GOOD NEWS!!

GOOD NEWS!

The quotation below is attributed directly to Jesus of Nazareth.  It gives His “take” on why He visited us in time gone by.  He was having a conversation with a harried, confused businessman and religious leader who hadn’t a clue about things that really matter. Worried perhaps about how his peers and colleagues might view his visit to consult with a controversial Rabbi, Nicodemus had slipped in under cover of night to “swap some ideas,” perhaps give the young Teacher some of his own counsel and ask a few questions to clear the air.

Always able to look past our subterfuge, Jesus quickly and directly went to the real heart of the matter.

“For God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten son, (so) that whoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”                            (John 3:16)

That’s the almost forgotten reason why there’s such a celebration (more like a sale-a-bration these days) tomorrow.

That’s the Good News! Enough to cause angels to sing or shout (or sing AND shout!)! Glory to God and on earth, peace, good will toward men.  That’s Good news of GREAT JOY for all the people on the planet then and now and forever.

Nothing else now even remotely and strangely associated with that Eternal Event will produce that kind of response.  Not all the flashing neon lights, the gaudily decorated trees, the sleigh bells jing-a-linging, the holly, the ivey, the mistletoe and the hugely obese jolly old fella and his band of dwarves and impossibly agile herd of flying reindeer (one with even a flashing red nose leading the pack and directing the way.).

I’m not trying to be an old curmudgeon like Scrooge snorting “Bah! Humbug!”  Go ahead and enjoy all the great old traditions and make some new ones of your own. Enjoy Der Bingle and dream with him  again of “A White Christmas.” Or the almost angelic voice of Karen Carpenter, silenced too soon by death but kept alive through the genius of our electronics wizards.

Just don’t allow yourself to swallow all the hype, stuff yourself and your children with stuff which will eventually rot or rust or lose their attraction.  At the expense of depriving yourself and them of Joy, Peace, Forgiveness, Hope, Faith, and Eternal Life.

Why don’t you read that report again?  This time with your brain and your heart engaged fully and open?   And before the excited, noisy, joyful squealing and ripping of wrapping paper, consider the real reason why there is even a Christ-mass in the first place!  John 3:16.

God’s  son and servant, your friend and fellow student, donkimrey

12/24/11

THINK ABOUT IT THIS WAY

(Blogger’s note:  I posted this late last summer just as fall began to arrive.  I’ve thought about it ever since, and felt it would be worth your visiting it again.  Some things are worth repeating.  We can never plumb the depths or wear out some ideas. With finite minds, we cannot define infinity or eternity. We’ll never be able to do that. But we can think. ~dk)

As an exercise in thought, here’s something I’d like to suggest that you consider: For a long time, scientists thought a molecule was the smallest particle in existence. Research went a bit further, and we were taught that neutrons and protons and atoms were even smaller. Nobody ever saw any of those things! They were able to observe effects of their presence, but no one ever actually saw an atom. They can see what the wind does. But no one has ever seen the wind.

Much of our knowledge about some scientific facts (astronomy, for example) is based on mathematical calculations. That’s how some of the planets were discovered, and how other intergalactic objects (distant planets and stars) were located, identified, and tracked. Before Albert Einstein, atoms were considered to be the smallest particle(?) in existence and his “Theory of Relativity” grew out of the research of a massive mind. He was a theoretical physicist. All his work was cranial. It took place between his ears. He never conducted actual physical experiments, but his thought experiments were the basis upon which theories were developed, the atom was split and the nuclear age emerged. And our world was changed dramatically, forever.

One of the practical results of Einstein’s thinking was that the atom, once considered the smallest, indivisible particle in the universe, was split! Some disastrous consequences of that theoretical research were the atomic bomb, the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the birth of the nuclear age. We have yet to see where that discovery may lead.

I simply cannot comprehend the enormity, mystery, and potential of some of the ideas which Newton, Einstsein, Hawking and others considered. Nor can I, on the other hand, understand the profound and powerful statement John used when he spoke of the entrance of Jesus Christ into human history. Here’s his version of the Nativity. Here’s how he tells the Christmas event:

THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US, AND WE BEHELD HIS GLORY, AS OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN OF GOD, FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH. (John 1:1 and following)

May I just ask you to ponder this statement further? If such incredible power could be released from the ‘splitting of an atom,’ can we even begin to understand the reversal of such a process? Can you imagine compressing eternity into time? Not just turning loose all the stored up energy and power in a tiny atom, but getting all that colossal power compressed again into such a tiny space?

What John is trying to tell us is that the Son of God stooped to become a human being. The Apostle Paul had his own way of tracing this great descent. A baby! Asleep in an animal’s feed trough!

Eternity did not simply intersect time. The glory of God, the living Word of God (Jesus Christ), the “only begotten Son of God” was funneled into that little infant, sleeping, gurgling. With dimpled elbows, arms and legs and all the jerky motions of a new-born, in the sleepy, but busy, little village of Bethlehem? And the entire event was almost unnoticed out on the edges of nowhere in ancient days.

Can you imagine! Really!

Can you even begin to imagine????

Response: We don’t even know how to respond, because we have no idea what we’re trying to understand. Awe. Adoration. Jaw-dropping wonder. Sheer amazement! Those seem to be the only appropriate responses.

One of baseball’s all-time great, colorful characters and catchers was Yogi Berra. He worked some athletic magic with his catcher’s mitt and his bat, but he’s probably equally well known for his malapropisms, his mishandling of words. No one could bungle words or mangle the language quite like Yogi. Like no other I’ve known, he could get his tange all tongueled up! His expressions are the stuff of legends. Even the ones in doubt are delightfully inappropriate. When asked about the Napoleonic Era, they say he said: “It shoulda been ruled a hit!” And this: “I never said all the things they said I said.” Or, “It looks like déjà vous all over again.”

Once on a rare occasion, he dropped a routine popped fly. When he tried to explain what had happened, he commented: “I musta nonchalanted it.”

We do things like that. When in the presence of mystery and things that are eternal, we sometimes ‘drop the ball.’ We ‘non-chalant’ it. We skim lightly over strong, heavy, profound words and scarcely grasp what they really mean. Truth be told, we probably hardly even try to understand.

If even a tiny fragment of the Christmas story is true, the time to yawn and stretch Is gone! “Ho-hum” is not a rational approach to such profoundly beautiful, wonderful concepts.

The Bible says simply, plainly, that the Word…The Eternal Living Word of God…became flesh, just like us. And lived among us.

As summer settles into autumn and we head toward winter and into the Christmas season. . . and before we get caught up in the red and green, insanely profit driven rush to make the cash registers ring . . . wouldn’t it be wise to pause and consider the real significance and wonder of the real meaning of Christmas?

God’s son and servant, your friend, brother, and fellow student, ~donkimrey

“Wherever you go preach the Gospel. And when necessary, use words.” ~ St. Francis of Assissi.

DREAM ON

DREAM ON
Genesis 37: 16 – 20 “And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” (Genesis 37: 16 – 20)
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” (Joel 2:28)
“Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17]

A few days ago, while hospitalized, I watched a couple of documentaries on the surprising emergence of Susan Boyle. Judged by outward appearances, she looked like the deck was stacked against her from the start.
She was obviously very shy. Not really very attractive. Not young. Unknown and to all appearances out of her element. Completely and embarrassingly so. Even I felt uneasy for her, afraid she might humiliate herself or trigger a cruel avalanche of boos and hisses.
The crowd, including a cynical “judge” gasped in amazement, though, as the first notes of her song were heard. Jaws dropped. It was that obvious.
One thing that most of us would have failed to take into account in this kind of situation is that lady, Susan Boyle, had a dream. In addition to talent which had lain undiscovered, unnoticed for more than four decades, she had a dream. That was what made the difference. That was what enabled her to overcome her reluctance. Overcome her fears. Stand up against the naysayers. That is the extra factor that enabled her to stand strong in the face of almost certain scorn and humiliating, brutally embarrassing failure.
If she had bolted off the stage before the first note, I’d have felt sorry for her. I could almost see her at the last, weeping, rushing for the exit, hiding her face and nursing her sorrow and embarrassment for perhaps the rest of her days. But she had a dream. And she refused to let the dream die!
Even her song selection, “I dreamed a dream” from the successful production, “Les Miserable,” was a dead giveaway. She seemed inspired. Gripped. Driven. Confident. Invincible almost. In a word, she “knocked the audience back on its heels” with the power and haunting beauty of that incredible voice.
Most folks who’ve read anything I’ve written over the last several months know the simple single string I’ve strummed is the Scriptural study of people who were considered defeated, useless, human rubbish even. I’ve focused my attention as intensely as I’m capable on why they failed or were apparently ignored and beaten down by life. And how they were able to recover and become great leaders.
Joseph, for example, had a dream in his youth that was fulfilled in his later life. He was ridiculed because of the dream, but he held fast to it. Remember his resentful brothers out on the dessert that afternoon so long ago and so far away: “Behold, the dreamer comes” they spat his name out on the desert sand with bitter resentment when they saw him coming with their lunch. Joseph suffered great consequences because of that dream, but when you see him you can ask him yourself if it were worth the cost. He never forgot that dream, and that was certainly one of the things which sustained him when he could very easily have died in despair and been forgotten by history.
This is something to which I’ve devoted a great deal of thought lately. There’s a statement in Scripture which you could easily overlook if you read casually. “In the last days, your young men shall see visions, dream dreams.” (Joel 2:28).
I’ve read a lot of stuff in my life about people who did not stand a ghost of a chance. It feels as if I’m sort of on a mission now to discover as many of these folks as I can, and LEARN from them. Look at history. Look at Scripture. See how many you can find who succeeded mainly because they had a dream and would not be denied. Susan Boyle is just one beautiful example.
Based on my own experience and observation, I’m guessing that someone somewhere someday will read these words and remember. You once had a dream. There was a time and a place when it seemed that God was more real to you than anything. The fact that you couldn’t explain it does not mean it was not real. If your mind is open, even now you can recover that dream and never let it die!
Susan Boyle had a dream. A vision, not of what she was but of what she could do and become. Joseph did. Edison did. Winston Churchill did. Steve Jobs did. Martin Luther King did.
Do you?

Christmas is coming

JUST A WORD….

            The Last Lecture, a book by Dr. Randy Pausch, is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read in my life.  At the age of forty-seven, Dr.Pausch discovered he had pancreatic cancer and very limited time to live. Perhaps by divine coincidence, at the same time Carnegie Mellon Institute of Pittsburgh, presented an opportunity for a professor to deliver a lecture, assuming it would be the last he ever delivered.

Having gotten married only ten years earlier, Dr. Pausch had three children under the age of ten.  Children who would never really get to know their Dad, what he valued, what kind of man he was, and what his hopes and dreams might be for them.  There were also his students, who could never again learn from him.  So, with his wife gently protesting, he went ahead and delivered the lecture. If you’ve read his book, or seen his lecture, you probably feel the same awe, admiration, and respect I do

There were just words on the pages.  Just words.  But what emotions they created.  How well we were able to get to know such a beautiful person, when most of us never had and never could have had opportunity to meet him personally.  Words.  Written words, help us find out a lot about him and will continue to do that.

We also recently lost one of the most brilliant men of our time, Steve Jobs.  More than anyone alive today, his life and work have impacted us.  All of us, and in ways we could not have imagined even a decade ago.  After he discovered that he, too, had pancreatic cancer, Jobs contacted one of the most accomplished biographers our country (or any other) has ever produced.  Jobs contacted Walter Isaacson and asked if he’d write his (Steve’s) biography.  Some may have viewed that as presumptuous.  But Steve Jobs had a driving compulsion to let people know what Steve Jobs was about.  I’m sure he felt the same way Randy Pausch felt: He had something important to say, and a book. . . just filled with words. . . seemed to be the most effective way to do that.

Words.  Just words!

Believe it or not, with the coming Christ mass season, that has been the way my mind has been working.  Personally, I believe the Incarnation of Christ, the Nativity, was God’s dramatic attempt to introduce us to His Son, so we can see what He’s like, what He thinks, how He lived and died, and how He treated others.  No one else has ever even come close to Jesus in the beautiful, simple, profound way He demonstrated the perfect ideal of life.  If we want to know what God is like, how He thinks, how He works, what He’s willing to give because of love, then we should know Jesus.

When you read the opening chapter of the Gospel record of John, you run immediately into these words: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God.  And the Word was God. . . the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of God, full of grace and truth.”

Most people who study Scripture even halfway seriously know that the Greek word used in that paragraph is “Logos.”  That was the Greek’s attempt to put a name to God, or whatever they perceived as the most lofty, elevated idea of the Reason for existence which We translate Logos as “Word,”

If you think you’d like to know about such outstanding people as Steve Jobs and Randy Pausch, I’d suggest that you read the books (the words) about them.  If at Christmas, or any other time, you have a desire to know God, I’d suggest that you read about Him in Scripture.  God has spoken to us in His written Word, and through His Son, the Living Word.

Just a word?  No, I rather think not.  HE IS THE WORD.

I believe God still is speaking and in this coming season, especially, my prayer is that the Glory of the Lord may shine on you.  Joy to you, too!

God’s son and servant, your friend and fellow student  donkimrey

 

A Fellow-Student’s Response

 (It is my good fortune to have some very good friends, who’ve understood what I’m trying to do.  I ran the earlier post by one to get a reaction.  Here’s how she responded.  If you read the earlier post, you’ll probably understand this one was very difficult for me to do. I will continue to pray for my friend, encourage you to do likewise, and would welcome your thoughts.  donkimrey)

          I read the Jacob/Israel post you sent via email; and as always it’s in-depth and heartfelt. (I did recognize that it was very personal to you because of your very selfish friend.) I think the difference between your friend and Jacob (and David and Moses and all the others who made a mess of things!) is Jacob was willing and ready to accept the changes God offered and made in his life. Apparently, your friend is not.

  Crudely put: God will not mess with our freewill.

            He wants pliable, teachable hearts; not puppets on strings that He can control. God isn’t in the business of manipulation, is He?

            You posed the question: “Do I give up on such an apparently lost cause from a purely human standpoint? How can I do that unless God does?” My answer would be you are not the Sovereign Almighty Limitless God. We are made in His image, but we are also humans with limited capabilities.  You also commented that “he (your friend) continues using, hurting, disregarding and discarding those who really love him, moving on from one duped victim to the next.” Continue to lift him in prayer, certainly, but I would Really Encourage you to prayerfully consider the bruised, battered and bloody hearts of those victims of which you spoke. AND all of the ones he’s not yet met and duped. Perhaps it’s just me, Don, but my heart goes out to those folks. But you know, Don, one can only cry “victim” for so long. After a while “duped-victims” become “self-pitying-enablers.” And they become as diseased (perhaps even more so!) as the one victimizing.

Let’s Talk Some more about Jacob/Israel

l

          (The story of Jacob/Israel spans decades and is spread out over a vast area. It is recorded, with no holds barred, between the twenty-fifth and fiftieth chapter of the book of Genesis.  In this instance, I haven’t tried to identify specific verses.  This represents a sort of overview on my part, taking into consideration his entire life.  Doing that, necessarily you see one very flawed, selfish, self-centered man whom you probably would not have trusted or even liked very much. This is another case where the wonderful grace of God rescues, cleanses, and uses someone who just as easily could have wound up in the garbage dump of wasted humanity.  I can’t honestly tell you to “enjoy” this study, but it seems to be a crucial piece if you view the entire picture of man’s need and God’s grace.  Please pray for my friend, and rest assured I’ll pray for anyone in your life who resembles Jacob. ~dk)

Sorry I’ve been sort of out of touch lately.  Health issues, mostly.  In addition, I’ve really gotten stymied in my attempt to understand Jacob, another Biblical figure whom I’ve designated as one of God’s “Comeback Kids.”  Working on my book, some personal matters, and the health issues with my wife and me have been only a partial explanation of my absence.  To be very candid, in considering Jacob I’ve struggled.  It isn’t an easy study.  I find him to be one of the least likeable (yet one of the most important) of the Hebrew “heroes of faith.”  In fact, early on I consider him to be almost contemptible.  He’s a con man.  He was incredibly  selfish, apparently incurably narcissistic.  Routinely, he lies and cheats, defrauds and uses even his closest family members, friends, and strangers and is always on the take and on the make.

Apart from those considerations, I have a friend whom I’ve considered almost as close as a brother to be a modern day clone of Jacob. Seeing him waste himself and leave scars, heartbreak and carnage in his wake, has really  troubled me. And my pain is nothing when compared to those who’ve been closest to him.

Sorry.  I’ve dragged my heels.  I’ve not felt like a judge, condemning, criticizing.  I’ve felt more like a doctor looking carefully, with some understanding of human nature and a very heavy heart at a patient whom I happen to love and having to deal with the fact that a cancer is gnawing voraciously at his vitals, growing daily and inevitably leading to no good end.  And the patient, his friend, is willfully ignorant of his danger, dismissive of any attempts to block his descent,  and takes no steps to face reality and the pain he causes those who love him.  They still believe, and still hope against all odds.  He continues using, hurting, disregarding and discarding those who really love him, moving on from one duped victim to the next

The reality is there is people today just like my friend, and just like Jacob.  And, because they have such high opinions of themselves and such little regard for anyone else, they are perhaps among the most difficult to ever recognize their need to humbly, honestly seek God’s wisdom, forgiveness and grace.  Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. They deceive themselves when they think otherwise.

So, through several months now, I’ve thought about “Jake the Snake.”  Wondered how he could be so  blind. So unaware or uncaring that others can see through the veneer.  How can he be so careless with his own great gifts, and trash the trust and love of those whose love he should have treasured. . . using them for his own advantage? How or why does he savage their lives with such apparent impunity?

Do I give up on such an apparently lost cause from a purely human standpoint?  How can I do that unless God does?  God saw things in Jacob that I missed. How can you explain a transformation of one so selfish and deceitful into a tower of  strength and an admirable example of faith? How could anyone except God break through such a barricade of selfishness and create a heart and life devoted to serving Him and becoming the Father of a Nation?

My guess would have been this guy, Jacob, was a lost cause.  Who knows what God can do with someone whom we regard as a lost cause?

I will say this, though: If anyone “lives for self and none beside, as though Christ had never died,” they do so at their own great peril.

God’s son and servant, your friend and fellow student,                                                      ~donkimrey

A FITTING TRIBUTE

 With Fourth of July Approaching, I asked (and was given) permission  to air this post written by an acquaintance and fellow blogger.  He (Robert Brault) and his sister in law (Dr. Evie Sweet-Hurd) have been very helpful friends to me as I tried to get my own  book in some form.  This isn’t a “Scripture Study,”  but it does provide me with opportunity to thank some friends and pay tribute to our troops, everywhere, all the time, in harm’s way.  And it should also serve as a reminder for us to pray for those who serve so valiantly and sacrifice so much.  Please pray for our troops and their families.  ~don

This piece was first published on Memorial Day 1987. Its focus is Vietnam and the ambivalence about the war prevalent in the USA at that time. But its sentiments remain relevant today, and I present it again as an appreciation of all those who have died for us in battle.  Please see my note at the end of the piece.

*********************************************************************************

I never knew Donn Sweet. He was killed in Vietnam before I met his sister Joan. We’ve been down to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., my wife and I, to hunt up his name. It’s there, not quite lost among the thousands.

In a way, I’ve become acquainted with Donn Sweet. I’ve watched him mug for photographs and cavort in home movies. I have his collection of baseball cards, passed along to me by his mother.

Several times I’ve scanned a packet of letters written by a young fellow who motored from New York to California and sent home a running account of his first excited, amused view of America.

When he died, in that forward observer post, he was unknown to me. If I hadn’t met his sister a few years later, I would not think to pause before that particular name etched on the memorial stone. It might, by chance, have been any other name.

Today we honor those who died for our country. For the purpose, we’ve moved all their birthdays to a Monday in May. We honor them as America’s war dead, and this year we haven’t forgotten to include those who died in Vietnam. We’re in a mood, as a nation, to do so.

There is unease, though, when we speak of our Vietnam dead. The questions – “What were they doing there?” “What did they die for?” – are troubling. As we celebrate Americans who gave their lives in defense of freedom, we include those who died in Vietnam – but we do so with a note of defiance in our voices.

I don’t know what Donn Sweet thought about what America was doing in Vietnam. But as to what he was doing there himself, why he took the final chance he did, what he died for – it is possible, I think, to know.

When the enemy mortar shell hit, he was alone in that observer post. It was a high ground position he had taken in mortal, hand-to-hand combat with an enemy soldier. He had deemed the personal risk necessary — in order to direct mortar fire that would cover the pullback of the men in his platoon.

I have no doubt that he died for those men – for his friends, for the family they had become to him. He perhaps did not think beyond that – that he died also for the families of those men back home , and for other men who would live because those men lived to serve beside them.

He was trying to do there what citizen-soldiers in every war are trying to do: he was trying to end it.

He was trying to control the damage as best he could. And he was trying to not to lose his life in the process, knowing though, having thought about it, perhaps, that there is more to life than hanging on to it.

You can safely honor a person for doing something like that. You needn’t feel unease or defiance. You needn’t concern yourself about where it was: the Argonne, Normandy, Korea, Vietnam, [the Middle East].

The first Memorial Day observances honored the dead of the Union and Confederate armies. It was not a day to celebrate victories or to trumpet ideas. It was not a day to speak of national causes.

It was, and remains today, a day to salute heroes.

~~ Robert Brault in The Hartford Courant

Note: In 2008, Silver Star recipient Donn Sweet became the subject of an award-winning book by his sister Evelyn Sweet-Hurd. His Name Was Donn: My Brother’s Letters from Vietnam, was one of the national USA Best Books of 2008, placing second in the category of military history to David Halberstam’s Korean War account, The Coldest Winter. His Name Was Donn is available on both amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. My review of the book can also be found on Amazon.

Jacob/Israel

I like to write. But in order to do that, I need to feel what I write is worth being written. To be very candid, that isn’t always easy. All kinds of things get in the way. Sometimes I’m lazy. Sometimes I struggle with a subject and try to find a way to express ideas in a way which deserves attention. Better still, ideas that demand attention.
Sometimes the subject matter isn’t pleasant. Sometimes it’s difficult, even painful and personal. The subject isn’t appealing at all. And in my thinking and searching the Biblical records of “God’s Comeback Kids,” I’ve run into roadblocks. This entire study has convinced me that the Bible isn’t ever a study of man’s quest for God. Not ever! Some of the characters in Scripture were really obnoxious. All were flawed. Not one among them was spotless.
To put it bluntly, many of us have made such messes of our lives only God could clean them up. Some of us do disgusting things. And there’s no other way to say that.
Take Jacob, for example. That’s the case I’ve been investigating. What a con artist! Lying, cheating, stealing. . . even from his own kin. Before Bernie Madoff, the Enron scoundrels, he perfected the art of the con. For this study, I’ve considered the title “Jake the Snake” and a sneaky one at that. However, out of respect for the person he became, I’ve resisted that impulse.
Another problem with which I’ve been dealing is this: I have a friend who seems to be an exact clone of Jacob. Very gifted and charming, decent looking, he’s left a trail of deceit, ducking and dodging any responsibility for his dishonorable conduct. He’s betrayed everyone who’s ever trusted or cared for him and left someone else to clean up his messes while he gaily goes in search of another victim of opportunity.
I’ve agonized over him. No effort penetrates his narcissism. He is out as I now write, in search of another pot of gold at the end of another rainbow of his making. I see no good end in sight. He reminds me so much of Jacob. And Jacob reminds me so much of him.
As touchy as this subject is, I feel it needs to be addressed. I must not give up until God does. And there are people who someday may read this who are living the same way Jacob did. People who will be honest with themselves and God enough to set things right.
Hopefully, somewhere in the process of ducking and dodging, bobbing and weaving, running away, they may encounter God who is able to change Jacob into Israel. The God who changed the self-righteous, murderous Saul into the great Christian evangelist and apostle, Paul. The God who can turn your life 180 degrees and make you a new person.
That’s the kind of thing God can do. The kind of thing that ONLY GOD can do. And sometimes with the unlikeliest people. Perhaps if my friend will admit to God who he really is and what he’s really like, my friend may yet be transformed into the person God wishes him to be.
In carefully considering the lives of the Biblical characters, their humanity is always apparent. There are dysfunctional families. Some of the characters were absolute jerks, and that is a true statement. Truth is never varnished over. Consequences always follow their misdeeds. Guilty consciences haunt them. Like sheep (and us) they go astray.
However, forgiveness is also always a possibility. Perfection is a high standard. It is, actually unattainable, and that is why forgiveness is so necessary. God sees possibilities, not just flaws. He places more importance upon what you and I can become than He does on what we’ve been.

God’s son and servant, your friend and fellow student, donkimrey

AT A LOSS FOR WORDS

I haven’t written much lately. But I’ve been thinking a lot. And praying. And wondering.
At the beginning of my present study, my intention was to examine the Apostle Paul’s statement to the Church at Philippi. He spoke of his many accomplishments (about any one of which any of us could be justly boastful) and then said they were nothing. They were as “dung” (manure) when compared with the most important pursuit, namely:
             “That I may know Him (Christ), and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering.” (Philippians 3:10.)

That seemed to me to capsulize all the things about which we are thinking in this season.

As I considered the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Savior, Lord, Son of God, to be very candid with you, I found myself at a loss for words. I felt that I was in the presence of a love I cannot comprehend and can certainly never deserve. And a power which I desire but can never understand. I found myself fumbling and mumbling in an attempt to say what I feel. I, who have spent a lifetime trying to be thoughtful and honest, and trying to be a “wordsmith” of sorts, found myself completely speechless. Nothing I could think or write or say came even close to expressing the beauty and wonder, the majesty and mystery of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the dear Lord Christ.

I really do believe in the facts about Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection as reported in the Gospel accounts. But I’m at a total loss trying to say what I think and feel. It seems to me sometimes that the only appropriate response to such wonder is reverent silence. Awed devotion. And that is where I am at the moment.

“Be still and know that I am God,” was the comment Psalmist made when he simply had no words adequate for the occasion (Psa. 46:10). Just hush. Listen. Be grateful. Worship.

Poets have a way of saying what we feel and think which prose can not express.

For example, I recalled these lines:

“O, for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise!”
For the record, my intention from here till the end of my journey is to try to understand what Paul wrote. I’d really like to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.

I hope you do, too.

God’s son and servant, Your friend and fellow student, ~donkimrey

Knowing Christ: How Do I Do That?

“. . . That I may know Him and the power of His Resurrection. . .”

In my attempt to understand what Paul meant when he said he wanted to “know” Christ, here are some assumptions which I recognize and openly acknowledge:  First, I believe Christ wishes to be known and makes that possible.  Second, in order to “know” him, faith is an absolute essential.  In order to know anyone or anything, it seems that you have to accept their existence.

Third, it seems reasonable to assume that in order to “know” anyone you must desire to do that. If you don’t, you won’t.  You can’t.  And fourth, knowing any subject means you must devote time to the project. As he examined his own priorities, Paul put “knowing Christ” as his top priority. Included in that was reference to the crucifixion and resurrection.

I’m not doing a “background check” on Christ, but I’ve really focused my attention on that subject.

My considering this question for quite some time now has led me to ask myself several questions.  Asking questions has long been considered a valid way to teach and learn.  Almost as old as time, hasn’t that been called “The Socratic Method?”  I’ve been asking myself questions, honestly seeking answers, and now sharing my questions with you.  I hope you’ll print them out and share your own thoughts in answer to the questions. Perhaps you’ll also raise some of your own.

If I really want to know someone at the deepest levels, here are some things I’d like to know:

What is this person really like?  How does he treat people who cannot possibly benefit him?  How does he treat ladies?  Children? The poor? The weak?  The ignorant?  What has he accomplished?  What has he said?  What do his words mean?  What has he done?  What are the results or importance of those acts?

What does he gain from his relationship with others?

How does he react under pressure?  Who are his close friends?  How has he influenced them?  What have they done?  What has been their impact upon society?

This has become a very important task for me.  I have decided Paul is right on the mark.  In considering the person and work of Christ, His suffering, death and resurrection and trying to fathom the meaning and importance of those, Paul has upon issues each of us would be wise to consider.

One other thing I have a bit of difficulty verbalizing is the fact that my choosing to focus or concentrate on knowing Christ excludes other pursuits.  We’ll need to think about that a bit.

Paul also said: This one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind and pressing toward those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus My Lord…” If you really want to know Christ intimately, that will mean you have to choose Him above all others. He has no intention of being a co-Monarch

“. . . That I may know Him, the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering. . . “

God’s son and servant, your friend and fellow student, ~donkimrey