Hills to Die on

Too many "hills to die on" make too many people dead.
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Dogmatic people do not like compromise.

Bullies do not like compromise.

Most people do not like the "everyone loses something" part of compromise.

Most of us prefer it over the "everyone loses everything" possibility and most like the "everyone gets something" side of it.

Since no system exists where everyone agrees, when the people come together to make policy, it is called politics and politics is the art of fair compromise where everyone wins as much as possible.

Too many "hills to die on" make too many people dead.

If we are to live in a community of mutual respect where we want what is best for each other, we will grit our teeth and learn to compromise.

Perspective

Jesus brought a perspective on religion that placed people over ritual and humanity over custom. He did not abolish custom, ritual, religion, and piety, but endowed them with renewed rooting in the relationship of God to humanity. It is a recurring theme in the gospels and is easily lost from generation to generation where we are always only a few steps away from institutionalizing faith to the exclusion of vitality and authenticity.

"On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”"

" On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus."

(Luke 6:1-11 ESV)

Unamuno

Born this day in 1864 – Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish philosopher and author (d. 1936). He was author of "The Tragic Sense of Life."

Read Tragic Sense of Life

"Unamuno was an early existentialist who concerned himself largely with the tension between intellect and emotion, faith and reason. At the heart of his view of life was his personal and passionate longing for immortality. "- Britannica 

"Unamuno's philosophy was not systematic but rather a negation of all systems and an affirmation of faith "in itself." He developed intellectually under the influence of rationalism and positivism ... " - Wikipedia

"It is sad not to be loved, but it is much sadder not to be able to love."

"It has often been said that every man who has suffered misfortunes prefers to be himself, even with his misfortunes, rather than to be someone else without them."

"Man sees, hears, touches, tastes and smells that which it is necessary for him to see, hear, touch, taste and smell in order to preserve his life."

"Is pure thought possible, without consciousness of self, without personality? Can there exist pure knowledge without feeling, without that species of materiality which feelings lends to it?"

"The vain man is in like cause with the avaricious — he takes the mean for the end; forgetting the end he pursues the means for its own sake and goes no further. The seeming to be something, conducive to being it, ends by forming our objective. We need that others should believe in our superiority to them in order that we may believe in it ourselves, and upon their belief base our faith in our own persistence, or at least in the persistence of our fame. We are more grateful to him that congratulates us on the skill with which we defend a cause than we are to him who recognizes the truth or goodness of the cause itself. A rabid mania for originality is rife in the modern intellectual world and characterizes all individual effort. We would rather err with genius than hit the mark with the crowd."

"My idea of God is different each time that I conceive it. Identity, which is death, is the goal of the intellect. The mind seeks what is dead, for what is living escapes it."

"To believe in God is to yearn for His existence and, furthermore, it is to act as if He did exist."

"The attacks which are directed against religion from a presumed scientific or philosophical point of view are merely attacks from another but opposing religious point of view."

"Love personalizes all that it loves. Only by personalizing it can we fall in love with an idea."

"This Consciousness of the Universe, which a love, personalizing all that it loves, discovers, is what we call God."

"The knowledge of God proceeds from the love of God, and this love has little or nothing of the rational in it. For God is indefinable."

"Faith is an act of the will — it is a movement of the soul towards a practical truth, towards a person, towards something that makes us not merely comprehend life, but that makes us live."

"Act so that in your own judgment and in the judgment of others you may merit eternity, act so that you may become irreplaceable, act so that you may not merit death."

Recent Shorts

Recent Shorts from Tom Sims at The Dream Factory 

 

When Your Deity Needs you for His or Her Glory and You Need the Deity for Your Income

Site of the Temple of Artemis in the town of Selçuk, near Ephesus.

Demetrius and the artisans had a complaint.

Paul was stirring the truth pot urging people to seek God.

By Gid, Paul meant, the self-actualizing, self-sufficient, self-defining God of Abraham, God of the nations, God of the universe who had been sub-divided by divine characteristics into thousands of sub-deities in the kinds of the peoples. Their gods had been tribalized, trivialized, and memorialized in objects made with hands.

A solid income had been developed by those who were skilled at crafting hand held deities. Religious merchandise had a life of its own.

Paul's unorthodox preaching was resonating with the hearts of the people and threatened a lifestyle of privilege that gathered around a civil religion. Demetrius stirred the artisans with a chant that appealed, on the surface, to their local religion, but was really about their money and power.

One fears this sounds familiar in any time or generation when we must examine our centers of faith.

Genuine God-seeking can drift into regions of commercial, civil, or political self-interest. When that happens, something drive theology other than the Theos.

When we stop seeking and commence repeating repetitious chants designed to silence people's thinking or attentiveness to the Spirit, we reveal our true motives.

Do money, empowerment, and leadership have no place in matters of spirituality, religion, or faith?

No, that is not the message. But they are subservient to the ultimate. They are not gods to be worshipped and served. They are life worthy motives for lifetime commitment. They are incidental accoutrements to facilitate, but not dominate.

God does not need us to exist or receive glory. and religion that merely exists to provide wealth for an elite few is idolatry.

No wonder Demetrius and his friends felt threatened.

Acts 19:21-41 New International Version

After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.

About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”

When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater.

The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.

I Am a Super Hero

Ives, Psalm 90, and Life as Process

Life is a process. Real life is no shallow exercise of mundane motions, but an interwoven tapestry of threads that journey through, across, and deep within the relationships of many threads and weaves until a unity emerges.

Here is Psalm 90 (KJV) with an Ives setting to listen to as you read if you can read and listen to Ives at the same time. Charles Ives is not for musical cowards or spiritual wimps. He captures the ambiguities and resolutions of faith at a level that is often contradictory to the cursory view, but is, in fact, in perfect harmony with the realities of divine providence and direction.

Life is not a steady slope. Nor is it always a clear path, but the Lord is our dwelling place in the midst. He teaches us to number our days. He multiples the works of our hands.

He is with us.

Hear the Word of the LORD as sung and reflected upon by the psalmist:

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''Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.''

''Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.''

''Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.''

''For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.''

''Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.''

''In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.''

''For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.''

''Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.''

''For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.''

''The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.''

''Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.''

''So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.''

''Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.''

''O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.''

''Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.

''Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.''

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."

Ashokan Farewell

I never tire of this piece and your presentation has transported me beyond this tired realm of dust and decay. I hope that someday, I can ascend from this place to my permanent home with such beauty in my ears. I am trembling now in anticipation and joy.

Devotional Thoughts for the Third Day of Autumn

Thoughts Are Things with Wings

Let us glorify God in our bodies. It is a difficult thing when our appetites, cravings, and desires shout with such fever pitched shrills seeking to drown out the quiet and still voice of God whose voice is even more pronounced yet deep.

We tune to the frequency of perishable fading sounds and tune out that which is truly refreshing and life-giving love. It is our journey and our struggle, but not ours alone.

'“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.''

(1 Corinthians 6:12-20 ESV)

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I have been taking a stroll through Isaiah this morning and sat down at a bench in chapter 7. God is using Isaiah to speak truth to power. God says that He expected more justice for the poor. God reveals His glory and His intention to rule supreme and to bring all peoples and nations to Jerusalem to worship One God as one people. But we are arrogant and exercise whatever power we grab with that arrogance and sense of absolute autonomy.

So, He zeroes in on some specific kings who are sure of their own success based upon their own strategies, armies, and arms.

To one He says:

"...Unless your faith is firm,

I cannot make you stand firm.” (Isaiah 7:9b, New Living Translation)

We do not outgrow our need for solid faith in our lives. 

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"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Louis Stevenson

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We are to give, pray, and fast, not to draw attention to ourselves, but to draw our attention to God. Sharing here is a dangerous balance of allowing the blessings and challenges to bless others, of being authentic as a fellow struggling soul, and to squash the temptations toward pride. It helps when you are another ragamuffin among many with more questions than answers. But it is so important to dwell most, in the secret place of the Most High.

No one, but God knows your truest, deepest prayers or struggles.

Your most satisfying reward is that God knows and invites you into intimacy with Himself.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.''

“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.''

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.''

(Matthew 6:1-6 ESV)

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.''

(Matthew 6:16-18 ESV)

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“The grace of God should lead us to see the truth about ourselves, and to gain a certain lucidity, a certain humor, a certain down-to-earthness.” -Gerhard Forde

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Have you ever said, "I had to pinch myself," because you wondered if you were really alive, awake, or experiencing what you were seeing or hearing?

One of the closest cognitive experiences we have to mimic death might be anesthesia. Apart from the reality of the spiritual realm our brains do not record pain, pleasure, or any other sensation.

After experiencing and learning to cope with bouts of severe pain, I came to appreciate the quote below:

"Pain is a kindly, hopeful thing, a certain proof of life, a clear assurance that all is not yet over, that there is still a chance. But if your heart has no pain -- well, that may betoken health, as you suppose: but are you certain that it does not mean that your soul is dead?" - Arthur John (A. J.) Gossip

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Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them ..." - Deuteronomy 12:30a

 

"Tom, you're not useless. We can always use you as a bad example."

Have you ever seen a want add for a bad example?

HELP WANTED
Badly flawed, underqualified, low-motivated, mid-level manager to take responsibility for counter-intuitive training and institutionalized scape-goating for corporate inadequacies. No-experience needed. Apply in person. First in line gets the job. Tenure and top level salary with full benefits on day one.

There now may be some scientific basis for that light hearted insult.

How do we use this in our own self-management? Are there some skills we can introduce?

Or might it be better to set a high bar and expect the best from all?

We're more likely to behave ethically when we see rivals behaving badly : Cognitive Daily - from 09/24/2009 by Dave Munger

"As an undergraduate, at my school it was practically a requirement to steal silverware from the campus cafeteria. There were students who'd commandeered full sets of china. The desk clerk at my dorm used to say that the only thing we were learning from our college education was 'how to steal.'"

"Somehow it didn't seem wrong to us to steal from the cafeteria (though I drew the line at a single setting of silverware). Plus, we'd heard that at other schools, students used the cafeteria trays as sleds after the first winter snow. At least we weren't doing that (though arguably this was only because there are no hills in Chicago)."

READ MORE AT: https://web.archive.org/web/20120508205104/http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/09/were_more_likely_to_behave_eth.php

  

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"All work takes time. When it becomes clear to us that prayer is a part of our daily program of work, it will also become clear to us that we must arrange our daily program in such a way that there is time also for this work, just as we set aside time for other necessary things, such as eating and dressing." - Ole Kristian O. Hallesby

Ole Hallesby (1879-1961) was one of Norway's leading Christian teachers and devotional writers. During World War II he was imprisoned for his resistance to the Nazi regime. He worked as a seminary professor in Oslo until his death.)

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I am no fan of Cortez, slightly more of Julius, basically, a pacifist by conviction. However, we are always engaged in some sort of spiritual, emotional, and ideological warfare where the principles of such apply. Struggle is a constant companion. What can Sun Tzu teach us?

A Prayer for Love to the Lord of Love

Art: "God the Father" by Cima da Conegliano, circa, 1515

I am weak, Lord.

I am lowly.

I bring nothing in my hands. I offer no credentials, no reputation, no resume worth reading.

My track record is checkered. My focus is scattered. My mind is here and there and everywhere. I am easily distracted and frequently tested to the core.

Yet, God, you are my God.

Yet, God, you love me, value me, invest in me, and show grace and mercy to me daily.

I am unworthy. You are worthy.

All my value is that you regard me.

Why, oh why?

It does not matter why because You are the Why of all things and of my existence and You have engraved Your love into the fabric of the universe.

Your love, Oh LORD, is the only true reality, standard, and truth that bleeds through all of our opinions about ourselves and others.

Your wrath is against all that is not love. Why then, if I am not judged, can I ever stand in judgment against my neighbor?

I shall not.

He and she are Yours. You see in them that which is precious even as You see something precious in me.

Give me glimpses today of the wonder in my neighbors eyes and the love in his or her heart that I may view my neighbor through the lenses of Your redemptive and reconciling grace and lay all of my prejudices and agendas aside.

And may my neighbor join me in this cause and his neighbor and her neighbor.

I pray this, as the only solution to our divisions in the Name of Jesus who divided us in order to unite us, who showed us hard truth in order to reconcile us to Himself and to one another, who bore all pain, sin, and alienation upon Himself in order to introduce us to You as Your long lost children who have come home.

Give us the heart of the prodigal's father.

Give us Your heart and the heart of Jesus, Your Son. Amen.

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Help My Unbelief

Helping My Belief and My Unbelief

Jesus’ ministry to his disciples was one of instilling and deepening belief in their lives.

The Transfiguration was part of that.

The vision of transfiguration comes in the days of preparation for intensifying opposition, humiliating disgrace, and unmerited suffering.

How could it be that one, illuminated in glory and endorsed by God, the Father, could be delivered to the hands of conniving men, beaten, scorned, falsely accused, and murdered?

How could it be?

Jesus counters that one's character, calling, and nature do not prevent suffering and unjust treatment in the world, rather, they reveal the truth about ultimate reality, character, and vindication.

Three men needed this vision of what was real to carry them through the fog that was to come.

Cling to the moments when God discloses Himself in your life because there will be long days of dark haze in which those moments may be your only guiding light.

Mark 9:2-13

"Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 

Then Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." 

 He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!" 

 Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. 

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean. Then they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" 

He said to them, "Elijah is indeed coming first to restore all things. How then is it written about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written about him." "

"Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice,..."

"This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!"

Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.

The disciples knew Malachi's words about Elijah coming before the Messianic Age could commence.

For them it was a barrier.

For Jesus, it was just a matter of fact. There is always an Elijah. In fact, he seems to be referring to John the Baptist as having most recently fulfilled that role.

There is nothing that keeps people from turning around, turning to God, turning to their parents, their children, their loved ones, their friends, their neighbors, and their enemies in love, forgiveness and restoration.

There is nothing that keeps God's people from doing righteousness.

There is nothing that keeps the wicked from turning from sin and oppression and deeds that make them stubble to a new life.

There is nothing that any of us need to wait for before we can answer the call of Jesus to stop doing as we please to the messengers of truth and start following the one to whom the message points.

The day and age of fulfillment has come and any hesitation we have is all on us.

"I believe; help my unbelief!"

Mark 9:14-29 (NRSV) 

When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. He asked them, "What are you arguing about with them?" 

Someone from the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so." 

He answered them, "You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me." 

And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the father, "How long has this been happening to him?" 

And he said, "From childhood. It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us." 

Jesus said to him, "If you are able!-- All things can be done for the one who believes." 

Immediately the father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!" 

When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!" 

After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, "He is dead." 

But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" 

 He said to them, "This kind can come out only through prayer."

Here is the key to the lesson Jesus is teaching His disciples when they asked why they could not help the man and his boy. After all, they believed, and Jesus had said that all things were possible to those who believed.

But the man did more than just believe.

He believed and prayed.

Jesus said that deliverance from the oppressing demon that tormented the boy required prayer. Some manuscripts include, “and fasting.”

Prayer requires belief, but in this case, belief is verified and amplified through prayer. After all, the man declares, in His prayer to Jesus, that he does indeed believe, but he doubts the power of his own, weak, feeble, capacity to believe. He is honest, but he is also desperate.

His trust is like the one who believes enough to jump into the darkness even though he is still trembling with shades of uncertainty.

What took his belief beyond its own ability to believe was the declaration, “I believe,” followed by the prayer, “Help my unbelief.”

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. - Mark 9:23

To this challenge, a man in need replied that he believed, but he needed help with his unbelief, those edges where belief was still developing.

In ministry, we are in the business of helping people believe—first in God, then in the possibilities of God working in and through them to accomplish His purposes.

Belief is the most powerful attitude in the universe.

It is essential for realizing God’s promises and our own potential under God.

It is the great missing component of people’s lives who are defeated, discouraged, and frustrated by the details of life.

Belief precedes reality because it is rooted in faith: “the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 1:1).

Faith is substantive.

Therefore, we can build it on a shoestring. We don’t need any resources other than substantive belief to build belief.

As we share our faith, we lend our confidence and hope to people who are operating on a deficit. The wonderful story of Stone Soup illustrates the power of positive belief when it is shared and multiplied in the lives of people and in communities.

To recognize more fully the power of belief, observe the consequences of unbelief.

Take note of the despair, hopelessness, and cynicism prevalent among those who have chosen the path of the skeptic.

Observe the parade of dejected masses who travel along the highways of routine existence fearful of change and suspicious of any radical call to absolute discipleship.

Do you believe in God enough to believe in His potential for the people among whom He has called you to serve? If so, start communicating that faith and instilling it in others.

Then, step back and see what He can and will accomplish through you.

It one corner, we have the pressure to conform to the gods of this world that govern the marketplace of necessity and pleasure. On the other, we are pressured to conform to systems of religion and pseudo righteousness that have frozen grace into a form of rigid compliance that does not resemble the good news of God's grace.

Both poles require resistance and from both, Jesus offers liberation.

We are caught up in a tug of war over what it authentic discipleship and what is extra baggage that we have inherited from our culture, our desire to fit in, and our fear of standing out and being persecuted. It requires constant reexamination of the claims and call of Jesus in every fresh context as we wrestle with timeless truth and shifting concerns. It is not new to our generation. It was happening in the early church and decades later among the band of ragtag disciples who had begun to follow Jesus.

It is as if we are constantly being torn between the poles of secularism and religiosity.

Galatians 6:11-18 (NRSV)

See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised-- only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule-- peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

There was a brief moment in the history of the early church where a protection against Roman persecution existed. It was circumcision as a mark of one’s Judaism. The Romans had thrown up their hands in frustration and had relented in their push to introduce polytheism and emperor worship in all parts of their domain.

Every other conquered nation had complied, but the Jews would not, no matter how much pressure was applied, fall down and bow before the shrine of the imperial cult.

So, Rome made an exception. Everyone had to comply except Jews. As long as the Jesus movement was a sect of Judaism, the church was safe. Once it came out from under that protection, she was subject to harsh treatment, pressure, and even death.

As the gospel and the movement moved into the gentile (non-Jewish world), the question first came from the Jewish Christians and the church had its controversy internally. Do followers of Jesus first have to become Jews, be circumcised, and submit to the law before becoming Christians or are they exempt.

Once that was settled in favor of the latter option, the pressure came from Rome. No longer seen as a branch of Judaism either by Jews or by Rome, Christians, who held the same monotheistic convictions as their Jewish brethren, were not longer protected by affiliation. They were expected to make their sacrifices at the altar of the imperial cult, worship Caesar, and acknowledge the gods of Rome.

To declare that Jesus was Lord and not Caesar was cause for persecution. Even short of death, the state could close the doors of commerce and apply great hardship on vast numbers of believers. Some among them would go to prison and some would die.

I think this is what Paul is referring to when he refers to the pressure to submit to be circumcised as way to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

It was also being held up as a cause for boasting and pride.

“See! I am a five star believer! I have all my bases covered!”

Paul takes everyone back to the cross and obliterates any cause for boasting, pride, self-righteousness, or nationalism.

“I won’t boast about anything but the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through it and Him, I have died a crucified death too everything else and it has died to me.”

He reaffirms his love and blessing for Israel and shakes off the criticism of the self-righteous church folks.

In so doing, he raises a banner of defiance and embrace.

He defies all fear of persecution from the world and embraces the possibility of suffering from Christ. He will not hide who he is and what his core commitments are. The easy way out is not an option.

He defies the internal pressures of the church to conform to anything but what God has called the followers of Jesus to do and to be. He rejects any cultural, racial, nationalistic, or ritualistic identification of what it means to be a Jesus follower and goes for the essential commitment of the gospel – Jesus Himself, crucified and resurrected.

He backs up everything he says with the credibility of his own life, even his own body, marked with the scars inflicted upon him by the whips of his persecutors. What he says is verified by his life and his own suffering. Even as a circumcised Jew, he refused to call upon his affiliation as a way of denying his faith. He took the blows and he gloried in them.

Today, we are still pressured from outside and inside of the church to conform to some standard other than the call of Jesus. On one hand, we are pressured to deny Him. On the other, we are shamed into squeezing into boxes not of His making.

What Jesus is calling us to do, is to lose ourselves in Him, be who he has made us to be, and follow Him in total identification, sold out to His kingdom, and relying only on His grace. It is a dangerous adventure, but it is an adventure indeed.

Now, look back to a scene from Jesus’ ministry.

Rather than looking back on the cross as a defining moment, He is looking ahead with his original disciples. He is warning them of suffering. He is preparing them for its inevitability. He would go first and He would die at the hands of men.

Mark 9:30-41 (NRSV)

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again." 

But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" 

 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." 

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me." 

John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." 

 But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.”

Even as He is seeking to engage their hearts in this radical teaching, whenever they had the chance, they began to engage in petty disputes over trivial concerns.

One of those concerns was which of them would be the greatest!

Pride, competition, boasting, power. None of these ever have been compatible with the Jesus walk, but they are the way of the world.

What Paul dealt with was just another manifestation of what Jesus encountered. It was a clash of cultures and values. The culture of power and human greatness was coming face to face with the gospel of peace, of love, and of service.

The suffering servant as king of the kingdom flew in the face of the prevailing view of the culture. It was an insult to the sensibilities of godless Romans and godly Jews. All had been drinking from the same well of grandiosity.

“You have to be more like children,” Jesus admonishes them. “You have to be more like slaves.”

“You have to give up this notion that you can be great by putting others down or dominating them. The greatest among you will be the one perceived, by the world’s standards, to be the least.”

And if you want to really serve me and identify with me, start handing out water.

In a simple rebuke and encouragement, He turns the tables on everything and rights the course of our thinking.

But that thinking must be renewed often. It had to be renewed with every new context such as Paul’s circumcision controversy in Galatia and it has to be renewed today as we confront our gods of materialism, safety, comfort, American exceptionalism, and parochial bigotry.

We are always having to shake loose extra baggage we accumulate along the grace highway. Some of it has become deeply embedded in our psyches, our rituals, and our conversation. It has become intertwined with our way of speaking truth so that it is not easy to extract from the truth. It has permeated our culture and defined our false boundaries, but it is not the gospel and it never will be.

Like Paul, we must be daily crucified with Christ to the world and to that, which is of the world, but disguised as Christianity.

It was costly then and it is likely to be costly today.

Instilling Belief 

Let’s go back a moment to recap a central idea. 

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. (Mark 9:23)

In ministry, we are in the business of helping people believe—first in God, then in the possibilities of God working in and through them to accomplish His purposes. Belief is the most powerful attitude in the universe. It is absolutely essential for realizing God’s promises and our own potential under God. It is the great missing component of people’s lives who are defeated, discouraged, and frustrated by the details of life. Belief precedes reality because it is rooted in faith: “the SUBTANCE of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 1:1).

Do you believe in God enough to believe in His potential for the people among whom He has called you to serve? If so, start communicating that faith and instilling it in others. Then, step back and see what He can and will accomplish through you.

The Power of a Prior Commitment

Photo by Isaac Jenks on Unsplash

First, Commit; then Learn to Follow

 “Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.  Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.”  -Psalm 119:33-37

If you want to see God’s Word, come alive in your heart, decide ahead of time to obey whatever it says, prior to even knowing what that is.

It will be like approaching a tree filled with gifts on Christmas, knowing that there is something for you there, but not knowing exactly what it is. Your heart is filled with excitement and wonder. You know you will love it. You can’t wait to find out what it is.

It is like waiting for the birth of a child. You already love him having never laid eyes on him. You are absolutely committed to years of child rearing without seeing his face or knowing his disposition. It is a prior commitment, and it empowers your seeking and inflames your heart.

“Teach me,” is the great prayer here. “I shall keep,” is the promise of prior commitment.

It is followed by a heartfelt petition that could be paraphrased this way, “Now that I have promised to keep your Word, observe it with my whole heart, and delight in all of your commands, HELP ME!”

He prays for a heart that is inclined toward God’s will, eyes that do not focus on vanity, and quickening energy to keep on keeping on.

Prior commitment does not mean that you have all the resources already to do what you are promising. It means that you intend to do so, without even knowing what God will require, and that you trust Him for the ability to keep your promise.

Read the Bible that way and see what a difference it makes.

Go, Think about It.

I saw a church board that declared that Satan is the author of confusion. I assume that comes from 1 Corinthians 14:33

"For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints."

However, the premise that confusion is always the role of the adversary/accuser is as faulty as the avoidance of the context of that verse.

What we call confusion may result from wonder in the face of the unknown and unfathomable. It may be a necessary step on the road to peace that passes understanding. It may be part of the tension that is resolved in faith.

What the pastor was advertising was, "Show up here and we will hand you all the answers on a silver platter with 3-4 easy steps."

That does not seem to be the way of God through confusion to peace.

How unlike the way Jesus taught when he presented a conundrum and then challenged the hearers to go and think and pray about it.

If we seek, we shall find in the right time.

If we ask, God will guide us.

If we trust, we will find God leading us.

 

 

Find a mission to benefit the world.

Find a mission to benefit the world.

Don't Laugh at Me

Don't Laugh at Me

For me, the message of Peter, Paul, and Mary always transcended politics.

This song is no exception.

It is about common decency - the kind that seems in such jeopardy these days. It seems out of favor to look into the eyes of another and see the image of God.

Jesus said we ought to look for Him in the broken, wounded, and ostracized.

"Don't laugh at me. Don't call me names. Don't get your pleasure from my pain."

We don't have to all be friends. We don't have to agree with each other politically, spiritually, or in any way.

We don't have to endorse or adopt each others' choices, lifestyles, behaviors, or beliefs.

We do need to be decent to each other. We need to respect each other as children of God. We need to learn to live by love and reject hate.

We need to approach each other with open hands and hearts.

That is what this song says to me.

What we used to call common courtesy, people shrug off these days as political correctness. In fact, it seems to be politically incorrect to ask people to embrace these old fashioned values for fear that we will be considered politically correct.

But the real hurts and hearts of people have not changed. Everyone needs to feel loved and accepted. Everyone needs to feel valued by God and others. Everyone deserves a change. Everyone is entitled to respect. All people ought to be allowed to live without being judged by anyone except the Almighty who is gracious and merciful.

This is not about accepting everyone's values as equal. It is about accepting everyone's humanity as equal.

We need to hear and heed these words today more than ever.

Listen .

 

 

Asking the Right Questions. I was thinking about old Job in the… | by Tom Sims , Cultivator of Big Ideas | Sep, 2024 | Medium

(Job 6:11 KJV) What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life? (Job 3:11 KJV) Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? (Job 10:9 KJV) Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust…

via medium.com

Out of the Whirlwind

 

hoto by Nikolas Noonan on Unsplash

 

Job has been in a whirlwind, swept up by the erratic power of confusion, colored by despair, sharpened by pain, and stirred by doubt. A new whirlwind comes, shaking loose the settling seeds of hopelessness to clarify and ground a greater truth.

 

God speaks and God makes the tornado of trouble seem like a brief gust of breath, an impotent passing wind.

God's voice thunders like none other.

God begins to speak and it starts with a series of questions.

 

Job 40:1-19 New International Version

The Lord said to Job:

“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!”

Then Job answered the Lord:

“I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer— twice, but I will say no more.”

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:

“Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

“Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God’s, and can your voice thunder like his? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty. Unleash the fury of your wrath, look at all who are proud and bring them low, look at all who are proud and humble them, crush the wicked where they stand. Bury them all in the dust together; shroud their faces in the grave. Then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.

“Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly! Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit. Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like rods of iron. It ranks first among the works of God, yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.

Having wisdom and sharing wisdom is sometimes different from having to apply it to your own life.

We may have helped others but, in our own time of crisis, discover that our words to them are inadequate to our own suffering.

In fact, all words are inadequate. they may be good words, but they do not sink in. If we were to replay our own speeches, they would be resisted. It may be good advice, but we are not ready to receive it.

The book of Job has some pretty good insights for both the care giver and the care receiver - how we give and how we receive help.

"Behold, you have instructed many,
and you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have made firm the feeble knees.
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
Is not your fear of God your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?"
(Job 4:3-6 ESV)

Who Do You Say I Am?

Mark 8 27 - 9 1

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 

In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, “I have compassion for the crowd because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.” His disciples replied, “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish, and after blessing them he ordered that these, too, should be distributed. They ate and were filled, and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. 

The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” And he left them, and getting into the boat again he went across to the other side. 

Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.” They said to one another, “It is because we have no bread.” And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” And they said to him, “Seven.” Then he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” 

They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he looked intently, and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.” 

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” 

He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Who Provided the Boat?

"And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples..."

This raises an interesting question that I will return to in a few paragraphs.

For me and for today, the big phrase in this morning's gospel portion is this phrase:

"I have compassion for the crowd..."

He was concerned that they were hungry and would not make it home in good health.

So, he immediately formulated a strategy and involved his inner circle in solving the problem, calling upon the power of Eternity to make up for what resources they might have lacked.

Then he got into a boat.

Here is another statement that I often overlook.

It seems that, while in Galilee, Jesus often traveled by boat and would just get in the boat.

Where did the boat come from?

Did he hire it, rent it, borrow it, or own it?

I think I would like to imagine that it was a part of the mini fleet from the business that Andrew and Simon Peter left behind.

I like to imagine that when they became disciples of Jesus, the resources that they had were available to the God-Movement and that there was always a boat ready for Jesus and the disciples.

What resources from your life and work have you brought to the God-Movement?

Are they available to Jesus at a Moment's notice?

Someone made fish and bread available, but there was also, that boat.

What About You?

"And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ." - Mark 8:29

Who does John say that I am? What does Mary say about me? How does Hector view me? Did Lupe quote me? Who and what do people say that I am?

When Jesus asks the question, it is merely a preface to the larger and more profound question, “Who do you say that I am?

It is as if he were asking, “Who am I to you? What place do I have in your life?”

It is very likely that if you have occupied your place in the pew for any length of time, you know all the right answers about who Jesus is. You know multiple names for him. You have a vocabulary full of adjectives to describe him.

Your doctrine about the nature and mission of Jesus is sound.

But what does your heart say about him? What does your life reflect? What does your soul believe? To what one thing about Jesus does your whole being cling?

Peter said, “Thou art the Christ” and he added, “the Son of the Living God.”

It meant something.

You are the Messiah, the one for whom we have been waiting. You are the promised one and the promise itself. You came from God. You are God’s Son. Whatever any of these kings and princes of Rome claim to be, you are the living one who has come from the Living God.

Where does such a conviction originate?

Jesus tells Peter that it came directly from God. It was a spiritual confidence that led him to speak so boldly and with such assurance.

From what part of your soul do you speak when you answer Jesus’ direct question? Who do you say he is?

If you lack the sort of testimony in your life that Peter was blessed with, ask God to give you such a blessing, a heart conviction that Jesus is the One.

Don't report the final score before the whistle blows and don't assume that setbacks predict loss. Furthermore, don't pursue that which is easy, popular, or compatible with the dominant narrative of any generation at the cost of the soul-searching, soul-wrenching, upside-down message of sacrifice, service, and radical discipleship.

The depth, reality, and long-term character of the call is seldom what would seem most expeditious in a meeting of our own minds for the purpose of securing short-term gains.

We come to Jesus, the Son and delight of the Father.

He knows who he is.

He knows why he has come.

He knows what people say and it does not matter.

He knows what he must do.

He wants his followers to know, and, to some extent, Simon Peter does.

But Simon is also an “accuser,” who, those his motives are to spare Jesus’ rejection and death, would terminate his mission by diverting him from it.

Grace, mercy, peace, and love do not come without a price and God pays the price.

To turn to God by turning to Jesus is to face the way of the cross.

It is to deny self which is to deny self-indulgence as well as self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. It is to deny both the pleasures of a God avoiding life and responsibility of setting ourselves up as demi-gods.

Jesus knew how difficult it would be for Peter and the friends to understand this.

His ways and thoughts were not theirs, but theirs would be transformed and enlightened. They would see things that would amaze them and give them a new perspective.

And so, shall we if we follow.

Keep Dancing

Maybe the dancers "get it" more than some of the rest of us who contemplate and pontificate.

God is inviting us to a dance and whether or not we are skilled or talented, we can join in and, as we do, He will teach us the steps.

After listening to Peter, Paul, and Mary singing, "Don't let the Light Go Out" in honor of Chanukah,  I was thinking about light and oil and miracles and how we gravitate toward celebration in singing, dance, and giving.

Every spark, every glimmer, every ray of light in my life has been a miracle and a gift from God.

What is this human urge to celebrate with light and laughter and generosity of spirit?

There is gravity and solemnity in much of what we do religiously, but there is also celebration and joy.

Religions are different. If I were not convinced that God had spoken and visited us in Jesus, I would be something other than a Jesus follower. I state my beliefs, humbly, as truth because I am convinced of their truth. I don't apologize for that and never expect my friends who are convinced of their beliefs to apologize for them either.

However, my conviction that I am settled on Jesus does not negate the common elements of our experience. They are present because truth is universal and because the God who fashioned us in His image is always reaching out to us and touching that something in us that makes us want to stand up and dance.

We are made for something more, something "Other," something eternal. All of us! We are all created by and for God and with a deep urge to embrace what Nehemiah called, "The joy of the Lord," and described as "your strength."

The oil in the temple was just not in ample supply for the days of dedication when the first candle was lit. Yet, there kept being enough ... enough for each day. The description of the event was and remains, "A great miracle happened there."

Our lives are miracles. The oil of joy, healing, and anointing for significance does not seem to be ample for the demands we face. Yet, each day, if we will light the candle in faith and celebration, there seems to be just enough ... and enough ... and enough for each day.

And our hearts desire is to celebrate, to give gifts, to light candles, to be charitable and jolly and gracious.

This is a God-connector. It is a sign. It is a message through us and back to us that we are loved, have been visited by the God who made us, and are invited to join the song and the dance of time and eternity.

Jesus said, "seek and ye shall find." It is an open invitation to keep our hearts open to the One who loves us. Joy, grace, giving, and gratitude are all different facets of the same diamond in my faith and language in which it was expressed.

I am not a "Dancing With the Stars" fanatic like most of America and my own household, but I do "get it." We are made to sing and to dance. It is intrinsic and one of the ways God woos us.

There were Magi in the story of Jesus' coming. They did not practice the same faith as Jesus' family or my traditions. In fact, we might find some of their beliefs at real odds with our own - like astrology for instance. But they most likely lived in a place where the influence of the Jews had been strong and they were acquainted with Jewish scripture.

They longed for the divine moment and the appearing of One who would be worthy of their worship. The scriptures I embrace say that the Eternal One crossed the barriers of race and religion and drew them to the place where they could see and do what they longed to see and do.

There is this longing we share.

We can wish each other well in this common quest and encourage the seeking. If I believe my Master, and I do, seekers find. Those who knock get doors opened. Those who ask, receive.

Why do we share some common experiences when we have such differing beliefs? Without arguing for one universal religion or watering anything down, I can say with confidence that there really is only One God and whether we describe Him correctly or incorrectly or somewhere between, that God is always reaching out to all of us to supply the oil and light the candles within us,.

To the extent that we respond to that, it ignites something within us that wants more and more and more.

So, let's dance! As you dance, you might just learn the steps and get to know the Choreographer!

National Anthem of the Kingdom of God on Earth

In case you are having trouble getting up this morning, here is a call to stand up.

The king stood at the inaugural performance of The Messiah.

Perhaps he had to stretch, but everyone else stood because he did --- and after that, tradition was unanimous that it was a good idea.

So, we still stand for it. It is the National Anthem of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Chorus: "Hallelujah" by G.F. Handel
Download score:   The Messiah  

More on the tradition in this excellent article: https://paulwilkinson.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/the-hallelujah-chorus-tradition/  

The March - Ain't No Grave

https://unsplash.com/photos/T_wkjC-sM94
Edwin Gonzalez  @edwingonzalez

“The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle.” – John 12:17-18

Among the throngs who joined the procession of those ushering Jesus into Jerusalem were the witnesses of Lazarus’ miracle. On the road to Calvary, Jesus stopped in Bethany to raise His friend from death and to announce that He, Himself, was the resurrection and the life.

The road was well traveled, but He passed it as none had done before, for He was proceeding toward the cross.

It was a march of death that looked so much like a march of life. Out of death would come life – just as it had for Lazarus. Only Jesus’ resurrection would be self-propelled and would be the gateway for all that would find eternal life in Him.

So, the witnesses marched with Jesus in a festive parade. They cried, “Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord! (verse 13)” and were unwitting prophets of the meaning of the moment.

Their presence and participation shouted, “Listen to this man; He brings the dead to life! Listen to Him! He is the King!”

Little did they realize that His throne would be a cross and His kingly chambers, a tomb. Nor could they understand that, just as Lazarus had come to life through he gateway of death, so the Lord Jesus must pass that way.

There is a procession today that retraces the path that Jesus trod. He invites us to join Him and follow to life eternal.

Thank you for the joy of living.
And for the joy and love of giving.
Thank you for mercy and forgiving.

We give you thanks.

Thank you for the peace to which we aspire
And for the blessings daily, we acquire.
Thank you for each hope of that which we desire.

We give you thanks.

Thank you for friends who gather around us,
For all the beauty that surrounds us
And for the gifts that abound to us.

We give you thanks.

Make us grateful for each wilting flower,
Thankful for each day and hour,
For all that is sweet and all that is sour.

We give you thanks.

May we choose to view the glass
Half full until that time, alas
When all life's dark and fleeting moments pass.

We give you thanks.

And may we live amid the pace,
In every time and every place,
As a people full of grace.

We give you thanks.

Did It Bring Out the Best

Photo by Jesse Mills on Unsplash

Thank you to those who enter into this full experience. of 9–11–2001 remembrance with me.

9–11 was many things, but it did not fit my definition of a war between nations or entities. “War” was a useful rallying cry, I suppose, but that was the extent of its usefulness.

9/11 — I remember well. It touches a place of sadness. It also touches a place of admiration and appreciation for the humanity that was so much stronger than the inhumanity and the courage, heroism, and sacrifice that have been an example to our generation.

It caused us to pray for peace and justice and a world where we demonstrate God’s love to each other and receive love, even across the great divides of strong convictions.

May God bless our country during these days of division and ideological sparring. If we could but join hands for the things that are not in dispute, we could find the time for our disputes, but always come together again as fellow citizens who esteem each other.

On 9/11/2001, over 40 nations lost citizens.

Among these, Australia lost 11, Bangladesh, 6 Canada, 24, Colombia, 17, Germany, 11,Jamaica, 16, Mexico, 16, Philippines, 16, South Korea 28, and United Kingdom, 66.

Some were secular in religious persuasion; some were Christian, some Jewish, some Muslim, and some other.

The perpetrators were criminals who distorted their own religious teachings for their own fanatical and political ends. They represented no legitimate government and no official religion.

I Never Liked Calling It a War

To call it war legitimizes what they did.

It was a crime inspired by irrational hate. Many heroes rose to the occasion and went up the stairs to save as the masses (many of whom were also heroic) sought to go down to safety.

These we honor and remember.

They said nothing would ever be the same. Not true. Things settle down. We mustn’t forget what happened this day, but it does not define us. It refines us.

Some of our responses have been noble, pragmatic, wise, necessary, and compassionate. Others have been driven by fear, irrationality, and unbridled anger. We cannot live in fear, hate, suspicion, and anger. Nor can we cling to grief. Ours is to live and love.

We Have Not Forgotten

We have not forgotten what happened on September 11 in our recent past.

I remember where I was when the first hint of news came across the wave via NPR. I remember my thoughts.’

I remember how we came together and put our differences aside. As Randy Sparks wrote in a song, “On September the 11th, we became just Americans.”

I remember how some folks said that nothing would ever be the same again … but they are in most ways except the ways that time and progress change everything.

Then, we started using the tragedy to move from being a people who valued freedom above everything else to being a people who would surrender freedom for safety and security.

And we started a couple of wars, at least one clearly in response to a very real threat of terrorism in the world.

And we started rethinking the meaning of our Constitution — not that we shouldn’t from time to time. We just need to hold on to what is true and just and good.

And we started bickering again.

Yet, we have not forgotten.

We are not exactly sure what the lessons were, but we learned what it meant to share a common heartbeat and a common heartbreak.

We remember what it was like to deeply care about one another.

We remember what it was like, for a moment, to respect our leaders and give them a great deal of leeway and trust along with much prayer.

What stands out for me in my memory is a heightened value for the heroes among us, in and out of uniform who are willing to lay down their lives for others. Many of these are still placing themselves in daily harm’s way.

We flew flags.

We sought the comfort of God and of one another.

We sang together, mourned together, and worked together.

We can remember, but we cannot be defined by tragedy. Nor can we live in a perpetual state of emergency.

The world is dangerous. Horrible things could happen. We could all die — but that is not the most important thing.

The most important thing is whether or not we will choose to live, and to live as free people until we die. Will we love each other? Will we pray when we are not in crisis? We will show each other respect? Will we be “just Americans” and not blue or red or whatever that is and whatever that means?

If we will remember, then we can commit to being our best as Americans and working together for common good.

For now, let us pause to remember.

Our National Folk Song

We may have national anthem, but this is our national folk song.

Just as we have various points of commonality here in our communities, greetings, common interests, and shared commitments, having walked the streets of our cities, so we were all in one moment on one fateful day. And we all had one thing in common: we were a part of one nation, although many nations lost their sons and daughters as well.

We had a common resolve to grieve together and help one another.

We can be divided on many things, but our true greatness comes in finding our common pains, joys, and loves — and then building on those.

Greetings on this day of remembering.

Where were you when you heard?

I was on Interstate 5, just past the National Cemetary in Gustine, CA.., traveling from Fresno to the Bay Area, listening to NPR News as the word broke.

NASA Remembers Sept. 11 - NASA

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 were a national tragedy that resulted in a staggering loss of life and a significant…

www.nasa.gov

Reflecting Through the Years

Years later…. I was thinking of whether or not to say something about 911 and maybe this is saying something about 911. There are always things we do not want to forget. There are always people that we always want to remember and honor. There are always lessons from the past that we want to build upon. There is nothing in our past that is tragic that we want to define or confine us. 911 was one of our collective travesties and tragedies and it brought to light the best of those folks who united across all sorts of lines to make a positive difference in the darkness.

Tragedies and travesties continue around the world. Our past is cluttered with them. We have perpetrated some as a people. Our ancestors from most every culture have done so, likewise.

We do not live in shame or regret. But we do not forget our shame or regret. We find redemption, reconciliation, and resolve to be better people individually and collectively by the grace of God.

We look for areas where we, in agreement, can stand together and work together.

We are human. We are frail. My theology teaches that we a “mark-missers (sinners in translation).” But we are also beloved and called.

Grace, mercy, and peace are God’s gifts to us in the gaps that our resolve cannot fill. As a follower of Jesus, I am always looking through the lenses of God’s desire for the redemption of everyone and everything, the call to a possibility and necessity of mind/life change (repentance) as good news, and the message of the rule of God (the Kingdom) as always present and imminent in every situation.

That is my bias and leaning and it opens doors to vast possibilities of love in the presence of hate, peace in days of war, hope in times of despair, light in darkness, possibilities at the place of dead-ends, handshakes and hugs when the gloves are off, and salt on the unseasoned mundanity of humanity.

911 was a day and is an emergency number. We do not live in a world dominated and ruled by emergency, but possibility.

Let us live!

We Were Reminded to Love People.

We are not promised tomorrow.

We may not have another opportunity to show or express our love.

Songs Were Sung

We sang because music goes deep and mines the emotions of our souls, gives voice to our hopes as well as our sorrows, and teaches us to find meaning in the mud of life.

I play this every year on September 11 to remind myself what real patriotism is — love for one’s countrymen who walk varied paths from varied backgrounds and places of origin.

By the way, Randy Sparks died last year.

After a respectable pause, Paul Simon brought Saturday Night Live back to the airwaves with this song. This is not that performance, but another.

Later, he sang this as a tribute to the many heroes of 9–11.

For many of us, it was our faith that brought us through the dark days.

Let Us Not Forget to Be Grateful as We Remember

Thank you for the joy of living.
And for the joy and love of giving.
Thank you for mercy and forgiving.

We give you thanks.

Thank you for the peace to which we aspire
And for the blessings daily, we acquire.
Thank you for each hope of that which we desire.

We give you thanks.

Thank you for friends who gather around us,
For all the beauty that surrounds us
And for the gifts that abound to us.

We give you thanks.

Make us grateful for each wilting flower,
Thankful for each day and hour,
For all that is sweet and all that is sour.

We give you thanks.

May we choose to view the glass
Half full as all life’s moments pass.
We behold you as through a glass

We give you thanks.

And may we live amid the pace,
In every time and every place,
Asd a people full of grace.

We give you thanks.

Finally, I believe that while tragedy can bring out the worst in people, it can also bring out the best. Times of great crisis reveal our true colors.

Crossing the Bar

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was first and foremost, a poet. It was not an avocation for him. It was his primary vocation. It was calling. He was certain of it. Even if old age, when granted a peerage which gained him admission to the House of Lords in England, he said that he accepted on behalf of literature.

If he had written nothing else, this work would have made the journey worthwhile for all of us.

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Reading at Poetry Foundation

Biography of Tennyson

Setting Up Your New Non-Profit Organization

Read This Article on LinkedIn.

 Write out your purpose and your mission. And if you can't distinguish between them, it's because often for many different models, they are interchangeable terms. But work with someone and begin to write out a statement of brief statement of what your mission is in the world.

 The funding will come as you meet that need. I suggest that you find a good mentor or coach or both a mentor and a coach could be the same person, or they could be different people but do not take this journey alone.

via www.linkedin.com

A Good Name. Proverbs 22:1 — “A good name is to be… | by Tom Sims , Cultivator of Big Ideas | Sep, 2024 | Medium

Read on Medium

Attention to the details, answering complaints in a timely, courteous, and forthright manner, and going the extra mile will all contribute toward a positive association with your name in the minds of the masses.

Gone are the days when the only bad publicity is no publicity. Negative press is negative except in the sense that it offers an opportunity to demonstrate how a person or company deals graciously with criticism.

via medium.com

I Want to Be Useful

One of the saddest moments in the book of Job is when, in his suffering, he realizes that he is not able to be useful to others like he once was.

" because I delivered the poor who cried for help,
and the fatherless who had none to help him.
The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me,
and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy." - Job 29:12-13 ESV

Maybe we had a savior complex, but we genuinely loved to help.

For many of us, loss of the ability to do these things defines the tragic part of aging

We want to do the things that Job longed to do again. However,, our ability to do them in a way that we measure as significant has been stifled by our weakness.

We think that those activities and their intensity define who we are. Therefore, we feel useless in the world.
 
How many long for a day when they felt more needed and useful?
 
Some folks long for such a day in the future. We measure our significance by how much people need us. Somewhere, some way, some time and all the time, may we be useful.

We can be. We are.

Importance is unimportant.

Prestige is not pristine.

Recognition is not required.

Titles are titular.

Being on top is top heavy.

What I need is to fill a need at every stage of my living.

Productivity may diminish. Flamboyance may falter. I may need to step back from leading, but I can come along.

Grant, Oh God, a searching assessment of my capacity and a dedication of that capacity to your glory and the good of others.

I pray to be a part of the movement, an encourager to the emerging generation of leaders, and a participant in the celebration of the success of others.

Show me my role and grant me the grace to fill it with humility and joy.

May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven and in me.

Make me an example of how that is possible for others as well

 

---------------------------------------

 

Wonderful article by Parker Palmer, Our Need to be Useful

 

Keep Up

We are going to keep up or be left far behind.

If we are going to keep up, we are going to have to do so with intention and purpose.

The older we are, the more we are going to have to work at it.

If we don't do this, we will lose our influence over a generation.

Churches, movements, and businesses must be where the people are. Otherwise, we have no influence.

Businesses, for instance, must relate to people or go out of business.

That is just the way it is.

Man of Sorrows

Donatello, Imago Pietatis, 1449–50, bronze relief from the high altar of the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua

Weeping Savior

"Jesus wept." John 11:36

No two words are as precious as these. The Lord of glory so identified with our suffering that He came to weep with us - and those tears led directly through Jerusalem and His triumphant entry on Palm Sunday to the Mount of Olives where He prayed through the agony of humanity, to the cross where He bore our sins.

There was a church hearing two prospective pastors or two consecutive Sundays. Neither had a great deal of time to prepare sermons, as they were farmers.

So, without realizing it, both discovered the same old sermon by a pulpit master on the subject of hell. On the first Sunday, the farmer-pastor presented his message with great skill. He was sure that the church would call him as pastor and he would be able to leave his plowing and preach the gospel full-time.

However, to assess the “competition,” he showed up and sat semi-disguised in the balcony. To his utter shock, the second preacher had “borrowed” the same sermon on hell and preached it adequately if not with all the smooth inflections of the first.

The church met and called the second preacher who inquired as to why. “I happen to know that he preached the same sermon as I did and not as well.”

“That is true,” replied the pulpit committee chairman, “I have that book of sermons on my bookshelf, but the second man preached it with a tear in his eye.”

There are tears in God's eyes as we choose harshness over mercy, death over life, judgment over forgiveness, and despair over hope.

It was a man named, Bliss, Phillip Bliss, who wrote the hymn about sorrows.

Our Savior weeps with us and for us. He knows our sorrows and cares. And His heart is broken over every lost soul. “Hallelujah! What a Savior!”

"'Man of Sorrows,' what a name

For the Son of God who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim!

Hallelujah! what a Savior!"

-------------------------------

I know you sometimes skip the song.

Do NOT skip this one.

You are welcome.

Aelbert Bouts, Netherlandish (c. 1451/54 - 1549)

God Leads His Dear Children Along

Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber Tenzing Norgay, 1953

This beautiful rendition of the beloved hymn brought my heart to Acts 14.

1."It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God."

2. "When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles."

Meditate on these as you face the squeeze.

Notice how, in one breath, he cites a cost, persecutions, to being fully enveloped in a participating in God's government and the Jesus movement. Then, when it is time to report, it is all about open doors and opportunities.

What does this contrast teach you about Paul's attitude?

Acts 14:19-28

But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city.

 

The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, then on to Iconium and Antioch.

 

There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, "It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God."

 

And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

 

From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had completed.

 

When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. And they stayed there with the disciples for some time.

 

1. In shady, green pastures, so rich and so sweet,
God leads His dear children along;
Where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary one’s feet,
God leads His dear children along.

Refrain:
Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.

2. Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,
God leads His dear children along;
Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,
God leads His dear children along.

3. Though sorrows befall us and evils oppose,
God leads His dear children along;
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.

4. Away from the mire, and away from the clay,
God leads His dear children along;
Away up in glory, eternity’s day,
God leads His dear children along.

Biography

":Young was an ob­scure 19th Cen­tu­ry preach­er and car­pen­ter who spent a life­time serv­ing in small rur­al com­mun­it­ies. Oft­en his fi­nan­cial sup­port was small, and it was hard on his fa­mi­ly. But through all the ups and downs his faith­ful wife ne­ver wa­vered in her loy­al­ty to God and to her hus­band."

"After a long strug­gle, the fa­mi­ly was able to move in­to their own small home (which George built him­self). But then, on an oc­ca­sion when George was away preach­ing, some lo­cal thugs—who didn’t like his Gos­pel preach­ing—set fire to the house, and it was to­tal­ly des­troyed."

"It was out of that ex­pe­ri­ence that Young re­af­firmed his faith in God by writ­ing God Leads Us Along."

Read More Here.

-------------------------------

Art Note

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Be Opened, Your Ears, Your Tongue, Your Heart, Your Mind, Your Hands, Your Life!

Photo by Putz Adrian on Unsplash

Mark 7:31-37

Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went by way of Sidon toward the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."

And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

Psalm 146
A Model for Leadership that Lasts

In contrast to trust, dependence, reliance and subjugation to human leadership that always dies, even our own leadership with its termination date in the future, God models leadership that lasts.

Do you want to leave a legacy? Check out the priorities of God from Psalm 146. To the extent that our leadership, and any sphere of influence, reflect and honor these, something lasts when we are dead.

These are the things God does:

God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. (We cannot add to that, but we can respect it and respect His creation.

God keeps faith forever. (We can be leaders of integrity.)

God executes justice for the oppressed. (He is always for the "underdog.")

The LORD sets the prisoners free (America leads the world in mass incarceration.).

The LORD opens the eyes of the blind.

The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down.

The LORD loves the righteous.

The LORD watches over the sojourners.

God upholds the widow and the fatherless.

God brings the way of the wicked to ruin.

Here is a model for people/leaders who want something to survive after their plans perish with them.

In Tragedy and Travesty

We get numb to the news and tragedy overload overwhelms us into dullness.

It is complicated. We cannot blame this group or that group for this manifestation of evil or desperation or delusion or all of those things wrapped into a moment of very bad choices ... yet many courses are now altered by one man's issues whose issues intersect and overlap with the issues of others and of all of us.

It is not easy stuff to handle, but that is why we are up right now ... in fellowship with one another, some of us in prayer and in fellowship with The Other.

All of us are here in common compassion and concern. Let us lift our hearts together.

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” ― William Wilberforce

There is no hope intrinsic in our political system or in any system of human power. There will be seasons of righteousness, but they cannot command our ultimate trust and confidence. Good people come and go and represent various political philosophies, but they are and shall remain, human.

We are admonished not to put our trust in princes.

This is from the Psalms. The founder and first sponsor of the Psalmist Institution was, himself, a prince. So, he ought to know the limitations of power as well as the responsibilities of power.

His successors would also know that, for they would live to see princes who, unlike God and those who do have a heart for God see every plan of their lives perish with them. They do not create something out of nothing.

Evil, earthly princes, who lust for power, have no power to save.

Nor do they keep faith forever. Human powers are always beset with integrity issues. Even David struggled with serious character flaws.

They do not execute justice for the oppressed.

They do not give food to the hungry.

They do not set prisoners free.

They have no concern for opening the eyes of the blind.

They do not lift those who are bowed down.

Ungodly, human princes have no bias toward the righteous, but expediently align with those who can help them achieve their own ends.

God is a true independent. He is not swayed. He loves righteousness and aligns with the righteous because the righteous align with righteousness.

Evil, earthly princes have no regard for sojourners (AKA: foreigners/aliens).

They do not uphold the fatherless (AKA: those without a guardian/spokesman/protector - the powerless).

They do not thwart the ways of the wicked.

God, on the other hand, can be trusted to do the right thing and to win!

Hear the Word of the LORD and let us model our leadership after His example.

"Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.''

''Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.''

''Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.''

''The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.''

''The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD!''
- Psalm 146

Trusting in Princes

We either treat our leaders with blind trust and awe or with disrespect, contempt, and disgust. It is hard to find the middle ground where we honor them, recognize their limitations and humanity, and see them as temporary occupiers of a role that they will one day surrender to another.

FDR did not finish the New Deal; LBJ did not complete the architecture of a Great Society; Nixon did not give us a Just and Lasting Peace; they all left office, dead or alive, with unfinished plans.

So will we.

So will every leader. Our plans perish when they depend upon us.

On the other hand, to the extent that these and others offered plans that were part of a larger plan of God and invested in other people who caught a vision and took them to the next level with God's help and guidance, they survived.

It was not about faith in humans, but it God who guides, leads, and brings to pass.

Even, and especially, Jesus, understood and modeled this. He spent most of His ministry teaching His plan to the "next generation" of leaders and then, completed His work by dying and rising. He returned from death, gave His final lessons, and commissioned the church to take His plan and vision to all future generations.

He commissioned only a church, not a government, prince, or corporation, to execute, propagate, and lead His not-of-this-world kingdom of grace.

That is how plans survive.

"Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish."
Psalm 146:3-4

Trust in Princes or ...

Trust on God

God can be trusted to do the right thing and to win!

And Jesus does all things well.

Hear the Word of the LORD and let us model our leadership after His example.

How God Helps

Here is a review.

What kind of helper is God in whom we invest our hope?

His track record is creation and His ongoing record is faithfulness. He demonstrates His faithfulness by His actions:

* Executes justice for the oppressed.
* Gives food to the hungry.
* Sets the prisoners free.

If we read the rest of the Bible, it indicates that those three tasks are, to some extent, delegated to us as His agents on earth.

"Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets the prisoners free;"  Psalm 146:5-7 (ESV)

Application for Living by the Royal Law

James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17

Faith without works is dead

"My brothers and sisters, do not claim the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory while showing partiality. For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here in a good place, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit by my footstool," have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

"Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

"If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well.

"But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

"So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

"For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?

"So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Quotation Marks to Mark Your Day

"We should always choose our books as God chooses our friends, just a bit beyond us, so that we have to do our level best to keep up with them. - Oswald chambers, "Shade of His Hand"

"It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. " - Oswald Chambers, Baffled to Fight Better

"Hope is lived where we come out of our shells and participate in the life others, in both joy and pain." -Juergen Moltmann

“To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light and the dark. I learn who I am& what God's grace means” –Brennan Manning

"Jesus didn't die at the hands of muggers, rapists, or thugs, but the well-scrubbed hands of the deeply religious." --Brennan Manning

"The message of God crucified should never get old. And grace—charis should never be neutered and chained up." - Preston Sprinkle

"God, you called John Bunyan to be valiant for truth: Grant that as strangers and pilgrims we may at last rejoice in your heavenly city" - Justin Holcomb

“A curse of our age is theology without subtlety; theology without nuance; theology as a club rather than a torch which illuminates” –Justin Welby

"May we always run the risk of overemphasizing grace, for it is a risk that will never be realized" –Robert Capon

"We do not know how long we will live, but this "not knowing" calls us to live every day to its full potential." - Henri Nouwen

"If ever we loved one another as God already loves us, the world would be a house of prayer." - Henri Nouwen

"Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone? Did I say words of healing? Did I love? These are the real question" - Henri Nouwen

"None of us are above reproach and none of us are beyond redemption." -Shane Claiborne

"True love is like a terminal disease, eventually because of love, you'll die to yourself and begin to live for others" - Erwin McManus

"Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it." -Andy Rooney

"And may the angel of His presence keep your heart
And when your prayers give flight to your dreams
May the only scars you see on their wings
Be the wounds of love "

In stormy times, one can expect storms to continue. In the eye of the hurricane, we ready ourselves for what is next. The pauses short, the respites, few.

Our hands are braced, our muscles flexed. We ready our hearts for whatever's new. A storm is coming. Some sort of storm is welling up, building in intensity, readying itself to test our readiness ... but that is OK.

We are where we are.

We are readier than we think.

We are not alone.

We go nowhere where none have gone before.

We are ready for the storm.

Be of good courage.

Fear not.

I don't know what it means entirely. It is a lament. It is for you to figure out and contextualize. Sometimes, just having the right song or psalm to express yourself is what you need most. It was inspired by a book the lyricist John Lang read called The Broken Wings, which many of us have loved by Kahlil Gibran.

Solomon, Compromised Lover

King Solomon with his wives. Illustrated in 1668 by Giovanni Battista Venanzi.

Solomon was attracted to women and to power. He could get both by marrying both. He found a way to satisfy his desire for what Richard Foster identified as our 3 most vulnerable lusts: money, sex, and power.

He could accumulate exotic women, their eclectic cultures, their family wealth, and their political alliances by marrying into wealthy and powerful families.

God, who never stopped loving or blessing Solomon in his lifetime, responded and reacted to this power grab by declaring an end to it. The united kingdom would not continue. Too much concentrated political power becomes abusive, degrading, and an amalgamated civil religion unto itself.

The state cannot become a god (or, actually it can, but it must not). That is the problem - not women per se, but idolatry and how idolatry perpetuates itself and leads us astray.

We are always in danger. By making ourselves comfortable with systems and powers, by confusing our ultimate loyalties with the symbols of empire and nationalism, by grabbing what we want and putting our own personal, national, or group interests first, we are doing a solomonic power grab.

Let us be warned and informed by the lessons of sacred history.

1 Kings 11:1-13:
King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the Israelites, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods"

Solomon clung to these in love.

Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not completely follow the LORD, as his father David had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Then the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD commanded.

Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen."

Heal Me

Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

"Heal me because I do not deserve it."

He does not say, "Heal me because I am a good man," here. Nor does he suggest any qualities of his character to make him deserving. Rather he pleads his own sin as the reason he requests healing.

It gives me hope.

On that basis, I certainly qualify!

" The LORD sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health."

"As for me, I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you!”"

(Psalm 41:3-4 ESV)

Another Digest of Random Posts

I wondered if it was true years after telling it and hearing it and not questioning it. I guess one gets more skeptical as one ages. Thankfully, it really is true. Here is one quote among many I found:

"According to the best accounts of the incident I have heard (many have taken on weird additions), Karl Barth was at Rockefeller Chapel (really a Gothic cathedral!) on the campus of the University of Chicago during his lecture tour of the U.S. in 1962. After his lecture, during the Q & A time, a student asked Barth if he could summarize his whole life’s work in theology in a sentence. Barth allegedly said something like “Yes, I can. In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” That is the simple, unadorned story. Many tellers have adorned it with additions of their own (in sermons, etc.). " [Roger Olson - https://www.patheos.com/.../did-karl-barth-really-say.../]

We have to get from fainting away in unfulfilled longing to exhilarating praise It does not come with a finger snap, but it may come with a good night's sleep and a movement from one verse to the next. We look upon God. We behold. We experience His unfailing love. We praise. Keep moving through those verses and living them.

" O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands."

(Psalm 63:1-4 ESV)

At some point, you just can't catch up, so you start where you are and move forward.

We have to get from fainting away in unfulfilled longing to exhilarating praise It does not come with a finger snap, but it may come with a good night's sleep and a movement from one verse to the next.

We look upon God.

We behold.

We experience His unfailing love.

We praise.

Keep moving through those verses and living them.

" O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands."
(Psalm 63:1-4 ESV)

How Are You, Job?

Job and His Friends by Ilya Repin (1869)

How Are You?

It seems like an innocuous greeting.

However, you never asked Job.

Job 16:16-22,17:1,13-16

My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids, though there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. "O earth, do not cover my blood; let my outcry find no resting place.

Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God, as one does for a neighbor. For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me. If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,
if I say to the Pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,' where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?

Shall we descend together into the dust?"

Hidden from the Prudent by Paul Jones - Thanks to Project Gutenberg

Brief Paul Jones Biography From The Episcopal Dictionary of the Church

(Nov. 24, 1880-Sept. 4, 1941). Socialist and pacifist bi

shop. He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Yale in 1902 and his B.D. from the Episcopal Theological School in 1906. He was ordained deacon on June 17, 1906, and priest on Dec. 16, 1906. From 1906 to 1914 he served St. John's Church, Logan, Utah, and in Sept. 1914 he was appointed archdeacon of the diocese. The House of Bishops elected him the fourth Missionary Bishop of Utah, and he was consecrated at St. Mark's Cathedral, Salt Lake City, on Dec. 16, 1914. He was a socialist and an ardent pacifist. He opposed American participation in World War I, which proved to be a very unpopular position in some sectors of the Episcopal Church at the time. The House of Bishops forced him to resign, and he submitted his resignation on Apr. 11, 1918. Later in 1918 he served a mission in Brownsville Junction, Maine, and from 1919 to 1929 he was secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. From 1930 until his death he was student pastor at Antioch College, Ohio.

------------------

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This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Hidden from the Prudent Author: Paul Jones

Release date: December 29, 2007 [eBook #24067] Language: English

Original publication: Philadelphia: Walter H. Jenkins, Printer, 1921

Credits: E-text prepared by Mark C. Orton, Jacqueline Jeremy, Ian Deane,

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The William Penn Lectures

HIDDEN FROM THE PRUDENT

 Paul Jones' signature.

1921

 

WALTER H. JENKINS, PRINTER PHILADELPHIA

This is the seventh of the series of lectures known as the William Penn Lectures. They are supported by the Young Friends' Movement of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, which was organized on Fifth month 13th, 1916, at Race Street Meeting House, in Philadelphia, for the purpose of closer fellowship; for the strengthening of such association and the interchange of experience, of loyalty to the ideals of the Society of Friends; and for the preparation by such common ideals for more effective work through the Society of Friends for the growth of the Kingdom of God on earth.

The name of William Penn has been chosen because he was a great Adventurer, who in fellowship with his friends started in his youth on the holy experiment of endeavoring "to live out the laws of Christ in every thought and word and deed," that these might become the laws and habits of the State.

Paul Jones, Secretary of The Fellowship of Reconciliation, delivered this seventh lecture on "Hidden from the Prudent" at Race

Street Meeting House, on Fifth month 8th, 1921. Philadelphia, 1921.

_______________________________________________________________

In the latter part of January, 1915, I visited for the first time the Ute Indian Reservation in the northeastern part of Utah and drove with the missionary to Ouray, where the older Indians were gathered for the monthly issue of rations by the Government. That evening in the log store, with some fifty or sixty Indians gathered around the stove on boxes or seated on the counters under the flickering light of the lanterns hanging from the roof, we spoke of God's love for men.

The next morning we found one of our church families in a log hut, gathered about a letter which they had just received from their boy who was at a Government School in California. When we had read the letter, the father of the family, Albert Cesspouch, a man of about forty-five, blind from trachoma, which affects so many of the Indians, stood up and drawing his blanket around him held up his hand to signify that he was going to speak.

With the natural dignity of the Indian, he commenced to talk in the Ute tongue, his daughter Rosita interpreting for him. First he thanked us for the words we had spoken the night before and then went on to speak of something which had been on his mind since the previous summer. It seems that there had been a flag-raising at the agency headquarters, and moving pictures had been taken of the Indians as they reverenced the flag. He had been thinking about it during those months. "It means," he said, "that they want to take our young men away to fight. It is not right. The young men should not fight." Then putting his hand in his pocket he drew out a little silver cross that had been given him some years before when he had been confirmed, and holding it up as if his sightless eyes could see it he said, "That's good. That means that men should not fight, but live as brothers."

We explained to him that he had misunderstood the significance of the flag-raising, but who shall say that that Indian, uncultured, poverty stricken, diseased and ignorant by all our civilized standards, had not come nearer to an understanding of the heart of the Christian gospel than the majority of his sophisticated white brothers?

Perhaps, after all, Christ's message is a simpler thing than we have supposed. One can go into a theological library today and find stacks and stacks of volumes on religion, ethics, theology, casuistry, exegesis, philosophy, the Bible, ecclesiastical history, mysticism, apologetics, metaphysics and a dozen other subjects, all designed to illuminate, define and expound the realities that Jesus taught; but somehow they seem worthless when we note the clear grasp of the inner truth that the simple Indian had achieved without their help. We have tended to conceive of truth as something to be studied and apprehended intellectually rather than something to be lived. We need the reminder of that old prayer which begins, "Almighty God, who showest to them that are in error the light of thy truth to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness." Truth for the sake of right living, not truth for the truth's sake or truth for God's sake, is the divine valuation. The wisdom and patient study of the ages have gone into the search for the knowledge of God and His will, but to what purpose is it, when today as ever the mysteries of the kingdom are revealed to the hearts of the child-like?

Do not misunderstand me. Ignorance is no more a virtue than is wisdom. We must not forget the speaker at a church conference who began a tirade against the universities and education, expressing thankfulness that he had never been corrupted by contact with a college. After he had proceeded a few minutes, the chairman interrupted with the question:

"Do I understand that the speaker is thankful for his ignorance?" "Well, yes," was the answer, "you may put it that way."

"Well, all I have to say," said the chairman, in gentle tones—"all I have to say is that he has much to be thankful for." Both ignorance and wisdom may be bars to the understanding of God's will. It is a question of the heart.

Suppose we put the problem to ourselves in the form of questions which will bring out some of the current conceptions of religion. Is religion a form of belief? Is it a form of experience? Is it the corporate life in an institution? Is it a relationship to God? They all lead us to speculation and to abstractions. Or if we ask similarly does religion depend on knowledge, on emotion, on sacramental connection with God, or on mystical detachment from the world, again we are led to try to find religion off by itself, where it may be weighed and measured and nurtured as if in a vacuum. They are interesting questions, but the only answer I have for them is that they suggest in no way the gracious words that came from the lips of Jesus, speaking to the hearts of babes.

His words were not of theological abstractions, however true or illuminating. He declared not the "must" of arbitrary authority nor the "ought" of impersonal law; but rather revealed in simple story or expression the things which were true to the world of men in which He lived, the harmonies which unite, the relationships which grow, the truths which were self-convincing.

John Drinkwater's Trojan soldier says it to his comrade:

"Capys, it is so little that is needed

For righteousness; we are so truly made, If only to our making we were true."

In the days before we began to question the generally accepted standards, a judge always stood for the epitome of wisdom, and it is worth noting that the recognized function of a judge is to consider all questions in the light of the precedents of the past. That fact sufficiently explains the difference in receptivity to a new and liberating truth on the part of the wise and prudent as compared with babes unhampered by a judicial attitude or a collection of time- honored shibboleths.

Is it possible for us sufficiently to divest ourselves of our inherited and acquired prejudices, our theology, our thought-forms and the accepted standards of conduct, to enter into an appreciation of the experience of those to whom the words and presence of Jesus came as a new experience? It is doubtful whether we can very thoroughly, and yet I would ask you to make that attempt, that we may together examine anew the revealing simplicity of the message which Jesus brought to His generation nineteen hundred years ago, a message which is still valid in spite of all the checks and distortions which we have placed upon it.

What were the salient features of Jesus' message and ministry which found such a welcome acceptance in the hearts of plain, ordinary men and women? What were those truths so simple that the ignorant and uncultured could understand them, yet so potent that once they began to ferment their possessors became known as men who had turned the world upside down? I think we can put them down under two heads which will include the heart of the matter.

The first is simply that this is God's world in which we are living. That sounds like the barest sort of platitude, but have patience. There is more in it than appears at first glance.

Certainly it is the basis of Jesus' message. From His references to the lilies on the Galilean hillsides and the sparrows on the housetops to His discussion of the whole range of human affairs, Jesus was at pains to point out that there was no detail which was outside of God's care and concern. The assurance of St. Paul that all things work together for good to them that love God is the emphasis on such a characterization of the world as finds its culmination in Jesus' confident assertion, "Ye therefore shall be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect." It is a world in which men can live up to their best.

Did you ever think what a terrible irony it would have been if Jesus had said that just to encourage us, knowing that it could never be true? We are tolerant of the unconscious cruelty of the small boy who teases a dog by holding a bone just out of his reach, encouraging him to jump for it, because we know that he will finally give it to him. It is unthinkable that Jesus could have used words of such deep significance in such a cruelly careless way. It is God's universe in which moral purpose has a definite standing and a more than ordinary strength.

Professor Rauschenbusch has said it in these words: "If love is the fundamental quality of God, it must be part of the constitution of humanity." The simple-hearted have in all ages sensed the import of this truth, for it has to them opened up great vistas of the possibilities of life, possibilities contemptuously discredited by the wise men of their time who base their calculations on human weakness rather than on human potentiality.

Your realist prides himself upon keeping his feet upon the ground. He will go no farther than he can see, and he sees truly enough the evil and imperfection in the world. He notes the weakness and failures of the best intentioned, takes cognizance of the low motives that so often dominate, and bases his conclusions on them. He spurns the idealistic twaddle of those who, he says, are guided by their hopes rather than by ordinary good sense, and fancies himself a practical man. He expects little and gets that.

The Christian realist, however, sees the possibilities in the evil and weak of mankind. He recognizes elements of virtue and courage and honor that are waiting to be called out, sets himself to elicit them and bases his conclusions on those very real facts. He is just as practical as the other, but with this difference—he expects more and gets it.

When Jesus called the impulsive, eager Simon a rock, the hard- headed must have smiled and later remarked, "I told you so," when Peter broke under his first test; but Jesus' judgment was the truer after all. So with Mary Magdalene and Zacheus, Jesus saw in them what they might be and demonstrated that this is a world where the best has a chance. "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp," is Browning's rebuke to the merely prudent.

Have you noted how Jesus drove home His point that the possibilities for good in the world and in men and women were of supreme importance? He was not content to leave it as a general proposition. By parable and precept again and again He made it clear, not merely that the possibilities were here, but that they were God's major interest. By them we are judged.

The practical men who knew that the temple bills had to be paid knew that money was money, but Jesus rated the widow's tiny offering above them all. The one wandering sheep was more precious than the ninety-nine. The perfect young man who had kept all the commandments, no doubt the joy of his mother and the pride of his community, and also the substantial pillar of the church who had done everything that was required, were not to be compared with the social outcast who had failed but had the grace to admit it. There was hope for him.

Taking the will for the deed, the sincere intention for the achievement, or the yearning of the heart for the practical accomplishment, is subversive of all our standards of conduct. No business could be run on the basis of paying men in accordance with their readiness to work, irrespective of the service rendered, as is the case in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. But God seems to be able to run the universe on that basis. No wonder the common people heard Jesus gladly.

Of course the corollary, or rather the premise, of that is that God has faith in us and loves and forgives. That is why He can use such an extraordinary way of estimating worth. He believes in us, believes that we are better than we know ourselves to be, for our knowledge seldom goes to the roots of our being. He can be patient while we are still stumbling through the shallows of existence. Ye know not what spirit ye are of, was Christ's word to those who had not yet caught God's vision of the world.

The one who gets that thought in all its bearings, that this is God's world from the beginning to the end, in all its implications, knows that no effort is ever lost, whatever the apparent outcome. He knows that a real brotherhood is possible, however broken present relationships may be. He knows that God's will cannot permanently be thwarted, however man's futility may interfere. He knows that God and nature, religion and science, truth and experience must eventually meet in one common focus, however separated they may appear. He will echo Maud Royden's fine words: "I am convinced that what I can see others can see—and nothing will persuade me that the world is not ready for an ideal for which I am ready."

There is one further bearing of this central thought, and that is that the divine is everywhere about us—that we are never far from God. If we can serve Him in our fellows, we can meet Him in our fellows. Richard Swain tells of going home one afternoon and finding his children, Philip, eight years old, and Esther, two years younger, playing together. The latter was standing under the electric light, with both arms raised as high as she could stretch them over her head. Seeing her dramatic position, and the unusual look on her face, he remained silent, knowing that something was coming. With intense feeling she said:

"Oh, Philip! of course we could kiss God!" To which Philip replied:

"Oh, you couldn't kiss God. He is a spirit. Why, God is in you— and in me."

Still standing in her dramatic position, with the light shining full on her face, she began lowering her arms slowly, and as her expression of comprehension deepened she said:

"Oh, well, then, Philip, if God is in you and in me, if we were to kiss each other we would kiss God."

"Yes, that is right, you would," was his response. Then she said: "Let us kiss God." He arose promptly, and the children, throwing

their arms tightly around each other, kissed God. They had grasped a fundamental idea and interpreted it in their own sweet way.

When we can see the divine all about us in our fellows and live in a constant sense of it, many of the difficulties which people raise against the full participation in the Christian way will quickly fade. One will more readily see the necessity of relinquishing the way of warfare and following methods which will call forth the response of that divine element. The industrial problem will be taken from the realm of conflicting economic elements and be approached as a family affair, in which no group will be willing to tolerate a system which works hardships on other members of the family.It is little wonder that the plain people of Galilee and Judea received the various angles of that message with a ready gladness. That this was God's world about which He cared and in which men were His children and could live as such, was immediately a liberating idea. It freed them from the tyranny of the current ecclesiastical establishment; it eliminated the significance of the Roman yoke. What mattered it what the emperor or governor did? They stood or fell by God's judgment. It killed the envy of the rich or privileged, for did not they have just as much worth before their common Father? And they found not just a nation but a world of brothers.

My second point is, I suppose, in a sense, but a development of the first one; but it has such significance that it deserves separate emphasis. It is that this is man's world, as well as God's, or we might say, because it is God's. Because it is God's world, it is the scene of great possibilities for the individual man and for the whole social group. The best is possible at any moment and for every person, and God sees us in the light of what we may be. The bargain idea of religion as expressed by Jacob—if you will look after me and keep me then you can be my God and I will give my worship—is forever swept aside in the conception that God has made this a world where man can come to his best, and that when man responds to that vision and tries to live in the light of it, he is rendering the only service God cares about.

The additional thought which brings the first one to completion is that this world of those great possibilities is put in man's keeping: it is for him to create the realities which potentially exist. It is man's world, for, as St. Paul says, we are God's fellow-workers.

It is unnecessary to detail the expressions Jesus used to bring home to His hearers the understanding that it was for them to make real what was only potential. The thought is expressed in the large in the conception of the kingdom which was to be progressively realized. He announced it as at hand, outlined its characteristics as a new brotherly set of relationships and then told them how to bring it about.

He was not one to open before them a fool's paradise. He recognized the evil, weakness and brutality in the world summed up in the fact that men generally were living on quite a different basis from that which He set forth. His was not the advice to shut their eyes to the actual situation and pretend that it was what they would like to have it. Many have thought that that was His message; but to give such a word is no more like Him than the supposition that He meant to encourage them to attempt what was impossible.

No, He admitted the evil that was present, that tended to obscure the possibilities which were also there, and told them how they could overcome and transform that evil and make real the good which had been overlain. Forgiveness and love were the transforming powers which were to accomplish it. He put a creative instrument in their hands, the full possibilities of which we have not yet discovered.

Malcolm Sparkes has said: "Love treats every man as if he were the friend he ought to be." That is not a gospel of pretense, for there is a compelling power in love that brings reactions often quite unsuspected. Most people, in their reasoning, ignore the fact that this human nature that we speak of has its two sides; that which responds to base motives and impulses and that which responds to the higher, and that it is for us to choose which we shall appeal to. It has been said that there is no average human nature any more than there is average organ music. What comes from the pipes of the organ depends upon the hand which touches the keys, whether it is a series of divine harmonies or just a jumble of discords.

The opposite conception has been put in these clear-cut words by Herbert Adams Gibbons in a recent magazine, in speaking of the wisdom of Americans adopting a policy of disarmament:

"Their country cannot afford to change from a wolf into a sheep unless a simultaneous change takes place in the others of the pack. Probably the change will never come, for the simple reason that none will consent to risk being eaten by being a little ahead of the other wolves."

Such a point of view entirely ignores the reality of human reactions. The Golden Rule is much more than an arbitrary obligation: it is an expression of the fundamental truth that men react to the stimulus that is applied. It may be true that a hungry pack of wolves will not discriminate between a loving Christian and an angry heathen who is at their mercy; but the case is entirely different when a group of evil-minded men encounter a person radiating a spirit of love and good will as contrasted with one who shows hatred, antagonism or fear. Their reactions will be quite different to those two persons, even though no absolute guarantee of immunity goes with the former.

A few years ago a certain clothing manufacturer, when invited to make an address on "What Is Wrong With Christianity?" sat down to consider the matter. Before he got through he decided that he had no right to criticize until he had tried it out and that it was up to him to make the attempt. Examining his business in that light he found that he was paying some women as low as four dollars a week. He immediately tripled their wages and the others in proportion, announcing that he was going to run his business on the basis of the Golden Rule. He expected, as he said, to go bankrupt in two or three months; but felt that it was better to go out of business that way than to continue and prosper on an un-Christian basis. But when the three months was up, he found that instead of being bankrupt the firm had made larger profits than ever before, for the people had responded in similar vein, and working with a very different spirit, had produced a much larger output.

It wouldn't do, on the basis of his principle, to take the larger profits that had come from the increased efforts of his workers, so he arranged to divide the profits among them in accordance with what they were receiving. Again the reaction came, this time in the form of a petition from the highest-paid workers saying that it was not fair for them to receive so large a proportion of the profits, in addition to their wages, and asking that the profits be divided equally among all who had worked the same length of time. They, too, reacted to the spirit in which they were approached, and so the thing has gone on with many subsequent developments and a complete change of spirit in the relations inside the factory and with the public.

The task of creating the realities of the divine order which is entrusted to men rests constantly upon the primary fact that this is God's world, where possibilities of brotherhood and co-operation exist. The recognition of that world is an act of faith from which the creative process starts.

Another employer, instead of complaining about his shiftless workers who do not know how to spend intelligently the wages they receive, carried on a campaign of education for a period before a large division of profits was to be made to them, and on checking up the disposition they made of their share, accounted for practically one hundred per cent in savings, stock investments, property and improvements.

You hear about the ignorant foreigners who are working at our trades. Recently I tested out a large group in regard to their ability to speak languages and found a great many who could speak three or four and a considerable number who could speak five, six and seven. With my one language and no productive trade I concluded that I was in no position to use that contemptuous epithet.

There is also much loose talk about the subnormal brutes in our penitentiaries. Thomas Mott Osborne, believing in the possibilities even in such men, proceeded to call forth those possibilities by trusting the men and making an appeal to their manhood. Dangerous, foolish, immoral were the comments which were made upon the enterprise; but it worked, and he has in the process fitted those men to return to a decent common life with their fellows.

Herbert Gray has said: "I remember the time when I supposed that Jesus loved all men simply because He believed it to be His duty, and whether or no He found in them anything to be loved. The idea was, of course, grotesquely foolish. God himself could not love what is essentially unlovable. No! Jesus loved men and women because He could always find in them something worthy to be loved—some possibility, at the worst, which was a fit object even for divine love. He could detect in each instance that which justified the declaration that man was made in the image of God."

There is very little use in arguing questions of the elimination of war, the reorganization of industrial relations, new methods of dealing with criminals, school technique, or the foundations of political government with those who are unable to detect in men elements of worth which can be counted upon. The basis on which such people take their stand is so far removed from that of those who see this world of human relationships as a field for the operation of the creative spirit that only misunderstanding is apt to result from such discussions.When one has not that understanding of human relationships, then domination, coercion, suppression, restraint are the logical methods which must be employed in all those fields when men and women do not evince a desire to co-operate in the common life. The protection of the interests of the right-minded must take precedence over the indulgence in sentimentality. When we are strong enough we'll talk disarmament. Knock the brute down first and argue with him afterward. Without discipline you can't have education. No government can allow its citizens to talk against it. These are sentiments which we hear again and again. They proceed quite reasonably from a different but false conception of human nature.

It is useless to try to meet such reasoning and prove it false, as long as we leave unchallenged the basis from which it proceeds. There is where the work has to be done. There is where there is a call for a new evangel today, to reveal to men that same simple message that Jesus proclaimed so long ago, that this is God's world and that we can bring to development the good that lies everywhere about us in men. When we have done that we can discuss these problems in terms of understanding. Until we have done it, we are merely beating the air.

We in the modern world need, above many things, a new understanding of forgiveness. In spite of much that has been written by our really great Christian thinkers who have been blessed with the child-like heart, and in spite of the experience of the many who have tried it out, forgiveness is still regarded by the great multitude as a somewhat difficult Christian duty. It is the response which we have to make when one who has wronged us comes repentant. Instead of exacting our rights, we must generously call the debt off, although as we have heard lately, these are some things which it would really be un-Christian to forgive.

But as Dr. Nash reminds us: "If man sinned against, draws back into his innocence and waits until the offender comes to himself, he abandons his little world to the devil. * * * Forgiveness alone makes a full repentance possible." And Herbert Gray carries the thought still farther when he says: "The secret of Christ's demand is in the fact that forgiveness is the only ultimately successful way of overcoming evil. * * * It ends evil because it wins the evildoer. It gets at the root of evil and undermines the spirit which produces strife. It saves the sinner because it makes its appeal to the good that is in him and calls it into life."

Those who say that we must forgive our enemies, but that of course it would be immoral to do so while they are still unrepentant, are as far from understanding Christ's principle as a certain churchman, whom I once heard say that he had no hope of our ever achieving Christian unity, but that he was still praying for it. So far from being the dutiful response to an attitude of repentance, it is rather the creative power which brings out the latent possibilities which have been obscured by sin and evil.

It is the basis of what might be called the divine process of getting even. A group of boys were playing ball one time, and one of the number in a spirit of exasperation threw the ball into a swamp, whereit was lost. The owner of the ball came in to his uncle fuming and declaring that he was going to get even. "What are you going to do about it?" asked his uncle. "How are you going to get even?"

"Oh, I'll fix him. We won't let him play on the team," said the boy. "It was a rather dirty trick, wasn't it? Sort of a low-down thing to

do?" continued the uncle.

"It certainly was, but I'll get even."

"You might say, then," said the uncle, "that he was like the swampy mire that he threw the ball into, compared with the firm, high ground where you were playing?"

"Yes."

"Well, if you are going to get even," concluded the uncle, "you'll either have to go down into the mire with him or get him up on to the clean, hard ground with you. Think it over."

The next day, when his uncle asked him how he had made out, the boy replied: "You know I thought about what you said, about getting even, so I told him we wanted him to pitch for us; and he not only played a dandy game, but he said he would get me a new ball." The boy had found the divine way of getting even.

I am not concerned to apply this principle to the many corporate and social evils of our time; for if only I can succeed in making clear how true and how vital it is as a key to human relationships, and how central it was in Jesus' teaching, its wider application can safely be left to you. Creative love is the healing spirit most needed in the world today.

If, in presenting those aspects of Jesus' message which reached the hearts of the simple with a vitalizing power, giving them a new grip on life and a sense of at-homeness in God's world, I have conveyed the impression that here is a safe and easy way out of life's difficulties, I have failed in my task. Because a view of the world is true and because a method of approach is the only ultimately successful one, it by no means follows that it is always a safe method for the individual. Indeed Jesus abundantly reminded His followers that they need not expect less of opposition, antagonism and persecution than He Himself had received. The following of the way of love would make for division and strife even in that place where it would be hardest to see it arise—in one's own home. It could not be expected that evil corporately and socially entrenched would always give way before the power of redemptive love glowing in the life of one individual. It might mean that the lives and labors of many would have to be spent to the utmost before love would achieve its victory.

It is indeed in the light of such a possibility that the social character of the gospel is doubly emphasized. The kingdom has a meaning only when we realize that far beyond the individual triumphs for love that may be achieved, there is a field that can be won only by the corporate faithfulness to the ideal of the group. The individual may lose by all the worldly standards, and his life may seem an ineffectual protest or gesture, but it is the type of losing in which the soul is found and which sooner or later wins out for the group over the entrenched evil of ages.

In a decade in which, following a more imperfect, yes, even a sadly futile ideal, millions of men have been content to give their lives, we have no cause to feel that men will not be ready to pay the price. They are even too ready to sell themselves for that which is worthless. If they but knew, to adapt our Lord's words, if they but knew the things that belong unto their peace, but now they are hid from their eyes!

But why is it, we are sometimes tempted to ask, that the way of love stirs up strife and bitterness? Does not that outcome of some of our endeavors argue a failure on our part to express the healing spirit? It may be that, of course; but is it not generally because that method is essentially an appeal to conscience, and a conscience stirred, but not completely won, drives its possessor to an extreme of reaction? It was no accident that some of our leading Christian ministers were the most bitter detractors of conscientious objectors during the war. The very existence of the latter was a continual challenge to the consciences of those ministers. They had to maintain their different attitude the more vehemently. As some of our friends remind us, love is not a mushy thing, and it sometimes has to inflict pain.

The world is growing old in its sophistication. The developments in scientific research, during the last century especially, have led many to feel that in the ever-growing complexity of the life of the universe and in the ever-widening reaches of our knowledge there is, each decade, less and less place for God in the world and less and less occasion to pay attention to the words of a half-mythical Syrian teacher. But out of that very sophistication has come the reaction that is leading many to question the whole interlocking system of philosophy, science, industry and politics that sums up the universe in terms of material things. It is time, they say, that we began to cut loose from the machine and get down to the human heart that is the one vital thing in the world:

"Not kings and lords, but nations! Not crowns and thrones, but men!"

To such comes with new and convincing power that which has been hidden from the wise and prudent, the vision that this is still God's world, in which, for all the learned data we have collected, there are still the almost untapped reservoirs of human possibilities awaiting not the test tubes of the scientist or formulas of the mathematician to bring them out, but merely the spirit of redemptive love as we have learned it in Jesus.

Richard Roberts has said it rather finely:"The story of Jesus is 'the instance of love without a limit,' the love that will not let me go or give me up, that flings down party- walls and overleaps frontiers, flings wide the gate of friendship to the enemy, the impulse and the energy that creates the sovereign loveliness, the loveliness of a living society of men, purged of enmities and discords and hatreds, living out its manifold and abundant life in the unbroken harmony of unreserving fellowship."

If we can have the humility to see that there lies the heart and glory of the world, we can be content to let the wise ones erect their houses of cards as they may, while within the tottering structure we build the eternal Kingdom of God. We can then greet the new day with Alfred Noyes:

"It is the Dawn! The Dawn! The nations From East to West now hear a cry,— Though all earth's blood-red generations By hate and slaughter climbed thus high, Here—on this height—still to aspire, One only path remains untrod,

One path of love and peace climbs higher. Make straight that highway for our God."

--------------------------------------

CHRISTIAN LIFE

by Elbert Russell

THE QUAKER OF THE FUTURE TIME

by George A. Walton

THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT

by Norman H. Thomas

THE CHRISTIAN DEMAND FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION

by Harry F. Ward

RELIGION AS REALITY, LIFE AND

POWER

by Rufus M. Jones

HEROES IN PEACE

by

John Haynes Holmes

HIDDEN FROM THE PRUDENT

by Paul Jones

William Penn Lectures are published by the Young Friends' Movement. Copies may be obtained from the Headquarters, 154 N. 15th Street, or from Walter H. Jenkins, 140 N. 15th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Paper-bound copies at — cents; in cloth, — cents.

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You Cannot Rush Perspective and Maturity

Perspective, like maturity, cannot be rushed. 

We see “Both Sides Now” once we’ve had the time and attention to pay attention and … when we really see, we know that there is much more to see than we know or can know. 

And by the way, once you’ve been in the cloud and see it for what it is, you can still step back and enjoy the illusion and allusion of it because we really don’t know the clouds as well as we think we do. 

Live with wonder. Embrace the mystery. Stand in awe of God today and all that God has made. 

Life is good and we really don’t know it yet, at all!!!

JUDY COLLINS — “Both Sides Now” with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops 1976 — Listen!

Where Does Time Go?

Photo by Heather Zabriskie on Unsplash

The years go by so much faster than they used to.

Days start with great expectations and we accomplish less than we set out to accomplish and sometimes more and usually more than we think and we step back and scratch our heads with wonder.

We've come farther than we think and somewhere along the line we've learned to live with the paradoxical, quizzical, quintessential mysteries of coming and going, gaining and losing, moving and standing still.

We lose track of time and find ourselves at curious peace with the situation.

We live in the flow and know that we cannot set the course of the river.

We can resist or we can rest in the grace of the moment, the grace of God.

We can breath deeply of the awesome vastness of limitless possibilities and inevitable mortality.

We are so tiny and we are so large.

We were lost, but we are found.

We wandered and now we are at home.

We do not know where the time goes, but we have been blessed to be found in this time and to live out our purpose in time as part of a greater dream.

It Takes Two Wings to Fly

As much as partisan folks may think they want all the votes and a room full of people who agree with them, they soon find out that it does not work. There are many reasons it does not work.

Not all perspectives are voiced.

Nothing is challenged.

Improvement is stifled.

Nothing changes.

The people are not well represented.

The same principle applies to leadership. Starting with your inner circle and throughout all of the concentric circles, you need multiple voices and multiple views being voice.

Fly with Both Wings

I wrote a version of this in 2007.

As I have been listening to partisan debates, distortions, and distractions lately, it seemed appropriate to review. I find it difficult to entrust leadership to people who call each other names, paraphrase other people's beliefs into less-than-accurate sound bytes, and attack each others characters and motives.

I would rather trust a person of reason and goodwill with whom I disagree than someone who is not courteous or balanced enough to listen to his or her adversaries.

We are in a troubling political climate and entering what may be a nasty campaign season. We will have to dig hard to get accurate information for decision making, but we must do so ... in politics and in life. We cannot depend on commentators or candidates to feed it to us ... we must listen to all sides.

We must do the same in business decisions and in all strategies.

I resist wearing labels such as "Conservative" or "Liberal" with an upper case "C" or "L" to describe my leanings. Sometimes I hear the word, "wing" attached to directional terms such as "left" or "right." I cannot tell you off the top of my head what a "red state" is as opposed to a "blue state" or why they are opposed at all.

Words like these are "deceptive," "misleading," "ambiguous," and "meaningless."

But back to the wing metaphor. My grandson brought me one shoe to put on his one day, years ago. I sought to explain to him why he couldn’t go outside with one shoe on and what it might be like to feel lopsided.

Then, I thought about airplanes and realized I wouldn't consider getting on a left-winged or right winged airplane. I prefer my aerial transportation with two wings. Balance means a lot to me at that elevation.

I read an interview with a guy today who thought he'd always been on the left wing of a philosophical issue. Then, he said, a movement emerged that went further to the left and left him in the center. When you are in the center, you might lean to one side or the other, but you are still in the middle.

What is most troubling about the way we debate issues in the public arena is the absence of two vital principles.

The first is mutual respect (see The Golden Rule and the Great Commandment). We cannot function without this. We degenerate into a society that no one will what to call home.

The second is reasoned, careful, and balanced thinking that carefully weighs issues from multiple perspectives, thinks independently of "the herd," and seeks win-win solutions.

"Talk of the Nation" had articulate spokespersons for "both" sides of one of the pressing issues of the day several years ago that was before the Supreme Court. Both made sense and I felt a tug of "leaning" as each spoke and ended up in balance after weighing all the arguments.

Definitions are always in flux and that can be confusing.

We cannot do effective business, community, organizational, or political leadership with only one voice whispering into our ear.

Leadership can be evaluated on how a leader chooses, utilizes, and respects advisors. That same evaluation carries over into the realm of how he, she, or they receive feedback and criticism from the public.

If a leader is to thin skinned to accept diversity and pushback, that leader is not actually a leader.

I don't want to live in a one-winged society. I am not impressed with one winged philosophies and would not feel happy about a brain with a single hemisphere. I want a multitude of counselors helping me look at all sides of any question. This is true in politics, faith issues, business, and our day-to-day decisions.

Proverbs 18:17   says, "The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him."

I think that is by design. Truth is simple, but not simplistic. The best course of action may not always be the most obvious. We need point and counterpoint to make good and wise decisions.

Perhaps that is why the American people as a body politic can be so shifting in their political party loyalties. As a people we know that you can't fly the "airline of state" with one wing - nor a business, nor a life.

If you are a decision maker, make sure you are getting good information and that all of your advisers are not always in 100% agreement. If you are not wrestling with some of the major matters that come before you, you are probably not getting the best out of your own abilities to think clearly and objectively.

We all have biases and they are helpful when they inform us. They are dangerous when they blind us. They are disastrous when the rule us.

Fly with both wings! How do you fly with both wings?

•    F - Face

Face your own limitations in perspective, knowledge, and ability to know it all. There is a vast storehouse of knowledge that no human will ever possess. The only all-wise and all-knowing one is God and He ha distributed bits of His knowledge widely among diverse peoples.

•    L - Listen

Listen carefully to what others are saying. Respect those with whom you disagree and who disagree with you. Consider that people who are wrong about one thing may have insight into something else. Never throw out babies with the bath wash or dismiss the value of people because of your prejudices.

•    Y - Yin/Yang it.

Yin/Yang is a bit of Taoist philosophy. Sometimes, I pick up some insights from other philosophies. The truth of a given situation may dwell in the tension between paradoxical opposites and failure to look for it there will deprive you of the truth you seek to make a good decision.

The next time you see a bird or a fly with a broken wing, have compassion, but also be reminded that the creature cannot fly any more than a one-winged plane can.

And you and your organization cannot fly with one wing either.

---

Book Me for a Conversation.

Show Me Your Way

My Response to God , Prompted by the Psalm

I cannot see far into the distance, God.

Twists and turns lie before me.

I know there is a path. I can see its beginning.

I cannot see where it goes beyond tomorrow.

Yet …

I run, I leap, I fall, I plunge into the mystery.

I do not need to know it all.

Certainty with redundancy has lost its radiance.

It retains no power to attract my heart.

Mystery envelops divinity and

Divinity envelops mystery.

Into that cloud

I must go without hesitation

In trepidation.

I shall be at home there, drawn to Thee,

By Thee.

I cannot tell you what I shall find.

Nor can I describe what I see there.

I cannot tell you how or why I know except that

In Thy embrace, I am known.

And the love that has taken hold of me has held me tightly

In the grip of mercy.

And being there, and going there, and sensing that destiny,

I can somehow remain here,

And be here, living on purpose.

In community of fellow travelers, I celebrate the joy

Of another world …

A world that makes sense of this world.

I believe it, God.

I believe in Thee even when Thou art silent.

And I rest in that peace that passes understanding.

So, I take the first step in this path

That Thou hast set before me.

Step One — That is all that Thou hast asked of me.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

“The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.” Thomas Merton

We do not have to be understood.
We do not have to be popular.
We do not have to be validated by everyone.
We must be consistent and integrated, which is the heart of integrity.
We must be faithful to the calling we have received from on high.
And, occasionally, we must be brave.

We must also be kind and generous with those who do not see things as we do.

BUT … our kindness and generosity may not (and sometimes, must not) take the “edge” off of our words.

Most of us need to be taken to the “edge” from time to time to see the larger view.

“Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.”(Psalm 25:4–5 ESV)

Labor Day Thoughts. “The labor of a human being is not a… | by Tom Sims , Cultivator of Big Ideas | Sep, 2024 | Medium

Labor Day Thoughts. “The labor of a human being is not a… | by Tom Sims , Cultivator of Big Ideas | Sep, 2024 | Medium

A compilation of thoughts and meditations for Labor Day.

Who May Approach God?

James 1:17-27. Psalm 15, and Deuteronomy 4 amplify the teachings of Jesus in Mark 7.

Ritual & Religious Rubber
Meet The Rough, Rugged,
Righteous Road of Life

Tom Sims
www.linktr.ee/tomsims

Psalm 15
Abiding on God's holy hill

Psalm 15:1 - Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?

The grand question introduces the next set of lessons from the psalms and sparks the imagination of all earnest seekers. As believers in Christ, we have the answer in the gospel, but the very asking of the question is a matter of opening to God for all that He desires to teach us. Do not take truth for granted or treat it as if it were not ever new and renewing. Allow the question to move you to the next level of seeking as you go before the Father in prayer today.

Psalm 15:2 - … He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart…

Here we have an answer to the question posed yesterday, “Who may dwell in your sanctuary and live on your holy hill?” Consider this: not everyone wants that. For some, the price of letting go of blame and embracing righteousness is too much. Truth is too threatening, and the lure of sin is too great. The psalmist however, longs for the presence of God and that is what it means to desire eternal life and heavenly bliss. It is not the beauty of the hill that captures the heart, but the beauty of God Himself. To desire God is to desire the qualities that God brings to our lives: blamelessness through forgiveness, righteous behavior through the power of grace, and a heart of truth by the transformation of the Holy Spirit within us. Let us pray for that heart change that redirects our focus from sin to God and then, our very longing for heaven will be indicative of our readiness to enter in.

Psalm 15:3 - … and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong, and casts no slur on his fellow man.

The man or woman who can stand with joy and confidence in the presence of God and fully embrace the wonder of His fellowship is in constant touch with his or her fellow human beings. Those relationships matter. They have affect upon and are affected by our vital and honest relationship with God. It is not possible to claim footing on the holy hill while usurping the place of a brother or sister. Slander, malice, and simple disregard for the feelings of a neighbor are indicative of shaky spiritual grounding and contribute to spiritual tremblers in our fellowship with the Lord. Let the love of Christ enter your heart at the choice level in all of your dealings with those around you and express your deep desire to love God by loving others.

Psalm 15:4 - who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts,

As we have so often noted, we must begin with the vile man within each of us and register our disgust with the vileness of our own sin natures. But we must go beyond that point. If we will despise the vileness within us, we must also honor the new man or woman recreated in God’s image that reveres God and loves truth. That person lives inside of us as well and that person is fashioned by grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. He or she is the Christ-life gifted to us through new birth. There are new values and a new integrity that is constantly going for truth no matter what it will cost because God is truth and nothing else matters more than God. If we will value and honor that person, it will grow and take over our lives. That is the person God has made you to be.

Psalm 15:5 - who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

What some have, in the past, called social gospel, the scriptures call justice and righteousness. It is a very clear matter to the earnest student of the Bible that one must deal fairly, honestly, and uprightly in every horizontal relationship if the vertical relationship with God is to flourish. Allow dishonesty, greed, malice, and bitterness to enter into your heart in any dimension of your being and it will undermine your footing before God upon the holy hill where you presume to stand erect. The key to unshakable spiritual growth is to despise that which is vile and embrace that which is holy and true and to never compromise our purity of purpose in seeking God – whether our eyes are fixed toward His sanctuary or upon His face in the eyes one of His children.

Or YouTube
with some dressing up

One Human Race

Photo by Dave Lowe on Unsplash

A couple of years ago, I heard about someone's scandal - not sure who (That is how quickly they come and go).

I wrote this in a post:

"I am not going to gloat or rejoice over personal or marital misfortune of those with whom I disagree deeply - even if I have ever felt they were insensitive or misguided. That does not matter. Everyone is human and everyone's pain calls for people of good will to have sympathy."

Our hands tell the story
Older than our days
Of wordless pain and glory
One scoffs; another prays.

Our days turn into moments
Defying time and space
No matter how one reckons
We are one human race.

Ten Years Ago, I Took a Ride

Join me as I relive it.

The King of Richmond

General Gabriel Prosser 

(1775-1800)

On August 30,  1800, Gabriel Prosser intended to lead a rebellion and become the king of Richmond and several surrounding counties.

An enslaved man, Gabriel was "owned" by Thomas Henry Prosser of Brookfield plantation near Richmond, Virginia.

He was most likely born on the plantation where he lived. He was married and he was a skilled blacksmith,

He believed that his people were being unjustly enslaved and wanted to do something about it

Out of that, he organized a major slave uprising. 

It was the boldest plan of its kind to be conceived of in the history of slavery in the Southern states.

It may have succeeded. However, it was literally rained out. There was a sudden and severe downpour. 

Also, some of the  slaves  of Mosby Shepherd told their master of the plot and it was thwarted.

After this attempted uprising, new laws went into effect limiting the mobility, literacy, and relative freedom of enslaved peoples.

Did he plan violence?

Yes.

Did he break the law?

Well, yes.

He was also executed.

Was it a just law? Was there a better way? Was it effective If it had succeeded would history have been better?

What if it had been carried out and failed

There is not a single question here that could not be asked about the venerated and respected American Revolution.

Gabriel challenged an unjust institution.

I was raised in Richmond and educated in the Richmond Public Schools from K-12. Not one word was ever uttered about Gabriel or this major, significant event in Richmond and American history.

That says much.

A Ballad

Documentary

From BlackPast.Org

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/prosser-gabriel-1775-1800/

Gabriel, who often for the sake of convenience is mistakenly referred to as Prosser, was the leader of an unsuccessful slave revolt in Richmond, Virginia in 1800. Born into slavery around 1775, Gabriel was the chattel of Thomas H. Prosser of Henrico County, Virginia. Little is known of his life before the revolt that catapulted him into notoriety. Gabriel’s two brothers, Solomon and Martin and his wife, Nanny, were all owned by Thomas Prosser, and all participated in the insurrection.

At the time of the insurrection, Gabriel was twenty-four years old, six feet two inches tall, literate, and a blacksmith by trade. He was described by a contemporary as “a fellow of courage and intellect above his rank in life.” With the help of other slaves including Jack Bowler and George Smith, he devised a plan to seize control of Richmond by killing all of the whites (except the Methodists, Quakers and Frenchmen) and then establishing a Kingdom of Virginia with himself as monarch.

Gabriel and the other revolt leaders were probably influenced by the American Revolution and more recently the French and Haitian Revolutions with their rhetoric of freedom, equality and brotherhood. In the months prior to the revolt, he recruited hundreds of supporters and organized them into military units. Although Virginia authorities never determined the extent of the revolt, they estimated that several thousand planned to participate including many who were to be armed with swords and pikes made from farm tools by slave blacksmiths.

Gabriel planned to initiate the insurrection on the night of August 30, 1800. However, earlier in the day two slaves who wanted to protect their masters betrayed the plot to Virginia authorities. Governor James Monroe alerted the militia. A rainstorm prevented the army from assembling outside Richmond thereby delaying the uprising by 24 hours and giving the militia crucial time to prepare a defense of the city. Realizing their plan had been discovered, Gabriel and his co-conspirators dispersed into the countryside. About 35 leaders were captured and executed but Gabriel was able to escape to Norfolk where he was betrayed by other enslaved people for the reward. He was captured on September 25 and returned to Richmond where he was tried and found guilty on October 6 for his role in the abortive uprising. He was executed on October 7, 1800.

Links

• The Library of Virginia holds documentation related to Gabriel's life and the events surrounding the attempted rebellion

• The Collegian, Community gathers for 20th Annual Gabriel Gathering at Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground

• Richmond Magazine, Nice Shot: Illumination and Reclamation The 20th annual Gabriel Gathering at the African Burial Ground in Shockoe Bottom, Nov 8, 2022

• Black Agenda Report, Commemorating Gabriel's Rebellion at the African Burial Ground in Richmond, Virginia, Sept 30, 2022

• Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, Gabriel's Rebellion

• Library of Virginia, Gabriel's Conspiracy, African American Burial Grounds, 9 of 9, Dr. Philip Schwarz, March 8, 2013

 

I can leap over a wall.

Read at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fellowshipofjoy/permalink/10163948381074409/

Who Would You Invite for Coffee?

Frederick Buechner resurrects the question, "If we could somehow meet one of the great ones of history, which one would we choose?"

He does so with a twist of the cap that opens a jar of possibilities and we are compelled to rethink our own opportunities for self reflection.
Beyond that, I am reminded not to miss the manifestations of vulnerable and flawed greatness around me daily, incarnate in human flesh, indwelt by the Spirit.

Will history enshrine some of those we have deemed common?

What of our common clay, that of which we are being formed, will outlive us and take on the legendary lore of legacy?

The meaning of our lives is not entirely in our own hands to determine.

That which lives on, lives on and beyond and takes on life of its own and takes up its own instrument in the orchestra.

I shall keep at least one eye on the conductor and one upon the score and when He looks to me to improvise, I shall do so within the comforting structure of the larger symphony of grace knowing that he has not abandoned his baton or place at the rostrum.

But, who would I meet for conversation?

Can I simply wait until that moment when all knowledge is available?

One night, decades ago, I was on a BART train returning from the north end of the one end of the San Francisco Bay Area to the other. A rather life-beaten, disheveled man was having a lively, verbal conversation with the great Bay Area  attorney, Melvin Belli and he held his book in one hand. The dialogue was animated at times.

I could not see the invisible, deceased barrister or know how he was replying, but one man in the conversation was making his views known.

I did learn from that experience, that  can meet historical figures in books by and about them and I can converse with them there. I do not have to be suffering from delusions and I do not have to wait for eternity.

There are hundreds of interesting people alive today and within our reach. Many of them will be gone in a few years. Rather than trying to resurrect the ghosts of history, perhaps we could initiate a few conversations with the living.

Still, it is an interesting question that Buechner raises.

How would you answer?

Personally, I would not mind a coffee with the late Mr. Buechner

In the Meme-While: Get Intentional with Memes and Shorts | by Tom Sims , Cultivator of Big Ideas | Aug, 2024 | Medium

In the Meme-While: Get Intentional with Memes and Shorts

It is fun and fundamental.Tom Sims , Cultivator of Big Ideas·Follow4 min read·Just now--ListenShare

By now, I have hundreds of memes that I need to work on, make videos of, and propagate. I also need to hold back some material for publication. However, if you stick with me long enough, you will get a lot more and, yes, you may share.

via medium.com