Truth and Beauty

Many of us would say on this most strange , but delightful of intersections
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ".
If that be so, then it is quite reasonable to conclude that we are made in the image of our Creator .( What do we do then with "terror" , you might well ask - I suggest that like good rationslists we leave it aside for a moment . We might find out more if we pursue one line now and WAIT till we get back to that subject too - waiting a beautifaul act in itself? )

Surely none of us can really fully describe Beauty !
A great series of images of these deeply hidden companions are in Isaiah 28:1 .;33:17 ;44:13 and 53:2 ..
I always think beauty is something mostly hidden . Pilate thought truth too was hidden, so what hope have we got ?
There are TIMES though, when our senses together say "its there" .
Sure our senses are unreliable, but God forbid we think our only refuge is in our own wisdom and words .
Moderns have great trouble admitting they have seen it or felt it or smelt it because its all supposed to be just maths: one plus one equals two and so on.
No this sort of conclusion is not right ; The sum is indeed greater than the sum of the parts.
The created order speaks strongly of beauty and we should share our appreciation of it - even if we don't understand it.
We don't all worship in ration churches do we ? Ones where the chorus is - "Oh though predictableness , oh though ordinariness, and our song shall ever be' We don't know we aren't sure "
It was that beautiful man of later history who said "I am the way, the truth and the life ".
others said about him and history ? how beautiful are the feet .........
and even later ....beyond our limits and failings ....there is ...Grace and Truth together (in one package ) John 1:17 .

Doing the impossible !

Remedies for distraught parents with bullied children, according to even our best psychologists last week, were given the name "impossible". The only answer which actually works is, I think ,the impossible one ; The one about "loving your enemies" . Jesus's words .
You don’t believe me? Remember Martin Luther King? It was he who reminded a whole generation of angry Americans,who were provoked to anger on a daily basis, that impossible love actually works. But to actually make it happen though, most of us need something a lot stronger than our own best intellectual and wilful efforts ; especially the bit about selling those amazingly impossible options to our children.
Have you tried it?

Fear Not

We hear those words and that great idea at Christmas time - if we are really listening- and not worrying. Those angels said it to the shepherds .....why worry .

"Its easy for shepherds " we might say -- we've got things to prepare, places to go, relatives to meet wow ( now that is a worry!)
Those shepherds had nothing better to do ??........More, they got some music too-Who wouldn't enjoy a song out there -
It seems they knew how to have fun ... waiting and sharing, becoming some of the few who heard and followed at the time.

Take time to remember -find something better to do in a quieter place ; sit under the stars and wait
If God is really in charge - as long as you listen to Him - you haven't got a worry in the world .
If you don't think God is really in charge - you have got a lot to worry about!

Understanding your emotions and how to deal with them

Serious words about serious words Matthew 5:21-22
Even if you are angry with someone, you are subject to judgement and if you call someone "an idiot" ....., curse someone you are in danger of the fires of hell..... Anyone who hates his brother , is a murderer ." ... ( Various translations)
The point is that destructive and deterministic words about people made in the image of God , deny them the possibility of all they can be as men made in the Image of God. Words , rather than anger itself, is focused on .

The common secular deterministic world view of the present time limits men to a restricted view of " anger being wrong " because that Wview presummes in its own logic that men are " not what they can be, but what their genes tell them to be" )Anger can lead to sin, but anger itself in the Jc tradition is not in itself a sin . more on dogood
Other followers have added a little more to remind newcomers to the faith ( the corinthians for eg ) that anger is not a sin but "be angry , but don't sin" .

Jesus was seldom pedestrian in his focus and seriuos talk - but seriuos you have to be, if we are truly to avoid living on the plain, afraid of danger and always acting like sheep .
adventure forth and live on the edge!

No media or wannabe winning performance-

But no more powerful or memorable day in history !!
The stations of the cross moved many of us, as it was preseneted on SBS on Friday . Why?
Jesus's words confused his disciples and his actions did little to stop the avalanche of effective anger by the powerful ---against him .
Have we ever seen such a person in our own lives; one whose words were more powerful than anything he did - someone who clearly threatened the powerful and turns them into pussycats ( incl Pilate ).
Like all accounts of some great event, each Gospel tells us something new that happened that day . Take the story of Simon the black man ? or the daughters of jerusalem . If you don't think these events are anything but an interseting piece of history read the Last chapters of matthew mark luke and john - do your own rational test!!!!!Something beyond raw power can and does .........change the world .

Why is God so often silent

It's a question we all ask . And many times we get an answer that, to us, is inadequate.
Sometimes when questioned, Jesus refused to answer ; The question from Herod was " out of order". By contrast, though, to a genuine question about " the truth "on the same day , Jesus was very clear. God responds, it seems , but not always as we would like it. Yes ! , ( Wait! ) leave it with me, and No ! ( you have asked before and/or I have told you before)

Pilate did not like the answer, but for 2 thousand years after his demise, there is plenty of evidence in freedom and function that His leadership really works .

Clearly and consistently , if we are to follow Him , we cannot be God and its wrong to expect and act like that we are entitled to know everything .
None of us like it, but according to what we do know about the God of the angel armies ( Isaiah 40. Job 38) , our knowledge is intended to remain limited and our faith indeed, is intended to grow instead .

Lost Souls and Blind guides

"Woe unto you, blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel"
One jon feine on ABC radio noted warmly on the number of lost souls in his conversation pieces last week. There was a bit of passion there and that alone was interesting; whether absent or present , pointed or plain hot air . If these interesting people were any guide , one of the key problems with religion is the churches themselves .ultimately though the broad nature of the church is a secondary problem easily latched onto by those whowant to knock any good cause . Throwing the passion out with the bathwater though on the dangers of passion , ought only to be the preserve only of those with a predjudice to quick fix .

First off , Its very clear that Jesus would agree with the lost sheep rounded up on that day .jesus said the above words to the church leaders of his day .

Hard to imagine jon feine as a shepherd but he did a good job of rounding up lost arguments too. If jesus words are not to be just taken lightly ( we agree with this but not with that ) the whole edifice which spong is trying to build falls over . Jesus words were even at the time off putting to the audience according to John (Chap12)
Those who follow him, despite their questions , like the psalm 23 says, find this mans words to be wonderfully and amazingly true ;
" I am the good shepherd ...."
Spong , (774 thurs )the man at that meeting who would grow his church his own way, has a real problem on his hands. The real leader of the invisible church ( they may belong to an institution , they may not) didn't give any of us any option about what He was on about .
There is no easy option to water down His words on either subject - let alone the subject of blindness and the narrow way .

"can a devil open the eyes of the blind" was the conversation piece
later
jesus said in response to losing the crowd
"walk in the light , lest darkness overtake you "