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…….

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. 

The Will of God

During this whole "living at the hospital" ordeal there have been times, events and circumstances that have been exercises in total frustration. When I went back last weekend to visit, she was doing much better after the second actual surgery to drain fluid and blood from both of her lungs and chest cavity.  When I say surgery I mean under total, deep anesthesia.  There were many, many procedures that required a lighter level of anesthesia....and some of the nasty things they did to her "didn't require" any at all.  She had three PICC lines put in with great, great difficulty (and total lack of functionality)....a pacemaker (that caused bleeding into the cavity around her heart and collapsed her lung...main reason for the second surgery) numerous scope things....down the throat...another round on the ventilator…so many unpleasant, frightening ordeals. Yet when I went back this weekend she was quite calm.  In a good mood actually. It was almost as if God held her there in the fire (hospital) until she stopped struggling.  And I am learning some lessons about struggling too. 

“A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps”(Proverbs 16:9)

Lest anyone think I've joined the total determinism gang, I haven't.  I do believe however that we are not totally free and there will be situations we get stuck in no matter how much we struggle.  No matter how much squawking and bitching and moaning we do, we are going to be held in the fire (a place or situation where we don’t want to be) until we stop struggling.  That is the essence of my car seat analogy.

When my kids were little they always...always… rode in their car seats the whole time the car was in motion. No exceptions.  Protesting…kicking, screaming, fighting made no difference whatsoever to the final outcome. The car seat was non negotiable. One way or another they were going in the car seat and they were staying there until we reached our destination.  Fortunately, they never put up much of a fuss and getting them into their car seat was no big deal but I’ve seen some life and death struggles going on in other vehicles…parent pitted against a 20 lb child.

Some of the situations God puts us in are also non negotiable (and for our good) and we cannot get out of them...no how...no way. Sometimes the only thing we can choose is our attitude.  My attitude throughout this hospital ordeal was pretty good.  Could have been better but I know my mom appreciated me being there. Looking through the “retrospectascope” I realize I should have struggled less and accepted more and I would have saved myself a lot of stress and frustration. The whole thing was a “carseat moment.” 

Reminds me of two similar thoughts about making plans.  One from the Qu'ran...the other from the book of James.  Both pretty much say the same thing...and remind me that I need to seek his will and way first.  To do otherwise is a bit like beating my head against a brick wall.  And you know the saying about how good it feels when you stop....

 SHAKIR 18:23/24 And do not say of anything: Surely I will do it tomorrow, Unless Allah pleases; and remember your Lord when you forget and say: Maybe my Lord will guide me to a nearer course to the right than this.

James 4:13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

So I spent all weekend hanging out in her hospital room.  She is feeling a lot better (and at this writing is actually in the rehab part of the hospital working on the final phase of her recovery) A lot of the time she dozed in the chair…and I sat quietly reading…making use of their guest wifi.  At one point, late on Sunday afternoon she asked me the same question she asked shortly after her surgery.....

"This was a wasted day wasn't it?"

"For who?"

"You....me.....both of us" she replied.

Ahhhhhh......but it didn’t feel like a wasted day.  And after all, in God's economy, nothing is wasted.  Eventually, all things work together for good, don't they?  I don’t think any of the time either of us spent in the “carseat” was wasted. Some of the lessons are yet to be revealed…but they are there, contained in the experience.  The tricky part is figuring it all out. 

My husband, Keith wrote a post about some of his struggles during this same period of time…from his perspective.  Check it out HERE.

The Most Dejected and Reluctant Convert...

I have 15 minutes before I have to get in the shower and get ready for work. Ugh (and who am I kidding anyway....I always stretch the 15 minutes out to 20, 25...even 30...and then I am scrambling and running around....scolding myself for sitting here with my laptop...way too long.  But today...the peanut gallery...who was too sleepy to comment on Michel Quoist's writings in my last post, just might have a thing or two to say (My brain always works better in the am)

I see a common thread in these past few excerpts from the conversion stories of others.  Some of Quoist's thoughts seem to merge with the story of C.S. Lewis' conversion

I am afraid of saying “Yes,” Lord.
Where will you take me?
I am afraid of drawing the longer straw,
I am afraid of signing my name to an unread agreement,
I am afraid of the “yes” that entails other “yeses.”
And yet I am not at peace.

Oh yeah' I can so relate. I will never be the one at the front of the class, waving my arm wildly back and forth....."Here I am Lord. Send me!!!!" Nope...that's me.....back there in the last row, eyes down, hoping to remain unnoticed and for goodness sake's "uncalled on." But alas, not only in circumstances surrounding our conversion, but also in our day to day walk God pursues us.  He could aptly be described as a nag.  I also get the "not at peace" part. 

You pursue me, Lord, you besiege me.
I seek out the din for fear of hearing you, but in a moment of silence you slip through.
I turn from the road,
for I have caught sight of you,
but at the end of the path
you are there awaiting me.
Where shall I hide?
I meet you everywhere.
Is it then impossible
to escape you?

Ahhhhhh...yeah. Impossible is a good word.  C.S. Lewis says it this way:

"A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere — 'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises', as Herbert say, 'fine nets and stratagems'. God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous".

Quoist continues with the same thought....

I am hemmed in, yet I hide.
I am captured, yet I struggle,
and I fight
knowing that I am defeated.
For you are the stronger, Lord,
you own the world
and you take it from me.

And he can do that, dammit.  David declares...and Paul echos the sentiment....that "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof"....."the world and they that dwell therein."  So it is actually his to give...or take. I don't like that one bit by the way, but without a relationship with him...everything seems empty...

Everything seems empty,
Everything seems hollow,
You have made a desert around me.
I am hungry and thirsty,
And the whole world
cannot satisfy me.

Vanity, vanity, it's all vanity.  Only God can plug up that god shaped hole in our hearts....and seal it so tightly that the drafts of discontent can not blow through the cracks. 

Lewis goes on to say...

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

Yep, he will do whatever it takes to win us over.  The most dejected and reluctant convert?  Hardly.  Tomorrow another conversion story.  Anne Lamott's rather irreverent tale of how she bowed her knee and conceded that "Jesus Christ is Lord."

Lord You Have Seized Me.....

Another "I'll relentlessly and tirelessly hunt you down until I catch you" (thus saith the Lord) poem/prayer I came across was written by Michel Quoist.  He was a French priest who wrote several books of prayers and other books on living the Christian life (from a sort of priestly, Catholic perspective). One of his writings, Meet Christ and Live, is available online HERE.   I really like this prayer....

LORD YOU HAVE SEIZED ME

Lord, you have seized me, and I could not resist You.

I ran for a long time, but You followed me

I took bypaths, but you knew them

You overtook me

I struggled

You won...

When I stood there trembling like one defeated before his captor

Your look of love fell on me

The die is cast, Lord

I can no longer forget You

In a moment You seized me

In a moment You conquered me

My doubts were swept away

My fears dispelled

For I recognized You without seeing You

I felt You without touching You

I understood You without hearing You

Cardboard Testimony....

Last weekend while browsing through some of the blogs I have saved on my bloglines account, I happened upon a blog...linked from Kansas Bob's blog, called Altered.  It chronicles the journey of a Christian woman diagnosed with ALS....self described as:

My purpose in writing this blog is to share what God is teaching me in my battle with ALS. In a revealing and honest way. My desire is to constantly be transformed by Him. Changed. ALTERED.

I am amazed at the courage, honesty, kindness and faith displayed in her writings.  Awed. 

In one of her recent posts, she included a link to a video, Cardboard Testimonies.  The video has probably been online for a while. There have been over 2 million hits on You Tube.  When I went there just now to get the code to embed the video in this post, the count was 2,164,796 and 305,464 Views on Tangle (formerly God Tube).  That's a lot of views.

I've watched the video several times.  The other night, Emily and I sat on the couch and watched it together. We talked about some of the stories depicted in the video. Life stories condensed to a few words written in bold black letters on pieces of cardboard.  Side one...who I was.  Flip it over to side two...who I am now.  A new creation in Christ. 

I tear up every time I watch it. What a visual testimony of the difference God can make in our lives.  From spiritual rags to spiritual riches.  From emptiness to my cup runneth over.  From despair to joy.  From turmoil to peace.  From hopelessness to trust.  From fear to victory.  From bondage to freedom.  Watch the video.  It is well worth the investment of nine minutes of your time.  And check out some of the other Cardboard Testimony videos listed on You Tube.  On Altered there is a post about the testimony that took place at Jill's church last Sunday....video included.

So what do you think your sign would say? 

  

              

It Comes From a Different Place....

The following quote...which loosely ties in with the quote from yesterday...is from the Starcke interview.

Nowadays when I say to people that "my guidance" tells me something, they ask what I mean by that. I say it's like any other thought, but it comes from a different place inside of me.

The intuition is infallible, and learning to pay attention to it has changed my life.

I like this line...It's not a thought I think; it's a thought I hear. I've heard those thoughts too. The still, small voice?  Sometimes when I am fuming at someone...totally pissed....out of the blue, I am aware of at least some aspect of their point of view.  I've even said...aloud....to God, "I don't care.  I'm still mad!!!" 

I've got to be careful "listening" to the voice...because I have to discern whether it is the voice of God within...or the voices of my vain imaginations that seem to be a part of my genetic makeup.  I come from a long line of worriers, fretters and stewers.  I am the Princess of the Worst Case Scenario (my mom is the Queen) and the "what if" questions often flood my brain.  About my kids, about finances, about everyday situations, about global strife, the economy, the year 2012, my health. 

I have a routine medical test coming up.  Well, it should be routine.  I put it off until there were a few issues that prompted me to make arrangements right away.  I think, perhaps, in the past, I might have let my imagination get the better of me.  Strangely, I am not really freaking out or anything.  Dreading it yes...but not imagining every nuance of a worst case scenario outcome. 

A few years ago, I had a pap test that came back abnormal.  I had been having other problems for quite a while so my doctor ordered a D and C...under general anesthesia.  I fretted.  I was scared to death.  Keith reminded me of the verse that talks about casting down vain imaginations and taking every thought captive.  He gave it a different spin as in the vain imaginations just might be those "gloom, despair and agony on me" thoughts that were running rampant in my head.  He also sent me a really great prayer at work...via email. It helped a lot. 

The verse that talks about vain imaginations is 2 Corinthians 10:5.  Following are a few renderings from several different translations. 

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;  (KJV)

Putting an end to reasonings, and every high thing which is lifted up against the knowledge of God, and causing every thought to come under the authority of Christ; (BBE)

When we pull down, calculations, and every height that uplifteth itself against the knowledge of God, and when we bring into captivity every thought unto the obedience of the Christ, (Emph)

And with its characteristic "tell it like it is" translation style, The Message says the following...

We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. (MSG)

This post (surprise, surprise) kind of meandered off topic.  More on this tomorrow...

 

More on the Keating Interview....

The last post about the Keating interview (many moons ago) ended with the following sentence.

This means first having a self and then surrendering it, opening oneself to union with God, which is a gift.

I think this sentence is ripe with stuff to think about and ponder. Some of that pondering follows....

Having a self and then surrendering it....

In the reading I've done over the course of the last year or so, there is the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) implication that the ego...the self....is a bad thing. I don't necessarily see it that way unless, of course, it takes over and convinces you that it is all there is to you. You become lost in your thoughts...caught on the merry go round of egoic thinking. I recently read a quote from Willie Nelson...don't let your thoughts think you. Another way of saying, don't succumb to the ploys of the egoic mind. Annie recently posted a link to a short audio of Joel Goldsmith where he talked about our uniqueness. Joel Goldsmith refers to our individuality as "our individual expression of God's being. He says we never lose our individuality, our uniqueness.

But then there is mention about surrendering. Ahhhhh......the tricky part...surrendering our uniqueness to God. I found some really interesting quotes about surrender....

"At the back of it there lies the central citadel of obstinacy:I will not give up my right to myself--the thing God intends you to give up if ever you are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ."
-------- Oswald Chambers, in *My Utmost for His Highest*

To place ourselves in range of God's choicest gifts, we have to walk with God, work with God, lean on God, cling to God, come to have the sense and feel of God, refer all things to God.Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. Calvin Seminary
He knows what He is doing with me. I cannot always understand His way, but I am content in the realization that He knows what is best. That is surrender.~Daya Mata

And a rather long quote from the very prolific Preston Eby...from THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD Part 23 THE CLEANSING AND SANCTIFICATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD

Many are ready enough to give unto God an hour a week, or perchance an hour a day, a few spare dollars, and a sentimental kind of religionism, which consists of feelings and emotions and activities; but anything like a practical surrender of themselves to the leadership of the Spirit alone, to follow on to know HIM in His perfections, to know His voice and obey His will as He reveals it, yielding body and soul, all they have, and are, and will be, to the Lord alone, is put on one side as an extravagant idea, not to be entertained by soberminded people, who have to get on in the world. Oh, are you one of these? Are you a servant of religion and tradition, rather than the Lord? YOU ARE ROBBING GOD! "But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? IN TITHES AND OFFERINGS" (Mal. 3:8). You are withholding that which belongs to Him. You profess to be the Lord's; then how much of you is His? The priesthood is the tithe and offering of the people unto God. Having received the call to priesthood, do you not belong entirely to Him? Then how can you how dare you refuse Him THE WHOLE of that heart, that life which He has claimed as uniquely His? Let the words, "WHOLLY GIVEN UNTO THE LORD," be henceforward our motto, the stamp and superscription on all we have, and are, and let each day and each hour witness, by God's grace, a renewed, willing, and hearty surrender of ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, unto Him whose we are, and whom we desire to serve as HIS PRIESTHOOD upon the earth. God grant that we may yield it!

And about union with Him? Norman Grubb puts it this way:

"Jesus gave us the vine and branches illustration. Through this our eyes are opened to the secret of the universe: union the mystery of the universe: how two can be one and yet remain two. The living God, the living Christ, and I actually become one person and function as one person. Separation is impossible. It has disappeared. We function entirely and forever and naturally as one person. And yet we remain two!" (Norman Grubb, The Key to Everything. Fort Washington: Christian Literature Crusade. 1960. Pgs 24,25)

...then the Holy Spirit will bring the whole Christ-- Christ crucified and risen and living in glory-- into your heart. Andrew Murray

And about the gift part? Well, Romans 6:23 sums that up very succinctly....

the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord. (Emph)

And while cruising around looking for quotes about surrendering (amazing what google will cough up if one is willing to look for a bit) I found a whole series of writings on surrender written from a very calvinistic Universalist perspective. Check out the 2009 writings by Jan Antonoson on The Glory Road...all about surrender. The most intriguing title in the collection? Surrendering to God Is Like Giving a Cat a Pill.

Tomorrow I will finish up my comments on this interview with Keating...and interview that provided all kinds of fodder for my thoughts and ponderings....

More What Ifs?

I came across three articles that dealt with this”what would you do if?”" question.  In this post I am going to take a few quotes from each…and, of course, give you the links to read the articles in their entirety. 

The first article is entitled, What Would You Do If? By Joan Baez.  It is a question and answer session between Joan Baez and someone named Fred.  Fred comes up with all these increasingly unlikely scenarios which might incite her to violence.  The first question he asks….

Fred: OK. So you're a pacifist. What would you do if someone were, say, attacking your grandmother?

The next question kind of evolves from a series of questions into a what would you do if…in the following very unlikely to happen circumstances:

Joan: What would I do If I was in a truck with a friend driving very fast on a one-lane road approaching a dangerous impasse where a ten-month old girl is sitting in the middle of the road with a landslide on one side of her and a sheer drop-off on the other.

In the article she goes onto explain the very real havoc and damage and destruction that violence and war wreak in situations that are not hypothetical.

In Non violent Response To Assault , Gerard A. Vanderhaar discusses some very practical suggestions on how to prevent an attack..and how to react if one occurs.  He talks about four or five different circumstances, when, confronted by the possibility/probability of a violent encounter, would be victims do something very far out of the ordinary and stave off an attack.  The point being that criminals and violent perpetrators expect their victims to behave in a specific way.  When the victims do not oblige them and behave differently than they expect, it throws the perpetrator off balance. In several of the situations they simply walked away.

What Would You Do If Someone Attacked Your Family? by Greg Boyd kind of brings this all together for me.  Although he acknowledges that he doesn’t know for sure how he would react, he believes there is no getting around how a follower of Jesus SHOULD react.  Non violently. And he brings up a point I hadn’t really considered.  Duh. 

The situation is not necessarily as black and white as it seems.  We think the only choices are to react violently…or not but perhaps when we ponder these hypothetical situations, we are forgetting something.  Boyd hones in on that when he says:

Not only this, but this person’s day-by-day surrender to God would have cultivated a sensitivity to God’s Spirit that would enable him to discern God’s leading in the moment, something the “normal” kingdom-of-the-world person would be oblivious to. This Christ-like person might be divinely led to say something or do something that would disarm the attacker emotionally, spiritually, or even physically.

The peace that passes all understanding is not  doled out until it is needed, so too, perhaps, discernment on what to do in an attack is also not given until it is needed.  Why do we consider it so unlikely and farfetched that the spirit could and would tell us exactly how to disarm our attacker?  God knows the ins and outs of everyone’s heart.  He knows their fears, their weaknesses and their needs.  Boyd goes on to tell about a situation where a would be victim followed the leading of the spirit…..

For example, I heard of a case in which a godly woman was about to be sexually assaulted. Just as she was being pinned to the ground with a knife to her throat, she out of nowhere said to her attacker, “Your mother forgives you.” She had no conscious idea where the statement came from. What she didn’t know was that her attacker’s violent aggression toward women was rooted in a heinous thing he had done as a teenager to his now deceased mother. The statement shocked the man and quickly reduced him to a sobbing little boy.

The woman seized the opportunity to make an escape and call the police who quickly apprehended the man in the park where the attack took place. He was still there, sobbing. The man later credited the woman’s inspired statement with being instrumental in his eventual decision to turn his life over to Christ. The point is that, in any given situation, God may see possibilities for non-violent solutions we cannot see and a person who has learned to “live by the Spirit” is open to being led by God in these directions (Gal. 5:16, 18).

I have a few more posts I want to write on this topic, including another one (or two) about the American Patriots Bible.  Stay tuned.  If you are interested in reading more about active non violence…

There are two “courses” on peace…put on the internet by the San Antonio Peace Center.  One is an eight part course, the other a sixteen part course.  They both feature writings of well known and lesser known peace keepers.  Much food for thought. 

John Yoder was another prolific writer about peace. 

Preston Eby has an awe inspiring writing on non violence that I’ve posted here on this blog  in its entirety….

More tomorrow…

The Door...

I came upon a quote today...a snippet from a post...on a forum called Coexist.  It intrigued me.  It was about light and darkness.  

Two sealed rooms, separated by a wall with a closed door in the middle. One room is fully lit, one room is totally darkened, now open the door. What happens?

Keith has talked about this many times in our years together saying...loosely paraphrased....that you don't have to fight the darkness, you simply need to turn on the lights. 

It occurs to me that these rooms are in us...not just in the world at large...but in us.  The carnal and the christ.  The trick is opening the door to let light flood into the darkness....

 

Preston Eby talks about this is his  LOOKING FOR HIS APPEARING Series.....THE COMING OF THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 

Every man's life is his own castle of many rooms. By His indwelling Spirit, the candle of the Lord has been moving from one room to the next, silently, carrying the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. He has been challenging every activity, deed, act, word, and even every thought and intent of our lives. Now we come to the close, and just as we are ushering our heavenly investigator to the last room of the castle of our lives, as we are walking down the hall, He stops, looks down and says, "What is this?" We had devoutly hoped that He would not notice that trap door set so securely in the floor. Hardly anyone knew about it at all; and casually we toss it off. "Oh, that's just the basement, Lord. You really wouldn't want to go down there." "Oh," He answers, "but I would. In fact that's why I came - to go down there." So, over all your protestations His will wins out. You lift that creaking door, and as it opens, there is the odor of stinking flesh and hidden corruption and the sound of bats' wings, and a circular, narrow stairway leads down into the inky blackness below. With anxious heart, you follow Christ down those stairs, wondering what evils shall be brought into His light. As the shadows flee before that light which radiates from Him, you reach the floor of the basement with all of its darkened chambers and its unclean imagery. There is no place to hide, for the light that comes from Christ reveals all. Jesus has come, the Morning Star has appeared, the candle of the Lord has come to search the heart and reveal the very depth of the secrets, the suppressed attitudes, secret motives, hidden desires, concealed ambitions, all the darkness of the soul. Thank God! He does not uncover our iniquity to destroy us, but to save us and purify unto Himself a people to show forth His glory in the earth.

And from there He goes on to enlighten the world!!!!

 

The enlightening rays of the Sun of Righteousness will fill the earth, not only your earth and my earth, but that earth out there - until all the shadows and darkness and night have been chased away. This means that all doctrines of devils, all superstitions, all human creeds and dogmas, all human precepts by which men are taught to fear God rather than to love Him; all political intrigues, all humanistic education and institutions, as well as the thousand and one other evils which plague a dying world, are to be swept away, replaced by the glorious KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD AND HIS TRANSFORMING GRACE. With the glory of God filling the earth, there will come also the destruction of all the myriad citadels of sin and vice and crime. As that glorious Sun of Righteousness forces its healing rays into the various dens of iniquity, the hells of this world, the satanic darkness of these rendezvous of evil will give place to the glorious enlightenment of the NEW DAY.

There will not be a nook or corner in the earth where the light from that glorious Sun will not penetrate. The warmth of its healing rays will pervade the slums of our great cities and radiate into the institutions of suffering which we call hospitals. The prospect for the suffering peoples of earth is truly a marvelous one. It has been well said that the hopes of the world are as bright as the promises of God, and these are very bright indeed. And not only bright, but sure. How glad we are to know that the limited scope of God's Kingdom in the earth today is not the end of the matter! And how blessed we are with the knowledge that the Christ does not arise to destroy the earth, but to bless the people with peace, health, provision and life, and that through the powerful agencies of His Kingdom He will fulfill all the grand promises of sages and prophets, that all the families of the earth shall truly be blessed.

And more from Preston Eby.  The following excerpt is from THE KINGDOM OF GOD series....The Increase of the Kingdom 

“Truly we see that the Lord shall have an army of Light-bearers. Words cannot describe the acts and supernatural wonders that God will yet perform. It is your opportunity among that called remnant to stand among the number of this great army. Your life may have had many trials, testings, and hardships, you may be old and sickly, but if you believe that God has prepared you with all these exercises in order that you may stand in this hour, then nothing is impossible unto you. You have undergone a life training for such a time as this, so spend your time wisely now until that moment...”

About using time wisely...I am trying, yet sometimes the pressure of that flies in the face of the Power of Now way of thinking.  It simply encourages the "shoulda's."  You know, as the day is drawing to a close and a whole flock of things you "shoulda" done flood your head...and they bring along with them regret and guilt.  Perhaps, dwelling in the present moment (as Eckhart...and many others...teach), listening for the still, small voice to guide our actions and interactions is the only way to spend our time wisely.  Shrug. 

A Blessing Called Work Part 2

On Emerging Universalist, Dena posted about her experience at the recent House2House simple church conference she recently attended. In the post, she mentioned Michael Tummillo. The name sounded familiar so, curiosity piqued, I googled him. His website is called "Your Town 4 Jesus". A brief biography and 184 or so of his nearly 900 articles can be found on Ezine Articles. His ministry is described as a "workplace" ministry.

Pastor Michael is a licensed/ordained non-denominational minister and a certified Workplace Chaplain. He has served in ministry since 1993, always while working a secular job, according to the example of Jesus and Paul. Says Michael, "A person with problems at home still has those problems at work. We need to be there for them at the one place where they spend the majority of their time...the workplace."

One of the first things I came across was a link to an e-book he's written called 8 Things I Hate About Jesus. Interesting book, quick read. Reminded me a bit of Phillip Yancey's Book, The Jesus I Never Knew. One particular portion jumped out at me...

Consider this: there you are, a real-life Spirit-being, all decked out in your birthday suit…an earth suit actually, divinely crafted as to allow you to blend in. You don your "camo" just as any American soldier will at the start of every day. Thing is,your camo may be a nurse’s scrubs or a fancy Italian business suit. You might put on a hard hat or the uniform of a civil servant. Truth is, however we camouflage our-selves, wherever God may have assigned us, our mission is the same: share the Fatherhood of God to the brotherhood of man.

We are here to advance God’s Kingdom by embracing and sharing the Cause of Christ. Prayerfully, as we press on into enemy territory, we must seek out Divine Appointments, always keenly watching out for that “person of peace" with whom we can either share the mission or work together to share the Word, ever on the lookout for those weary souls to whom we can speak a word of encouragement in due season.

When you think of missionaries, I know what you think of: Those determined souls who drop everything and head into the bush to live in grass huts as they attempt to plant churches among the indigenous peoples.

Well, doesn’t that describe YOU, too? After all, as one in whom the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead has made His abode, you are, quite literally, the Second Coming of Christ every time you come on the scene, anywhere in the world. In the workplace, the homeplace or the schoolplace, the very people that we quite often see as an interruption, and imposition,and an inconvenience are actually our PURPOSE for getting up that day with a pulse.

Do you believe that? Certainly God didn’t have in mind for you to simply get a job – any ol’ job – so that you can pay a mortgage or buy new hub caps, y’think? That message won’t play in…let’s say, Pakistan, where Christians are free from the burden of buying stuff.

So, here’s your mission, if you choose to accept it: go and be salt and light to the world in which you participate. Love the next person that God places in front of you…at work, at school, in the dorm, even at home. You are to be Christ Jesus with skin on, as it were. Every one of us is a minister in a Kingdom of Priests and Kings.

Wow...More in my next post....

Neo-Calvinist / Fundamentalist / Evangelical Blogs

It's been a long time.  I feel almost a little...well, shy after being gone for close to a month?  What do I write about now anyway....since I've been gone so long??  And I've visited so many sites, thought so many thoughts.  The supply of things to comment on is virtually endless!!!  I took a trip through conservative, reformed blog land last night....following links from a great blog called The Chronicles of Indestructible Life  which is NOT reformed or conservative....and which everybody should visit.  In his blogroll, however, he has some conservative blog sites listed under the heading:

"Neo-Calvinist / Fundamentalist / Evangelical Blogs". 

He must save them there, clearly labeled so none of his readers ever wander there unawares, or perhaps, as a quick link to inspiration for his writings should he ever run out of great ideas of his own.  There is a virtual plethora of ideas and thoughts that make one's head spin.  So much to disagree with!!!  Many pages devoted to Penal Substitutionary Atonement, Spurgeon's writings, who is and is not a Christian, what is and is not truth, God's wrath, and even detailed instructions on a women's place in society (did you know that women really are not to argue with or moderate men on internet forums?  Yep, on a blog called Jackhammer (charming name) in the questions section, the following question is asked.  I'm not sure if this section consists of actual questions submitted by readers or if they are hypothetical questions made up by the group of pastors who write for the site.  Either way, the following question was posed:

Should a Man Ever Be Under the Authority of a Woman?

The answer is pretty much a "no-brainer" on a site like Jackhammer but he does include the following list which did come as a surprise to me living in the dawn of the 21'st century.

Women should hold no office in civil government.
Women should stop directing, bossing, superintending, administrating, or managing men in the workplace.
Women should cease leading churches.
Women should discontinue preaching to men.
Women should no longer challenge or moderate men in blogs and online forums.

Apparently, this ban is not just limited to women but also to effeminate men.  The author states this clearly when he says:

God didn’t intend for women to rule men or even effeminate men, men who act like women, to have authority over men.  This violates God’s intentions revealed in the Garden of Eden.

Wow...I wonder where the scripture is that instructs us on the place of effeminate men?  And who decides how effeminate is too feminine to rule other men?  My normally very conservative husband brought up a good point on this.  What about men who only have one testicle?  (which, I believe, in OT times disqualified a man from the priesthood) Is one testicle enough to qualify them as men fit to rule?  What if they have NO testicles due to injury or disease (testicular cancer comes to mind here)  What about impotent men? What actually qualifies one as a real man?  It can't be the Y chromosome since effeminate men are disqualified and they, undoubtedly, have the Y chromosome.  (Since I am guessing they believe that effeminate men are most certainly NOT BORN THAT WAY...but rather choose it as a lifestyle)  Oh please...this is just too much to consider the first day back to work after a four day Christmas vacation.  It is almost comical, don't you think? 

I should clarify, I suppose, that I am not a feminist.  I do not have an agenda or a chip on my shoulder about how society (men) has treated me and held me back and thwarted my dreams of leadership.  I am glad to be a women, I have no desire to be a leader and, at least in theory, I think that mutual submission in marriage is a great thing.  Just don't tell me I cannot challenge stone age opinions like the one expressed on this blog...

Gee...posting again was not all that difficult...once I found the right topic to loosen my tongue!!!!!