Jesus

Truth and Beauty

2011-10-26T18:05:00.000-07:00

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 !

2009-08-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

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 dont 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

2009-05-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-11-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

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-

2008-07-18T01:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

"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 "

Hate messages, Hell and peace itself

2007-06-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

....Anyone who says " you fool" will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Attack the disease , but never ever the person!!!!!!

in saying the above in Matt 5:22, Jesus was clearly no woose .Much much more than that, He targets the big problem and aims at the key issues in condemnation,sloppy thinking, fear and personhood . He is not ,like so many in our day , distracted by our natural tendency to justify ourselves - to react badly when someone criticizes us; to feel aggrieved and ready to bring such a person before the court.
We naturally tend to think our ideas are "our person" and fear drives us to react when threatened in this way. We all like to think we are whole creatures, when in reality we are not .How much do any of us really know about ourselves!! Our ideas come close to the real us , but as he says elsewhere iN the same passage , if your eye or your arm is a problem to you ( any part of you including your thinking) you must---- pluck it out ( deal with it ). He's not saying physically cut yourself in two, but mentally you MUST subject yourself to division --it means the difference between keeping you whole and being a mental error cot case!!!!.. Deal wth it -deal with sin properly discretely and with precision.Then and only then can you get on with life ! Target the problem area. Just as any good physician would do.

The great physician demonstrated how exactly to criticize others and deal with SIN (Its the real meat issue )and hate - including self hatred ( implied and projected here!) .

Attack the false idea and the disease , but never, ever the person!!!!!!
YOu heard it first from HIM!
Absolutely everyone here is made in the image of God and deserves the respect given to him/her by his/her Creator ( even if they don't know He exists and is a rewarder of them that seek Him )
Have a blessed day, Pray !

The preaching of righteousness

2007-02-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

The focus of really good "righteousness" preaching ( thats to annoyall of us) , is not on the mess, but on the way out of the mess. But we have to accept we have a problem BEFORE we will find a solution to it . Therein is the resistance
When we try to do it to make oursleves feel better by preaching righteousness at others , it should remind us we do indeed , need a way out

Takes a lot of courage, arrogance or great focus to preach about need to face up to things .
Jesus's friend John did it a lot.
How about us . Should we just shut up, lestsomeone say - "you hypocrite " . Such fear stops a lot of us - should it?
Studying and filing notes on someone elses sins , by contrast , is not something we've stopped doing .
"Let he who knows no sin cast the first stone " . Storing up stones is a waste of time yet we do it .
Being preoccupied with what others do wrong is a waste of time . Strange

So what is it that we lack that we pick on others ? Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. We are worried and lost - haven't we got something better to do? we need a way out of the mire of shortpoppy syndrome training.
The best clues to understand where Jesus was coming from on this hard edged reality of every day life ---- see the way out HERE !
- his ordination::::"good tidings of great joy" ( the shepherds heard)
- the good words and the joy were, not for a select few but , " for everyone":
- Jesus was the ultimate in being proactive on this subject ; focusing on the solution,not the problem . His focus was clearly on providing an answer to a real human dilemma directly related to the subject of ideals and how we should live happily with them .wow!
- the pharisees and saducess specialized in the preaching of righteousness ,BUT Jesus called them " blind guides"
- There have been great, quiet and very liberating revolutions in the West over the restoration of the proper place of this subject by persons like Luther, Wesley and many many others .

- Jesus was aware that you couldn't solve a problem until you became aware of one .
Most people in the west, it seems, are unaware of the problem ,and therefore , do not know that His words can really help them with a dilemma that affects most of us deeply- maybe you and me this dinnertime!!!

Jesus view on what to fear

2006-10-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

You can't argue with experience or fear. When powerful leaders and public enemies become friends. the press were onto it. Luke 23;12
Jesus recognised fear and addressed it- in all sorts of ways
He recognised even in the most powerful men of his day-their fears. He addressed them, Both Herod and Pilate, differently .
Either way they were afraid of Him, but didn't want to admit it?.
Did they need to fear the man whose followers can be expected to preach against revenge and for forgiveness.For love not Hate What are people afraid of ?The civilizations that bear His name .

Jesus view of exercising personal political Power

2006-09-24T00:31:00.000-07:00

Christians are currently being encouraged by outsiders to " stay out of politics". There is a concern that Christians somehow will use that strange power of preaching and belief to encourage their followers to do things so called more "rational" people don't often do. After all, Jesus and his followers have not always played passive roles in war . How would Jesus have tackled this concern?
We don't know exactly , but once, when his disciples did get a taste of political power , he told them to forget it and take the mind of a servant. (Luke 9 ) And strangely, whenever that " reverse what you feel is important" attitude on leadership has been part of our culture over the last 2 thousand years, those who give away their power have often proved themselves more powerful than those who take power and influence unto themselves.

For Jesus , fear of the powerful was always a false fear ( consider what he said to the political leaders of his day) ; For his followers too , always a problem of misplaced belief -thinking too small ; worrying too much about the wrong things, and the wrong people.

How much power do you think we men have anyway ?( a lot less than we think!)