty cities
Moon, can you see this land from where you are?
What would I see across the desert?
I wish I could go but
Out there in the desert there is sand sand sand

Few enough days I have in the mud toilsome though they are
Away from here, away from the mud there are less days
Under the pitiless sun there are no melons or leeks, out there
My bones are bleached by the very thought
I wish I could go but
Out there in the desert there is sand sand sand

Enough of gods who want and want; they’re a bloodthirsty lot
this new one wants even my aged flesh to immolate on the gritty dunes
this one claims to have known an Abram or Abraham or something
I know the mud, the dance, the melons and leeks, the moon
I wish I could go but
Out there in the desert there is sand sand sand

How many times can I die? In the desert I may desiccate
a belly full of sand, blood boiled away, flesh peeled from bone, darkness
mud I am and going down to it I die every day under the sun
I will to go to Goshen and brave the whirling winds
I wish I could go but
Out there in the desert there is sand sand sand

I’m a runner.

2009-10-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

Runners are strange creatures. Runners are not going out three or four days a week for two or three miles of jogging. No, that’s a jogger. Runners run thirty or forty miles a week to prep for a three mile race. They wear hundreds of dollars of electronics to analyze heart rate, splits, distance, time, VO2, temperature, altitude and calorie consumption. They arrange the songs in their i-pod according to which workout they’re planning. They obsess over training plans, long runs, tempo runs and fartleks. They’ll spend a hundred dollars for shoes they will get rid of in three months.

Runners are addicts. The hardest part of any training plan is not the hard runs or the long runs but the no runs. The most common place for a runner to blow his race is the taper or rest phase just before a race. A twenty mile training run is no big deal but, not running for two whole days in a row will drive a runner crazy.

Runners often look like normal people but, don’t be fooled. They’ve got tape on their nipples and lubricant in places you don’t want to know about. They think ice baths are a good thing, eat salt straight, obsess over little twinges in their muscles but don’t stop running just because they have the flu and it’s snowing out.

The other day I locked myself out of my truck at work. What would a normal person do? I don’t know but, I got a ride home and the next day ran the twelve miles into work with the spare key. This is runner logic. Anything and everything can be an excuse to get a workout in. Like I said, runners are strange creatures.

scared

2009-10-21T15:57:00.001-07:00

What’s the scariest thing in the world? Aliens? Vampires? Zombies? Nuclear war? Terrorism? Most of these aren‘t real but, even the real things we are afraid of don’t have nearly the destructive power of the scariest thing in the world. The thing that keeps me up at night is bureaucratic do-gooders. These are the fastidious, bespectacled, beetle-people who are satisfied when every i is dotted and every t crossed. Without conscience, they follow the law and obey orders, content to allow others to suffer the consequences. They didn’t make the decisions and they won’t carry out the final acts. They just make sure that the paperwork is in order. If the paperwork calls for shipping food to a famine stricken area it had better be filled out correctly or that shipment isn’t going anywhere. If a shipment of arms is headed for a genocidal dictator, so what? All the beetle-man cares about is that block 27b is properly countersigned. It was beetle-men who organized the holocaust. Six million efficient solutions without ever getting their hands dirty.

Our world today has a surfeit of this species. In corporations and governments large and small they are just doing their job filing paperwork. They go home at the end of each day to watch football or go to church after having enabled the abrogation of rights, environmental rapine, and worse. All they care about is that they followed the rules and no consequence will come back to haunt them.

The worst part is that they truly believe that what they do is beneficial. After all, they bring order to chaos, they uphold the law, and they are the wall between civilization and anarchy. They believe in stability and the primacy of the state. Rights, truth, and justice are what the state says they are and that suffices for the beetle-man. When the apocalypse comes they will produce the paperwork that authorized it.

Our national boogie-man du-jour is terrorism. The message that Islamic fundamentalists are out to get us is drummed into us day and night. Frankly, I am more afraid of the IRS than Bin Laden. The Taliban may kill some but the central bankers rob hundreds of millions every day. We fear what affects us little and are lulled by the vampires of state. The balding accountant haunts my dreams in ways Jihadists never could.

The beetle-men have a demonstrated capacity for executing great evil with callous banality but the press of their numbers is really felt in the trivial. There is no lemonade stand they won’t shut down, no absurd code enforcement they won’t pursue. They are the high-handed masters of the miniscule who will demand to see papers allowing you to breathe while smiling in self-satisfied, self-righteous smugness.

They are quislings and boot-lickers. They close their ears to the pleas of the oppressed and jump at the chance to report on their neighbors. They spend tax money like water but only give money for the tax deductions. They are the world’s most pervasive and pernicious evil.

on message

2009-10-19T21:04:00.001-07:00

A messenger is a traveler who goes out from one place to many places bearing news. He goes out and returns after the message is delivered. He goes not of his own will but of the will of the one who sends the message. He goes any distance, in any conditions, for the meaning of messenger is realized only when the message is delivered. The messenger does not create the message and is not responsible for the recipient’s reaction.

Christians, as messengers of the good news about salvation in Christ, are travelers in the world. Their home place, the place they go out from is nowhere on Earth. They go out from the kingdom of God into the kingdom of this world. They go out but they also return. They return to the Word, prayer and fellowship. They return to be refilled with the message they carry.

Their motivation is the command of the message’s Creator. They do not go without his countenance. They go by every means into every land. Wilderness, deserts, jungles, places no other motivation would suffice to compel, they go to, for, that is the recipients address. They dare to go because of the importance of the message they carry. They go because the very meaning of their calling is the transmission of their charge.

They are not the author of their message. They received the message along with the mission to transmit it from the author. They ensure delivery not content. Reactions from hearers may vary. Hearers may be more or less enthusiastic about the contents of the message still the message must be delivered.

Sweet liberty

2009-10-14T17:18:00.001-07:00

Accrual of influence is axiomatically accompanied by corrosion of character. Like an alcoholic who started with just having a good time but ends in desperate need for one more drink, Power hungry men often start with good intentions but end in manic need to gain more and more power. Purported good results could never justify questionable tactics but, when the sought end is power itself really-bad-things become the means.

Consider the life of David, King of Israel, man after God’s own heart, warrior, statesman, poet. By almost any measure a good man. Even this flower of mankind came in time to believe his own press and decided that when the neighboring countries came out to war he was above field commanding and so he stayed home. This is, of course, about the famous story of David and Bathsheba but let’s remember that the first problem was that, having accrued immense influence he succumbed to pride. He believed that the rules were for the people, his subjects. The rules didn’t apply to someone as cool as King David. Other people had a rule that said don’t covet your neighbor’s wife. David had only to send for Bathsheba and he could have anything he wanted. The pregnancy and attempted cover up show the first cracks in the suave façade of Goliath’s Bane. When Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, turned out to be twice the man David was, David had him killed. David killed him but, not with his own hand. No, in the sneaky manner of the powerful he arranged for Uriah to have an unfortunate accident. That this accident took the lives of eighteen other men was unfortunate but at least the job got done. The cover up of adultery took nineteen lives but what are peasants lives compared to a monarch’s reputation? Remember, this was done by one of the best men who ever lived. Power corrupts.

Consider what might not happen when unabashedly selfish powerholics need the resources of a nation to carry forward schemes of unholy alliance between political and commercial interest. The lives of servicemen are no object, the lives of civilians are similarly expendable, as long as the job gets done and others take the blame. We have been far too tolerant, far too pollyanish in dealing with our elected officials. It is time to call a spade a spade. Healthcare reform, cap and trade, bailouts, everything proposed by the current administration is as naked a power grab as the policies enacted by the previous administration. That’s right, no mercy for the R’s. The war on terror, department of homeland security, warrantless wiretaps, immigration policy, Faustian deals with global energy corporations and much more have little or nothing to do with helping the American people and almost everything to do with providing a fix for power hungry weasels who never waste a good catastrophe.

It is past time to wake up. Our country is stolen. Arguing about Dems vs. Repubs is worse than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. If we are to establish a country of liberty and democracy it must start with us. It must start with skepticism and a refusal to allow public servants to use public weal for lining the pockets of corporations. No more bailouts. Enact Term limits. No voting on legislation until the exact text of a bill is public knowledge. No sneaky last minute changes.

Finally, I personally vote only for third party candidates, Libertarian, Constitution Party, Independent, Green, what-have-you but, no Ds or Rs. I encourage you to consider doing likewise. It is voting for the lesser of two evils that has got us here. We need to become, once again, a voting public that cares more about principles and less about winning. After all, if you sacrifice your principles to win, did you really win?

Shulammite

2009-10-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

Why would you gaze on the Shulammite
as on the dance of Mahanaim?

The Shulammite is the beloved from the Song of Solomon. She is the sought after, the favored one of the lover. After her rejection of the lover’s overtures she changes her mind and seeks him through the city.

We are the beloved of Christ and too often we reject his advances and find that regret takes us by many narrow byways.

Away from the protection of her lover the Shulammite is ill used by the city guards.

We also suffer needlessly the ravages of sin when we are out of relationship with Christ.

The Shulammite finds her lover in his garden, gathering lilies.

We never have to wonder where Christ has gone. He is always about his father’s business. We find him in quiet places.

She appears before her lover bruised and disheveled with the chorus of friends calling her to come back so that they can stare at her.

Likewise, coming away from the world we appear before Christ beat up, in rags with the world begging us to come back that we may be made sport of.

She asks why they would use her so, comparing herself to the dance of Mahanaim. The dance of Mahanaim is a poetic device referring to the clash of two armies.

A bloody, tragic sight like the clash of two armies or a train wreck is impossible to look away from. We become like a train wreck that people can’t stop staring at when we fall from grace and the world desires to spotlight every bump and bruise that it inflicted upon us.

Without a single comment on her condition the lover spends the next nine verses extolling her beauty.

We may feel like a train wreck. The world may be howling with joy over our ruination. But, as soon as we listen to Jesus he says, “You are beautiful, my beloved.”

time and circumstance

2009-10-08T15:50:00.001-07:00

The ways of time and circumstance are entirely elusive to me. Why should the sweeping tide bring two people together and then randomly sweep them apart? There doesn’t appear to any purpose at all behind triumph or tragedy. The victor and the vanquished find themselves equal in the grave. Each individual appears without purpose, flails about for a time and vanishes again. Many of man’s struggles emanate from pride. There is no more perfect idiocy than pride. Behold the proud amoeba see how it flails its magnificent flagellum. Observe how it devours its neighbors. Watch it die. That is sound and fury signifying nothing. That is man and his pride.

What marvelous tricks we play to wring meaning out of the shadow of shadows. The copious crocodile tears shed in an effort to twist tragedy to political advantage cannot inspire outrage because the potentates are impotent. All the wars and politics on this speck of a planet inspire little more than dolorous humor, and that too is only a passing fancy. What can they mean by it? Do they imagine that if they stack bodies upon bodies they will stand on the heaped gore above the reach of death? Does cancer or plane crash respect wealth and power? Pathetic beyond warranting sympathy is all the useless flailing of humanity.

Pathetic, purposeless, useless, impotent, but extant life revolts reason. Cogito ergo sum. I think therefore I am. So what? Beyond this assertion of my existence I can make no headway at all on the nature of reality. Do amoebas ask why? What’s the point? Is there a purpose? Yet, a sense that there is a purpose is tenacious. It is common to conflate goals with purpose. Goals to pursue are legion but they can be changed, accomplished or missed without ramification to the meaning of existence. On the other hand, the very meaning of existence, to have a point, a use, a reason is purpose.

Possibly, only I exist and everyone in the world is a function of my imagination. Good and bad in the whole world may be only fluctuations in my opinion of existence itself. In this case, moral action and consequence would only affect my self-esteem and all of morality would subsist in self-preservation instinct. I say it may be only instinct because, absent purpose, I find no desire to climb above oblivion. I mean, self-preservation is unreasonable without a purpose yet the ubiquitous search for significance is the search to find purpose. The ubiquitous searchers cannot be purposeless since existence is a function of purpose. Purpose must have existed before my existence.

There is a painting of a pipe with the words, “Ceci n'est pas une pipe” this is not a pipe. This is perfectly true, it is only a painting not a pipe. On the walls of my mind hang the words, “Ceci n’est pas une vie” this is not a life. I know that it is true that an infinitely small mote of awareness floating in a vacuum is not a life, but how do I know this? How can those words be there? How could I conceive of life if all of life is only in my head? This knowledge has no apparent source. There is nothing in reason or experience to indicate it. This knowledge suggests external existence. It suggests that there may be an I, that is not I.

This ‘I that is not I”, this ‘other’, managed to plant a clue to his existence on the island of my awareness. This feat is not duplicated by any acquaintance or relation who could all be mere imagination. The other resists being relegated to figment and must be powerful indeed, for he managed a trick I cannot do. He communicated beyond himself with the awareness of having done so. The closest I ever came to this was a mere shout into the void with the hope, but no conviction, that there was some other to hear. Does that sound ego centric? It should. Reason requires an object to reason about. It taught me nothing until I admitted my own unreasonable existence and it took me no further until I found the imprint of the other. There is the undeniable existence of two persons, myself and the other. The other has at least one less limitation than I do. The other knew of me and communicated to me. I could never have posited his existence let alone attempted to communicate. I could only discover the communication and finding it decide what to do about it.

Action and reaction, contact, is required for perception. The other initiated, so let us refer to him now as the Initiator. How does one point of awareness reciprocate contact in what, only moments ago, was a metaphysical vacuum? I don’t know how the Initiator contacted me and I can’t duplicate his trick of leaving an imprint. I don’t know if he is close or far or what direction he may be. As one lost in darkness, I cry out in the echoing hall of consciousness, and wait. I wait because without further contact perception remains miniscule. Another thing occurs, the Initiator, he may also be the purpose.

Now we go off the edge of the map. With only one thin edge of undeniable impression to cling to I must attempt to distinguish Initiation from imagination. In this is a clue. Messages I find unimaginable may be from outside, from the Initiator. A second clue is that purposes outside myself, reasons, not goals, may be from the purpose that precedes my existence.

If there is such a thing as reality it exists with this Initiating, Communicating, Purpose. The Purpose is the gravitational center in the metaphysical void. All that reason is powerless to provide, the heat and light of life, comes from this source. In the distinguishing light reason begins. Deduction, extrapolation, comparison are possible in the light of purpose. Now in the light, I ask, to what end? What is the purpose? Strangely, I find that I am the point. Not that I am purpose itself but the point of the purpose is me. The interaction, relationship initiated by the Initiator exists for reciprocation. I reciprocate and the ways of time and circumstance resolve from random to incisive clarity. All the time he was trying to get my attention.

dreams of my fathers

2009-10-06T20:00:00.001-07:00

I have never lived in the America my father and grandfather knew. I was born in ’72 the year of Roe v. Wade. Before that time this country was a land founded on the principle of unalienable rights, among them, life. Before I was born this country asserted the right to live as being granted by the creator and therefore pre-eminent to the law and beyond the needs of society or the environment. I never knew that country.

The country I know does not acknowledge the creator. It worships self, convenience, and materialism. It owns no higher authority than personal opinion. We, my age-group peers and everyone younger, are all survivors of a holocaust. It is not less horrible because the victims have no voices; on the contrary it is worse. It is worse because its victims are innocent. It is worse because the cooperative killers are the doctors who are supposed to be sworn to save lives and mothers whose wombs should be havens but are become abattoirs. Our very lives were threatened from the moment our existence was known. Those of us who escaped the womb are here in the knowledge that many in our society would have killed us for a few bucks, or even volunteered to assist in our extermination.

Being birthed in this hostile environment affects one’s sense of self and one’s esteem of others. If such good and noble people as doctors and mothers can be killers is there any safe place left? We know that we are here not because of respect for the work of the Creator but simply because it was convenient, we were wanted, others were not, that’s all. When we look at society this is our lens and the results are visible in our delaminating culture. The disaffection of gen-x was created by the knowledge that something is wrong, and wanting it made right. The gen-x disaffection is giving way to the next generation that doesn’t know any other way and doesn’t know to ask for change.

The world of kill or be killed is normal to them. There has always been violence in schools but the fisticuffs of yesterday have given way to shootings today. This is survivor mentality. I am alive, that is all that matters. So long as I live no cause outweighs me. Ideas like duty, loyalty, and honor are meaningful as I assign meaning to them, or they are nothing. We are the holocaust survivors, we are our own cause.

2009-10-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says, 'Woe on those who call evil good', but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that:

We ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

We have abused power and called it political savvy.

We have coveted our neighbour's possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honoured values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless the men and women who have been sent by the people, and who have been ordained by you to govern the state. Grant them the wisdom to rule, and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your Son, the Living Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen."

Freedom = I will

2009-09-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

I once read a science fiction story which had as a philosophical base the idea that the essence of liberty is the right of refusal. It was expressed as Freedom =I Won’t (FIW). This freedom expressed in the negative is the ability to avoid or resist external coercive force. In the story a great power was defeated by a much smaller number using the rule, FIW. The great power could destroy but could not subjugate the small but free indigenous population. The locals faced weapons and orders with simple laughter and went about their business with no regard for the nonplussed forces sent to subdue them. The mighty invader, used to being taken seriously, could not formulate an answer to a population that simply refused to respond.

FIW, works as an answer to external tyrants but what about the internal type? It is a given that people act and their actions have motivations. No one is free to do nothing at all. Every action answers some motive. The motive could be elemental as hunger or troublesome as pride but, no one starts free of self.

Freedom from the internal tyrant is the first and only kind of freedom worth having. Consider the life of someone dragged about by every attachment, controlled by every lust, trapped by pride. With no external master he is still very much in servitude to the vilest, most capricious master possible, his own self. The external result may be less or more acceptable, addictions, imprisonments, wealth, intellectual attainments; still all are only window dressing for a life led without restraint. It is a life filled with frustration caused by inability to say no to the internal tyrant.

This terrible condition is the commonest lot of men and its description is a mirror we daily peer into. We are intimately familiar with the face of slavery since it is our own visage. Attempts to deform, deface, and erase the terror of this image drives many actions and is the cause of much suffering. What is the alternative? What is the picture of one who can bring FIW into the darkest recesses of his own psyche? Who can deny himself?

It would be easier to sit in a bucket and lift oneself over the moon by the handle than to pull oneself, by dint of will, out of oneself. What is required is an outside agency. Someone Else, someone who is free in himself and of himself, someone who can lead the way, is necessary to begin the process.

Tyrants never leave of their own accord. Usually they must be killed. This remains true for the internal tyrant. It is also true that a vacuum of power never lasts long. The tyrant’s place must be filled. New motives must replace old ones. The Someone Else must attain the throne because only one who is free and has freedom can give it to another. A new freedom emerges, the freedom of fealty. Unconditional freedom is found in unconditional commitment.

Once the internal tyrant is overthrown and the only revolution that ever counts complete, one is free to say ‘I won’t’ to any remnants of the old tyrant. It can be an arduous process learning to reject the old way and embrace the new freedom. We can be certain of ultimate success because the dead have no power over the living. The Free One who alone can grant us precious freedom has promised to never forsake those who belong to him.

Not too heavenly minded

2009-09-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard the saying, ‘too heavenly minded to be any earthly good’? I am ashamed to say that I have used this saying to excuse carnality and compromise. But let’s examine this common misnomer. Is it possible to be too heavenly minded? What does it mean to be heavenly minded? If it means an attempt to escape this world’s trouble by spiritual pretense then we can fail to do good in this world. But, if by heavenly minded we mean to have the mind of Christ then we must find out what Christ thinks about.

It will be profitable to start with establishing the character of the one we are attempting to emulate. If we have heaven’s mind we should be full of hope and planning how to share that hope with others.
Jer 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

His mind is on our best interest. We can follow Him with confidence. We can also be sure that he is worthy of following. In wisdom and knowledge he is supreme and who would learn from him will benefit.
Rom 11:33-34 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and] knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34"Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"

We can also be sure that in emulating him we are not committing ourselves to way that is too hard. Although the way of the cross is too hard for us, we only walk it by his power and in this way not only can we walk in the way but also find rest for our souls.
Matt 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

The way we are following is the way of compassion. Jesus was mourning the murder of his cousin John the Baptist, but he considered the needs of the crowd ahead of his own need to mourn. Can we follow this example? Not without his power within us. By the Holy Spirit we can see and act as Jesus did, putting the needs of others before our own.
Matt 14:13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Jesus can enter our lives in many disguises; we must pray for open eyes to see him and open hands to act at every chance.
Matt 25:37-40 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

The way offers no resistance to false accusations. This is absolutely opposite the world and is only possible by the empowering spirit in our lives.
Matt 27:12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer.

Following Jesus’ example means making disciples. I stress disciples and not just converts. Discipleship is a process of teaching that does not always lead to conversion. Even Jesus had a disciple that failed to convert to belief. Ours is to patiently teach, it remains to God to convert sinners.
Matt28:18-20 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Those we are called to teach are not the easy to work with, stable, healthy, morally upright good citizens. No, we are to patiently teach the depraved, unstable, unclean, morally bankrupt sinners. The best part of this is that these groups are self-identifying. The good people can hardly wait to tell you how good they are. The sick must be sought out in the darkest places.
Mk 2:17 17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

We are called to feed, clothe, nurse, counsel, teach, and comfort the poor and the lost. Again, we are not called to do this in our own strength, by our own means but in his strength with his means. We act, but only as a conduit. We are part of the process like a garden hose is part of growing the flowers.
Mk 6:37 37But he answered, "You give them something to eat."…

In the Way we are called to walk in dollars have no value, only souls have value. Blessed relief then to know that nothing in the world is sacrifice enough nor can any power of this world separate our souls from him. There is only one thing to do, follow, follow the cross that saves the world with a cross that kills pride and self-reliance.
Mk 8:34-37 34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

Would you wash the feet of the saints? Minister grace without self-regard. There is no abasement so low but he has been there before us. There is no task so menial that it lacks the grace of his approbation when it is done to bless the ones he died for.
Mk 9:35-35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

Emulating him means doing the good that is in our hands and not troubling ourselves about what-ifs. The Good Samaritan could have said, “What if this man is a robber faking injury to trap the unwary? What if I find a fellow Samaritan instead if this Jew to assist? Should I wait to make sure I have the most needy person? What if this fellow is ungrateful? Is my service wasted?” No “prudent consideration” should stop us from doing the good we can do in the moment we can do it.
Lk 10:36-37 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

The way we tread means rejoicing without consideration for the past. God puts our sin away from us as far as the east is from the west and we follow by accepting as brothers and sisters every person who repents.
Lk 15:10 10In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

All of these things we do as one famished for more. No service is sufficient, no abasement complete, no mercy shown satisfies completely. The crosses we carry are dear to us as water in the desert. They can never be enough because they can never match his cross. But as we embrace them, they bring us closer to his heart.
Jn 4:34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

All this is done only to and for God alone. Even accolades from the world are unworthy of notice and the world’s disdain is a badge of honor.
Jn 5:41 "I do not accept praise from men”

To love. This is a command to action not a request for warm feelings. We don’t even have to have the warm feelings; we do have to perform the foot washing, wound binding, feeding, clothing, mourning with, rejoicing with actions of love.
Jn 15:17 17This is my command: Love each other.

As our love is demonstrated by his power and in the Spirit, the world will see a strange sight. Where they take care of number one, we will care for everyone; where they blow their own horn, we will sound the praise of our God; Their untouchables we will touch and there will be no doubt that Jesus is Lord.
Jn 17:20-21 20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Now we are all named Simon, does the Lord know that we love him? If we want him to know let us practice the religion that God accepts; caring for widows and orphans from a heart full of gratitude for crosses, His and ours.
Jn 21:16 Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."

All this is the beginning of what it means to be heavenly minded. Is there any way that we could fail to make the world a better place if our minds were thus arrayed? Let us then strive to be more heavenly minded and great earthly good.

Thoughts on a Curious Juxtaposition of the Poetic Song of Solomon and the Plain Talk of 1 Corinthians

2009-09-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

Both the Song of Solomon (SoS) and Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor.) speak about marriage relationships but in very different ways. To some degree the differences are merely the difference in culture and training between Solomon and Paul. Solomon, blessed, wealthy, and above all wise, chose the language of wisdom from his time and place. Similarly, Paul educated to the Nth degree, steeped in both the Torah and Socrates, reflects a combination of the exacting styles of both the Pharisee and the philosopher. In addition to stylistic differences 1 Cor. discusses many subjects while SoS is almost entirely about a single intimate relationship. Finally, 1 Cor. teaches about a believer’s response to the world where SoS is metaphorically about the believer’s response to Christ. Beyond these differences, both books contain similarities in their wisdom and knowledge about how men and women interact inside a marriage.
The books contain parallel thoughts such as;
SoS 6:3 I am my lover’s and he is mine…
1 Cor 7:3-4 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.
The quote from SoS is aesthetically pleasing. So much so that it is easy to miss the depth of connotation within it. The 1 Cor. quote spells out the case without flourish and leaves a clear imprint on the mind but has less impact on the soul than the lyrical SoS. The truth that birthed both ideas (or, the one idea expressed two ways) is made clear through the comparison. Simply put, we cannot live for ourselves and fulfill all God’s plans for us. This is true in many areas of living but deserves special consideration in respect to marriage and relationships. In marriage, two imperfect souls are bound together in a way that compounds/exacerbates the effects of both selfishness and selflessness. As the foundational unit of society a married couple’s behavior to each other, good and bad, reverberates throughout many lives and sets the tone and timbre of the society around them. Marriage God’s way blesses society, the family, and the individuals in the marriage.

The Song of Solomon is a lyric poem written to extol the virtues of love between a husband and his wife. The poem clearly presents marriage as God’s design. A man and woman are to live together within the context of marriage, loving each other spiritually, emotionally, and physically.This book combats two extremes: asceticism (the denial of all pleasure) and hedonism (the pursuit of only pleasure). The marriage profiled in Song of Solomon is a model of care, commitment, and delight. (http://www.gotquestions.org/Song-of-Solomon.html)

Our world is confused about marriage. The prevalence of divorce and modern attempts to redefine marriage stand in glaring contrast to Solomon’s Song. Marriage, says the biblical poet, is to be celebrated, enjoyed, and revered. This book provides some practical guidelines for strengthening our marriages:

1) Give your spouse the attention he or she needs. Take the time to truly know your spouse.

2) Encouragement and praise, not criticism, is vital to a successful relationship.

3) Enjoy each other. Plan some getaways. Be creative, even playful, with each other. Delight in God’s gift of married love.

4) Do whatever is necessary to reassure your commitment to your spouse. Renew your vows; work through problems and do not consider divorce as a solution. God intends for you both to live in a deeply peaceful, secure love. (http://www.gotquestions.org/Song-of-Solomon.html

season

2009-09-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

From the cyclopean heavens a chill wind does race
It warms the embers of our hearth
And causes Oberon’s silver sentinels
To change their verdant hues, for shades of Midas and Mars
Ready now, they are ready for winter’s freezing blast
And ‘fore the tread of the white king, gilt and gore to cast
Yet, not yet are summer’s days all done
There is still an autumn riot
Of colors in which to run

What world is this?

2009-09-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

What world is this? When did the angels abdicate in favor of demons and darkness? Supposedly responsible, intelligent adults advocating treating people as cattle and cattle as people is a doctrine of destruction. Violence and injustice permeate every level of society, saturates government, education, entertainment and even family. The festering clot of broken and abused lives threatens to break out in a suppurating wound that could drown all of humanity in pus and blood. Individually, our ego-centric myopia and insensible, unquenchable demand for more leaves men trampled in storefronts, children beaten in school, infants murdered in hospitals. Those charged with the protection of society are become torturers, those charged with safeguarding turned thieves. We are cowed and cowardly, scraping before those called public servants. There is no judgment strong enough to bring justice to this situation; no disaster could assuage outraged righteousness. I hear Abel and Zachariah and Stephen and six million Jews and fifty million unborn children, their blood cries day and night for vengeance. That God is merciful is painful beyond endurance. I cry with Jonah, I am angry enough to die.

Deus ex machina

2009-09-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

If you were driving along and saw a billboard that contained only the words, “I am God”, what would your reaction be? The positive recognition from within, The Place Materialists Deny (TPMD), is predictable because god, in the sense of ultimate authority, does truly exist in every human breast. More curious and revealing is the direction the finger of recognition points. For most that recognition would center on the personal ego. Though sub-conscious, the knowledge that externals are infinitely illusory compared to, “cogito ergo sum” suffices as Α and Ω on the wide road. For a few, internal recognition is caused by the presence of The Infinity Himself (TIH) in TPMD. The finger of recognition points to the cross. The cross first because TIH does not inhabit human hearts without it, and second because the personal ego needs a place to die. Two ultimate authorities would be an irrational paradox.

To Dare

2009-09-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

I give you this from Les Miserables, consider;

To dare;

that is the price of progress.
All sublime conquests are, more or less, the prizes of daring. In order that the Revolution should take place, it does not suffice that Montesquieu should foresee it, that Diderot should preach it, that Beaumarchais should announce it, that Condorcet should calculate it, that Arouet should prepare it, that Rousseau should premeditate it; it is necessary that Danton should dare it.
The cry: Audacity! is a Fiat lux. It is necessary, for the sake of the forward march of the human race, that there should be proud lessons of courage permanently on the heights. Daring deeds dazzle history and are one of man's great sources of light. The dawn dares when it rises. To attempt, to brave, to persist, to persevere, to be faithful to one's self, to grasp fate bodily, to astound catastrophe by the small amount of fear that it occasions us, now to affront unjust power, again to insult drunken victory, to hold one's position, to stand one's ground; that is the example which nations need, that is the light which electrifies them. The same formidable lightning proceeds from the torch of Prometheus to Cambronne's short pipe.

The prize

2009-09-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

The accolades and disparagements given by the world are fleeting and random. Fame and infamy are equally ephemeral. At best they last only through this life, more usually only until the crowd is distracted by some new game. Prizes and derision are heaped without regard to reality. Too often the worst get praise while the best get short shrift from the short sighted. For a seeker of the real only one opinion regarding one's worth is valuable, that of one's creator. In Plato's allegory of the cave men are chained in darkness and bamboozled by games of guessing at shadows. I am that prisoner, lost in darkness, confused by shadows. How fortunate that One from outside, from the world of light came to set me free. His opinion alone has worth. There is a hymn with the line, "...all other ground is sinking sand." To act in accord with any desire but His is sinking sand indeed. What then is His desire? That all men should be saved. What must I do to be saved? The answer came from His own lips, "Belive in the one He has sent." And I must echo the reply, "Lord, I believe, help me in my unbelief." Child of darkness that I am the world of light seems like only a sweet dream and the shadows on the wall more real than reports of sunlight, stars and rain. I counsel you, my callow, shallow heart, be not faint nor fear to follow. For, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

The musician wearing motley from a german hamlet

2009-09-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Day after day
Alone on the hill
The man with the foolish grin
Is standing perfectly still

Those rats can race!
How those rats can race!
Race rats, race!

Meaningless, everything is meaningless!

In a vision I saw a rich man die surrounded by friends and relations, all with pointed teeth and sharp knives held behind their backs.
After that I saw a poor man die all alone without even a friend to bury him.
Why then are we made to smile and dance upon this stage?
It feels a little unjust.
But wait,
What does the word unjust mean if there is no justice?
Then, justice exists.
The existence of justice means that there is a judge and a judgment. Judgment requires distinction, discrimination but my vision demonstrated that rich or poor our end is the same. What then is the basis for this judgment? The judge renders the decision. Who is this judge? Who can divine immaterial qualities in every person all the time? It would require omniscience.

Sorrow

2009-08-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

So many tragedies, so many worries, this life is full of sadness. If it is sad it is also full and there is a wisdom that comes with sorrow that is worth rivers of gold. Also, is there a better purpose than learning about ourLord? He is not called the man of sorrows for nothing. Acquainted with grief he is even more than we are. There is no stronger bond between two hearts than shared suffering. Bind me to thee, thou whose thorn crowned visage is balm and binding to my broken heart. Though many sorrows beset there is joy in knowing that the path of suffering is a path to you. I also remember that all trouble is temporary and on that day your own nail-pierced hand will wipe away my tears. I so long for that touch that I cherish my tears and am even comforted by their presence.

2009-08-31T06:21:00.001-07:00

How small and uninteresting a completely explained universe would be. Millions of light years is a confining space if none of it holds secrets. There is a kind of magic in the act of discovery. Every explorer is also a sorcerer, because finding things out works transforming power in the human mind and soul. Even if a place is well mapped going there for yourself to find the way a stand of trees screens a dell such that it becomes not just a depression in the landform but a hidden cloister where the holiness of nature performs the hours without taking any notice of so called great achievements or technological progress. This tiny hidden place known only to the intrepid could never by any artifice of man be duplicated. A place thus discovered becomes a refuge for the soul where by memory and imagination one may shut out the pressing duties of modern life and by simple inward act yield cities and business and finance light and ephemeral relative to the sagacity, the sanctimony of a little wooded dell.

Solo Gratia

2009-08-28T06:01:00.001-07:00

Acts 11:18 – “…God has granted even the gentiles repentance unto life.” (NIV)
Even the ability to repent, to change direction, to acknowledge that we have been wrong is a dispensation of sovereign grace. As Paul taught the Romans, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Rom 5:8” The unearned favor shown by God to sinful man is that He allows sons of Adam who inherit corruption and earn death to change or rather transform into His own sons. These adopted sons, following the Only Begotten, are given the ability to lay down their lives of corruption and death and take up Christ’s life which leads, by the way of the cross, to immortality untouched by corruption, which bliss is the very crown of life.
Matthew 4:17 – “…Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
To Abraham was given the promise and the sign of belonging to the promise, circumcision. As early as Moses this sign was equated to a condition of the heart, “The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live Deut 30:6.” It is the LORD who acts, our response is the reaction, never the initiation. Without God’s initiating action we cannot love him and cannot live. The enabled response is to love him. This is contradictory to the natural course of man which absent the enabling action of God is to love oneself. The directional change in course of life from love of self to love of God is what is meant by repentance. Repentance is not pure repudiation of self. It is instead, understanding that one’s glory is by reflection only. It is also not an onerous duty imposed by an unfair taskmaster. It is a gift given by one who loves those who do not love him, and loves them enough to die for them.
Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Conversion can happen in a moment but it takes a lifetime to make a saint. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. I Cor 4:16” Each part of us is being renewed. Paralleling how we are called to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and strength our hearts are changed at conversion (Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 5:1), our minds are being transformed (Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2) and our bodies will be changed to incorruptible and immortal. (For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. I Cor15:51-53.)
Acts 13:38-39 “I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.”
God spoke and the universe sprang into existence. That same power, He who is called the Word, spoke another word, which in Greek is tetelestai – it is finished. Enslavement to sin is finished, the terror of death is finished, the unfilled longing of all creation is finished. There is no barrier, no wall, no veil between me and my Heavenly Father. There is no more battle to fight, it is finished. All that remains is joy.

God judges the thoughts and intents of the heart

2009-08-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

Love is the only possible motive. The object may change, though truth be told the object is more often than not my own dear self, but the motivation is desire to enhance the good of someone, which is love. Even the supposed opposite of love, hate, is only reaction to the perception or reality of offense to the object of our love. This most often takes the form called wounded pride. Pride is misplaced love, but it is still love. As light exists and darkness is only its absence, love exists and all other reasons are misdirections. God has one object of love, me. I have only to reciprocate and the grand unifiing theory of everthing is given flesh. When I say that the object of God's love is me, you must read that and mean yourself because the only object of God's love is you. Return that love and the world rights itself like a ship in heavy seas suddenly come into a calm. To misplace love is sin, to correctly place love is bliss.

Erste poste

2009-08-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

Let's not beat around the proverbial bush....

In days gone by executive power rested in the hands of a monarch. Since power corrupts this arrangement limited the number of corrupted souls but increased the number of imposed upon, and therefore miserable, uncorrupted souls. Eventually a consensus regarding the undesirability of this state of affairs was reached. By the expedient of killing those who disagreed, power was distributed to the electorate who chose representatives in wielding executive authority. Thus were many empowered, that is to say corrupted, and misery lessened. The now less miserable and more corrupt populi apprehended that the right of kings was in their hands. Just as kings used their power to accumulate luxuries, the empowered public voted themselves some indulgences. These treats were to be supplied by the government from the public coffers. The public coffers were filled by taxes paid by the public. Somehow the elected representatives took credit for the flowing weal and convinced the public that they were good and necessary as securers of access to the teats of mama pig gov’t. Eventually influence with representatives was sold to the highest bidder and the interest of corporations replaced the interest of the people. This pandering to business interests was still done out of the public coffers, which the reader will remember were filled by the public. Thus did power accumulate into fewer and fewer hands leaving smaller numbers of corrupted souls but larger numbers of the miserable and disenfranchised. It is a fine thing to have an uncorrupted (powerless) soul but, it is a little hard to pay taxes and taxes and taxes with only increasing misery for the public and increasing corruption of elected representatives as a result. It is this unfortunate state of affairs that requires solutions. It is always tempting when seeking solutions to attempt assigning blame. The problem with pointing the finger is that when one finger points away three fingers point back. There is no escaping the responsibility. The direction of the future is yours to decide. Should we keep our spotless souls enduring increasing misery with the grim satisfaction of the righteous or, should we accept our share of corruption and give some of our misery to our unloved aristocracy?