Monday, October 27, 2008

America's slide toward Communism


If there was any doubt that Obama's economic philosophy is grounded in
Socialist ideas -- and that he wants to take the country in that direction --
the evidence is clear, from the now-infamous "Joe the Plumber" incident to
this new radio show recording, just released:

Given the latest national conversations along these lines, I decided to look up
a few key words, and let their definitions tell the tale of what we're hearing
from the 2 tickets... Here's what I found on Dictionary.com:

    Federalism

    A system of government in which power is divided between a national (federal)
    government and various regional governments. As defined by the United States
    Constitution, federalism is a fundamental aspect of American government, whereby
    the states are not merely regional representatives of the federal government,
    but are granted independent powers and responsibilities. With their own
    legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch, states are empowered
    to pass, enforce, and interpret laws, provided they do not violate the Constitution.

    This arrangement not only allows state governments to respond directly to
    the interests of their local populations, but also serves to check the power of
    the federal government. Whereas the federal government determines foreign policy,
    with exclusive power to make treaties, declare war, and control imports and
    exports, the states have exclusive power to ratify the Constitution. Most
    governmental responsibilities, however, are shared by state and federal
    governments: both levels are involved in such public policy issues as taxation,
    business regulation, environmental protection, and civil rights.

    Note: The precise extent of state and federal responsibility has always been controversial. Republican administrations, for example, have tended to grant more authority to the states, thereby encouraging political and economic freedom but discouraging comprehensive social welfare. Until the middle of the twentieth century, the Supreme Court left the interpretation of many civil rights guarantees to the states, resulting in widespread discrimination against minorities.


    Capitalism

    An economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals
    or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

    In such a system, individuals and firms have the right to own and use wealth to
    earn income and to sell and purchase labor for wages with little or no government
    control. The function of regulating the economy is then achieved mainly through
    the operation of market forces where prices and profit dictate where and how
    resources are used and allocated.


    Socialism

    noun
    1. a political theory advocating state ownership of industry
    2. an economic system based on state ownership of capital [antonym: capitalism (!!!)]

    An economic system in which the production and distribution of goods are controlled substantially by the government rather than by private enterprise, and in which cooperation rather than competition guides economic activity. There are many varieties of socialism. Some socialists tolerate capitalism, as long as the government maintains the dominant influence over the economy; others insist on an abolition of private enterprise. All communists are socialists, but not all socialists are communists.

    A theory or system of social reform which contemplates a complete reconstruction of society, with a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor…

    Communism

    noun
    1. a form of socialism that abolishes private ownership
    2. a political theory favoring collectivism in a classless society

    A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.

    A scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life; specifically, a scheme which contemplates the abolition of inequalities in the possession of property, as by distributing all wealth equally to all, or by holding all wealth in common for the equal use and
    advantage of all.


From my layman's perspective, it looks to me like Federalism -- the real
GENIUS built into our Constitution -- began to lose steam in the public square
after Sherman burned his way through Atlanta in the Civil War and the northern
"imperialism" was imposed on the South... The turn of that Century brought waves
of immigrant workers who lived a very poor standard of living, giving rise to
the Labor movement and the "it's not fair that we're poor" mentality...

The Great Depression also helped Americans see and feel and hear what abject
Poverty looks like, and many began to look to the Government for relief...

Then the "New Deal" President, FDR, established "social security", further
promoting the idea that the GOVERNMENT should take care of financial well-being
of its citizens (originally, Social Security taxes were called "contributions")...

Ideologically, there's been no looking back ever since: One side (usually
"Liberals") want MORE government intervention, MORE social programs, and MORE
"spreading the wealth around" (even calling it "patriotic" to pay more taxes!),
while the other side (usually "Conservatives") want to return to our Federalist
roots with LESS government intervention, MORE States' Rights, FEWER (and
much more closely administered) Social programs, and MORE "you keep what you EARN"...

Given the popularity of Obama in the polls, and the shameless and blatant support
of Obama by CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times (among others), and in light of
the definitions given above, is it not easy to see that this country is on a
clear path toward Communism?

The implications of that impending result should send a chill down the spine
of every TRUE Patriot in this country.
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Sunday, July 13, 2008

How God Sees Me

So here I am, confronted with the awful magnitude of my sinfulness,
having committed acts that just about anyone would agree are deeply
sinful and completely contrary to what I say I believe...

... and the Christian faith is filled with the stories of other men
(and women) who also have committed egregious sins against God and
against other people... Even our modern-day news stories often cover
the sins of the faithful, and our own local churches are filled with
sinners on any given Sunday....

But consider this: When you hear the name "Babe Ruth", what do you
think of? Do you think of the 1,330 times he struck out at home plate,
or the 714 homers that gave rise to his status as an all-time great?

What about "Thomas Edison"? Do you think of (or even know about) the
10,000 times he tried to create the world's first incandescent light bulb
and failed (securing ridicule from just about everyone who knew him),
or do you think of the one success he had that revolutionized the world,
or the more than 1,000 U.S. Patents he was awarded in his lifetime?

Now think of yourself: Do you DEFINE yourself by your failures, even
horrible failures of the worst kinds of sins? Well, remember the
Bible stories: Adam and Eve brought Sin and Death into the world
through their disobedience, and later raised a murderous son...
David was called "a man after God's own heart" and yet he committed
adultery and murder; Peter denied Christ with curses, and yet was told
later that Christ's Church would begin with him... The list of
horrible sins by the Bible's "all-time greats" goes on and on...

And it's the same story for us:
Imagine yourself in your very best moments... You're humble, gentle,
congenial, giving, wise, and displaying a Joy that stems from your
faith and from the use of your unique skills and talents and abilities...

In those fleeting moments (fleeting for me, anyway) you are beginning
to be the kind of person GOD sees when He looks at you; and the utlimate
Perfection (Maturation) of all that God put in you when He made you
is a reality so significant, so beautiful, so glorious (and glorifying
to your Maker) that He went as far as He could go, did everything He
could possibly do, to try and make that goal a reality, by sacrificing
the One Most Important Thing for you... Jesus accepted Death so that
we could someday enjoy that Life, the perfection of our very selves...
The perfected creature enternally showered with affection from the
Creator, blissfully joyful in giving back to the Creator the honor
due Him...

THAT "Vision" of What I Will Be, someday, is what God sees when He looks
at me, and though His heart is broken and His anger aroused over my
sin (rebellion against that Vision He paid so much to win for me),
His gaze is fixed on that Vision and He pursues me relentlessly...

So the only thing I can do is to begin again, to ask God (and others,
if necessary, and it often is) for forgiveness, to deal honestly and
practically with my sin (we lie to ourselves so easily, and excuse-making
is, for some of us, a habit), and to see myself as GOD sees me...


    Let us not become weary in doing good,
    for at the proper time, we will reap harvest,
    if we do not give up.

    Galatians 6:9

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Take the Lesser Seat

Picture a director, and a crew, and a set of actors, working together
to shoot a commercial for some product... The crew sets things up,
the actors are in place, and the director is giving the orders...
The sound guy starts recording, the camera guy starts shooting, and
the actors begin their lines...

Then one of the actors pipes up with some non-scripted line or two,
and the director yells "CUT!", the camera man stops the camera, the
sound guy stops recording, and the crew looks at this actor and then
the director, wondering what to do...

"What are you doing??!" asks the director... "Just say the lines you
are supposed to say!" The actor protests that he doesn't think the
lines are right, and that what he has to say on the product is more
compelling than the script...

How long do you think it would be, if this continued, before the
director tells the actor to get off his set and calls his aide to
find a more co-operative actor? Not long, I'm sure...

Why?

Because the COMMERCIAL is more important than this individual actor,
and there is money and time (not to mention all the people taking
part, trying to do THEIR jobs) at stake, and (as a good
director) he isn't interested in what this one actor thinks is compelling...

Christians are in much the same position: God's purposes, and the
people He calls us to serve -- even the very purpose for our own lives --
is more important than us, more important than our own
ideas of what should take place, even more important than whatever we
might be going through (good or bad) in our current circumstances...

Jesus advised His disciples to "take the lesser seat" at a banquet,
to avoid the embarrassment of being asked by the host to step down
and give up that seat to someone else... But it was much more than
avoiding embarrassment that He was trying to teach them; Jesus' focus
was always on "the Least of These", and He constantly
emphasized to them that "the Least" would be -- indeed, ARE -- the
most important in God's way of directing things...

Even as he nursed his sores and questioned God, JOB humbled himself and
acknowledged that whatever God's purposes were, those ends were
surely far more important than what he was going through, and in the end
of that story, Job was lifted up and everyone around him was put to shame
for trashing the Director's will and advising Job to think of himself...

And we can apply that same idea now, today, to everyone around us (because
God cares most about PEOPLE): My WIFE is more important than me,
my KIDS are more important than me, my Church family is more important
than me, and even what God wants to MAKE of me (for His own glorification)
is -- if we can grasp this! -- more important than the "me" that I try so
desparately to support and nuture and coddle and please...

If Jesus Himself could could be humble enough to submit to death, then surely
we ought to imitate Him and humble ourselves as well, retraining our minds
and our passions around the idea (and practice!) of considering every PERSON
we know, or encounter in our lives, and the works of Grace that God passionately
pursues in this life, as much more important than we ourselves...
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Sunday, June 01, 2008

Our journey toward BLESSEDNESS

It struck me the other day that there may be a significant difference
between "Blessed", pronounced "BLEST", and BLESSED, pronounced
more intentionally as "BLESS-sed"...

When we say, for example, "My, aren't we BLEST to live in this
great old house, on this beautiful street," and, "we're so BLEST
to have food and clothing in abundance," or even, "count your
Blessings", we mean the very good fortune that Providence has
granted to us... We intend, essentially, a call to Thankfulness or Gratitude...

But "BLESS-sed" may have a much higher meaning: Dictionary.com
defines "BLESS-sed", in the sense I am using it here, as
    sacred; sanctified
    worthy of reverence or worship
    blissfully contented
    beatified

Used as such, the word begins to describe Saints, both the
very few among us who are far along in their process of
Sanctification, as well as the Saintliness that will be
characteristic of all Christians when, in Glory, we are
finally and eternally perfected...

So then, to become "BLESS-sed" is both the End of
God's work in us, someday ("...He who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion..."), as well as the Goal to encourage us
as we are being changed in this journey through life ("...that your love
may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight...")...

As I meditate on this startling distinction, then, I begin to notice how
it helps me understand, in a whole new way, Jesus' famous exposition
on becoming BLESS-sed, in the "Beatitudes" of Mathew 5:
    "BLESS-sed" keeping in mind this higher meaning
    "are the" suffering through the Sanctification process
    "for they will" experience Beatification if we persist

So it would seem that Jesus is holding up BLESS-sed-ness as
my ultimate "Soul state", to be desired above all else; He is also
pointing out that The Way to this state involves suffering in the present;
and he is very specific about the benefits of one day achieving this state...

This, then, is what I have to look forward to:
    Possessing, in some sense, Christ's kingdom
    Being (supremely) comforted
    Inheriting (have passed down to me) the Earth
    Filled with Righteousness
    Being shown Mercy
    Seeing God (!)
    Being called a son of God
    Again, possessing, in some sense, Christ's kingdom

Our pastor Ron preached a series on the Beatitudes not long ago;
THIS ONE, in particular, on Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness,
was particularly profound to me...

I have been challenging myself to set my gaze on becoming BLESS-sed,
to finally, once and for all and forever, be made complete and then
to be welcomed into the presence of almighty God; and I continually
ask God's forgiveness for the many times -- often daily -- that my
attention is diverted to sinful, foolish, temporal things... Those times when
my current course is toward Wretchedness, the opposite of BLESS-sed.


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Sunday, February 24, 2008

My Take on "Mutual Submission"

Arguably, a great many of the problems in modern society
stem - at least in part - from the fact that strong, loving,
nurturing Homes have increasingly become the exception
rather than the rule.

While nobody's family is perfect, of course, the Home life
is supposed to prepare us for living in the world, for better
or for worse. When a kid's "role model" is some sports figure
or some rock star, or the mother's fourth boyfriend... Or when
the only tenderness and affection a kid gets is from that cute
girl in 7th grade Math class... then that kid will likely go
into adulthood ill-equipped to conduct him/her self in ways that
are productive, responsible, and honorable.

So what IS the pattern for a solid Home life? One of the reasons
I believe in Christianity is that here again -- as in SO many
other areas -- this World View offers us a meaningful, structured,
effective Answer for one of The Great Questions... This particular Answer
Christians sometimes call "God's Plan for Marriage" (read these two
excellent aritcles about it, one for the woman and one for the man)...

There are a number of excellent passages in Scripture about
God's design for Marriage, and (in my opinion) Marriage is something
Christians should be talking about all the time (all the while
attempting to put biblical principles on the subject into practice)...

Almost immediately, as soon as you begin discussing Scriptural
marriage, a conflict arises over this subject of Submission,
the idea that the Wife is to be submissive to her Husband...
The passages of note on this issue are 1st Peter 3 and Ephesians 5...
Both of these passages include the idea that Christian wives are to
"submit" to their husbands (another verb used is "reverence"!), an idea
that is not at all popular in today's contemporary culture,
even in many Christian circles...

I won't take the space here to go into a full treatment of this
idea of "submission" (the article above, for Wives, does a GREAT
job of that, I think), but I want to share my thoughts on the exact point
of controversy here: There are those who believe that Ephesians 5:21
teaches "Mutual Submission" between the husband and wife, and that
"mutual submission" in Ephesians 5:21 overshadows all the
talk about "submission" in the verses that follow it... Here is
ONE
side of that debate, and here is the OTHER...

The way I read not only this particular passage but the larger
context of Godly Attitudes throughout the Bible, it seems to me that
we MUST make a very sharp distinction at the end of Ephesians 5:21
and before Ephesians 5:22... Does the Bible call all Chrisians, in general,
to "submit" to each other? Are we to serve one another? Are we to
"in humility consider the other better than ourselves"? Absolutely!
This GENERAL attitude should be increasingly woven into the
character of ALL Christians in ALL places at ALL times...

...and so clearly this IS the broader "context" leading up to the
end of Ephesians 5:21, where Paul is talking to Chrisians in general...
BUT, Paul then changes gears a bit and turns his attention
DIRECTLY to the Wife, and then DIRECTLY to the husband, using a writing
technique that begins broadly and then focuses in on specific applications
(the more you read Paul, and observe his logical mind as revealed by
his conversations, the more this becomes clear)...

So while he is not leaving behind the more general concepts of
"submission" (that all Christians ought to practice toward one another),
he is moving on toward ANOTHER relationship that is similar (based on
the principles discussed) and at the same time significantly different...
Ephesians 5:22 clearly demontrates (by tone and language and specific
focus points) a SHIFT in the discussion; and the sticking point that many
folks get hung up over is this word SUBMIT...

There is plenty of material on both sides of the question, but I will say
just three things here (one of which I've been saying already):
      1. I do NOT think Biblical submission inside
      the specific boundaries of Christian Marriage
      has anything "mutual" about it

      2. I do believe that if more Christian wives
      would embrace, and personalize, and faithfully practice
      Biblical submission in marriage, many of the problems
      in modern Christian marriages would vanish

      3. I think it's critical, more than ever before,
      that our pastors and elders get behind this idea
      and find the godly courage to stand in the pulpit
      and teach, without fear and yet with obvious humility,
      this difficult concept

And I'll be the first to acknowledge that there is an entire VOLUME
of directives for the HUSBAND, which are equally difficult and
equally demanded of us in these passages...

It's just that I think we are (and have been for decades) in desperate need
of a balancing of the scales in the teaching we normally receive
on this subject...
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Sarah is Ten

Today my daughter Sarah turned 10 years old. Now this may just be
a Dad talking, but this is one truly amazing kid. First, she's gorgeous,
and she's also smart, extremely intelligent, very bright, agreeable, kind,
a little on the conservative side (which her mother and I are very glad
about; we're hoping that serves her well in the Teen years)...

So in every way we consider Sarah to be an absolute Gift from God.
She is a joy and a delight to be around, and we love her dearly,
with all our hearts.

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Happy Birthday, Sarah!!
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Sunday, December 23, 2007

Have a holly, jolly ... Holiday??

It seems that every year, the frontal attack on the traditional (and historical)
meaning of Christmas, and the many common expressions thereof, becomes
more pronounced. In our increasingly post-modern, secular era, dominated by
a mixture of revived Humanism and the rise of Scientific Materialism,
this sad change should come as no surprise, though it is good to see
an occasional victory
from time to time...

The word "Holiday" is being plastered over the word "Christmas" in order
that, supposedly, some folks can feel better about not "offending" those of other
faiths (Atheism included)... Which, of course, is a smoke-screen:
It's not at all about "offending", it's about removing any and all reminders that a
Savior has come to redeem Humanity from its sinfulness, a condition which
touches our very core and sabotages true Peace on Earth:

    The heart is deceitful above all things
    and beyond cure.
    Who can understand it?

    Jeremiah 17:9

    They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,
    and worshiped and served created things
    rather than the Creator...

    Romans 1:25
It is sad, and odd, and even downright silly to hear the ways in which this "Holiday"
counterfeit plays out in the real world... Consider these:

    "Have a holly, jolly... HOLIDAY??"


    "Put the ... HOLIDAY ... presents under the tree??"

    "'Twas night before ... the HOLIDAYs??"

    "I'm dreaming of a white ... HOLIDAY??"

The list, of course, could go on and on...
And check out the list of traditional Christmas tunes that would have to be completely
rubbed out of the Seasonal sections of our song books, movies, TV shows,
school recitals, and gatherings of all sorts this time of year:

      O Holy Night
      The First Noel
      Joy to the World
      O Come Emmanuel
      Away in a Manger
      O Come All Ye Faithful
      Silent Night
      Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
      Angels We Have Heard on High
      Little Drummer Boy
      It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

As these and other centuries-old traditions come under increasingly hostile attack,
perhaps they might also become ever more cherished by those of us who still believe
-- who will always believe -- that they are not only beautiful and meaninful,
but also TRUE.
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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Pain as a Necessity in the Christian life

Sometimes the writing of other people is so good (and most of C.S. Lewis
is that way) that it stands alone and needs no comment
:

If we claim to be without sin (1 John 1:8)
    Until the evil man finds evil unmistakably present in his
    existence, in the form of pain, he is enclosed in an illusion.
    Once pain has roused him, he knows that he is in some
    way or other "up against" the real universe: He either
    rebels (with the possibility of a clearer issue and deeper
    repentance at some later stage) or else makes some
    attempt at an adjustment, which, if pursued, will lead
    him to religion. It is true that neither effect is so certain
    now as it was in the ages when the existence of God (or even
    of the gods) was more widely known, but even in our own
    day we see it operating. Even atheists rebel and express,
    like Hardy and Housman, their rage against God
    although (or because) He does not, on their view, exist;
    and other atheists...are driven by suffering to raise
    the whole problem of existence and to find some way of
    coming to terms with it which, if not Christian, is almost
    infinitely superior to fatuous contempt with a profane life.

    No doubt Pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument;
    it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives
    the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment.
    It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the
    fortress of a rebel soul.
Where your treasure is (Mathew 6:21)
    We are perplexed to see misfortune falling upon decent,
    inoffensive, worthy people -- on capable, hardworking
    mothers of families or diligent, thrifty, little tradespeople,
    on those who have worked so hard, and so honestly, for their
    modest stock of happiness and now seem to be entering on the
    enjoyment of it with the fullest right...Try to believe, if
    only for the moment, that God, who made these deserving people, may really be right when He thinks that their modest
    prosperity and the happiness of their children are not
    enough to make them blessed; that all this must fall from
    them in the end, and that if they have not learned to know
    Him they will be wretched. And therefore He troubles them,
    warning them in advance of an insufficiency that one day
    they will have to discover. The life to themselves and
    their families stands between them and the recognition of
    their need; He makes that life less sweet to them. I call
    this a Divine humility because it is a poor thing to strike
    our colors to God when the ship is going down under us;
    a poor thing to come to Him as a last resort, to offer up
    "our own" when it is no longer worth keeping.
Left your first love (Revelation 2:4)
    I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary
    contentedly fallen and godless condition, absorbed in a
    merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of
    work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book,
    when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens
    serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that
    threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack
    of cards tumbling down. At first I am overwhelmed, and
    all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then,
    slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself
    into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times;
    I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to
    possess my heart, that my true good is in another world and
    my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God's grace,
    I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously
    dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right
    sources. But the moment the threat is withdrawn, my whole
    nature leaps back to the toys: I am even anxious, God
    forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that
    supported me under the threat because it is now associated
    with the misery of those few days. Thus the terrible
    necessity of tribulation is only too clear: God has had
    me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of
    taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe
    that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the
    hated bath is over -- I shake myself as dry as I can and
    race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in
    the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed.

    And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either
    sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

SOUL-SANDING: More on Pain in the Christian life

From time to time, I do a little bit of wood-working, whether it be
building shelves for my office, fixing the front porch, hanging new
trim in the living room, or making a footstool in my basement...

So over the years, at various points, I've needed to use Sand Paper
to remove unwanted material, or to smooth out rough spots in the piece
I was working on...

Sand paper, of course, comes in many degrees of "grit", referring to
the size and quantity of the stone-like, abrasive "flecks" on the surface
of the paper. The lower the grit, the larger and more rough the
flecks are, the higher the grit, the smaller and finer the flecks...

When I want to remove large amounts of unwanted material, and do so
with maximum effect from the effort I will be putting into the sanding
process, I'll buy a 60-grit, or an 80-grit; 4 or 5 passes with this
kind of paper -- depending on the toughness and resistance of the
thing to be sanded -- and I will have achieved the effect for which
I bought that grade of sand paper... A higher grit (finer) paper
simply would not get the job done...

It's not hard to see how this is analogous to the Christian life;
James 1:2-4,12 teaches us that going through difficulties and trials
should be a JOY to us, specifically because of the Change than can
result; in other words, when Life -- or God Himself -- pulls out
the 80-grit sand paper and starts to go to work on us, sure, there
is PAIN involved, and a lot of us tend to cry out to God, asking that
the Pain or Trial be removed...

But if God's primary goal for us is Transformation, and
our own Sin and Rebellion and Stubbornness and (even) Stupidity
make it necessary for Him to use the roughest grade of paper to
"SAND" our Souls, isn't that, ultimately, what we WANT, as Believers?
Is perhaps our deepest sin that we don't passionately WANT to glorify
God by BECOMING what He wants to make of us?

We should perhaps ask ourselves, then, what the possible "Sand Paper"
in our lives looks like... Is it a critical, argumentative, selfish
spouse? How about an unfaithful, belligerent, condescending spouse?
A rebellious, self-centered teenager? An immature, irresponsible
co-worker? Poverty? Physical ailments? A death in the family?

C.S. Lewis wrote,
"God whispers to us in our pleasures,
speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains:
it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."


So let's accept the Pain as being usable by God to "sand" away
those parts of our character that are not in line with the
masterpiece He intends to make of us; let's re-engage those painful
relationships in our lives, recognizing that since God's primary
VALUE system cherishes the person next to me, I should
submit to the hard work of Loving that person, too...

It's often very difficult!! Indeed, the process sometimes drags on,
involving a great deal of PAIN (and frustration, disappointment,
headache, heartache, and failure), but the Character change that will
almost certainly result is what profoundly pleases the Divine Woodworker.
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Sunday, September 23, 2007

This is only gonna hurt... well, a lot

If any of us have the notion that the Christian life
is primarily about blessing and comfort and prosperity
and ease, then perhaps we have been sidetracked from
the process of Transformation and are running after a
false Gospel...

It's critical to come back to the reality that this process
is mostly one of pain, and of hardship, and of suffering,
which begins with Jesus Himself, "a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53). While most of us may
not experience physical persecution, every single Christian
is called into the process of metamorphosis (Romans 12:2),
and that process is described throughout the Bible as one involving
a great deal of pain:
    Hebrews 4:12, 13
    The Gospel message rips bone from marrow, metaphorically,
    exposing our every Thought and Attitude to God... OUCH...

    Proverbs 27:17
    One man sharpens another... Ever used a steel file to
    sharpen something? Ya think the thing being sharpened
    enjoys the process? Oh man, that's gotta hurt...

    1 Corinthians 9:27
    Whether or not he actually beat himself with his own fists,
    Paul implies here that he pounded the *!@#@!* out of his
    Old Man and made it his slave, regularly... BAM...

    Luke 6:27-36
    Now the heat is REALLY getting turned up! What??? We are
    supposed to BLESS those who abuse us? We're to DO GOOD
    to those who hate us? Gosh, does that mean a selfish
    spouse? A rude, unkind Co-worker? A cynical, blasphemous
    neighbor? A sanctimonious, judgmental Believer? YEP!

    James 1:2-4,12
    We're not supposed to pray for Trials to be removed from
    us; instead, we're to -- get this -- count it a JOY to go
    through tough times! OUCH!

    Luke 9:23-26
    Here's Jesus himself saying that our day-to-day walk begins
    with a little "funeral" -- dying to self -- and then taking
    up our crosses (imagine the pain there!) to follow Him...

    Mathew 5:24
    This is perhaps the most PAINFUL one of them all! We're told
    here to STOP with the Religious stuff and GO MAKE PEACE with
    someone with whom we have some issue FIRST! Wow, now THAT
    is some major SAND PAPER for the SOUL!!! Double OUCH!!
There are, of course, many more passages in Scripture that should
present the TRUTH about the pain and agony we are called to go through
in the process of becoming sons and daughters of All Mighty God;
perhaps nobody in modern times has put it better than C.S. Lewis,
who describes it like this, in his talk, "Man or Rabbit":
    "The people who keep on asking if they can’t lead
    a decent life without Christ, don’t know what life is
    about; if they did they would know that 'a decent life'
    is mere machinery compared with the thing we men are
    really made for. Morality is indispensable: but the
    Divine Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us
    to be gods, intends for us something in which morality
    will be swallowed up. We are to be re-made.
    All the rabbit in us is to disappear — the worried,
    conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and
    sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of
    fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find
    underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined:
    a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant,
    wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy."
So how about it? Ready to start, or get back to, this painful Journey
sometimes known as Sanctification?? Ready for a piece o' Jesus?
He's going to hit us with more than we bargained for,
and MAN, this is gonna hurt...

But, through God's strength and relentless work in us, if we don't quit,
we WILL be glorfied, and find enternal JOY in what He
will have made of us...
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Thursday, June 28, 2007

The CAIN Syndrome

The story of Cain is well-known, first as Scripture and then as folklore:
Cain’s offering (“sacrifice”) to God was not acceptable to the Lord, and the
sacrifice offered by his brother, Abel, was; Cain did his own thing and brought Produce, while his brother aligned himself with the Lord’s priorities and brought Meat…

Genesis 4:2b-5
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.

(The story ends, of course, with Cain rising up in a fit of jealous rage and
murdering his brother, and then copping an attitude with God when asked about it… then receiving God’s curse…)

I have often pondered the fact that Cain surely knew what kind of offering would please God, and yet he decided he would do the whole “sacrifice thing” his own way; what must have gone through his mind as he labored to prepare the field, and then grow the produce, and then harvest it, and then probably bundle it into attractive presentations, and then haul it all to the Sacrifice site and get it all set up, all the while thinking to himself, “Man, this is gonna be great; I’m really laboring for God, doing the ‘work of the Lord’, and surely He’ll be pleased with me and all that I’ve accomplished!”

…only then to hear the Lord tell him that He was not pleased with what Cain brought…

What shouts to me from this particular story was that Cain was FOOLING himself, completely and profoundly self-deluded the entire time, supposing to himself that he was doing God’s will, and that he was “right with God”, when all along he cared nothing for the actual will of God…

Nearly the exact same story is eerily echoed in Isaiah, hundreds of years after Cain, when apparently the entire nation of Israel was also profoundly self-deluded about what God wanted and what sort of things pleased Him:

Isaiah 1:11, 13-17, 22,23
11 "The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?" says the LORD.
"I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood;
16 wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,
17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
22 Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.
23 Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them.

So even their prayers were repulsive to God! Why? The CAIN Syndrome … the fact that month after month, for years and years, they were praying, sacrificing, having meetings, throwing festivals, etc., -- doing the whole "religion" thing -- and yet God responded with “Enough! Your hands are full of blood…”

…and He re-educates them on what HIS priorities are, what HE calls “doing right”: Working toward Justice for, and providing Encouragement to, and Defending / Pleading the case of the oppressed, and the fatherless, and widows…

…and when the lawyers tried to trip up Jesus, hundreds of years later, with “what is the greatest of the commandments?”, Jesus replied with an all-encompassing repeat of this same theme: LOVE (not “offerings” or “sacrifices” or “prayers” or “assemblies” or “festivals”, and not even "church planting" or "evangelism" or "personal holiness", in and of themselves)...

…and the story keeps going: John writes, in one of his epistles, “if you say you’re in the light, and yet you harbor anything close to hatred (including a sense of "superiority") in your heart toward someone else, you’re fooling yourself”, and again, “how can anyone say they ‘love God’ without loving the people all around them?? You can’t say you love someone you DON’T see if you’re not all about loving the people you DO see…”

I am increasingly burdened about, and continually on the lookout for, the danger in my own heart and mind – and life – that I too might be suffering from The CAIN Syndrome; my hope and prayer is that those who know me will love me enough to help draw my attention to any self-delusion I might be suffering, so that I can re-align myself with what actually pleases God…

I want more than anything to become the saint that God created me to become, for His glory.
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Sunday, March 18, 2007

Throw-Away People

We know of a couple who recently and with heavy hearts left their church:
They had had some on-going concerns about their pastor for quite
some time, and when they attempted to bring those concerns to
the attention of the pastor, they were angrily rebuffed; apparently
their pastor was (is) content to permanently write off this couple,
(whom he had never made any effort to know or serve or understand)
as if they were little more than "Throw-Away People" to him...
Seems this pastor was simply not interested in the thoughts and feelings
of the couple, and he was (is)apparently not the least bit interested in
hearing their concerns and working WITH them toward some kind of healing...
His "oh well, so you're leaving... Whatever..." attitude came as a bit of
a sad surprise to the couple, especially from someone who talked so often
of "love" and "grace" and "humility"...

In direct contrast, the Gospel calls ALL of us to be PEOPLE-centric:
In Luke 19, we read that Zacchaeus was sought out by Christ;
and when the locals complained about Jesus seeking out someone
who was guilty of extortion and therefore despised publicly,
He told them, "Today salvation has come to this house, because
this man, too, is a son of Abraham"... Jesus' point was that despite
his sinful ways, Zacchaeus had just as much VALUE in the eyes of God
as those who were condemning and rejecting him... The next verse
continues, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
Jesus didn't wait for Zacchaeus to come close to Him before showing
this person Grace; Jesus sought him out and brought him
Salvation as a result...

Read the Bible and you'll see this same LOVE VALUES PEOPLE
theme repeated over and over: Hosea pursued his prostitute wife,
Gomer... The father strained his eyes every day to see his prodigal
son return, and RAN to him when he saw his son a long way off...
The Good Samaritan went out of his way to CARE FOR the man in the
ditch, left to die as a "Throw-Away Person" by the religious elite...

Indeed, the fundamental POINT of the Gospel (the "Good News")
can be paraphrased from John 3:16... God VALUES each and every
Human Being so deeply and profoundly that He does anything
and everything He can, including sacrificing his very Son,
in order to come TO us and try to win us back...

There ARE no "Throw-Away People" in God's perspective,
no "relationship (i.e., "clique") first, Grace and Love second"...
Everybody has Value, and God relentlessly pursues US, saying,
"Hey YOU...Yes, YOU, up there in the 'cheap seats'... Come down
and sit with ME... Let Me LOVE you and HEAL your hurts..."

Incidentally, when Zacchaeus was showered with Grace and Love
by Jesus, and shown his VALUE in Jesus' eyes, his first reaction
was to make ammends, in an attempt to rebuild damaged relationships...
And that's the pattern of the Gospel, and the one that WE should be
following in ALL our dealings with people: Grace and Compassion first,
then Healing, then Relationship; it's important that we not get those
out of order, that we do not view ANYONE as a "Throw-Away Person"
simply because they are not a member of our own tightly-controlled
Inner Circle...
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Thursday, January 11, 2007

Iraq: No End in Sight?

The news today is all about the "troop surge" that president Bush
announced last night on television... It seems that any time
there is talk of "a new strategy" for Iraq, the strategy turns
out to be the same: More troops, More money.

I am very reticent about talking Politics in these posts;
but it occurs to me this morning that the similarities between
Iraq and Viet Nam have never been more striking; in both, the
United States has:
    Fought in a country in another hemisphere,
    Engulfed in a culture we do not understand,
    Against a "philosophy" (an "ISM") largely undefined,
    Engaged with an enemy exceedingly difficult to identify,
    Despite eroding support at home,
    Borne along by an "escalation will yield victory" mentality,
    Lacking clear, achievable Objectives, and
    Missing all talk of an Exit strategy

I've said here before that I think highly of Mr. Bush
as a person, and that I never did support this war;
but as I watch how the US picks and chooses what
countries to invade, and as I hear news of more BILLIONS
going to a floundering Iraq effort, I just have to
wonder out loud, what about the REST of the problems
in this country, and around the world, where more GOOD
could be done with all that Money and Manpower?

How many Schools could we completely revolutionize
with 1 Billion dollars? How much faster would the
rebuilding work get done if 20,000 soldiers were
deployed to New Orleans on a special assignment to
lend a hand there? How much more respect, around
the world, would the US gain by taking a much less
Unilateral approach to the "war on terrorism"?

Regardless of what each of us believes about Bush
or the military or terrorism, shouldn't SOMEBODY get
a straight answer -- a CLEAR answer -- to the
questions, 1) Why are we there, and 2) When will it
be over? So far, none have been forthcoming...
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Monday, January 08, 2007

Marriage is for Lovers

Several conversations I've been involved in, in recent weeks,
concerning the subject of Marriage, have inspired me to dig
through my files and find a Discussion Board posting I came
across awhile back... There is no need for me to add to his
comments; read what he wrote and see if you don't agree that
this is the proper way to view not only our Spouses, but also
the kind of Love relationship that God desires with each of us:

    Marriage is primarily for lovers, not friends.
    We can say this with confidence because we're designed
    to have many friends around us and throughout our lives,
    married and single, but we're only designed to have
    one lover - in marriage.

    So friendship seems like a good, safe option. Marriages
    based on friendship sound
    wonderfully safe, secure and stable, while Marriages based on
    reckless things like romance, desire, longing and passion sound
    much more dubious, uncertain and less easy to control...

    Hollywood can sell movies about wild romance because
    deep down those movies connect with a part of us that knows
    that we were made for that kind of love, the kind that
    sweeps you off your feet, takes your breath away, makes
    you risk wild beasts, high waterfalls, evil bad guys
    and even death.

    While those feelings shouldn’t be the sole basis for
    marriage, to say "marriage shouldn't be like that", and to
    reduce marriage to some "less emotional" experience, and
    to fill it with images of contented friends ambling their way
    through life together, is to ROB IT of all the wonder, mystery,
    romance and passion that God himself intended it to include...

    This approach runs the risk of reducing marriage to an
    "arrangement of convenience," a happy, stable, lovely place
    of shared experience, goals and dreams. Which it should be -
    but then two bachelors can experience that…

    Marriage is NOT a glorified friendship with a bit of mutual
    attraction and sex to give you something to do when you're bored;
    marriage is the unlikely, almost impossible coming together of two
    independent lives into one living breathing whole. It is two people
    saying, "I'm going to sacrifice myself, everything I am, everything
    I want - to you, a relative stranger - for the rest of my life - I am
    going to DIE to myself every day for the rest of my life - for this thing
    called LOVE…"

    Friendship doesn't require your life, friendship is an
    arrangement of mutual benefit - marriage is an arrangement where
    the only guarantee you get is that it's going to cost you everything.
    It is messy, painful, volatile, wonderful, risky, terrifying, demanding,
    consuming, mind blowing, soul crunching, earth shattering and absolutely
    will not be boxed in to the neat confines of friendship. It is the cosmic
    collision that occurs when you take two imperfect people and try to make
    a perfect union.

    And thank God! "For God so loved the world – that he did the most unthinkable,
    inconceivable, anti-logical, self sacrificing, death-defying feat possible –
    He sent his only Son to die – that we might not perish, but have
    eternal life."

    Wow… thank God that GOD doesn’t see His relationship with us as a solid
    friendship based on shared mutual goals!

    Jesus didn't come to earth and die for us because he LIKED us, or because
    we were best mates and he wanted someone to talk to about his shared interests
    in heaven. He died for LOVE, not Friendship.

    God himself describes his relationship with his people in terms of
    lovers, a bride and groom, more often than he describes us as his friends.
    God believes in true romance, and his relationship with believers is
    the greatest romance ever told, not the greatest friendship.

    So we are called to be our spouse’s Lover… Focus on being a good lover,
    and the friendship will take care of itself. BUT! Being good lovers
    doesn't happen instinctively, naturally, like friendship; it takes a
    great deal of work, and sacrifice, and humility, and forgiveness, and
    wisdom… My wife and I were best friends, and then had to work hard to
    become lovers. Now we're best friends again, but only because we became
    lovers first.

I couldn't agree more.
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Thursday, December 28, 2006

My TREE experience: Desiring God, part 1

When I was single and living in Richmond, Virginia, I was
riding in the back seat of a friend's car one day as we
drove around the area known as "The Fan"... This area is
so named because the streets "fan out" in a westerly
direction, all beginning from the campus of Virginia
Commonwealth University (VCU), particularly from a small
park in the center of the campus...

As we drove West on one of those streets, I turned and
looked back toward that park, and I saw a very stunning
and beautiful sight: The late afternoon sun seemed to be
shining directly on a very large oak tree in the center of
the park, and the Fall colors of the tree were absolutely
brilliant in that light... Red, Yellow, Orange, Green, and
a number of variants, together with the thick, dark Bark
of the tree, contrasted against the pastel Blue of the sky
beyond the branches...

The view was so breathtaking that I couldn't help letting
out a small "Wow", whereupon the other guys, thinking I was
referring to some college girl, began asking what I had seen...

Now, if I had gotten back to the park at that moment and rushed
up to the tree, snatching off some of its colorful leaves and
rubbing them in my face, or running my hands over the rough
bark, I would, of course, failed in my attempt to immerse
myself in WHATEVER it was that impacted me by the sight of
that glorious tree in the height of the Fall season...

So it seems clear, then, that the Tree itself was only a
"carrier" of the WHATEVER it was that struck me; we can
assign the word "Beauty" to it and act as if that is the
end of the discussion; but it is the DESIRE itself, very
real and very poignant at that moment, that raises
an interesting question: A "desire" for... What? ...

Have you ever had a Desire for something -- it could be anything,
it doesn't matter -- that was so deep and so strong that it
caused you a kind of "pain" in the wanting? You can probably
identify the Object of that desire: A woman, a promotion, a
baby, a prize, the completion of a philanthropic effort...

But what do we do with the Desires we (some of us, sometimes)
feel when we cannot necessarily identify WHAT it is that we
desired?? What was it that I felt, what was it that I desired,
when I was awed by the "Beauty" of that Tree? After all,
"Beauty" is a human word used to describe something we perceive
in the physical world, and yet, when we are free to (more or
less) "consume" that thing, we find we've missed whatever it is
(or was) of which the Physical was just a "medium" for...

Anybody who has read Lewis will recognize the concept immediately,
this Desire for we-know-not-what... Human Beings throughout all
of history have experienced just these sorts of desires, and
we have written poems and songs about them, done Art as a kind
of homage to them, and celebrated them in every conceivable way.

WHY?

While not a logically air-tight "argument" for God's existence,
we have to wonder about the nature and origin of these desires,
and very few of us would deny their existence; we feel compelled
to EXPLAIN them, or, to explain them AWAY...
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Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Winning by Losing

In the movie, "White Men Can't Jump", Rosie Perez's character
tells her boyfriend, "Sometimes when you win, you really lose,
and sometimes when you lose, you really win...
" Jim Elliot,
a missionary to Ecuadoran Indians (and who was later murdered
by them, along with others on his team), put the same thought
in more serious and profound terms: "He is no fool who gives up
what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.
"

So yesterday's mid-term Elections were taken as a "defeat"
by many voters, especially some conservatives and quite a few
so-called "evangelicals"... With abortion bans voted down
in South Dakota, Stem Cell research voted IN, in Missouri,
Democrats winning back control in Congress, and other signs
of danger to (what many believe to be) the underpinnings
of American morality, Wednesday morning's results may, for some,
foreshadow some dark days ahead...

"America will cease to be great when she ceases to be good,"
we hear some preachers tell us; but exactly what role does
America being "great" play in the marching orders we have
as Christians? Loving God with all our hearts and souls and
minds and strength, and (as a way of putting FEET to that)
loving other people with hands-on, servant love -- this certainly
includes being good and responsible citizens, but would that
mandate be any less binding on us if America becomes a
nation filled with openly gay couples, abortion-on-demand, corrupt
Democrats in power, rampant Inflation, and even the censoring
of all "traditional" Christian speech, gatherings, and displays?

Revelation 2:4 warns us about leaving our "first love" even in
the midst of "serving the Lord", and other Scripture passages
caution us about "turning to other gods"... Given the mandate
to LOVE, and the SIN of dividing ourselves into "Us" vs."Them"
groups (especially along political, economic, ethnic,and
sexual lines), it is perhaps important right now to leverage
the "defeat" of this election as a reminder that eternal values
are the ones Christians should remain primarily focused on,
exchanging Labels for LOVE and Politics for PEOPLE.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
-- Mathew 6:21

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Friday, November 03, 2006

...and the Moral Confusion continues...

A story on CNN's website today gives us all yet another
example of the rampant confusion in our times over what
is "moral", what is "immoral", and who gets to decide
which is which...

The situation with Colorado Springs pastor Ted Haggard
and his accuser, Mike Jones, is a sad situation, no matter
what the eventual outcome is; but what caught my attention
about this story was Jones' quote on WHY he came forward:
    "I cried many nights; I got sick tormenting myself
    about whether I should do this," he said. "I finally
    had to come to peace with myself. ... I had to do
    the moral thing."
Mike Jones has been identified as a drug-dealing, gay,
male prostitute, and is presumably these things because
he chooses to / wants to be; hearing him invoke some vague
moral imperative is like seeing violent street gang members
taking part in a Peace rally...

Make no mistake, Jesus passionately loves Mike Jones, as He
does every single one of us, regardless of our "brand" of
Sin; and even in his sinful state, Mike Jones (like the
rest of us) demonstrates hope for his own redemption by
even supposing that one thing is "moral" and another thing
is not (though many of us disagree, of course, with his
conclusions)...

But -- and as I have said here before -- the fact that ANYONE
in modern times openly invokes the Moral imperative with
one breath while disparaging any absolute standard of Morality
with the next breath is, to me, an indication that many people
in our time are too lazy to think and too confused as to
where to begin...
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Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Why is it Wrong?

A song that I like very much, by a Christian group,
has as one of its primary lines, these words:
"...and I have found that the Answer is to Love You
and be Loved by You..."

If you picture the relationship between ourselves
and God as a Father-son relationship (which I think
is the very focal point of the Christian faith),
then consider this analogy, when pondering the idea
of what we commonly call "Moral Absolutes":

Your father is a commander in the Army, and since he
has been away from home since you were born, you've
never really met him; but he has left you a series
of letters in which not only does he declare his
love for you, but which also include a subset of
"guidelines" or "principles" that he wants you to
live by... You've been taught that your father not
only loves you very deeply but that he is also
extremely wise... You're also convinced that one
of these days you're going to finally meet him...

So you decide you're going to be faithful to the
instructions of your father... Some of these are
fairly straight-forward, and their wisdom is apparent:

"Don't hit your sister" (for how would you like it if
she were to hit YOU, for no good reason)... "Don't
stick your finger in the stove flames", and "Don't
play with sharp knives"... Easy enough, right? Nobody
in their right mind questions these "rules", and you
find it easy to obey them...

But what if you develop a friendship with Tom Smith,
down the street, and although reputation and your own
experience show Tom to be a bit of a scoff-law, you
find that you rather like hanging out with Tom, and
you believe those who hold that he is a trouble-maker
to be stuffy, narrow-minded, and biggoted...

And then, right there in the letters, your own father
says, "oh, and stay away from that rebel, Tom Smith!"

And what if you meet other young people who ALSO
think that Tom Smith is pretty cool? And what if
there are enough of them that you begin to believe
that "liking Tom Smith" is not only okay, but what
you were MADE to be like, as part of your "identity",
and you felt a real solidarity with Tom-Smith-likers?

Right then and there, you would have a decision to make:
Do you TRUST that your father loves you deeply, and
has this Rule about Tom Smith because he is wiser than
you and understands the Tom Smiths of the world better
than you, and that his love for you inspired this rule,
or do you decide that your father is out of touch,
old-fashioned, and not "up with the times"?

After all, liking Tom Smith seems to be so pervasive
that how could staying away from him make any sense?

You might go further in saying that your father may not
REALLY be your father after all, OR, that he doesn't really
know you, OR, that when he says "stay away from Tom Smith"
he doesn't REALLY mean "stay away" but only "don't become
like him..." In fact, wouldn't the options for questioning
and even disparaging your father's wisdom be as limitless
as your own imagination and subjective experiences?
Couldn't you ultimately make your father's letters to you
say whatever you WANT them to say?

Well, if you accept that there is a GOD, and that He loves
you -- as His very own child -- deeply and passionately,
doesn't it behoove you to find out if God has communicated
His Will to you, and if so, what that Will is? And can
you not see the very great, and very slippery-slope Danger
that you could make "His Will" really about YOUR wants
and wishes and preferences instead of what He really said?

Christians believe these very same things about what we
call "Moral Absolutes": God LOVES us deeply and passionately,
and He knows what is best for His children far better than
we ourselves... When God calls any particular act a "sin",
we either have to LOVE Him back, and OBEY, or go off in the
profoundly subjective direction of redefining, questioning,
doubting, and finally outright REJECTING His Will...

But at that point, we've lost all sight of Love for HIM
and have really supplanted it with love for OURSELVES...

May God Himself help us to obey His Will, and respond to
His infinite Love for us by acknowledging, in Word and
in Deed, that we love Him in return...
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Friday, October 13, 2006

God's Disco Ball

If this analogy strikes you as rather silly, and is of no help
to you in your search for meaning and for the knowledge of
God, then discard it and look elsewhere; but for what it's worth,
consider the idea that each of us has as our ultimate destiny
the becoming of a single mirror on God's cosmic "disco ball"...

Simply put, a disco ball is a sphere made of numerous tiny
mirrors attached to a frame; as the ball spins, the mirrors catch
light that is cast on the whole, creating interesting patterns of
reflected light from the many mirrors which make up the ball...

Each and every tiny mirror on the ball is unique, both in
its position on the ball and its particular reflection of light
at any one moment during the spinning...

Each human Soul was created by God with the potential
to reflect back to God His own Light -- His GLORY -- as we are
someday grafted back into His very being... Indeed, we are most
fully "ourselves" as we reject our own purposes -- being our
own tiny mirrors with our own fulfillment as our primary goal --
and yield to the refining process that makes it possible to
reflect His glory, not so that WE can be noticed but so that
HE can be more completely and gloriously reflected IN us...

Much more depth on this concept can be found by reading about
how mirrors are made; spend a few minutes reading about mirrors
HERE and also HERE...

Jesus said that whoever loses his life for Jesus' sake will find it,
and the broader message of the Gospel is RESSURECTION:
Dying and then being raised to a new KIND of Life, Life that says
"Not my will but THINE be done..."

As each of us submits -- even daily -- to the death of our own fulfillment,
we find Ultimate fulfillment in becoming what we were originally made
to be: Unique expressions of the Glory of God, fitly reflecting back
to Him His own Light...

Every choice we make, every single day, either dulls and smudges
the mirror a bit, or polishes and buffs it a bit (hence the idea of
purification through, sometimes, Suffering), toward the ultimate end
of being either full of own own darkness or full of His light...

There is one important way in which the "disco ball" analogy
breaks down: I said above that God's Glory will be reflected IN us...
Actually, His Glory will be reflected THROUGH us: In God's
"disco ball", the Source of the light comes from INSIDE the ball,
not outside it; in that sense, then, we will be more like PRISMS than
mirrors, and the incredible "light show" that we will enjoy and
participate in and celebrate, for all eternity, will be profoundly beautiful...

The process of "Metamorphosis" (Romans 12:2), condensed and
exemplified for us in the single historical, bodily Ressurection
of Jesus from death, is the entire Gospel in a nutshell: YOU have
Identity and Meaning and Purpose and Value precisely because there is
a place on that "disco ball" which you are -- if you CHOOSE -- destined
to occupy; reject that, refuse to die and be raised, and you will end up
reflecting your own darkness, which of course is no reflection at all;
mirrors (and prisms) devoid of any Light are just useless hunks of rock...
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Saturday, September 30, 2006

Music as a Clue to Meaning

There was a time in my life when I played the piano
(and keyboards) on a fairly regular basis, completely by ear,
taking a lot of time to "sound out" songs based on what
I could hear in my head... Though I don't play much
anymore, I used to be able to sit at the piano and play
music that I personally enjoyed, and that others sometimes
heard and enjoyed along with me...

Someone commented to me once about my playing that
while other people they knew who had taken years of piano
lessons may play all the notes with technical skill, my playing
(they noted) was MUSIC...

I've never forgotten that. And I think this is a very good
metaphor for the Christian World View: The modern Reductionist
wants us to believe that there IS no real Meaning, that all of
Life, throughout the Universe and across all Space and Time,
is merely "notes", Atoms and Energy doing what they do, and
that none of it has any metaphysical significance at all...

Yet they turn right around and call things "beautiful",
things like Music and a Sunset and a child's face, and they
apparently fail to see the profound Contradiction in their
stated Word View and how it plays out in their Experiences:

There was something about the music I played that distinguished
it from merely hitting the proper notes in the proper sequence;
call it "dynamics" or "soul" or whatever, but the mechanics
of my playing seemed to point to something not found in the mere
"notes" themselves, much the same way that a Song on the radio
is modulated by the radio frequency but not found IN
the frequency itself...

Find any tree during this Fall season, with its changing colors
and striking contrasts, and go up to it and pluck some of its leaves
and carve out a piece of its bark, and feel, smell, and taste
these things; you will only experience Atoms, but NOT the Beauty which
those elements point to... Listen to a piece of music that moves you, and
you will NOT be telling your close friends about a particular
arrangement of "notes" but of the rapturous "state" to which
that music carried you...

This, then, is yet another "clue" as to the Meaning of the Universe.
Observations about FACTS cannot themselves BE among the facts observed, and the mind doing the observing must be outside the Facts...
If I am moved by the sound of a beautiful piece of music, there must be
something beyond the notes that is calling to me, and something
more than just my brain matter that senses that call... And it is the chasing after whatever "IT" is that is the stuff of Metaphysics, not the scientific study
of Atoms and Energy... So much for "Science" explaining God away...

Consequently, the world of the Naturalist/Reductionist is stale,
technical, and spectacularly NOT Beautiful. Once again, the
Christian World View has an answer to this mystery, and the answer
is that we are not only transcendant Beings but beings for whom
NO present Beauty is completely and comprehensively satisfying...

If there really ARE such things as Truth, and Beauty, and Goodness,
they must have their grounding and emminence in something beyond
the mere Facts we experience... And since the only thing that can
transcend Matter is MIND, it would seem that a transcendent Mind
must be the Source which gives us even our first inklings of what
these things are and why they are universally impactful..

Christianity refers to this Mind as a PERSON, the God we worship
and to Whom our internal compasses naturally and unflappably point.

Blessed be HE, who Is and Was and Always Shall Be.