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Blog recovery effort

Tis the Season!

In his recent blog entry, Steve Bell commented:

I certainly resonate with Randy's concern, but the inherent tension is precisely the point. Exactly what kind of King is it who, volunteering obscurity, condescends (with passion) to walk among the lowly, sharing their burdens and humiliations, and ultimately bearing them away in his own death?  What kind of kingdom is it where the lofty are brought down and the lowly lifted up? It is a rather odd, counterintuitive sort of kingly glory is it not ? – the sort  that can only be found perhaps in "the delightful deceits of fables."  But I'll take those deceits any day over the relentlessly measured, flat, atomized facts of a pitiless universe. Facts and Truth are not always the same thing.

And so… I will contribute a song alongside  Malcolm's sonnet because I truly love, believe and trust this story. 

As usual, Steve's comments sparked my own thinking.  Rather than pour all this into his blog, I'll post it here - 

" the inherent tension is precisely the point. Exactly what kind of King is it who, volunteering obscurity, condescends (with passion) to walk among the lowly,"

  Unhappily, this tension seems to be largely lost today in so many ways.  We pay lip service to service, and humility and the manger, then move on to demand that the surrounding society kowtow to our demands for "keeping Christmas," (Don"t shop from merchants who don't greet you correctly!  Keep Christ in Christmas by getting up into anyone's grill who dares use the greeting Happy Holidays... etc..)  We toss a few extra bucks at a charity to get that warm glow of reassurance that we are "good people," then elbow our way into the Boxing Day Sales lineup to get the latest large screen tv (Man, they had such good deals last year -- I'll show you mine if you show me yours!! - yes I am chief among sinners in all these areas much of the time)...  So, I have become very leery of the Power and Glory-Loving 'stuff' as well.  It plays way too easily to my human weaknesses for being On Top.

Facts and Truth are not always the same thing. ... I truly love, believe and trust this story.

 Here's where critics of faith and gospel get it wrong, as do people of faith as well when we fear the attacks of the former.  They/we think that if the historicity of the events is cast into doubt, then the faith is destroyed.  They fail to understand that the power of the events is not in the facts or historicity, but in the ephemeral meanings interwoven throughout!  The power of story is the story.  The idea. The concept. The belief that Truth is Ultimately Good.  That Truth is ultimately sentient, loving and concerned about all of us all around - and we should be too.  These concepts and beliefs change lives, give hope, produce freedom.  And ultimately peace.  On all levels.

Joy to the World!

Jesus Mixed the Mud

John 9:14 (AMP)
Now it was on the Sabbath day that Jesus mixed the mud and opened the man's eyes.
I've often wondered why Jesus resorted to this mixing of mud to heal a man's sight. Jesus cures others without using devices like this. Verse 19 makes the point that it happened on the Sabbath and I think this is an important clue.
Jesus seems to be adding emphasis to the fact that he is "doing work" on the Sabbath. As usual, it is Jesus who decides precisely when and how he will challenge the religious powers who are withholding God's blessings rather than extending them to the people in need.
It seems to work, judging from the reaction in verse 16.
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Doctrines or Love?

We can choose to center
our relationship
With God
On correct doctrines, or love


If we focus on correct doctrines
We will see nothing but our differences
And we will become a church
Of divisions, rancor and even hate


If however, we focus on love
We will become a unified church
That will change the world
For good.

By His Stripes

Friday thoughts on crucifixion, wrath and justice...

It is human hatred, violence, and sinfulness

That is purged by Jesus' stripes.

God 'forsakes' Jesus into the hands of man! - 

"Do to him as you will... break him if you can..."

This is not a need for vengeance by God

Nor the blood lust of God being appeased

But rather the sinful bloodlust of humans

Which is finally satiated. *

Walking on water was the easier part
Taking darkness out of every heart
Into His own this is alone
Keeping vigil  (Lyric by Jim Croegaert)

So Jesus dies with "father forgive them" on his lips

Defeating Satan in that instance.

Had Satan managed to turn God's love for us,

Away from us, through Jesus Christ

Then we humans would have ceased to exist and 

Satan would have won his quest to destroy us.**

So Satan cries out (ala Mel Gibson's movie) in defeat! not victory....

And human bloodlust is absorbed into the heart of God.

And God prevails in that Jesus loves us unto death!

And our story goes on.... our future is secured.

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note* - We see and experience this human blood lust in every human cry for justice that looks more like revenge.  I spit out angry thoughts against someone who offends me.  And I would in my moment of justifiable, self-righteous rage vent emotional damage towards that person, because I am a sinner.  Yet even I have some limits.  For example, if someone offended me by cutting me off in traffic, and then suddenly a vigilante appeared and began acting out my anger in physical violence upon the offender, I would very quickly become shocked and horrified and intervene to stop the beating.  "Too much! Too much!" I would cry. ... Even my blood lust over most offences, can be satiated.

Yet there is an even greater cry for justice caused by even more horrendous crimes.  This is expressed in a song by Steve Bell: Somebody's Gotta Pay For This, wherein he describes his own dream of vengeance against the men who violated a young girl... but as Steve says, "No one (human being) has enough to lose to pay for all these crimes."  And then Steve encounters Jesus hanging on a cross and is told "Kill him!"  The idea being that Jesus alone has "enough to lose - a perfect sinless life" to pay for all the crimes of humanity -  and so Steve's bloodlust is gone, replaced only by a deep sadness - (sadness for his own broken state and the brokenness of all humanity...)

In the crucifixion, Jesus takes this ultimate punishment symbolically upon himself for every human crime, and says to us - "I took that beating for that person - now you can feel vindicated by me - and move on to forgive him and seek his well-being, rather than his destruction.

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note** - Satan must know he can't destroy God but still he does seek to thwart him. Satan hates the human race.  Why?  Is it because he knows that we will one day rule over him and all angels? ... Was this the realization that turned Lucifer against God?

A Highlight and Note

Silence is the only language spacious enough to include everything and to keep us from slipping back into dualistic judgments and divisive words.

Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
by Richard Rohr


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Boing!

From: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

"In the second half of life, people have less power to infatuate you, but they also have much less power to control you or hurt you. It is the freedom of the second half not to need. Both the ecstatic mirroring of my youth and the mature and honest mirroring of my adulthood have held up what I needed to see and could see at the time; they have prepared me for the fully compassionate and Divine Mirror, who has always shown me to myself in times and ways that I could handle and enjoy.

I fell many times relationally, professionally, emotionally, and physically in my life, but there was always a trampoline..."

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When blogs over lap...

(Sometimes my faith-related blog can't help but intertwine with my aviation-related one. Today's such a day ...)



This video is an especially good reminder that computers do not fly aircraft. Computers can of course, be used to guide an aircraft along a pre-programmed pathway that was selected and authorized by a human being, provided the computer's progress is continually monitored and corrected by a human being. But computers do not fly.

No computer built today can instantly reassess it's three dimensional situation and quickly make the appropriate corrections to a flight path and adjust to the demands of changing conditions, just by "looking out the window."

Computers are unable to continually assess the thousands of different questions that a pilot works through routinely on every flight, such as: "How much turbulence will there be? How much ice will there be in those clouds? What is that snow squall doing as it sweeps across the runway? Just how bad will the traction be during the landing and taxi into the terminal?" - to mention only a very few.

No computer can rapidly absorb thousands of bits of information from myriad sources and then assess the situational changes occurring each moment, adding in the lessons gleaned from previous experience and training which was oft-times adapted from unrelated events, then take the appropriate action.

As wonderful as they are, no silicone-based computer can match the abilities of a well-trained, well-motivated "carbon-based-unit" called a pilot. Most importantly of all, only human-pilots actually care whether they live or die!

I pass this video along as a reminder of just how awesome human beings are to have invented such great tools as Airbuses and computers, and to use them so creatively...

And maybe, just maybe, as we wonder at the amazing things humans are able to create, we'll pause to wonder - who created us?

Psalm 139:14

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.

Psalm 6:1 (NLT)
O Lord, don't rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage.

The image of God rebuking us in anger is common in the Old Testament. This has caused people to think of the OT God as an "angry old man," and we can have difficulty reconciling that image with Jesus who began his ministry with these words: (Matthew 12:20)

"He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. ... "

I think we have to keep in mind that Jesus read these words from the book of Isaiah. They express the heart of the "old testament" god just as surely as they represent the heart of Jesus.

When attributing an angry temperament to God, I suspect we are reading our own failings and shortcomings into Him. Keep in mind that it was the people at Mt. Sinai who were afraid to go near to the mountain to meet with God, and so demanded a mediator.

This tells me that our dysfunctional relationship with God has always been related to our reluctance to trust Him, let down our fences and draw closer.

Thank God he never gives up. The phantasmagorical events woven through the conception, birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, demonstrate just how far God is willing to go to cross this gulf that we've created between us and Him.

We can read this sixth Psalm knowing that indeed... "The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer" (has answered) "my prayer."


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The Trouble With Psalms

Psalm 5:10 (NLT)
Drive them away because of their many sins,[ ] for they have rebelled against you.

Some of the worst attitudes and confused points of view that sometimes arise in Christians are expressed in this Psalm. That's the trouble with Psalms. When followers of Jesus read these ancient songs and poems, without fully appreciating the great reversals Christ made to our view of who is a sinner, and who is righteous, and who our real enemies are, then we are apt to absorb this Old Covenant attitude of "us" vs. "them," and forget how high Jesus raised the bar. We should always keep in mind the Beatitudes, and the fact that in the New Covenant there is no difference between "us" and "them." In Jesus' teaching we are all sinners in need of a saviour. And in that realization we are also saved, by Grace, through Faith in the one and only God who is able to remedy our hopeless situation. We're all in this together. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

O God who declares me innocent...

The earliest Christians taught that Jesus was the Christ, using the OT scriptures, which are replete with prophecies about Messiah (Hebrew)/ Christ (Greek). It's fascinating how many messianic references are obvious only after Jesus' ministry and crucifixion/resurrection.

This opening verse of Psalms 4 is like that. Imagine the "aha!" moment Jesus' disciples must have experienced, when they read Ps.4:1 after the puzzling events they had experienced...

Psalm 4:1 (NLT) Answer me when I call to you, O God who declares me innocent. ...

After Jesus' resurrection, this verse, this entire Psalm, suddenly gains deeper meaning in light of the extraordinary means by which God now declares us "innocent."

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Know The Enemy

A Christ-follower reading the Psalms has to contend with Jesus' command in
Matthew 5:44-48 (NLT)

"But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."

What do we do when we encounter passages like Psalm 3?

Psalm 3:7 (NLT)
Arise, O Lord! Rescue me, my God! Slap all my enemies in the face! Shatter the teeth of the wicked!

I think we have to keep the passage in historical context on one level, realizing that the psalmist was talking about real, physical enemies. It was fully within the Old Testament understanding that God would bless, protect and shield the "insiders" while punishing those outside the covenant. "Us" versus "them" was very much the thinking woven into old covenant theology.

But as Christians I think we also have to realize that our enemies are spiritual forces in high places seeking to destroy humankind in general. We humans now are called upon to unite against this common enemy, manifested in all the spiritual wrestlings within our souls, selves and communities.

"We do not wrestle against flesh and blood," but against the spiritual forces that produce selfishness, hatred, fear and violence of all sorts within us. These are the true enemies that are robbing peace and security from the world.

-- gmc --

Visions of an Angry God

Psalm 2:1
Why are the nations so angry?

... Wars are continually waged throughout history by nations. Why?

Psalm 2:3 (NLT)
"Let us break their chains," they cry, "and free ourselves from slavery to God."

... Ultimately it seems that war is really a rejection of God's supremacy and authority.

Psalm 2:12 (NLT)
Submit to God's royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities- for his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him!

... I can't help but think that in the OT, references to an angry God who suddenly strikes out to destroy the "bad nations," shows our human frailties and our need to be kept in line through fear, more than revealing the true nature of God - especially as revealed in Jesus Christ.

... Perhaps the most significant aspect of how Jesus affects our view of scripture is the way he challenges and overturns these visions of an angry God.

-- gmc --

Psalms read through the Lens of Jesus Christ

Psalm 1

For Christians the Old Testament becomes an entirely different book because we are required (and enabled) to read it through a new lens. This is seen immediately in the first Psalm. At first glance it is a poem about the great chasm that exists between "the wicked," and "the righteous." The original readers would interpret it as a warning to make sure we are on the right side of the line, squarely amongst the "right" folks who are doing the "right" stuff.

But to Christians it should remind us of our true predicament. We should be aware that "all have sinned and fallen short..." and remind us that our only hope for being declared righteous is through the grace of God and what he does for us in Christ. To a Christian Ps.1 becomes a song of gratitude for being declared righteous by faith and not by our own doing.

-- gmc --

If death is the end...

Ecclesiastes 2:15-16 (NLT)
... So I said to myself, "Since I will end up the same as the fool, what's the value of all my wisdom? This is all so meaningless!" [16] For the wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered any longer than the fool. In the days to come, both will be forgotten...."

- Apart from a transendent worldview, that includes some sort of life after death, all our striving becomes meaningless. At the point of death, all we've done, disappears. It all becomes pointless with no repercussions into the future.

Aldous Huxley expressed this conundrum in a quote about our human tendancy to live in denial: "..the knowledge that every ambition is doomed to frustration at the hands of a skeleton have never prevented the majority of human beings from behaving as though death were no more than an unfounded rumor. "

-- gmc --

Nothing New...

Ecclesiastes 1:10-11 (NLT)

Sometimes people say, "Here is something new!" But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. We don't remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now."

-- In keeping with the economic and social turmoil of last week, and looking ahead to another week that promises more of the same, I wonder if it might be a good time to seek perspective.

The book of Ecclesiastes certainly offers this if we keep it in the correct context. It is a thesis of what life looks like when we disconnect ourselves from eternal life that came about through Jesus Christ. I wonder if we who live on this side of history - post Jesus Christ - underestimate the faith it took to believe in salvation when it was only a promised rumour. Solomon shows us what life without belief looks like.

Sooner or later, without a transcendent view of the universe and our place in it, we are confronted by the pointlessness of temporary, physical life, and all our struggles, trials and tribulations. In that non-transcendent worldview the very best we can hope for is to "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

---
I'm using the free online study booklet produced by PTM.org ministries. If you care to access the same booklets you'll be asked to register, but there is no charge. I find these books to be top notch aids that strive for biblical accuracy without pushing any particular denominational agendas. Hard copy versions are available as well.

Let me see if I can provide the link:
http://www.ptm.org/exp/default.asp

-- gmc --

Hard Times

If we live in a culture of entitlement and self-indulgence, then hardships are devalued, useless and even an affront to what we believe the universe "owes" us. Hard times are only negative.

By contrast, if we live within a context of service and self-sacrifice, hard times, when they inevitably arrive, become opportunities for growth, strengthening of character and deeply positive experiences.

-- gmc --

Repentance comes in stages and when least expected...

That word "repentance" doesn't mean to merely be sorry for what we've done.  Rather, it refers to a lifelong process of turning away from previous choices and beliefs and ideas towards a new way of living that we have come to believe is truer and better. A holy way if you will.  

That word "holy" also carries many misapprehensions. 

Holy is not intended to convey a snobbish, I'm-better-than-you attitude or spirit that expresses itself in aloofness, or apartness.  Rather it means to understand that there is actually a completeness, a fullness, a totally-of-existance for us all.  (imagine it being spelt as "whole-ly") .  We humans are just not there yet. But it is our destiny, because it is the state of our creator and that is where we are headed - eventually.

And the journey comprises one small step of recognition, awareness and change at a time - repentance.  To - re-path our lives into a new direction. Towards a goal.

I was innocently listening to a song by Steve Bell, many years ago, when suddenly I saw my own contributions to the sorrows and pains of the world all around me.  My self-centredness, my greedy choices that reflected an interest in my pleasure alone, had hurt many of my closest family and friends and this was just a microcosm of the sorrow, turmoil and pains extant across every nation, the entire world.

The realization came like a wave and I was soon laying face-down on the floor sobbing, as this song played over and over in my headset.

I had no idea of what exactly was going on, but later I came to realize it as a wave of repentance. Odd, awesome and embarrassing all at the same time.

Here are the song lyrics and I've tried to load the actual song to youtube:

You are to Be Holy  – Music and Lyric by Steve Bell
adapted from Isaiah 1 / Leviticus 20: 26

Hear, Oh heavens
Listen, Oh earth
The Lord has spoken
And given birth
I reared my children and brought them up
But they have rejected the Holy One

Even the ox knows his master’s voice
The owner’s manger a donkey knows
But you my people don’t understand
A sinful nation has turned their backs

You are to be holy
For I am holy
Come to me only
For you are my own
You are to be holy
For I am holy
Come to me only
For you are my own
My own

Your country is desolate
And your cities burned
Your fields are stripped by the foreigner
And right before you laid waste as when
When overthrown by a stranger’s hand
So take your evil from my sight
Stop your wrong and learn what’s right
Seek out justice for the oppressed
The widow’s cause and the fatherless

Cart Before The Horse...

3 John 1:11 (NLT)
... Remember that those who do good prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.

Our actions never win our salvation... We cannot "do" our way into eternal life. But our choices in life reveal who we have chosen to follow.

-- gmc --

Lovers In A Dangerous Time

2 John 1:1 (NLT)
This letter is from John, the elder. I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, ...

An alternate translation of this phrase: " the chosen lady and to her children, ..." is: "the church God has chosen and its members."

This coded language is used throughout this short letter, so I suspect it is written to a church meeting secretly under dangerous circumstances. If the letter were to be intercepted, there is no way to identify the town or home where the church assembles.

In most western countries it is hard to imagine the dangers faced by Christians. However this threat is familiar even today for Christ's followers who live in places where belief is still outlawed.