Whack-a-mole, a Conundrum, and a Siren Song

Part 2

Judge not; do not hate; love, love, love…sounds so good and so right…this catch phrase with which we have disciplined our lives. The Deceiver revels in the perversion of Christ’s teaching into a diluted gruel that neither nourishes nor sustains us.

The Deceiver (evil, Satan, Lucifer, the Enemy-whatever name you give to the force which unabashedly and vigorously opposes good) stood toe-to-toe with God in his jealousy of the Father’s dominion and God’s choice to elevate man above the angels.1 The Deceiver rendered his judgment of our worth and pronounced us value-less. The Deceiver sentenced us to sin. He ripped our innocence from our soul. He robbed us of our free will so that he could become our accuser and bask in his defiance of the Creator. Yet, the Deceiver—lost. He was thrown down from heaven. The risen Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father.

The Deceiver continues to deceive himself; he refuses to give up the fight though the battle is lost—life triumphs. All the Deceiver has left to do is to play whack-a-mole. His aim is diabolically accurate and deceit is his favorite hammer.

Oh, come on! This is so old school…so hellfire and brimstone…so irrelevant! How is ‘judge not’ the foolproof way to go? How can one possibly be held accountable for doing nothing?  Accepting others as they are is Jesus’ way. Aren’t we to love our neighbors as we love ourselves?

The Deceiver continually (since the Garden) hammers at our understanding. He has concussed us into believing that all forms of the word ‘judge’ equal condemnation. The incessant refrain of the siren call holds our spongy brains in its thrall. Playing off Jesus’ commands to love our enemies and love our neighbors as ourselves2, we are duped into condoning attitudes and actions that God tells us He specifically hates in an effort to confound the faithful and mislead everyone else. That deception is the stock of the seething cauldron of conundrum we Christians are left to tend—judging, judgment, and justice boiling away until nothing is left but a dry cracked empty spirit.

The Deceiver is quite well aware that the faithful are accountable for doing nothing. Accepting people as they are isn’t quite Jesus’ way. Jesus’ way is to meet people where they are−not to leave them there. (The Gospel will never leave one unchanged.) The Deceiver has whacked love to smithereens. We no longer have all its pieces. Judgment, for those who put on the mind of Christ, is our lifeline as we await the coming of Christ on the clouds.

Hoodwinking us into believing that ‘judge not, that you not be judged’ is not about the eternal, but rather the earthly is a stroke of evil genius. Almost every sermon you will ever hear preached about this passage will concentrate on the evils of snooty and petty biases—the log versus the speck.3

Is it coincidence that the Deceiver plucked ‘judge not’ out of the middle of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount? He wants us to hear ‘judge not’ without it being coupled to the persecution we will face as His disciples−our suffering for Him as He suffered for our redemption.4 He wants us to hear ‘judge not’ without the context of Jesus teaching us to pray in this sermon to be forgiven as we forgive others−our bold commitment to imitate His forgiveness of us.5 He wants us to hear ‘judge not’ without it being tethered to our love for our enemies6 or being connected to the Law not passing away but being fulfilled by Jesus Christ−our eternal hope.7

Can you not hear our Savior’s pleading? Judgment on an eternal scale is God’s purview. Period. It is sacred and you aren’t sanctified yet. Stay out of it, please! You start down the road of trying to make eternal judgments and you are going bear what you would force another of God’s children to bear. The Deceiver’s efforts are to turn us away from recognizing (and relinquishing) eternal judgment to God alone.

The Deceiver sentenced us to sin and eternal death before we ever drew a breath. He needs humans to exist in despair. It’s how he makes us slaves to comfort, money, power, sex, and every other idol imaginable. It is how he deceives us into believing ‘judge not’ is about nothing other than surface matters. The Father, on the other hand, renders His judgment at the end of our days. We are never without value in the eyes of our Creator. We are never left without a chance of redemption. He sent Jesus to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and raised Christ from the dead that we may have eternal life. We matter so much to the Father that He could not leave us without hope eternal.

As we travel the narrow road through this earthly country, our hope to get Home exists in our judgment. We have, by the mercy and grace of God, rendered the judgment in our spirits that Jesus is the Christ. Therefore, we must judge between sacred and profane. We must judge between the siren call and the voice of God. We must judge between good and evil; right and wrong. We must be able to judge how to love ourselves, so that we may love our neighbors as ourselves. We must be able to make judgments that will allow us to take the Father’s hand as He leads us away from temptation.

Judge not; do not hate; love, love, love… The Deceiver wants our ability to think and to extrapolate to disappear. He wants our ability to decide and to discern to evaporate. He wants our ability to exercise judgment gone. He isn’t bludgeoning human justice with his hammer. He isn’t targeting judging along the civil/criminal lines of human courts. He doesn’t have to do so. Those dominoes will fall (are falling?) when judgment is gone from our intelligence, from our hearts, and out of our souls. Without judgment—justice, mercy, compassion, and redemption cannot exist. How then can our faith survive?

We learn what the Father teaches about doing nothing…

We let Jesus teach us to make judgments…

We let the Holy Spirit move us to love ourselves, our neighbors, and our enemies…

To be continued.

1. In Psalm 8:5 we are told that God made us “little lower than the heavenly beings.” The Deceiver in his obsession to be God tricked us into sin and, in my mind, put the angels into a bind.  The Deceiver handed us the opportunity to become heirs, sons and daughters God. In the pecking, order would that not elevate man above the angels? There is NO faith value in this observation, just a bit of proof that the Deceiver is quite deceived himself.

2. Ever think about the difference in these instructions? Love your enemies. Love your neighbors as you love yourself.

3. Matthew 7 verse 1

4.    “             verses 3-5

5.  Matthew 5 verses11-12

6.    “           6 verses 14-15

7.    “           5 verse44

8.    “           5 verses 17-19

Whack-a-mole, a Conundrum, and a Siren Song

Part 1

The Deceiver stood toe-to-toe with God in his jealousy of the Father’s dominion and God’s choice to elevate man above the angels. The Deceiver rendered his judgment of our worth and pronounced us value-less. He sentenced us to sin, robbed us of our innocence, and smashed our free will to smithereens so that he could become our accuser and bask in his defiance of the Creator. Yet, the Deceiver lost— Christ is risen. Though deceived by himself, he refuses to give up the fight.  All the Deceiver has left to do is to play whack-a-mole with our judgment. His aim is diabolically accurate and word-twisting is one of his favorite hammers.

An evil second only to the Deceiver’s deconstruction of love, his word-twisting, ever-so-slowly, over decades, has obfuscated ‘Judgment,’ ‘to judge,’ ‘judging,’ ‘justice,’ and ‘judgment’ into a morass. We, mere mortals, have lost the understanding of how to separate and how to blend these facets into wisdom.

Almost every living, breathing human being on the planet, no matter our belief system, credit Jesus Christ as correct when He says, “Judge not…”1 Yet,we are so over familiar with these words from Matthew’s Gospel that we have let His teaching become a catch-phrase and handed the Deceiver Jesus’ own words to accuse us! Ever-obedient to the catch-phrase, we have disciplined ourselves to be tolerant of the most shocking of behaviors; to blithely endure the most undisciplined of responses; to indulge the most intractable selfishness in our effort to be non-judgmental. The Deceiver revels in the perversion of Christ’s teaching into a diluted gruel that neither nourishes nor sustains us.

We have let Christ’s instructions become a weapon on the tongue of the Deceiver and the lips of the deceived. We have accepted lens upon lens through which to view all situations and all people—enough lenses to make a kaleidoscope of ever-changing hues and hyper-specific shades. We have willingly perched them at the end of our noses, gazing downward, believing that we “judge not” all the while creating enemies of our neighbors.

The Deceiver’s cunning refrain: Judge not; do not hate; love, love, love…sounds as a gentle ‘come hither’ tune melting our hearts or as deep gravelly bass reverberating in the depths of our soul. Either way, all too often we never notice the hidden accusations pointing straight at our faith.

Judge not; do not hate; love, love, love…

It should sound so lovely, so good, yet if we listen carefully enough, the sound of a seething, boiling cauldron pierces through the refrain’s tune. Because a refrain is all that it is…the rest of the song is never sung…because…it doesn’t exist.

Jesus teaches about justice, judging, and judgment. These teachings are full-bodied and succinct. Their Truth is unassailable whether you believe He is the Savior of the world or not. The siren song, on the other hand, taunts us into conflating all three into one. We have lost the understanding of what judgment is.

Uhmmm…doesn’t that just prove ‘judge not’ is the way to go?

Ehh…no.

The Deceiver doesn’t want us making judgments! He is quite happy with us value-less humans (his judgment of us) never questioning what is right and good in the light of day. His siren song helps trick us into embracing the ‘grey area.’ It used to be thorny issues like capital punishment that were relegated to the grey area. Yet as each new step away from the Truth is taken, the grey area expands. That way, we can continue doing as we please as if we have license to forego making a judgment.

But, God does not have a ‘grey area.’ It is a human construct to give us cover while sinning. And, it’s about as useful as Adam and Eve hiding their nakedness among the trees in the Garden.2 As we allow ourselves to be told what is right and what is wrong, we’re pulled deeper into the ether of that emotion-filled grey hole.

But, be very careful here—be awake and ready.3 Jesus’ teachings about justice, judging, and judgment warn us. Our judgments can be the breeding ground for the black mold of sin: pride, self-righteousness, wrath, covetousness. That is why we must make our judgments at the foot of the Cross.

Wait a minute…how does this not simply make ‘judge not’ the foolproof way to go? How can one possibly be held accountable for doing nothing?  Accepting others as they are is Jesus’ way. Aren’t we to love our neighbors as we love ourselves?

Jesus doesn’t instruct us about how to make judgments if He isn’t expecting us to make them. Perhaps “Judge not” has deeper, more eternal significance than the catch-phrase allows us to grasp.

We are accountable for ‘doing nothing.’

Accepting people as they are isn’t quite Jesus’ way. Jesus’ way is to meet people where they are−not to leave them there.

How exactly do you love yourself?

To be continued.

1. Matthew 7:1

2. Genesis 3:10 3. Luke 21:36

Equalizer

Equality can, does, exist.
Equality has always been possible.

One great equalizer exists to insures it.
Too few humans recognize its source;
Too many of us work ceaselessly to undermine its agents.

What can possibly include every human being on the planet? What could possibly unite us, each one to each other in every place on the globe?

Doesn’t your soul ache for such a thing? For that which is peace and intrigue, success and challenge, reaching up, and reaching out all wrapped up into one?

Can you imagine any one thing that is so precious, so valuable that brings equality to reign?

Every religion claims it.
Every cause turned movement thinks they’ve found it.
Every movement turned obsession wants to possess it.
Every human being on earth believes that they know it                                                      Obsession insists that it is their’s alone.

The wise seek it, knowing they do not, cannot own it.

Let us seek it.

Let us speak it.

“The Day I Was to Die”

I have known three things all my life…

1.  My death would be a spectacle…

2.  The day that I was to die would be recorded in the annals of history, witnessed by hundreds…

3.  To this very day, you would know MY name, Barabbas.

My death was going to be nasty—the pain, the agony so exquisite that the stars would cry.  Tears of light in glistening rivulets will course down the face of night to ME…the radiance of creation, from above and below, from east and west, flowing into ME, filling ME with piercing pureness, emanating outward, and filling the air with the aroma of freedom.

Yet, I woke each morning into the miserable existence called my life.

No! No! Give me the spectacle! Give me the fame!

So I chased my death with reckless abandon, wreaking havoc, causing chaos. In chaos I found violence and in violence, power. I craved that power and fed on the violence that nourished it. I took what I wanted when I wanted it—your wife, your weapons, your silver, your gold—your life. Ask the Roman. His death brought me to Pilate’s prison.

The day I was to die dawned.

My jailors, No-nose and Scar-chin, were adept with their fists. They were quite prolific with the cat o’ nine tails. They raked that thing across my back—again and again. They whipped it across my thighs. They took chunks out of my calves. I could hardly stand. I could barely breathe. I certainly could not speak. They were not done with me yet. They moved me towards Pilate’s Pavement where they would lay the beam across my shoulders and lash my hands to it.  I would carry the instrument of my death to Golgotha. 

As we approached the gate, I could hear voices, loud and boisterous.  I heard my name.  When they opened the gate, the courtyard was crammed with people, hundreds of them—MY audience.

Pilate was on his dais trying to shush the crowd.  He called out, “Who shall I release, Barabbas or Jesus called Christ?”

The crowd screamed, “Barabbas.”

My legs would not hold me and I crumpled to the ground.

Pilate asked, “What then shall I do with Jesus called Christ?”

And the crowd exploded.  “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify!”

Two of Pilate’s soldiers man-handled a prisoner. As they came toward us, I could see the lash welts. My beating had been mild in comparison! Someone had taken a length of thorny vine and twisted round and round and shoved it on His head like some type of crown. Blood dripped down a face pummeled beyond recognition.

As they passed by I had a gut-wrenching urge to follow Him.  Go figure!

I could not have anyway. No-nose was releasing the leg irons from my ankles. Scar-chin took the chains from my wrists. They hoisted me by my arms and tossed me into the crowd.

I worked to keep my feet and let the crowd carry me to Golgotha. I ended up in a heap at the foot of the small rise they call ‘The Skull.’ Into the brilliant, bright Spring morning rang the sound of iron on iron as they nailed Him to the beam. Six soldiers lifted the beam higher and higher and higher until they set on the spike and made the cross. Then they nailed His feet to it. 

The cat-calls and mocking—“Son of God, come down from that cross!” “Save yourself!  Save yourself!”

He spoke.  It took every bit of energy I had to simply draw breath, yet He spoke!  He spoke to the thieves hanging on either side of Him.  He spoke to a small group gathered at His feet. I had never seen such power in a man. He knew my agony but I would never comprehend the depth of His.

As He spoke, the brilliance of the day had vanished.  The light disappeared like sand through an open hand until the sun quit and darkness settled on us. I do not know how long the darkness stayed. 

Jesus called Christ cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It made me squirm. Some moments later He announced, “It is finished.  Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.”

The earth erupted, flinging me up. I landed face-down in newly turned earth. I wanted out of there!  I held my breath against the pain and got to my hands and knees.  Bracing myself, I took the deepest breath I could to stand…

…and was filled with the fragrance of freedom. As I stood, the sun, well past its zenith, flared to life—as did my soul.

Three things I learned the day I was to die. 

1. Jesus called Christ died my death. 

2. Jesus Christ died my death—that I so richly deserved—so that I might truly live. 

3. Christ Jesus…did…the…same…for…you…dying your death that you might live!

Let it be so! Amen!

Note: The Biblical interactions in this piece are the products of my memory. For the most accurate version of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion consult all four Gospels.

Un It Y

A lot of political people and talking-heads keep saying the word unity.

Talk is cheap. Actions speak volumes.

Unity appeals to us all…living in peace…a warless world…a strife-less existence with no evil to accost us…heaven on earth. Harmony soothes our hearts.

Be wary of what you seek. Most of us hold a deeply naïve understanding of unity. Even those that seek to disrupt and destroy are grasping and clawing to find a homogenization point for society to embrace their perception of life as it ought to be.

Unity by force is oppression. Unity by fiat is an oxymoron. As the absence of violence is not necessarily peace, the absence of argument is not unity.

Emotional unity is a farce. We profess that our emotions deserve validation. Unity requires steadfastness. Our emotions run the gambit every day and no day is completely the same. How can our emotions be validated and unity reign?

How often does accepting another’s individuality require the swallowing of any number of emotions? That takes practice. That practice, otherwise known as tolerance, is the fertilizer for our maturity and wisdom—and our tolerance grows into acceptance. Unity, as many of us understand it, won’t wait that long.

Reason is unable to produce unity, though many of us wish that it could. Reason is built on facts and logic. To produce unity, all minds would need to distill all the facts and logic the same way. We know that’s not how the world works—it is ‘reasoning’ (the distilling of facts and logic) that breeds much of our dis-unity.

Common cause can unite for the moment or movement. We can unite to fight human trafficking. We can unite to rebuild a community ravaged by a flood. To do something in unison does not create the depth to reach beyond emotion and reason.

Unity comes from outside of self. Unity has little, if anything, to do with uniformity. Unity is a thing of the spirit—your spirit and my spirit. Beyond a chi or life-force—that essence of ‘me’ which only you can be—that is what lets us see past our self without losing what is uniquely our self.

Christian and non, cultured and non, skilled and non, we all have a spirit. We pay little attention in these days to our spirits. Yet, it is only in the nurturing of our spirits that we actually can become who we are created to be. Teachers, coaches, parents, friends and an almighty God call to our core—that essence of ‘me’ which only you can be—all the time. It’s what love does.

God, the one supreme Spirit, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, created us in His likeness.1 Our intelligence, our emotions, and our conscience…that trinity is made one in our spirit.

Jesus, though remaining Divine, came among us as fully human. He sighed deeply in His spirit at our hard-headedness.2 He knew things in his spirit, just like we do when we know something to the core of our beings without really knowing how we know.3 He knew our difficulties with our spiritual selves.4 Jesus’ spirit became gravely troubled as His death on the cross approached.5 And finally, He yielded—that essence of ‘me’ which only you can be—as he died.6

If unity is what one truly seeks, it is our spirit that needs to seek it. Because unity is a oneness of our spirits, it must be in something outside of ourselves. Unity in a cause ends when the objective is met. Unity in a fellow human being inevitably fails or dies.

As imperfect and inept as many Christians are, unity is one of our strong suits. Christian unity is in the Holy Spirit—not other believers. Believers enjoy fellowship with each other because of their unity in the Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that we hold fast to our faith: Jesus Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins; He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.

St. Paul told us to make clear efforts to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.7 Over the centuries, Christians have worked diligently to keep their unity in the Holy Spirit. How many denominations, not to mention types, of Christians are there? How many questions remain debated through these centuries? How many in-house upheavals have tried to tear the cross from our hearts?  How many sins has Jesus forgiven? Yet, to this very day, we make every effort(as paltry in reality as they might be) to remain united in one God, one faith, one baptism through our unity in the Holy Spirit.

Ever notice that all these things we say we want: unity, justice, peace, joy require the one thing that we human beings have a terrible time doing—self sacrifice!  Without bowing down, without giving of our whole self—that essence of ‘me’ which only you can be—to something outside of our self, all these noble desires of ours are but hallucinations and dreams dancing within our heads, our hearts, and our scruples.

The question is: what shall we approach on bended knee? What can bring what is noble and beautiful into our spirits and our lives? What is it that is outside of our human spirit that can bring unity, justice, peace, joy?

Truth. Like the knowledge of right and wrong, Truth emanates from outside of self. Has the world not experienced, over and over again, what happens when what is right and what is wrong is determined by human beings? Do we not see all around us the ravages of “truth” emanating from within self?

Truth is more than the compilation of fact. Truth, my friends, is the spiritual whole. Our spirits yearn for the whole. Do you not? Is there not craving at your core for ‘more’? A need for purpose and worth? An ache that permeates your very bones?

Without Truth as the entity to lead us and guide us, there is no unity, justice, peace, or joy.

Disunity, oppression, and all the other ills we rail against come from within human beings. Our brains are adept at quashing our conscience—rationalizing our desires and over-riding our scruples with emotion and physical satisfaction. Our hearts despise the Truth because Truth puts us in the backseat—and we would all prefer to a least ride shotgun if not drive.  It is the most difficult of self-sacrifices, to give up control.

Truth’s enemy, Deceit, has shaded things so that what is noble, splendid, gracious appear to be had without self-sacrifice. Deceit is adept at putting blinders us. Deceit is the master of the bait and switch. A virtuoso at playing our emotions, Deceit delights in making a jumbled, knotted mess of our heads, hearts, and souls.

So, how does one relinquish control without losing one’s self?8

The Christian understanding is that by giving ourselves to Christ we find ourselves—the self that He created in His likeness.1 We—believer and non—have source material for all the questions life throws at us, the Bible. For those that do not revere the Bible, you will find it amazing that the truth it holds transcends your disbelief9—and is an ever-present help for my unbelief!10

It is in the human spirit that non-believers may find solace. The human spirit recognizes Truth with or without belief in God.9  The human spirit is keenly aware that giving of self is the only option for nurturing unity, justice, peace, or joy. Your spirit knows beyond all certainty that taking will never feed the entirety of the essence of that ‘me’ which only you can be.

For the light of Truth saves us and gives our spirits the only thing in which unity, justice, peace, and joy can survive—hope.

1.   Genesis 1:26a  Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. …”

John 6:63   It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

2.    Mark 8:12  And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.

3.   Mark 2:8    And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hea

4.   Mark 14:38  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

5.   John 13:21   After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

6.   Luke 23:46  Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Matthew 27:50  And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

7.  Ephesians 4:3  …eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

8.  Philippians 4:8   Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

9.  Matthew 5:45    “…so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

10.  Mark 9:23-24      And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”   Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

What If Your Guy Loses?!?

No worries, truly.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you know that He has already won. He remains our King. His is the voice we continue to follow. His is the way we tread still. We carry on our life in Christ no matter who wins or loses.

Not a follower? No worries. One significant aspect of being created equal is that your integrity, your honesty, your generosity, your need to love others cannot be affected by another human being—unless you allow it.

Follower or not, if your guy loses, you have not lost. The essence of who we are is an inward energy that shines outward just as Truth is an outside force that illuminates inward. Let that light shine, and no one loses.

Goats, Lambs, DOs & DON’Ts

Are you a goat?

In today’s sports’ vernacular, GOAT is an acronym for greatest of all time. In the Bible’s vernacular, goats get sent into obscurity. In the Old Testament, the scape–goat gets sent into the wilds carrying a year’s worth of  Israel’s sin. In Matthew’s Gospel, the goats, thinking they’ve done all that has been asked of them–if not more than enough, are sent to . . . hell.

Both the lambs and the goats in Matthew 25 have approached Jesus with great expectations. Totally confident in their righteousness, the goats are stunned by Jesus’ rebuke and dismissal. They had fooled themselves.

Let’s be candid, it is EASY to fool ourselves. It is much easier to fool ourselves than to fool others. No one believes they are wrong.  Every opinion we hold we hold as gospel because it’s ours. Most of our stray thoughts are accurate because we had them. Every feeling we have is valid, un-needful of modification much less examination—and we just know it! Let’s be candid, fooling ourselves is Satan’s favorite form of entertainment.

How do we live as lambs—the nuts and bolts how? How do we do we love God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength while loving our neighbors as ourselves? These are things that Jesus told us encompass the whole of the Law and His Gospel.

How do we learn to do anything? Read the instructions! The quick start lists are usually quite helpful. The Bible is a hefty instruction manual, yet it does offer a couple of quick start lists: The Don’t Do list and the To Do list—the Commandments and the Beatitudes.

Our Father gave us The DON’T DO list. Jesus, His Son and our Brother, gave us The TO DO list. The Holy Spirit guides us to apply them both to our lives.

Jesus said that not one iota of the law will pass away before He comes again. We aren’t to pick and chose which Commandments we follow. We are to obey them all. The Beatitudes don’t describe different kinds of people, but the attributes all of us should incorporate into our beings. Is it possible that by incorporating the Beatitudes into our being, we are more able to obey God’s Law?  Could we, by obeying the Commandments, more easily absorb the Beatitudes into our being?

What happens to one’s perspective when “poor in spirit” encompasses “no strange gods before Me” AND “do not covet”? Can “the merciful” morph one’s understanding of “do not murder”? How does not taking the Name of the Lord in vain bless you when others may persecute you for righteousness’ sake?

So, how do we mesh the two? This can’t be a hand-in-glove exercise with a pat set of answers. This is an exploration of God’s Word that will nourish us. Ask the Holy Spirit for insight. May we find a nugget of truth and a gem of peace to bless us as we strive to put on the mind of Christ.

A final thought:

Notice how Jesus gives, to each of us, the last Beatitude.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven… The ‘you’ addressed in that statement is the same ‘you’ that is addressed in the Commandments.

Certain

Much is being made of faith these days. It is so easy to confuse faith with religion. Many people have religion without faith, gods that do not feed the soul but devour it. Others mistakenly understand faith as emotional pablum. Faith requires tenacity: tenacity is neither soft nor naive.  For a Christian…

Faith is not a feeling,
Rather a way to ‘be’
And a place in which we abide.

Faith evokes feelings,
Allowing us to know the
Touch of His mercy.

Faith is not a feeling.
It wrangles the tumult
Of heart and soul.

Faith surrenders feelings,
At the foot of His Cross,
Among the golden crowns.

Faith is not a feeling.
It’s an instrument of grace,
giving us His love to share.

Faith is not what we think,
Rather the way we think,
The place where our thoughts ought to dwell.

Faith is not feeling
Rather the gift of Truth
In our lives and on our lips.

Faith is our life-blood flowing
For . . . giv . . . en . . . for . . . giv . . . ing,
For . . . giv . . . en . . . for . . . giv . . . ing,

Faith, by His Providence,
His Sacrifice, and His power
Is our death-defeated Life.

Heads or Tails?

Tails I win; heads you lose.

Some say that hatred is taught. Not quite. Hatred is an anger addiction.

Anger can be a healthy emotion. Anger sparked by personally being cheated or mistreated in some minor manner usually snuffs itself out for lack of fuel. How long can one be angry that you got cut off on the highway?  That the clerk botched your paperwork? Human trafficking, pedophilia, murder, etc. are acts that rightly set a match to anger−righteous anger, especially if you are the victim of such a heinous act.

Tails I win; heads you lose.

Hatred rejects forgiveness. It models, moulds, and manipulates until anger bursts its bounds. Unleashed, unrestrained by reason, and stoked by spite—uncontrolled anger is frightening to all in its path. That fear-effect becomes the rush of domination and control that hatred craves. Re-living that first rush is every addiction’s hook.

Tails I win; heads you lose.

The dictionary will tell you that hatred is a noun. That may be, though reality shows that hatred is active, hungry, and prowling. The dictionary will define hate as both noun and verb. Hate of kale is different than hating Jane. Hating Jane is not necessarily hatred. Hate and hatred may be related but they are not one and the same.

Christians are taught there is a time to hate. We are to hate the world, to hate the double-minded, to hate sin and evil1. We are also taught to love—to love our enemies2 (which requires ample forgiveness3). This paradox creates serious confusion for the unbeliever and can cause no small amount of consternation for us. Yet, it is exactly this paradox that grants Christians the energized clarity to witness, testify, and minister. The perfect balance of Jesus’ commands protects His disciples from becoming anger addicted.

Tails I win; heads you lose.

Hatred feeds on unbridled anger−gaining sustenance from each infusion. Yet hatred, as every other addiction, grows ever inward like a plantar wart. Those people and things that one hates become without worth and among the first to be sacrificed for the rush. Hatred covets and can’t be satisfied.  How frustrating it becomes to find the next fix. How difficult it becomes to reach the rush−the control and dominance one first felt. Hatred cannot be assuaged; it is unable to find comfort. One must keep one-upping themselves in order to hold the dominance and control. Soon, those that one once found agreement with are found lacking and forfeited for the next fix. Hatred will eat one alive and wreak devastation along the way. Hatred will, in the end, require violence to reach the rush. Violence will always stop producing more than it destroys, becoming a series of diminishing returns, eventually consuming itself.

“Tails I win; heads you lose,” says the Serpent.

Types

How many types of people are in this world?

How did you count? By country of origin? By race? By ethnicity? By personality?

Four. There are four types of people in the world. Period. Done. Said. Amen.

We humans revel in our individuality…as we should. We are individuals because our specific combination of traits, skills, strengths, and weaknesses make us unique. There is an array of uses to which we can put our skills. Certain traits can contribute to the level of success in our endeavors. Our strengths and weaknesses can serve as filters on the plethora of choices before us. Yet, these things have little, if anything, to do with what type of person we are or become.

Our heritage—our race, ethnicity, and country of origin—is out of our control. We don’t choose our parents, where we grow up, or the color of our skin. There can be no doubt that these, and a myriad of other things that are out of our control, have direct bearing on the choices we can control. One’s ancestry too easily morphs into excellent pretexts, excuses, and justifications for just about any action, any ‘thing’. All of us can find injustice and glory in our personal and family histories. On a person-to-person level, most of us, have been both oppressor and oppressed at some time, somewhere along the line−bullies are a fact of life. Bullies present an aspect of human nature we find so very unattractive in others, yet are so blind to in our own mirrors. Our person-type is much more entrenched in our decision making and the source of our blind spots.

Personality changes too much to define the type of person one is. Over time and through experience, we change the presentation of ourselves to the world-at-large. So much of who we are gets caught up in who we want others to think we are. Like our heritage, the presentation of who we can be is too easily shaded one way or another. Personality is not rooted deeply enough for beings with our capability to think and reason to define a person-type.

It is no accident that we are individuals. We humans need each other. The surgeon needs the plumber. The janitor calls for the artist. The preacher and the tax collector rely on you. It takes a village…to survive! (Rare are those who thrive without the company of others.) We need each other to be all those things we are not. Thus, there is purpose for every single one of us, a reason for our existence.

How is it possible to define 5.4 billion adults as four−four!−types? The Bible does it, defining four person-types. God’s Word does not contain a lot of physical descriptors. Character descriptors like courageous, stealthy, obstinate, or meek are usually derived by an individual’s attitude towards the Almighty. What demarcates which person-type one becomes is one’s attitude toward the Almighty. Do you choose your purpose in life or know your purpose because God created you, designing within you His purpose for your life.

Meet the Naïve and the Fool

Do you know the difference between dumb and stupid? These blunt terms are considered to be worse than the foul language that we hear everywhere from the supermarket to the halls of Congress. This isn’t about calling people names; this is about discernment—knowing the difference between two things that can often appear strikingly similar. Here, we are discussing the definition of dumb that, most often, describes the young—innocent, inexperienced, without direct knowledge of cause and consequences. Stupid, in this case, is well aware of (or should be) what the negative consequences of an action can produce for one’s self; what harm one’s actions can do to others—and does it anyway.

All of us have been naïve and few people truly remain naïve. An important thing to remember about naïve: inexperience and inability does not negate dignity. Innocence is to be cherished and defended. Those that are mentally and emotionally challenged—and thus naïve—require our understanding, our protection, and our patience as they do for themselves what they can do for themselves. Some of us, as we age, will return to a state of naiveté.

Amazingly, we come to know right and wrong. Though what we are taught has a direct effect on our perceptions, it takes coercion and inculcation to skew our innate sense of right and wrong. Those of us who believe in the Bible know that God told  us this would be. Jesus promises us that we will hear and recognize His voice. The Good Shepherd is calling us to follow Him.

The majority of us have played the fool. Too many of us play the fool all of our lives. Yet, so often it is the foolish things we do that offer us opportunities to grow and change, causing us to understand—and develop the concern for—the ripple effects of our actions. For others, the foolish things that they do cause them to double down, figuring out how to avoid consequences, never developing concern for the consequences on others. It is the fool who “says in his heart that there is no God” so that he may indulge himself, ignoring his own knowledge and evidence to the contrary and to disregard the Father, Himself.

Don’t succumb to the temptation to simply correlate these person-types to the maturing process. That’s much too shallow for beings that are as unique as we are. We are fools; we are scoffers after we mature. If these person-types merely reflected the maturing process, wisdom would abound in the world. The Truth is that wisdom has always been in short supply.

Meet the Scoffer and the Wise

The scoffer is a fool on steroids with full-blown ‘roid rage. The scoffer’s mind and heart are quite well aware of God—and that awareness is central to the scoffer’s rage. The scoffer acts with an “arrogant pride” to cancel the Almighty. The scoffer wants to displace God from his/her reality and erase the Father from everyone else’s existence. If possible, the scoffer would remake and strengthen the veil hiding God’s presence from His children for good.

The scoffer feasts on deception.

The scoffer uses a fool and abuses the naïve.

The scoffer may accumulate heaps of knowledge, yet wisdom remains absent.

Meet the Wise

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Truth, righteousness, mercy, and redemption are found in the Almighty. These ingredients of understanding and insight are found nowhere else. We humans fool ourselves, forgetting that God has poured these  out on and into all of us.

Being wise requires meekness—meekness as defined by the persons of Christ Jesus and Moses. Neither Jesus nor Moses could be considered milquetoasts. They both had backbones, standing firm for righteousness, mercy, Truth, and our redemption. They both knew Yahweh.

Isn’t it interesting that God granted Solomon wisdom and knowledge? Accumulated knowledge is an asset of the wise but not what makes them wise. Wisdom enables one to weave understanding from an abundance of facts. Wisdom uses insight to extrapolate—the wise detest unintended consequences.

Words, words, and more words do not make a person wise. Too many words  and misbehavior abounds. Deception so often wears a cloak of words. No wisdom is imparted in confusion. Speaking plainly is essential to wisdom—gaining it and imparting it.

Being wise is being transparent, to use the vernacular of the day. “Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice.” Wisdom does not, nor need to, hide. Wisdom can be fearless like Jesus and Moses because wisdom speaks in righteousness and Truth.

Being wise requires listening. It is not surprising that Wisdom is on her own in the street and in the market. Listening is harder than it sounds, best done so that one can be heard.

Being wise requires questioning. There is a delicate balance here. Taking someone at their word is a sign of trust. Blindly trusting has been the downfall of many, many, good people.

Us

Most of us journey through life: We blossom. We get stuck. We move on and fall back. We follow our hearts and our hearts are fickle. One day we do something foolish; a couple of days later we make a thoughtful and astute decision; next week, we mock playing by the rules. Sometimes we pursue the Truth that brings peace, seeks justice for all, honors integrity and honesty. Sometimes, we pursue ease, prestige, and wealth at the expense of anything or anyone that would interfere with achieving our desires.

One might think that most of us are fools. Truth be told, that’s probably accurate: our faith is not perfect and we are sinners. We don’t like it−and therein is a blessing. The Lord is quite willing to share His goodness and truth. All we need to do is ask Him for Wisdom and Understanding. (Reading His Word will quicken the results of His gift.)

We fools, and the naïve among us, should ask a lot of questions. It’s kind of a trust but verify thing. People who have not earned our trust, earn it when we verify the truth of their words and their actions corroborate the things they say. Let your prayer be “Really, Lord?” Just because somebody writes it in a blog or a teacher says it or a preacher thunders it doesn’t make it true. The Bereans did not take St. Paul at his word−they examined the Scriptures for verification.

Speaking of St. Paul, Saul of Tarsus was a scoffer. He looked for ways to take out the believers in Jesus Christ. Not many scoffers will receive the road to Damascus treatment that changed Saul to Paul. Yet, God loves all His children regardless of their feelings towards Him. Scoffers will have their opportunities to turn back to their Savior. Our prayers could help immensely.

So we, believer and seeker, pray and verify what we think we know—we grow wise—we put on the mind of Christ.

Questions?