I haven't blogged here in quite a while. I was just thinking that I want to start blogging again and wondering what I want to call my blog. Then, I thought, why not come back to my Deity Over Dignity blog.
My therapist says that to write originally, rather than just copying other people's work, is to carve out a self. It is very scarey work, I must admit.
Responding to what I read is the easiest way to do this, it seems. I have committed to start every day for the next month with the first chapter of Luke and the beginning of John. So, some of this is copying, but then I'll include what I think about the text.
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us,
I like Luke's word, "compile". It sounds like just piling one thing on top of another, until the stories at the bottom start to turn into rock. Luke sounds thankful that he was gifted by God with the time to go around and about listening to these stories and taking them down. Somebody needed to and Luke is glad that God chose him.
just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,
Luke got to take oral histories from people that God counted so important as to make them eyewitnesses of His Son's coming
it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
Then, as now, a lot of rumors were going around. Luke felt it necessary for somebody in the know to set the record straight. As one who was traveling with Paul, Luke would have been a trusted name.
Screech, now let's go back to the very beginning.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word, is just the common word for written words, but it meant so much more to both Jews and Greeks. It still haunts me that we read the word, memorize the word, and yet The Word is a name for Christ. I wonder how much power the written word of God really has when memorized and really dwelt on. It kinda blows my mind.
oops, gotta go. I'll come back to this
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Some notes after an exciting class
Maybe you already appreciate this, but what I really have been hearing when I see scriptures about God separating the Jews as a people unto Himself . . . other than the obvious jealous, holy God. Other than the obvious, I think sometimes about the Hebrew language that we are reading the Old Testament in. I wonder if part of God's molding the Jews as a people was his desire to mold the language that He would make Himself known in. Was it Orwell's book "1984" in which we/i are/was taught that without language for some concepts, we lack the ability to think of those concepts? How careful, therefore, was God as He crafted the language in which He would progressively reveal Himself over hundreds of years. I keep thinking this as I remember that Hebrew, tell me if I'm wrong, combines the words faith and faithfulness. To me this says that, to God, the best faith is not some huge feeling that I can have that totally believes that He is going to come through for me . . . no, no, no . . . the faith that He wants from me is faithfulness. Good, because I can really major on big feelings. But, all the big feelings that I can produce turn out to be mostly hot air and worth little or nothing at all. My dad is like God. He comes through, day after day, rain or shine. He is faithfulness incarnate.
I come from a family of language lovers. I wrote an unsuccessful governor's scholarship application long, long, long ago about how our language both leads us and follows us. Those who want, for instance, more pornographic speech in the media make the argument that they are simply following the language of the people. That's a circular argument, though. The more rich, deep and wide vocabulary that is used by the media's characters of the day, the more society will follow those characters, seeking to be more literate and well spoken. The more that our characters replace every other word with a cuss-word, the more we will lose our ability to think of anything besides what those cuss words describe, immorality. If you follow the language, the language will follow you in a never-ending spiral. Therefore, someone, at some point, needs to set a determined course. What would B. F. Skinner call them? I forget.
I believe that a lot of our future will be written in fiction. Short stories and fairly short novels. Who will be the Grace Livingston Hills of our generation? Have you ever read what that woman wrote? She calls us back to a civility and sobriety and godly character that I have never seen or known. Reading her books is like taking a shower. . . . It's like The DaVinci Code threw down the gauntlet. We have to write better fiction that glorifies His name. Better fiction, I say, because the children of today only argue with facts. They don't believe in facts. They believe that for every set of facts, there are more facts that are just as reliable that say the opposite thing. They've seen too many facts disputed. Therefore, they don't trust facts. They trust good fiction. They don't know that they do it, and would deny it if convicted. They don't want to trust anything, but they find that they have to trust something. So, they trust good fiction for lack of anything else to trust. At least some kids are like this. This is what I see in my family, my nieces and nephews and brother and sister. And I can say little or nothing. I seem condemned to simply watch and pray. Listen to me. I have the power of Almighty God . . . well, I wouldn't say it was mine to command, but He says You have not because you ask not, or ask with wrong motives. I have a relationship with God in prayer. How could I ask for more?
Again and again tonight, the teacher kept marveling at the lack of leadership that Jacob exercised in situation after situation. I suspect part of this was brought on by the presence of too many women in his household. I don't think that God made any man up to the task of being a husband to 4 wives. I think that a man's leadership in the home needs to be tended and nurtured by a good wife. She is prompted by nature to help him be all that the Lord has made him to be when she sees how much she needs him for. But, in a house with 4 women fighting for dominance, who would bother to think of Jacob's place in the pecking order?
In the Baptist church, it seems that we honor men for what they become. Then, once we have already seen something in them, then we make them deacons and pray for them and cultivate leadership in them. I don't know if I saw what I thought I saw in the Church of Christ when I was going there for a while, but it seemed like they had more of a practice of grabbing their younger men, before the world had a chance to get its hooks in them. After youth programs, when they are just at that point when our youth start wondering off, at that point, the church of Christ started putting them up in front of the whole congregation to lead in prayer and lead in singing and lead out in things. Well, we are not the Church of Christ. But, do you think that, after they graduate high school that we could maybe start teaching our post-youth leadership classes, very different sorts of leadership for men and women. For men, clear-cut leadership classes how to become the best at whatever God has created them to be. For women, submission/leadership, what Beth Moore describes as the godly discipline of influence, something so powerful that it must be used with care. I don't know about the women. The women's ministry understands a lot better what the girls need to be taught than I do.
I come from a family of language lovers. I wrote an unsuccessful governor's scholarship application long, long, long ago about how our language both leads us and follows us. Those who want, for instance, more pornographic speech in the media make the argument that they are simply following the language of the people. That's a circular argument, though. The more rich, deep and wide vocabulary that is used by the media's characters of the day, the more society will follow those characters, seeking to be more literate and well spoken. The more that our characters replace every other word with a cuss-word, the more we will lose our ability to think of anything besides what those cuss words describe, immorality. If you follow the language, the language will follow you in a never-ending spiral. Therefore, someone, at some point, needs to set a determined course. What would B. F. Skinner call them? I forget.
I believe that a lot of our future will be written in fiction. Short stories and fairly short novels. Who will be the Grace Livingston Hills of our generation? Have you ever read what that woman wrote? She calls us back to a civility and sobriety and godly character that I have never seen or known. Reading her books is like taking a shower. . . . It's like The DaVinci Code threw down the gauntlet. We have to write better fiction that glorifies His name. Better fiction, I say, because the children of today only argue with facts. They don't believe in facts. They believe that for every set of facts, there are more facts that are just as reliable that say the opposite thing. They've seen too many facts disputed. Therefore, they don't trust facts. They trust good fiction. They don't know that they do it, and would deny it if convicted. They don't want to trust anything, but they find that they have to trust something. So, they trust good fiction for lack of anything else to trust. At least some kids are like this. This is what I see in my family, my nieces and nephews and brother and sister. And I can say little or nothing. I seem condemned to simply watch and pray. Listen to me. I have the power of Almighty God . . . well, I wouldn't say it was mine to command, but He says You have not because you ask not, or ask with wrong motives. I have a relationship with God in prayer. How could I ask for more?
Again and again tonight, the teacher kept marveling at the lack of leadership that Jacob exercised in situation after situation. I suspect part of this was brought on by the presence of too many women in his household. I don't think that God made any man up to the task of being a husband to 4 wives. I think that a man's leadership in the home needs to be tended and nurtured by a good wife. She is prompted by nature to help him be all that the Lord has made him to be when she sees how much she needs him for. But, in a house with 4 women fighting for dominance, who would bother to think of Jacob's place in the pecking order?
In the Baptist church, it seems that we honor men for what they become. Then, once we have already seen something in them, then we make them deacons and pray for them and cultivate leadership in them. I don't know if I saw what I thought I saw in the Church of Christ when I was going there for a while, but it seemed like they had more of a practice of grabbing their younger men, before the world had a chance to get its hooks in them. After youth programs, when they are just at that point when our youth start wondering off, at that point, the church of Christ started putting them up in front of the whole congregation to lead in prayer and lead in singing and lead out in things. Well, we are not the Church of Christ. But, do you think that, after they graduate high school that we could maybe start teaching our post-youth leadership classes, very different sorts of leadership for men and women. For men, clear-cut leadership classes how to become the best at whatever God has created them to be. For women, submission/leadership, what Beth Moore describes as the godly discipline of influence, something so powerful that it must be used with care. I don't know about the women. The women's ministry understands a lot better what the girls need to be taught than I do.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Intolerance . . . is it really a bad thing?
This is a reply I wrote to Northern Tribe's post that I liked so much I decided to post it here. I'm not sure it makes sense, but I really enjoyed writing it. Sometimes I work out what I think as I write. So . . . be patient as you read.
I appreciate attempts to defend Christianity, as I am a wholehearted Christian. But your logic just doesn’t work for me.
Sometimes individual Christians are backwards, intolerant, unenlightened and generally ignorant about the faith they profess to hold. When that is the case, people everywhere need to not condemn Christianity but to adopt sort of a “suffer the little children” attitude (even though they are not truly little children, they perhaps haven’t had some of the same advantages some of us have). That’s a matter of individual Christians, though
When it comes to Christianity as a whole being an intolerant religion, well, then the question really comes down to whether Christ is tolerant. Two questions even. Is Christ tolerant, and what is tolerance? We’ve culturally made tolerance a synonym for kindness almost. Christ is kind certainly, and loving. But love and kindness are not tolerance.
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that ‘God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth.” But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Christianity lives to proclaim the Word of God. That Word says that some men “walk in darkness” and some “walk in the light.” Light and dark are intolerant of each other. “And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore . . . on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” Yet, to continue the metaphor, if, in reaching out to the darkness, the light were to become dimmer and dimmer and dimmer, more and more gray in an attempt to appeal to darkness, then . . . it would lose its appeal. We are called to be salt and light. “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
Your argument seems to be that Christianity is an excellent religion and therefore cannot be an intolerant religion, that it is tolerant of every kind of sinner and Pharisee and therefore cannot be an intolerant religion.
My argument is this. Every religion that makes a bit of sense is intolerant, that’s why there are so many wars fought in the name of religion. Religions are BY THEIR VERY NATURE intolerant of other religions, otherwise they don’t make any sense. If your God is the VERY GOD OF VERY GODS, then admitting that any other religion could possibly be true and right and valid, any other religion who claims that THEIR GOD is THE VERY GOD OF VERY GODS, well tolerance of another religion is just another word for unbelief in your own religion. That’s partly why tolerance is our cardinal virtue these days, because we children of fighting parents value lack of conflict so much and belief in anything so little. As a result, we have a generation without God searching everywhere but the church for something spiritual.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Nosey workers compromise candidates passport data, . . so what?
I turned on my computer today to learn that the top story in the nation was that the candidates passport data had been compromised. I thought about what is on my passport. Hmmm. Not much that I don't tell people all the time. Okay, if it was my passport, I wouldn't care if anybody looked at it, just so long as they didn't print out the info and sell it to somebody who would steal my identity.
I thought that maybe there was actually more in this record that was looked at than I was aware of, but yahoo's article said . . . or maybe it was the AP's (I didn't look) said specifically,
It was not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age, Social Security number and place of birth, which is required when someone fills out a passport application. The file also includes date and place of birth and address at time of application. Agency officials said the files generally would not list countries the person has traveled to.
THIS is NEWS??? Who cares that somebody snooped around and discovered things they could have probably found out easily by just going to the candidates home page.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Pilgrimage
PILGRIMAGE
I shout to You, Lord Steadfast!
Don't turn off your audio feed.
God, if I don't hear from You
I might as well die. What's the use?!?
Are you listening as I cry out for help
Do you have compassion today?
I cuddle up to your sanctuary
I grasp your light pole and won't let go.
Lord, don't settle me with the filthy?
with those who consult spirits
who dress nicely and speak sweetly
but whose inner springs are bitter
God, who am I to say repay them
My own history is filled with verbal violence
God, please teach us not to sin.
Please forgive them for their deeds.
Oh, God, heal our evil, broken land
God, for Your Son's sake, repay only those who cannot be broken
Dear God, let us all be taught as we see them punished
God, I plead for my nation
Give us a regard for Your word yet, Lord
Lord, we revere the supernatural
Teach us to praise Your name with joy and gladness
Teach us to worship You in Spirit and Truth
Lord, we are nothing
You are everything
We are a blip on the pages of history.
We have exalted our country
Forgive us for our pride
Our country is good
Use us as You will
Mold us and make us after your plan
Let us not be prideful as a country or as a people
Let us not confuse Christianity with Americanism
America was founded by pilgrims and strangers
pilgrims are ones on a pilgrimage
Lord, we have settled down and become fat and sassy
Lord, teach us to be pilgrims once again. Amen
I shout to You, Lord Steadfast!
Don't turn off your audio feed.
God, if I don't hear from You
I might as well die. What's the use?!?
Are you listening as I cry out for help
Do you have compassion today?
I cuddle up to your sanctuary
I grasp your light pole and won't let go.
Lord, don't settle me with the filthy?
with those who consult spirits
who dress nicely and speak sweetly
but whose inner springs are bitter
God, who am I to say repay them
My own history is filled with verbal violence
God, please teach us not to sin.
Please forgive them for their deeds.
Oh, God, heal our evil, broken land
God, for Your Son's sake, repay only those who cannot be broken
Dear God, let us all be taught as we see them punished
God, I plead for my nation
Give us a regard for Your word yet, Lord
Lord, we revere the supernatural
Teach us to praise Your name with joy and gladness
Teach us to worship You in Spirit and Truth
Lord, we are nothing
You are everything
We are a blip on the pages of history.
We have exalted our country
Forgive us for our pride
Our country is good
Use us as You will
Mold us and make us after your plan
Let us not be prideful as a country or as a people
Let us not confuse Christianity with Americanism
America was founded by pilgrims and strangers
pilgrims are ones on a pilgrimage
Lord, we have settled down and become fat and sassy
Lord, teach us to be pilgrims once again. Amen
Friday, September 14, 2007
Cussing
I was just looking through some scriptures on holiness for something that I was thinking about writing when, what do ya know, something jumped out at me. Well, as anyone who reads this blog much knows, I exaggerate a little. Okay, exaggerating is something of a way of life for me. Things are rarely just what they are. That would just be so Boring. They always have to be like something else.
But, anyway.
What jumped out at me were three killer verses on cussing. So, what's the big deal about that, you say? I know people who claim that there's no prohibition in the Bible against cussing. Well, I don't have a terrible foul mouth anymore. Age helps, that and looking like a Sunday School teacher all the time. Here are some thoughts, though.
"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." Matt. 12:33 It's not really a good witness, #1. And, #2, this verse seems to indicate that maybe it's evidence of a heart problem. I mean meaningless expletives wouldn't be a problem, but expletives that degrade the body, God's temple, seem destructive.
"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45 No explanation required.
"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." John 15:19 Everytime I open my mouth, I'm giving the world a reason to hate me or love me. Jesus tells me to be ye therefore perfect or holy or mature, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, or holy, or mature. However you interpret Matt. 5:48, I just don't know. When I combine it with John 15:19 and all these others, the maturity or holiness or whatever just doesn't seem consistent with a potty-mouth. Would the Pharisees have been quite as threatened if Jesus had been out preaching on the hillside using filthy, adolescent language?
But, anyway.
What jumped out at me were three killer verses on cussing. So, what's the big deal about that, you say? I know people who claim that there's no prohibition in the Bible against cussing. Well, I don't have a terrible foul mouth anymore. Age helps, that and looking like a Sunday School teacher all the time. Here are some thoughts, though.
"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." Matt. 12:33 It's not really a good witness, #1. And, #2, this verse seems to indicate that maybe it's evidence of a heart problem. I mean meaningless expletives wouldn't be a problem, but expletives that degrade the body, God's temple, seem destructive.
"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45 No explanation required.
"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." John 15:19 Everytime I open my mouth, I'm giving the world a reason to hate me or love me. Jesus tells me to be ye therefore perfect or holy or mature, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, or holy, or mature. However you interpret Matt. 5:48, I just don't know. When I combine it with John 15:19 and all these others, the maturity or holiness or whatever just doesn't seem consistent with a potty-mouth. Would the Pharisees have been quite as threatened if Jesus had been out preaching on the hillside using filthy, adolescent language?
possibility of homosexual change
The American Psychiatric Association's website says that "[T]here is no published scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of 'reparative therapy' as a treatment to change one's sexual orientation. The potential risks of 'reparative therapy' are great, including depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior." Currently, I'm in therapy. A lot of the course of my therapy has involved depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior. Therapy is hard. Depression and anxiety are like the grinding of the therapy gears. Occasional self destructive behavior is like the sparks that hard working gears throw off. What I'm trying to say is that most if not all very involved therapy involves, I would think, depression, anxiety, and self-destructive behavior. Why would this be a problem? Are gay men too big a wimps to undergo therapy because it's hard? If we really respect them as people, then shouldn't we encourage them to seek what will make them better socially fitted to their surroundings? No matter how we rage, their surroundings are never likely to change all that much. It seems a kindness to encourage change.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Paige Patterson
Why does everybody in blog-land hate Paige Patterson so much? I just read this long diatribe about him on Baptist Blogger. So, he's rich! I thought that riches were right up there next to godliness in the Baptist hierarchy. I mean, so many BMWs (correction, rich-looking cars) roar past me as I walk home from Baptist events. Is it just easy to take pot-shots at a symbol of excessive wealth, while we all have our own little ungodly excesses at home that the Lord is convicting us of and we're not doing anything about?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)