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Musings and Observations by Vernon Caston

Musings and Observations                 by Vernon Caston

Category Archives: Biblical personages / passage

Trust Me with every fiber of your being ! !

29 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Clear and logical thinking, Other authors, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Quotes, Theology - God

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constant trust, Jesus is calling us to . . ., jolted into awareness!, the Eternal Rock, with every fiber of your being

Trust Me with every fiber of your being!!

What I can, and do, accomplish in and through you is proportionate to how much you depend on Me.

One aspect of this is the degree to which you trust Me in a crisis or major decision. Whereas some people fail miserably at this point. others are at their best in tough times.

Another aspect is even more telling: the constancy of your trust in Me. People who rely on Me in the midst of adversity may forget about Me when life is flowing smoothly. On the other hand, difficult times can jolt you into awareness of your need for Me. But, smooth sailing can lull you into the stupor of self-sufficiency.

I care as much about your tiny trust-step through daily life. But, I also care as much about your dramatic leaps of faith. You may think that no one notices, but never, never forget that the One who is always beside, seeing you and accompanying you, rejoices with you. Consistently trusting in Me is vital to flourishing in My presence

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, not looking to the proud for support, nor turning to false gods. (Psalm 40.4)

When afraid, I will trust in You, Oh God. With Your word I praise You and express my trust in You. What can mortals do to me? Nothing!! (Psalm 56.3-4)

Trust God at every moment. Pour out your heart to Him. He is, after all, our refuge!! (Psalm 62.8)

God, You will keep in complete peace all those mind is mind steadfastly fixed in You. Thus, we acknowledge that You are the eternal Rock. (Isaiah 26.3-4)

Paraphrased from Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling, pg. 380

Shepherds??? . . . Kings??? MERRY CHRISTMAS

24 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by stertin in Biblical personages / passage, Change, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Proverbs, Sayings, Quotes, Refrains, Sayings, Stories, Theology - God

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Christmas, Shepherds and Rulers, thanks - Sarah Young

Shepherds?? . . . Kings?? . . . MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Shepherds?? . . . Kings?? Do they have anything in common? Kings make the rules; shepherds do their best to not break the king’s rules (. . if they want to have breakfast tomorrow!!)

It is true, in the history of the Old Testament, there was a young fellow who was a shepherd. Later, he became a king. But, David was not both a king and a shepherd at the same time.

In fact, his status was elevated when he ascended in rank.

He left behind the shepherd’s menial task of caring for those “dumb” sheep. David, once a  king, had other people taking care of the sheep. And, of course, David the king had his choice of beautiful women, one of them being the beautiful wife of faithful Uriah, a soldier. (Kings can choose their prey!!)

Who would surrender the kingly role for the very lowly shepherd’s role? No one, of course. Let’s be realistic. “I want to rule. I want to make the rules. I want to enforce the rules I make.” Thus speaks and acts out, the one who claims, “I AM THE KING.”

BUT, is history only the narrative of unknown chump shepherds enviously yearning to be a dominating king? Fortunately, there is more to the story.

“I am King of Kings and Lord of lords, dwelling in dazzlingly bright Light!  I am also your Shepherd, Companion, and Friend – the One who never lets go of your hand. Worship Me in My holy Majesty; come close to Me, and rest in My presence. You need Me, both as God and as Man. Only my Incarnation on that first, long-ago Christmas could fulfill your neediness. Since I went to such extreme measures to save you from your sins, you can be assured that I will graciously give you all you need.

“Nurture well your trust in Me as Savior, Lord, and Friend. I have held back nothing in My provision for you. I have even deigned to live within you!  Rejoice in all that I have done for you, and My light will shine through you into the world.”

1 Timothy 6:15-15 . . . . . Psalm 95:6-7 . . . . Romans 8:32 . . . . 2 Peter 1.19

MERRY CHRISTMAS  — dear family and friends

Walk with Me on Paths of Trust

09 Friday Sep 2016

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Clear and logical thinking, Other authors, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Proverbs, Sayings, Quotes, Refrains, Theology - God

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anxious thoughts go in all directions, paths of trust, Sarah Young, walk with Me in trust

WALK WITH ME ON PATHS OF TRUST

From Sarah Young’s JESUS CALLING: Enjoying peace in His presence

“Walk with Me along paths of trust. The most direct route before point A and point B on your life-journey is the path of unwavering trust in Me. When your faith falters, you choose a trail that meanders and takes you well out of our way. You will get to point B eventually, but you will have lost precious time and energy.

“As soon as you realize you have wandered from your trust-path, look to Me and whisper, “I trust You, Jesus.” This affirmation will help you get back on track.

“The farther you roam along paths of unbelief, the harder it is to remember that I am with you. Anxious thoughts branch off in all directions, taking you farther and farther from awareness of My Presence. You need to voice your trust in Me frequently. This simple act of faith will keep you walking along straight paths with me.

“Trust in Me with all your heart, and I will make your paths straight.”

Isaiah 26.4   Psalm 9.10   Psalm 25.4-5   Proverbs 3.5-6

Published by Thomas Nelson, 2004, page 265

 

Accept each day exactly as it comes to you

08 Thursday Sep 2016

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Clear and logical thinking, Other authors, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Theology - God

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Jesus speaks, Sarah Young's "Jesus Calling" - Exploring peace in His Presence"

from Sarah Young’s JESUS CALLING Enjoying peace in His presence

“Accept each day exactly as it comes to you.

“By that, I mean not only the circumstances of your day, but also the condition of your body. You assignment is to trust Me absolutely, resting in My sovereignty and faithfulness.

“On some days, your circumstances and your physical condition feel out of balance. The demands on you seem far greater than your strength. Days like that present a choice between two alternatives – giving up or relying on Me. Even if you wrongly choose the first alternative, I will not reject you.

“You can turn to Me at any point, and I will help you crawl out of the mire of discouragement. I will infuse My strength into you moment by moment, giving you all that you need for this day.

“Trust Me by relying on My empowering Presence.”

(Psalm 42.5,  2 Corinthians 13.4,  Jeremiah 31.25)

 

Published by Thomas Nelson, 2004, page 263

 

“I AM YOUR BEST FRIEND”

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Clear and logical thinking, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Quotes

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From Sarah Young’s JESUS CALLING: Enjoying peace in His presence

“I am your best friend as well as your King. Walk hand in hand with Me through your life. Together we will face whatever each day brings: pleasant hardship, adventure, disappointments. Nothing is wasted when it is shared with Me. I can bring beauty out of the ashes of lost dreams. I can glean Joy out of sorrow, Peace out of adversity. Only a Friend who is also the King of Kings could accomplish this divine alchemy. There is no other like Me!

“The friendship I offer you is practical and down-to-earth, yet it is saturated with heavenly Glory. Living in My Presence means living in two realities simultaneously: the visible world and unseen, eternal reality. I have equipped you to stay conscious of Me while walking along dusty, earthbound paths.”

John 15.13-15, Isaiah 61.31, 1 Corinthians 6.10

Published by Thomas Nelson, 2004

 

DO EVERYTHING IN DEPENDENCE ON ME

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Change, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Quotes, Refrains, Unforgettables

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DO EVERYTHING IN DEPENDENCE ON ME . . . .

From Sarah Young’s JESUS CALLING: Enjoying peace in His presence

The desire to act independently – apart from Me — springs from the root of pride. Self sufficiency is subtle, insinuating its way into your thoughts and actions without your realizing it. But apart from Me, you, can do nothing: that is nothing of eternal value.

My deepest desire for you is that you learn to depend on Me in every situation. I move heaven and earth to accomplish this purpose, but you must collaborate with Me in this training. Teaching you would be simple if I negated your free will or overwhelmed you with My Power.

However, I love you too much to withdraw the godlike privilege I bestowed on you as My image bearer. Use your freedom wisely by relying on Me constantly. Thus you enjoy My Presence and My Peace.

John 15.5, Ephesians 6.10, Genesis 1.26-27

Published by Thomas Nelson, 2004, page 262

When we leave His place of worship

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by stertin in Aesthetics - Beauty, Biblical personages / passage, Music related, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Theology - God

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WHEN WE LEAVE HIS PLACE OF WORSHIP . . .

I admit to being ignorant about many things. And, that ignorance also extends to many things about God.

On the other hand, some things I do know about God are clear and comforting.   God’s presence is one of the Big Ones.

In that regard, just several weeks ago, Margaret asked me to listen to one of her favorite songs: “Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this place.”   One of the song’s stanzas is the following:

In the midst of His children, the Lord said He would be.

It doesn’t take very many; it can be just two or three.

And I feel that same sweet spirit that I felt oft time before.

Surely I can say I’ve been with My Lord.

(click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcZ1yEXd5fc for Tanica Campbell version of the song)

A day after listening to this song, I was preparing the benediction for our upcoming Sunday service.   I asked myself, “Who is the Lord with whom we share our worship? Who is the God with whom we leave the place of corporate adoration to then enter the rooms of our homes, of our employment, of our places of trials or joys?

The answer to these questions is not part of my ignorance bank. Rather, the answer is secure.

Who is the God we worship?

It is the Lord God, the God who used the prophet Isaiah and the apostle Paul to affirm to us the following:

“Come to Me – when you are weary and weak. Rest snugly in My everlasting arms. I do not despise your weakness, my child. Actually, your weakness draws Me close to you as it stirs up my compassion, and my yearning to help.

“Accept yourself in your weariness, knowing that I understand how difficult your journey has been.”

“Allow the gift I have given you to blossom in my presence. Accept this gift as a sacred treasure – Allow Me to bless you richly through it.” (paraphrased versions from Isaiah 42:3 . . . Isaiah 54.10 . . . Romans 8. 26)

 

Dennis, Elvis, and Jesus (thanks, Ray Stedman)

27 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Change, Other authors, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Quotes, Stories, Theology - God

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clamoring for his attention, contoured hair, Elvis Presley - the King, if Jesus were on earth today!!, Ray Stedman, sent to the office, surgically lifted face

“Dennis, Elvis, and Jesus” (thanks, Ray) 

When Elvis Presley died, people all over the United States and the world were shocked at the passing of one they called “the King.” Following his death, there surfaced a great number of young men who gave evidence of how they had idolized Elvis Presley and sought to imitate him. One young man, Dennis Wise, actually had his face surgically lifted and his hair contoured to look exactly like his idol. Dennis had learned to play the guitar and had even made a few dollars by appearing as a Presley look-alike. In a newspaper interviewed about his passion to be like Elvis Presley, this is what Dennis said:

  • “Yes, sir, Presley has been an idol of mine ever since I was five years old. I have every record he ever made — twice over. I have pictures in the thousands. I have books, magazines, pillows — I even have a couple of books in German and Japanese about him. I even have tree leaves from the front of his house. It was embarrassing to me when I was in school for the kids were always teasing me. When Elvis was wearing white boots I went out and bought white boots. The kids called them “fruit boots.” Teachers would always send me to the office because my two top buttons were unbuttoned. I’d button them and then, when no one was looking, I’d unbutton them again.
  • “But I never got to meet Elvis Presley. I saw him on the stage four times. Once I tried to run up to the stage and once I stood on the wall of Graceland [the Presley mansion] and tried to see him. For 12 hours I stood there trying to get a glimpse of him. But he had so many people around him that I could never get close.”

Dennis’ words describe sheer idolatry, the longing to be intimate with some great person. This is widely contemporary today. Young people are doing the same thing with their rock starts, and with other figures in the music, the movie, and the sports world. But the tragic element in the story of Dennis Wise is captured by his words, “I could never get close to him.”

Imagine how difficult it would be to see Jesus if he were on earth today. Think of the press of people you would have to get through to even look at him, let alone talk with him. Millions would be clamoring for his attention so that you wouldn’t stand a chance to get close to him. But the good news of Easter is, not only can you know him, but he can be close to you all the time, through every situation.

The risen Lord offers to share his victory with you, to take you through whatever you must face as your close and competent Companion who will never, never leave you.

 

( An edited excerpt from “The Incredible Hope” by Ray Stedman [http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/john/the-incredible-hope] )

 

Joe and Nick – mostly unknown, but certainly important on Good Friday

26 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by stertin in Biblical personages / passage, Other authors, Pain - Evil - Suffering, Stories

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hearing "it is finished", identifying with Jesus when He seemed like a failure, Joseph and Nicodemus, someone else's grave, the two in the background

Joe and Nick – mostly unknown, but certainly important on Good Friday

They weren’t part of Jesus’ band of apostles.  They aren’t mentioned much in the Biblical story of Jesus. Nonetheless, they had a critical role in Jesus’ history.  Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were the men who buried Jesus.  Warren Wiersbe, in his comments on Jesus’ death and burial (1), explains the situation this way:

  –   –   –   –   –   –   –

How did Joseph and Nicodemus know to prepare for His burial? What follows is only conjecture on my part, but, to me, it seems reasonable.

When Nicodemus first visited Jesus, he was impressed with His miracles and His teaching. After that interview, Nicodemus searched the Scriptures and asked God for guidance concerning the important spiritual matters he had talked about with Jesus.

At the critical council meeting recorded in John 7.45-53, Nicodemus boldly stood up and defended His Savior. His associates ridiculed him for thinking that a prophet could come out of Galilee. “Search and look” they said, and that is exactly what Nicodemus did. It is likely that Joseph quietly joined him and revealed the fact that he too was more and more convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed Israel’s Messiah, the Son of God.

As Nicodemus and Joseph searched the Old Testament, they found the Messianic prophecies and discovered that many of them had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Certainly they would have seen Him as the Lamb of God and concluded that He would be sacrificed at Passover. Jesus had already told Nicodemus that He would be lifted up (John 3.14), and this meant crucifixion. Since the Passover lambs were slain about 3 pm, the two men could know almost the exact time when God’s Lamb would die on the cross. Surely they would have read Isaiah 53 and noticed verse 9, “And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death.” Jesus would be buried in a rich man’s tomb!

Joseph arranged to have the tomb hewn out, and the men assembled the clothes and spices needed for the burial. They may have been hiding in the tomb all during the 6 hours of our Lord’s agony on the cross. When they heard, “It is finished. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” they went to work. They boldly identified with Jesus Christ at a time when He seemed like a failure and His cause hopelessly defeated.

–   –   –   –   –   –   –

(1)  The Bible Exposition Commentary, Volume 1, p. 386 (Wheaton, IL: Scripture Press, 1989)

The New Testament in ONLY 39 days, 30 minutes a day

28 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by stertin in Biblical personages / passage, Change, Other authors, Quotes, Sayings, Stories, Theology - God

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39 day X 30 minutes, Audio New Testament, Chronological presentation, Max McLean, Reading the New Testament

The New Testament in ONLY 39 days (30 minutes a day)

An invigorating experience!! It brought the New Testament alive to me like never before !! . . . Costs – not a penny. . . .  Entirely flexible schedule. . . . Read by the superb Max McLean. . . . The text – the New International Version (NIV). . . . No references to verse or chapter separations . . . .Access the day you choose with a click.

  • Day 01: Luke-Acts
  • Day 02: Luke-Acts
  • Day 03: Luke-Acts
  • Day 04: Luke-Acts
  • Day 05: Luke-Acts
  • Day 06: Luke-Acts
  • Day 07: Luke-Acts
  • Day 08: Luke-Acts
  • Day 09: Luke-Acts
  • Day 10: 1-2 Thessalonians
  • Day 11: 1 Corinthians
  • Day 12: 1 Corinthians
  • Day 13: 2 Corinthians
  • Day 14: Galatians
  • Day 15: Romans
  • Day 16: Romans
  • Day 17: Colossians
  • Day 18: Ephesians, Philemon
  • Day 19: Philippians, 1 Timothy
  • Day 20: Titus, 2 Timothy
  • Day 21: Matthew
  • Day 22: Matthew
  • Day 23: Matthew
  • Day 24: Matthew
  • Day 25: Matthew
  • Day 26: Hebrews
  • Day 27: Hebrews
  • Day 28: James
  • Day 29: Mark
  • Day 30: Mark
  • Day 31: 1 Peter
  • Day 32: 2 Peter, Jude
  • Day 33: John
  • Day 34: John
  • Day 35: John
  • Day 36: 1-3 John
  • Day 37: Revelation
  • Day 38: Revelation
  • Day 39: Revelation

Lent and Jesus

24 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Clear and logical thinking, Pointing beyond the common and natural

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"quid pro quo", focused, Jesus and Lent, Loving, not being mistaken about Jesus, opulence or power, the well being of others

Lent and Jesus

In this season of Lent, it makes sense to ponder some of Jesus’ characteristics. I am especially thinking of Jesus being 1) very focused, and 2) being given entirely to loving people. I am not prepared to identify the degree to which we mere humans can emulate Jesus’ love and His focus. Furthermore, I am not even able to identify the degree to which I emulate Jesus. But, I am prepared to say that not recognizing the role of love and focus in Jesus is a serious mistake.

Being loved is a beautiful experience. Loving someone else is also a beautiful experience. Are the experiences of being loved and of loving others always easy, a walk in the garden of pleasure, or a high five congratulatory event? Of course not. To put the well being of the other above our own well being can be very costly. It might cost us a night’s sleep. It might cost us some of the reputation we have so meticulously nourished. It might even cost us some employment opportunities.  It may cost us our life. Nonetheless, when the well being of someone else is at stake, the loving person says, “Yes, I can and I will surrender my well being for their sake.” This self-surrender is not a quid pro quo transaction. It is not a negotiation technique. It is not an image stunt. It is not an investment maneuver. Love is as Jesus lived. Love is as Jesus died.

And, Jesus was focused. His completely focused life was not a case of mistaken values. His being focused was not a mental illness. Nor, was it a result of bad theology. He was not entirely focused because He misunderstood Father God, or because He had a sick Messianic complex. He wasn’t completely focused out of jealousy for the Roman court’s opulence or their power.

The fact is that Father God had given Jesus a task to do, and the task was so absolutely essential for human wellbeing that Jesus would not deviate from its completion, be it by action, attitude, or values.

That kind of approach to life, to duty, to thoroughness, to intense connection to Father God, to personal relationships – all put Jesus in a unique position. His single mindedly focused dedication was essential for Jesus. Long Live His Uniqueness!!

May our Lenten season be, among other things, a time to consciously meditate on the loving and focused Jesus.

 

Food and Drink . . . and Jesus

22 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Clear and logical thinking, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Quotes, Sayings, Theology - God

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communion, food and drink, Merry Christmas, obstinacy, pointing to the source, what animates us, what Jesus does for us

Food and Drink . . . and Jesus

We will eat, and we will drink as we celebrate Christmas.  It goes with the season.  And, of course, it is truly a joyful experience.  And, then we have – – –

Jesus – our food, our drink. “drink my blood. Eat my flesh” . . . Jesus is graphically making the point that He provides for us what we need to live. Humans have known “forever” that if we don’t have liquids and / or don’t have food we will die – some sooner than others – but eventually we all die without nourishment.

Jesus is what/who gives us our nourishment for life, the life that we have on another level than the life provided by liquid and food.

Participating in a communion meal visualizes our understanding that with Jesus we live and without Him, we die.

I know from experience (and I think most people know it after a certain point in their life) how the intimate presence we have with someone (friend, spouse, child, parent, etc.) animates us. And, we know how the absence of that person deadens us. We know what prolonged loneliness can do. We also know what a hug, a kiss, a caress can do for us; they animate us.

Those experiences are pointers to what Jesus does for us on a level beyond what the food and the drink provide, and what the presence of people provides.

A person who doesn’t yet recognize that our needs go beyond food and drink, beyond human contact and fellowship, will not sense any need for being connected to the living Jesus. They may interpret our talk about Jesus as incoherent. It will remain incoherent for them until they witness enough behavior of some people, behavior not traceable to the presence of other humans of their same level!!

Admittedly, they may, then, in an effort to maintain their position, attribute our behavior and talk as evidence of mental illness or deficiency. When that happens, they will only “buckle” when the number of faithful Jesus devotees makes it impossible to use “mental illness” as an explanation.

Of course, wrong headed obstinacy can be fatal, on more than one level!!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Truly have a Merry Christmas with the living Lord Jesus

 

 

Christmas, John Stuart Mill, and Jesus

20 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by stertin in Biblical personages / passage, Clear and logical thinking, Other authors, Pain - Evil - Suffering, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Quotes, Stories, Theology - God, Uncategorized

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"God and evil", being morally worse, Christmas, cross, death, freedom, it was a war, John Stuart Mill quote, pointers

Christmas, John Stuart Mill, and Jesus

While reviewing some personal items, I read again several lines by John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).  In his work “The Contest in America”, published in the Harper’s New Monthly Magazine of April 1862, Mill addressed some of the public thinking during the Civil War in the United Sates.  Mill’s article included his famous lines:

“. . .war, in a good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer.  War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.. . . A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

Perhaps you wonder what Mill’s statement has to do with Christmas.  It has much to do with Christmas – the real “why?” of Christmas, not the syrupy reasons that barely even touch the edges of the real reason.

Christmas celebrations over the past 2000 years, and in a multitude of social contexts, have taken many forms and practices.  We are far removed from the first Christmas!!  We will do well to ponder why celebrate the birth of Jesus.  We will do harm to ourselves if we fail to ask the deep question, “Why did the Son of God take on flesh in the first place? And why, in the second place, did Jesus die?  Mill points to the answer, even if what he said was in the context of the deadly War between the States in the 1860’s.

Jesus, the incarnated Son of God, came to earth to take part in a war.  It is true that He held infants in his arms. Yes, He gave a hungry multitude their fill of fish and bread.   But, His reason for being on the Earth in the first place was related to the war between good (God) and evil (Satan).  It was a war “in a good cause”, that of freeing humanity from the bonds of moral evil and restoring humanity to God’s family.  This war ultimately cost the innocent Jesus his life, as he bore the “ugly” murder of crucifixion.

Jesus, born to die – it is, admittedly, ugly.  But, as Mill states, it would have been even more ugly if Jesus would have thought that nothing was worth His death!!!  Although not referring to Jesus when he wrote it, Mill’s point is appropriate.  If Jesus would have cared more for His personal safety than the spiritual freedom of His murderers and their sympathizers, Jesus would have been a miserable creature “with no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

But, Jesus was free.  He was noble.  He knew that there was something worse than dying in the war for humans’ salvation – It would have been morally worse for Him to not die!!

This, my friends, is taking us deeply into the Why of Christmas.  The original Christmas was the necessary first step to His victory over what is even worse than dying for the sins of others. That worse thing? to not die for the sins of others!!!

 

Christmas, John Stuart Mill, and Jesus

20 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by stertin in Biblical personages / passage, Change, Clear and logical thinking, Other authors, Pain - Evil - Suffering, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Quotes, Stories, Theology - God

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"John Stuart Mill", Harper's Magazine - 1862, the moral decay of thinking that nothing is worth a war, the ugliness of being born to die, the war for humanity, what is worse than dying?, Why take on the flesh of humanity?

Christmas, John Stuart Mill, and Jesus

While reviewing some personal items, I read again several lines by John Stuart Mill (1806-1873).  In his work “The Contest in America”, published in the Harper’s New Monthly Magazine of April 1862, Mill addressed some of the public thinking during the Civil War in the United Sates.  Mill’s article included his famous lines:

“. . .war, in a good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer.  War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.. . . A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

Perhaps you wonder what Mill’s statement has to do with Christmas.  It has much to do with Christmas – the real “why?” of Christmas, not the syrupy reasons that barely even touch the edges of the real reason.

Christmas celebrations over the past 2000 years, and in a multitude of social contexts, have taken many forms and practices.  We are far removed from the first Christmas!!  We will do well to ponder why celebrate the birth of Jesus.  We will do harm to ourselves if we fail to ask the deep question, “Why did the Son of God take on flesh in the first place? And why, in the second place, did Jesus die?  Mill points to the answer, even if what he said was in the context of the deadly War between the States in the 1860’s.

Jesus, the incarnated Son of God, came to earth to take part in a war.  It is true that He held infants in his arms. Yes, He gave a hungry multitude their fill of fish and bread.  But, His reason for being on the Earth in the first place was related to the war between good (God) and evil (Satan).  It was a war “in a good cause”, that of freeing humanity from the bonds of moral evil and restoring humanity to God’s family.  This war ultimately cost the innocent Jesus his life, as he bore the “ugly” murder of crucifixion.

Jesus, born to die – it is, admittedly, ugly.  But, as Mill states, it would have been even more ugly if Jesus would have thought that nothing was worth His death!!!  Although not referring to Jesus when he wrote it, Mill’s point is appropriate.  If Jesus would have cared more for His personal safety than the spiritual freedom of His murderers and their sympathizers, Jesus would have been a miserable creature “with no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

But, Jesus was free.  He was noble.  He knew that there was something worse than dying in the war for humans’ salvation – It would have been morally worse for Him to not die!!

This, my friends, is taking us deeply into the Why of Christmas.  The original Christmas was the necessary first step to Jesus’ victory over what is even worse than dying for the sins of others. That worse thing???  to not die for the sins of others!!!

.

.

 

“Wild Horses” – Thank you, Susan

15 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Aesthetics - Beauty, Biblical personages / passage, Music related, Other authors, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Unforgettables

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Looking over the past, misunderstandings, Susan Boyle, taken for granted, Wild Horses

“Wild Horses” – Thank you, Susan

Looking over our past can bring peals of laughter, tears of great sorrow, spells of melancholy, the recall of mistakes (some very damaging, and some that were simply expressions of childhood foolishness).  Perhaps gazing into the past resurrects the pain of misunderstandings (some that have been resolved by now, others that never were), or expectations that we thought were legitimate (only to find out that they were illusionary).

For some of us looking back may take us to the pain of having trusted a “friend” (only to finally realize that we were being “used”).  We remember insults (both ours and those of others directed our way).  Then there are the memories of being taken for granted (and also taking someone else for granted).  Do you recall not being able to escape the presence of someone with an air of condescending superiority?  Perhaps our minds will not let go of the times we caused someone to weep uncontrollably because of our failure.  Perhaps the he or she gave up because of our lack of trust.  Maybe they became bitter because we created disheartening disillusion.

I have heard it said that, with time, we forget the bad times of the past and exaggerate the good (like in “the good old days”).  But, I also know that such a verdict on what time does is not universally the case; life is not that simple. So, what do we do when our past is so checkered, and still makes itself felt in our present moments?

What I have been describing is the mental construct I brought to hearing Susan Boyle’s rendition, sung with great feeling, of “Wild Horses”- (click here for You Tube).  “Wild Horses” encouraged me to not allow the wild horses (the disillusions, failures, and perhaps betrayals of the past – both mine and those of others’) to drag me away from the present and future opportunities that the Lord has granted to me.

If anyone ever had a reason to be disillusioned with people, certainly Jesus did.  But, He did not let the uncontrolled forces of evil or the demons on wild horses to drag Him from His goals.  And furthermore, if anyone had reason to be discouraged with their past performances, certainly Jesus’ disciples did.  But, God gave them His Spirit before whom the Wild Horses are converted to living vehicles into the future.

Childhood living it’s easy to do
The things that you wanted, well I bought them for you
Graceless lady, you know who I am
You know I can’t let you just slide through my hands

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn’t drag me away

I watched you suffer, a dull aching pain
Now you’ve decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild horses couldn’t drag me away

I don’t know I dreamt you, a sin and a lie
And I have my freedom but I don’t have much time
Fate has been suffered, and tears must be cried
Let’s do some living. . .  after we die

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild horses wouldn’t drag me away

Away.

Eve, I can’t believe that you could mean what you just said (Thanks, Karen Carpenter)

30 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by stertin in Aesthetics - Beauty, Biblical personages / passage, Change, Music related, Other authors, Pain - Evil - Suffering, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Stories, Theology - God

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a nanosecond, before the winter comes, convoluted situations, Eve, Karen Carpenter, Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, short stories, The Carpenters, You are a rose now living with thorns

“Eve, I can’t believe that you could mean what you just said” (Thanks, Karen Carpenter)

There once was a time when everything that happened could be condensed into one short story. That time didn’t last for long, as you can imagine. Was it only a nanosecond long? Perhaps. Maybe it was even shorter than that!

In any case, and eventually, the story would expand. Characters, and more characters would be introduced. A plot of some nature would form. A dilemma would develop. If-then scenarios would shape up. These latter elements were not noticeable at the very beginning of the story of “What Was”.

This brief description is what happens in life, doesn’t it.   Think of the entire life of a child who has, up until this moment, lived only 12-18 hours outside of mother’s womb – independent existence. It would be a pretty “short” story, wouldn’t it?   But, as the child adds days, weeks, months, years, and decades, the story expands. New people are introduced, some being relatives, siblings, friends, neighbors, classmates, etc.. Challenges enter the story. And, then even more complicated challenges populate the narrative. New decisions are made, new conflicts arise, new sorrows strike as the story unfolds in a variety of nuances.

But, the story began without all those additions that came with time. Reading the initial draft of the story of an 18 hour old infant might be interesting, depending on the detail provided. I can imagine that the medical narrative of the first 18 hours of human life could fascinate some folk (if they could even understand it!!).

But, our individual stories take time to develop. We all know that, don’t we?

We also know, by this point in our life, that the story of our lives is a combination of convoluted situations along side of un-convoluted decisions we make, or perhaps un-convoluted decisions that others have made for us.   Because of this scenario, well written biographies fascinate us. Truly, fact can be more fascinating that fiction.

Allow me now to transition.

The paragraphs above were running around my mind, just shortly ago. Earlier today, I was listening to Karen Carpenter sing the song “Eve”. Karen’s brother, Richard Carpenter, later explained that he and John Bettis, in 1969, composed “Eve” after watching an episode of a British suspense anthology. In the story, a fellow becomes enamored with a female mannequin, who in turn is to be destroyed with other discarded mannequins. The mannequin is Eve.

While listening to the song, several times, I was not aware of the back story provided by Richard Carpenter. My mind, while listening, went back to the Biblical story of Eve, who was not a mannequin, but the first named woman in the Bible. Eve, along with Adam, were the human protagonists in the Creation Narrative as provided in the Biblical book of Genesis.

Now, I invite you to take a moment and listen to Eve, as sung by Karen Carpenter. (click here ) Here are the lyrics:

Eve, I can’t believe that you could mean what you just said

Think of what you are; how very far you are from being real.

Look into the mirror, nothing there to see.

Eve, I can’t believe you’d really leave him.

 

Notice how her image saddens, how lonely she’s become

Just once I’d like to see her happy before the winter comes.

 

Eve, I wouldn’t lie; the open sky is not your home

Wide as it may be, reality is here among the stones.

Thorns among the roses add to what is real.

Eve, you are a rose among the thorns here.

 

I wish her only good times before the winter comes.

Eve, and Adam, are presented in the Creation story as having no childhood experiences. They had not learned anything from anyone else until they learned things from each other and from God. In the case of Adam, he entered history as entirely innocent and unaccompanied. Eve’s entry was slightly different; her environment included a person who was already in the process of learning about life. They, then, learned from their own experiences, the experiences of each other, and from what God communicated to them. Their companion was God Himself.

At some point, Eve decided to embrace the words and “description of reality” from someone other than God and Adam. This “someone” is defined as The Serpent, commonly known as Satan.   Eve, by eating fruit that God had prohibited, expressed a newly embraced belief that someone other than God knew what was “best”, what was “most advantageous”, what was “most productive”, what was “most fitting and adequate” for human existence. In her acquiescence to Satan’s temptation, Eve walked away from her created reality of communion with the Creator God. And, rather than live as defined by God and His loving presence, she ended up with loneliness. Adam was then faced with a choice – Eve or God. He chose the former. For Adam, companionship with Eve trumped companionship with God. He ate the fruit that God had prohibited. He broke the only rule they had!!

I can appreciate the sentiment of the vocalists (Karen Carpenter), “I’d like to see her happy before the winter comes. . . . Eve, you are a rose, now living with thorns. I wish her well, but the winter is coming.!!!”

The music is hauntingly beautiful. The lyrics are provocatively warning the listener that our decisions have consequences. (Well written stories don’t have to be long. . . although some are.)

God, by nature, is good. We, by nature, aren’t, until we are created again. Thanks be to the Lord Jesus for making possible our re-creation.

 

COMMENTS ARE WELCOME

 

 

How to become a successful religion, by Mark Galli

10 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by stertin in Biblical personages / passage, Other authors, Stories

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"Christianity Today", "nobody cares about the past!, adding insult to injury, becoming a successful religion, Director of New Ventures, effectiveness potential, Mark Galli, marketing inefficiency by "the Holy Spirit" ?, speaking of jail, your leading PR man - Peter

“How to Become a Successful Religion” – A marketing consultant advises early church leaders  (thanks, Mark Galli)

 

To: James, President of the Jerusalem Council
Re: Initial Impressions

Shalom Marketing Ltd. was recently contacted by a member of your council, asking us to tell you about our services. He said to make it clear that he was footing the bill for this initial evaluation, with the hopes that our sound advice will encourage the council to hire us to guide your marketing efforts for the next strategic stage in your movement’s life.

We have heard reports of your movement for some time now—who hasn’t?—and our initial impressions are very positive! You seem to have dynamic leadership, organizational flexibility, and a natural touch with the people. Add some sophisticated marketing—well, who knows how successful you can become! Naturally, this brief memo will, by its nature, point out areas in need of attention, but make no mistake: We have great optimism about what we call your “effectiveness potential.”

Let’s begin with one of your leading PR men, Peter, who is clearly a gifted communicator. We believe he would find that our seminar “Winning Techniques for Effective Communication” would help him be more effective still! Unfortunately, he has the regular habit of berating his audience, just at the moment when he has them eating out of his hand.

For example, after that day when everyone thought you all were having one giant party in the middle of the day (by the way, that was a stroke of marketing genius, to show everyone that you all know how to have a good time), Peter gave what frankly was a long-winded speech (we’d recommend no more than five minutes in the future), rehearsing a great deal of history (we’d recommend sticking with the present; nobody cares about the past anymore), and then ended on a couple of awkward notes.

First, he made a point of emphasizing the death of your movement’s founder, reminding one and all of recent bloody events. This, of course, casts a rather negative spell on the moment, as people were reminded of something unpleasant. Instead he should be spending a lot more time on your founder’s so-called resurrection. We do not, as a matter of policy, judge the veracity of any group’s religious claims, but we certainly recognize the resurrection’s marketing appeal. It appears to be core to your business, so we would certainly encourage you to exploit its potential.

The other uncomfortable note was when Peter added insult to injury, blaming the crowd for killing your founder: “This Jesus … you crucified.” And then he implies that the crowd is full of “lawless men.” And if they didn’t get the point, he drove home this indelicate point at the end of the sermon: “Let all the house of Israel [now equated with lawlessness] therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

We understand that Peter would have likely still been grieving over the death of the founder, but insulting your audience is not the way to win friends to the movement. 🙂

Granted, a reported 3,000 people were added to your movement that day, which only speaks of Peter’s incredible PR gifts. For if he could convince so many to sign up after this presentation, how many more could he have gotten had he been using the tools of “Winning Techniques for Effective Communication”?

Unfortunately, Peter did the same thing after that extraordinary incident with the lame man. More history, more death, and more insults, ending with, “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life … .”

He tried to soften the blow by telling them, “Brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance,” but of course this likely came across as patronizing. It’s no wonder that the religious leaders were “greatly annoyed,” as one report had it, and then threw Peter and John into jail.

Yes, another 2,000 joined the movement right after that, but again, what could have been accomplished if more effective communication techniques had been employed?

Speaking of jail, we would encourage your leaders to avoid jail time as much as possible. We know that the movement is controversial and that the Jerusalem authorities have a short fuse, so a run-in with the authorities is inevitable from time to time. It does give your movement the sexy rebel image, which can be a plus. But try to work with the authorities when you can.

We’d also encourage you to make better use of your talent pool. Take the deacon Philip, who apparently is another gifted communicator. Reports of his successful work in Samaria have come to us. But then we heard that, on a whim, he up and left what was a very effective outreach to start a work in the middle of nowhere—a desert road in Gaza. We recognize that living by faith is a core value to your movement, but you are not going to get anywhere if you don’t stay in the population centers. Yes, we heard he had a very successful networking moment with a government official from Ethiopia, and this is no small thing. But it would nonetheless be wise to marshal maximum talent at points of maximum potential return.

We understand there is lots of talk about “repentance” in these marketing presentations, and we understand that personal moral change is required in the movement. But it’s not wise to put that up front in your initial presentations. Along with the death of your founder, we advise you to downplay talk of repentance until people are well into the movement. You don’t want to push people away needlessly before you show them all that you have to offer.

There also seems to be a fair amount of mission confusion. Some are saying you are a Jewish religion, others a religion for all takers. We advise against the latter until you are well established in Judea first. So we encourage you to curtail the activities of that fellow Paul and his friend Barnabas. If they are successful in their outreach, it will prematurely muddy the movement and confuse people. If you insist on reaching out to Gentiles (frankly, we’d advise against it, since it will only work against your outreach to your target audience), you can do so once your reputation is firmly established.

(By the way, we’ve heard that many in the movement attribute the marketing inefficiencies I’ve noted to the leading of “the Holy Spirit.” But do you really want to blame the Almighty for hampering your ability to be efficient and successful? We would think not.)

Finally, there is the issue of brand confusion. Some say you are called “The Way,” others “Christians.” Some people probably think these are two different movements!

First, you need to decide on a logo quickly. Some in your movement are suggesting the cross, no doubt the same group who can’t keep quiet about the crucifixion of your founder. This would be a disastrous move in our view. We’d want to do some focus groups to determine the best logo, and no, that does not come cheap. But it is well worth the investment, believe us.

As for your name, that too will take some concerted research. We recommend in the interim that you stay away from “Christians,” as that will only remind people of your founder and his gruesome death. We think “Followers of Jesus” would work, as it would focus on the life of your founder and emphasize his ethical genius. It would also downplay redemptive religion, with all its talk of sin and repentance, as well as that business about his coming again (such speculative theology will do your movement no good, in our opinion). “Followers of Jesus” is also vague enough to leave room for the imagination, allowing you to shape the movement according to the felt needs of your target audience.

Naturally, we have many more suggestions—and we have yet to do any formal marketing studies! Given your initial success, we have no doubt that if you take these suggestions, you will become not only a successful faith in the region, but likely a popular and respected religion of the empire.

Respectfully yours,

Levi, son of Joachim of Bethel
Director of New Ventures
Shalom Marketing, Ltd.

*********************

taken from Christianity Today, August 19, 2010 –www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/augustweb-only/43-41.0.html

Who Packs Your Parachute? (thanks, Charles Plumb)

30 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Other authors, Pain - Evil - Suffering, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Stories, Theology - God

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Charles Plumb, Matthew 25: 34-40, Navy jet pilot, parachutes, the sailor, Who's packing your parachute?

Who packs your parachute? (thanks, Charles)

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!” “How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb. “I packed your parachute,” the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.

The man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb assured him, “It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.” Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, “I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said ‘Good morning, how are you?’ or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.”

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know.

Now, Plumb asks us, his audience, “Who’s packing your parachute?”

We all have someone who provides what we need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory-he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachute.

Matthew 25: 34-40 (The Living Bible) :

“I, the King, shall say to those at my right, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, into the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.  For I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you invited me into your homes; naked and you clothed me; sick and in prison, and you visited me.’

 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Sir, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you anything to drink?  Or a stranger, and help you? Or naked, and clothe you?  When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’

“And I, the King, will tell them, ‘When you did it to these my brothers, you were doing it to me!’”

 * * * * * * *

NOTE: For more information about Captain Plumb, you can use this Google search query: https://www.google.com/search?=Charles+Plumb&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

“Really, Lewis, are you serious??” – Counting the cost!!

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Change, Other authors, Pointing beyond the common and natural, Quotes, Theology - God

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"Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas", a dentist's visit, C S Lewis' MERE CHRISTIANITY, counting the cost, what God has in store for us, William Stuntz's wisdom

“Really, Lewis, are you serious?? – Counting the cost!!  In the previous piece, William Stuntz referred to C. S. Lewis.  This piece follows up on Stuntz’s reference.  It captivated me when I first read it many years ago; it still does.  It comes from Mere Christianity, chapter 31.

****************

I find a good many people have been bothered by what I said in the previous chapter about Our Lord’s words, `Be ye perfect. ‘ Some people seem to think this means ‘Unless you are perfect, I will not help you’; and as we cannot be perfect, then, if He meant that, our position is hopeless. But I do not think He did mean that. I think He meant ‘The only help I will give is help to become perfect. You may want something less: but I will give you nothing less. ‘

Let me explain. When I was a child I often had toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother – at least, not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this. I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain: but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. They would not let sleeping dogs lie; if you gave them an inch they took a mile.

Now, if I may put it that way, Our Lord is like the dentists. If you give Him an inch, He will take a mile. Dozens of people go to Him to be cured of some one particular sin which they are ashamed of . . . or which is obviously spoiling daily life (like bad temper or drunkenness). Well, He will cure it all right: but He will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if once you call Him in, He will give you the full treatment.

That is why He warned people to ‘count the cost’ before becoming Christians. ‘Make no mistake; He says, ‘if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push Me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect – until my Father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you, as He said He was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.’

. . . . You must realize from the outset that the goal towards which He is beginning to guide you is absolute perfection; and no power in the whole universe, except you yourself, can prevent Him from taking you to that goal. That is what you are in for. And it is very important to realize that. If we do not, then we are very likely to start pulling back and resisting Him after a certain point. I think that many of us, when Christ has enabled us to overcome one or two sins that were an obvious nuisance, are inclined to feel (though we do not put it into words) that we are now good enough. He has done all we wanted Him to do, and we should be obliged if He would now leave us alone. As we say ‘I never expected to be a saint, I only wanted to be a decent ordinary chap. ‘ And we imagine when we say this that we are being humble.

But this is the fatal mistake. Of course we never wanted, and never asked, to be made into the sort of creatures He is going to make us into. But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what He intended us to be when He made us. He is the inventor, we are only the machine. He is the painter, we are only the picture. How should we know what He means us to be like?

. . . We must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time. When a man turns to Christ and seems to be getting on pretty well (in the sense that some of his bad habits are now corrected), he often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along – illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation – he is disappointed. These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rowse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now? Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us.

I find I must borrow yet another parable from George MacDonald. Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurt abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

The command “Be ye perfect” is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him – for we can prevent Him, if we choose – He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.

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A Harvard Law Professor – “When most people think it is the worst”

14 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by stertin in Advice along the way, Biblical personages / passage, Clear and logical thinking, Other authors, Pain - Evil - Suffering, Stories, Theology - God

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a change in suffering's character, Harvard Law School professor, the curse Satan sent his way, The Shawshank Redemption, when a story sounds off, William J Stuntz

William J Stuntz explains his life with what most people think it is the worst.

Survivors of some horrible plague or battle often find themselves wracked with guilt: Why did I live while so many died? Though I had no battle scars, I used to feel a similar sense of guilt. I married the only woman I’ve ever loved. We have three terrific children. I have a secure job that I love and that pays well. Sometimes I would ask God: Why have you been so kind to me? Why have I gotten such an easy life?

I don’t ask those questions anymore.

A little over nine years ago, while driving home from a family vacation, my car got a flat tire. When I started to change it, something nasty happened at the base of my back. Ever since, my lower back, along with the top half of my right leg, have hurt. After two operations, dozens of injections, physical therapy, psychotherapy, and thousands of pills, my back and right leg hurt every waking moment. Most of those moments they hurt a lot. Living with chronic pain is like having an alarm clock taped to your ear with the volume turned up – and you can’t turn it down. You can’t run from it; the pain goes where you go and stays where you stay. Chronic pain is the unwelcome guest who will not leave when the party is over.

A few months after my back turned south, my family and I moved when I accepted a job at Harvard Law School. Our family began to unravel. One of our children suffered a life-threatening disease, and my marriage fell apart.

Those crises faded with time but left deep scars. Early last year another piece of bad news struck me – doctors finding a large tumor in my colon. A month later, x-rays turned up tumors in both of my lungs. I’ve had two cancer surgeries and six months of intensive chemotherapy. I’ve been off chemo for a few months, but I’m still nauseous much of the time and exhausted most of the time. Cancer kills, but cancer treatment takes a large bite out of one’s pre-diseased life, as though one were dying in stages. Some of that stolen life returns when the treatment stops. But only some.

Today, my back and especially my right leg hurt as much as they ever have, and the odds are overwhelming that they will hurt for as long as this life lasts. Cancer will very probably kill me within the next two years. I’m 50 years old.

Such stories are common, yet widely misunderstood. Two misunderstandings are worth noting here. First, illness does not beget virtue. Cancer and chronic pain make me sick; they don’t make me good. I am who I was, only more diseased. Second, though I deserve every bad thing that has ever happened to me, those things didn’t happen because I deserve them. Life in a fallen world is more arbitrary than that. Plenty of people deserve better from life than I do, but get much worse. Some deserve worse and get much better. Something important follows: The question we are most prone to ask when hardship strikes – why me? – makes no sense. That question presupposes that pain, disease, and death are distributed according to moral merit. They aren’t. We live in a world in which innocent children starve while moral monsters prosper. We may see justice in the next life, but we see little of it in this one.

Thankfully, God gives better and more surprising gifts to those living in hard times. Three gifts are especially sweet.

Redeeming Curses

The first gift is that God usually doesn’t remove life’s curses. Instead, he redeems them.

Joseph’s story makes this point. Joseph was victimized by two horrible injustices: one at the hands of his brothers who sold him into slavery, the other thanks to Potiphar’s wife, who falsely accused him of attempted rape. God did not undo these injustices; they remained real and awful. Instead, God used those wrongs to prevent a much worse one: mass starvation. When Joseph later met with his brothers, he said this about the transaction that started the train rolling: “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” That doesn’t mean that slavery and unjust imprisonment are good. Rather, the point is that they produced good, and the good they produced was larger than the wickedness that was visited upon Joseph. Evil was twisted back on itself, like a gun barrel turned so that it aims at the would-be murderer firing the weapon.

Joseph’s story foreshadows the central story of the Gospels. The worst day in human history was the day of Christ’s crucifixion, which saw the worst possible punishment inflicted on the One who, in all history, least deserved it. Two more sunrises and the Son rose: the best day in human history, the day God turned death itself against itself – and because he did so, each one of us has the opportunity to share in death’s defeat.

That is our God’s trademark. Down to go up . . life from death . . beauty from ugliness: the pattern is everywhere.

That familiar pattern is also a great gift to those who suffer disease and loss – the loss may remain, but good will come from it, and the good will be larger than the suffering it redeems. Our pain is not empty; we do not suffer in vain. When life strikes hard blows, what we do has value. Our God sees it.

A change in suffering’s character

The second gift is often missed, because it lives in salvation’s shadow. Amazing as the greatest of all gifts is, God the Son does more than save sinners. Jesus’ life and death also change the character of suffering, give it dignity and weight and even, sometimes, a measure of beauty. Cancer and chronic pain remain ugly things, but the enterprise of living with them is not an ugly thing. God’s Son so decreed it when he gave himself up to torture and death.

Two facts give rise to that conclusion. First, Jesus is beautiful as well as good. Second, suffering is ugly as well as painful. Talk to those who suffer medical conditions like mine and you’ll hear this refrain: Even the best-hidden forms of pain and disease have a reality that is almost tactile, as though one could touch or taste them. And those conditions are foul, like the sound of fingernails on a blackboard or the smell of a cornered skunk. Some days, I feel as if I were wearing clothes soaked in sewage.

But other days, although not most days, are different, thanks to the manner of Jesus’ life and death. Imagine a man, who is normally seen in an elegant suit, putting on an ugly suit. The suit wouldn’t look bad because the man’s attractiveness spills over onto their clothing, changing its meaning, and the way other people respond to it. If the man wears it, it’s a good-looking outfit. If he wears it often enough, it becomes a good-looking suit even when you or I wear it.

God’s Son did something similar by taking physical pain on his divine yet still-human person. He did not render pain itself beautiful. But his suffering made the enterprise of living with pain and illness larger and better than it had been before. He elevates all he touches. Just as his years of carpentry in Joseph’s shop lend dignity and value to all honest work, so too the pain he bore lends dignity and value to every pain-filled day human beings live.

The Shawshank Redemption is about a prisoner convicted of a murder he didn’t commit. That prisoner escapes by crawling through a sewer line until he’s outside the prison’s walls. The narrator describes the transaction this way: “He crawled through a river of [dung] and came out clean on the other side.” God the Son did that, and he did it for the likes of me so that I, too, and many more like me, might come out clean on the other side. That truth doesn’t just change my life after I die. It changes my life here, now.

The God Who Remembers

The third gift is the most remarkable. Our God remembers even his most forgettable children. But that memory is not the dry, lifeless thing we feel when one or another old friend comes to mind. Rather, it is more like the passion one feels at the sight of a lover. When Jesus was dying, one of the two convicts crucified with him said this: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus responded by telling him that he would be in paradise that very day.

The story sounds off because to us, remembrance merely means “recall”. I remember when I connect a student’s name to her face, or when I can summon up some fact or the image of some past event. That kind of remembrance is a sterile enterprise, lacking both action and commitment.

In the Bible, remembrance usually combines two meanings: first, holding the one who is remembered close in the heart, and second, acting on the memory. When God repeatedly tells the people of Israel to remember that he brought them out of Egypt, he is saying much more than “get your history right.” A better paraphrase would go like this: “Remember that I have loved you passionately. Remember that I have acted on that love. Hold tight to that memory, and act on it too.”

Job understood the concept. Speaking with God about what would follow his own death, Job utters these words: “You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made. Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin” (Job 14:15-16). Notice how memory and longing are fused. Job longs to be free of his many pains, which occupy his mind like a sea of unwanted memories. God longs for relationship with Job, and Job knows it. Thus, his belief that the Lord of the universe remembers each of his steps. He is the Lover who will not rest until his arms enfold the beloved. To Job, the curses Satan has sent his way are a mighty mountain that cannot be climbed, an enemy army that cannot be beaten. In the shadow of God’s love, those curses are at once puny and powerless.

Philosophers and scientists and law professors (my line of work) are not in the best position to understand the Christian story. Musicians and painters and writers of fiction are much better situated – because the Christian story is a story, not a theory or an argument, and definitely not a moral or legal code. Our faith is, to use C. S. Lewis’s apt words, the myth that became fact. Our faith is a painting so captivating that you cannot take your eyes off it. Our faith is a love song so achingly beautiful that you weep each time you hear it. At the center of that true myth, that painting, that song stands a God who does vastly more than remember his image in us. He pursues us as lovers pursue one another. It sounds too good to be true, and yet it is true. So I have found, in the midst of pain and heartache and cancer.

William J. Stuntz  (Henry J. Friendly Professor at Harvard Law School)

Originally published in Christianity Today, August 2009. (slight editing has been done)  www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/august/34.44.html

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