Schemes of the Devil

"For we are not ignorant of his schemes."

One of the primary schemes of the devil is the lie that the goal of life is to maximize pleasure and to minimize suffering and discomfort. We don't say it, but we live it: "I don't care if the war is won, I just want to get through the war without personal injury to myself or those I care about." Francis Schaeffer called this the pursuit of affluence and personal peace - I want to be able to go the store and buy anything I want, and not be troubled with other people's problems.

Paul says, "If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." According to John Piper, Paul does not mean we should give ourselves to drunkenness and gluttony if there is no resurrection. Drunks and gluttons are not happy people. Rather Paul is saying that if there is no resurrection from the dead, we ought to pursue the ordinary pleasures of life (food, drink, etc.) which bring comfort and a sense of happiness since subjecting ourselves to extraordinary suffering would be a foolish waste of life. (From Desiring God Study Guide, Chapter 10, Suffering)

According to Paul’s testimony, we as Christians are called to live such a life which would be a
foolish waste if there is no resurrection. A life that values the resurrection from the dead more
than life and freely chooses suffering or the possibility of suffering if that is what is required for
Christ’s sake. (From Desiring God Study Guide, Chapter 10, Suffering)

What is Satan’s design in all our suffering? The destruction of our faith. (From Desiring God Study Guide, Chapter 10, Suffering)

Don't Be Surprised

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 1 Peter 4:12

A high school kid heads south on a bus from Philly to spend the summer vacationing in Florida.  However, a bus transfer mixup lands him at the Marine base at Parris Island. Expectations now clash with reality: He had expected to sleep in every day; instead, he's yanked out of bed at 5 a.m.  He had expected to lay on the beach and work on his tan; instead, he has to "hit the beach" and work on his combat skills.  He had expected to do whatever he wants whenever he wants; instead, he has a drill sergeant that tells him when he's going eat, sleep and pee.

How we see the difference between expectations and reality determines the mental and emotional ecology that we live in.  Am I surprised that there are conflicts with others at my workplace?  Am I shocked that my spouse is selfish, or that my kids grumble?  Do I wonder that life is difficult?

Those who think that life should be easy and things should go well face frustration and disappointment every day.  Psychiatrist Scott Peck said that most mental illness is caused by the people's inability to face the reality that life is hard.

Therefore, we should not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon us for our testing as though some strange thing were happening to us.  We live in occupied territory as warriors for the King.  On one hand, we have our enemy Satan with whom we must daily wrestle and do battle.  On the other hand, we have our heavenly Father who daily is training us for this conflict. These are the times that try men's souls. Life is much more about the beaches at Normandy than the beaches on the Grand Strand. Expecting Disneyworld in this life is a sure formula for angst and frustration.

Thankful for My Problems? (under construction)

On the basis of yesterday's post on learning to give thanks in everything, I'm now faced with the reality that my problems, short-comings, sin areas and failures come under the category of "everything," and I have to deal with how I'm going to give thanks for them.

Now my list of "impossible" problems looks like this:

1. Desire and ability to lead.

2. Consistency with life and disciplines

3. Developing an other's focus and a concern for others.

4. Discipline and control of eating.

5. Home church growth in depth and breadth.

6. Initiating in relationship with others.

7. Consistency with exercise.

8. Learning to suffer.

9. Making my Father my exceeding joy.

So, let's take the first one, desire and ability to lead. It has been said by many that "leadership is influence." If this is true then I do have a desire to lead in the sense that I do have some desire to influence others in how they think and in what they believe. However, what is fundamental to leadership that is lacking in my life is the the concept of taking responsibility for the lives of others. This is something that I do not naturally want to do. I am glad to help you and care for you when you ask for it, but I don't want to take responsibility for you. Whereas I do not have many brain cells that think in terms of being responsible for others, Sue does not have many that don't. She sees the people in the house as her responsibility and cannot sleep (literally) if they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing.

So how can I understand this in such a way to give thanks for this glaring shortcoming in my life?

I can

Loyalty to Jesus (under construction)

Whatever is not from faith is sin.

Prideful thoughts - I'm better than others.  I'm not like others.

Going After What's Important

Blessed are the poor in spirit... Blessed are those that morn...Matthew 5:3, 4.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount begins to crush what we commonly think about the goal of life and what life is all about.  He has turned over not only the tables of those selling in the temple, but the tables of all of us who have set up our wares somewhere seeking prosperity in this life.  For many of us, life is about maximizing pleasure and ease and minimizing discomfort and inconvenience.  By contrast, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "The meaning of earthly existence lies, not as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering, but in the development of the soul."  We have to reorient ourselves to what Jesus says is important.  "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies..." (John 12)  Watchman Nee says that the outer man (the soul - our minds, hearts, emotions) must be broken like the outer shell of a grain of wheat in order to allow the release of the spirit (and Spirit) within us.  Prosperity only pampers the outer man and makes the shell harder.  Prosperity only numbs and is a hindrance in the development and breaking of the soul.

By contrast, one of God's greatest gifts for the growth of the soul is suffering.  The testimony of so many who have embraced God's gift of suffering is that: 1) they wouldn't want to have to endure it again 2) they would not wish it on their worst enemy and 3) they would not trade the benefits of the experience for the world.  Spurgeon confirms:

“I am afraid that all the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours, might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows, and pains, and griefs, is altogether incalculable … Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. It is the best book in a minister’s library.”

Let us not seek for that which prospers the outer man, but for that which prospers the soul, the inner man, and the spirit.

The Blessing of Sorrow and Suffering

Sorrow and suffering draw us to Jesus.
Sorrow and suffering humble us.  They bring about the breaking of our minds, hearts, and wills so that the spirit and the Spirit within us can be released.
Sorrow and suffering strengthen us.
Sorrow and suffering enable us to taste the sufferings of Jesus in an experiential way.
Sorrow and suffering pull us into an experience of the moment.

Seeing the "Why" in Our Suffering

"As for you, you meant evil against me, [but] God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. - Gen 50:20 NASB

Having good eyes in suffering is paramount.  Suffering that we see as needless, spiteful or unjust quickly turns to bitterness and/or anger. What man will not patiently wait two minutes on a traffic light to change at a busy intersection, but will angrily blow his horn if someone sits at a green light for more than a few seconds.   You may joyfully drive for hours to pick up a friend from the airport, but if your friend decides not to come, doesn't tell you and you make the trip for nothing, he may not be your friend anymore.

The reality is that in relationships there will be times when we suffer because of the ignorance, neglect, sin, selfishness, spite or abuse from others.  Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, which ultimately led to being framed and years in a dungeon.  Yet he endured without despair, bitterness or anger. Likewise, we must protect ourselves from the deadly diseases of despair, anger, and bitterness. As Joseph saw the hand of God in his affliction which caused him to rise above despair, anger, and bitterness, it is absolutely critical therefore that we see meaning and purpose in our suffering.  Navy SEALS undergo immense suffering and pain in their training.  Enormous physical exertion, days without sleep, exposure to miserable conditions ("cold, wet and sandy) all take there toll.  Though the training, preparation, and selection process have improved the success rate, in the past only 10 percent of those who start will finish.

How do the successful ones endure such hardship?  They know the "why" of their suffering; they are clear why they are there, why they are suffering, and why they must finish their course.

Suffering may clothe itself in listening to a long-winded friend, living daily in the grief of the loss of a child to a drunk driver, watching another receive credit for my work, or having to stay up late after an exhausting day to give attention to a spouse.

Do I know the "why" in my afflictions and am I ever holding it before me?  Without the "why", despair, bitterness, and anger are crouching at the door.

Torture and Imprisonment in America

https://s3.amazonaws.com/mychurchwebsite/c3159/spiritual_poisons_part_5_food_idol_112716.pdf
Reginald III, Duke of Guelders

Enjoying People

And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people [i.e., "sinners" - vs 30] who were reclining at the table with them. - Luk 5:29 NASB

When Jesus came to the place [where Zaccheus, a very rich tax collector had climbed up into a tree to see Jesus], Jesus looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house." And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly. - Luk 19:5-6 NASB

It is apparent that the Lord Jesus enjoyed people.  And not just people, but individuals.  Tax collectors and sinners are street smart people who can size up others quickly, and who would have no patience or tolerance for a religious phony.  Jesus' popularity with the non-religious "fringe" people is certainly amazing, especially considering that "fringe" people are frequently that at the social margins because they have personality issues or have poor social skills that make them difficult to be around.

Do I really enjoy people?  This passage from Blue Like Jazz has often intrigued me.

So much of what I know about getting along with people I learned from the hippies. They were magical in community. People were drawn to them. They asked me what I loved, what I hated, how I felt about this and that, what sort of music made me angry or sad. They loved me like a good novel, like an art film, and this is how I felt when I was with them. I was never conscious of what my hands were doing or whether or not I sounded immature when I talked. I had always been so conscious of those things, but living with the hippies I forgot about myself. And when I lost this self-consciousness, I gained so much more. I gained an interest in people outside my own skin...

Do I enjoy individuals like a good book, find them fascinating, savor them like a glass of wine?  Three things are necessary for us to deeply enjoy people:

1. We can't be in a hurry.  We have to have time for people.  We can't be in the mode of "spit it out; I've got places to go and things to do."  Oswald Chambers said, "You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you can go to him in your moment of trouble and find that he has plenty of time for you. But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away. If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people."

2.  We have to believe that there's gold in each person. “I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him,” said Galileo.  Each person has a story, an experience with God, things that we can glean. Are we willing to dig in, to sort through a 55-gallon drum of cow manure if necessary to find the gold?

3.  We have to have a childlike wonder and can't have a critical spirit.  We have to accept each person as if they perfectly who God wants them to be.  When we go to the zoo we don't think "That hippopotamus has an eating problem" or "What's the matter with Mr. Lion - where'd he get his anger issues and dominance problems?"  They just are. 

There's a place for helping people grow and learn, but if we don't work from a foundation of enjoying them for who they are, we are limited in how much we can help them grow.  People can smell when they are your project and you are playing God. 

Bless someone today by enjoying them - just as they are.

What is Your Gospel?

"According to my gospel...: Romans 2:16, 16:25, Titus 2:8

The gospel is good news on many fronts.  How is it good news to you?  What keeps you following Jesus?  How is the gospel personal to you?

The gospel is good news to me in three ways. Certainly, it is good news that we are going to heaven and not to hell.  If God never did anything else, this is truly good news enough. But here on this planet, in the context of life on this broken world where sin, suffering, and sorrow are the landscape on which we place our tent, there are three things that get me excited about Jesus and keep me pursuing God.

This is eternal life, that they may know you, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  John 17:3
First, he is with me in the brokenness of my days.  I have a relationship with him and there is nothing sweeter than his voice talking to me in his word, nothing more glorious than knowing I have experienced him in some way and nothing more awesome than knowing and having God as my Father.

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 2Co 12:9 NASB
Second, Christ gives me grace for love, suffering, and difficulty.  He does not take me out of my difficulties but gives grace and power in the context of my difficulties.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6 NASB
Third, Jesus explains reality.  He has answers, wisdom, insight into how to live.  He really is the Way, the Truth and the Life.   He explains why people are the way that they are, why sin is, why things are broken.  He helps me understand my purpose and why I exist on this planet. He makes sense of the chaos and maelstrom of life.

This is my gospel, my good news.  Please, tell me yours.

The Fact of Suffering

In the world you have trouble and suffering... John 16:33 NET.

The successful prize fighter must encompass a three-pronged approach to winning. First, he must know how to score and successfully land blows onto his opponent in order to do this.  He must have and execute a winning offensive strategy.

Second, he must have a defensive strategy.  He must be able to defend himself against his opponent.  His adversary will be seeking to land blows to his body and face, and he must know how to fend these off, in order to protect himself and also to prevent him from scoring.

Lastly, no strategy is perfect or perfectly executed.  Almost certainly, the opponent will land some blows, inflict some pain, and do some damage to him.  Therefore, he must learn to suffer.  As renowned boxing champion Mike Tyson famously said, "Everyone has a plan... until he gets punched in the face."  A person who cannot endure the pain and suffering of the fight cannot stay in the ring to win.  Can you imagine a boxer taking a hit in the stomach, turning to his coach and saying, "You didn't tell me THAT was going to happen!"  We can imagine the coach responding, "You're in a boxing match, you idiot!  What did you expect?"

Making relationships work is very similar.  First, we certainly want to do everything we can to do good in the relationship to make it work. We want to be blessing the other(s) with serving, with encouragement, with gifts, with instruction as appropriate, with a filial love.

Second, we want to address and resolve the problems that will naturally occur in any relationship.  We want to talk them out, do our best to find middle ground, work to understand, and try to iron out differences.

Lastly, though we give our best efforts to make the relationship successful, and work diligently to resolve problems in the relationship, inevitably there will be problems that we cannot resolve.  Inevitably, there will situations in a relationship where we are damaged or hurt by the "blows" from another, or where there is an impasse and we don't get what we want or believe that we deserve.  Then it boils down to the raw truth that in order for the relationship to continue, in order to "stay in the ring," we have to suffer.  We will have to suffer feeling unappreciated, unjustly treated, sinned against, violated, betrayed, belittled, abused, taken advantage of, lied to, cheated or cheated on, or unloved.  Can you imagine complaining to God, "Father, that person was so selfish and XXXed me (fill in any sin of your choice). You didn't tell me THAT was going to happen."  You can hear God responding, "You're in a relationship, you idiot!  What did you expect?"

This three-pronged approach also extends as a general statement about life.  We want to have winning strategies, be wise, and do the things that will cause things to go well for us. We want to solve our problems and eliminate the obstacles to our pursuit of good and success.  However, because we live in a fallen world, and because of the fact of sin, our porcelain plans will certainly at some point be dashed to the stone floor of reality, and there will be suffering.    In the middle of our greatest growth or plans or successes come the phone calls in the middle of the night, the sober talks with doctors, the blunt force trauma of an unfaithful spouse.  Veteran psychiatrist Scott Peck states that most people suffer mental illness because they cannot face the reality that life is hard.  "You're living in a broken world; what did you expect?"

Addressing the reality of suffering is the missing element in most self-help strategies. The Bible, however, acknowledges this truth, as it frequently discusses the reality of the afflictions or tribulations through which we must suffer and endure.  The word in the original language means pressure.  There will always be pressure, affliction, and stress through which we must suffer.

In every day and in every relationship we must plan and prepare for the reality of suffering.  Woe to him who is not prepared and cannot endure the left hook of life and right uppercut of relationships.

Love as Suffering

Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. 1Pe 4:8 NASB

One "given" in relationships (and life) is that there will be problems with other people in relationships. We all see differently and have our own worldviews, beliefs, and values, which at best are still different from every other person on the planet.  There are also in relationships honest misunderstandings, and the ever-present reality of sin, without which no calculations regarding human behavior should be made. Therefore, in relationships, there will always be problems and difficulties, and not all of these can be worked out to everyone's satisfaction.  At some point, someone or some of the people in the relationship have got to take the short end of the stick and not get what they wanted.  In order for the relationship to continue, someone has to suffer and cover the gap between what they wanted and what they got.  This suffering may be insignificant ("I had to eat my sandwich without mustard because you used the last of it.") to titanic ("You committed adultery with my best friend.").  The difference between what I should have gotten and what I actually received is called love.  This is real agape love.

We should seek to grow in wisdom so that we can find solutions to as many of our relational issues and problems as possible.  However, we must also grow in our fervent love for one another; we must grow in our capacity for suffering and bridging relational fractures. Growing in our capacity to suffer is integral to growing in love.  Learning to suffer and increasing our capacity for agape suffering is like throwing a baseball; it is something that we can learn to do.  It is love that covers a multitude of sins.

Suffering Ebbs and Flows

Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning. Ps 30:5

Suffering ebbs and flows.  What may be overwhelming this minute may subside in the next.  That is why we can set small goals of endurance with the hope that the next minute will be better than this one.  Often the pain will subside and we don't notice the absence of it.

"This too shall pass."

Blessings Contain the Seeds of Destruction

 "Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants?" 2Ki 5:26 NASB

We must cultivate the bitter seeds of sorrow and suffering for Christ, for they yield the sweet fruit of righteousness.  However, we must never stop cultivating the seeds and the tree.  If we stop, then woe to us, for the fruit and blessings of righteousness then become the seeds of sorrow and suffering.  As a nature illustration, the sweet apple contains amygdalin, a precursor of cyanide and if ingested in quantity can produce sickness and death.  Like apples, the seeds of prosperity, comfort and ease contain the seeds of their mother tree - sorrow and suffering.

There are hilarious YouTube videos called "Don't Celebrate Too Early".  They show clip after clip of persons disastrously celebrating before they have finished and won.  Likewise, we must finish the course.  This life is not the time for celebrating too early.  Gehazi lied to Naaman in order to get some silver and clothes from him.  Elisha's rebuke to Gehazi is [2Ki 5:26 NASB]  "Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants?"

We live in a land and culture of abundance.  Now is not the time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants.  We must do as Proverbs 23:1-3 instructs.  "When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you, 2 And put a knife to your throat If you are a man of [great] appetite. 3 Do not desire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food."

Ease and comfort are deceptive foods.  Let us, while it is still day, Suffer hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.  The fruit for which we labor is nothing less than the presence of Christ.

Fruit Opposite the Seeds

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. - Hebrews 12:11 NASB

The testimony of Scripture is that fruit is frequently the opposite of the seeds that are sown.  The seeds of sorrow and suffering produce sweet fruit, while the fruit of sweetness is sorrow and suffering.  For instance, sowing and cultivating the seeds of the sorrowful and painful discipline of God yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.  The difficult seeds of godliness, that is, discipline, self-denial, character, which all require a degree of suffering, produce the sweet fruit of great gain.  "Godliness is a means of great gain," says Paul.  And godliness frequently brings wealth, abundance, prosperity, comforts.  Though there are exceptions, godly nations, godly people and godly corporations tend to prosper.  Those who plant and cultivate the more difficult and "sorrowful" seeds of discipline produce the sweet fruit of righteousness and the benefits of it.

Likewise, sowing the pleasant seeds of ease and comfort will bring ultimately yield the bitter fruit of sorrow and suffering.  "Woe to those who are well-fed now, for they shall be hungry.  Woe to those who laugh now, for they shall mourn," warns Jesus.  It may be sweeter and more enjoyable to watch TV and play video games, but if these cost me getting flunked out of school, then ultimately the fruit will be that I will have to work even harder (i.e., suffer more) to earn a living.  It may seem sweeter to eat whatever I want and as much as I want, but the bitter fruit of obesity and its associated health problems are a bitter and sorrowful fruit.

Let us embrace the sorrows, sufferings and difficulties of life as gifts from God that will ultimately yield sweet fruit.

Suffering (under construction)

Kinds of suffering

There are different kinds of suffering:

1. There is physical suffering, where the body suffers pain.
a. Acute pain; I smashed my thumb with a hammer.
b. Chronic pain; my joints hurt from arthritis.
c. Hunger or thirst; I want or need food or water.
d. Weariness - the suffering of being tired from work or exertion. "In due time you will reap if you do not grow weary." "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."
e. Lack of sleep.
f.  Cravings.  I want chocolate or sugar.
g. Sexual pressure; I want sex and relief.

2.  There is emotional suffering
Rejection
Loneliness
Shame
Guilt
Fear
Anger
Grief
Abuse
Humiliation
Obedience
Irritation
Disappointment
Awkwardness
Slavery to idols
Pressure No pressure, but if you don’t get through this, everybody goes to hell.

Patience is being willing to suffer without giving God a deadline to end it.
We want to learn to embrace paying rather than make it go away.
We don’t have to quit, but we can take a rest. If possible.

Sources of suffering
God,
others
Satan
Brokeness of the world
My own sin

Increased suffering is God's calling to the next league up.

Some fruit - the presence of Christ - for example can be drunk abundantly and deeply.Delayed gratification.
Whatever you pay for upfront, you get back with interest.
The instruction of the cross is the instruction about suffering.
For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Hold in front of you the joy of what you were suffering for.



How do I fellowship with Jesus in my suffering? Philippians 310 the fellowship of his suffering.
He who hates his life. Hating your life is making yourself suffer.
If anyone wishes to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. We had to put away self. We have to take up suffering. In Jesus is the ultimate goal in all of this. It can’t be for pride of being able to suffer. Also it’s take up your cross daily. It’s something that has to be done every day.
Jooih
Hinds feet sorrow and suffering
Fellowship with the shepherd
God’s grace is not taking away the pain but helping us endure and get through it.
People left the farms because they could not get ahead. Also it is really difficult to have to depend on God for your living. However what a glorious existence crying out and depending on the Lord every day to provide.
Anyone bears fruit he prunes it that it might be her more fruit. This pruning has a sense of hacking. It may be very painful. But it will bring the fruit.
When a lien loves you, it can be a painful experience. His claws can sometimes scratch his teeth can sometimes nick you. When he stands on your chest and licks your face it’s uncomfortable. Sometimes he takes you with him out in the bush out in the wild. It’s not comfortable out there. It’s hot. It’s dangerous. But he loves you and he wants to be with you.
CS Lewis said you wanted a God who loves you? Congratulations! You’ve got one.
Medicating our pain is not for bidden in the Bible. Let wine be given to him whose life is better. But when we medicate we miss the benefit of what God is doing in our pain. So there’s that fruit. Also if the medication becomes an idol then that is sin

We want to learn to suffer and overcome affliction so that we can be with Jesus. If he calls me in the middle of the night to pray and I cannot endure in weariness, then I cannot be with him. If he calls me to join him in sharing him with another person, but I am afraid then I cannot join him. If he calls me to serve and labor, but I am lazy and cannot get off of the couch then I cannot join him. Beware of the pride of suffering for suffering’s sake.

The heart is the instrument of our vocation. Spurgeon
You can always tell someone who has suffered, they all have time for you. Chambers
He who has suffered a seized from Sin
The tree produces the opposite of the fruit. I’ll discipline seems sorrowful and not joyful peaceful through righteousness. Also in excess of rest and things and material things and comfort and and suffering and sorrow.

The fruits of righteousness are meant to be a taste of things to come. They are not meant to be a steady diet in this life. As a steady diet in this life, they will bring sorrow and misery. And suffering. These are the seeds that they contain.

Where I am there with my servant be also. If we want to be with Jesus we have to be his servant. If we want to be his servant we have to be where he is doing what he wants to do. Doing what he likes to do. Doing the things that are important to him. In order to do them we must be in shape. We must be ready to suffer and carry her across. Otherwise we cannot go with him. He says I wish you were willing to die to yourself and take up your cross you cannot come after me. He’s not saying he’s not giving permission, He is stating a reality that if you want to go where he goes then self denial and cross carrying are a must.

1Co 12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it;

[2Co 1:3-7 NASB] 3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are [sharers] of our comfort.

It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds. … The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living. Yet it is possible to practice the art of living even in a concentration camp, although suffering is omnipresent. victor frankl



He cites Nietzsche’s, who wrote that “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” and admonishes against generalization:



Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. The typical reply with which such a man rejected all encouraging arguments was, “I have nothing to expect from life any more.” What sort of answer can one give to that?



What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life — daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.



These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements. “Life” does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life’s tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way. Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand.

What are the benefits and blessings of suffering?
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, - 1Pe 4:1 NASB
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. - 1Pe 4:1, 14 NASB
but if [anyone suffers] as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. ... Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. - 1Pe 4:16, 19 NASB
And He was saying to [them] all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? - Luk 9:23-25 NASB
What is suffering the gateway to?
How does suffering help me to know Jesus?
4. What can I learn that will increase my ability to suffer (patience, long suffering)
For the joy set before him he endured the cross.  We have to find and keep meaning in our suffering.

Questions (under construction)

1. How would you describe a relationship with Christ to a person who does not know Jesus?
2. How deos Jesus or your relationwhip with him affect the way you parent? Your marriage?  Your life?
3.  What attracts you to Jesus?
4.  What keeps you walking with Jesus?
5.  Paul refers to "according to my gospel". What is your gospel?  What is your good news?
6. How do you think differently about      parenting, Jesus, time, money      than you did X years ago?
7.  How has your marriage changed over the years?

The Purpose of the Gospel

“Draw me after you and let us run together!" Song 1:4

The purpose of the Gospel is not to produce holy specimens to be admired, but to remove the barriers to enraptured love for God, unencumbered by the thought of self.  We can want to be saved and sanctified so that we can feel better about ourselves and think we are getting somewhere (finally!) in the spiritual economy.  We can want to be made right with God, to have our sins cleansed, to be made sons, to be made holy. However, these are means, not ends. The purpose of the Gospel is to remove the relational barriers between God and us.  His intent was to free us of self-examination so that we can live a life of loving abandon, so enraptured that we are unconscious of ourselves.  The lover is so intoxicated with the beloved that there is no room for a thought of himself.   This is what God wants.

Oswald Chambers says, "Salvation is not merely deliverance from sin, nor the experience of personal holiness; the salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with Himself. My experimental knowledge of salvation will be along the line of deliverance from sin and of personal holiness; but salvation means that the Spirit of God has brought me into touch with God’s personality, and I am thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself, I am caught up into the abandonment of God."

Am I absorbed in a Christian self-improvement program, or finding myself more and more lost in him?

Meditations on the Gospel (under construction)

The chief end for man is to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."  Or we can consider John Piper's permutation: "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever."  Another way to think of "enjoying" God is to love him, as it is commanded in the Great Commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind..." (Deut 6:5).


The gospel is a means, not an end.  The gospel has cleared away all the barriers so that we can focus on relationship with Jesus. That is the main thing that he is after.    You are a criminal. The gospel takes care of your sin and death. You have no merit of your own. The gospel gives you the merit and righteousness of Christ. You are an alien and a stranger. The gospel makes you a son. You are unholy and impure. The gospel sanctifies you and set you apart you are certainly not a glorious creature. The gospel ultimately gives you glory. These are the barriers to relationship. So now we can stop focusing on them, and focus on Jesus and our glorious bride groom.
Now you can get rid of your parole officer and judge. You can get rid of your DSS worker because now you are a son. You can get rid of the loan officer, because you are no longer in DAT you are fabulously rich rich.
So now if you were preoccupied with these, then you are wasting your time and believing Satan‘s lies. You were also wasting Jesus‘s time. This really goes back to brother Lawrence and his focus on relationship with Christ. He did not concern himself with being preoccupied with paying for sins and guilt. He realize that when he was not fellowship being with Jesus he needed simply to go back and reestablish the relationship.
Does glorification really have to do with value and honor?
The gospel lays out the five benefits that we have in Christ. These benefits are they are not simply for ourselves, but so that we can be brought in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
In glorification Christ meets our need for significance and value. I am a nobody, but in the gospel I am significant. It is like I am a nobody, but the president picks me out and lips up my head above my enemies around me.The gospel solves my relationship problems with God wants, and also every day. The gospel really is the ABC and the a to Z of life.
 Chesterton tells the story of a ship captain who took a ship and sailed out to see in to conquer new lands. He got turned around in a storm and landed on the beach and claimed the territory for his country. Only to find out that he had read discovered his own land. So in the same way we are always read discovering the gospel
Where do I go when I think Jesus is not enough to cover my guilt


The king opposes you because you have no honor. The judge opposes you because you are a criminal criminal. The holy God opposes you because you are in pure and impure pig. The master opposes you because you have nothing to offer. The fatherThe father opposes you because you were not part of his family.
Jesus provides a relationship with the king by giving us his righteousness.

    I either hide my guilt or rationalize my guilt.

Three things are needed to get into the kings presence. Relationship you need to be a son or a relative. Honor, you need to be a dignitary or BA somebody. Or merit, you need to be somebody who has something to offer to the king. We have none of these, and also at the same time we have two liabilities. One is that we are criminals. The second is that we are pigs and   And unclean.
 Christ resolves our problems with the union so that we can now have communion.
We substitute self righteousness for his righteousness and merit. We take our guild and Medicaid it or hide it. We set aside his Sunship and try to earn the favor of God and perform like an orphan. We set aside our sanctification and pursue our idols in adultery’s. We set aside the glory that he provides and try to establish our own significance and value.
We are like the Israelites, we get tired of the true bread the same way they got tired of the mana. We are like the Pharisees we want to establish our own righteousness apart from that which is given to us by Christ. We are like the Israelites and that we love all of our adulterous lovers and we even pay them instead of them paying us. He hates our self righteousness, because we have given him a gift wrapped box of sewage. He hates our hiding our sin because we have trampled on the blood of his son. He hates us when we try to perform as an orphan because we are his enemy. He hates us and our idolatries because we are cheating on his son. He hates us win we tried to steal honor from his son.
He wore a crown of thorns so that we could wear a crown of glory. He was stripped of his clothes so that we could be closed with a Robert righteousness. He was pierced for our transgressions. His heart was broken and gosh towards blood and water so that we could have a new heart. And he was separated from his father so that we could be Sons.

Jed talks
Sober song
Call Jackson
Have people do a project


You were not redeemed by silver gold but with precious blood. This is our glory and value in Christ. Next lineWhat is a relationship about
Love, communication, union, communion, being together,
   Sharing

 Obedience, working together,



Audio recording started: 19:40 Monday, March 11, 2019

 The paradigm for baptism is baptize with not baptized into. John said he will baptize you with water with the spirit I baptize you with water. That ties means to soak but not necessarily to immerse.
If my goal is to stop sending or stop porn or stop lust, then when I don’t make progress I feel bad about myself. If the goal is to fellowship with Jesus then I simply need to keep cleansing as necessary.
The goal is not to beat a porn, the goal is to fellowship with Christ.
Where does it say in the Bible that the purpose of Christ dying or the purpose of the gospel is to restore our relationship with Jesus.
No matter where we are or what we’re doing or what we have done, we can abide in Christ right now. That is the ultimate goal of the gospel.
     The goal of the gospel is to restore the relationship with God and that was broken in the garden of Eden.
Sanctification justification adoption propitiation glorification all our means to an end. They are not the end. Relationship with Jesus Christ is the end.
How do we fellowship with Christ in sufferingHow does the gospel tie in to the design purposes of God? Glorify him love him love your neighbor heart issues? The gospel glorifies God because it demonstrates his mercy in the excellencies of his justice and love. The gospel is based on love and God supremely. It breaks down the barriers to our relationship with him. The gospel emphasizes our relationship with others, as we demonstrate gospel love to them. The gospel is about heart change, as well as life change and won’t change. The gospel will cost us everything. The gospelN  hMake the table of contents of a book as a map.

Galatians 220 is a transfer of identity necessary in the gospel.For each area it would be like a country. Each country would have counties and cities and states. On the other hand each country would also have resources people geography and an economic The map is a map of our inheritance. My inheritance is beautiful to me. The Lord was their inheritance. They were looking for another country.
Having God has her in Heritance really is the promised land.
The cities reflect the institutions of man such as marriage work jobs.
 situation.
In the gospel Christ has not only paid the penalty for our sins that is repatriation but he is also earned us the unfathomable riches of righteousness.
The gospel is not about being a better person. God’s purposes that we be more in relationship with him and with Jesus. So as I see myself growing in maturing and being a better person, I should not rejoice in that, but only in greater joy and fellowship in Jesus. Don’t rejoice in your sanctification. Don’t rejoice in self control. Fix your eyes on Jesus.
If you think that Senn is doing bad things, and that the goal is to stop doing bad things, then he will rejoice when you are doing well and be depressed when you’re not. You will become prideful when you stop sending, and be ashamed when you do. However, if you understand it Senn is a broken fellowship with Jesus, and that the goal is to abide continually and him, then in our eyes are fixed on him, and we are unconscious of ourselves. The lover is always unconscious of himself in the presence of his love. He is not trying to be a better person for, he is only focused on her and enjoying her.

Jesus takes care of her soon the way that the German officer tossed Corrie 10 boom Record into the fire. Jesus gives us access his son‘s glory Kermit Roosevelt had access to his father, all dignitaries that were not just children had to stand outside. Jesus gives us righteousness and access the way Bill Gates walks into his bank and they give him whatever he needs. Jesus gives significance to wayI became a significant when Maria Brown decided I was gonna be your friend.
I am sanctified the way a virgin bride sanctified and set apart for her husband.
Pieper says that we glorify God by enjoying him forever. Enjoying his Oswald Chambers loving God with abandon to the point where we are no longer conscious of ourselves.

Five worries we have only come into the presence of God and how the gospel takes care of them
Philippians 310 in the amplified describes another picture of the abandon that we have that Oswald Chambers talks about.
Adam and Eve were naked I am not ashamed. After they send then they felt shame at their nakedness. When we come into the presence of God we feel our shame. We have the guilt of our sin the lack of our righteousness the broken relationship the fact that we are nobodies and that we are unholy people. The gospel takes care of all of these includes us so that now we can come into his presence without shame

Galatians 220 is also another photograph of a relationship with Christ and our abandon. Paul says I am crucified with Christ. This means I’m dead to all self concern. Now only Christ lives in me. This also ties into Martin Luther and his thought that the believer can never look at himself but only at Christ.
Need to make a prayer app so we can put pictures and lists into something so we could pray. Window actually would probably work fine.

God is having a wedding. You are invited. How to make sure that you don’t get kicked out. The man who did not wear the wedding clothes. We must have the clothes that he gives us and put them on. We also have to take off the clothes that we’re wearing. We have to take off our prisoners uniform. We have to take off the smelly clothes that stink of the world. We have to put on the robe of righteousness. We have to wear the seal of the Sunship.
Nobody earned their way into the wedding. You must bring the invitation with you. The invitation response is faith.

Write a book says that you can read it page 1 page to page 3. Or you can read it according to the table of contents which chapters would not necessarily be in numerical order. Or you could read it as a chain where each piece of the story or the book takes you to the next piece. Or you could have a chapter for each day of the year and do it by date.

Understanding Marshall McLuhan (under construction)

Implosion.  During the mechanical era, things were exploding.  This means that our access to information was increasing, technology was advancing, we were able to reach out to further and further horizons.  During the electronic age, things are imploding.  No longer are we trying to increase information, reaching for more technology and pursuing further horizons.  These things are falling in on us - we are inundated with information and new technologies.  We live responding to the environment that is imploding and caving in on us.

Heartwork (under construction)

We shape our heart and our heart shapes us.  We shape our heart by what we feed it, what we put into it, what we put in front of it.  Our heart shapes us by producing the thoughts, understandings, emotions, desires, values and choices that shape our lives and who we are.

Our heart is the software and operating system of our lives.  Inputs are processed by the heart to produce our outputs (thoughts, understandings, emotions, desires, values and choices).  If the software becomes corrupted, then the output is corrupted.  "If your eye (your perception - a function of the heart) is bad, then your whole body is full of darkness." Mt 6.

The heart is the fishbowl in which we live and move and have our being. The heart produces the internal environment in which we live.  Our experience of living consists of "duvects" (Desires, understandings, values, emotions, choices, and thoughts).  The heart produces the water in which we live and swim - "the springs of life."

The heart is the control center of the person.  We live near a nuclear power plant.  The control center is highly protected because an enemy can wreak havoc and destroy the facility.  "Watch over your heart with all diligence..."

Satan, the father of lies, deceives us by making what is good seem bad and what is bad seem good.  He has swapped the buttons on a vending machine so that we push the Dr. Pepper button, and a can of sewage pours into our fishbowl.  But it says Dr. Pepper so we keep pressing it, even though it keeps pouring sewage into the bowl.  But it's the sewage button (the Cross) that has the good stuff in it.  Few are those who discover this truth, and it has to be rediscovered continually.  The Bible tells us which buttons that we must push - it was written for us in our fallen, mislabelled world.

The heart can lead the mighty to ruin.  David, Solomon, Mark Sandford, Bill Clinton are all examples of this.

Billions of dollars are spent on advertising each year to win hearts.

Proverbs 4:23 says to watch over, keep, guard our hearts.  We only watch over: 1) that which has value and someone might steal. 2) that which has value and might wander off 3) that which has value and might be damaged or harmed. No one watches over their garbage.

It is useless to watch over an unregenerate heart.  An unregenerate heart loves sin.  Working with an unregenerate heart is like cleaning up a pig - it will always go back to wallow in the mud and filth that it loves.

Only Jesus can give a new heart.

Examples the heart in action: Duvects...

Miscellaneous thoughts (under construction)

1. Every generation has a new technology or new technologies that their parents didn't grow up with.  My grandparents (born in the 1880s and 1890s) did not grow up with cars but had to raise children with cars.  My parents (born in the 1920s) didn't grow up with television but had to raise children with television.  We didn't grow up with computers, internet, and cell phones, but raised (and are raising) our children with these technologies.
2. The Bible is like a coral reef deep beneath the ocean surface.  In order to experience its beauty and to discover its treasures, you have to go out in a boat, put on scuba gear, and dive in.  This all takes time. It is a slow process.  This is in contrast to skiing, in which you are pulled across the water at high speed. You skim over the surface and are completely unaware of the rich beauty that is unseen in the frothy wake of the ski boat.
3.  The slower we went the better the stories got.
4.  Learn to be a child and a learner.  "Do you know Jesus?"  "What do you think determines who goes to heaven and who doesn't?"  If I were desiring to become a Muslim, I'd ask baby questions of every Muslim looking person I see.
5. Just like tools, technologies and media all are extensions of our bodies, senses or minds, so are the people in our lives. And so the laws of media apply to them too.
a. What are they an extension of?  My wife is an extension of my feet and mind when she goes to Lowes for me.
b. What is replaced or obsolesces?  My ability to know where I'm going when I am driving decreases significantly when Sue is in the car.
6.  I like cooking and baking using other peoples thoughts as ingredients.
7.  You will vomit it and it will come out your nose.  Excess always brings the opposite of what you think you are going to get from "a little bit more".  The Israelites were tired of manna and complained and grumbled.  God said, Ok, you want meat, I'll give you meat. So they had meat until they threw up.  This illustrates that a bowl of ice cream is a joy, eating an entire 5-gallon bucket of it will make you sick.  A thousand dollar bonus would be a joy to anyone, so why wouldn't winning $100 million in the lottery be better?  A thousand dollars has the aroma of blessing and joy and a bit of freedom.  However, $100 million would be a curse and prison for most.  This is the testimony of most lottery winners. The poison is in the dose.
8.  The famous picture of the young woman / old woman illustrates that the same information can be perceived differently by different people.  For years I read the Bible as primarily a book to help me figure out how to be a better person, a book about God's standards, and a book to show me how ugly and inadequate I am.  Every time I read the phrase "the encouragement of the scriptures" I grimaced. I only saw the old woman.  When I came to see the young woman (the "new" woman?) I saw the Bible as a book about God and his love for people, his desire for others to experience his excellencies and his glories, and a book about how amazing Jesus is.  It is the same book, but a different book.
9.  A three year old plays on the floor of the attorney's office.  The will is being read.  He is bored listening to the reading of his fabulous wealth because he doesn't understand it.  If I'm bored with God and the Bible, it is not because of lack of content, depth, and wonder.
10.  There are definite milestones in growth in Christ that are "either / or". However, much (most?) of the growth process is just that, a process.
11.  What words do we use to describe experience?
a. Engaging, interesting, boring
b. Stimulating
c. Peaceful
d. Emotions
12.  In beauty, the woman must decide what to reveal and what to conceal.
13.  Books to read: James Mertin - The Humor of Jesus
14.  Our lives are guided by the questions we are asking.  Our questions reflect what our hearts are looking for, and what you seek, you will find.
15.  When you are you young you have answers.  When you are old, you have questions.
16.  Jesus - the closer you get to him, the more you understand how far away you are.
17.  We must teach Bible knowledge and verse memory so that when we ae need to know where things are, it is easy.
18.  Because of self-love, we want to display our personalities (i.e., our hearts, minds, emotions - who we are), but these only get in the way of the display of the spirit.  It is the spirit that gives life. The goal is to display the spirit - both the spirit and the Spirit. See Watchman Nee - The Release of the Spirit.
19.  What is not of faith is sin.  This verse has eluded me for years.  However, mid-13c., faith, feith, fei, fai "faithfulness to a trust or promise; loyalty to a person; honesty, truthfulness," if we think of faith as loyalty and allegiance, then this verse is perfectly clear.
20.  ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: Luke 18:11.  This is the essence of pride. I am not fat, stupid, gaudy, an idiot.  Other people are not as wise, intelligent, insightful, attractive, witty, talented, wealthy, responsible, gifted, strong, crafty or good as I am.
21.  Technologies are like sharp sticks.  When you lean on them they will pierce your hand.  My granddaughter has a "hot bear" -  a microwavable cuddle toy.  The great thing about it is that my daughter can microwave it so that it is warm for her.  The bad thing is that my daughter has to get up in the middle of the night to warm it for her because my granddaughter has to have a warm bear. (4/20/19)
22. Confession of sin.  Why do we confess our sins? I feel bad enough about myself; why would I go to church.  The goal of our instruction is love.  He who is forgiven much loves much.  The sun is 93,000,000 miles away from earth.  Mt. Everest is about 5.5 miles. At the top, congrats you are 1/17,000,000th closer.  God gives nature word pictures. If God is the sun, our best efforts cannot get us close.  Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, Apostle Paul at best 1/17,000,000th more righteous than you. The goal of confession is to see that great love that Jesus would condescend to miserable sinners like. us.
Sometimes confession on Sunday morning - "I'm going to give you two minutes to clean up the 100 acre toxic waste dump that is your life." We need specific areas.
Two things - The goal is to show the love of Christ.  The wrong response is to try to clean up ourselves.  The correct response to put on the Lord Jesus.  Put on his righteousness.  The doctine of total depravity is a gloriously freeing truth.  It forces me to give up trying to establish my own righteousness. I am the elephant man - clean me up and i'm still repulsive.  I am a pig.  Clean me up and I'm still a pig.  I have to clothe myself in the righteousness of Jesus.  I have to put away, throw away, abhor myself (Pilgrim's Progress) for trying to establish my own righteousness.  When I take off the Lord Jesus, then the devil has me. I really have no righteousness.  When I came to realize this sweet truth, I had been striving for 20 years. Trying to please God in my own merit.  Try harder Christianity.  When I read Luther, who told me that I can never look at myself for righteousness, but that I had to put on the Lord Jesus.  It was like I had been climbing a sheer face for years. Tired, bruised, thirsty hungry hopeless.  I get to a short, flat area climb up and there's a helicopter.

Further you are the further you have to go. The mountains are 5 miles, 50 miles, 500 miles.

The newlywed husband asks his new bride.  "Do I have to kiss you every day?  Do I have to think about you all the time?  Do I have to delight in only you and bring you gifts?"  She smiles and replies, "Yes, but not that kind of have to."

If the Beatles were resurrected and came to your town for a concert, you would "have to" go.
If Clemson plays in the national championship game, there are many people who have to be there.

Hot and Cool Media (under construction)

From Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan, and "Teaching McLuhan: Understanding Understanding Media" by David Bobbitt, Wesleyan College, http://enculturation.net/teaching-mcluhan, Published: December 30, 2011, plus author's comments.

Hot and cool media

Three concepts that are captured in "hot" vs. "cool":

1. Hot and cool refer to the The overall effect of the medium (as contrasted with mere content).  Hot media tend to squelch conversation, and foster specialization.  For example attending a lecture on the presence of sulfur bacteria in groundwater would be low in audience participation and be highly specialized.  Cool media are more participatory and foster global thinking. A living room discussion about how to improve family relationships would exemplify this.

The new electric structuring and configuring of life more and more encounters the old lineal and fragmentary procedures and tools of analysis from the mechanical age. More and more we turn from the content of messages to study total effect. . . . Concern with effect rather than meaning is a basic change of our electric time, for effect involves the total situation, and not a singe level of information movement. (26) [all emphases in original]

2.  Cultures themselves can be hot or cool.
3.  Whether a medium is hot or cool can also depend on how it is used in a particular society, and that can change over time.


Hot Medium
1. Extends single sense in high definition - there is less that has to be filled in by the mind.  A photograph leaves nothing to fill in.
2. Low in audience participation - there is less that has to be filled in by the audience.  The audience is more passive.  A large church service - you engage but you are scripted.
engenders specialization/fragmentation
detribalizes
excludes
uniform, mechanical (structured ???)
extends space ???
horizontally repetitive ???

Cool Medium
1. Low definition (less data).  We have to fill in missing information. A cartoon gives the bare minimum- a lot of detail must (or can) be filled in by the brain.
2. High in audience participation.  A small group discussion.
engenders holistic patterns
tribalizes
includes
organic (unstructured, free-form ???)
collapses space ????
creates vertical associations ???

Right Brain Culture (under construction)

Early cultures were right brained.  They were primarily oral in communication, and people thought globally because things didn't happen sequentially around them, but rather with randomness and simultaneity.  Then came the phonetic alphabet.  The Greeks took this from the Phonecians and began the world of linear and sequential thought, categories and definitions.  Thus began a swing to the left brain.  The Romans took this and spread it across the Western world, and this kind of thinking and culture has been our foundation for 2500 years.  The school day for every kid was a sequence:

Now with the internet and global connectedness, the world of randomness and simultaneity has returned.  Things happen with such speed that they cannot be easily.

Transforming the Ordinary (under construction)

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.  John 2:1,2

1. Jesus taught life in the context of life.  Note that Jesus did not rent a building and start a school.  He brought his disciples along as he did life.  He brought them to a wedding.  He taught them as he lived a life consecrated to God.

2. He did not teach them in a linear way.  We don't see a course in systematic theology, history of the Jewish people, or an overview of the development of monotheism.  We see Jesus living and fulfilling the will of God and capturing teachable moments with his disciples.

3. Jesus brought people along as he lived the ordinary, to teach them.  How much are we lone rangers?

4. Jesus was a busy person, but he still did the ordinary things of life.  We are busy people.  Instead of more activities, we need to learn how to transform the activities that we are already doing into events of eternal value.  One time when my children were small, I felt so much pressure to be eternally productive every minute.  This is a difficult paradigm in which to raise small children and change diapers and feed babies.  I remember being in the kitchen cutting vegetables for a salad and stressing about this and the Lord clearly saying to me, "Paul, it's ok to slice a tomato."  I wept.

5.  Jesus did not despise the ordinary things of life.  He participated in them, but in a transformed way.  More and more for people today, it is difficult to tolerate the "mundane" things of life.  A recent Christianity Today article says that there is a trend that we’re increasingly finding embodied life “tiresome.”(1)  God intended the simple human things of life (cooking, working, cleaning house, conversation) to be a joy, not tiresome.

6.  The temple and the tabernacle were the central places of worship.  There were lots of people that were involved in the "unglorious" tasks that were necessary for worship to happen.  Likewise, when we take the time to prepare a good meal with love and attention, we are providing the opportunity for and promoting relationship and love as well as truth, beauty and goodness.  Therefore, it could be said that food prep is worship.

Also, a movie has a few "stars" in it, but when you look at the credits at the end, it took hundreds of people to get those talking heads up on the silver screen (not to mention all the people it took to distribute it and provide a clean, warm place to show it.) God uses hundreds and thousands of people performing apparently mundane and "non-worship" tasks to bring glory to himself and produce worship. Without ushers, deacons, cleaning ladies, grass cutters and nursery workers, a traditional church pastor would have no job (not to mention the contractors, bricklayers, carpenters, architects, and Home Depot employees it takes to construct a building).  "God uses the hand of the milkmaid to produce milk for the people," says Martin Luther.

Transformational living is what we are all looking for.  If we as Jesus people could learn how to live this way, the kingdom of God would advance explosively.   What are the impediments to transformational living?

1. We don't or don't know how to abide in Christ such that all of life is an experience with Him.

2.  We are too busy and simply trying to check boxes in life, instead of living intentionally.  Paul said, "In the latter days, people's love will grow cold."  This is one of the fallouts of a frenetic lifestyle - a depleted emotional state incapable really responding to those around us.  We are crossing on the far side of the road because we are late for church and don't have time to help the guy in the ditch.  Jesus is resting from a long walk when he encounters the Samaritan women at the well.  He has time for her. Are we busy because we are actually doing something worthwhile or do we just like feeling the wind in our faces?

"The medium is the message."  We who are parents are avariciously ensuring that our children have every growth opportunity.  They simply must play sports and take dance and be in the Beta club and see the Dead Sea Scrolls when they come within two hours and go to camp in the summer and piano lessons.  However, what are we teaching them, what are we saying to them with a busy, frenetic lifestyle?  We have to teach our children not only life skills that bring them maturity and ensure that they know how to make a living.  We have to teach them how to live in a healthy manner.  The medium of busyness and toxic lifestyle is the message that our kids get, that life is about production and having experiences, rather than about relationships and a healthy lifestyle.

3.  We are afraid to have people with us because we believe (rightly) that we cannot perfectly model Jesus.  We must remember that we are not trying to model Jesus, but we are to model a broken person imperfectly following Jesus.  We are modeling a life of love and repentance.

4.  Expectations are death.  We expect things to be a certain way and are afraid that they will not be what we think they should be.  We must "lean in", and show up by faith, trusting God to use us, rather than trying to bear fruit on our own.

5.  Pride makes us afraid to be needy.  We need to let those whom we are "discipling" to help us cut the grass, cook and paint the bathroom.  This is where they will learn.

6.  We must learn how to capitalize on the opportunities we have in the workplace.  Co-workers see us as we really are under stress.  They really know us and see what we are made of.

7. We are not living in the here and now, but we are living for next Friday, or when we get married or when school is out.  We must live in the moment, whether it is a blessing or a time of suffering.

Oswald Chambers reminds us that Jesus did not linger where it was easy and he was successful, then hurry through the hard times.  We have to see each moment, each task as a gift from God, whether hard or easy.  This all must be undergirded with an attitude of "in everything give thanks."

In my "before Jesus" days, I read a book called Be Here Now.  It was an Eastern religion book, and the perspective of a Christ follower would be somewhat different, but the idea of being all present at the place and the time where you are actually living the moment has a lot to be said about it in the context of abiding with Jesus.

Living in the moment requires the ability to suffer, so that we fully experience the moment and the gift that God has for us. Bill Gothard defined patience as "accepting a difficult situation from God without giving Him a deadline to remove it."  The capacity to suffer is true power.  A person who has the capacity to suffer and who is not afraid of death is the most powerful person on the planet.  He is truly free.

8.  We don't know what we are really living for and do not clearly know what is important to us.  We get caught in the maelstrom and don't know which way north is.  Stephen Covey says that most time management strategies won't work because your day never goes as planned.  Mike Tyson famously said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."  This is what has happened to us by the second hour into the day.  Covey says we have to have a compass, a set of values so that as we are caught in the vortex of the day we can make decisions that help us make progress toward that which is important.

9.  We are in a hurry because we feel validated by being in crisis mode.  Have you ever noticed how unhurried people are in an emergency room?
"What seems to be the problem?"
"My right arm has been ripped off."
"Ok, we can help you with that.  What is your full name?..."

(Note that this question assumes a priority on living in this life.  We have lost much of our focus on the importance of heaven and "this world is not my home.")


1. "Move Over, Sex and Drugs. Ease Is the New Vice: Do modern amenities make it tough for us to embody God’s love?", Jen Pollock Michel, Posted 1/31/19, Accessed 2/28/19)

Proverbs 32

Proverbs 32

These are not scripture, but good stuff that I think scripture supports.

1 The medium is the message. (Marshall McLuhan)
2 Ninety-five percent of winning is showing up. (Woody Allen)
3 If a lion could speak, we could not understand him. (Wittgenstein)
4 If what you are doing to fix a problem is not fixing it, it may be causing it. (Michelle Weiner-Davis)
5 With males, an ounce of action is worth a thousand pounds of words. (Michelle Weiner-Davis / Lewinstein)
6 People do what they want to do. (Lewinstein)
7 Truth comes in "both / and", not "either / or".  (Jesus - "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.")
8 Things can be true as general statements, even though there may be exceptions. (Kaitlyn Johnston)
9 Nine pregnant women cannot make a baby in a month.
10 Just because something enters your mind does not mean it needs to exit your mouth. (Lewinstein)
11 Don't let someone else's head get your butt in trouble. (Jack and Carol Lewis)
12 Money makes good fertilizer but not good seed. (Lewinstein)
13 Communication at its best is still really bad. (Lewinstein)

Media: The Medium is the Message

Media: The Medium is the Message

Thoughts from listening to and reading Marshall McLuhan, who coined the phrase "The medium is the message."

Communication has:
1. A content - What is the message that is being communicated?
2. A medium- What is the means or the environment in which the message is being communicated?
3. An effect - The content and the medium work together to have an effect.

When we think about communication, we have to think about the effect, not just the content.

If I were to spray paint "Jesus Loves You" on the side of someone's car in the Walmart parking lot, we could say:
1. The content - the message is "Jesus Loves You".
2.  The medium - spray paint on a random car.
3.  The effect - Anger, resentment, outrage.

Another example:
A ten year old watches "good" television and movies for six hours a day.
1.  The content is good.
2.  The medium is television.
3.  The effect is the sum of 40 hours a week of "good" content + 40 hours a week of watching TV.  These have to be considered together.

What about how we communicate the gospel?
1.  The content: God loves you more than you can possibly imagine, but if you don't trust Jesus for salvation, you are in for a worse eternal destiny than you could ever fear.  You could die today or this week or this month or this year.  This is something that you should come to grips with immediately - your eternal destiny hangs in the balance.
2.  The medium - Large comfortable churches; relational, timid evangelism; believers who have the same values as the people of the world.
3.  The effect - Our "medium" contradicts our message and in effect says that we don't believe our message.

Combining "the medium is the message" with Woody Allen's "95% of winning is showing up":
1. If you come to my mother's funeral, ten years from now I won't remember anything you said, but I'll remember that you came.  Your coming communicated more than anything you might have said.
2.  If you send a thank you note, most of the significance of the note is that you sent it.

Sesame Street was conceived in 1966 and came on the air in 1969.  Their goal was to create a children's television show that would "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them",[3] such as helping young children prepare for school.  It has been said that Sesame Street didn't help kids love learning, it taught them to love television.

In conversation, your greatest message may be communicated through listening and being interested.  What I was with X I thought I was in the presence of one of the greatest people of our times.  When I was with Y, I thought he was in the presence of one of the greatest people of our time.

Jesus didn't teach linearly.  He taught in the moment, based on what was happening.  We see this at the wedding in Cana and with the woman at the well. We must learn how to teach in the context of life.   "Today we're going to Lowes."