apologia

PROTOCOL

2011-10-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

my understanding of this word is based on a READERS' DIGEST article of maybe 10 years ago about a doctor seeking to help hospitals be more successful in healing people and not harming them. the doctor came up with a list of things that each health worker (doctor, nurse, all!) must follow in contact with patients and their records. the list was called a protocol. the fact of having the list in black and white before them, and requirement that they check off items only as they do them or insure that they are done, immensely helped health workers succeed in helping well.

what i am pondering here is the possibility of discovering a list of things that we as Christians must do in order to have our prayers answered.

that statement maybe sounds selfish and naive in its bare-bones form, but let me quickly clarify it by referring first to James' admonition at JAMES 4:3
"When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives (that you may spend what you get on pleasure.)"

(i'll write more later.)

STUMBLING

2011-09-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

at the theological discussion website THEOLOGICA.NING, some respondents to a question i had emphasized their belief that those who God has destined to be His children, a part of His eternal kingdom, He has predestined from the beginning. The way these folks said it was whatever was or were the means by which God drew and called them, it was God Himself who called them.
This discussion with predestination being a given, was new to me. Wesleyan tradition focuses on "means of grace" , things that help us to draw close to God.
But i read a few scripture references and was convinced that some are destined to accept God's free gift (and some never will, I guess.)Also, what informed my thinking on this was seeing that my experience or reasoning agreed with what they were putting forth. I said , " i can imagine two people experiencing the same things, learning the same things, being hurt by the same things and encouraged by the same thing, but having totally different responses to their life experiences.
So now I have a new perspective on salvation: the one whom God destines to be "saved" will be saved; but their life can be filled with a lot of detours-messy detours- or it can be more direct. I can think of three Bible passages about stumbling that shed light for me on this idea. 1)Where Jesus says, "if anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble it would be better if they had never been born." 2)Where Paul says, "don't do anything -including something that you feel free to do because of Christ's freedom- that could cause others to stumble." and 3)Where Daniel dreamed about the rock that would cause some to stumble; but others would be broken by the same stone.
Thinking of others as already having ( or not having) a predisposion to come to God changes the way I will approach others.

REAR GUARD

2011-04-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

JUST GETTING THIS STARTED FOR NOW:
the preacher told about a hiking trip he was on with boy scouts and his dad as a leader.
one day, the son wanted to be at the back cuz' he was feeling slow. every once and a while he would call out to his dad at the front, " i'm still here. i'm doing ok."
that got me to thinking of the special job of being the rear guard. I want to see what the Bible has to say about it; and write about Paul always mentioning his people, the jews that he still is concerned about; and dear former president George W. (whose wife is a teacher at heart always, of course) who at least tried or did lip service to "No Child Left Behind"; and my poem, if I can find it, called WE ARE THE PRODIGAL SON; and, of course, Jesus talking about the lost this and lost that.

OFF THE CUFF. FIX IT UP!

2010-12-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

Recently a church leader in England, (Bishop of Canterbury?), when asked about the announced upcoming marriage of one of the princes, said something like "I'll give them seven years." There was an uproar in response. That was a horribly glib answer to give. I hope that the church leader has subsequently said something more helpful about the subject- something like "I am sorry I spoke so lightly about such an important subject. I was voicing my concerns about marriage in general and celebrity marriage in particular. I would be delighted to meet with the young couple to give them some premarital counselling or even refer them to someone whom I esteem as skilled and sincere in such situations."

Making unhelpful comments is something we all do. Just be humble and loving enough to redo.

BACK HERE FOR NOW

2010-10-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

Well, today when I tried to access this space, I was able to -with my non-g-mail e-mail address. I guess I'll keep going here while I can. I can at least finish the idea I was working on.

I'm going back to that last post to finish it out and correct some mistakes and write in the referenced passage.

continuation of . . .ARE ATHEISTS RIGHT?

2010-08-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of the post I started previously:

Here are more of the faith-filled (and prophetic) words of Isaiah in ISAIAH 25: ". . . He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples . . . He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces: He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the Earth . . . . In that day they will say, 'Surely this is our God: We trusted in Him, and He saved us. This is the Lord; we trusted in Him; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.'"

My desire at that moment-driving along that beautiful stretch of Braeswood at dusk-was that I wanted to know how it could be that He is loving and all-powerful and this world is such a mess; and I wanted (and now also want) to be able to tell others how it can be so. I don't know how the Lord has developed in me such a rock solid faith that He "is love" (I JOHN 4:8), and that He can do all things, but this faith I have.

Some things that have helped me along the way are:
-My father always pointed out to us things in nature that are beautiful and wonderful (like Canada geese way up in the sky)
-At one point after years of thinking of the Bible as a dusty, old, out-dated, boring book, I found out it contains some valid advice. I CORINTHIANS 7:9 says, "But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." Impressive loving level-headed wisdom from the Bible. (I've since learned more common sense things from the Bible.)
-I was always a shy, socially marginalized person. Someone encouraged me to use that aspect of my life to become closer to God.

After I realized the Bible contained some practical helpful, realistic info, I started studying the Bible with others. The more I learned of it, the more it made sense, seemed really connected to reality and seemed like God actually communicating with us.

I think there have been some specific truths I have learned (including the above) that have very much increased my faith in God and Jesus, and my love and understanding.

Let me tell you about the six parables of MATTHEW 13, verses 24 to 52. (All of MATTHEW 13 is important, but these last 6 of the 7 parables are short; and my new understanding of them gave me a new perspective and hope.)
verses 24-30: Jesus teaches that the Church will have good and bad people in it.
verses 31&32: Jesus teaches that the Church will start out tiny and become a giant organization that is so pleasant that some people will become attached to it and profit from it (as the birds in the tree are not part of it) because it is pleasant and profitable, not because they want to be part of God's work.
verse 33: Jesus teaches that since the "kingdom of heaven", the Church, is an institution of mankind and God, combining the substance and purity and perfection of God with the inconsistency, fallibility and corruptibility of mankind (as symbolized by the yeast), the Church must inevitably become a mixture of God's good and mankind's wrongness/imperfection.
(verse 35: After that parable, Matthew, who recorded these words of Jesus and the events of His life, referred to PSALM 78:2 "I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.")
verse 44: (continuing with the parables) Jesus teaches that although the Church, the kingdom of heaven, will be an imperfect thing, it is very precious to God, to the point that He will purchase the field (the whole world?) to save those who would be His followers, this "kingdom of heaven".
verses 45, 46: Jesus teaches that God gives everything to "buy" this thing- this pearl, this combination of God and mankind working together, this thing of beauty brought about by imperfection.
verses 47 to 50: Jesus teaches that although the Church will contain both people who love and put their faith in God and those that are just there 'cuz it's a good place to be, it is not our job to judge the hearts of others; that will be done by God or by His angels at another time. We are freed from that concern. We can judge fruit, maybe, but not heart. Let God do that. That's how I read that parable. I don't know if that is the correct interpretation of that last one, but I can't see anything else for it. God is good. Love to all, Joan.

ARE ATHEISTS RIGHT?

2010-06-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry, but I must start by saying I believe in God; I believe that He made us and all creation and that He loves us, His creation that He made in His image. (I believe God made and loves all creation.)

I also believe that God made us as He did - with free will, the ability to make our own decisions - for His own good reasons and that eventually we will see why God knows that us having free will, the ability to either accept or reject Him, is more important/essential than the pain and suffering and hatred that we people endure and inflict on each other. That last thing I wrote is the hardest to take - the hardest to believe. By faith I say that God is love. I believe that God is love. I have experienced God's love in many ways.

What I'm trying to say is that I can see why someone might come to believe that there is not any god who created us and all things. It is possible that someone believes NOT in God because they don't think that a god who loves and can do all things would allow our world to continue in such a way with people hurting people. Simply put, the state of the world sees inconsistent with a loving and just God.

I remember back in the 1960's hearing about people loudly saying "God is Dead" or carrying signs that said that. I was a child at that time and if I did think about it then, I thought those were just some smart-alecky, sharp, rebellious people who were saying that. It wasn't until years later that I realized that those thoughts were being expressed two decades after the Holocaust. People had endured horrible cruelty and perhaps a sense of their prayers being unanswered. If the jews were God's chosen people, how could He stand aside and let all those horrible things happen? I can see where it would be less painful to believe that there is no God than to believe that God wouldn't help you and save you or your loved ones.

I asked God about this a few years ago. (I was driving along a particularly beautiful stretch of South Braeswood in Houston between Atwell and Hillcroft at dusk.) I was crying. He knew that I love Him and believe He is good and loving and just. I believe He answered me by bringing to my mind a Bible verse I had heard a few times over the years:
"...He will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
I looked the verse up (in a concordance). It is in ISAIAH, the 25th chapter. Here are more of the faith-filled (and prophetic) words of Isaiah there:
. . . I must stop for now. I'll finish this later.

SMALL VERSUS BIG

2010-06-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

I just read Richard Heyduck's post on sequimur.com/banditsnomore (something like that) about technology. In the post, he applied the ideas (from a book he was reviewing) to the more mental/social arena of how we (mainline christians) develop and grow our churches.

That, in turn reminded me of a poem that I have been half-writing in my mind for a few years now.
The poem is titled DARK MATTER DOES MATTER, and it expresses my theory that the things that christians do on a one-to-one basis, deeds of sacrificial love and humility that are out of the spotlight are the things that God God uses to "draw all men" to Himself.
Just as scientists are now finding that matter that has heretofore not been perceived by us or our instruments makes up the bulk of the universe and causes it to "run" the way it does, likewise, in the institution now called the Church, most focus (as Richard also said) is on programs and groups and large events.

Related news: The other day I was at Second Baptist in Houston for a funeral, and was looking at the display that the church had showing activities that take place at their Woodway location, along with aerial photos of the building and grounds. It was very nice; but since I was on the lookout for evidences of people appreciating the importance of one-on-one ministry, I looked to see if there were something like that represented among the photos. You know, of course (since I'm writing this) that there were no photos of one or two people visiting a sick person, or a friend talking to a friend about the Bible with the Bible open between them , or something like that. I suppose that such intimate photos would be out of place in the giant display that I saw. Also, I feel sure that the Second Baptist people DO have an extensive ministry , a coordinating and encouraging and training of the members -informal and formal-for that type of one-to-one ministry. But . . .
That's all for now. Over and out.

Additional Related: You may or may not know that Houston is home to Lakewood Church, pastored by Joel Osteen for the past five or ten years since his father passed away. I have heard Joel preach on the tv enough times to know that I believe him to be a sincere humble servant of the Lord God Most High who loves the people of the world, lost and found, and carefully studies the Word to bring forth an edifying message for those who look to him for spiritual food. I am still struggling with the question of whether a giant church can be for an individual what God wants church to be. Relating to a giant 7,000-plus member organization is not the same as relating to one, two, five or ten others. But where in the Bible (or in nature) is instruction in this distinction? I'm still looking. If someone sees this post and has some ideas (scriptures or natural processes) please write it here.

STAUROS

2010-05-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

Just a note here: A Jehovah's witness brought to my attention that the word in the NEW TESTAMENT that is translated "cross" , the cross that Jesus was crucified on, i actually, in the greek, "staurus", and that that word is related to the english words "stake" and related. This was a real eye-opener to me at the time. Subsequently, when I was reading the passage where Jesus was saying "take up your cross and follow me", I wondered if He was also meaning, "take up your tent stakes and move with me", as in the old testament similar passage.

The OLD TESTAMENT situation I'm refering to is: during the 40 years that the jews were in the wilderness after God got them out of Egypt, God led them geographically by means of the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. When these supernatural provisions from God moved, the Israelis were to take this as sign that they were to break camp, pack up, "pull up stakes" and MOVE with the cloud and the pillar of fire.

When I think of the above, the pictures in my mind are: 1)the physical therapist helping the person recovering from injury by moving their limb through its extent of travel loosening up the joint and gradually increasing its ease of movement. The recovering person does best, I think, to relax and let the therapist do the moving of the limb. Part of the procedure is getting the patient to the place where he or she WILL relax and let the therapist move the limb. (Actually, I don't know this to be true. I'm just guessing. I will ask my therapist friend.); and 2)the player in a video game, as portrayed by the on-screen "Mario" or whomever, who moves about a bit without moving his feet, seemingly to keep himself in an attitude of preparedness which includes a flexible attentive open-ness to a multitude of possible attacks, problems and opportunities.

Entrenchment in the attitudes that we have grown up with or grown accustomed to, our beliefs religious and otherwise, are much more powerful than we realize because these beliefs have always been with us. Jesus was asking-if I'm right about this- that His hearers, especially the jews, be flexible/ see the truths/principles that God had revealed to the people without bias.

PERFEC

2010-03-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

I heard yesterday that Winnie Mandela was quoted as saying that she and many black South Africans have come to consider that Nelson Mandela has failed his people by not bringing about needed change. (The phrase "sold out" was not used but that's what was meant.)
Well, who is perfect? I don't know how bad things are there. And I myself wondered at the continued poverty of the majority of the blacks there. But when you compare the current state of the blacks in South Africa with those in other African nations, and, for me, the flow of history of South Africa compared with what has arisen in the United States based on our acceptance of the "rightness" of the American Revolution, . . . I still admire Nelson Mandela and all those who stayed the course of peaceful change, relying on GOD, and prayer.

NKOSI SIKELELE iAFRIKA

2009-12-09T14:32:00.000-08:00

Here is the english translation of the anthem of black liberation that
the crowds/chorus of South African blacks sang during the years they
were enduring apartheid:

God bless Africa
May her glory rise high
Hear our pleas
God bless us
Us Your children
Come Spirit
Come Holy Spirit
God we ask you to protect our nation
Intervene and end all conflicts
Protect us
Protect our nation
Let it be so
Forever and ever

What a beautiful prayer. This translation I found in the book that the movie INVICTUS is based on. The book is PLAYING THE ENEMY by - - - Carlin.
I must add that while the poem INVICTUS apparently was a great comfort to Nelson Mandela, because he needed to have great discipline during his years of imprisonment, the words "I am the captain of my fate" may not express our Christian beliefs. GOD is the captain of our "fate"; but we have our part to do - to do our part or not do our part.

Again I say that the subject of this entry is the anthem sung earnestly, fervently, to God by many, many people, many times, and in the face of . . .
Praise God. Thank you God, for the faith of the blacks of South Africa, and those others who knew, knew that You were not pleased with the conditions of South Africa at that time. Help us, Lord. Thank you.

IS IT TIME YET?

2009-11-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

At Theologica.ning, an online community of those who want to discuss (and encourage others? and be encouraged by others?) the things of God as revealed in Christianity, one sister asked recently is it God's plan that mankind's and christianity's understanding of what God's plans and will are - is that changing over time? The question was something like that.

I think yes, YES. At the time when Jesus was walking around down here, the jews thought that they alone were in God's heart, even though God had originally said to Abraham, " I will bless you and the nation that comes from you and you-all will be a blessing to the nations, (and those that bless you will be blessed, and those that curse you will be cursed.)

Part of what Jesus had to accomplish while here was to explain to the jews about God "expanding the kingdom."

In my view, some places where Jesus was explaining that were :
Where Jesus told about the rich man who died and was across a gulf from the poor man , Lazarus, and Abraham. I see that as Jesus saying "Hey. Abraham is just a man. He cannot bridge that gulf. God could bridge the gulf, but not Abraham. Also, Abraham does not have the perfect love for people that God has. Also, maybe Jesus was asking His hearers to consider for themselves if the rich man "got what he deserved" according to the Law, and maybe there needs to be more.

How about this one: Maybe when Jesus was saying "One does not light a lamp and put it under a bushel" He was asking His hearers to remember the story of Gideon. In that story, Gideon DOES put lit flames in enclosures (jars?) until a strategic time. Maybe Jesus was saying, "there was a specific time when Gideon broke the jars and let the light shine. My time here is the start of a new time just like that.

BATHED IN PRAYER

2009-11-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

I am reading the book PLAYING THE ENEMY, by Carlin at present. It is about Nelson Mandela, the time of his captivity, the time of his release and election and his goal and plan for the new political establishment after the end of apartheid to come about without bloody revolution. In particular the book (and the movie INVICTUS also), I think, is about his decision to embrace the 1995(?) rugby world cup in which the mainly white South African team was playing as an opportunity for the disparate sectors of South Africa to unite. As I have been reading the events of Mandela's life, and how the government, even before his realease, was making an effort to make peace with him, I wondered if there was a lot of prayer going up for the country of South Africa, and for the peaceful transition to the post-apartheid country it needed to become. I was wondering where I could find info on who might have been praying (Desmond Tutu, of course, would have been leading his people in that. I didn't know if Mandela identified himself as christian.)

Soon after that question arose, the answer came. The author final typed out the words of the Black African Anthem of Liberation in english. It was a prayer to God from beginning to end! And a beautiful prayer, too. Not angry and vengeful, but sad and asking, and looking and hoping for the future day when all the country's people would be at peace and happy.

I would like to find out more about that anthem, and to hear it. I really want to hear it, with all those people singing together so fervent.

I'm really lookin forward to the movie, also.

MY GREAT SIN OF OMISSION

2009-10-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

Many times in my life I have sinned in not doing what I thought or knew that I should. My life has been so characterized by not doing what I should that hearing Frank Sinatra sing "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention. . ." R E A L L Y bothers me. Am I the only person so tormented by things I've left undone ("procrastinated")?

But I want to tell you of only one great sin of omission here.

In 2002 and 2003, in the time after 9/11 but before President Bush attacked Iraq in order to bring down Saddam Hussein and in order to be consistent with the ultimatum that he, Bush, had issued to Saddam, I wondered to myself, "What if I send a letter to Saddam Hussein, or have one published in the paper?” That letter would say something like:

"Dear Saddam,

"There is a God who created you and all things. He is all-powerful. He can see you where- ever you may hide. Even if you can defeat every man that is your enemy Our God, the God of all, can see you and touch you.

"So that you may know that there is a God most high, and so you will know that you must be humble before the Lord God most high who has made Himself known to us through Jesus Christ His son, I am going to pray in Jesus' name that the Lord will cause a pain in your left elbow that is unexplainable and not the result of a natural event. Also, I will encourage other Christians to pray for this also, so that you may know that God is God, that Jesus is the way to God, and so that you may humble yourself before God and put yourself into God's loving care and as a result of putting your faith in God, your may do what is best for your people, all Iraqis, and surrender to the U.S. forces. Even if you don't trust the U.S. and don't think that Bush is right to make the demands on you that he has, you can still trust God, if He, God, proves Himself to you by putting a pain in your left elbow."

I thought about writing such a letter to Saddam Hussein and trying to rouse Christians around the world to pray in faith and in love – for Iraqis, for Saddam Hussein himself, for God’s glory and name- that God would give Saddam a pain in his left elbow. (Why the left elbow? Because it is more easily examined, it is an easily-specified area, it’s not life-threatening and I assumed the man was right-handed and that pain from wear and tear would naturally occur in the right elbow, not the left.)

Well, I did nothing. I tried to talk myself into it. I said, “Joan, even if it’s a failure, at least it will be a glorious failure.” “Won’t you risk a failure for the sake of the possibility of God’s success, of averting a war?” Of course, at that time, all the years and pain and horror and muddle and mire were still unknown.

Don’t you wish that I had tried my little “Saddam’s left elbow” project? Even if it had failed! It would still have been worth it to say that we, in love and in trying to follow Jesus’ way, tried to avert conflict between Saddam and the U.S.

As an addendum to this story, let me tell you that six months or a year before the Saddam Bush ultimatum crisis started, I DID feel God’s leading to pray about something: That a giant pine tree in our yard that was dying and then dead would come alive and live.

I really DID feel God was asking me to pray in faith about that and even to tell others that I was praying for this tree to live or to live again. (My thoughts on the Saddam project were not the same way. That was more a matter of thinking about the power that God has given to us believers and logically thinking about what we as followers can and should do, prayer or otherwise, in response to crises.)

I couldn’t do it. I COULD NOT DO IT. First of all, I couldn’t believe that God would ask me to pray for a tree when people are dying and tormented all over the World, and babies are being aborted. Secondly, I didn’t think there was precedent in the Bible for praying for a tree to come back to life for no other reason than to prove God answers prayer. (I’m trying to remember my thoughts of that time. I was VERY sad about this giant tree dying. I was grieving. Therefore, I thought that this type of prayer would be selfish and inappropriate, since this tree wasn’t a person. I thought, “If I’m going to pray resurrection, it ought to be for a person to live- not a tree.) Of course, I can see in hindsight that praying for that tree could have been an important step up in my walk with God—in two ways, being willing to pray and believe for whacko stuff; and being willing to be judged whacko in the following of what I believed God told me to do (which did not conflict with God’s truth in the Bible. See I JOHN 4:1.)

Now today I was listening to REVIVE OUR HEARTS with Cathy Lee DeMoss on the radio. She was speaking on “the Sin of Tolerance”, based on REVELATION 2:20-25. This is wonderful, strong teaching and made me wonder if my “whacko” ideas are away from God. But I put Jesus and God at the center. I will never pray for a thing out of God’s will. Also, any prayer-in-agreement project would have as a precept that the pray-ers ask that God ONLY act in agreement with His perfect will in any matter. (I believe that in the verse JAMES 4:3, James and our God are giving us a promise along with the chastisement. I find it very comforting to know that God will not grant prayers we pray that are not in His will. I want only God’s will because I believe that God is love.)

That’s all I have to say for now. God bless you and me. AND HIS KINGDOM COME AND HIS WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. AMEN.

I WOULD BE ALL THINGS TO ALL SO THAT I. . .

2009-08-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

I have decided on a life scripture. I found, some time back, that my great-aunt who was a missionary to India, had a "life scripture." I don't remember what it was, but it made me wonder what mine might be, or if that is an appropriate thing to do. I had thought of other scriptures and thought that they were it; but the other day I reallized how important that scripture of Paul's (see above) is to me.

It went like this: The religion section of the Houston Chronicle had an article about how muslims were intending to be more observant than usual in order to honor the month of Ramadan. One aspect was that women (in US?) who don't usually wear the scarf of the muslims will wear it at this time. That reminded me of how my heart goes out to the muslims who are trying to honor God, and that the Christian Church's refusal to acknowledge that there IS something about that in the NEW TESTAMENT is a man-made obstacle to the muslims that God did not put.

(Just as an aside, I think that the word for the religious laws of the muslims is "sharia". I wonder if that is another word which comes from the root of "shar" in the hebrew language, which means remnant. Sharia is a way that a group distinguishs itself- separating itself from the surrounding culture. See my earlier blog post called FUN WITH WORDS.)

We need to do what we can to bring others TO God, especially those who are seeking Him, in what ever confused a way that may be.

So that is my life verse. Now I must go find it so I can write it here accurately, and give you the address.

The verse is I CORINTHIANS 9:22b.

SINCE YOU ASKED

2009-08-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

A Member on Theologica.ning.com asked what others thought that Jesus' return was going to be like, based on what they have read in the Bible. Answers were slow at the beginning. I have not read through the answers, and don't really have anything to add to what others have and are saying on that subject.

(oh yes! I did think of something: Jesus said in response to questions about when He would come that the homeowner did not know the time when the thief was coming else he would have prepared himself- ala "HOME ALONE". Since the devil is the lord of this word, maybe it is essential to not have the time of Jesus' return known so that the devil doesn't have any advantage that he would have if he had notice.)

. . . But I do want to share my idea about what the first half of REVELATION Chapter 9 might mean. I really believe this. This passage is about the "star that had fallen from heaven to earth" which had been given the key to the shaft of the abyss, who opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft . . . so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft." etc.

I think that this refers to the humongous amount of "information" and media imput that are so much a part of our culture now, that almost physically press in upon us, cloud up our minds,
(really! I have a feeling in my mind that the mass of information "mess" out there is actually clouding up the world.) There is so much out there that if people don't start seeing where we need to actuallly make choices about what is important to know and what is not, some will be overwhelmed, at least temporarilly. That passage does seem to indicate hope- that the effects of the cloud and the "scorpions" are only temporary, even for those who "do not have God's seal on their forehead". That's encouraging. I wonder if that means that people, in general, will come to the realization that more and more information and entertainment are limited in what they can do for people and the world? (just thinking as I type.)

One aspect of what I believe now about the Bible is that Jesus was actually prophesizing in many passages, and that prophecy is a special case of the general catagory of miracle, and that miracles are what God used to show people that Jesus was who He said He was- to back Jesus up. So these prophesies of Jesus, and the prophesies of John in Revelation, are part of what it will take to convince some. Of course, The stuff in REVELATION is pretty whacko. But, I'm thinking if we think of it more in terms of a dream, where things are more symbols for things, we might get more out of it. Another part of REVELATION refers to the two witnesses. I think that refers to the two people groups, jews and gentile christians.

The abyss part was mainly what I wanted to say here.

VISIBLE

2009-06-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Consequences of our actions or inactions are sometimes invisible for quite a while, while things (invisibly) get worse.
I know that that is not very profound, but I needed to say it to myself.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION

2009-05-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

As I listened to the panel of Christian experts on the radio today talking about "Is Christ the only way to God?", my mind went back to Sunday afternoon when some friends and I were visiting with some muslims who were open and interested in talking about spiritual things and some of whom had visited Christian churches. The radio people quoted the words of Jesus (from John 13 or 14?), "Whoever comes to the Father must come through me." The radio experts pulled up the reasoning that whoever does not believe in Jesus as the way to God, must think of Jesus as either liar, lunatic.

As these radio people were talking, I could not reconcile the strong words of distinguishing believer from unbeliever with the open-ness of the muslims I had met. I believe Christ is the way. I know that I will eventually have to tell these muslims that that is what I believe. But, I did not think that was the way to draw them to Christ initially.

My reaction to the radio experts' discussion became : That is the wrong question when believers and unbelievers meet. The question is : Is the Church and are individual Christians representing Christ and the Gospel adequately to where these unbelievers can be said to have HEARD the Gospel? I believe that the answer is often no. Let me tell you why. If a person or organization explains the Gospel and the evidence for Jesus' claims out of the Bible and does a perfect job of it, but does not show forth love to the hearer, the hearer may not be able to receive the message because of the lack of the love of the speaker. The message may not seem authentic because the speaker doesn't show love.( I do believe Jesus and others spoke about this.) For example, the Spanish conquerors who tried to convert the natives of South America did not show forth love- they gave the conquered ones the choice of death or "conversion". Some of the conquered ones were able, I think, to receive the message, though it was harshly given, but I believe God, in His mercy, judges those who reject the message under such circumstances accordingly. (Also, I believe that God doth judge those who offend the "little ones" -that is, anyone who does not yet know God, and has the possibility of receiving Him.)

The answer to above question is further complicated in that the hearers have made an evaluation of Christianity and therefore on the Gospel based on the expresssion of love or otherwise of perhaps many individuals or organizations whom these unbelievers have encountered before you came along.

So, a FIRST TASK in talking to unbelievers is, I believe to help the hearer to separate the message of God, the Gospel, from the messangers that have spoken the Gospel down through time in imperfect manner.

This reminds me of Phillip Yancey's book, SOUL SURVIVORS, about individuals who could be said to be "open" and "seekers" and some of whom had troubled relationships with organized Christianity due the less-than-stellar lives and attitudes of the nominal christians that they had encountered.
(Gandhi's observations of Christians is one example.)

A second topic for discussion that might be helpful with seekers is: Did Jesus indicate that He knew that the Church and the telling of Gospel were going to imperfect things or did all this (mess) take Him by surprise?

I know that for myself, when I learned that Jesus did prophesy that the Church was going to be an imperfect thing, filled with people with clay feet as well as people who have no interest in God and Jesus at all and as well as some people led astray by unscriptural doctrine some more some less, I felt much more sure of Jesus being all-knowing. The place that I first learned about Jesus' prophecy was MATTHEW 13, which I wrote about earlier.

HOW MANY?

2009-04-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

This short story's about the world of the young a few years ago. I don't know if it is still relevent.

HOW MANY?

They sat in the minister's office, the young couple. This was their only premarital marriage counselling. This was it. (there were time constraints. Plus, the wedding was soon. What could they think of changing this close to the wedding.) The minister was pleasant, serious and fatherly. He was asking them questions which were to reveal if they were indeed ready for marriage, if they had thought through the difficulties which were ahead -difficulties that are the lot of all.

Unfortunately, she thought of the session and questions as obstacles to be negotiated/squared away. Even the minister she thought of as an enemy almost, to be outsmarted(?) instead of a flesh and blood human being who had her and her fiance's best interests at heart, and who represented God's life-giving principles. Her instinct to hide was so strong!

Many of the questions were routine, about the ceremony, and the families and religious upbringing.

Then there was the question "How many . . .?"
The pastor paused for SO long. She sensed that this was the moment of truth-literally. The pastor was giving them the opportunity to come clean with him, to face the truth of their fornicating state, which they had tried to be discreet about, thinking that discretion was the same as morality. (The pastor did not know. They had been discreet. They didn't want to bring shame on their parents.)

She felt like she had been here once before, standing at the precipice of decision. It would be so easy to smooth this over, to pretend that the minister was asking "How many bridesmaids?" or "How many songs?" or prayers, or limosenes. She felt that at some past time, she HAD run for cover, taken the easy way out , taken the coward's way out. (I'm sad to say that she and her fiance did not even talk about their lifestyle and that it was not on the approved list of the Bible.)

Where on earth did she find the strength and wisdom to bring things to a screeching halt? to catch that tiny moment and refuse to go forward before digesting it and respond out of the conviction that she didn't even have yet?

Nonetheless, saints almighty, she did timidly respond, "Pastor, are you asking if we are living together?"

When she made that decision, she did so blindly. She was not the kind of person who could imagine scenes out of real life future or gossamer. She had seen nothing ahead, other than recriminations of this authority figure. Some undefined unpleasantness. She didn't think about her fiance, either. He, too, was just a cardboard cutout, like everyone else in her life.

But, guess what!
That decision was a melting!
Life started. The pastor was not some jarring tape recorder or a Salem judge, but someone who could tell her why. Why God, in love, ruled that women and men not come together before marriage.
He was not perfect by any means, this pastor, but he saw her, and her fiance who was a stranger to him, as sheep of his pasture, for him to care for gently. He had grown up in another day, but he knew more about the imperfections of life, of the secret, soiled underbelly kept out of view, than most of his church realized. He haltingly walked (talked to them) between gentle quietness and firm morality. (Morality is really such an insufficient word for the loving life-giving guidelines that he knew God's laws to be.)

Do you want to know what came next?

"I'm so glad you were able to share that with me. I know it was hard."
"Let's go from here..."

The pastor said his Christian conviction barred him from marrying couples who were living together. He asked what obstacles there were to the two living separately and remain celebate until the ceremony. He encouraged them to agree to his condition (God's condition) by telling them that it would help their marriage so very much down the road for them to start out on this good first step. They would have more respect for each other and themselves by making this fresh start.

She was shocked a few minutes later to realize how relaxed she was, happy with this turn of events. How did the fiance' feel?

2009-04-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

FUN WITH WORDS

I learned that the words that are encased in the little mezuzahs on the doorways of jewish homes start with "Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one", which is Deuteronomy 6:4.

I learned the word "one" is, in hebrew, "echad', pronounced
"ay-hahd".

I learned that this word for "one" is different than another word in hebrew.

I learned that "echad" is a "plural singularity" , as "bunch" in a "bunch of grapes" is a plural singularity.

I like to play around with words. (I read a book named MOTHER TONGUE by a Berlitz about how words spread from one language to another. It was great.) So when I learned that the name of the first synagogue in New England or the American colonies meant "remnant" and sounded something like "shar", I thought, "Hey! I wonder if these English words are related to that word "shar". They sure sound like it.":
share--a portion
shire--a political or geographical division; an area.
sheriff--a leader or law-enforcer of an area
shard--a fragment of pottery or other stuff
sheer--something is cut
cher--in french, something precious. a remnant of a valued thing
would be precious
(shore is a division between water and dry land.)

I looked up those words and did not see that hebrew was credited with being the source of any of them.
Maybe that is because 1)they are not related; or 2) the hebrew words and the other language words have a common precursor; or 3) there may have been a vague, unspoken bias on the part of the makers of the dictionaries against crediting the jews with anything.

(I hate to let people know what some of my wacko ideas are; but I read that Jeremiah, who wrote JEREMIAH and LAMENTATIONS, and was taken captive to Egypt when Judah was defeated by Egypt et al. He may have made it to the British Isles at that time, and brought the Stone of Scone (the stone that Jacob laid his head on the night he had a dream about God) with him; and maybe some people, too. (Some folks that think that also hypothesize that Jeremiah was called Merlin. Merlin might indicate someone brought to a place by the sea, “mer”.) So that belief set the groundwork for me looking for hebrew words in english.)

While I was thinking about sheriff, my mind went to the sheriff of Nottingham, and then to Robinhood and his merry men.
I wondered if the robin part could be from Rabbi; and the hood part, from echad.

The dictionary says "-hood" means "a state" such as childhood is the state of being a child; motherhood is the state of being a mother; etc. The related foreign word "-hood" is thought to be related to is German "heit" meaning ????

But I wonder if these words instead express a group that one might be a part of. For example, A woman enters motherhood and becomes a member of the community of all mothers. That could be the mother group or "motherhood." And what about neighborhood, and brotherhood? Those definitely have to do with groups.

If I'm right, the suffix -hood is related to the hebrew word echad, and may have come from it.(It is so very ironic that the anti-semitic bias MAY HAVE led anglos to censor that tiny bit of history out of dictionaries having the consequence of robbing christians of a way to appeal to the jews- a discussion of God calling himself "echad".)

BUT THERE'S MORE! I was reading some of Karen Armstrong's stuff (THE HISTORY OF GOD) and she used the word "godhead."
That is a word that has always confused me. Of course, the concept of "Holy Trinity" is confusing anyway. Some would say that is an indication that it is an invalid view of God. Anyway, I looked up godhead in the dictionary and found out that it is that same "hood" word again; and it means "god group"- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I can just imagine those monk scholars of the Middle Ages in their monastaries using that echad word to describe their understanding of that "God-group".

"Hood", we also know, means a covering that keeps things together. You could even say that a person's head is where all that neat stuff- brain, hearing organs and eyes- are, all contained inside that skull or “head”.

I also remember that one trend among jewish communities that's been publicized in recent years is the delineation of neighborhood or "household" boundaries for purposes of making Sabbath life a little simpler. I wonder what the name for that is.

Well, that's all of that for now. Oh? You haven't had enough yet? Well, I also wrote about "Punny God". But I'll save that for another time.

WALK RIGHTEOUS

2009-03-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

Today I read some of Hara Krishna material. A relative was interested in it so I thought I had better find out more. I read part of one story. If I understood right a young couple were trying to be better disciples. A guru was explaining that when people have a materialistic mindset, they aren't interested in the things of God (or a god.) Further, that when one disciplines oneself, one becomes more "greedy" to please this god. I would have used "desiring" rather than "greedy", but the sentiment does sound more spiritual than I had previously given the Hindus credit for being.
Later I was talking to and Indian Hindi who runs a copy and package store.
She expressed dismay at the state of Christianity, said that she believes (and I agree with this) that Christian beliefs presently presented are drifted away from what God and Jesus said.

trying to close out this and have one only blog with the name rethinking1776

2009-01-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

I don't use internet too often.

I had started a blog here but didn't realise it had "taken" (onto the computer).

Later I tried again to start a blog called rethinking1776 and found out this was in existence.

I did not remember the password I'd used so started a blog with the name 1776onmymind at blogspot.com

I hope to eventually have one blog with an easy-to-remember name.

In the meantime if you find this and are interested visit 1776onmymind on blogspot.com