Monday, August 31, 2009
Sorrow
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.
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.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Solo Gratia
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
God judges the thoughts and intents of the heart
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.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Erste poste
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?
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?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)