What’s Neat About the Bible

Imagine that for generation after generation we have a common reference work.  This work is noted particularly for its uncanny grasp of unadorned human nature as well as for man at his noblest and most inspired.  It has stories about how best to practically live out one’s life; it illustrates those values central to creativity and positive accomplishment–it shows us how to be happy while avoiding sabotage by desultory short-cuts leading to entrapment: it is a steady light shining upon freedom’s arduous path.

Add to this the fact that it is a work that invites analysis by all-comers.  It is open to endless iterations on the one hand, yet is uncompromising in its central message of forgiveness and redemption.  It is a resource always at hand for mid-course corrections and three-dimensional navigation. 

It can be confounding, but this leads to our appreciation that life is confounding and that unity is not possible without forgiveness and assent to a common bedrock of basic values that include the deceptively idealistic sounding concepts of justice, courage, truth, equality, humility....all facets of the disciplines of love central to making societies viable.

Since there is such a book, we must learn to revere it...not worship it.  For the living God is ever-present, not frozen and fixed in type.  

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Man That's Cool!

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. (The Republic (Plato) Book 7.)

What “enemy” or “false god” in your life would you like to have God topple? How will you take steps this week to cooperate? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 399).

My toughest challenge has been to grapple with the god of appearances. Starting particularly in my teenage years, I became obsessed with appearances. I wanted to be seen riding in a cool car, wearing cool clothes, having cool friends, possessing cool intelligence and education, worshiping a cool religion, behaving in a cool way, liking cool things, buying cool things, spending time in cool places, having cool friends. Don’t let the word “cool” fool you. This was way more than a callow youth preoccupation, but hounds me even today. This forms the primary challenge to personal integrity. I want to “appear right” even if it means self betrayal – even if it means a lie.

A particularly challenging area in this regard is what must be called “social graces”. That is, I can justify any untruth by telling myself that prevarication in word or deed is the price of social grace. Though I disagree with you about a matter to the extent that it reaches to the depth of my being, I can justify “polite” lying and deceit by telling myself I am doing this all for “your benefit.”  Never is it done out of selfish regard for my own safety or status. The essential betrayal in all this is in substituting long-term validation for short-term expediency. Short-term expediency is the heart and soul of “appearance worship” for long-term interests always align with truth.

The way out of this quagmire of deceit is wholeness and personal integrity. As we once yearned to be “cool” in appearances, we must yearn to be loyal to long-term interests which always include expressions of truth. To put it bluntly, we must confound the inherent insecurity of man: we must work to make truth-telling more “cool” than prevarication by identifying with the “coolest” of teams.  We must come to see the team of Socrates and Christ as more “cool” than the “gross” lovers of short-term interest. 

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Why the Disciplines of Love Are Not Idealistic

What "sea monsters" (pressures, temptations, opposing forces) seem to be chasing after you these days?...(Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 982).

I bristle when people say that to speak of love is idealistic.  This is a totally purblind position. Look at the family unit for starters. Take love away from any family unit and see how practically it operates. I tell you it will crumble in disarray. The same goes for society. In the midst of cruelty and alienation, creativity and innovation will not flourish.  The nation will not flower. It will fragment and decay. Dare we speak of economics as if it were the solution to every problem? Dare we neglect the fact that nurture imposes strict disciplines, demands, and requisites upon families and nations only some of which are economic?

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Assertive Poppycock

In your family, who tried to keep the peace? Mom or Dad? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 1572).

In fact, we must be both [appreciative and demanding]. Appreciative and demanding of ourselves and others. This is the only approach that allows us to fully exercise the disciplines of love which undergird all successful human relationships.  (Blog of 10/27/15).

There is a political correctness that says we must not be demanding, only assertive. This is poppycock. We must indeed be demanding of ourselves and others. The key to not being riled over receiving demands is an appreciation of legitimacy. Most bosses understand very well that demands do not only proceed from the top down in a hierarchy. A good boss recognizes that he will be receiving many demands from his employees – they will be looking for consistent, reliable support: this implies that there will be steady demands.  These requests for support (while yet demanding) must be simultaneously appreciative of the boss's role. That is, the demand is real and certain but draws upon assigned accountability. The employee may say to his boss “I am having difficulty with this project, do you have any ideas regarding aspects X,Y or Z?” Contrast this with “Boss you gave me an impossible project, just what do you want to do about X,Y or Z.” The first approach is a legitimate call for the boss’s support responsibilities, the second approach would have the boss entirely solve the problem himself.  This of course is illegitimate for it would have the employee usurp the role of the boss in the name of support while simultaneously abdicating employee responsibility. Micromanagement in any form is essentially usurpatious. 

Many things begin in the home and my view of the subject began there. My parents operated in spacious realms of mutual accountability... which in no way diminished the actual demands involved.

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A Break in the Storm

If you could save one day of your life in a bottle to live over and over what day would it be? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 328).

What is one to do with a question like this? How many days we cherish. How many spots of time define us. How our hearts yearn to revisit those spots of time. Could it be those vacation days with family? Could it be that day we were married? Could it be that distant day in the woods alone before nature’s altar? All those days cry out to be relived. I see a day on Iron Mountain when the children and I arrived during a storm. We huddled in the truck waiting for a break in the weather and then traversed Bok Tower Gardens and fed the squirrels and watched the goldfish in the dark waters. It was, alas, but a break in the storm.

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Ready for Takeoff

God’s Answer
“If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
(Jeremiah 12:5 NIV)

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Are you “on foot ... competing with horses”? Or are you “stumbling in safe country”? How do you prepare for tougher times? How can your group assist? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 1056).

If we find meaning and purpose in our lives; if we are forgiven and are able to forgive on a daily basis; if we strive to maintain and improve relationships; if we make hope an indelible part of our lives: then these deceptively quaint chords of sustenance will stun us with their forceful lift and carry us with their song.

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On Leukocytes and Angels

White blood cells (WBCs), also called leukocytes or leucocytes, are the cells of the immune system that are involved in protecting the body against both infectious disease and foreign invaders. All leukocytes are produced and derived from a multipotent cell in the bone marrow known as a hematopoietic stem cell. Leukocytes are found throughout the body, including the blood and lymphatic system.

Five different and diverse types of leukocytes exist. These types are distinguished by their physical and functional characteristics. Monocytes and neutrophils are phagocytic.

The number of leukocytes in the blood is often an indicator of disease, and thus the WBC count is an important subset of the complete blood count. The normal white cell count is usually between 4 and 11 × 109/L. In the US this is usually expressed as 4,000–11,000 white blood cells per microliter of blood. They make up approximately 1% of the total blood volume in a healthy adult. An increase in the number of leukocytes over the upper limits is called leukocytosis, and a decrease below the lower limit is called leukopenia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_blood_cell).

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The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 NIV).

Every generation finds analogies and metaphors in its cultural matrix to describe the functions of the life force filling our universe. The Bible is replete with the mention of the force of angels – sometimes avenging angels. An analogy that works for me in today’s world is to see avenging angels as leukocytes.  In the immune system wiring necessary for life, defense mechanisms have been established to guard against the fragility of life...and this seems to be an inherent requirement in the nature of things.  Surely our God creator will do what is necessary to have truth and vitality triumph, and this may well involve avenging forces of different and diverse types functioning in multidimensional realms.

Click to view Apocalypse Now - helicopter attack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BfALzr5l-Q

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