My blog yesterday detailed the means by which I have come to host three new male zebra finches in my study at home. They are called the Trinity and bear a likeness to the following:
Since it is well into the night, they are currently at rest beneath a shroud in my study:
I praise God for all his creatures great and small.
Print Page
What was the turning point for you in terms of hearing "God's voice" and responding? How do you discern his voice from all the voices that vie for your attention? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1507).
Sometimes I sense the urge to do what might be called humanitarian things. In these times it is difficult for me to say that these clearly are promptings from God. The reason is because these are generally recognized "good things" to do. I put them in the same category more or less as when I sense promptings from God to eat ice cream. It may be promptings from God or it may be just a yearning to do or feel good.
Just the other day I awoke from a night's sleep totally persuaded that God had visited me during the night and told me specifically what I was to do. Despite the fact that the idea regarding the required action had never entered my head in any way before that time, and coupled with the sense of betrayal I had when I tried to negotiate out of the directive, all together made it clear to me that this was a weighty directive that amounted to a test as to whether or not I would hear and obey the Lord's command. I cannot tell you the exact way I heard the voice of God – whether it was in a dream, a vision, or a auditory summons. This is the thundering command I heard: "You are to secure a cage and a bird – very specifically a finch – and do so at once." As I say, this idea had never even remotely occurred to me. I immediately thought of a dozen reasons why I did not want a pet of any kind – much less a finch which I had to look up on Google to see exactly what it looks like. As I mentioned, I initially tried to negotiate out of this and played with the idea that this was not really a directive, but was a test of discernment as to whether or not I could filter out foolish ideas. The answer was immediate and firm--this was nonnegotiable and I would have to deal with cavils--such as inconvenience or of problems arising from security motion detectors--as however I might. Accordingly, I immediately went on Amazon and ordered a finch cage, a swinging wall hook, and an "S" hook. These items are to arrive tomorrow, at which point I will duly purchase a finch (or two). I have never in my life had a finch--but then commands of God are often weird--build an ark, speak to a rock, or sacrifice your son.
Print Page
Who has been the toughest person for you to explain your faith to? Why? What have you found to be helpful in dealing with people who ridicule your faith? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1506).
Even very young children can readily point out the "good guy" and "bad guy" in a story. The villain is booed, the good guy is cheered on to victory. Somehow in maturation natural good sense is swapped for contrived worldly wisdom--a wisdom that explains away evil and makes it desirable, even something to take pride in. Exactly how and why this devolution occurs is largely unknown and continues to be a challenge for the progress of civilizations. Please review the bullet list below. If you do not "get it" that these present a major threat to personal and societal health, then there is little chance that you will "get it" regarding the tenacity of Christianity to persist over the centuries as a source of strength and comfort for those seeking to live holy lives--lives, if you will, that refract a childhood enthusiasm for the good. A synopsis of holy living is contained in the fruit of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
In a bullet list the seven deadly sins are (expansions from Wikipedia):
- Wrath (anger)
- Greed (inordinately high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power)
- Sloth (spiritual or emotional apathy, carelessness in obligations; a wasting)
- Pride (negative meaning--an inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments, hubris)
- Lust (an emotion or feeling of intense desire in the body--such as the lust for knowledge, the lust for sex or the lust for power)
- Envy (an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it)
- Gluttony (over-indulging especially when that deprives the needy)
The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a classification of vices (part of Christian ethics) that has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct Christians concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin. In the currently recognized version, the sins are usually given as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Each is a form of Idolatry-of-Self wherein the subjective reigns over the objective. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins).
Print Page
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 NIV).
The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. (Isaiah 9:2 NLT).
We can speculate on a graphic representation of the "light of life" that Jesus provides. Is it a soft, gentle, essentially static light? Or does the light radiate with the amorphous dynamism of irrepressible energy exploding from would-be material entrapment. Yesterday my blog was "The Domestication of Christ." The conclusion drawn in the blog is that Jesus is never tamable, never amenable to our desires to safely domesticate him turning him eventually into a stuffed, button-eyed Teddy Bear. He is dynamically alive and beyond the reach of our meticulous ideological fences, intellectual fabrications, and saccharin sentimentality. He is fully aware of how we can dilute his most straightforward communications--even those readily comprehensible in their simplicity. The truth of the matter is that humanity can corrupt any concept with our relentless drive for the false security and fiction of "rectitude" rather than honoring dynamic matrices underlying the reliable realism of tone.
Deep down I have an urge to tame Christ, to make him in my own image, to thoroughly domesticate him to the ways of Wayne's world.
If some Sunday morning he should walk in upon our Sunday school class, I would like to think I would be all awe and worship; but I have serious doubts about that. You see, I have carefully tamed and domesticated Christ to conform to my point of view regarding all matters. I have him in the pocket of all my prejudices regarding popular and controversial issues. I nonchalantly assume in all practical matters there is no daylight between us. But hold on a minute, suppose one day he actually did enter our class, go to the front of the room and begin speaking--eying me specifically. What would I really be feeling in my gut? Realistically the answer is crystal clear--my stomach would be churning in anxiety over fear that he would do what he managed to do some 2,000 years ago to the assumptive presumptuous--show all my spanking, sparkling pride is nothing but a pile of hypocritical dirty rags.
Frank Johnson and his wife Patricia have been good friends of mine since 1962 when we met as single freshmen at the University of South Florida. Today Frank re-sent an email he first sent in April of 2006. As typical of Frank, he is frank and concise. He gave me permission to share this with you.
Sent: 05/03/14; originally sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 12:45 PM
Subject: Why did He die?
Friends and Family,
As we approach Holy and Good Friday, the annual commemoration of the crucifixion of Christ, we might well ask the question: "Why did He die?" Just what did Jesus do to be subjected to the horror and humiliation of death on the Cross?
As I reflect on the portrait of Jesus as presented in the Four Gospels and throughout the rest of the New Testament, I am led to the following very general conclusion--Jesus died because at some time or another in some way or another, He antagonized almost everyone:
Liberals of His day thought Jesus was too conservative, while conservatives thought He was too liberal.
Traditionalists thought He was too modern, while progressives thought He was too traditional.
Activists thought Jesus was too quiet, while quietists thought He was too active.
The orthodox of His day found Jesus to be unorthodox, while the heterodox found Him to be too orthodox.
Jesus was an "equal opportunity" antagonist. He did not discriminate. He irritated just about everyone in some way or another at some time or another. Though He loved all, He made enemies of many. A lot of people just could not understand Jesus--they did not want to understand Him really--for He threatened their petty pre-conceived notions about religion, politics, and life in general. He did not fit anybody's mold. Jesus was "his own man." He was God's man. He was and is the God-Man who rises above and stands above all of our ideas about religion, politics, and life--Jesus stands in judgment of it all--liberal, conservative, whatever. So the gossip-mongers did what they do best--they began to "crucify Him" first with their lips and with their tongues.
Jesus' mission was and is to "upset the applecart"--to irritate us, to annoy us, to antagonize us, to wake us up to the presence--and to the coming--of the Kingdom of God. And I do mean "us"--you and me. If you and I do not find some aspect of our lives challenged by Christ, that might be because we have re-created Christ and made Him into our own image and likeness. If Christ does not challenge us, perhaps it is because we have remolded Him and reduced Him to a mirror image of ourselves to make Him safer and less threatening--perhaps we have allowed ourselves to "be conformed to this world" instead of "being transformed by the renewal of our minds" (Romans 12:2) so that we may have in ourselves "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:16).
Why did Jesus die? Because people 2000 years ago were no different from us. They tried to "pigeonhole" Christ. They tried to make Him fit their concepts and expectations. But Jesus just did not fit. They could not understand Him. They could not put a "handle" on Him, so they put nails through "His holy, pure, and blameless hands." They crucified Him. And we still do today.
That's my theory about "why did Jesus die."
In Him,
Frank Johnson
(05/03/14) P.S. - The question is not "Is Jesus on our side?"--but rather "Are we at His side?"--His spear-wounded side--the side from which flow the sacramental blood/wine and water of our salvation--and the salvation of the whole world. So it is that one trying to follow Christ might take a so-called "conservative" stance on the issues of abortion, natural marriage & the family, and then might adopt a so-called more "liberal" position on the issues of capital punishment, environment and immigration, all this because the humane priorities of the Kingdom of God are not necessarily the priorities of the politics and the politicians of this world.
P.P.S. - And as Pope Francis points out in this short video, "the Passion of Jesus was not a mistake" - http://www.romereports.com/pg156460-pope-the-passion-of-jesus-was-not-a-mistake-en
Print Page
John 8:43-45
New International Version (NIV)
Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!
What does Jesus' association between the devil and telling lies mean to you?... (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1504).
The life and death of Jesus have a multiplicity of instructions for us. An essential lesson regards what happens to human beings when clothing themselves within a habit of contrived dishonesty. The initial effect and averred intent is outward--we wish to deceive others by our dishonest displays. However, the zinger occurs when our own perception in strict accord with relentless cosmic justice becomes clouded and skewed by our own dishonesty. Our initial intent was to fool others, but the ultimate effect is that we fool ourselves and become deaf to truth from external sources. This tendency towards self-destruction greatly pleases the father of lies. Thus the Bible gives us a powerful cautionary tale. We had best not congratulate ourselves overmuch when we dishonestly spin a lie and thereby gain a temporary advantage, for surely awaiting us on the rebound is our own self-intoxication and destruction.
Print Page
What has knowing the truth set you free to do? How can you be sure that there is room in your life for his Word? What needs to be cleaned out so there is more room? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1504).
Knowing the truth entails experiencing the truth. That is, the saboteurs that once nailed you down to inaction are themselves under control or, more correctly, no longer in effect. For example, the times when you once felt it was the Lord's will for you to do a certain thing, the Judge saboteur would quickly flagellate you with self-condemnation, doubt, and abuse so that you could not even begin to successfully tackle the Lord's will for your life. Your only option, it would have you believe, was inaction rather than action thereafter leaving you to languish in quiet despair. After cultivating experiential truth, the severe and unholy impediment of self-condemnation no longer exists. Thus, one is at last truly free to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. This desirable position – desirable for both you and the Lord – can only occur with regular meditation and delving into the Word. Neurological pathways coincident with spiritual leadings must be established. As anything worthwhile, this involves a disciplined process. This implies that one's calendar will intentionally include--will make room rather than merely leave room--for daily devotions. Such neurological exercises with spiritual implications must be seen for what they are – essential and necessary.
Print Page
