Ethical Living as a Creative Act

The Wake of Those before Us
Leonardo DaVinci is considered one of the most creative men to have lived, dabbling in all areas of art as well as a profound inventor. He was a true artist, whose creativity touched ever area of his life. Oddly, DaVinci slept only 4-5 hours a day, clamming he had more important things to do than sleep. He invented an alarm clock that worked by streaming water from one receptacle to another. When the second receptacle was full, a system of gears and levers raised Leonardo’s feet into the air promptly waking him up.

DaVinci's more modern equivalent was Thomas Edison. Like DaVinci, Edison was an artist but of a different stripe. He put down the pant brush and picked up the wrench. He held over 1500 patents including those for the phonograph, kinetoscope, radio, light bulb, and my favorite, the tattoo gun. Edison was obsessed with maximizing his cognitive ability through thinking with a rejuvenated mind. So he discarded the normal sleep pattern of night day. Instead, he would take many short catnaps throughout a 24 hour period. To make sure he did not over sleep he invented his own simple alarm clock. He would sleep in his chair, holding ball bearings in the palms of his hands. After an appropriate number of z's, he'd relax enough to drop the balls, waking himself up. Then he'd go back to being a creative genius inventor.

Edison and DaVinci where eccentric, some would clam they lived odd or unusual lives. Most see them as the blessed oddities of humanity. Both men where gifted. Both knew the urgency of creative moments. Both shinned with such creativity we still feel the warmth. And In the wake of these two men, we are moved and made to wonder about the importance of creativity. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, notes that:

The world would be a very different place if it were not for creativity. We would still act according to the few clear instructions our genes contain, and anything learned in the course of our lives would be forgotten after our death. There would be no speech, no songs, no tools, no ideas such as love, freedom, or democracy. It would be an existence so mechanical and impoverished that none of us would want any part of it… To be human means to be creative.

From the witness of history, Csikszentmihalyi clams that "To be human means to be creative." Edison and DaVinci are not odd only humans. They lived from the spark of their humanity. They were alive with the understanding of their own creative potential and it kept them up at night.

The Landscape of Creativity
To be human means to be creative? Could it be it’s in our DNA to be creative? Deep down are we artists of the soul? Poet and philosopher, John O’Donohue gives the two reasons why he thinks the artist is an aspect of what it is to be human.

"Everyone is involved whether they like it or not in the construction of their world. So, it's never as given as it actually looks; you are always shaping it and building it. From that perspective, each of us is an artist. Secondly, I believe that everyone has imagination. That no matter how mature and adult and sophisticated a person might seem, that person is still essentially an ex-baby."

O’Donohue is right. The world is liquid. It exists in such a way that we can't help but effect our environment just as it affects us. Step into a river and not only does the river change but you as well. We are artist because changing our world is not optional. Human existence means human involvement. This involvement is not just in our bones it’s in our books. Theologian Paul Tillich said there is no such thing as the immaculate conception of an idea. Every idea came from somewhere else. Creativity is not a matter of conjuring up something brand new. Everything always depends on what went before. Any new way of thinking or looking at things depends on what has gone before and then we simply add a little something more. I have heard it said, "The only reason he could see so far was that he stood on the shoulders of the giants who went before him." One idea plus another idea adds up to be not two, but three ideas. To be human, to live a human life, is to add in some way to what has gone before, to use your life to somehow make a difference in the world, so the world is better off for your having been, all the while, building on the shoulders of those before us. It's always a beautiful view when we look from the landscape of creativity.

The Breath of the Soul
When Edison died in 1941, Henry Ford a friend and fellow inventor captured his last breath in a bottle. We know we can not capture creativity in a bottle, yet there is something of the eternal in creativity. In the Hebrew language ‘ruach’ means breath or wind, it also is used to describe the spirit of creativity that moved over the chaos of creation creating form and beauty where their was only a void. In the Jewish tradition, the same idea is in play to describe the spark of life breathed into humanity to make us living souls. To access imagination was to tap into the breath of the soul, operate in harmony with the creative impulse that ordered the world. The creative souls on who’s shoulders we stand may well have come before us but are to us co-conspirators - breathing the same 'ruach' as us and contributing to a world far beyond present comprehension. In 1917, Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz, explains it this way:

Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity. Imagination has given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking machine and the automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they became realities. So I believe that dreams--day dreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain-machinery whizzing--are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent, and therefore to foster civilization.

Everyone has imagination but it is not common something of the eternal is presence. Humans are the only creatures which have the captivity to imagine. As children we all lived in an imaginal world. For example, when you've been told don't open that door, because there are monsters in there, “Oh! The world you'd create on the other side of the door!” We dreamed ourselves into and out of worlds beyond our today. Yet our educational system trains children to become followers by rewarding them for completing assigned tasks in conventional ways. As Baum notes, If we want to prepare the young for positions of leadership in society, we must nurture their capacity to imagine, to envision a future, to dream. For great leaders are great visionaries and dreamers. I believe that deep in the heart of each of us, there is this imagining capacity and when man ceases to dream he ceases to be alive. Creativity and imagination are necessary for the child to sees an enchanted forest in the backyard and for that child to one day lead people into a better world. The same man who cried "I have a dream" was the boy who played in that dream-world as a child.

The Necessity of Being a Child
In the Christian tradition, Jesus taught that all men should become as a child. He was speaking of childlikeness not childishness. But what is childlikeness? What is childishness? In most spiritual traditions, Childishness and childlikeness are two opposing dispositions toward life. George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis offer some helpful insights into the nature of these two dispositions towards life. Lewis summarizes the two when he writes, "there are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done'"


What is childishness?
In both writers childishness is primarily egocentrism. Childishness is a living from an ego centrality. Where the higher faculties of imagination, reason, and logic are used in the service of unchecked selfishness and egocentrism. The childish person is overly concerned with himself and only relates to his surroundings in terms of self-aggrandizement. Others are important only because of what the childish person can get from them. They view the world as revolving about themselves, often expressed in a lust for power and traitorous behavior or whining megalomania and greed. In Lewis' writings the characters that fit the bill are Edmund Pevensie and Eustace Clarence Scrubb from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Both view the world as revolving about themselves, both begin as thoroughly obnoxious, childish little creatures, mature into spiritually damnable children. Beautifully and receptively Edmund and Eustace have profound personal encounters with Aslan and leading to a humbling self-realization and genuine change in nature.

MacDonald in his book Lilith shows how we trade a inborn moral poster for one more self serving. In the story we find young, relatively uncorrupted children who become more childish as they grow older. As one character says: "If a Little One doesn't care, he grows greedy, and then lazy, and then big, and then stupid and then bad" In addition to egocentricity, other attributes of childishness are spite, pettiness, cruelty, and pseudo-sophistication. MacDonald's insight into the childishness of pseudo-sophistication is worth quoting. "For it must be confessed that there are children who are not childlike. One of the saddest and not least common sights in the world is the face of a child whose mind is so brimful of worldly wisdom that the human childishness has vanished from it"

In our modern age, among the blur of IPods and MTV, designer narcissism and celebrated vanity, many have lost their childlike since of wonder. It passed through the cracks of their lives and now collects dust among all things forgotten (like virtue and Cindy Lopper). Imagination has been assailed by CGI effects and the ‘Gore-fest’ horror movies, not to mention the way the internet (particularly porn) has made the imagination a blind 90 pound wimp. People are unpracticed in the breath of the soul. Becoming adult in all the wrong ways: Choosing escapism over problem solving, Sex over relationships, pessimism over possibility and skepticism over potential. The sad irony is that as many grow up and slowly trade being childlike for being childish. Through this seduction into selfishness they are closing themselves off from the simple resonating joys of being childlike.

What is childlikeness?
Together they give us three aspects of childlikeness. The childlike personality is marked by humble perception and self-less memory. MacDonald understood childlikeness to be a kind of innocence akin to humility. He often ties humility to selflessness or self-forgetfulness: "To be rid of self is to have the heart bare to God and to the neighbor--to have all life ours, and possess all things. I see, in my mind's eye, the little children clambering up to sit on the throne with Jesus." The innocence way a child can get lost in a story or gives themselves at play without one thought of themselves is what he is getting here. It follows that He also held this humility to be characterized by unpretentiousness: "He who will be a man, and will not be a child, must--he cannot help himself--become a little man, that is, a dwarf. He will, however, need no consolation, for he is sure to think himself a very large creature indeed” Unpretentiousness in this way lacks the prudishness of the religious egoist and the holds a kind of honesty about ones stature, about who they really are. Childlikeness is marked by the humility of knowing your size. Every normal child conserves himself as truly bigger than the last line on the wall but not bigger than a mountain. They are innately aware of their smallness, frailty and true scope of the self in a world infinitely larger than they. Take a child crowned king he still must sup at this mother’s breast and when they rule it is as if it were a game. No child known their greatness even if the Titans rest in their shadow. It coaxes inquisitiveness out of its shell. Remember when you'd ask questions like why is the sky blue or where does God live? It is imagination that gave feet to your curiosity and humility that allows such questions to be perceived and breathed into the world. Children have the humility to see the real question and humility to ask the honest question when the prideful blindly keep their questions inside for fear of looking foolish or for love of appearing smart. The inquisitiveness of a child is the three-way conversation humility and curiosity have with imagination.

The second mark of a childlike personality is a spiritual longing. This longing is a grounded yearning for more than what exists. It is something of a romantic yearning for something more. Yet it is much more than just mere sentiment. In Corbin Scott Carnell's book, Bright Shadow of Reality: C. S. Lewis and the Feeling Intellect, he looks at this longing from a holistic perspective calling it the feeling intellect. Carnell used the German word 'Sehnsucht' to get at how this longing interwove thought and feeling. 'Sehnsucht' means "an underlying sense of displacement or alienation from what is desired” This sense of longing is a universal experiance; it is the experiance St. Augustine wrote of in his confession. "Thou hast prompted him that he should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee." Like a conductor taps on his stand to prompt the orchestra to attention God as made man in such a way as to prompt all humanity thought the restless longings of the soul. Lewis puts it this way, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in the world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." This longing is in every temporal pleasure as the fulfillment of that the temporal pleasure promise of satisfaction. Is such an eternal longing morbid? Lewis responded sighting that boy who reads about enchanted woods does not then become depressed about his own world: "He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted. This is a special kind of longing . . . The boy reading the fairy-tale desires and is happy in the very fact of desiring" this is more than just the joy of the hunt but a spiritual awareness of transcendent beauty.

Living in childlikeness does not mean embracing of sentimentality and gullibility with the castigation of logic and reason. Children have a great capacity to think logically. One child psychologist described the child’s soul as made up of three parts: the natural child, the adapted child, and the little professor. This little professor is the part of the child's soul that contains an unschooled wisdom that is logical, profound, and creative. We are born as little professors to logically and skillfully think within the storyline we have been given.

It is in such story lines that feelings and intellect meet. This felt intellect element comes from the fact that stories are the key to realizing this longing. The imagery of a pilgrim and journey is appropriate when understanding this idea for it is framed in story form. Our longing is always on a journey for the eternal shores are farther than life. This longing is rooted in the narrative way we are all frame life. Think of it this way, in our very beings - we are all stories! People are stories! We are more than ideas or facts, biology and protoplasm; we are a story, with narrative ands plot. This longing we speak of takes a narrative form, just as we take a narrative form. A redemption form of narrative is found in all good stories. In a nut shell here it is, there is peace, there is a problem, there is a solution, and there is resolution. This patter resonates with meaning even in this peanut of a form.

Particularly for Lewis the stories of MacDonald bring us to long. "[MacDonald's myths arouse] in us sensations we have never had before, never anticipated having, as though we had broken out of our normal mode of consciousness and 'possessed joys not promised to our birth.' It gets under our skin, hits us at a level deeper than our thoughts or even our passions, troubles oldest certainties till all questions are re-opened, and in general shocks us more fully awake than we are for most of our lives" Stories of redemption or good wining our have the power to wake something up in us. G. K. Chesterton makes the point this is why the fairytales are more real than the evening news.

C.S. Lewis gives us the third mark of childlikeness: Awe-full imagination. The childlike personality is evidenced in the proper operation of the imagination. Such people are to be marked by a sense of awe that is at its core an enthusiastic delight in surprise rising from an imagination without borders. In the essay "On Stories," Lewis reflects on how stories affected him. They produce "a feeling of awe, coupled with a certain sort of bewilderment such as one often feels in looking at a complex pattern of lines that pass over and under one another" Another way of saying this is that an Awe-full imagination gives us vision. Imagination filled with awe enables us to see, even if momentarily, that there is more to life than the physical reality about us. Such vision is terrifying and refreshing; terrifying in that we are left to ponder the possibility of unperceived dimensions of life, and yet refreshing because we are exposed to the unexpected flash of hope that the predictability dullness of our own world is not all there is.

As a part of an Awe-full imagination, Lewis explains that awe as an enthusiastic delight in surprise. Children don't get tripped up by curiosities about plot and the like. They seek the real beauties and delight in just enjoying the story for its own sake. Children, he writes, "understand this well when they ask for the same story over and over again, and in the same words. They want to have again the 'surprise' of discovering that what seemed Little-Red-Riding Hood's grandmother is really the wolf" The pleasure of the unexpected draws the childlike reader back time and again to a well-worn story. Just because, it is a good story! And like all good stories not everything is predictable and mundane. We entertain the possibility that another world exists on the other side of the wardrobe, we could blink and no longer see a train station but find ourselves on the shores of a whole other world.

In the essay, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children," Lewis elaborates how this is a work of the imagination. In defending his own love of fantasy, he takes issue with how "the modern critical world uses 'adult' as a term of approval. It is hostile to what it calls 'nostalgia' and contemptuous of what it calls 'Peter Pantheism.' Hence a man who admits that dwarfs and giants and talking beasts and witches are still dear to him in his fifty-third year is now less likely to be praised for his perennial youth than scorned and pitied for arrested development". The childlike Imagination is not offended by the seeming impossible but delights in it. Lewis' homey Tolkien description of a fairy-tale makes this point: "The magic of Faerie is not an end in itself, its virtue is in its operations: among these are the satisfaction of certain primordial human desires. One of these desires is to survey the depths of space and time. Another is . . . to hold communion with other living things" The childlike imagination can soar as far as the story can take it, and in some cases even beyond or back into the physical world somehow redeemed from the blan-vanilla-whitebread-bullshit called 'adult'.

Proper childlikeness enjoys a healthy imagination, in service of a greater good. Through it we see a more constructive side of ourselves--the abilities to sacrifice self, to wonder at life's mysteries, and to yearn for a world somehow cleaner, somehow more compelling than our own. Such Imaginations act as a muse for faith. Imagination posters the soul to be open to possibility, mystery, and the infinite. It call us to faith by opening us to the drama of possibility that "could be - if only" we would act.

Breathing out questions
Breathing is important. we all need it to live. If you stop breathing you stop living. Its important! But rarely do we think about our breathing. Back in our little lives, we do not sit in down to think about our breathing. Normal people don't think about breathing. Only, weird eyed skinny people in India do that. Or rich white upwardly mobile women doing expensive starching do that. Stoned surfer dudes from California do that. But Normal people, we forget about our breathing. In fact, some people may have never been aware of their breathing at all. Until now! We all take things for granted. Breathing is just a common one of those things till we stop breathing. A choking man appreciates what its like to breath. It is so essential for life yet we only think about it when something goes wrong.

Could the same be true of the moral imagination in us all? We have in us an eternal creativity, a breath of life. We come into this world to be artisans of the soul. Even if you draw stick men and your last good idea was a year ago, your deepest self longs to be creative. If we are artists then what is it that all men are to put forth this inner breath towards? I would propose the childlike making of ourselves. Creativity and Imagination are ethical categories. We ought to give ourselves to becoming the best human we can be. Living is a creative act. An individual life is to be a work of art and we are commissioned to creating our lives. We are all artisans of our own growth into something beautiful. Plato once asked, "What is the good life? What does it mean to be a good person?" Such questions are just the articulated "ruach" of being human.

When our eyes fall on a life that elevates, and ennobles our own soul with some palpable excellence – we call it beautiful. From King on the steps of the Lincoln memorial to Mother Teresa caring for the dyeing in Calcutta, the profound nature of there lives rises from the simplicity and trajectory they set their lives by. This is how a life speaks and gives ennobling words to something we are doing. As artist, they created a life worthy to be a living synonym of beauty. The art of moral living creates a better world in the very act of being moral. How you ask? When an acts of kindness, an event of moral courage, a movement of justice in grace, passes by our eyes, our 'Rauch' whispers, "I have just seen God!" In those moments such virtues are born in us. As moral truth is felt, as human destiny perceived, as moral trajectory is discovered what it means to be human is whispered to us and life born in us afresh. When the highest beauty a soul can imagine is putt on display, creation happens, art is born in us, and virtue is cultivated. The ethical breathing of a soul begins in asking what is beautiful before our eyes and where do such glimpse of beauty point?

Today to be human is often unconsciously defined by economic forces. We are conditioned to be consumers for the free market or producers for the state. We have in many ways lost what it means for a soul to move forward in time as a creative act. We have forgotten what it is to be an artisan of living, to think of life as a creative act. We are so strange and we lose sight actually of how strange we are. I have never met a human — I meet humans looking for all kinds of things. If you ask someone, "What are you looking for on this day?' you never hear, 'I'm looking for yesterday. Where did yesterday go to?" We just take it for granted that it goes into nothingness. And that's on one side. The other side is that we have no idea what will land on the shoreline of tomorrow. So we are always actively involved in receiving and shaping.

The Freedom of Living Artfully
When it comes to becoming human the ability to imagine is important. Without it, growing in virtuous character and in spiritual trajectory of personal ethics are stunted. That is why, it is better to imagine a possibility than to know a fact. Albert Einstein once wrote, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world." By this he meant that thinking like a scientist and knowing facts will not help you if it stays in your head. In ethics facts are important but being an artist of the soul is more important. Imagination will allow you to use the facts for the good of humanity and the cultivation of your own soul.

As we create a life out of what comes to us in the flow of time we take that raw material afforded us by providence and begin to re-form a life for ourselves. The two key factors in this ethical renovation are our community and our childlike imagination. Our chosen community will helps us deconstruct what needs renovation and build what needs remodeling. It is true of community: Where we live molds us. Who we rub shoulders with sharpens us. What group we give ourselves to changes us. Our childlike imagination will help us by opening us to a world unseen in which strength and hope are as abundant as sand. It will give to those who use it an inner vision to see the end from the beginning, for without such a vision the path towards transformation is daunting. It is true of childlike imagination: Where we rest our hearts quickens us. What we ponder transforms us lives. Who we focus on we become like.

Through this building plan, we learn to embody the character of one who is childlike in freedom and virtuous in substance. This is the context all ethics is done and the place all life is lived, In-between the moral agent and the fielded of action. Thus human life happens at the intersection of personal character and life trajectory, also called the corner of human nature and human destiny. Ethics is often thought of as rules and but it is a journey to find the human in us all. It is a personal journey on public roads. It is creative but not formless, for true creativity is always from void to order, from clear canvas to visionary beauty. G. K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy reminds us:

It is impossible to be an artist and not care for laws and limits. Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If, in your bold creative way, you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe. The moment you step into the world of facts, you step into a world of limits. You can free things from alien or accidental laws, but not from the laws of their own nature. You may, if you like, free a tiger from his bars; but do not free him from his stripes. Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump: you may be freeing him from being a camel. Do not go about as a demagogue, encouraging triangles to break out of the prison of their three sides. If a triangle breaks out of its three sides, its life comes to a lamentable end. Somebody wrote a work called "The Loves of the Triangles"; I never read it, but I am sure that if triangles ever were loved, they were loved for being triangular. This is certainly the case with all artistic creation, which is in some ways the most decisive example of pure will. The artist loves his limitations: they constitute the thing he is doing. The painter is glad that the canvas is flat. The sculptor is glad that the clay is colourless.

No man can free himself from himself. We are artists of living and as such the natural laws of life train our journey for the good. The experience of creation stirs imagination to ponder a greater majesty than the mountain, a grander beauty than the splendor of kings, a truer beauty than the splendor of a sunrise. In the end, we are made to breathe the high and lofty air of moral excellence and feel the deep truth of who we are. So are you living artfully using your moral imagination to build clocks that wake up the world or are you still sleeping warm and snug in the covers of moral mediocrity? As one Christian teacher and mystic has exhorted.

Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

Eph 5:14-17

Behind, "How He Loves"

To me, the story of a song can rise the joy and clarity of the moment.
John Mark does just that when he talks about the background behind "How He Loves"

On the Lonely Road – A Parable from My Life

Preface
God and I disagree. It is a lover’s quarrel. I like to think of myself as a academic. God likes to think of me as a mystic. I want to read Homer, he wants me to encounter him, pick up what I find and take it back to his people. (honestly, I live for such moments of grace, they are spirit and life to me) I am the kind of guy that prides himself on beng academic, thinking logically and clearly about any and all things. Yet, God made me (dyslexic) to see things just a little differently. I am a highly allegorical thinker finding connections where most see random causality (a good view of providence disavows such moments to be only 'random' but opens them to wider possibilities). When taken into the wind and kissed with the life of God's Spirit it can be moments of encouragement, and pictures that silently speak God's whispers of love and oversight.

On the Lonely Road
I had an experience today that was encouraging. Today (sep 12) is my birthday. I am not 33 years old, but my body and the calendar tell me I am. I like to say Im "turning Larry Bird" (basketball great who’s number was 33). I have not been looking forward to this day, where I saw myself at 33 is not where I now hang my 'existencal' hat. But on this day, the Lord reminded me that he is still the one that guides all history and places man where He wills. He alone is God and is not finished with little old-er me.

Here is how it played out.

Experience on the Road
At my aunts house for the weekend. Not much to do here so I when for a run, that quickly morphed into a fast walk, and then finally a quit stroll. I passed three horses grazing in a fenced in meadow. Down the road a family of deer, 4 at lest, darted in font of me. Each prancing down the meadow one after another. I smiled at there freedom and noted the graceful way they ran, a mix of control and abandon, mastery and recklessness. They run so wildly and free but there is controlled beauty in each stride.

I turned to continue on my way and something changed. In the heat of the day, i felt grace move on me and I stepped into something bigger than me. The moment became clear and still, like time took a break from ticking life away. The Lord was near. On the road with me in a dust and dry warmth of that Georgia road. He asked "what have you seen?" I said "horses and deer" He reminded me horses are a symbol of man-power and the flesh (Example - Egypt chariots where pulled by mighty horses). He reminded me deer are a symbol for those that seek after God.("As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." Psalms 42:1) He gave me a challenge, a call to follow at all cost. He laid out grace to seek after God, depend on him and not seek strive in the flesh (Gal 5:1-22) or I would end up like the horses fenced in and not like the deer living free!

I walked on pondering these things. Up the road I saw something shimmer. It was laying just right of the middle of the road. Coming upon it I saw it was a quarter, and then two, then three, then four, then five, lastly i lifted my foot and there was number six. six quarters all together in the middle of a dirt road. Not in the ditch, Not mixed with pennies and dimes, six quarters all in a row.

Before i could think how odd, the Lord asked "How much CHANGE do you have?" I said "a buck 50". He said and I promise you it sounded like he was smirking. "John 1:50, Change is coming, and is already here, Dawson!" First off, I thought no chapter in john has over 45 verses. Curious, I put it in high gear to get back to the house, and in doing so got my exercise on! After water, air, more water and air (it was a long way home) I opened to the gospel of John and scanned the first chapter, 24, 36, 48, 49, 50! Hot dang there is a fifty. John 1:50 reads "Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that."

John 1:50 is the key verse in Jesus’ conversation with Nathaniel. A man that came to the Lord after a might prophetic experience.(Nat and I have some common ground). John 1:50, Jesus concludes his dialogue with Nathaniel, encouraging him with words of hope. Jesus knew God was not finished with Nat; there was more to come, much more! "You shall see greater things than that."

Like Nat, The Lord was encouraging me that he holds the future and is not done with me at 33. Change is coming! The day will dawn! I need only be ready by choosing to be the deer and seek him instead of strive in my own power.

Application
We all can draw courage from the truth: Christ sees us under our fig tree and He will see us through on the long lonely road!

I was also encouraged by what the puritan Matthew Henry wrote about this passage.

See the nature of true Christianity, it is following Jesus; devoting ourselves to him, and treading in his steps. Observe the objection Nathanael made. All who desire to profit by the word of God, must beware of prejudices against places, or denominations of men. They should examine for themselves, and they will sometimes find good where they looked for none. Many people are kept from the ways of religion by the unreasonable prejudices they conceive. The best way to remove false notions of religion, is to make trial of it. In Nathanael there was no guile. His profession was not hypocritical. He was not a dissembler, nor dishonest; he was a sound character, a really upright, godly man. Christ knows what men are indeed. Does He know us? Let us desire to know him. Let us seek and pray to be Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile; truly Christians, approved of Christ himself. Some things weak, imperfect, and sinful, are found in all, but hypocrisy belongs not to a believer's character. Jesus witnessed what passed when Nathanael was under the fig-tree. Probably he was then in fervent prayer, seeking direction as to the Hope and Consolation of Israel, where no human eye observed him. This showed him that our Lord knew the secrets of his heart. Through Christ we commune with, and benefit by the holy angels; and things in heaven and things on earth are reconciled and united together.

A Bonehead Form of Government?

When I was in high school I napped in my Government class. My basketball couch taught it and well I thought "what good is this to me anyway!" At the time, I was many bricks shy of a full load! Caring more about sports, appearances and that girl in the next town. Yet, I consider my experience and attitude towards government to be the common experience of my generation.

Things changed for me when I took two classes back to back. The first 'Philosophy of Government and Law’ (at 7:30 am, yea I know, I had no life) the other "Wittgenstein, Foucault and the philosophy of language and culture'.(long name right! at 9 am). about half way through the semester I had an awakening of sorts. In-between reading Plato's republic and studying the French revolution while milling over Wittgenstein's language games, the thought dawned on me.

'What If someone redefined the way I understand words like democracy republic, freedom, federalism, ect. They just similar enough that you could change everything and people would be none the wiser. You could slowly take power and ….. Ha HA Cool!!'

Now 6 years later, I no longer think 'cool!' I realize now, that my naps some 15 years ago were one more boneheaded thing in a long line of boneheadedness! So, take it from a reformed bonehead. A clear understanding of the terms and ideas behind the American form of government is not trivial information to sleep through but necessary for the freedom of a nation that clams "we the people." Otherwise we may wake up one day to find our freedom was redefined as we slept.

Here is a nice little video I have found that gives a good primer in a classical overview of Government from a historical and philosophical perspective, giving special consideration to the American form of Government.

Roots and Wings, or Why I am what I am.

Some times you cry because of a touching deep down
Where your pain and the pain of others meet and greet like old friends.
Sometimes you cry out of a sense of justice
When words fall on your ear and clearly articulate your soul
Making you inwardly known
Clearly you are not alone.
Clearly you now see
Your feet, your heart, your life, is a part of an endless succession of witness...
God Bless The Poets!
The ones that seek the whisper unspoken,
Winds from the eternal throne, they point me, through me, to the one we desperately seek!
God Bless The Poets!

This video from Amena Brown blessed me with that sense of justice gained from being known. Through her words I found a part of my own calling renewed, inspired, and enriched. I would love to thank this sister face to face but for now, this blog will have to do. to learn more about her go here

Eric Liddell: a man of missional living

Chariots of Fire is a British film released in 1981. It was written by Colin Welland and directed by Hugh Hudson, and based on the true story surounding the 1924 Summer Olympics. It focus on the lives of Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell.Both are runners both are fast but each run for difreent reasons.

The Life of Eric Liddell is a seminar in commitment and passion. His life was a sacrivice of praise, a procuit of plesure, this permiated down to how he ran. His running style was wild. When he ran his head would be back his hands fallaling about, it was as if his whole self was causght up in the act of running. His spiritual life was much like his running, passionate and fully given to the task at hand, nothing held back. For him, Life was worship and Liddell ran well. In this clip from the movie he explains what it means to run a straight race.



Eric Liddell made it to the Olympics, but found out his race was on Sunday and rather than go agganst his conscinces he disqualified himself from the 100 meters. Later, a teammate gave up his spot in the 400 meters so that he would have a chance at a medal on another day. The clip below is of that race.



After winning the gold, Liddell moved to china as a missionary and never returned home. He was still running but this race was for a crown that would not rust. He was a man of missional living and example to us all. In the field after many fruitful years the Lord let him run in to the arms of his Lord and Savoir.

Life as worship and the pleasure we run after.

"Whatever you do, do it for the Glory of God, and give it as expression of worship to Him."

The Christian life is embodied one of two ways, an attitude of self-sufficiency or a passion for God's glory. A picture of this is displayed in the movie Chariots of Fire. The contrast between Harold Abramham and Eric Liddell is a picture of the contrast between Law and Grace.

Abramham is determined and ultimately out for personal gain. He is a picture of one who has done all the right things to the letter, seen success from his hard work, praised by others and yet something is missing. Liddell is no less focused or disciplined yet He runs for the pleasure of God. In short Abramham runs for personal glory and Liddell runs for the pleasure of God. They point to two different styles of life, a life resting on grace and moved by worship and a life held up by its own power, moved to prove its own existence.

What pleasure do you run after?

Ravi Zacharias has explains the analogy with a clarity and beauty that only he can.

''Battlestar Galactica'': Crack the clues! - EW.com

After being hit up on "what is the deal with the last supper?" All I can do is point to the director of BSG's comments and let him explain.. Below is the link from E online.

''Battlestar Galactica'': Crack the clues! - EW.com

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Thinking when we watch!

Some Good TV episodes for ethical and spiritual reflection. [Note - I said refection not education are we clear people!]

Battlestar Galactica.

Ever since I got hooked on Battlestar Galactica a couple of years ago, I noticed not-so-subtle references to Judeo-Christian theological influences. There are countless examples throughout the show: a “chosen” or select group of survivors traveling great distances trying to find the prophesied “home”; and the twelve tribes of mankind, the debates of spiritual vs. material reality. The influence is almost exclusively the use of archetypal character arches and not some subversive plot of Hollywood to destroy the faith. But like most on the SyFy channel it is always a little bit off at times. Either way it is always-good drama to talk about with other old-time of the genre and the occasional SyFy neophytes.

•“Flesh and Bone” (season 1, episode 8) - Compelling scenes with aural allusions to waterboarding and torture, as well as rich dialogue about the being human and being an artificial life form.

Other good episodes are

“Guess What’s Coming to Dinner” (season 4, episode 7)
“No Exit” (season 4, episode 15),
“Deadlock” (season 4, episode 16),
“Someone to Watch Over Me” (season 4, episode 17),
“Islanded in a Stream of Stars” (season 4, episode 18),
“Daybreak parts II & III” (season 4, episodes 20 and 21)

Lost – Thanks to Mark D. Liederbach for turning me on to this show, (you just got to love TV on DVD!)

•“White Rabbit” (season 1, episode 5) - two scenes from this episode are great - jack Shepard tells the group that they have to learn to live together or die alone, and the other in which John Locke speaks dramatically about looking into the eye of the island and seeing its beauty.

•“Exodus part 2” (season 1, episodes 24/25) – there is a a rich discussion between Jack and Locke on science and faith.

•“There’s No Place Like Home, parts 2 & 3” (season 4, episode 13) - Locke says the island is a place where miracles happen and tries to persuade Jack to stay on the island.

House. – this show is a train of bioethical questions and sometimes the train wrecks.

•“Informed Consent” (season 3, episode 3) - Here we have multiple scenes featuring a patient who wishes to die and not be treated while Dr. House tricks him into continuing testing/treatment.

•“Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t” (season 1, episode 5) – It has a scene where Dr. House and a nun with a mysterious ailment debate God and faith.

•“The Socratic Method” (season 1, episode 6) - I strongly encourage the scene with Dr. House and his nemesis Dr. Cuddy about the ethics of using unapproved protocols to shrink a patient’s tumor so it could be operated on. It is very interesting!

(Roll credits!!!)

In the end I ask myself…. Do I watch to much TV? Sadly a little vices whispers yes.. ….

Are we wired fro music?

For all My Musical friends and the Science geeks repressed deep within them I suggest the world science festival this year one of the panel discussion was on
“Notes & Neurons” See the full discussion here.

They asked the questions Is our response to music hard-wired or culturally determined? Is the reaction to rhythm and melody universal or influenced by environment? The only name you may recognize is Bobby McFerrin but the other smart guys on the panel are Jamshed Barucha, scientist Daniel Levitin, and Professor Lawrence Parsons it was hosted by John Schaefer.

At one point, I was pleasantly surprised to see Bobby McFerrin give this simple, fun, and extremely effective demonstration of the universality of the pentatonic scale. Also, McFerrin made me raise my ear brows and smirk with approval when he gave the following quote:

“Music for me is like a spiritual journey down into the depths of my soul. And I like to think we’re all on a journey into our souls. What’s down there? That’s why I do what I do.”

Below is a clip the demonstration begins around 2:30 min into the clip.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Advice on having a Personal Library

I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book. ~Groucho Marx

I wish I could say I was that much of a reader. As most know, I am dyslexic and that means that people like me are not known to play nice with books. Yet I persist in being a paradox for I love those pesky buggers that nest in books, most call them "ideas". Over the years, I have collected a number of books and have them in my own 'Aviary'. Most call it a 'library'. In this post, I wish to pass on some wisdom I have learned from other "book people" farther along on there journey than I. Most of these thoughts come from “How We May Manage Our Libraries to the Best Advantage: Ten Directions,” by Tom Lyon, in The Banner of Truth, Issue 543 (December, 2008), pp. 15-17. I have lightly edited this work and added my thoughts in Italics the points in bold.

Direction 1. Always reckon that the best book to be read, the first book to be read and, often, the only book to be read, is God’s book.

The books that the world calls immortal are often the books that show us our own shame. The bible goes beyond shame to Redemption, identity, hope, and the God in whom we (who believe) hear speak thru the bible!

Direction 2. Give no credit to that opinion which holds bookishness in religion in suspicion or contempt.

Direction 3. Do not simply be a collector of books. Retain them not for the number, beauty, antiquity, rarity, value, or mere possession of them.

IT is The Ideas people: the IDEAS!!

Direction 4. Mortify your library. That which you shelve may be construed as the measure of that which you approve.

Unless you do like I do and take one shelf to be your congregation of heretics. Not reading non-Christian books is a great way to never understand the world around you. The key is never reading too much and always reading with your faith in view even if it is fiction. It can become a game; I call it "find the lie" (also called, "find the ticket to hell").

Direction 5. Reckon that, contrary to popular expectation, those books lately written may be inferior to those of another day.

Direction 6. Judge the importance of a book, not by the author’s exuberance or the publisher’s notices, but by the relative weight assigned that topic in God’s book. Weak books struggle through the press with ease nowadays which, strangely, impresses the unwary.

Direction 7. Do not give, lend, or recommend a book which you have not read. Do not trust an author just because he has written helpfully once, or upon one subject.

And if a book never returns to you and the good ones never do take confort in Voltaire's words, "Only your friends steal your books."

Direction 8. Care for your books. Esteem them as friends, for there may be times when they will be the only friends you have!

AMEN AMEN AMEN!!! They have a spine but no arms! So they can teach you how to stand up for yourself but can't stab you in the back. I like how Groucho Marx puts it, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

Direction 9. (A) Always read widely. Avoid the accumulation of devotional material. Sermons are, generally, better heard than read. (B) Read with discrimination. Be quick to part company with that book which fails to promote sound doctrine, solid thought, balanced inference, experiential godliness, and esteem for Christ.

I don't totally agree with nine, think there is wisdom in it though. I would like to qualify this point by saying that reading great sermons trains you in the logic and rhetoric of preaching making you a better listener and speaker, no matter what your vocation. As for discrimination in reading I would agree and add to close yourself off to only what you consider as right and sound is more arrogance and a path to self-deception than discernment. Better learn to eat the meat and throw away the bone. Even Nietzsche was accurate on much of his diagnosis of the modern situation; it is the answers they give to the problems (like in Nietzsche case) that were often in error. As James Bryce wrote "The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it." No matter the type of book it is the reader that must do the hard work of walking away with something - even if all you learned was what not to believe.

Direction 10. Never be found without a book nearby.

why? Because books are important! Like I stated at the beginning I love ideas and I think they are important. Ideas not only color our world but act as the means to the meaning of life. William James speaks to this in his pragmatic definition of truth. "The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief." While not a great definition of absolute truth, James is on to something. What James means by truth can be better understood as meaning. The 'meaning' people attribute to things can be true or false but those ideas in the mind of a person (a belief) will always color the world they live in. By the ideas we ascribe too(believe) we construct a meaning for the world. It is by that meaning we understand and are guided in this world.

Concluding Thoughts

In conclusion, the ideas that give meaning to our world often come from the books we read, the company we keep, and the things we give ourselves to. As the weak-wristed playwright Oscar Wilde his noted, "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." His words make be wonder what he reads? His point makes be want to read better books. It is in them we find the ideas that form the substance of who we are.

So what is a man's library? It is the home of all ideas, a collection of bricks that give substance to his soul. And a good library is a hospital for human character. A peaceful place, where a great ‘cloud of witnesses’ can train your heart in the wisdom of the ages. As Samuel Davies has once written, "I have a peaceful study as a refuge from the hurries and noise of the world around me. The venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me and relieve me from the nonsense of surviving mortals." The venerable dead await to teach us the greater part of being human. Why not collect the ideas of men once departed and find seeds of contemplation that can grow to be the destiny of a man.

What is a man’s library but the evidence of who he will someday be?

The Wisdom of Charnock

Stephen Charnock's great work ‘The Existence And Attributes Of God,’ has its origin in a series of sermons Charnock preached at Bishopgate Street Presbyterian Church, London, from 1675 until his death in 1680. The work indicative of late puritan thought is a clear and systematic exposition of Who God is (it's a bit long too, another puritan trait). One interesting note is his view of wisdom.

Charnock on wisdom

Charnock’s gift for precise definitions is well known but his view on wisdom is not. Building off of the nature of God as wise, He first defined wisdom as “acting for the right end” and as “observing all circumstances for action.”[1] Then using the theological content of God's wisdom to inform his understanding of human wisdom, he constructed his veiw. In his thought divine wisdom acted as a paradigm for human wisdom. Charnock concluded that wisdom was the result, at least on a human level, of four areas of thinking. We will call them the four Ts of wise thinking.

TACTICS – knowing what methods to apply in a particular situation.
TEMPO – knowing at what rate and in what order to apply those methods
TIMING – knowing when and when not to apply those methods
TARGETING – knowing how to apply those methods with the correct individual/audience

The above ‘Ts’ form a marked contrast with the traditional concept of ‘strategy,’ which consists of ‘goal setting’ and a planned marshalling of resources to accomplish those goals.[2] Showing Charlock to understand the important of the contexts in which choices are made to be as important as the goal toward which our strategies are directed. Next time you need to think wisely try mentally walking through Charlock’s four ‘Ts’.

Endnotes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Charnock ‘The Existence And Attributes Of God,’ V1 p.507

[2] The word ‘Strategy’ is derived from the Ancient Greek word ‘stratēgos,’ meaning military commander or general. See http://www.answers.com/topic/strategy

Quotes to Ponder

Quotes on Culture and Christianity

“Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things” [1]

If one asks whether the traffic of influence flows more strongly from Christian churches to secular culture or from secular culture to the churches, it is plain that the secular deities of common culture influence the church far more than the God of the Christian faith influences the culture. Efficiency more than godliness is the criterion by which the pastor's success in a church is measured. Budget rather than vision determines policy. In many electronic churches of the conservative evangelical sort, high technology is used shrewdly, and skills in making money are practiced in the name of Christ, even under the sign of the cross. [2]

Although we might like to hold a fond illusion that the church is in the world, converting the world from secularism to Christianity, the fact is that the world is in the church, converting the church to secularism. [3]

The christian world has a temporal task, an earthly task to fulfil: an earthly task, since a civilisation, as civilisation, is directly ordered to a specific temporal end; an earthly christian task, since by hypothesis this civilisation is a christian one, since the world which is in question has received the light of the Gospel. This temporal task of the christian world is to work here on earth for a realisation in social and temporal terms of the truths of the Gospel: for if the Gospel is primarily concerned with the things of eternal life, and infinitely [4]

Quotes on Marriage and Family

“When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.” [5]

“What is called matriarchy was simply moral anarchy, in which the mother alone remained fixed because all the fathers were fugitive and irresponsible.” [6]

“All the things that make monogamy a success are, in their nature, un-dramatic things: the silent growth of an instinctive confidence, the common wounds and victories, the accumulation of customs, the rich maturing of old jokes.[7]

Quotes About God and belief

What makes the biblical God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, different is that he takes pleasure in and responds to the reflection of his eternal Self in the mirror of creation, partaking not only of a Reality and Bliss that lies beyond our comprehension but, no less, the ups and downs, woes and weals of creaturely existence. This God is a participant in creation all the way through, the One who holds us in his hand so we can hear his story, listens in return as we tell ours, and, even, in the wondrous expanse of creation, allows us to hold him in return. Further, because God not only tells the story but hears and comprehends it, nothing is lost. From God to God in God. [8]

…in all honest religion there is something that is hateful to the prosperous compromise of our time. You are free, in our time, to say that God does not exist; you are free to say that He exists and is evil; you are free to say (like poor old Renan) that He would like to exist if He could. You may talk of God as a metaphor or a mystification; you may water Him down with gallons of long words, or boil Him to the rags of metaphysics; and it is not merely that nobody punishes, but nobody protests. But, if you speak of God as a fact, as a thing, like a tiger, as a reason for changing one’s conduct, then the modern world will stop you somehow, if it can. We are long past talking about whether an unbeliever should be punished for being irreverent. It is now thought irreverent to be a believer.[9]


Endnotes
----------------------------------------------------------

[1] Gilbert Keith Chesterton, The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton: Christendon in Dublin, Irish Impressions, The New Jerusalem, A Short History of England. Vol. 20, James V. Schall. (San fran. Ignatius Press, 1986) 211

[2]. Waldo Beach, Christian Ethics in the Protestant Tradition [book on-line] (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988, accessed 5 November 2008), 7; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27957131; Internet.

[3]. Waldo Beach, Christian Ethics in the Protestant Tradition [book on-line] (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988, accessed 5 November 2008), 7; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27957131; Internet.

[4]. Jacques Maritain, True Humanism [book on-line] (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938, accessed 28 January 2009), 34; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=91321499; Internet.

[5] Gilbert Keith Chesterton, The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton: Christendon in Dublin, Irish Impressions, The New Jerusalem, A Short History of England. Vol. 1, James V. Schall. (San fran. Ignatius Press, 1986) 143

[6]. G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man [book on-line] (Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1955, accessed 21 January 2009), 53; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6237268; Internet.

[7] George Bernard Shaw by G. K. Chesterton (London: John Lane, 1909) pp.191

[8]. Richard L. Fern, Nature, God, and Humanity: Envisioning an Ethics of Nature [book on-line] (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002, accessed 28 January 2009), 146; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=105096511; Internet.

[9] George Bernard Shaw by G. K. Chesterton (London: John Lane, 1909) pp. 231-232

James Bond on Marriage

When I say James bond do you think of marriage. For me, I think of Ursula Andress or Jane Seymour and how after one night with Mr. Bond can be transformed from a cold hearted temptress/Assassin to a altruistic heroine fighting with James (I mean Mr. Bond).

As for many Male's, James Bond is a mythic legend, half man, half hormone. A super spy, who possesses the virility of 10 men and has “mad, crazy, skillz” when it comes to saving the world and not fathering any children. I remember watching Gold-finger for the 6th time and thinking, "How does he do that. She was going to kill him, he kisses her then *bam*, she is willing to die for him?" Wow, talk about good loven…. but I digress. My point is marriage is not the first thing to pop into your head when you think “Bond, James Bond”.

One of the most famous actors to play James Bond, Sean Connery has been married for 32 years. Yes, to the same woman. Hollywood’s most famous James Bond is all about the faithfulness. He credits his marriage's longevity not to what he learned playing bond (though, sex so great it can invoke self-sacrifice, really can only help fidelity). Connery believes that the language barrier between him and his French wife is the reason for their successful marriage. They met in 1972 and married that same year.

Connery credits the success of his happy 32-year long marriage to his inability to speak the same language as his wife, he states. "I don't speak a word of French but often think that what should be a handicap is actually a godsend." He continues, "She may be half my size, but she's got a few snappy comebacks. We're total opposites - that's what has kept us together all these years."

While it can be assumed that his wife Micheline Roquebrune Connery can speak English. It can also be assumed she more than likely curses in French. Next to being a little hot, I’m sure it can’t hurt not knowing weather her passionate French monologue is telling you to take out the trash or defaming your character. I have a French friend, he taught me a little. The French language is just beautiful and cursing in French is, well, like wiping your butt with silk.. but I digress..

Connery's point is French woman make great wives but poor partners for playing "twenty five thousand dolor pyramid" (If you don’t get that joke, google it or go watch the game show network). Seriously, Connery's testimony teaches us that in marriage differences make a difference and marital love transcends language even for James Bond.

Meditations on Faith

I have been thinking about the idea of having a personal relationship with Christ. But what does "personal relationship" mean? It sounds good and makes us feel warm like a microwaved jelly donut, but what is it really? I think the concept of a personal relationship is imbedded in the biblical concept of faith.

"Into Faith"

First, We have salvation now and eternally if we believe into Jesus. I use the word "into" for a reason. The concept of faith is an “into” concept. Faith in John's gospel best explains this consept. This “believing into” phrase appears in John some 36 times and only 8 elsewhere in the New Testament [ii] "Believing into" is an expression of what is now described in the commonly used religious phrase "personal relationship with Jesus." John uses this phrase to speak of simple faith. So a personal relationship is equal to simple faith.

Simple faith

The word “simple” is not to imply it is ignorant trust or some gullible mental assent. Simple is used to imply that this faith is not complex. This lack of complexity rises from the fact that it is a relational concept. Faith in John’s gospel does not just believe about Jesus (intellectually) like the way someone would believe the First President is Washington or the U.S. capital is Washington D.C. Jonh's concept of Faith is a believing into Jesus (relationally). [i] Such faith can only be in reference to another person. It is a subject-to-subject kind of trust, commitment and loyalty. So “Believing into” is when someone places faith into a person. By such simple faith, Jesus becomes a personal mediator for those that believe into him. “This means to entrust oneself to Jesus, fully accepting what he proclaims himself to be.”[iii]
Now this “believing into” is not without evidence. You can only believe into someone you know is willing an able to do what has been promised. It is an "all or nothing" belief, like jumping on the back of a tightrope walker and letting him carry you across the grand canyon. You trust they can do what they say and act on that belief. As in the tightrope walker you trust they can deliver you across unharmed and act on that by jumping on his back. With regards to Jesus, you believe that all the promise made by God in the Old Testament, and every hope for a future beyond death, "is found as a yes and amen in Jesus." (2 Cor 1:20) On the cross, He was seen as willing to forgive sin by becoming the payment for our sin. In the resurrection, he is seen as able to overcome death. He is willing and able to save! This is the gospel! The gospel story is the evidence given for “believing into” Jesus (John 20:30-31).

Living Commitment

Believing into Jesus does not stop at trusting what he has done on our behalf. Such faith is simple but encompasses all of life. That is it affects our life in the here and now. Trueblood states of this belief into Jesus, “to be committed is to believe in. Commitment, which includes belief but far transcends it, is determination of the total self to act upon conviction.”[iv] He means that we are to embody our commitment to Christ in all aspects of our personal life. We do this "embodying" in our life when what is committed too is truly held as being of ultimate value. This means simple faith is also a living commitment to a real person. A commitment we are to embody in our daily life.

Ultimate Loyalty

Three, their is also a loyalty involved in this simple faith. Jesus is not just Savoir but the Most high King of kings. He is our king, our general, Our leader into whom we are to be loyal. Such is like an oath of service that is made not to the Army or Navy but to a living a resurrected Lord of one’s life. In personal relation into him, we trust all into him and commit our self unconditionally to His cause. This means 1.) We aim to become the kind of person Jesus would have us be. 2.) We do not have to find our purpose in this life, we nee only commit to his cause. He lay the path and we walk it, in the knowledge that he walked it and gives us the power to do the same and the mercy to get up every time we fail. 3.) What he says to do is not optional, or up for review. His teaching is our marching orders and his teachings is not easy. "love your enemy," "Forgive them that hurt you." "Go and tell the world" "oh by the way the world will hate you for my name sake... tell them anyway" (from the DIV, Dawson international version) Much of what Jesus gives us to live by is easy to talk about and praise for its lofty virtue, but hard to place into practice. Real life is muddy and complex. It takes an unwavering loyalty to do what is asked of us. But it is still simple. It is still just a doing your orders, nothing more. Trueblood explains this when writes,

“A Christian is a person who confesses that, amidst the manifold and confusing voices heard in the world, there is one Voice which supremely wins his full assent, uniting all his powers, intellectual and emotional, into a single pattern of self-giving. That Voice is Jesus Christ. A Christian not only believes that he was; he believes in him with all his heart and strength and mind.” [v]


End Notes

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[i] Barnabas Lindars, SSF, JOHN (Sheffield England: Sheffield Academic press 1990) p. 73
[ii] Ibid p. 73
[iii] Ibid p. 73
[iv] Elton Trueblood, The Company of the Committed (Harper Collins publishers, 1961) pg. 22
[v] Ibid pg 23

Meditations on humanity and Christ's human nature

Humanity, the Sad Song of Creation.
Let us turn our attention to humanity for a moment. What are we, good, bad, indifferent? I would say not one of those, but all of those. Man is a contradiction. Pascal describes man this way. “What a chimera, then, is man! what a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the truth, cloaca of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe!”[i] In us all is greatness, yet in us all is wretchedness. We construct orphanages and Auschwitz. We speak of peace but fight wars. We kill carelessly in a selfish fit then become heroes in a moment. We are full of such possibility but drained by our on depravity. Born to us is Mother Teresa and Jeffery Dommer. I think the best portrait one can draw of humanity was done by William Wordsworth. He wrote, “But hearing often times The still, sad music of humanity.”[ii] We are sad music. We are both beautiful and depressing to experience. Dismal yet inspiring to enjoy. This contradiction is not original to us. Before the fall, man was just beauty, harmony, simple, created great. Now, we are a contradiction. Humanity is a paradox of glory and shame and into this paradox Jesus stepped becoming the divine paradox. Jesus became as we did, except His contradiction was that he became the God/man.

As Gregory of Nazianzus, so eloquently states, “That which he has not assumed, he has not healed,”[iii] Christ assumed all of humanity to heal all of humanity. Christ’s humanity is a matter of soteriology, the study of salvation. Christ had to be fully human to fully save us. Migliore states it well, “If God in Christ does not enter into solidarity with the hell of our human condition, we remain without deliverance and without hope.”[iv] He can’t redeem what he has not experienced. This is the theological necessity of Christ humanity. Redemption rests on the absolute fact that God became man to raise man back to his proper place of relationship. The Word became flesh, humanity in all its greatness, the second Adam walked with the shamed of the earth to redeem there shame and unveil there potential for greatness. Part of Christ’s mission was to experience life. He had to become man to the fullest, thus to give us life he lived. He did not become man’s wretchedness but man’s greatness. It was in the violence of the cross he became our wretchedness. The cost of love was in him, being willing to become what he is not so others could become his adopted siblings (Rom 8:16-18, 29-30). His life filled every portion of what it is to be human. He is a standard to measure ourselves by and by this standard we are both condemned and redeemed. His identification with us is our eternal life (John 17:3; Gal 2:20). Jesus was authentic humanity. Human life as it is truly to be lived. He became as humanity was, is and is to be. Charles Finny has a practical definition that highlights the authentic nature of Christ's humanity. “Christ was in all respects a perfect human being, possessing both a human body and human soul, with all the attributes of a perfect man.”[v]

Readings : Heb 2: 8-11, Heb 4:14-16, Heb 5: 7-9

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

Heb 2: 8-11

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Heb 4:14-16

During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

Heb 5: 7-9

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End Notes
[i] “Blaise Pascal,” http://www.dividingline.com/private/Philosophy/TopPage/Pascal_Quote.shtml
[ii] 2010 Popular Quotations, edited by Thomas W. Handford, SAGE DIGITAL LIBRARY VOLUMES 1 - 4 (Albany, OR. USA: SAGE Software Version 2.0 © 1996) p. 353
[iii] Gregory of Nazianzus, Epistle 101 in Christology of the Latter fathers, library of Christian classics, vol. 3, ed. Edward R. Hardy (Philadelphia: Westminster press, 1954), p. 218
[iv] Daniel L. Migliore, Faith seeking understanding: an introduction to Christian theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing company, 1991) p. 146
[v] Charles Finny, “Theology lectures” SAGE DIGITAL LIBRARY VOLUMES 1 - 4 (Albany, OR. USA: SAGE Software Version 2.0 © 1996) p. 196

Was John Owen a Charismatic?

Packer says that the Puritans differ from evangelicals today because with them,

" ... communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not. The measure of our unconcern is the little that we say about it. When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology—but rarely of their daily experience of God" [1]

You may not know but I have a simple little definition for what I call a charismatic. No it does not have to do with Rolex, spiritual pride, white pinstriped suits or God forbid, a little “shaba shaba” in the middle of a sermon. I picked it up from a guy across the pond in England, it goes something like this “Those who recognize that the gift of the Spirit is to be received and the gifts of the Spirit are to be exercised.”

Lately I have been reading John Owen’s Communion with The Triune God, while much thesis reading is laborious. This little work has got me toe taping happy. Through it I kept asking myself, was Owen Charismatic? (remember my definition not white suits and money) while I know this is relatively anachronistic to ask if John Owen was a charismatic I can not help but find it very interesting indeed.

Owens like John Piper and Martyn Lloyd-Jones, he makes a clear distinction between the work of the Spirit in saving us and another “often undefined” experiential work that is available to those who desire a dynamic relationship with God. Here is how the introduction to Communion with The Triune God explains this

“. . . when Owen unpacks the work of the Spirit, he makes a distinction between the Spirit being received in terms of “sanctification” and the Spirit’s work of “consolation.” When he refers to sanctification in this context he means the work whereby the Spirit sets us apart, uniting us to Christ and making us alive. This is “a mere passive reception, as a vessel receives water.” This is the movement from being outside the kingdom of God to becoming a child of the King.

When Owen speaks of the Spirit’s work of consolation, he has in mind the comforting activity of the Spirit in the life of the believer. Christians need not be passive in the hope that the Spirit will bring comfort; rather, they should (1) seek his comfort by focusing on the promises of God realized in the Spirit, (2) call out to the Spirit of supplication to bring consolation, and (3) attend “to his motions,” which take us to the Father and Son. In all of this we rightly and actively receive him who freely comes to bring comfort and grace. Again, our union with God in Christ is never in jeopardy, but our sense of fellowship with God does necessitate appropriate human agency and response.

Keeping in mind Owen’s distinction between union and communion, one is better able to make sense of his conclusion: “The Spirit as a sanctifier comes with power, to conquer an unbelieving heart; the Spirit as a comforter comes with sweetness, to be received in a believing heart.” Though the Spirit will never abandon a believer, it should not surprise us that neglecting such receptivity to the Spirit’s movement compromises our sense of intimacy. For Owen, grace must be understood as the ground of this relationship, from first to last, from justification to preservation of the saints, from God’s acceptance of us to his glorifying the saints—grace is the bottom of the entire understanding of the saints’ security and privilege before God. This grace, however, demands rather than denies human response” [2]

So I leave the question Open, as it should remain. It really is kind of a silly question. Anyone that knows me should know I am not for this or that camp, as definitive of the kingdom. I want to be for the church and for the kingdom. I have had some friends over the years confuse my desire for them to take hold of communion with God as call to become like me or affirming of a certain group, that is has never been my intent. I desire to encourage others to be radically, revolutionarily, and risky in their seeking the spirit’s consolation and their responsive and relational awareness to the Spirit. All I ask and encourage is what I have always encouraged a relentless seeking of God, who will make himself known (in many varied ways) to them that seek with all their heart. So they may have all God wants for them in Christ and all of Christ is glorified in them.

I mean, Come On! Anything less is sin whatever you label it.


[1] J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life, (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1990), 215.

[2] Owen, John. Communion With the Triune God, Eds. Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor, (Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 2007) 22-23

The Smell of Lemons

Sometimes life is less than life. Most of the time life is less than living. We all know, life can get the best of us with its semi-transparent joys and resonating pain. The little dayly tragedies chip away at our resolution till we slowly bow to them and live beneath who we could be. Further, In the mix of a day full of simple joys and dizzying busyness, what triumphs we find can be fleeting clouds blown away by the necessities of the day. Things can get gray. Life becomes remiss of beauty. Living becomes a discipline of distraction. Each day can become a half life of dreams unrealized. Under such oppression, existing is the best many can do when darkness punches you in the face and dares you to get up! In those moments, less feeling souls may say, "When life gives you lemons go make lemonade." Such clichés are both trite and uncaring, yet I can’t help but smell the fain odor of reality.

Sometimes a song is more than a song. It can be an analogy of life itself. A song like human moments are measured out and ordered to reveal a purposeful harmony that was there all along, Hidden between the moments, in the breathless spaces between words. And in our hearing like in our living, a poetic 'Good' is uncovered; in lyric and harmony this 'good' that we feel in our bones is disclosed. A good that is felt by human hearts and marked by divine work. A good that is woven through pain and redeemed in joy by divine hands. Hands that still show the scars and splinters of pain personally realized. Jesus Hands that stream healing and open to reveal a good that withholds more pain than we know. Hands that sovereignly hold back a flood of suffering that could drown us if not for His power. Yet in our pain this secret escape, this "it could be worse if not for the grace of God" is often forgotten. And even in our forgetfulness the hands still heal, the hands still hold, the hands still write the music life itself sets its rhythms too. And in little ways, a Song can show this 'Good' even, in our pain, even if it hurts.

Sometimes a song is more than a song. It is a string on your finger, a reminder of some person. You smile with mixed glee at the fleeting memory of who they are to you. What often goes “unknotted” is how they in little ways, made you. How events may have impacted you but they changed you. When I here the song below my sister, Jill comes to mind. Jill was a victim of domestic violence. Hurt by one that clammed to love, she rose from the ash, healed from the bruises, and walked away; retaining her dignity and protecting the life of her baby girl. Jill didn’t just make lemonade. She bought stock in Kool Ade. Today she is on the offensive as a legal advocate for battered women; fighting relentlessly to insure women receive the dignity afforded them as the crowning art of God's creative act. She stands up for those whom Jesus called the 'least of these', resisting drunken rednecks, death threats, and shotguns in her face, even governmental lobbyist. Vowing to protect and pull women and children from abusive life threatening situations. She taught me how a cliché could resonate with relentless truth when God is your backbone and justice your shield. I love my sisters, I love Jill and every time I hug her I smell lemons.

Sometimes life is less than life.

Sometimes a song is more than a song.

Sometimes you smell lemons.

Economics and the Christain ethic

The Preacher and Economics
Realistic thinking about the human condition will result in sound economic policy. Simply put, this is to explain why capitalism succeeds where socialism fails. From a theological perspective, I understand the reasons for the difference between the two systems. While work is a creation ordinance under which men may flourish, since the Fall men create goods and services largely out of self-interest. When any government takes away incentives for achievement and success, both individuals and society suffer. Without the vigorous creation of wealth, both governments and charities become severely hampered in their efforts to help the poor. Economics, therefore, is no mere trifle to the preacher. Rather, it must be viewed as a discipline, which need to recognize man’s true nature revealed in the Bible.

But, Does the Bible give us any indication of the way we should order our economic affairs? Whilst the gospel itself is essentially concerned with personal salvation and personal ethics, and other parts of the New Testament give guidelines for the life and ethic of the church, the Old Testament has a wealth of teaching that embodies principles of social ethics of everlasting value. Careful examination of this can point to the sort of economic systems that seem most in accord with the will of God. Yet it is important to note that only guiding principles can be found and no full theory short of God himself can be found.

First, there is the guidance from the story of the Creation and Fall. We are told that man was made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27) and given dominion over the resources of the earth (Gen. 1:28-29). Like God, then, we are creative beings, with a natural desire and duty to work, and so we need economic and political systems which will give us the freedom to give expression to this creativity. As a result of the Fall, however, God made work part of His curse on man: it is no longer simply a creative joy, but a struggle to meet our needs in the face of scarcity (Gen. 3:17-19). The central issue of economics—the study of the production and distribution of scarce resources—is a consequence of the Fall. We may struggle to overcome scarcity, but economic systems which promise that by changing certain structures we may achieve some sort of utopian paradise on earth (as does Marxism) are doomed to failure.

Second, there is the guidance to be drawn from the instructions God gave the nation of Israel for the ordering of their society as laid down in the Mosaic law. From this a complex pattern emerges which, in our terms, fits neither a fully socialist nor a fully capitalist model. God clearly sanctioned private ownership of property to support family units. But in order that each family should have a permanent stake in economic life, a limit was put on any downward spiral into poverty. Every fifty years (the Jubilee) all slaves were supposed to be freed, all debts cancelled, and all land returned to original owners. In addition the Israelites had to pay tithes on their output (similar to a fairly low rate of proportional taxation) and to leave harvest gleanings so as to support the poor. The relief of poverty, not pursuit of economic equality, seemed to be the guiding principle.

Third, there is the guidance offered by prophets like Jeremiah, Malachi, and Amos who thundered against cheating of all kinds, exploitation, and forced labor. In our own day, most injustices of these types stem from monopoly power (both of capital or labor), lack of property rights, inadequate or corrupt legal systems, and heavy-handed governments. We must understand that any system must have checks and balances and that ultimately it is up to the individual that sees injustice to speak out and do something. John Stout writes about the nature story of the rich man and Lazarus. Making the point rather forcefully that simple compaction is the beginning of being a force for good.

We are all tempted to use the enormous complexity of international economics as an excuse to do nothing. Yet this was the sin of Dives. There is no suggestion that Dives was responsible for the poverty of Lazarus either by robbing or by exploiting him. The reason for Dives’ guilt is that he ignored the beggar at his gate and did precisely nothing to relieve his destitution. He acquiesced in a situation of gross economic inequality, which had rendered Lazarus less than fully human and which he could have relieved. The pariah dogs that licked Lazarus’ sores showed more compassion than Dives did. Dives went to hell because of his indifference (1)

If people could live from such a simple principle daily life would be richer and a society could properly regulate the institutional structures that issue in and thought it. It is also called the maintenance of a social conscience.

One, the guidance from the story of the Creation and Fall. Creation order and disorder doctrines frame for ethical understanding and worldview of a Christian. Two, guiding principles taken form the life of Israel gives us some ethical dynamics of economics. Three, the maintenance of the American conscience is through compassion and the companionate acts. This is a means of rising social awareness of biblical oppression and injustices. When a government has many laws its people suffer from a little conscience.

For these reasons I believe liberal democracies with diffused ownership of capital, a strong rule of law, and welfare provision for the poor are more in accord with God-given principles than other systems we see around the globe today. This does not mean that any system is perfect, nor does it absolve God’s people from speaking out against particular cases of greed, injustice, or oppression.

Further reflections on the New Testament churches and the poor

Jesus reminds us in the New Testament that the church will always have the poor with us. We will always be called to the least of these. He even clamed that his manifest presence would be with them in a special way. This was the way of the early church. Read the words of Justine maryter as she speaks caring for the poor as part of the weekly worship.

And we afterwards continually remind each other of [our common faith]. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration (2)

Aristides of Athens adds to this description in his apologetic addressed to the Roman emperor Hadrian (2nd century). The purpose of Aristides’s treatise was to defend the Christian faith against false accusations. In the letter, He argues that the Christian moral code surpasses the highest ethical ideals of the great philosophers, especially as manifested by the Church’s concern for the poor and socially vulnerable.

They [Christians] help those who offend them, making friends of them; do good to their enemies. They don’t adore idols; they are kind, good, modest, sincere, they love one another; don’t despise widows; protect the orphans; those who have much give without grumbling, to those in need. When they meet strangers, they invite them to their homes with joy, for they recognize them as true brothers, not natural but spiritual.

When a poor man dies, if they become aware, they contribute according to their means for his funeral; if they come to know that some people are persecuted or sent to prison or condemned for the sake of Christ’s name, they put their alms together and send them to those in need. If they can do it, they try to obtain their release. When a slave or a beggar is in need of help, they fast two or three days, and give him the food they had prepared for themselves, because they think that he too should be joyful, as he has been called to be joyful like themselves (3)

Health care can be seen as a part of the common good. Redistribution of wealth (it is an injustice to fight an injustice- mom told me two wrong don’t make it right) is Socialism, no matter word you put before it. Further, it will back fire. Free money breeds Idleness and will lead to people misusing the system. So I still Hold that socialism as to mean care for the poor is the work and social ethic of the church.

Money the green (insert “monster of your choice” here) of America
The proper use and role of money must be understood. It has no statues, holds no power, and is never more important that human life. To answer this we will role back time and use some reasons given us by Clement of Alexandria. Clement was well read layman and phenomenal writer, Clement not only engaged in philosophical discussions but also spent much of his energies on practical instruction for Christians. (I write that like the two could possibly be separated) In Who Is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved? Clement explains that poverty is not always the blessing that some in the early Church considered it to be. Clement argues that it is far better not to be anxious about money and to be able to give to others. In this clarification Jesus clam that the poor will always be with the church is intelaganble. The church need not be poor but need be generous and trusting God in the use of money.

For if no one had anything, what room would be left among men for giving? . . . How could one give food to the hungry, and drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and shelter the houseless . . (4)

Clement at this point gives a proper role in the social order of life. Money is wares the garments of a slave. So it can be said, Money is a servant to be used for the benefit of others. Clement continues:

Riches, then, which benefit also our neighbours, are not to be thrown away . . . Such an instrument is wealth. Are you able to make a right use of it? It is subservient to righteousness. Does one make a wrong use of it? It is, on the other hand, a minister of wrong. For its nature is to be subservient, not to rule. That then which of itself has neither good nor evil, being blameless, ought not to be blamed; but that which has the power of using it well and ill, by reason of its possessing voluntary choice . . . So let no man destroy wealth, rather than the passions of the soul, which are incompatible with the better use of wealth. (5)

Character, love, and money, in the church
Erasmus in his book: “The Education of a Christian Prince.” He made the point that Honor must be given on the bases of a man’s character not his wallet. A lesson we have lost in our modern times (6). Further George Whitfield; the great evangelist and Christian activist (many did not know this) spoke of the necessity of love. For the Christian Love must rule for wealth is a test of character, just as poverty is a test of character.

Nothing is more valuable and commendable, and yet, not one duty is less practiced, than that of charity. We often pretend concern and pity for the misery and distress of our fellow-creatures, but yet we seldom commiserate their condition so much as to relieve them according to our abilities; but unless we assist them with what they may stand in need of, for the body, as well as for the soul, all our wishes are no more than words of no value . . .

[I]f there is true love, there will be charity; there will be an endeavor to assist, help, and relieve according to that ability wherewith God has blessed us . . .
O that the rich would consider how praise-worthy this duty is, in helping their fellow-creatures! . . . but alas, our great men had much rather spend their money in a playhouse, at a ball, an assembly, or a masquerade, than relieve a poor distressed servant of Jesus Christ. They had rather spend their estates on their hawks and hounds, on their whores, and earthly, sensual, devilish pleasures, than comfort, nourish, or relieve one of their distressed fellow-creatures . . . neither will you be judged according to the largeness of your estate, but according to the use you have made of it . . .
Let me beseech you to consider, which will stand you best at the day of judgment, so much money expended at a horse-race, or a cockpit, at a play or masquerade, or so much given for the relief of your fellow-creatures, and for the distressed members of Jesus Christ . (7)

He also speaks to the poor and exhorted them. .

I would exhort you who are poor, to be charitable to one another.
Though you may not have money, or the things of this life, to bestow upon one another; yet you may assist them, by comforting, and advising them not to be discouraged though they are low in the world; or in sickness you may help them according as you have time or ability: do not be unkind to one another: do not grieve, or vex, or be angry with each other; for this is giving the world an advantage over you.

And if God stirs up any to relieve you, do not make an ill use of what his providence, by the hands of some Christian, hath bestowed upon you: be always humble and wait on God; do not murmur or repine, if you see any relieved and you are not; still wait on the Lord, and help one another, according to your abilities, from time to time.(8)

In the end The church is to be a love driven socialist movement rooted in a doctrines of God, the church and last things. The poor we will always have with us is more real that cartons and more a problem than most want to recognize. .

Notes
(1) John Stott, “Economic Equality Among Nations: A Christian Concern?” Christianity Today, May 2 1980, 35.

(2) Justin Martyr, “The First Apology of Justin,” Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids, MI: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985), 185-186.

(3) Aristides, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Martyrs, compiled Mark Waters (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2001), 70-71.

(4)Clement of Alexandria, “Who Is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved?” in Ante-Nicene Fathers: Fathers of the Second Century, vol. 2 (New York: Charles and Scribner’s Sons, 1899) 594-595.

(5)Clement of Alexandria, “Who Is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved?” in Ante-Nicene Fathers: Fathers of the Second Century, vol. 2 (New York: Charles and Scribner’s Sons, 1899) 595.

(6) Erasmus, “The Education of a Christian Prince,” in The Erasmus Reader, ed. Erika Rummel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), 263-264

(7) George Whitefield, “The Great Duty of Charity Recommended,” in The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, http://www.reformed.org/documents/Whitefield/WITF_047.html (accessed October, 28 2008).

(8) Ibid.

Matt Chandler on human attraction

God bless the Truth.

My October Man Crush

..... is ..... Matt Chadler.

In this first one I got a feel for this guys heart. We sould all understand life from this perspective. Saddly my time in seminary did little than steal such a vision of life. hearing men like him awakens something in me, I hope it does the same for you.

Matt on living to fill eternity

I like this point and again living in light of eternity is the foundwork of life well lived. Also T-willy this on is for you. (Go Dogs)

Matt chadler with some wise words for those in ministry