He Turned Out All the Lights

I’ve been listening to the audio version of a book written by Barbara Brown Taylor, “Learning to Walk in the Dark.”

I’ve listened to it on several recent road trips. On the 4th of July when I went to help Emily move her stuff out of the house where she was temporarily staying. And again, recently, when I went to visit my mom. I also checked out the ebook version so I could find and reread the snippets that caught my attention.

I am mesmerized by this woman’s voice. She narrates the book herself and does an amazing job. She was an episcopal priest for years but eventually left the church. (She wrote a book to tell about her experience….Leaving Church)

Perhaps she honed her speaking skills behind the pulpit....? I am also intrigued with her writing style. Sometimes she conveys her thoughts in very long run on sentences, cobbled together with commas, colons, semicolons and dashes. She gets her point across in an almost long winded, lyrical way.

My last post talked about a late night (very dark) journey when Shasta met Aslan. It broaches the subject of learning to walk in the dark. While Taylor acknowledges that, at first glance, darkness in scripture seems overwhelmingly negative there are also verses that say something different. There are stories that tell of great things that are said/done/accomplished at night or in the dark.

In the Message, in Job Chapter 19 Job laments:

God threw a barricade across my path—I’m stymied; he turned out all the lights—I’m stuck in the dark. He destroyed my reputation, robbed me of all self-respect. He tore me apart piece by piece—I’m ruined! Then he yanked out hope by the roots. He’s angry with me—oh, how he’s angry!

Perhaps the treasures hidden in the darkness are not easily seen until we are back in the light once again. We think God is mad at us but it is often in our darkness that we meet God. I met him there during a very tumultuous period of my life that was indeed dark, scary and overwhelming.

I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 

So does God really turn out the lights? That is the age old, oft pondered (and more oft argued about) paradox of determinism versus free will. That has been a major sore spot for me in my relationship with God but it’s true; scripture indicates that He does, sometimes, turn out our lights ..for his purposes....and for our good.

God dwells in deep darkness. God comes to people in dark clouds, dark nights, dark dreams and dark strangers in ways that sometimes scare them half to death but almost always for their good--or at least their renovation. God does some of God’s best work in the dark. From a sermon delivered by Barbara Brown Taylor at the 2014 Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis, Minn

WWJD Revisited....

On a Christian blog called Formerly Fundie, in a post about the mistaken notion that Christians should try to “take our country back,” the following paragraph stood out.

Instead of just blindly following religious leaders off a cliff, Jesus people should always be asking and wrestling with the questions of, “But what did Jesus say about this? What did Jesus do? What example of Christ have we to follow?”

May I respectfully suggest that this is not rocket science. We can figure it out if we want to. After all, Jesus lived it out in real life situations for us to see. It’s not the knowing that’s hard….it’s the doing that’s sometimes damn near impossible.

There are four gospels all telling the same story (give or take a few minor contradictions). Jesus displays the same behavior, values, compassion, morals, faith, beliefs….sets the same example….throughout all four of the Gospels yet we struggle to figure out how a Christian should behave.

During the recent upheaval in Indiana, John Pavlovitz, a popular blogger, wrote these words that Jesus might say to modern day Christians:

You were designed to do this, to be this.  My kindness, my goodness, my forgiveness; you were created to be the method of transportation for all of it.

My beloved, I placed you here, not to defend or protect or replace me, but simply to reflect me.  That has always been my most critical commandment and your most pressing obligation; loving God and loving others. I thought that I was clear on that, when I was asked this before.

The thing is, he was clear. He was very clear. Could it be that we just don't like what we see....?

Earth Suits, Space Suits and Blind Beggars

Keith is a skydiver.  Once a skydiver, always a skydiver...even though his interests for the past few years have veered toward staying IN the "perfectly good airplane" rather than jumping out of it.  He worked hard to become rated as a light sport pilot....with plans to move on to the next step (private pilot) when time and money are available.  Anything related to being thousands of feet above the earth is often a topic at our house. So, about a month ago, when Felix Baumgartner made his epic jump from more than 24 miles up, it was a topic of interest and conversation at the McAndrew household.  I probably wouldn't have paid much attention if I wasn't married to Keith...other than maybe a passing "wth" is this guy thinking?

And not too long after Felix's (thankfully) successful jump, I came upon an article that looked at the spiritual implications of his jump....and the similarities between his space suit and our "earth suits" (this body of flesh that houses our spirits).

The article is written by Tzvi Freeman and is entitled

"Sky Dive From Heaven - What I learned from a guy who fell to earth from the edge of outer space at the speed of sound

It begins with a discussion of how (and why) Felix totally freaked out about being in the special suit he had to wear to survive the jump.  It protected his body from the minus 70 degree temps at those high altitudes and the speed of the fall.....prevented his body fluids from becoming gasses and other unpleasant stuff.  Red Bull sponsored the jump....and they called in a psychologist who specializes in these crazy....ahhhhhh, I mean extreme and high-performance sports.  Dr. Michael Gervais, was there to help Felix cope with the multiple panic attacks he was having because of the suit. 

Then the article takes a thought provoking twist by comparing Felix's jump to our leap from heaven.  From the spiritual realm to the earthly realm.  And we needed special suits to survive the jump into this realm....thus....our earth suits.  Our physical bodies. 

There is a line of thought in the Jewish tradition (and the object of musing in other faith traditions) that the skin God clad Adam and Eve with after the fall was not that of an animal but rather the skin of our earthly bodies. Interesting thought....and I've written about it before HERE.

So let's ponder the idea that we did preexist with God before our "jump to earth." What might the consequences be?

The article goes on to say:

But we become focused on the spacesuit. Yes, it’s an ingenious spacesuit, custom design for its mission, with its own built-in intelligence, mirrors, and a wide range of flexibility. But it’s clumsy, nonetheless. The body says, “I want this. I need that. I can’t do this. I must do that.” Our entire reality becomes exlusively that of the body and its demands, while the person within, the divine soul that fell from above starts to panic, to lose control, and eventually to fall into comatose.

Interesting thoughts....interesting comparisons.

Perhaps rather than comatose, one of the consequences of this jump is the blindness....the amnesia it produces.  We forget who we are and where we came from.  Our vision is obscured. We see through a glass darkly.  We gets glimpses of the spiritual now and then....a peek "beyond the veil" and every once in a while, there are "thin places" where the spiritual breaks through into the natural realm.  The more spiritually enlightened folks among us see much clearer....but still, their vision is clouded. 

In Ode: Intimations of Immortality William Wordsworth says this
Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing boy.

    

                 Picture by "nattavut" from free digital photos

And then, a few days ago, while reading in the Gospels, I came upon a few verses in both  that brings some of my scattered thoughts together.  

Bartimaeus Receives His Sight

Mark 10: 46Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. 47When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.” 50Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51And answering him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” 52And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.

There are parallels. We are all blind. Christ is the source of our healing, our sight, our understanding.. 

The Bible has been described as an onion....layer upon layer of meaning. Unpeel one layer only to uncover another layer.  There is the obvious, natural meaning of the words...and oftentimes...most times?....always?....there is a deeper spiritual meaning. Looking up the meaning of the words in the original language often deciphers the deeper meaning.  Since I am by no means a Greek scholar, I depend on resources like the Strong's concordance to help peel away layers of "the onion."

In this passage, the word translated "blind" is tuphlos in the Greek.  According to Strongs, it means "blind" and "mentally blind."  Not seeing does not always involve our eyesight. 

And the meaning of the Greek word anablepo translated BOTH as regain and sight in verse 51 means "to look up" and "to recover lost sight."  It comes from two root words....

"ana"
which means "into the midst, in the midst, amidst, among, between"

"Blepo"
Blepo has several meanings...one that has to do with physical seeing, but also another that is metaphorical - to see with the mind's eye.

Notice the blind man wanted to REgain his sight. We, too, need to REgain our spiritual sight.  We need a cure for our spiritual amnesia….and to REmember who we are and where we came from….  

Is God Equally Judge and Equally Father?

Slowly but surely, I am making my way through the list of questions I think are birthed when we believe in the God of eternal conscious torment that Chan talks about in his book Erasing Hell. 
Throughout the book, Chan emphasizes the legal/courtroom/God as judge concept when he uses phrases such as….

After Jesus looks at the evidence
He gives His verdict: Believers are awarded everlasting life, while unbelievers are awarded everlasting punishment.
But Jesus goes on to say that God’s courtroom will be much worse, for here the Judge has the power to sentence you to the “hell [gehenna] of fire”
The legal context of this statement ensures that Jesus is referring to the consequences of judgment day.
When Jesus uses stock phrases like “gehenna of fire” in legal contexts like this one, He means a literal place of punishment after judgment. He means hell.
The phrase sentenced to hell is once again reminiscent of something you would hear in a courtroom.

So…is God mainly judge or is God mainly father?
William Barclay, in I Am A Convinced Universalist explained it this way:

Further, there is only one way in which we can think of the triumph of God. If God was no more than a King or Judge, then it would be possible to speak of his triumph, if his enemies were agonizing in hell or were totally and completely obliterated and wiped out. But God is not only King and Judge, God is Father - he is indeed Father more than anything else. No father could be happy while there were members of his family for ever in agony. No father would count it a triumph to obliterate the disobedient members of his family. The only triumph a father can know is to have all his family back home. The only victory love can enjoy is the day when its offer of love is answered by the return of love. The only possible final triumph is a universe loved by and in love with God.

And John Gavazzoni, a favorite kingdom minister of mine, says it this way in his article “My Dad, God”:

One thing stands out clearly to me when I compare my father's relationship with his children to the way our Heavenly Father is presented in conventional orthodox theology. It is simply this: Lou Gavazzoni's relationship with me was paternal, not legal. Whatever factors came into play, all was built on a familial, not a forensic foundation. There may at times have been a friendship element, associate-in-business element, fellow-musician element, boss-employee element, even lord-servant element and yes, the element of judgment came up as well. But, I never stood before one who was essentially a judge, who might, after legal matters were settled, then allow himself to be fatherly.
I stood before my father who might, as necessary, act in a firm, unyielding and corrective judgment as part of his love for me. Yet, it seems clear to me, that most of Christianity assumes that a relationship with God is only possible after legal matters are settled. Our minds are so entangled with what we perceive to be legal, judicial and forensic necessities that we miss the Father-heart of God.

So is God really everyone’s father…or does he only become Father when we “pray the sinner’s prayer” and “ask Jesus to come into our heart”?
More on that….in my next post…..

Well is he?

IS GOD IN EVERY MAN?

So…is he?  Is God in every man?  Bad guy, good guy? The guy across the street…the guy in the next office?  The guy who cuts you off at the intersection?  Does God dwell in every butcher, baker, candlestick maker?

The Bible says that he is the light that lights every man who comes into the world.  That’s pretty clear, no?  Every man. It is one of the mysteries of the Gospel that Paul talks about. Behold…I tell you a mystery.  The christ in you, the hope of glory. 

Preston Eby has a unique way of answering that question….of explaining the “christ in you.”

It is like a man who is very accomplished in a certain field, a doctor, lawyer, or scientist.  He has everything, and is at the top of the world.  Then he becomes an alcoholic.  In time he loses all – his wife, family, house, money, job – and becomes a drunken derelict, unwashed, unshaven, unkempt, lying in the gutter surrounded by wine bottles.  Now, the talent, ability, wisdom, knowledge, etc. that he once possessed IS STILL THERE.  It is distorted, disrupted and destroyed by alcohol. 

He goes on to say….

I see God in every man as a SEED.  According to Paul on Mars hill all men are "the offspring of God."  This seed of God is in every man, in man's spirit, for man is body, soul and spirit.  From whence came man's spirit – from the dust of the ground?  No!  the spirit came out of God.  But it must germinate, be quickened.  Just as it takes the rain and the sun to germinate the seed in a farmer's field, so it requires the SPIRIT and the WORD falling into the soil of a man's heart to germinate the seed of God, thus producing the miracle of RE-GENERATION.  A seed does not produce what it is until it germinates and grows.  That is why you do not see the life of God being produced in unquickened men, although the seed of God is in them.

Job Security? Not Unless You Believe in Hell…

Rob Bell recently made a big splash with his book Love Wins.  Firestorm might be a more appropriate way to describe the ensuing reaction. 

He was lambasted by fundamentalists like Justin Taylor in a blog post written before Taylor even read the book.  The post was linked to via Twitter by John Piper….with the sentiments

“Goodbye, Rob Bell.” 

Take note. That is how quickly some Christians will kiss your ass goodbye if you don’t share the beliefs they hold the nearest and dearest. 

People wrote books refuting his book.   Francis Chan’s Erasing Hell, Mark Galli’s God Wins: Heaven, Hell, and Why the Good News Is Better than Love Wins, Is Hell for Real or Does Everyone Go to Heaven written by a group of theologians including J.I. Packer. 

None of the ensuing controversy seemed to affect Bell’s employment status.  Even though he resigned from his church near Grand Rapids, Michigan to move to L.A…..and peddle his wares on a broader scale, it was his own choice.  He wasn’t handed a pink slip for his beliefs.

Others have lost their ministries….their jobs….for questioning the status quo.  

Most everyone knows about Carlton Pearson….former megastar of the charismatic chuch and Azuzu Street fame.  One day while watching a program on TV, God tapped him on the shoulder and changed his entire belief system.  He naively thought that if he simply educated the church folk, they would skip along in lock step belief.  Ah….no. 

He lost a huge chunk of his membership….lost his church and finally ended up in a mainly gay congregation.  Now he is the pastor of a mega new thought church in Chicago. 

Another pastor, Chad Holtz, posted a supportive note on Facebook about Bell’s book and ended up fired over it.  From Marrow’s Chapel…a United Methodist Church no less.  Perhaps his congregation missed the official United Methodist stand on the very question Bell raises in his book….right there on the official United Methodist website for all the world to see…..

There are persuasive arguments that include the faithful, thoughtful, and respectful use of Scripture on both sides-- affirming and denying universal salvation. The Book of Discipline, which is the only official printed voice of the UMC, does not make a statement specifically about universal salvation. This places the question in a possible gray area, but the Discipline says what it says. One must read the doctrine there and attempt to understand it as well as possible.
Rev. Dr. Diana Hynson Director of Learning and Teaching Ministries in the Congregation General Board of Discipleship

And now today, an acquaintance on Facebook, Jackson Baer, posted a video on his wall talking about how he was fired from a church where he ministered for 3 1/2 years as a youth pastor.  How come? Because he refuses to renounce his belief in universal reconciliation.  He has a new book out called “What the Hell”….and he is wondering that exact thing….what the hell just happened?  He loved his church, he loved the people there….and now he is on the outside looking in.  

Christians are loathe to let go of their hellfire and brimstone….and they are quick to kick to the curb anyone who doesn’t share their beliefs about an angry, vengeful God who is more monster than savior…..

Next post, I’ll include links to several other books I’ve come across that discuss the nonexistence of an eternal hell.  It’s a question God settled in my heart a long time ago, shortly after I became a Christian at the ripe old age of 40 something.  Once you see it, you can’t unsee it….and like William Barclay, I Am a Convinced Universalist…..

11:05 pm….12-31-11

11:05....on New Year's Eve.  55 minutes until the ball drops. For me it's not New Year's until the ball drops in Times Square. Even when I lived in a different time zone....when the ball dropped in Times Square….that signaled the start of the new year.

This night has always been very sentimental for me. Memories of  New Year's Eves past...spent with family...many long since gone.  Memories of little kids, sound asleep in their beds..., stroking chubby little legs in terry cloth sleepers and pj's with plastic feet.  Whispering, "I love you" and "I'm so glad I have you." Memories of bigger kids...struggling to stay awake to ring in the New Year...to see the ball drop. And now....bigger kids still.  Two at parties...one babysitting.

Keith and I spent the evening here at home...wouldn't have it any other way.  His brother's family makes a yearly trek to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to ring in the New Year.  Not me.  Not Niagara Falls....not the bars...not Times Square with an estimated 1.5 million people (can you imagine the traffic jam??)

I've been going through some of the articles I've annotated at the gym on my kindle. (I love my kindle) One in particular that talks about all this 2012, the world is ending stuff. The article points out that it is not the world ending...but an era.  An epoch....a mindset, a way of looking at things....a halt, an about face...perhaps a new beginning. Hopefully a new beginning.

Things are a bit mixed up right now....with the kids, and school, and vehicles and questions like "how the hell will we afford to help them with all these expenses?"

A quote from one of the articles (Navigating an Uncertain Future: Guidance for the Unpredictable Road Ahead ~ Alan Seale from The Evolutionary Mystic blog) stands out....

We really have to tune in every day and say, what am I to do now? Today? This period of life? This month? This cycle? This season? And then go and find the tools, the resources and the people to be able to do that work. We need to all be supporting each other in that.

and if you are afraid?

When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision—then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

Body, Soul and/or Spirit?

This body, soul, spirit thing ....as in whether we are two dimensional beings (dichotomy) or three dimensional beings (trichotomy) ....has been a controversy for quite a while.  How come I didn't know that?

It goes way back.  Way, way back.  As far back as Plato who toyed around with theories about the "tripartite soul." And St Augustine who identified 3 Laws....Divine Law. Natural Law. Temporal Law. Or his 3 Characterizations of the "Soul"...Memory, Understanding, Will.  Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Gregory of Nyssa, Luther, Oswald Chamber,  T.Austin-Spark, Watchman Nee all came down on the trichotomy side of the debate. It is also one of the main "go to" beliefs in kingdom ministries.

Two verses in scripture came to mind when I stumbled across this subject this morning. 

1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace Himself  sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 4:12 -
For the  word of God is living  and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit,  of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Far too often, in far too many versions of the Holy Bible, the English word chosen to convey the meaning of the word in the original language is....ah....way off.  Sometimes when you check the Strong's Concordance it doesn’t even come close.  I’m obviously not a Biblical scholar but it doesn't take a Biblical scholar to check out what the King James says a word means against what the Strong's Concordance says a word means….and come to your own, hopefully spirit led, conclusion.

 

Sometimes the translators will use the same English word to translate different Greek or Hebrew words.  Or visa versa.  Sometimes they will use different English words for one word in the original language.  Sometimes this accurately conveys the meaning….other times….not so much.

But in both verses above, the word translated spirit is the Greek word Pneuma.  The word translated soul is the Greek word  Psuche.

The Scofield Study Bible says this about the distinction:

Man a trinity. That the human soul and spirit are not identical is proved by the facts that they are divisible.

…the distinction between spirit and soul may be traced. Briefly,that distinction is that the spirit is that part of man which "knows" 1 Corinthians 2:11 his mind; the soul is the seat of the affections, desires, and so of the emotions, and of the active will, the self.

“Because man is ‘spirit’ he is capable of God-consciousness, and of communication with God (Job 32:8; Psa. 18:28; Prov. 20:27);

because he is ‘soul’ he has self-consciousness (Psa. 13:2; 42:5, 6, 11);

because he is ‘body’ he has, through his senses, world-consciousness” (The Scofield Study Bible, page 1270.

So....man, a triune being, has the potential to bridge the gap between the two realms, the physical and the spiritual.  He is linked to the visible realm....the earth....the material world with his body and he is linked to the spiritual, "other worldly" realm, beyond the veil…. by his spirit. The soul is sort of the swing vote.  I can submit to be ruled by the spiritual man and be "seated with Christ in heavenly places"....or allow the carnal man to "be the boss of me." (My friend “Kansas Bob” wrote a post a while back that talks about how we can cooperate with the Holy Spirit to accomplish this)

I found the following quote in an article called "Discovering Your Identity."  Disclaimer...there are parts of the article that I don't agree with....like the spiritual warfare kind of view about "the enemy"....and there is a rather blatant altar call toward the end of the article....but he has a really interesting way of explaining the body, soul, spirit concept. 

 

MAN'S SOUL
With the union of man's body and spirit, he became "a living soul." The soul is that aspect of man's being that, like a photographer's dark room, develops the impressions of the external world around him, which have been gathered by his physical senses, into distinct expressions of thought, emotions, and desire.

1. Man's spirit is the seat of his God-consciousness - where God dwelt!
2. Man's soul is the seat of his self-consciousness - where self dwelt.
3. Man's body is the seat of his world-consciousness - where his senses dwelt.

 

Makes sense to me…….

Which Voice?

I found this serendipitously on my FB feed this morning.  It is a quote from Neal Donald Walsch that talks about the two voices....and goes along quite nicely with my post yesterday about Job....

..... you have two voices with which you speak: your

Mind Voice and your Soul Voice.

These two voices are also — all the time — speaking to you.

Which voice you listen to will determine

which voice you speak with.

God invites you to listen to — and speak with — your

Soul Voice. This will vastly improve your personal

communications… to say nothing of your mood.

I might quibble with Neal about his terminology....specifically the use of the word soul to refer to what I think should be referred to as spirit.  I get the idea though....

Which voice you listen to will determine

which voice you speak with.

Whose spirit?

I've been reading through Job VERY S...L...O...W...L...Y.  Here and there, now and then....

The other day at the gym, I picked up where I left off the last time.  Chapter 26.  Interesting chapter.  In verse 4, Job asks one of his miserable comforters a probing question.....

4  To whom have you spoken these words, and whose spirit has spoken through you?

To whom have you spoken and whose spirit is speaking?

A good question to ask ourselves, often and earnestly, in our day to day communications. When we are talking to our kids, our spouses, our coworkers....ourselves....are we speaking with a namaste spirit? The christ in me recognizes the christ in you. 

Or do we direct our comments, observations, suggestions.....demands.....to adam (the carnal man/the egoic mind/outer man/old man).

The power of life and death is in the tongue.....indeed it is. 

The Finished Work-Subjectively and Objectively

More divers and sundry stuff….
I’ve been reading through Job…admittedly at a very slow pace.  I find myself pausing often… saying in deep profound wonderment…

“Huh?”

Job is not all that easy to understand.  Especially in the King James Version.  Poetic and lovely…but with so much symbolism and oblique wording…difficult to wrap my mind around the meaning.  I’ve had more luck with The Message…and the other day, I read a few chapters from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Wow…

I loved chapter 26…where Job answers Bildad. And sitting out here on the back deck, enjoying a gorgeous early fall afternoon, I tried to write a post about it.  But the ideas would not congeal. 

Reluctantly, I forced myself to go vacuum and dust…and even clean the bathroom. 

And then I connected some dots between the verses in Job and an email sent out earlier today by Gary Sigler about the finished work.  The finished work of the cross.

There are a lot of kingdom ministries that are preaching the finished work.  There are a lot of ministries that are not even close to kingdom theology that are teaching the finished work.  Eckhart Tolle comes to mind.  A lot of what is considered new age also comes to mind.

Gary Sigler said it this way:

Of course the work was finished as Jesus said from the cross. The scriptures also says that the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Many hear these truths and begin to try and believe the work was finished and therefore there is nothing left for us to do. They say “We are finished and there is no further processing needed.” To me this is a foolish thing to say. Some of those who are claiming this are still full of negative things in their lives. Since they believe there is no more processing they are stuck with a doctrine that is useless to them.

He goes on to say:

I do believe the works were finished from the foundation of the world. However the work was finished in the spirit and must be worked out in our experience. There is an objective truth and a subjective truth. They are both true but if we only have the objective it will not bring change to our lives. We must have the subjective experience of becoming all that Jesus said and taught.

And

However you have fallen in your mind and have lost the reality of being complete. 

Fallen in your mind? Keith has a favorite tag line…in fact it is the name of his blog.  We are spirit beings…on a human journey.  In this realm…this human realm….spirit beings on a human journey…the truth of who we are is covered…veiled….

One of the verses in Job 26 declares…..

⁹ He obscures the view of [His] throne,
    spreading His cloud over it.

The NLT words it this way:

He shrouds his throne with his clouds.

Connecting a few dots….the Strong’s meaning of throne? 

seat (of honour), throne,
royal dignity, authority, power

As unbelievable as it may seem, the presence of God abides within US.  We are his throne, his seat of honour, his dwelling place, his temple. 

But the view has been obscured by his clouds.

His doing?  Our doing?  The answer depends on where you weigh in on the free will/total determinism scale.  Did we fall?  Did he “push” us?  Did he set us up so there was no other possible outcome?  Scripture provides equally compelling, yet opposite answers to that question…depending on where you look and what you choose to believe.

The Bible tells us we are alienated (to be shut out from one's fellowship and intimacy) from God IN OUR MINDS. Perhaps part of the purpose of this life is to discover/uncover the mystery of who(se) we really are.  To restore the fellowship we once shared with God. To renew our minds. To put all the traces of adam to death.

I’ll close this post with one more quote from Gary’s email….

“Therefore you must have the eyes of your understanding opened and the veils removed from your mind so you can experientially walk in the completeness.”

 

Allowing --- MYOB

Hebrews 1:1 describes God's method of communicating  with our forefathers  .... at many times and in various ways or as the King James Version describes it, in “divers and sundry ways”

He hasn't stopped this diverse and sundry thing.  He "talks" to me that way all the time.

It started (as it often does) on google reader...in a blog post about achieving inner peace.  A number list...with 5 guidelines for inner peace.  The one that caught my eye was # 4.  Master the Art of Allowing. 

Hmmmm.  Allowing.  Interesting word.  it  means, among other things, “to to make it possible for someone to do something, or to not prevent something from happening” Some synonyms with a bit more of a negative connotation are endure or tolerate.

I learned a lot about allowing when one of my kids was in her "I've lost my mind" phase of teenage rebellion. Finally, in desperation, I  stopped beating my head against that brick wall.  Sometimes the harder we try to change/control things, the more resistance we generate in the person we are trying to change.    

This explanation of allowing (authored by Evita Ochel owner of the website EvolvingBeings.com) mentions how parents many times think they know what is best or how their children should be...parents aka "entities who seem to think they own" their children. 

She credits parents with planting the seed for this nasty little habit of trying to change our loved ones...mold them into who we think they should be.  Sort of a sins of the father kind of thing.  Pressuring them to do the things we think they should, pressuring them not to do the things we think they shouldn't.

I learned that this is rarely a very a successful endeavor. 

So before we get into what allowing is, let's determine what allowing ISN'T.  While it does contain aspects of MYOB, it does not turn a blind eye to injustice.  A quote I came across the other day (one of those divers and sundry things) on someone's FB feed:

‎"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." Desmond Tutu

How to decide when to MYOB and when not to is tricky echoed in the words of the oft repeated prayer attributed to St. Francis.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Some situations demand that we speak up.  Some things we cannot allow.  Exactly what those situations are, well, I am not all that clear about.  A good idea might be to follow the leading of the spirit...and do what he tells us to do. 

Another thing that allowing is not...is an obligation to be a doormat. We really do get to choose if we participate in any situation.  Allowing a loved one....family member, spouse, friend... the right to make their own decisions and choices does not mean we have to hang out in a situation that is intolerable. 

So...the author of this article thinks that allowing means "letting each person be as they are."  Which is directly related to the directive of Jesus when he said not to worry about the speck of dust in another's eye and to concern ourselves with the plank in our own eye. 

More to come on allowing....

Who is that looking out of your eyes?

A while back I happened upon an article entitled “Disbelieving Free Will Makes Brain Less Free”  Free will versus determinism aka total sovereignty aka predestination aka fatalism has always been a burr under my saddle.  For years I struggled with it…analyzed it….pondered it….argued with Keith about it….discussed it on message boards and e-lists….and fought with God about it.  Then…suddenly, the obsession went away. 

I simply decided I had to pick a lane…and so I did. 

The article discusses an experiment that tracks reaction time between those who read a passage that discounted free will and those who read a passage that supported free will. But this post isn’t really about this specific article….or the experiment…but rather about a rhetorical question that came up in the comments. 

It was posted by someone called revlynn and he said:

One of the questions I pose to my clients & students on a regular basis is, "Who/what is it that is looking through your eyes?" Science can explain "seeing", but has yet to explain "looking". The mind looks, the brain sees, the mind interprets.

That question has all sorts of implications and nuances when we consider the dual nature of human beings….the carnal and the spiritual.  On her FB page, my friend Dena used the phrase, “I real-eyes I am spirit”

So….just who is it that is looking out of YOUR eyes? Are you seeing with your “real eyes?”  Is it adam or is it Christ?

Passing Adam food through the slot….

I'm spending the weekend at my mom's....which means "no internet access w/o a trip to McD's"  I was there for an hour or so this morning but they had the a/c so low, I was absolutely frozen when I left.  So, here in my mom’s apartment, I've been going through notes, snippets, copies of web pages, blog ideas, quotes etc. etc. etc. that I have saved on my computer.  I keep coming up with more ideas for posts than I will probably ever have time to write about. 

This one just struck my fancy, taken from a blog called the Four Mass'keteers…a Catholic leaning blog (evidenced by the name--the "Mass"keteers....which I never noticed till just now) I liked the following snippet from a recent post....that originally came from a daily meditation on The Magnificant, a site I've never visited but may....later.... when I get within broadcasting range of a wifi router......

First the snippet….

Snippet>>>>>>>>>

The Magnificat has a meditation today, as they do everyday, that one should contemplate on for hours allowing the words to touch our hearts, our souls - to melt the ice at the center of our beings...

Yielding To The Holy Spirit
Tears are the humble, created water of my heart that corresponds to the powerful uncreated water of the Spirit’s life in me. Tears are perhaps the most rejuvenating and re-creating water of all, the evidence that I have allowed grace to melt the ice at the center of my being.

As Leon Bloy says strikingly, where there are tears, there is the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit of God is always, as at the beginning, “hovering over the waters”

What areas of my life are still rigid, refusing to yield resistance and be shaped by God’s fingers? “Flecte quod est rigidum,” we pray in the Veni, sancte Spiritus.

In what parts of my person do I still allow the old inflexible grouch of sin to have his way?  Each one of us, according to our state in life, has different strategies for allowing the old Adam and Eve to survive in us. We may have that rascal, the decrepit old self, locked away safely, but surreptitiously we still pass him food through the slot in the dungeon door, do we not?

A couple of phrases in this short meditation captured my attention…. 

Melting the ice at the center of our being.

and…..

Each one of us, according to our state in life, has different strategies for allowing the old Adam and Eve to survive in us. We may have that rascal, the decrepit old self, locked away safely, but surreptitiously we still pass him food through the slot in the dungeon door, do we not?

"Adam doesn't want to die"....

Keith used to say that now and then when we talked about spiritual things. I didn't really understand it then...still don't really get it....not completely.  This separation in us--the true and the mistaken identity....spiritual/ carnal....adamic/christ...this “two natures beat inside my breast” concept....but I have a deeper understanding now than I did then.

So Adam doesn't want to die and apparently "we" don't want to kill him.  But he’s gotta’ go, the Bible is clear on that, and tells us to crucify "the rascal." 

If we have any hope of killing him off, we've got to stop passing him food through the slot.  I alluded to a poem above....written, I think, by Ray Prinzing....

Two natures beat within my breast

One is cursed, the other blessed

One I love, one I hate

The one I FEED will dominate......

Hmmmmmm. 

My Body Is My Enemy…

I found this quote buried within a post on Martha Becks blog. I am, of course, using it out of context….but wow...what far reaching implications!! As someone who has had a weight problem most of my life, I get this. I SO get this. But in "enlightenment" circles, in awakening articles...in some interpretations of scripture...in Buddhist theology, there is also the pervading belief that “my body is my enemy.”  I must overcome the flesh.

Question then? Why did God put us in fleshly bodies if they are our enemy? Why did he choose to incarnate in a fleshly body as Jesus? Perhaps it is not so much that our body is our enemy, perhaps it is more so that our body must be reconciled with our spirit and then…and only then …will we be complete. Is this the hybrid (thanks Ron Sigler) that the NT speaks of? The new creation man? And the old man, the carnal man, that adamic man is the one who only knows himself as a body? Just musing....

Happy Easter….

At a a ministry resource website….buried within a collection of devotions, called 56 Devotions on Short Notice, I happened to click on this one the other day. I tucked it away, especially for Easter.  I am at my mom’s for Easter…just me….the rest of the family stayed put. At my mom’s, the only  internet access I have is at the local McD’s.  I’ve been using their free wifi for an hour or so.  What a deal. The place is virtually deserted.  The coffee…any size….is a dollar.  There are free refills….

So even though Easter Day is half over…this is a good message year round.  And no matter what your view of the atonement is or the scope of what you think was accomplished there, this still fits. 

Across the barriers that divide race from race,

Reconcile us, O Christ by your cross.

Across the barriers that divide rich from poor,

Reconcile us, O Christ by your cross.

Across the barriers that divide people of different faiths,

Reconcile us, O Christ by your cross.

Across the barriers that divide Christians,

Reconcile us, O Christ by your cross.

Across the barriers that divide men and women, young and old,

Reconcile us, O Christ, by your cross.

Amen.

2nd Corinthians 5:

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

 

Especially…

Non universalists...those who do not believe that God is going to save/reconcile/restore everyone.... often dispute the clear logic set out in 1 Timothy 4:9-10

9 This saying is reliable and worthy of complete acceptance by everybody. 10 With a view to this we toil and strive, [yes and] suffer reproach, because we have [fixed our] hope on the living God, Who is the Savior (Preserver, Maintainer, Deliverer) of all men, especially of those who believe (trust in, rely on, and adhere to Him). Amplified

9 You can count on this. Take it to heart. 10 This is why we've thrown ourselves into this venture so totally. We're banking on the living God, Savior of all men and women, especially believers. 11 Get the word out. Teach all these things The Message

The naysayers, think…and often vehemently argue… the verse somehow excludes all of those who don't believe NOW.  Only “real time, right now” believers qualify. But that’s not what is says at all. It says especially those who believe....as in...I love cookies...ESPECIALLY white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.  Or I like to drink coffee....ESPECIALLY Columbian.  The other varieties of cookies…sugar, oatmeal raisin, Oreos....chocolate chip (can’t forget chocolate chip!!!) and the other types of coffee...espresso, mocha java, hazelnut…are not excluded.  They just don't qualify for the "especially" category.

I have a song on my MP3 player that explains this “especially believers” concept pretty well...

One day every tongue will confess You are God
One day every knee will bow
Still the greatest treasure remains for those,
Who gladly choose You now

Did you catch that? The greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose you now. The “especially” folks.  They get the greatest treasure.

And what might that "greatest" treasure be?? Why, a relationship with the living God, the Savior of all people, of course. A relationship....Now.  Not off in the future...but now, right now.  Today, as we go about our daily lives as believers, he will be our refuge and strength.  Our ever present help in times of trouble.  Our wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And there is no greater treasure....

 

 

I came upon an article about fear….

I came upon  an article about fear this weekend.  I forget what I was even googling, but the article, God’s Confidence vs. Our Fears, was there among the search results. The article emphasizes a great verse that I should commit to memory and repeat a couple hundred thousand times a day.

Proverbs 3:25-26: “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your feet from being snared.”

Have no fear of sudden disaster?  Are you kidding?  Seriously? I am the princess of “What if?!!!!" My mother is the reigning queen.  She taught me everything she knows about worrying.  I learned from a pro. I am a pro.  I am so good at it.  I can conjure up the most unlikely and far fetched scenarios….usually focusing on the worst case ones.  They rarely happen.  And the article points out a quote by Mark Twain. 

“I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”

Yeah? Well what about the quote the gist of which is…

I know worry works. The things I worry about never happen.

Great quotes pointing out, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, the futility of worry….

Yet, somehow such fears of the unknown are not chased away by a clever quote. Knowing that most fears never happen doesn’t bring sleep late in a worry-filled night.

Worry usually doesn’t keep me awake at night.  It does, however, occupy my thoughts many, many days.  And often I am aware of danger lurking just around the corner.  Anticipating the rug being pulled out from under me….or the other shoe dropping. Thud!! It seems the fear of sudden disaster is always kind of hovering in the background. So what’s all this about the Lord being your confidence? 

I guess it’s all about perspective.  Enlarging our perspective from micro to macro.  Minor to major. Carnal to spiritual.  Earthly to heavenly.  This world is not our home.  This body is not the real us.  What happens to it, here in this realm, is of no lasting consequence and might even be for our ultimate good. (what?!!!) And when this whole concept is just too much for the egoic mind to wrap itself around, we can cling to the verse…my new mantra….the Lord will be your confidence. 

C.S. Lewis Quote on Truth….

I was reading through a long list of CS Lewis quotes this morning....long after I should have been in the shower.  I came upon the list somewhere...somehow this weekend... in my internet escapades.  Only a handful of the hundred or so short, snappy quotes really resonated...which is odd because I really like CS Lewis.  I have a book...a devotional....that consists of excerpts from his writings. The quotes on the list I read this morning were one liners mostly.  Perhaps honed too close to the bone to convey the deep thoughts of CS Lewis.  But there were a few that caught my attention....and one caught it enough to be given a chance at a blog post.

"And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies' plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger."
--The Last Battle

So many times this charge is leveled against those who believe differently.  You know....those "new agers"...heretics....universalists.....unitarians... etc...etc....etc.  This accusation can easily be turned around on those who level it against any of the groups that I just rattled off.  And there are many more.  Ask the Catholics about the Charismatics.  Ask the Seventh Day Adventists about the Lutherans.  Ask the Southern Baptists about the Universalists.  Everyone thinks they have a handle on THE Truth....when in actuality we all see through that murky glass.  

Good to know that Jesus promises us that Comforter is going to lead us to the truth.  And not to  just a little piece of the truth (like we possess now) but he will lead us into ALL truth!  All. Truth.

Amen! 

Spirit of Truth, Take From Us What You Will

About a week or so ago, I posted excerpts from a sermon by Gary Sigler.  In that post I mentioned an interesting sermon by D.E. Paulk of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit .  This sermon also, no doubt, raised a few kingdom eyebrows. He began the sermon by urging everyone to "come empty" and set their preconceived notions aside for a bit...and he prayed

Spirit of Truth carry us where you will.  Bring to us what you will and take from us what you will.  We are surrendered to you tonight...in the name of the Christ.

Take from us what you will...hmmmmm....sometimes we don't want to let go..sometimes we hold on for dear life. 

In the post about Gary Sigler, I mentioned the tendency of some kingdom folk to be very set in their views....in a "B MUST come BEFORE C but ALWAYS AFTER A" kind of way. Paulk talked about that as one of the stages of spiritual consciousness. The steps he listed are below...paraphrased....not word for word....

Absolute...the absolute level of thought progression, everything is concrete. Everything is literal.

Abstract....when you begin to accept that in the same Bible there are opposing, contrasting from glory to glory ideas.  You are willing to walk in the gray...

Mystic Receptivity - totally bow down and say God you are unknowable

Oneness...no longer see God and truth and other people as separate from yourself.

He went on to talk about how you can find so many contrasting (sometimes seemingly opposite) ideas in the Bible. There is meat, milk and mystery in the same Bible

You can find dispensation and kingdom

You can find rapture a physical second coming and the idea of kingdom now

You can find exclusion and the finished work

In the Epistles you can find Paul speaking evangelically and universally.

Paul teaches against circumcision (you are trampling the blood of Jesus underfoot) then he circumcises Timothy

So which is accurate?  Good question....

He claims you can usually find truth in the middle.  Truth is found not in polar opposites, not in black and white, not in extremes but truth is found in the gray areas.  Take two opposites and the truth is usually in the middle of them...the middle way...moderation...the balance.

And the Bible is often used as a weapon of exclusion based on the scriptures....

More on that in an upcoming post.....Oh...and the WE in the title is an acronym for the weekly devotional he writes.....the WE....short for The Weekly Eureka.

And the emblem from the Church’s home page says it all….