#i will praise your name to the lord above and i will write 12 comments every time i reread it

[twingeof-cosmic-angst]

God bless fanfiction and its writers. You don't exist yet Doctor/Rogue tag on ao3 but the tears I will shed when I get my hands on you...

[electricshoebox]

writing tag

Tagged by the lovely @adventuresofmeghatron, thank you!

Tagging: @junemermaid, @molliehaswords, @desynchimminent, @valkyriejack, and @mercurymiscellany​, if you’d like to do it!

1.  How many works do you have on AO3? 

39. Holy shit. 

2.  What’s your total AO3 word count?

533,274 words. Holy shit.

3. What are you top 5 fics by kudos?

How to Share a Bed Without Killing Each Other: a Love Story (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, 5 Chapters, Complete) The trials and tribulations of literally sleeping together.

Rivers in the Sand (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, Oneshot, Complete) The Hissing Wastes unsettles Bull’s memories, and when he and Dorian are trapped together by a fallen pillar, Dorian helps him deal.

a soft place to land (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, Oneshot, Complete) When a letter from his father sets him off, Dorian turns to Bull for a distraction.

Always Good at Bad Ideas  (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, Oneshot, Complete) Bull gets injured fighting a dragon, which leaves Dorian frantic enough to blurt out the one thing he was trying to keep to himself.

Flashpoint (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian/Iron Bull, Oneshot, Complete) “One time he got so excited he set the curtains on fire.”

4. Do you respond to comments?  Why or why not? 

Yes, always! I’ve seen various opinions on whether authors should, but to me, engaging with and getting excited with readers is half the fun and half the point. I also just really want people to know how much it means to me not only that they read, but that they take the time to leave a comment. Comments are hard to write. I completely sympathize with that, sometimes you just don’t know what to say or how to say it, and I absolutely don’t begrudge anyone that doesn’t. It just means a lot to me when people do, even when it’s literally just “This was cool!” or something, and I want them to know that it’s appreciated!

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm. I guess that sort of depends on your definition of angsty. None of them have directly tragic endings, it’s just not in me to write that way, but I have one or two with open or less definitely, obviously happy endings. The rarepair DA2 oneshot I wrote for Merrill/Orana, Counting the Cost, has the most open ending, left completely up to interpretation. The Inception AU DAI fic I wrote for Dorian/Bull, In the Shadow of Dreams, has what I think of as an optimistic ending, and less a happy one. I tried to end that one with more romance, but it just didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the fic, so a quiet ending that signals a road to recovery was what I chose instead.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Most all of my oneshots have pretty happy endings. I guess I’m tempted say A Line in the Sand, my Deacon/MacCready start-from-scratch slow burn novel, just because it goes from antagonists to lovers and has the longest road with the most earned happy ending. I feel like the long struggle to get there makes it feel happier. 

7. Do you write crossovers?  If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really. Instead I’m sometimes tempted into AUs based on other media, but not full blown crossovers with actual different characters meeting. Even then, I’m really picky in what I enjoy. I’ve only written one, the Inception AU for Dragon Age that I mentioned above. Honestly, it requires no knowledge of Inception at all. I really just stole a bunch of concepts from it and then made my own modernized Thedas around them.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Thankfully no! I’ve received one or two kind of odd comments, but otherwise I’ve been very lucky and everyone’s been really nice.

9.  Do you write smut?  If so, what kind?

Hell yeah! I’ve written many kinds, really, whatever I feel like or whatever fits the fic. I’ve done plenty of your typical smut. I branched out into light BDSM with several of my Dorian/Bull fics, as well as waxplay and praise kink. I’ve also done some roleplay in the vein of “established relationship pretending to be strangers meeting at a bar” for Deacon/MacCready with By Any Other Name.

10.  Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. 

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! Two of my Dorian/Bull fics, Wishing Stars and No Patron Saint of Silent Restraint, both by the same lovely person: landanding on AO3. I don’t think I stopped flailing for a solid day when I got the request for permission either time.

12.  Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not since pre-AO3 days, beyond collaborating in a tabletop setting. I’m not completely opposed to the idea but it would have to be someone I felt really, really comfortable with and with whom I have really good communication. I’m really particular about my writing, and I’d need to know someone’s emotional comfort level with trading and changing and even eliminating ideas.

13.  What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Oh god that’s honestly really hard. I’ve written the most for Dorian/Bull and that ship will always have a special place in my heart. But I did write my first full-length novel for Deacon/MacCready, and they’ve already got me in the middle of my second. So they’re the ship that taught me I could do that, and they’re my beloved rarepair. There are a few more I absolutely love, but I think those are my top two right now.

14.  What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Definitely Uprising. It was the first time I tried longform fic, and it was meant to be an entire retelling of DA2 with Velanna as the Justice-bearing character, rather than Anders, because after learning the developers almost took DA2 in that direction, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had a lot of plans for it, for how Justice might develop differently, for what it might have looked like if elves had been more of the battleground issue instead of mages vs. templars, for some angsty bittersweet long distance Nathaniel/Velanna and some complicated Fenris/Hawke and Merrill/Orana. But I drifted away from Dragon Age fandom in interest a long time ago, and I’m not sure I’ll ever get the steam back for it. I’m proud of how far I did get, though.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I feel pretty confident with dialogue, I can usually make a scene flow with it pretty well and I spend a lot of time trying to be meticulous about character voice. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on my descriptions, which I appreciate and wouldn’t have considered a strength, but my readers have been kind. I think I’m pretty good at including body language, too, though maybe to a fault.

16.  What are you writing weaknesses?

Much as people have been kind on the feedback, I really feel like action scenes are a weakness for me. I don’t enjoy writing them and I struggle a lot to make them feel like they’re flowing over just bulletpointing. I also feel like I struggle to make them exciting. I feel like I struggle with exposition scenes as well, and keeping them interesting over info-dumping. 

17.  What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’m generally in favor of including them, but with the caution of doing thorough research if it’s not a language I speak. I shy away from it if I can’t be completely sure it’s accurate, because I don’t want to risk putting off a native speaker reader, or saying/doing something offensive. I’d expand that to include anything about another culture, really. For example, I’ve been slowly picking away at writing a Fallout fic for my Sole Survivor Anthony and Preston, and part of what has been slow going is just making sure I’m getting Anthony’s culture right. His parents immigrated from Vietnam, and I want his experiences with them and with his culture to be as accurate and respectful as possible, not falling into any stereotypes but also being allowed to be complicated. 

18.  What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Depends on what we’re measuring. The first fandom I ever wrote fic for of any kind was Sailor Moon. The first fandom I actually put fic on the internet for was Lord of the Rings, on good old fanfiction.net. The first fandom I published on AO3 for was Dragon Age.

19.  What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

God this is such a hard question to answer, my feelings on my writing change so often. I think it’s hard for A Line in the Sand not to be my favorite for the reasons I’ve already mentioned, it’s my first successful novel-length fic, I accomplished a lot with it and learned a lot from it, and it’s a rarepair I got to kind of develop from scratch in my own way. 

But if I look back at my whole repertoire so far, just to branch out from the usual answer, I’d say I’m also really fond of To Have and to Hold, which was the first time I ever participated in a minibang, or really any kind of writing challenge. It’s a Dorian/Bull established relationship fic set during Trespasser, and it’s kind of a meditation on Dorian’s past and present and how they’ve shaped his feelings on love and commitment and marriage, all while he’s trying to decide his future. I’m proud of how it came out, and I think my Dorian voice still holds up okay. Plus I had two incredible artists working with me who put together stunning work for it, and how could I not be super grateful for that? 

It’s funny, most of the top ones up there for kudos are ones that I don’t personally think are my best, it’s a lot of my very early offerings for Dorian/Bull that I think I could improve on a lot of if I tackled them now. I’m grateful people like them but I feel like they’re more an accident of timing, being published early in the ship’s popularity. 

[ochibuogwu5]

I WILL DO A NEW THING IN YOUR LIFE EACH SECOND THAT TICKS

(A one-on-one online bible studies excerpt)

"For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, *‘Fear not, I will help you.’*

14 “Fear not, you worm Jacob, You men of Israel! I will help you,” says the Lord And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 15 “Behold, I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth; You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, And make the hills like chaff. 16 You shall winnow them, the wind shall carry them away, And the whirlwind shall scatter them; You shall rejoice in the Lord, And glory in the Holy One of Israel.

17 “The poor and needy seek water, but there is none, Their tongues fail for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 18 I will open rivers in desolate heights, And fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, And the dry land springs of water. 19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, The myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine And the box tree together, 20 That they may see and know, And consider and understand together, That the hand of the Lord has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it." (Isaiah 41:13-20 NKJV)

Did you see verse-13 *saying/speaking* about fear not ?

Yes, "For I the Lord your God hold your right hand; I am the Lord, Who says to you, *Fear not; I will help you*

Do you see that word speaking to you/I ? for all these moments you/I seem to be seeking to have deeper intimacy with HIM, He has been holding our right hand ? and we thought that we were not making any progress ?

Exactly. And is really pricking my heart. Sometimes, I would think of quitting.

But I was *not feeling it*. Not seeing the impact. Have been asking for help from above no matter how small. My faith seems to be failing me.   Some of this Bible passages, I don't think they are referring to us in this present age. I should be able to feel it, in-fact, to be fully confident that God is holding my right hand and he's helping me too. Do you understand me now ?

My dear, everything written in the holy bible has a prophetic aspect and literal aspect, and it is the word of God which is still active in each human life no matter the age or condition or geography or circumstances, This is the area you will need to open your heart to accept and grow in it.

Ok, How do I achieve that ?

Look at Romans 15:4 we were already brought together by the Holy Spirit to be helped to solve this problem, Can you read Romans 15:4 ? when you finish tell me, The old testament were fulfilled in Christ and we are now inside Christ.

AMP: For *whatever was thus written in former days was written for our instruction*, that *by [our steadfast and patient] endurance and the encouragement [drawn] from the Scriptures we might hold fast to and cherish hope.*

I have read through the passage

Did you see that whatever is written in the Scripture is for every human being ? but there is context for understanding the new testament and the old testament ?

Yes I will dwell much on that Isaiah 41. It struck me.

The prophecy of Isaiah from chapter 40 to 52 is the prophecy about Jesus coming to fulfil the new covenant on the Cross

Ok

So, *each second of our earthly existence those passage*, He is trying to *lead us into a newer manifestation of JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED in our mortal bodies*

Ok, I am following

Let us go to Isaiah 43:18-21 When you finish reading tell me

Ok, completed.

Did you see God speaking to you/I directly that we should no longer remember the former things and times we thought that He was not fully with us ?

Exactly

Did you see God telling you/me that He wants to do a new thing in our lives *now* ? That He wants to give us both the physical and spiritual confirmation of His unbroken eternal presence with us ?

Yes

Did you see the list of new things that He wants to do for you/I and through us to all those around us now ?

So did you see all the list of new things that God wants to do *in your/my life from now* ?

Yes

but before this new things come, He is saying that you/I need to forget the old things ?

Alright

You/I need to recognize that there were things He told us previously that He will do in our lives and He did them. Can you remember any of them ?

Yes

let us look at Isaiah 42:8-9 please if you finish reading tell me

KJV: "I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. KJV: Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them"

I have read through it

Did you see that He is God who does not share His glory with anybody or image or spirit or being ? And Before He does anything, He tells you/I about it *because He has chosen 'out of HIS OWN FREE-WILL TO MAKE US' co-laborers with HIM in HIS OWN VINEYARD* not because *it is our right*

Yes

And those things that He said about you in the past has manifested. Before you/I can walk into the new things that He is about to do in our lives, we need to recognize that He said some things to us in the past and brought them to manifestation. You/I need to trust in His Grace and Mercy to speak something about our past, present and future *into our hearts directly and supervise them into manifestation*. Jeremiah 1:12 "I watch over my word to fulfill them". If you/I do not recognize that He has said those things in the past that has manifested them into our lives so far, you/I might have the tendency to think/assume that : 1. You/I are not coming from any useful or important position in the eyes of God 2. You/I might presume that it is our strength/determination/efforts/self-righteousness/religious-participation-spirituality that has sustained us *till now* This might lead you/I to be ungrateful about God's mercy and grace working in our lives and helping us to grow/breathe even till now

Hmmmmmmmm, It's well. Not all.

Let us look at the ones that He said and has done as well as *the ones that you think He said and He has not done together*......

Do you/I know that it is God's spoken word that planted you in your mothers womb after so many trials by your parents to have you as a child ?

Did you/I know that God was so careful not to allow the semen that fertilized us in our mothers womb not to fall-away or slip away after being deposited inside our mothers body or the tendency of our parents to give up on expecting a baby hence engaging in contraceptives or withdrawal methods ?

Did you/I know that some children were conceived in the womb at the same human time with us but they could not stay till 9-months and they were miscarried or aborted ?

Did you/I know that some of the children that came out the same day we were born, came out as dead-child ?

Did you/I know that it was not *wholly* our mothers carefulness or hygiene or medical experts specialty that brought us forth safely from our mothers womb ?

I am following

Having grown from childhood till date, how many of our age mates are still alive ?

Can you/I look back to our childhood or even past second of our lives and recall how death could have cut short our span on earth ?

You/I just walked home now from our duty-post, did you/I know that some people left their work/office/market/shop/meeting-point just to return to their house and they could not complete their journey as living beings rather as corpse in the mortuary?

hmmmmmmm,

Did you/I know that some people with the same sincere desire for God are still battling with sinful lifestyle and addictions yet they have fasted and prayed as much as their strength could carry them yet they have not connected to the grace of their complete victory over sin and an effortless communion with the HOLY SPIRIT ?

Did you/I think, it is by our power that we have been living holy life all these years ?

Hmmmmm, By strength shall no man prevail.

Did you/I know that some people read the same write-up that you read and they desire this type of connection with someone that the Holy Spirit will use to help them but they saw that post and did not comment while some just saw that post *as a motivational write-up that only requires AMEN* which they commented and left while still praying that God should help them with someone who will teach them How to connect to a deeper intimacy with God ?

Did you/I know that *salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ is the highest gift that God can give and has given to any human being (you/I)* ?

Yeah, With the things attached to it, makes it perfect.

Please tell me those things that God told you in the past that He did not do for you ?

Hahahaha, You said I should not remember the former things right??? That before he will do a thing I should first forget the past ?

First is for you to recognize that GOD IS GOD THERE IS NOTHING THAT HE SAID TO ANY HUMAN BEING THAT HE HAS NOT DONE rather *we have our own expectation in our minds as what we presumed* God told us that He will do for us due to some misinterpretation of scriptures; like *ask anything and you shall receive it from God*. Because *even in our sins or limitations, His grace still provides our daily needs for us* though *He hates sin* and *grace is not permission to continue in sinful living* You/I need to look at ourselves each day and *trust God* that He has never failed to show *us mercy fresh each moment despite our human limitations*

Yeah

Then we need to look at another thing about our lives that needs to be dealt with as something to forget. So, you/I are going to have the *1st prayer point/focus/word* of thanking God for keeping His word over your life and sustaining you till date. This is a sign to you/I that He wants to do a new thing in our lives. if He has finished with you in the last second, you/I would have died. So, we remember How God has been faithful.

Ok

then let us to move to another thing we need to remember, Revelation 2:1-7, if you finish reading tell me,

I have read through the passage,

Alright, Did you understand what God is saying to you/I in that passage ?

Yes, I did,

Alright, what is He telling you/I to remember there ?

Where I have fallen,

Yes, but most importantly *our first love*.

Did you/I see the list of all our efforts to please God and leave holy life ?

Yes

Why do you think those list where recognized by God yet He still found a problem with that Church ? A believer can have such engagements/activities in the household of God but he/she sees such activities as mere routine or expertise which does not have *fresh revelation because such person has become so-familiar with God and the things of God* This routine or expertise mentality *makes a believer not to be able to humble himself/herself to expect something fresh/new from the throne of God's grace in the place of daily personal consistent and progressive bible studies and fellowship with the Holy Spirit* Such a person *begins to speak more about what God achieved through his/her mortal body in the past while he/she is in the present* while the Word of God stated that *the latter glory shall be better than the former*

Hmmmmm, Error.

While *GOD is NEW every morning/moment(Lamentation 3:22)* and *He seeks for people who wants to forget about their past achievements/glory/mistakes/failures/disappointments/sins/limitations/wealth/status then seek to become ductile for a fresh outpouring/usage of HIM*

So, we need to remember where we have fallen which is *where we have started getting familiar with God and we have decreased our zeal for God* We need to remember how the Holy Spirit prompted/nudged our zeal for God's Word *fresh each moment* not as *a mere reading of the same letters or repetition*. How we failed to eat until we had completed our personal fasting and prayers with God each day. We need to remember how we left our personal comfort just to go and deliver God's word to people in the streets or in our neighborhood not minding how they will make mockery of our new found-love in Christ Jesus Crucified; "is this one also among the born-again/the prophets ?" We need to remember how we denied ourselves pleasure of food, drinks and friendship just to lock-up ourselves in our room in order to have quiet time with God. We need to remember how we switched-off our electronics and mobile devices just to discern a matter with the Holy Spirit.

This is serious,

We need to remember how we read the holy bible from book to book in order to hear his voice and be filled with the fullness of His Word. We need to remember how we spent our money just to travel to villages and share the gospel with those who have never heard the gospel before in their entire life on earth or those who have heard before but have not believed yet as well feed, clothe and shelter those who cannot afford the basic needs of life. We need to remember how we spent hours praying in tongues just to understand a passage from the Scripture according to its original context not according to the adulteration of our fellowship/denominational-doctrines. We need to remember how we shared the gospel of Jesus Christ as a point of 1st contact with anybody we meet daily. These are some of *the list of our first love which we have left and Jesus is telling us to return to them or else He will come and take away our lamp from its stand*.

Some people who encounter us now *that our zeal/fire has gone down and lukewarm* might be giving us *a false hope that we are still zealous or progressing unto greater glory* because they never knew *how much more zealous we were concerning our relationship with Jesus Christ Crucified*, may be because *we have added drama and shouting to our latest schemes of displaying an outward sign of inward disconnection from the FLOWING RIVERS OF LIVING WATER WITHIN OUR HEARTS*

Wow,

You can add your own to the list.

You have listed all,

What were the things you used to do when you first believed in Jesus *that you are no longer doing or you have started seeing it as unnecessary* ?

None,

Alright, So, we have 2-things to remember: 1. How God has been faithful to His word in sustaining us by His mercy and grace 2. How we used to serve God with sincere zeal and *the current urgency* to return to them

Then let us go to the things we need to forget (things not to remember) before we can be *available vessels for the new things that He wants to do through us* let us go to Phil. 3:7-12

Ok,

Please if you finish reading, you can tell me.

I have read through the passage,

Alright, So, do you see the things we should not remember each moment we encounter the word of God or the Holy Spirit speaking fresh into our hearts ? If you read from verse-1, you will see Paul talking about His academic and jewish titles; "I am a hebrew of hebrews...."

Here are the things that we should forget: 1. Our present title(academic qualifications, beauty, intelligence, wealth, money)

Ok,

2. Achievements in walking with God (how many years we have gone without committing sin, how many miracles God has used us to perform, how many people that we prayed for and they received healing from Jesus, how many bible passages that we can quote, how many prayer and fasting we have ever done in the past, how many people we have preached to about Jesus before, How many people who repented and started following Jesus because of the Word of God/Gospel that came out from our mouths) 3. Past failures (how many things that we tried to do for God but could not do it, how many things that we have tried to do for ourselves but could not complete it, how many things that we wanted to do for people as a testimony for Jesus but could not do it) 4. Past disappointments (how many people who have promised to help us but did not fulfil it even while promising us with the name of God, how many people we have disappointed, how many times we have fallen into sin and disappointed God/ourselves/parents/friends/colleagues, how may times circumstances of life have disappointed us)

Hmmmm,

So we have 2-things to remember..... 1. The faithfulness of God's Grace and mercy all these years from our conception till date   2. The Initial zeal we had in pursuing the full love and knowledge of God

Ok,

then we have 4-things not to remember........... 1. Our Present Title/Position of honor amongst mankind   2. Our Past achievements in walking with God     3. Our Past failures   4. Our Past disappointments

then we look at Job 22:21-30 Please if you finish reading tell me.

“Quit quarreling with God! Agree with him and you will have peace at last! His favor will surround you if you will only admit that you were wrong. 22 Listen to his instructions and store them in your heart. 23 If you return to God and put right all the wrong in your home, then you will be restored. 24 If you give up your lust for money and throw your gold away, 25 then the Almighty himself shall be your treasure; he will be your precious silver!

26 “Then you will delight yourself in the Lord and look up to God. 27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill all your promises to him. 28 Whatever you wish will happen! And the light of heaven will shine upon the road ahead of you. 29 If you are attacked and knocked down, you will know that there is someone who will lift you up again. Yes, he will save the humble 30 and help even sinners by your pure hands.” (Job 22:21-20 TLB)

I have read through it. Sometimes I quarrel with God seriously,

Did you see God telling you/I to quit quarreling with HIM ?

Yes

It is good that God still wants to help you/I despite so many times we have quarreled with HIM ? so you have admitted that you/I were wrong all these while but God is correct abi ?

verse-22 talks about what prayer genuinely means; coming to listen to God and not coming to tell God what He must do for you We are going conclude our studies this moment with steps on how to engage in listening to God through daily consistent and progressive bible studies and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. verse-23, if you/I return to God in repentance concerning those 2-things we need to remember and those 4-things that we need to forget then our life shall be available for the new thing that God wants to do each new second we spend on this earth verse-25 then your life shall become a special treasure unto God for use each fresh second and you will never be recounting old glories while you are still alive (Do you know how I used to serve God in the past ?) and GOD WILL BE YOUR MOST PRECIOUS VALUE IN LIFE ON THIS EARTH.

Alright,

Then you will begin to pray according to the perfect-will of God just like Jesus and God will be manifesting His Glory and Power fresh.

Yeah, yeah.

And in the days of casting down, God will keep you always on-top while in the midst of sinful temptations, He will keep you holy by His mercy and grace from His Throne of Grace.

Now, as it concerns our personal daily bible studies and quiet-time with the HOLY SPIRIT *first thing each morning*, I will encourage us to use this method of *thinking through the Word of God and applying it directly to our lives as well as present situations, believe them, obey them and pray them into our lives as well as circumstances then THIS NEW CREATION LIFE OF CHRIST WILL EVER BE FLOWING FRESH EACH SECOND UNTIL ETERNITY*

Great Grace Brethren!!!

[lawrenceop]

HOMILY for 11th after Pentecost (Dominican rite)

1 Cor 15:1-10; Mark 7:31-37

The Lord has loosened the tongue of the mute man, and he has opened his deaf ears too. From the earliest days, this miracle which Jesus did in the Decapolis, that is, a non-Jewish region among Gentile peoples, has been linked to the Sacrament of Baptism. For through this sacrament, God comes to us; the missionary Church goes throughout the nations of the world, and through the gift of holy Baptism, God opens up men and women to his grace, his friendship, his praise, and thus, indeed, to salvation. Hence, within the rite of Baptism in both old and new forms, the distinctive Aramaic phrase, that is only recorded in today’s Gospel from St Mark, is said: “Ephphatha”, which means “Be opened!”

In the old rite Baptism, this word is said after the priest moistens his fingers with saliva, and places them on the ears and nostrils of the one who is to be baptised. Why the nostrils and not the mouth as Jesus has done in the Gospels? Pope Benedict XVI links it to the deep groan that Jesus makes before he cures the mute and deaf man. In doing so, Jesus is invoking the Holy Spirit, the divine Breath of God whom St Paul says “prays for us with groans too deep for words.” (Rom 8:26) So, Pope Benedict says, “through Baptism, the human person begins, so to speak, to ‘breathe’ the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus had invoked from Father with that deep breath, to heal the deaf and dumb man.” Hence the nostrils are touched and opened, to prepare the one who is to be baptised to breath the Holy Spirit; to live and move and be inspired by the Spirit of God.

In fact a similar act is found in the new rite Baptism even though the word ‘Ephphatha’ is said just after the Baptism has taken place. Here, the priest touches the mouth and ears of the newly-baptised, directly following the actions of Christ in the Gospel, and praying that the newly-baptised will have his ears opened to hear God’s Word, and his tongue loosened to profess the Faith and to give glory to God with one’s words. For, as Pope Benedict XVI says, Christ “became man so that man, made inwardly deaf and dumb by sin, would become able to hear the voice of God, the voice of love speaking to his heart, and learn to speak in the language of love, to communicate with God and with others.” And this communication of love, of course, is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

So, there is no contradiction between the two rites, but they harmoniously express the same end, which is that the baptised Christian should be opened to the divine action of God and should communicate his love, his peace, his Gospel of salvation. Hence St Paul says: “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3b) for it is the Holy Spirit who directs the words of the Christian, and the Holy Spirit who opens our ears and our intellects to hear and to understand the Scriptures.

Therefore, when we consider the actions of Christ in today’s Gospel, and the incorporation of these actions into the Church’s liturgical rites for the Sacrament of Baptism, we realise that our human faculties are given to us for a reason – our hearing and our power of speech is meant to be directed towards our salvation. So, in his letter to the Romans St Paul says: “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ.” (10:17) Since faith is a divine gift, a theological virtue, we depend on the graced activity of God to open the ears of sinners, to open our own ears, so that we may hear his Word being preached; so that we might arrive at a deeper faith in Christ who is the Word of God, so that we might be attentive and sensitive to those times when God speaks to us through the soft promptings of his Holy Spirit.  For this reason, before I preach a write a sermon, I ask God to open my ears to his Word, but also, just before I deliver the Homily in church, I make this prayer: “Lord open the ears of those who listen that they may hear what you want them to hear, and open my lips to speak what you want me to speak.” Amen.

So, the Holy Spirit must open our ears and our lips for our salvation. It is he who opens our ears to hear him for our power of hearing has been given us so that we can hear the Gospel of salvation. And it is the Holy Spirit also who opens our lips to speak God’s praise and to proclaim the faith, that Jesus is Lord! The Proper chants of today’s Mass thus gives voice to this praise of God, and declares the Lordship of Christ: “I will give praise to him. Unto thee have I cried, O Lord… sing aloud to the God of Jacob, alleluia… I will extol thee, O Lord… I have cried to thee, and thou hast healed me.” Through these chants, which is the voice of the Church at prayer, and thus our voice, the Christian declares, like the man in today’s Gospel, that it is the Lord who has healed us, and so, we praise him, we extol him, we sing aloud to him. For our lips have been loosened. “Ephphatha”, says Jesus, be opened. And so, our tongues have been made to give praise and thanks to God; our tongues have been opened to proclaim the good news of salvation; and our tongues have been loosened to bless God’s holy name.

At this time there has been much concern over the reverent and worthy reception of Holy Communion, and on whether we should receive on the hand or on the tongue. I do not wish to comment on this right now except to note that the most important aspect is our interior disposition. However, as we have been thinking about the tongue, and given the actions of Jesus in today’s Gospel, we should note what Scripture teaches and indeed, warns, concerning the tongue. St James says: “the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things… the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body… With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so.” (cf James 3:5-10) Therefore, as we receive the Lord in Holy Communion in our mouths, and on our tongues, let us be chastened by these words of Scripture, and remember what the tongue is for: it is made for blessing.

So, ask the Lord to open our lips to speak well of him and of our neighbour. The tongue is not made for gossip, or insult, or slander, or to speak ill of others. Hence St Paul instructs the Ephesians: “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear.” (4:29) Thus the Holy Father Pope Francis often decries gossip, for, as he rightly observes, “the person who gossips… destroys with their tongue, they don’t make peace.“ Therefore St James says: “If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain.” (1:26) As such, my brothers and sisters, let us be extremely vigilant about our speech. The Lord has opened our tongues to speak (and sing!) his praises, and to build up and encourage one another, and to speak the truth in charity. As St James says: “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits.”

As Christians who have received the grace of Baptism, as God’s beloved children who have been healed and opened to the gift of the Holy Spirit, as disciples and friends of Jesus Christ who acknowledge Jesus to be our Lord, let us therefore be mindful that we use our faculties of hearing and speech to God’s glory; that we hear the voice of love speaking to us, and that we speak in God’s language of love. Then, all who hear us Christians will praise the Lord saying, “he has done all things well! He has made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.” (Mk 7:27)

[dailyaudiobible]

09/30/2019 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 60:1-62:5, Philippians 1:27-2:18, Psalms 72:1-20, Proverbs 24:11-12

Today is the 30th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible and welcome to the end of the month. We’re here to close down another month and that this is the ninth month of the year. So, well done. Nine months together every day, which makes this the 273rd day of the year. So, we’ve taken a lot of steps together. We’ve covered a lot of ground together and we have one more quarter, right? So, one more stretch to go. I am kinda getting ahead of ourselves though. We’re still here. This is September 30th and we haven't finished the month yet. So, let's dive in. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Isaiah chapter 60 verse 1 through 62 verse 5 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, like we talked about when we began Philippians this is a letter that Paul wrote while he was incarcerated. And this is a capital…this is a capital case, right? So, what’s hanging in the balance here is Paul's life and eventually the outcome of the trial would be the end of his life. So, that should add a certain amount, you know, like a little bit of weightiness to the words that we read that Paul wrote while he was imprisoned. So, in our reading today his words encouraged humility, a humble posture toward each other as fellow citizens of heaven. And as he's prone to do, he gave of us a picture of what our lives should be shaped. So, let’s just…let's review that. I'm quoting here. “My dear friends, just as you’ve always obeyed, so now not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to His good purpose. So, do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.” And let’s just pause there for a second because that's cool. “We shine like stars in the world?” So, I guess if you ever dreamed of being a star, this is how you actually do it. So, Paul says, “among whom you shine like stars in the world by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast of the day of Christ that I didn't run or labor for nothing, but even if I am poured out as a drink offering”,  and Paul’s talking about his potential execution here, “so even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith. I’m glad and I rejoice with you.” Okay. So, Paul, you know, there's lots of lists and character traits to avoid and to stay away from and to embrace and to become in the writings of Paul. So, this isn’t particularly unique. And the idea that we should suffer long, right, be long-suffering and patient with our fellow human beings, this isn't particularly new concept. We were taught…I was taught the golden rule from childhood and the idea that we should live a clean, upright kind of life and avoid darkness and the muck and mire of life. That's not revolutionary thought either. But the thing is, Paul's writing these kinds of lists as like…I don't…like life encouragement…like life tips or like biblical life hacks. Paul was convinced throughout his ministry that this is all going somewhere and that ultimately where we are headed is into our full and complete restoration that would remake us into the image of Jesus our Savior and offer us a place alongside Jesus as joint heirs with Jesus as additional sons and daughters of the most high God, along with Jesus. This is Paul's view of where this is all going and what Christ actually means. This is the good news. And when you think about it in terms like we just said, it is staggering, right? It’s a big monumental shift in the world. So, much bigger than just a list of characteristics or behavioral traits that we should try to live into, right? Behavior modification wasn't Paul's objective. Behavior imitation was Paul's point, right? You can't be Christlike if you’re not like Christ. So, in telling us to live a life that's worthy of our salvation Paul was telling us to imitate and live our lives like Jesus did. And that brings us to one of the best known passages, one that maybe offers the most concise view of Jesus or of Paul's Christology than any other…any of his other letters. Paul says…and he’s saying this about Jesus, “who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead, He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a servant taking on the likeness of humanity and when He had come as a man, He humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Okay. So, for Paul, a man who had lost his freedom and was awaiting trial before an Emperor would decide whether he would live or die, Paul's convictions here would have mattered greatly to him and these words would have made Paul's chains take on a totally different context to his readers. So, rather than like invalidating the gospel, invalidating Paul, and, you know, sending him into a dungeon where he would disappear from history, Paul was actually walking the path of Jesus, right? Paul was following the same course. These same things happened to Jesus and ended in his death. So, as Paul is considering becoming Christlike himself, we see that he is, in a most iteral way, walking in the footsteps of Jesus here. And, so, for Paul instead of being hopeless about the fact that he’d been thrown into prison and the Emperor could have him killed, Paul realized this is what imitating Christ looks like. But, why would why would he put himself in this position? Like, why would any of the early believers be willing to imitate a person when what you're gonna to imitate is incarceration and execution? Like, who imitates somebody and tries to imitate them all the way to their death? Paul answers why he’s doing this. He said, “for this reason, God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.” This is Paul's view and he embraced it to the point that…that leaving the body, like leaving the human life behind would be preferable because it would be immediate and full restoration in the presence of the Savior, which is far, far, far better than being chained up in a dungeon and wondering whether you're gonna have your head chopped off today or not and be nailed to a cross and hang there for hours in agony until you die. So, it's important that we understand that this is Paul's…this is Paul's cosmic view of what God is doing in the world. And Paul was thoroughly convinced that Jesus is Lord of it all. And, so, knowing Paul's view of Jesus Lordship helps us understand how we must imitate Christ in our earthly lives. We’re to imitate Christ because we’re being made into his image, which means we’re becoming as he is, which is the center of the gospel and mind boggling to say the least. But this is what we hope and as believers in Jesus

Prayer:

Father, we’ve covered some territory here and, You know, try to dissect it, in part theologically, and it can get tedious but the fundamental truth here is that we are being transformed. As we believe and as we walk with You, we are being renewed or remade. And any time that we turn toward the darkness and walk in that direction we are literally interrupting that process, which is walking away from You but it’s also walking away from who we were created to be. And, so, help us to see it in those terms today and every day. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s home base, it's where you find out what's going on around here on this last day of the month of September. So, I guess what's going on is we’re getting ready to launch into a new month and with this new month are some surprises. So, I’ll look forward to that over the next couple of days. But the website is the place to go to stay connected on…well…every day

So, the Prayer Wall lives at dailyaudiobible.com and that is a great place to go and pray and a great place to go and ask for prayer. We’re a community, brothers and sister shouldering each other's burdens as we move through life together and experience the rhythm of the Scriptures together. So, stay connected.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There's a link on the homepage. Thank you. I thank you for your partnership with all my heart. Thank you for your partnership. We wouldn't be here. That’s a fact. We wouldn't be here if we weren’t in this together. And thank God that we are. So, there's a link on the homepage. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always we have a prayer request a comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey there Annette Allison, this is Matthew Fouts from Fairhope Alabama, I’m calling to comment on your…you put a comment on my Facebook thing about I need a Daily Audio Bible sticker on my new work helmet, and I agree with you. I’ve been thinking about that a lot. I don’t know where I can find a sticker that says Daily Audio Bible but if anybody knows let me know. Anyhow, the reason I’m calling is I was prompted by your comment Annette to testify about how good God is. Jesus is awesome. We all know that, right. Well, when I moved out here to Fairhope Alabama from Southern Illinois, I had this dream I guess or hope that I would listen to the Daily Audio Bible as I would drive across the Mobile Bay Bridge on the way to work. And when I arrived down here that didn’t pan out immediately. So, after about three years of living and Fairhope that’s come to…come to pass and now I get to listen to the Daily Audio Bible as I drive across the Mobile Bay Bridge. And the neat thing…another neat thing about Mobile Bay is it’s actually originally called the Bay of the Holy Spirit. And there’s actually…a man investigated it and they put a plaque and they call Mobile Bay the Bay of the Holy Spirit. So, I get to drive across the Bay of the Holy Spirit listening to the Bible and praying. And, so, God is good. And sometimes we gotta wait for the things we hope for and it’s…it’s great to encourage one another as we wait. The best is yet to come. I believe that. Jesus is gonna come back one of these days and it’s going to be awesome.

Hi my name is Larry I’m calling from Florida and I wish to give prayer to the woman from the UK who called a little bit ago about a problem she had at work that a mistake that she made created a 500,000 pound loss to her company. And she sounded desperate and I wanted to lift her up in prayer to give her compassion and to make sure depression does not set in. And I ask the DABbers to lift her up and to pray for her bosses to make…to treat her with compassion and to make sure everything is okay. And then also I just want to…I want to give a shout out to and I want to give prayer to all the DABbers and all the listeners in Europe, you know, where the powers of secularism are trying to drive the spiritual life in the church out of not only public life but private life as well. So, I want to pray for all the Christians in Europe who are trying to live a godly life in the face of, you know, pressures of a secular society. And I also want to give prayer to England and the UK in particular as they come to grips in dealing with a pending __ initiative and to pray for the leaders and to pray for their economy that as the __ approaches that things go as smoothly as possible. And, so, to lift the nation and make sure that that things go as smoothly as possible. And I know it’s causing a lot of problems in England. So…so if you’re out there, people of Britain, we’re praying from you. And specifically for that lady with the problem with work in the mistake she made. It’ll be okay. Thank you and God bless everybody. Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is standing firm in South Carolina. I am headed home and thinking about you guys and most of all thinking about talking to the Lord. As I’ve always said, I love this community. I love this new feature where you can just hit record and just start talking. Very simple, very easy. I love it. Good idea. Wonderful idea. Want to continue to pray, honestly what’s been on my heart, for all the men out there. Married men love your wives like Christ loves the church. I know there’s a lot that goes on. Your tongue is a powerful device, men. Watch your tongue, watch your words. Guard your heart, guard your wife’s heart. Be careful what you say. It’s easy to get out of hand especially when you’re in the flesh. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in everything you do. It’s just been on my heart because it’s just so easy to get out of whack and let your flesh take over and then you realize, “man, why did I say that, that is so damaging.” So, it doesn’t matter what the other party does, you as a man have to first obey God and second love your wife like Christ loved the church. So, just do that men and you’ll be fine. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in Christ name. I love you all. Have a good day. Bye-bye.

Good morning family it’s Bridget from New York City. I haven’t even listened to today’s…today’s Friday, September 27th. Today’s actually my grandma’s birthday. She’s four now. This would be the second birthday she celebrates without her dad. And I’m not even…I’m going to be honest, like I’m not calling because of that. I’m actually calling because I have such a heavy spirit of intercession on me to pray for anybody that is in despair, anybody that is hurting, anybody that feels like hopeless or struggles with doubt. You know, the cross has the final word. God loves us so much that He created a way for us to come back to Him because, believe it or not we do, right? We go astray as human beings. We do that even as parents from our loved ones. We just turn our back sometimes. But God loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us and I just want to share that. If anybody is struggling today, the cross has the final word. If you’re hurting, if you’re fighting something, the cross has the final word. I just pray that you understand the depth of the love that God had for you, that the cross has the final word. Evil can fight it’s darkest fight but the cross has the final word. Understand, the cross of Jesus, the love, His blood, everything that He did for us has the final word. So, as the enemy comes and the enemy tries to harm you and hurt you and overwhelm you and take over your mind, remember this, Jesus has the final word. The cross has the final word. God bless you family. I love you all so much. God bless you. Bye.

[theconvolutedapologist-blog]

14 Rules for Bible Study

Spiritual Keys to Understanding the Word of God

Please pray for me and pray for understanding as you study.  

May the grace of God and His Son Jesus be with you always.  

Scriptural references mixed in the commentary.

There are clearly defined spiritual keys to understanding scripture.  Jesus says in the book of John, “If you love Me, keep the commandments--namely, My commandments” (John 14:15).  Therefore, the primary key to understanding is to remain in a continuous loving, faithful and obedient relationship with God.  It also says in the in the book of Psalms that those who follow God’s commandments will be given understanding: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all those who do His commandments.  His praise endures forever” (Psalms 111:10).  These verses give us the foundation for understanding the Word of God.

In order to understand doctrine, we must study the Bible.  The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Whom shall He teach knowledge?  And whom shall He make to understand doctrine?  Those who are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:9-10).  Therefore, when we study any scriptural question we must look at all relevant passages on any given subject.  The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy saying, “Diligently study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of the truth” (2nd Timothy 2:15).

The Holy Bible is also known as the Word of Truth.  Also, it is the Spirit of truth that teaches us all things.  Jesus says in the book of John, “But when the Comforter comes, even the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in My name, that one shall teach you all things, and shall bring to your remembrance everything that I have told you....However, when that one has come, even the Spirit of the truth, it will lead you into all truth because it shall not speak from itself, but whatever it shall hear, it shall speak.  And it shall disclose to you the things to come” (John 14:26; 16;13).  This is a great promise given by Jesus!

The Bible is clear that the Word of truth works together with the Spirit of truth to give understanding to those who love God and seek His will.  It is self-evident that it is not possible for the carnal mind--which is deceitful above all things--to come to the knowledge of the truth of God.  The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9)?  Also, the carnal, unconverted mind is naturally hostile toward God and is not willing to be subject to God’s laws.  Paul wrote, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can it be” (Romans 8:7).  Regardless of intellectual ability or achievement, God’s Word is not understood by human wisdom or reasoning.  Only through the Spirit of God can the Word of God be understood.

In fact, Paul is quite clear when he taught that the spiritual truths can only be discerned and understood through the Spirit of God.  Paul wrote to the church in Corinth saying, “But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things--even the deep things of God.  For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man which is in him?  In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God.  Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is of God, so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God; which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit in order to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means.  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Sprit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1st Corinthians 2:10-14).

Notice also what God spoke through Paul about the profound value of studying the Scriptures: “And that from a child you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work” (2nd Timothy 3:15-17).

We must heed the apostle Peter’s warning about allowing personal ideas and interpretations to cloud the truth of Scripture: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture originated as anyone’s own private interpretation; because prophecy was not brought at any time by human will, but the holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2nd Peter 1:20-21).

The Rules for Bible Study

1) Begin with Scriptures that are easy to understand.

2) Let the Bible interpret and prove the Bible.  Don’t look for what you want to prove--look for what the Bible actually says.

3) Understand the context--the verses before and after, and the chapters before and after.  Does your understanding of a particular verse harmonize with the rest of the Bible?

4) As much as possible, try to understand the original Hebrew or Greek.  But never try to establish doctrine or teachings by using only a concordance.  These can be helpful at times, but is very limited.

5) Ask: What does the Scripture clearly say?

6) Ask: What does the Scripture not say?

7) Ask: To whom was the book written?

8) Ask: Who wrote it?

9) Ask: Who said it?

10) Understand the historical time frame in which the book was written.

11) Base your study on the scriptural knowledge you already have.  What do you know up to this point in time?

12) Do not allow personal assumptions or preconceived ideas to influence your understanding and conclusions.

13) Do not form conclusions based on partial facts, insufficient information, or the opinions and speculations of others.

14) Opinions--regardless of how strongly you feel about them--don’t necessarily count.  Scripture alone must be your standard and guide.

Please feel free to comment or add as you feel led.  

God bless.

[frederickwiddowson]

Exodus, chapter 40 comments: conclusion

Exodus 40:1 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2  On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. 3  And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail. 4  And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof. 5 And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle. 6  And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. 7  And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein. 8  And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate. 9 And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it,

and all the vessels thereof: and it shall be holy. 10  And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most holy. 11  And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it. 12 And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water. 13  And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. 14  And thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats: 15 And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office: for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.

     40:16 ¶  Thus did Moses: according to all that the LORD commanded him, so did he. 17  And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up. 18  And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars. 19 And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as the LORD commanded Moses. 20  And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark: 21  And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the vail of the covering, and covered the ark of the testimony; as the LORD commanded Moses. 22 And he put the table in the tent of the congregation, upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the vail. 23 And he set the bread in order upon it before the LORD; as the LORD had

commanded Moses. 24  And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation, over against the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward. 25 And he lighted the lamps before the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses. 26  And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the vail: 27 And he burnt sweet incense thereon; as the LORD commanded Moses. 28  And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle. 29  And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering; as the LORD commanded Moses. 30  And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water there, to wash withal. 31  And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat: 32  When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the LORD commanded Moses.

33  And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.

     40:34 ¶  Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35  And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36  And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: 37  But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. 38  For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

    Much of what is written here has already been commented on. We’ve learned a great deal about our worship and our reality here in Exodus and there are a few things I want to point out again. Our work for God is only acceptable to God if it is sanctified by Him. He makes our prayers and our worship acceptable to Him.

 Aaron acts as a mediator between God and man in his office as priest. For Christians, Christ is our mediator. There are many verses about Christ bearing our sins and I will not post them all but this one is applicable to what Aaron was doing. We need no priest other than Christ, fully human and fully God, who in his humanity is our priest.

 1Timothy 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…

 Aaron is to bear the iniquity of the holy things in 28:38 and make acceptable to God the Hebrew’s fallible and weak offerings to him. Our worship without God’s help is a meager and pathetic thing. We don’t even know how to pray as we ought, we are so blinded by our sin nature. We need help.

The Holy Spirit even sanctifies our prayers.

 Romans 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

 Another point is that God blessed the midwives and made them houses.

Exodus 1:21  And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

Now, lest you think God is in the business of building suburban developments near Cairo understand that a house can be a family, or a dynasty, that goes on for generations.

Exodus 6:14  These be the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi: these be the families of Reuben.

1Samuel 20:16  So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David’s enemies.

As well as a building…

1Kings 9:10  And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king’s house,

So, depending on the context house can be short for household as well including servants, wives, and children.

Genesis 45:2  And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.

So, a question for fundamentalists arises naturally from this. Is this reference following a physical building or a group of people characterized in type as a spiritual building?

1Corinthians 14:23  If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?

How do physical buildings come together to meet? Seems an absurdity.

Colossians 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence…24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

The church is Christ’s body on earth, not a building.

Acts 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

1Timothy 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

So, what is the house of God, to the Roman Catholic ‘wannabes’ of Protestant fundamentalism, the Vatican’s auxiliaries? Has the gate of heaven reference in Genesis 28:17 confused you? Do you consider your specific church building, the place where your church meets, the ladder between heaven and earth? What about Christ in John 1:51? And what about these verses?

1Corinthians 3:16 ¶  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Our bodies are the tabernacle where God meets with us after the resurrection because His Spirit resides in us.

John 14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

 Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

 God’s Spirit is already inside of us if we are Christians and we do not need to ask for Him to “come down and walk among the pews.” We should ask to be filled with His Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19  Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20  Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; 21 ¶  Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

 God has placed in our hearts the things He wants from us if we will hear and obey.

 Jeremiah 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

 2Corinthians 3:2  Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

 We must remember that Christ has fulfilled the Law for us. He is the fulfillment of it.

 2Corinthians 3:12 ¶  Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13  And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14  But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 15  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. 16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

 In Paul’s great argument, his letter to the Romans, he lays it out.

 Romans 10:1 ¶  Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 5  For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. 6  But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7  Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) 8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

 Always remembering that we Christians are not justified by the Law given to Moses.

 Galatians 3:19 ¶  Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. 22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

 There are many wonderful passages in Exodus. One that is revealed in the translation of great importance is this.

Exodus 12:3  Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4  And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. 5  Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

 These verses give us an understanding who Christ was and is.

 He is a lamb (verse 3), a sacrifice and ransom to God, the propitiation to satisfy God’s wrath for mankind’s sins against Him. He is the lamb (verse 4), the only way to salvation. He is your lamb (verse 5), who died for your sins on the cross at Calvary and rose for your justification.

God is with us in our wilderness wanderings as we leave the world when we are born again and often wander in the wilderness trying to find our way.  God wants to lead us, to direct us to our Promised Land, eternal life with Him. The kingdom of God is within us.

 Luke 17:20 ¶  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

 Exodus teaches us about how the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt as we are enslaved to the world before we followed Christ. The Red Sea crossing is our salvation experience as we are led by God toward what He has ordained for us. We resist and struggle against Him often and just as the generation of Hebrews that left Egypt could not enter the Promised Land neither can our flesh, in its present form, go to ours. We must leave our temporal bodies in the wilderness.

God’s glory filled the tabernacle in the wilderness and we should desire that His Spirit fill this tabernacle in which we walk and live in a fallen world. In that tabernacle is an ark that contains the testimony of God as it should be in us.

Exodus teaches so much and I have only scratched the surface. I hope you will look into it for deeper truths and more important connections than I could give you here.

[destinyclass-blog]

Hello fam,

So, I am back from the “dead.” Praise God!

I had a terrible cough and nose bleeding for a week. And traveling didn’t make it any easier. But it wasn’t all cough, blood, and tears. I met, connected with and drove with a wonderful young man for 10 hours from Redding, California to Los Angeles.

Meet Landon from Idaho.

…

He is an organic farmer (7 years running), world traveler, and extreme hiker from a wonderful family. Plus, he is only 23. Our drive was fun.

Landon shared his passion for storytelling, script writing, film, and production. But, he had questions and these questions was the sign “from heaven” to share with you.

Initially, I felt that it was premature to share this, but Landon inspired its release.

Exception: I like writing short posts. But, because of the weight and life changing nature this will be slightly long. But, it will benefit you greatly. It will change your life. I will try to be brief. (That said…)

  Here’s the deal –

We all have God-given gifts and talents. Let’s call these cluster of gifts and talents – your circle of competence. They are your strengths and can cause you to blossom.

“The gift makes way for the man.”

But –

Having gifts and talents does not mean you will succeed. Finding them doesn’t mean you will automatically grow.

However –

Understanding the lifecycle of your gifts and talents (circle of competence); and understanding where you are in that lifecycle can help you to – become clear, find peace in your search for meaning, and enable you to grow intentionally and effectively on your journey toward destiny.

And this understanding is which I share with you below is what I shared with Landon.

The Lifecycle

I found this insight from my study of the biblical account of King Solomon’s life. After King David died and Solomon became King, God visited him and asked him what he wanted.

“That night the LORD appeared to him a dream and asked him, “What would you like me to give you?” – 1 Kings 3:5

King Solomon asked for wisdom to rule wisely. God was pleased and blessed Solomon with wisdom and wealth. Then, in the following chapter (1 Kings 4), King Solomon is displays his wisdom when he solves a problem between two harlots fighting over a baby.

Here’s is where I think there is a misconception and where the unraveling of the parable begins –

I often thought that since God gave King Solomon wisdom, Solomon instantly became wise. I was wrong. Solomon was given wisdom BUT NEVER INSTANTLY became wise 

Being given wisdom by God was –

The Gift.

The gift (your gift/talent) is the profound ability to easily understand huge chunks of data in that particular field because God has wired your mind that way. It is also the capacity to easily absorb huge chunks subject matter in the field your gift is related to without becoming overwhelmed.

Though the gift is both capacity and ability, ability is dormant because the capacity is zero. That is, there is no knowledge for the ability to work on. Or the knowledge you have is little for your ability to dissect and find insight to problems, mysteries and enigmas.

Hence, the capacity first has to be filled with some knowledge for the gift ability to have fun deciphering insights, thoughts, ideas, processes, formulas, logistics, and simplistics of that knowledge (data) as it relates to that particular field.

Therefore, initially, the gift is only the capacity NOT the ability. This capacity is like a deep empty well. Key word – EMPTY!

This emptiness is like dryness and causes a thirst. Anything that is empty desires to be filled.

The Desire

This empty well and its emptiness awakens in you the thirst “to want to know” facts, laws, rules, expectations, truths…in the field that gift is related to. That is, it awakens the desire to search for “water” to fill that empty well.

The waters represents the brand/taste of knowledge (answers) that the empty well desires. The desire is to know the mechanics of how “things” work all the way to the core.

The unrest you feel, and the thoughts about that dream/vision/calling/field you are always having is ignited because of the deep desire to learn and know more: know intricate details of how something work in that field (or area of life or sphere of influence).

Feeling the unrest and having those numerous thoughts means that somehow, if you are not already aware, you perceive your gift, talent, and God-given destiny to an extent.

and, if you perceive it, it means

It about time. God is calling you from the future to take action. Its time to explore. Its time to grow. Its time to walk on ahead. Its time to take risks NOT take care. Its time to have faith.

Passion

Your quest to engage in learning in order to acquire the brand of knowledge (answer, waters) to fill the empty well is what we then refer to as Passion. When you put actions and efforts behind your quest to acquire a lot of information (as it relates to your interest) to fill the empty well and quench that insatiable desire, people observing you will describe you as Being Passionate.

And by the way,

That action and effort behind your quest to engage in learning in order to know…is all the faith you need. That’s it. That’s the first step.

Now! Because of the capacity and ability your gift creates, when you acquire knowledge, you will be able to easily understand. Thus, learning and acquiring understanding in less time so you can know and do more.

The ease with which you can learn and understand in that particular field which your gift is relates to is what you feel or and people will describe as –

“This thing (topic, subject, theory, law, algebra, cooking, painting, dancing…) comes naturally to you.”

  Referring Back to King Solomon’s Story

Solomon was given wisdom.

Wisdom, was the gift to Solomon. It gave him the ability to understand mysteries about how the world really functioned (The Mystery of Life and Existence). But, he was young when God gave him the gift of wisdom.

He had little knowledge of life and little r no life experience to work with. His capacity was still an empty well that needed filling. Sure, with God’s help, he could solve some problems. But not the majority. Thus, his unfilled capacity invoked the empty well feeling.

This empty well caused a thirst and a hunger in Solomon to explore life. It ignited a desperate desire to know the the truth about existence. He searched for answers to the questions –

Who am I? Why am I here? How then should I live?

Thus, on his quest to know (to fill the empty well), he made efforts to learn and research in order to know what he needed to know (Passion). Solomon didn’t instantly become wise.

As it says in Ecclesiastes, a book about life which King Solomon himself wrote,

“I, the Philosopher…I determined that I would examine and study all the things that are done in this world…I know what wisdom and knowledge really are. I was determined to learn the difference between knowledge and foolishness, wisdom and madness (Ecclesiastes 1:12 GNT).”

Note the words – examine, study, determined, and difference – in the verse above.

These words describe someone seeking to now, find answers, and discover patterns. Plus, no one become a philosopher without extensive reflection, study, and research across several disciplines of life. Won’t you agree?

This was why Solomon was almost obsessed with knowing more about life. That feeling of unrest to know

Because Solomon now acquired vast chunks of data about life, love, laughter, death, work, people…etc, he was now able (gift ability) to process and understand what he knew (gift capacity filled).

He was now ready through gathering insight from his understanding to apply himself and his reasoning/answers to difficult questions/problems and invent solutions.

In a sense, King Solomon received Inspired Wisdom from God. But through taming that inspired wisdom, Solomon turned Inspired Wisdom into Established Wisdom & Real Life Counsel.

  Finally,

Regardless of the industry Solomon branched into or tried his hand in, Solomon succeeded because he centered his efforts only around his core gifts and talents (circle of competence).

“God gave Solomon unusual wisdom and insight and knowledge too great to be measured…He was the wisest of all men…He composed 3000 Proverbs and more than a thousand songs…Kings all over the world heard of his wisdom and sent men to listen to him (1 Kings 4:29-34).”

Wisdom – gift

Insight – capability to understand chunks of specific subject matter

Knowledge – learning and research (student, botanist, philosopher)

3000 proverbs (writer, leader, teacher, professor), over a thousand songs (music, entertainment, poetry), and people came to learn from him (life coach, counselor, business consultant)

Now think this through.

…

This is what I picked up during my quiet times with Jesus. It is what I shared with Landon.

So, what do you think? Where are you on the lifecycle and what do you think you need to be doing in order to grow? Can you see God in the process?

Have you found yourself interested in something that you just want to read more, know more, or do more without anyone influencing it? It may not be related to your current field of work or study. Often, this is the case. How often are you on wikipedia and what are you researching? 

Do you now see why Solomon was almost obsessed with knowledge of life? He was feeling that unrest in his soul. Yes! you can trace your steps back from your quest, desire, and obsession to your gift (physical and spiritual).

But…

Come back Friday for the final piece of the Post (Demonstrated Application)

Wishing you all good health and prosperity.

  One Love – One Spirit,

Ish’mael A. Ngu

Landon is searching for a good training program that specializes in storytelling, script writing, film, and production. If you know of any in California, NY, etc…add a comment with the name of the program/institution.

CIRCLE OF COMPETENCE: YOUR GIFTS & TALENTS Hello fam, So, I am back from the "dead." Praise God! I had a terrible cough and nose bleeding for a week.

[trinitiesblog]

a reading of Philippians 2:5-11

This exposition of the famous “Carmen Christi” (hymn to Christ) in Philippians 2 was originally written as part of my rebuttal in my forthcoming debate book with Chris Date entitled Jesus is Human and Not Divine. But my rebuttal had to be cut for length. Even on Date’s own preferring reading, I don’t see that this passage assumes, states, or implies that Jesus is divine in the way the one God is divine. So I had to cut this discussion and focus on more relevant points. But these are my latest thoughts on the passage. I think the majority mistakenly impose Logos-theory-derived ideas onto this early text. Here’s my discussion:

I will now explain how I now understand the much-contested Philippians 2.[1] Many see Philippians 2 as portraying the descent of a heavenly, divine Person to become also human. I side with those scholars who think this passage is about Jesus, the man – not a godman or a god or a divine Person – and his obedience to God during his earthly life.[2]

We should keep in mind some relevant and undeniable facts. First, the event which so many interpreters claim to find here (a divine Person becoming also human) is not a clear theme in Paul’s writings. The closest parallel in Paul’s surviving letters is 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, where he is encouraging his readers to be generous with their money.[3]  Nothing in this passage’s context suggests that the sacrifice in question was before his human life. This should make us wonder whether Paul’s point in Philippians 2 might be understood without appealing to a hypothesized pre-human stage of Jesus’s life; the man “Christ Jesus” is mentioned, but there is no clear reference here to any eternal divine Person. Second, just as in 2 Corinthians 8, Paul’s point in Philippians 2 is practical, and does not obviously involve the metaphysics of Christ’s “natures.”[4] Jesus’s humble, self-sacrificing obedience is introduced as illustrating the “mind” (v. 5) that Paul wants his audience to obtain. Third, for nearly all of us, there is nothing in our experience much like the hypothesized decision of the pre-human Jesus to empty himself of something[5] so as to become human. On the other hand, Jesus’s earthly career, as portrayed in the gospels, provides many points of contact with our experiences.[6] In sum, we should wonder whether instead of being a remarkable one-off in Paul’s writings, which, oddly, briefly mentions what should be astounding news if true, and which is altogether not very apt as an example for us to imitate (this alleged descent of a heavenly divine Person) Paul is instead talking about the sorts of faithful obedience we see the man Jesus accomplish in the gospels.

I have defended one such reading elsewhere.[7] But after more study, I now think there is a more compelling reading. Here is the NET rendering, with footnotes added to express my disagreement with a few phrases and to show connections with what I and many commenters believe is a subtext, the famous suffering servant text of Isaiah 52:13-53:12.[8]

5 You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had,

6 who though he existed[9] in the form of God[10]

did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped,[11]

7 but emptied himself[12]

by taking on the form of a slave,

by looking like other men

and by sharing in human nature.[13]

8 He humbled himself,

by becoming obedient to the point of death[14]

– even death on a cross

9 As a result God highly exalted him[15]

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow

– in heaven and on earth and under the earth –

11 and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.[16]

“Form of God” (morphe theou) is a unique phrase in the New Testament; it is plausible that it was composed to make a pair with “form of a slave/servant.”[17] In a philosophical context morphe can mean essential nature, but generally it has to do with observable features.[18] More broadly, it can refer to a condition which isn’t directly observed. And we know that Paul uses related terms to refer to moral character.[19] Here the “form of God” is plausibly understood as Jesus’s God-like “manner, demeanor, and behaviour,”[20] or I would suggest, his godly character from which these flowed. Another unseen condition was that Jesus was God’s unique Son, and God chosen Messiah, a king-in-waiting. Jesus enjoyed a unique standing with God his Father who begat him, called him to be the Messiah, and was well pleased with him.[21] This “form of God” couldn’t be the essence divinity, because this one died (v.8), whereas divinity was understood to imply essential immortality, as I showed above.[22]

            I agree with Date[23] that “form of God” and “equality with God” are meant here as two descriptions of the same state. My opponent offers no reason, though, why “equality with God” must be taken in a metaphysical sense (i.e. equal in respect of essence/nature).[24] I also agree with many recent scholars that harpagmon in v. 6 is best understood as meaning “something to be exploited.” This has been much contested,[25] and the major translations are divided, but for me the most weighty consideration is not lexical but rather making sense of Paul’s thinking in this passage and in the whole letter. In this book Paul discusses a series of people who chose to lay aside their privileges in favor of self-sacrificial service to others:[26] Paul himself, who lays aside his accomplishments as a Pharisee in order to imitate Jesus’s suffering and death,[27] the believers at Philippi who should lay aside their privileges as Roman citizens in order to embrace their “citizenship in… heaven,”[28] and perhaps also Paul’s colleague Epaphroditus, who presumably left behind a normal life in order to serve Paul and others, nearly at the cost of his own life.[29] In the passage at hand Paul praises Jesus, the greatest of these self-sacrificing servant-leaders, who lays aside the privilege he has because of his special standing with God.

            On the reading I’m arguing for here, Paul has in mind Jesus’s earthly obedience to God, his self-sacrificing decision to take on the form/condition of a slave/servant, and he cites this as an example for us to imitate. We already know that the culmination of Jesus’s humiliation is his terrible death on the cross (v. 8), so we would naturally look prior to this in Jesus’s earthly life for something Paul could have in mind in v. 7 – not to an unmentioned “pre-existence” as a “divine Person” who is not a man.

Two incidents immediately come to mind.[30] First, Jesus prays to God in the garden, asking – but not demanding – to be spared from this terrible death.[31] Did Jesus, as God’s beloved Son, have the right to demand a pass? (Perhaps this is why he clarifies that his is a humble and submissive request, not a demand?) The text, of course, doesn’t say that Jesus had that right. But for that idea consider this episode, where Jesus scolds the disciple who tried to use his sword to prevent Jesus’s arrest.

Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?[32]         

Here Jesus seems to imply that he has the right to ask God for an angelic rescue, and that if he did ask, it would be sent. But he is willingly foregoing that privilege in order to fulfill the scriptures, following what he knows to be God’s will.[33]

In sum, Paul picks an example that is relevant to his readers’ lives: the sacrificial, humble, other-preferring obedience of the man Jesus. In response to this obedience God raised and exalted him,[34] and the reader is to remember that we too will be raised and exalted,[35] if we persevere in the faithful, self-sacrificing obedience.

[1] I do this to demonstrate my commitment to New Testament teaching, as it was originally meant (not necessarily how it’s been interpreted by later traditions), even though it is not relevant to this debate, since even on my opponent’s reading, it falls far short of his desired conclusion.

[2] While many English-speaking evangelicals associate this sort of reading with James Dunn (Christology in the Making, 114–21; The Theology of Paul the Apostle, 281–88.), such readings have been held by many recent scholars, both Catholic and Protestant. (Kuschel, Born Before All Time, 243–66.) These have independently arrived at readings broadly similar to those which many early modern unitarian Christians held. (e.g. Farley, Unitarianism Defined, 107–8; Crellius et al., The Racovian Catechism, 119–21.) Date gives the impression that this sort of Jesus’s-earthly-life reading has been decisively ruled out, but this is not so.

[3] “…though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9.) Jesus’s literal wealth and poverty are not the issue here, but rather his example in graciously giving up something, presumably his life, when he willingly went to the cross.

[4] His overarching point is the exhortation to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3)

[5] Heavenly glory? Divine prerogatives? Typical but not essential divine attributes? The exercise of divine attributes? Commenters who take the passage to be about Incarnation are divided here.

[6] Like him, many of us are tested by the death of a friend, family troubles, various temptations, persecution, or clashes between what we desire and what we believe to be God’s will for us. Some of us even face a choice between disobedience and death.

[7] “Trinities Podcast 49.”

[8] As Date points out, some scholars reject any reference to Adam in this passage (e.g. Fee, Pauline Christology, 376, 390–93.) I agree with many other commenters who see some allusions to Adam here, despite the lack of common words with the known Greek versions of Genesis. But nothing in the reading I present here depends on any allusion or reference to Adam in the passage.

[9] As Perry points out, “being” is a better translation here. (“Philippians 2:5-11,” 5.)

[10] “My servant” (Isaiah 52:13); “The righteous one” (Isaiah 53:11).

[11] I think “something to be exploited” makes more sense, for the reason given below.

[12] “he poured out himself to death” (Isaiah 53:12).

[13] The NET translators observe that literally this line is “and by being found in form as a man.” I think “by sharing human nature” is a translation mistake; Paul is not making the point that Jesus (the man!) somehow gained human nature when he emptied himself. Rather, the point is that in this humble state he shared the typical human condition, or at any rate, that Jesus was like other humans. Also, like Perry (3.) and some other translators, I would take “and by sharing in human nature” to be the start of a new sentence which continues in v. 8.

[14] “By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.” (Isaiah 53:8)

[15] “he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.” (Isaiah 52:13)

[16] Philippians 2:5-11, NET. This compressed and repetitive passage is plausibly seen as pre-composed, perhaps even a hymn which pre-dates Paul’s ministry. In the end an interpreter has no choice but to treat these as Paul’s words. In any case, its vocabulary is plausibly Pauline; nothing in it, despite its rare words and phrases, rules out Paul as the author. (Keown, Philippians 1:1-2:18, 353, 367.)

[17] Perry, “Philippians 2:5-11,” 3–4.

[18] Keown, Philippians 1:1-2:18, 387; Hellerman, “Morphe Theou,” 784–86.

[19] E.g. Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed [metamorphousthe] by the renewing of your minds…”; 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed [metamorphoumetha] into the same image from one degree of glory to another…”; Galatians 4:19 “My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed [morphothe] in you…”

[20] Perry, “Philippians 2:5-11,” 7. Perry points out that according to John Jesus said that “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) (Ibid.) The “seeing” here is obviously not normal sight (revealing that, e.g. like God Jesus is 5’8” tall) but rather perception of their inward resemblances such as character, wisdom, and intention. As Jesus says elsewhere in this book, his teaching comes from God and he and God are cooperating together in action. (John 14:10, 24)

[21] Matthew 3:17.

[22] Perry also observes, “Commentators who accept that morphe is about what is manifest for seeing maystill consider that the outward appearance is indicative of an inner reality and see an affirmation of Christ’s pre-existent deity. The problem with this interpretative strategy is that it is the man Christ Jesus who is the ‘form of God’, and so the deity which Jesus showed was that of the Father. The ‘form of God’ is what is shown if a human being perfectly fulfils being an ‘image of God’ (Gen 1:26). Thus, ‘form of God’ cannot be indicative of Christ’s own pre-existent deity. What could be seen in Christ was the Father, but this is not just a matter of accident; Paul’s two participles are set in contrast, ‘being…taking’ and ‘being in’ indicates that Christ had in his human nature, and the outworking of that nature, what could be seen about God. The origin of his human nature is explained by the Gospel birth stories, which Paul doesn’t recount. Instead, he has an emphasis on God making his son (Gal 4:4) and it is this making that explains how the Son is in the form of God; necessarily, there isn’t any idea of pre-existence.” (“Philippians 2:5-11,” 9.)

[23] And many interpreters, e.g. Hellerman, “Morphe Theou,” 788.

[24] And to the contrary, Hellerman plausibly argues that “A variety of sources specifically associates the idea of equality with God with the position of a king or emperor, using language similar to Paul’s. And given the centrality of the imperial cult in the social and religious life of the colony at Philippi, it is quite likely that Paul has emperor veneration directly in view in einai isa theo [“to be equal with God”] in Phil 2:6. …the ruler-to-god comparison relates to status, honor, and/or the exercise of authority – not to substance or essential nature. (788–89.) He goes on to cite examples from three second-century sources. He also points out the contrary term in the context “form of a servant/slave,” arguably should be understood in the same ontological or non-ontological sense as “form of God.” Finally, he offers a garment-based argument, which in my view is unconvincing. (“Philippians 2:5-11,” sec. 5.)

[25] See the discussion in Perry, “Philippians 2:5-11,” sec. 3.

[26] I own this insight to Dustin Smith. (Smith, “Biblical Unitarian Podcast 13”; Tuggy and Smith, “Trinities Podcast 268.”)

[27] Philippians 3:4-11.

[28] Philippians 3:15-21.

[29] Philippians 2:25-30. Paul’s colleague Timothy too is held up as a model servant, although no loss or peril is mentioned in connection with him. (Philippians 2:19-23) (Keown, Philippians 1:1-2:18, 375–76.)

[30] In the gospels, self-sacrificing service and humility instead of self-aggrandizement are Jesus’s normal way. We could cite his successful resistance of Satan’s temptations, his foot-washing, and his refusals to defend himself against his accusers, all of which would involve his not taking advantage of his high position as God’s Messiah and beloved Son.

[31] “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” (Matthew 25:39; also: Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42.)

[32] Matthew 26:52-54.

[33] Which scriptures? Plausibly these would include the passage Paul has in mind here: Isaiah 52-53. Perry also reads the unusual phrase in v. 7, which he would translate as “being found in appearance as (a) man,” as “Paul’s euphemism for the stripping naked of Christ,” citing Matthew 27:28. (“Philippians 2:5-11,” 20–21.).

[34] Notice that Paul doesn’t in any way hint that Jesus is returning to an exalted state, or that he is worshiped because he is divine. Rather, he is exalted because of his faithful obedience, and he is worshiped because of the position he’s been given, to the glory of God.

[35] Compare: 1 Corinthians 15; Revelation 3:18-22.

https://trinities.org/blog/a-reading-of-philippians-25-11/

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Tips for Personal Spiritual Growth

“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19 NKJV

If you’ve been seeking God it is likely that you have read passages like the one above. Passages that describe an intimate relationship with God and an experiential knowledge of His love. I have often long for this and sometimes I feel closer to it, while at other times I feel light-years away.

Our relationship with God, like any other relationship, can feel like a roller-coaster ride, with extreme highs and lows. Churches tend to be good at programming, and programs can be awesome. But what happens when you can’t attend one, or none are available for months at a time, or when you go off to college or you chase your career to a place without vibrant church events? How do you continue to grow spiritually on your own?

I am not saying that these steps I will describe below should replace corporate worship, but rather they can help you between events, and these are practices you can take with you wherever you go. Events can still provide a spiritual boost, but you won’t be dependent solely on them for your personal spiritual growth.

“You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:17-18 NKJV

Peter warns us about falling from our steadfastness in 2 Peter 3:17 (different translations). You can know about God but fall away from a relationship with Him. The best way to avoid falling from your secure position or stability is to continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

A little bit about myself so you can better understand where I am coming from. I grew up in a Christian home, my father is a church pastor and my mother often stayed at home to care for my sister and I. I grew up with my parents having family worship, reading from devotionals, studying the Sabbath school lesson, reading from Bible story books and the Bible itself. As I grew older, I was strongly encouraged to read and study for myself. I have been reading and studying the Bible my whole life. Throughout my life I have tried different approaches and my devotional life has gone through several changes and adjustments as I attended public high school, when I studied theology for my undergraduate degree, then as a full time associate pastor and husband, then as a student at the seminary for my master’s degree in divinity, then as a youth pastor and new parent, then as the pastor of a two church district and father of two very young children and now as the pastor of a church with a school and the parent of school-age children. As I have moved through different stages in life my devotional life had to change and adapt. This post is about my current approach. I believe this is an improved approach since it has been shaped by years of experience and adjustments. However, I can see how changes may need to be made to adjust it to your life stage as a student, professional, parent, retired, or wherever you may be in life. One thing I do want to stress is that you make time to invest in your spiritual growth because it is vital! Your spiritual growth, or lack thereof, will shape every aspect of your life.

Prayer

Jesus told his disciples a story about how they should keep on praying and never give up: Luke 18:1 Contemporary English Version

I have some posts on prayer you might find helpful, Always Pray, Ask, Some of my Favorite Bible Verses on Prayer, Spiritual Warfare. I am passionate about prayer and emphasize it strongly at my local church. I believe spiritual growth begins with prayer. We should pray before reading the Bible and prayer also helps set the mood for the day, for your personal devotional, prayer is crucial for spiritual growth.

Tips for prayer:

Don’t make prayer about bringing your wishlist to God, but rather approach Him as you would a friend, and tell Him all about your day, about your night, how you slept, your dreams and fears, your plans for the day, for your life, for your career, family, etc. Talk to God, don’t limit your prayer to requests. Also, don’t feel like you have to use archaic or flowery language when you come to God in prayer.

You learn to pray by doing it. Push yourself to pray longer prayers. Have a prayer list, pray for specific people with specific problems, name them in your prayer. Go through your prayer list, talk to God about the people and issues/challenges in your list. You would be amazed at how good it can feel after having a long talk with God. Do not limit yourself to praying prayers you have heard others pray.

If you think some structure might help you, here is one I often use.

Praise

Begin your prayer by praising God for who He is. List His qualities, talk about His power and goodness and love and patience and willingness to forgive and save. This helps you become aware of who it is you are talking to. A praise session at the beginning of your prayer will also boost your faith.

Thanksgiving

Transition to thanking God for what He has done. He has given you another day of life, think of what else He has done for you or your family and loved ones in the past. Remembering what God has done will also build your faith. Thanking God will also change your attitude towards Him and life. Being thankful can really help you feel better, we all have things to be thankful for, it is just a matter of making the effort to count our blessings.

Confession

Confess your sins. Humble yourself before God. He already knows, so just turn to Him and tell Him the areas where you are struggling, confess, ask for forgiveness and deliverance. Bare your soul to God. He is your only hope of victory over those struggles. Prayer should be part of every recovery program, of every battle against addiction, of every therapy session, make God an integral part in every area of your life. God uses professionals and medical advances and medicine but that does not mean that we leave Him out of the picture. I would strongly recommend you to include Him in all you do. Confessing your sins is also beneficial because being reminded of your failures, rebellion, and shortcomings also puts things into perspective as you approach God and as you deal with others. Confession keeps you humble.

Requests

Now you are ready to bring your requests to God. After spending time praising God, thanking Him and confessing your sins, you are in the right frame of mind to bring your requests before Him. Be specific, tell Him your plans and desires, your struggles and weaknesses and fears. Ask Him to be your Strength and the Source of all your victories. This is also a great opportunity for you to claim Bible promises. I have a list of Bible verses that help me with this (Some of my Favorite Bible Verses for Prayer). I would like to encourage you to create one as well. I still add move verses to my list as I come across them as I read the Bible.

Closing

I would recommend you end your prayers by asking God to answer according to His will. It is important to understand we don’t always know what is best or what to ask for. Sometimes we ask for things that are too small and He wants to give us so much more. Other times we are asking for things that are not beneficial and it would be better for God to answer with a “no.” And sometimes we are asking for the right thing, only at the wrong time, and God will answer, in His time. So asking for His will to be done is the best way to end a prayer. I would also add a “Thank You!” This is by faith, I thank God for listening and for answering my prayer according to His will, His plans for my life, and His power and grace, recognizing He is able and might just answer in a way I never expected.

Bible Study

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 NKJV

I could say a lot on this one as well but I will keep it brief for now.

Begin with a prayer asking God to speak to you and keep the distractions away as you study.

Translation

Make sure you are reading from a version you understand. King James Version is beautiful and poetic, but if you have no idea what you are reading I am afraid you will miss out on blessings that come from having a better understanding of what you are reading. The Bible is already a challenging book to read, don’t add to the challenge by reading it in a language that is not familiar to you. Go to a place where they sell Bibles and read the same passage in different translations and see which one you like, do some research online, there are so many English translations, find one you like. If you want you can message me and we can talk about this further (there should be social media links on the top right of the screen on my blog) or you can leave a comment on the bottom of this post.

Journal

This is a new addition for me. I keep it really simple. I simply write down the passage I read, followed by a brief overview of what the passage was about and a brief description of what I took away from it. Summarizing what I read in my own words helps me internalize what I just read, and having to write at least one takeaway from the passage forces me to reflect on what I read. I find that this simple habit of journaling has helped me listen more carefully to God as I read His words. I read and think, what is God telling me in this passage?

Relationships

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25NKJV

If you believe you can experience spiritual growth all by yourself you are gravely mistaken. One cannot grow spiritually in a vacuum because spiritual growth is deeply relational. It is all about loving God with all your heart and soul and might and your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV

I strongly believe that the way you treat those around you, the quality of your relationships, is the ultimate test of your spiritual health. Those around you should be first ones to notice your spiritual growth, not from your theological exposition over meals but rather by your behavior, by the amount and quality of the love you have in your life. A healthy spirituality, an honest and sincere walk with God will shine from your soul and impact those around you. You will begin to experience the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV

This is where the rubber meets the road. Schedule this in your day. Your personal devotion cannot be just something you do when you have time. If you do not make this a priority and intentionally carve out time it will not happen as often as it needs to. You need this daily. Your personal devotions are not a hobby, your relationship with God is not something you do on the weekends as you have free time, it is the most important thing in your life. That’s the thing with God, He is either #1 in your life or He is nothing.

And God spoke all these words, saying:

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:1-3 NKJV

When God wrote the 10 Commandments with His own finger on tablets of stone He began with a command for us to not have any other gods before Him. Guess what, whatever crowds God out of your life has replaced Him as God.

Allow me to elaborate.

If ever since you joined social media you have not had time to do your personal devotionals like you used to, it has become a god in your life. If ever since you started college you have not had time to spend in prayer or Bible study, your education has become your god. Your new job, relationship, pet, favorite TV show, streaming service, sport, you name it. Here is the truth, you have time to do what you believe is important, whatever doesn’t get done didn’t get done because it was not important enough.

Let that sink in.

If you “don’t have time” to invest in your relationship with God it is only because you do not think it is important enough. I am not saying you have time to do everything you want to or even need to, what I am saying is that when you decided to leave out your devotional time you made a mistake. Yes, if you are too busy you will have to remove some things from your day, you will have to make changes, but you cannot afford to not make time for God.

If you are willing to say that your personal relationship with God is the most important thing in your life, then make sure it happens every day.

Maybe you feel like it doesn’t make that much of a difference, maybe you have done it one day and skipped a few and everything seemed the same. I would like to compare it to eating. Choosing to eat a healthy meal instead of eating junk may not feel like it made a difference, choosing to drink water instead of soda today may seem insignificant, but what happens when I stop drinking soda or eating junk for a week, a month, a year? Same with exercising. Skipping the gym one day may not seem to make a difference, but if you skip a week or a month, a year, it begins to make a difference. The same way, going to the gym once a week or a few times a month or eating healthy three times a month will not have the same impact of doing it every day. Working out or eating healthy inconsistently is just frustrating, it always feels like a chore, it never becomes enjoyable and you never get to experience the benefits you would experience if you were more intentional and consistent. Consistency is the key, and consistency will never become a reality if you are not intentional about it.

It is very possible to go through your devotional routine on autopilot, and by that I mean, without really listening to God, without really opening your heart to Him. You need to make this real, be real with God and expect Him to come through and speak to you. Don’t do your personal devotion as if it were a good luck ritual. Don’t make it a mindless activity, rather look at it as the key to happy and successful life. Your day, your week, your year, your life will rise and fall on the quality of the time you spend with God. Without God your greatest achievements will become sand in your mouth. With God even your biggest defeats will be full or hope and incredible growth to the point of you being able to thank God and be at peace even when everything seems to be going wrong. When you are close to God you become unstoppable, nothing in this universe will be able to keep you from achieving what God has planned for you. Look at the life of Paul as an example.

From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11:24-28 NKJV

You could look at the list above and see a life full of suffering and you would be correct. But I also see a man that Satan could not stop. The government could not stop Paul, religious groups could not stop Paul, neither could the weather, or poisonous snakes. Paul simply could not be stopped until he had fulfilled the mission for which God called Him.

I never said it would be easy, I just said you would be unstoppable. When you find yourself in God’s will you can depend on Him to take care of all the struggles and challenges you ever face. Imagine going through life with the assurance that in the end everything will workout.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 NKJV

So when you have your personal devotions come to God expecting to hear form Him, expect His help, ask Him to guide you and to reveal Himself and His will to you. Don’t just go through the motions but make it meaningful, open your heart, tell Him everything and open yourself to His will and his guiding influence.

The picture above has a recommendation. This is my personal daily routine. You don’t have to follow it, or you could use it as a template and modify it to fit where you are in life. I just find that in the morning my mind is sharp and fresh, okay fine, sometimes drowsy with sleep but that’s why I added the water part. Also mornings are quieter, no phone calls, no kids asking for things, no noise. Also having my devotional in the morning allows be to begin my day with God, and that make it that much easier to face all the challenges that lie ahead.

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Distilling the essence of the Sermon on the Mount: An Invitation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Image credit: Sermon on the Mount by Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507)

This year I have been reading an edited volume of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s written works. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who joined the resistance against the Nazi regime during World War II and was eventually captured and executed for treason. Among other things, he wrote of his disapproval of the German Lutheran church for their support of the Nazis and his belief that the wider Christian church would need to be reformed to remain relevant in our postmodern age.

Throughout his writings, I have frequently been struck by Bonhoeffer’s comments on the Sermon on the Mount. To him, there was no higher encapsulation of Christian theology and ideals in all the Bible, nor a higher priority for Christian obedience.

Although I’ve of course read the Sermon many times before, I thought I’d go back and try to give it a “fresh look” in light of Bonhoeffer’s writing and perspectives. While there are many, many ways to study and interpret scripture, I opted to go for a broad view this time. Instead of digging deep into every word and phrase, I tried to discern “meta-themes” and broad generalizations from this collection of the sayings of Jesus. Of course, others more able than I have studied the Sermon on the Mount for centuries. I merely offer my own inadequate and amateur thoughts here.

This is what I came up with:

Matthew 5-7, NRSV:

[Matthew 5] The Sermon on the Mount; the Beatitudes

1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Above all, begin from a place of love and try to let that love guide your actions, values, and priorities as much as possible.

The disciple in the world

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Try to be a force for goodness and light in the world.

Jesus and the law

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus did not come to contradict the commandments, and yet he frequently disregarded prevailing authoritative/institutional interpretations of commandments, religious practices, and religious values. The motive of love described here, then, doesn’t contradict commandments, yet working from a place of love might put someone in conflict with prevailing authoritative interpretations of commandments. When this happens, the “higher law” is love and should be prioritized.

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Try to be calm and do not react out of anger; act only after you’re calm, especially in interpersonal relationships.

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

In questions of ethics and morality, the motives behind actions weigh as much as (if not more than) the consequences.

33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Be pure and genuine in your interpersonal interactions.

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 40 and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41 and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42 Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

Love and wholeness

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Reciprocity is a less-mature ethical framework. Instead, try to let your actions exhibit love toward all, regardless of their actions toward you. 

[Matthew 6] On justice and prayer

1 “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

The LORD’s Prayer

9 “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Fasting

16 “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

When determining the morality or ethics of an action, try to avoid as much as possible the motive of external approval (what other’s think of you). Rather, focus as much as possible on internal ethical imperatives and personal integrity.

Religion and possessions

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

What you love and desire drives your choices and actions. Where is your love? What actions will flow from the object of that love?

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Try to be mindfully present as much as possible in all that you do.

[Matthew 7] Making judgments within the community

1 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

Again, try to let love be the primary motive of your actions and give others the benefit of the doubt as much as possible. 

6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

You are not obligated to explain yourself to others when they don’t understand you, and you can’t control what they think about you.

Concluding the Sermon on the Mount

7 “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? 10 Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

God desperately wants to be close to you. Don’t turn away God’s love for fear of unworthiness, insecurity, or self-doubt. God loves you infinitely: accept it, believe it, and embrace it.

12 “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. 14 For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits.

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell — and great was its fall!”

In discerning what is good and what is from God, focus on its fruits. Does it bear good fruit (in particular: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control)? If so, you know it’s good and from God, whether or not it conforms to prevailing orthodoxies or authoritative paradigms.

28 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, 29 for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

God often works outside what are perceived to be the institutional power structures of authority.

…

From there, I collected these various meta-themes and tried to discern common patterns, threads, or themes among them. This is what I came up with to represent the essence of the Sermon on the Mount:

One’s internal motive and frame of mind are the foundations of ethical action, which can be enhanced by calmness and mindful presence.

The rightness/goodness/morality of actions/ideas is directly and positively correlated to the amount of pure love that is manifest in them. Pure love is the highest morality as it is the purest distillation of the essence of God.

Motivations of external approval, reciprocity, and conformity to institutional/authoritative orthodoxy, while appropriate in some (perhaps many) circumstances, are less mature/praiseworthy motivations for ethical action than that of pure love.

…

Profound questions:

Is this a reasonable distillation of the essence of Jesus’s teachings in the Sermon on the Mount? Why or why not?

Is this a reasonable distillation of the essence of Christianity as a moral/ethical framework? Why or why not?

As discussed at the beginning of the post, Bonhoeffer believed the Sermon on the Mount to be the purest expression of Christian ideals and the highest guiding authority for Christian obedience. If one were to adopt the three points listed above as an ethical framework, would it be enough to qualify as “Christian”? Why or why not?

Is the “meta-theme” approach a useful way to interpret scripture? Why or why not? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

What insights can a Mormon interpretive framework add to the effort to distill the essence of the Sermon on the Mount?

Many have observed core similarities between the essence of Christianity and the essence of Buddhism as moral and ethical philosophies (see here and here, e.g.). At its core, are Buddhism and the Sermon on the Mount teaching the same fundamental principles? Why or why not?

Regardless of whether or not you agree with my interpretation, do you agree with Bonhoeffer that the Sermon on the Mount is the highest expression of Christian ideals and morality? Why or why not?

Discuss.

    Distilling the essence of the Sermon on the Mount: An Invitation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer published first on https://bitspiritspace.tumblr.com/

[tpanan]

My Monday Daily Blessings

March 19, 2018

Be still quiet your heart and mind, the LORD is here, loving you talking to you...........

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Catholic Observance)

Lectionary: 543, Liturgical Year B

First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16

The LORD spoke to Nathan and said: "Go, tell my servant David, "When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,

I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.'"

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29

"The Son of David will live."

Second Reading: Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22

Brothers and sisters: It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith. For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us, as it is written, I have made you father of many nations.

He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist.

He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become the father of many nations, according to what was said, Thus shall your descendants be.

That is why it was credited to him as righteousness.

Verse before the Gospel: Psalm 84:5

"Blessed are those who dwell in your house, O Lord; they never cease to praise you.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.

For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.

**Meditation:

Are you prepared to obey the Lord in everything? Faith in God's word and obedience to his commands go hand in hand. Joseph, like Mary, is a model of faith and justice. Matthew tells us that Joseph was a "just man". John Chrysostom (347-407 AD), a gifted preacher and bishop of Constantinople, comments on the great virtue we see in Joseph which qualified him to be a worthy guardian and foster father for the child Jesus:

"The concept of 'just' here signifies the man who possesses all the virtues. By 'justice' one at times understands only one virtue in particular, as in the phrase: the one who is not avaricious (greedy) is just. But 'justice' also refers to virtue in general. And it is in this sense, above all, that scripture uses the word 'justice'. For example, it refers to: a just man and true (cf. Job 1:1), or the two were just (cf. Luke 1:6). Joseph, then, being just, that is to say good and charitable..."

Joseph believed and obeyed God's instruction Joseph's faith was put to the test when he discovered that his espoused wife Mary was pregnant. Joseph, being a just and God-fearing man, did not wish to embarrass, punish, or expose Mary to harm. To all outward appearances it looked as if she had broken their solemn pledge to be chaste and faithful to one another. Joseph, no doubt took this troubling matter to God in prayer. He was not hasty to judge or to react with hurt or anger.

God rewarded him not only with guidance and consolation, but with the divine assurance that he had indeed called Joseph to be the husband of Mary and to assume a mission that would require the utmost faith, confidence, and trust in Almighty God. Joseph believed in the divine message to take Mary as his wife and to accept the child in her womb as the promised Messiah, who is both the only begotten Son of God and son of Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Joseph is a man of faith and fatherly care Joseph was a worthy successor to the great patriarchs of the old covenant - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joseph followed the call of God through the mysterious circumstances that surrounded the coming of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah who fulfilled all the promises made to Abraham and his offspring. God entrusted this silent, humble man with the unique privilege of raising, protecting, teaching, and training Jesus as a growing child. Joseph accepted his role of fatherly care with faith, trust, and obedience to the will of God. He is a model for all who are entrusted with the care, instruction, and protection of the young. Joseph is a faithful witness and servant of God's unfolding plan of redemption.

The Lord guides and strengthens all who trust in him Are you ready to put your trust in the Lord to give you his help and guidance in fulfilling your responsibilities? God gives strength and guidance to those who seek his help, especially when we face trials, doubts, fears, perplexing circumstances, and what seems like insurmountable problems and challenges in our personal lives. God our heavenly Father has not left us alone, but has given us his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be our savior, teacher, lord, and healer. Where do you need God's help, strength, and guidance? Ask the Lord to increase your faith and trust in his promises and in his guiding hand in your life.

**Prayer:    

"Lord Jesus, you came to free us from the power of sin, fear, and death, and to heal and restore us to wholeness of life. May I always trust in your saving help, guidance, wisdom, and plan for my life."

Sources:

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

**Meditations may be freely reprinted for non-commercial use. Cite copyright & source: www.dailyscripture.net author Don Schwager© 2015 Servants of the Word  

[the-christian-walk]

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FROM THE WORD OF GOD (PART 2)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com. In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

 "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and advise one another with all wisdom, as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

 Colossians 3:12-17

 This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

 Yesterday, we looked at the first five resolutions from the word of God, taken from a message I delivered at a church service just before New Year’s Day several years ago. Today, we look at the second part of that message and the top five resolutions. Feel free to share with others and may the Lord richly bless you and yours in all things in 2018!

5. Be thankful.

There’s a popular saying that says, "Count your blessings...and when you get done, count them again." Too often, we lose sight of all the great and awesome things the Lord has done in our lives. In fact, just me being here writing this and you being where you are reading it is a blessing in its own right and something we should be so very thankful for. Just the fact that we are living and breathing is a good reason to be thankful.

 Indeed, God has blessed us with the gift of life this very moment even though we deserve nothing good from Him. We are all sinners who stand before a God who despises sin and yet He still is mindful of us. He loves us and cares for us, so much so that He was not willing to let us perish, instead offering up His one and only Son Jesus as the atoning sin sacrifice for all mankind, once and for all.

 Through Jesus, everyone has an opportunity for salvation and that in its own right should take us to a place of complete gratitude. For God doesn’t just offer us life in the here and now but forever through Jesus.

 So the next time life’s circumstances start to drag you down the road of begrudging the life you have, refocus yourself on the cross and remember how very blessed you are. If you do, I am convinced you’ll find your life attitude turn toward thanksgiving and praise unto the One who gives us every good and perfect thing from above, now and forever more.

 Resolution #5: Be thankful in all circumstances.

4. Let the word of God dwell in you richly.

How good are you at time management?

 Our days seem to get ever busier as we run from obligation to obligation, from event to event. There seldom seems to be enough time in the day. In fact, too often as we arrange and prioritize our time, we schedule so much that we squeeze the most important things out, like quiet time with the Lord in prayer and scripture reading.

Friends, God blesses us with time. We all get 24 hours a day and He expects us to invest it wisely. Yet, too often we skip giving some of that time to Him every day and jump into living life void of the wisdom, guidance and strength we need to make it through situations we encounter. We often sit in dismay and depression, lost and in need of help, even when that help is just a few minutes of prayer or bible reading away.

We need to remember that all the knowledge, insight, and direction we need is fully found in the Bible, God’s Holy Word, His instruction manual on life given to us so we can make it day by day by day. When we read it, study it, and pray over it, then it comes alive and dwells in our hearts and minds, illuminating our path as we walk down the pathways of life.

 I believe that God would say this to us as we start 2018:

 “Make more time for My word so you know what to do with the life and time I provide you. Discover my will and purposes for you and then carry them out. Allow My Holy Spirit to provide you a greater understanding of My word and allow that understanding to dwell richly within your heart, mind, and soul.”

3. Teach and advise one another with all wisdom.

We can only do this if we have wisdom within us. And that wisdom is not our own wisdom or worldly wisdom but the wisdom that comes from the Father above.

This resolution only happens when we adhere to the preceding one and let God’s word dwell richly within us. Our study of Holy Scripture will lead to spiritual wisdom as it takes hold within our hearts. Then, God would say, "Don’t keep My word to yourself but rather take the learning you have received from Me and use it to teach one another." In fact, Jesus gave us that instruction in His Great Commission. He told us to "teach others to obey all that He had commanded" (Matthew 28:20).

In the end translation, we learn what the Lord commands and understand His expectations only by reading the Bible, meditating on our reading and then putting it into action. The call for us in the new year is to be not only be active in learning from God’s word ourselves but also proactive in teaching others about Jesus using the wisdom God places within us.

2. Sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

Do you have a favorite song? What is it about that song that makes it your favorite?

 Most often, it is because the song makes you feel good. It has a way of elevating you above whatever might be happening in your day and brings joy to you for the moment you listen to it.

Personally, I have found that music has an effect on the soul unlike any other medium. Whether it's a praise and worship song, a contemporary Christian song, or a classic hymn, spiritual music is a gift from God that brings us into the attitude of worship and adoration unlike any secular song can.

 In 2018, examine the music you’re listening to and ask yourself these questions:

 Do these songs glorify God? Do they edify me spiritually?

My prayer would be that you truly sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your heart toward God this year. I share a Song of the Day every day through this ministry to offer up the gift of Christian music to my followers. So when you lift your voice up to sing along with that song or any other, do so in a way that the Lord will feel your fullest gratitude.

 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

1. Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Is there a more suitable number one resolution that God would have for us in 2018 or any other year for that matter?

For in this resolution, there is no gray area or exception, just the requirement for us all to do everything in the name of Jesus, all the while giving thanks to God for the indescribable gift of salvation and eternal life through His Son who He gave freely to pay the price for our sins.

Once again I ask:

 Is there any greater resolution we could make for the new year?

 And is there any more challenging resolution for us to carry out in such a sin-filled world?

The good news is that we can meet this challenge, just as we can meet any challenge, through the power and strength of Christ within us. Truly, as God’s word assures us we can "do all things through Christ who strengthens us" (Philippians 4:13) but only if we allow Him to come within and dwell in our heart, mind, and soul. For if Christ lives within us, then we will truly be able to do everything, whether in word or deed, in His name. And that kind of life, my friends, will always one that is pleasing in the sight of God the Father.

In closing, I pray we will live out the verses of this passage from Colossians in the new year. For if we do, we will find ourselves in the very spirit of God’s will for us in Christ Jesus!

I look forward to a great year ahead in the Lord and wish all of you a very Happy New Year!

 Tomorrow, we’ll return to our study of the Gospels and the life and ministry of Jesus.

 Amen.

 In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

[pamphletstoinspire]

Catholic Physics - Reflections of a Catholic Scientist - Part 16

Should we shun the God of the Old Testament?

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

"... the dangers of believing in a God whom we cannot but regard as evil, and then, in mere terrified flattery calling Him ‘good’ and worshiping Him, is still greater danger. The ultimate question is whether the doctrine of the goodness of God or that of the inerrancy of Scriptures is to prevail when they conflict. I think the doctrine of the goodness of God is the more certain of rhe two. Indeed, only that doctrine renders this worship of Him obligatory or even permissible." C.S. Lewis, Letter to John Beversluis, God in the Dock

"...As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New." Catechism of the Catholic Church #129 (reference is to St. Augustine of Hippo).

While reading a very fine post by Matt Briggs, You can't get something from nothing, a commentary on Hart's The Experience of God, I came across the following comments to his post:

"The Abrahamic tradition – all its branches – conflates the infinite entity which has a huge number of names given to it – God, Brahma, the Tao (I think), the Source and probably numbers of others, which is by definition unknowable and beyond space and time and may or may not have a personality – with Yahweh, the vicious, bloodthirsty, jealous and utterly unreasonable god of a desert people in 3000 BCE. Some time around then, some priest came up with the idea that THEIR god was chief among them all, and made it stick."

"However, why must everyone confuse this putative Being with that rank imposter – the vicious, jealous, bloodthirsty deity of an ancient nomadic desert tribe?"

I'll disregard the nascent anti-semitism (anti-judaism?) of these comments and put them down as due to naive, untutored knowledge of Holy Scripture, that cherry-pick the bad amongst all that the Old Testament offers.  They bring to mind the 2nd century heretic Marcion, a Gnostic who proclaimed that the god of the Old Testament was a demiurge, an evil and lesser counterpart of God, the Father of Jesus, and that the Old Testament was not to be regarded as Holy Scripture.  Tertullian and Augustine both disproved his arguments.

Now I'll admit that I am bothered during my daily readings in the Liturgy of the Hours when I come across " that your feet may wade in the blood of your foes, while the tongues of your dogs have their share." (Psalm 68:23) and particularly Psalm 149, which occurs frequently for the Morning Prayer:  

"May the praise of God be in their mouths  and a double-edged sword in their hands,to inflict vengeance on the nations  and punishment on the peoples,to bind their kings with fetters,  their nobles with shackles of iron,"

There are other parts of the Old Testament that disturb contemporary sensibilities:  Abram offering his wife Sarai to the Pharaoh, as his sister (Gen 12:10-20); Joshua slaughtering all the inhabitants of Jericho down to children and animals, except for the prostitute Rahab (Joshua 6:1-27); Judah, Er, Onan and Tamar in a story straight out of the raunchiest TV soap opera (Gen 28).  What can we say to all this blood, guts and sex? That God did not intend His word to be proclaimed by dictating machines: the Holy Spirit inspired those who put Scripture into writing, but the words and matter would be that which would be meaningful to the intended audience.  I would guess that in Hebrew, like contemporary Arabic, imagery was an important component of the message.  Moreover, in the warlike world of the ancient Middle East, a God who did not smite your enemy was not really a God worth worshipping.  And can one claim any peace loving message from the Greek, Roman, Norse or Teutonic pantheon?

All the above neglects the fundamental message of the Old Testament: that God has chosen his people Israel, the children of Abraham, to be a light unto the world, that he is a forgiving and loving God, who over and over again has forgiven them for straying from him.  We see the messages of love: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord" (Lev 19:18); "for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God" (Ruth 1:16); Hosea 11.  Moreover, if we believe that our life on earth is only an interlude in an eternity--heaven, hell, purgatory--and that even for those who did not or have not yet heard the message of Christ there may be salvation, then these bloody deaths are secondary in achieving what God wills, that He be known, first to His Chosen People, and then through Christ and the Apostles to the world.   Thus, the Old Testament commandment to love your neighbor (and the alien in your midst) becomes the New Testament commandment to love your enemy.  Benedict XVI's comment sums this up:

"The great difficulty with the Old Testament, because of its lack of rhetorical beauty and of lofty philosophy, was resolved in Saint Ambrose’s preaching through his typological interpretation of the Old Testament: Augustine realized that the whole of the Old Testament was a journey toward Jesus Christ. Thus, he found the key to understanding the beauty and even the philosophical depth of the Old Testament and grasped the whole unity of the mystery of Christ in history as well as the synthesis between philosophy, rationality, and faith in the Logos, in Christ, the Eternal Word who was made flesh. "  Church Fathers: from Clement of Rome to Augustine.

I urge those more knowledgeable than I in Scripture (and there are many) to flesh out these arguments.

From a series of articles written by: Bob Kurland - a Catholic Scientist

[dailyaudiobible]

09/08/2018 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 1:1-2:22, 2 Corinthians 10:1-18 , Psalms 52:1-9 , Proverbs 22:26-27

Today is the 8th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It's great to be here with you as we close down another week and finish our first full week of the month of September. And we're moving into some new territory. So, we had this period where we went through Job and Ecclesiastes, going into the deeper matters of the heart. And then we came through Song of Solomon, which obviously moved us in another direction. And now we are at the threshold of the book of Isaiah. And we'll be camping out here for a minute, so let's consider the territory that we're moving into. Isaiah is a book of prophecy classified among the Old Testament major prophets, which also includes Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. So, this distinction of major prophet indicates that there are minor prophets and there are. But they have nothing to do with importance, they have to do more with length and the volume of material. So, Isaiah's considered a major prophet because it contains 66 chapters, making it one of the longer books of the Bible.

Introduction to the book of Isaiah:

Isaiah's name means the Lord saves. And he was a very passionate Old Testament prophet. His writings are referred to and quoted throughout the New Testament. In fact, Jesus quoted from Isaiah eight times in the gospels. It was such an important text to Jesus that he recited from Isaiah 61 at the launch of his ministry to declare his purpose, right? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

So, Isaiah lived in the second half of the 8th century BC. And it seems as if he was part of the upper class or the aristocracy because he had access to royalty. Although he lived in a very tumultuous time, he was able to deliver messages to kings over a long period. So, he wasn't just a crazed peasant, just kind of coming in unwanted, unkempt from the countryside. Isaiah's ministry lasted over a long period of time. He prophesied during the reigns of five different kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, who he was very loyal to. They were very loyal to each other, even though they disagreed, and Manasseh. And then, according to Jewish and Christian tradition, Isaiah was martyred by being sawed in half at the order of King Manasseh. Now that's a tradition. There's nothing explicit to this event found in the Bible. But the writer of Hebrews describes the faith of the saints of old by saying, some died by stoning, some were sawed in half and others were killed with the sword. So, that there's the brief, briefest reference to that tradition. And Isaiah is divided almost evenly in content. The first thirty-nine chapters of the book discuss God's judgement, which is very sobering and the very territory that we're about to head into. And then chapters 40 through 66 discuss God's comfort and restoration, which is very hopeful. Throughout Isaiah, God's sovereignty and lordship, as well as the fact that his heavenly kingdom is to be established upon this earth, take on major themes. Which brings social justice into the mix, which is also very important to Isaiah. Even though he had access to kings, his heart was for the downtrodden. So, we're heading into the books of prophecy. And these prophetic books are full of metaphor and full of symbolism, full of allegorical language. Isaiah is no different. We just read the Song of Solomon and when we began that, we mentioned that we can look at this through several different lenses and arrive at different meanings, all worthwhile and godly. So, as we move into this territory, let's invite the Holy Spirit to lead us to what we need to see. And with that we begin. We're reading from the Modern English Version this week, which is today. Isaiah 1:1-2:22.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for another week. O Lord, we can certainly declare Your faithfulness each and every day. And as we look back at all of the distance that we've covered this year, we can announce Your mercy and declare Your faithfulness every day. And, so, we thank You that as we move through another year, You lead us through Your word. And Your word changes us. It shifts things and we are changing. And we thank You for that. We invite You to come, Holy Spirit. Continue to plant the words in the Scriptures in our lives, leading us into all truth as You've promised. Come Jesus, we pray. In Your mighty name we ask. Amen.

Announcements: 

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it's where you find out what's going on around here. So,, be sure to check it out.

And stay connected. Stay connected with your brothers and sisters at the Prayer Wall, who are praying for one another. Stay connected through social media. Check out the Daily Audio Bible shop for resources that are available to accompany you through this journey.

And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. You can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There's a link on the homepage. If you're using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996, Spring Hill, Tennessee, 37174.

And, as always if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. 

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for here is tomorrow. 

Community Prayer and Praise: 

Hi guys. This is Rachel calling from Scotland. I’m phoning to ask you to pray for my family, my immediate family especially. My mom passed away after an accident in 2001 and since then it’s just been my dad, my older sister, called Karen, and myself and my dad’s brother. And that’s all of our immediate family. Over the past 12 years my father’s been going out with a lady and we’ve got on okay with her. There hasn’t been any major problems. Over the last few months they’ve got engaged and she’s moved into the house that mom and dad bought together. Now, when mom died she didn’t leave a will because she died in an accident, so everything happened suddenly. My dad, fairly recently, over the past couple of months, said that…although we hadn’t fallen out and there’s been no problems in the family…that he’s actually selling the house and cut me and my sister out of his will. And he did this because he wants his fiancée to be secure in case anything happens to him. And this has caused such an upset in the family. Apart from myself, nobody’s actually speaking to him anymore and including his brother who he’s been best friends with 75 years. And they’ve never been…had an argument …they’ve never fallen out. Now there’s been so much hurt between them that they’re not welcome in each others house. The only person having communication with both sides is myself and it’s a very difficult thing to do. Please pray that God will work in this situation, that He’ll work his __ out and he’ll bring salvation to all those involved. And next, in the midst of all this distress, that they require…

Hi, my name is Denise and I’m calling from California. I’m asking for prayer in the way of solitude, divine intervention, and peace in my life, and that of my children. I’m going through struggle right now, deep deep struggle. And I know is a spiritual attack in every sense of the word. I am trying so hard to walk the line of righteousness and good but every time I feel like I’m gettin to a place it’s yanked from under me. I would like so much to just serve God, serve the Lord, and serve my fellow man without any incident but for the life of me I can’t make it to higher ground. I hurt so bad and I feel terrible that I have to walk around and put on a charade as though everything is all right when deep down inside…I just don’t know how much more I can take. I just would like for as many followers or prayer warriors out there that hear my voice to pray for me. And pray because I need it so bad. And I appreciate it. Thank you and God bless.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Butterfly from West Palm Beach. I have been listening and listening and listening, but I never called. So today, driving home I just wanted to say a prayer for all f us. Father, in the name of Jesus God I love You and I thank You. Lord I thank You for this opportunity Father to come and call on Your name for Your holy people Jesus. Lord I ask that You help us to be more like You because You know our struggles God. You know our hearts even before we were even created in our mother’s wombs, God, all of our issues that we’re dealing with, all of life’s troubles and struggles, God I just speak victory, the spirit of victory over each and every one of us God. Known and unknown God You know us. Lord, You know us by our name because God created us Father. Lord I ask right now that You go into every college campus that’s represented in the Daily Audio Bible and keep our children safe Father. Every elementary school, every middle school that is represented by every member in this Daily Audio Bible family, God we need You. Father lift our children up God. I speak to their spirits and say that you are leaders, you are the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath. Father that barren woman on the line the other day, God, do a work in her life God. Father, touch her body. Lord unstop her ears that she may hear from You directly by the Spirit God. Father, I ask in the name of Jesus God that You heal her heart in the name of Jesus God. Lord, we trust Your plans for our lives in the name of Jesus God. We know that our thoughts are not Your thoughts and our ways not Your ways but God we know that all things are working together for our good because we are called according to Your purpose God. Lord I ask that You come…

Hi family this is Mary Jo in St. Louis and I am still on a cloud from the family reunion this weekend. Let me tell you, I’ve been listening for 10 years. I never really hoped to meet any of the people that call and but on Saturday night, I’m having dinner with Annette Allison on my left, Tracy Baker on my right, and Pelham to his right. And let me tell you, these people that call in are as real in person as they are on their phone calls. And it was just the most incredible thing to meet the family, a room full of people that don’t even look familiar but we’re all connected like Brian has said. So, I hope that everyone can go next year but let me tell you for those of you who won’t ever be able to come to a family reunion or go on the Israel trip or come to any of the meet ups or maybe…won’t even call in, you are all part of that family. You are all connected with us even if we don’t meet you this side of heaven. Praying for you all. Love you all. God bless you all in Jesus name.

[johnchiarello]

Friday

FRIDAY 6-30-17

Psalm 149:6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand;Psalm 149:7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;Psalm 149:8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;

Questions- https://youtu.be/wN0Ztf_qvIc

http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-CO

.Retaliation?

.Why are you here?

.CCPD

Psalm 79:11

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;

 Connie and Ismael- https://youtu.be/DTJUt70FnmM

http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-CP

.The wedding

.Rockport

.Brother Rey

Proverbs 14:26

In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.

 Issues-

https://youtu.be/e5N7PPMewGA

http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-CQ

.CCPD

.Church Without Walls

.City leaders- listen

Matthew 24:33

So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

 From N.J. to C.C.- 1980 https://youtu.be/mCdhZYtRuiA

http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-CR

 .Code Enforcement

.Chief Mike Markle

.Corpus Christi Police Department

.Navy days

.A school

.The marine against the corpsman

.Boot Camp

.Great Lakes

Hebrews 4:7

Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

 The Park- https://youtu.be/ZR6lpqHvzAQ

http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-CS

.Claire

.Bobby

.Veterans story

.Struck the rock twice

.Moses

.Black and White

.Bobby gives the sinners prayer at the end

 NOTE- On this video [park] Bobby mentioned how Moses did eventually make it into the promised land- yes- at the time of the Mount of transfiguration. As I was writing the notes- I remembered I taught this to the guys over the years. I forgot I taught it to them- and Bobby forgot too- but it showed me how we all learn from one another- and even if we forget who we learned something from- it really makes no difference- because I learned it from a teacher years ago as well. It’s something I bring up when people mention how Moses was forbidden from entering the promised land- and I usually say ‘I found a verse where he made it in’- and bible students usually say ‘where’- and the answer is Moses appeared with Jesus and Elijah on the mount [verses below]

 Psalm 28:5

Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.

 NEW- Talked more about local issues- and last night attended the wonderful wedding of my friends Connie and Ismael.

It was at a beautiful spot in Rockport- and we had a great celebration.

 I was going to post the Acts 15 teaching but will do that tomorrow.

As of now [5:30 am] I’m not sure how many videos I will do today-

 If I get with some of the guys I’ll try and do a few- or maybe I will take a ride and head up to San Antonio.

Often times in society- people see wrong- they see official oppression- or retaliation by those in authority.

 And because it comes from those in authority- it puts a particular type of fear into them.

I have had friends tell me stories of retaliation by cops over the years-

And they usually tell me ‘John- don’t say anything’.

 This has happened more than once.

If a civilian did things to them- they would take legal action.

But when it comes from those in authority- the usual response is ‘they will come after me’-

 That is criminal- that is wicked- that is unjust.

And cops who do stuff like this- should be removed from the force- and face criminal penalties.

 PAST POSTS-

 VERSES-

Isaiah 26:9

With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Psalm 29:3

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.

Isaiah 61

King James Version (KJV)

61 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God;

Psalm 34:3

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

 Psalm 118:24

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Psalm 149:1 Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.

Psalm 149:2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

Psalm 149:3 Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.

Psalm 149:4 For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

Psalm 149:5 Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.

Psalm 149:6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand;

Psalm 149:7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;

Psalm 149:8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;

Psalm 149:9 To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD.

 NOTE- On the video- The Park- I mentioned the dark skin wife of Moses- the translations either say Cushite- or Ethiopian- most bible commentators say the wife of Moses was indeed Black. Though the text does not say this is why Miriam had the problem with the Black wife of Moses- we can speculate that it was because she was Black.

Numbers 12:1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.

Numbers 12:2 And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.

Numbers 12:3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

Numbers 12:4 And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out.

Numbers 12:5 And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.

Numbers 12:6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.

Numbers 12:7 My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.

Numbers 12:8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

Numbers 12:9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed.

Numbers 12:10 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.

Water from the Rock …10and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, "Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" 11Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forthabundantly, and the congregation and their beastsdrank. 12But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."…

New American Standard Bible

Cross References

1 Corinthians 10:4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Exodus 17:6 "Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Deuteronomy 8:15 "He led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. Psalm 74:15 You broke open springs and torrents; You dried up ever-flowing streams. Psalm 78:15 He split the rocks in the wilderness And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. Psalm 78:16 He brought forth streams also from the rock And caused waters to run down like rivers.

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 Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on- Thanks- John.#