Time

another thing i "realized" last Sunday was that eternity and liner time negate each other, and eternity is the reality...does that make sense? No matter how long we live, or what we suffer, it is only a drop in the bucket, a molecule in the vast ocean of eternity...whoa, that sounds a little to heady for me...

When I look at the Cross...

so, life continues to weigh heavy on me - my husband and I have been crying out to the LORD for mercy and wisdom - and in the natural things just seem to get worse and worse...
then we watch this stupid movie, a new "cult" film, "What the Bleep do we know?" and I wonder how Christians can even give it a second thought...yet I hear its the subject of many conversations - dialogues concerning spirituality and enlightenment. And I think back on some of the debates I've gotten into lately, concerning open theism, personal predestination, worship style, and Christians who believe in a metophorical Christ...my brain is spinning, my ears are ringing, and I am oh, so tired...
But Sunday, in worship, we meditated upon the cross and I realized something. The cross can not be denyied. The cross can not be ignored. It is the pivotal point of all time and space. It is what seperates Christianity from every other religion, every other world view. One can not reach full enlightenment without considering and realizing the Cross and the wonderful, terrible work that was done there. For God so Love the world...and this is love...that Jesus layed down His Life...His blood was spilled for "whosoever". It is unique, it is remarkable, it is true.
We who call ourselves Christian are responsible for the blood and truth of the Cross. We can not take that responsibility lightly. Sacrifice, Humility, and Love! There is a song, it is part of the annual passion play we put on here in the Four Corners, "can He still feel the nails everytime I fail?" Power in the Blood...Nothing But the Blood...It's under the Blood...
Forget the word Christian...forget the doctrines of man...forget the teachings of Augustine and Luther and Calvin and Wesley...forget churches and the hypocrites that frequent them. If it was about church and christians, I'd give it all up. But I can not forget or deny the Cross, or the beautiful Savior who looked through time and saw me, in all my short comings, and loved me enough to die for me. For my sons, my grandson, my students, for whosoever would hear His call, hear His knock on the door...for whosoever would believe. For the Romans who would pound the nails into His hands and feet, for those who knew and those who didn't know. When I look at the Cross, nothing else matters...there is love and mercy and truth.
One Maundy (Holy) Thursday, my four year old son Jeremiah was sitting in my lap as our formal United Methodist Church celebrated the last supper and passion of Jesus. The candles were being extinguished and the organ music was soft and mournfull. Jeremiah's eyes were bright in the darkness - he seemed scared/troubled. I whispered in his ear that we were remembering how Jesus suffered and died for our sins, and there was saddness in the remembering. He whispered back into my ear the words of a contemporary Christian song from a tape we played often in our car..."yeah mommy, but don't forget Ressurection Power!"
I guess that is all I have to say just now...time to move on with my day...simply trusting the Savior who died for me. Blessings

I didn't pray today...

yet -
I'm at school, third period and prep time. My first two classes (English and Reading with the same students) did not go very well. The kids were loud and disrespectful and I was impatient. About an hour into the moring, I realized, I hadn't prayed yet. I slept in late...my husband drove me to work...we are putting out yet another fire (foxes in the vineyard), and I didn't have a chance to bind this day in the Name of the Lord. It makes such a big difference. Monday and Tuesday I actually got time to annoint the desks and door with oil. In four minutes I will hit POST and get out my Bible...I will put on my praise music and spend time with the Lord.
I haven't spent much time on the computer lately. We were off line at home for a few days, and I am very busy at work. I haven't been able to visit my friends here in blog land. And I miss it. I miss the dialoge. I miss the connection. Sometimes I feel very lonely. But no more self indulgement. Time to get focused. Time to get a lone with the one person who matters most, the only one person who actually matters at all...I'm coming LORD...

putting out fires vs opening another can of worms?

I just wrote such a good post and my computer ate it. So I’ll try to reproduce it. I called it “putting out fires” because one of my commenters said that the Open Theist god spends all his time putting out fires. It is Open Theism that got me started blogging in the first place, but after reading about it and discussing it for a while I realized that NO, I wasn’t an open theist because I believe in the infallibility of the Bible, I am not a relativist, and I do believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Notice I didn’t say that Christianity was the only way…one of my blog mates has a quote on her site from Ghandi that goes something like this: I like your Christ, its you Christians I don’t understand.” In the movie about his life, Ghandi says, “If I had met even one person who lived the life of a Christian, as put forth in the words of Jesus, I would have become a Christian.” Pastor Art has been discussing the problem of contextualizing the gospel. I am reading the origin stories of 4 North American tribes with my 7^th grade social studies class. Each story has a hint of the true story: a creator (the Hopi call him Father), first man and woman (none of them remember their names), a great flood and rainbow to name a few. If we take time to listen to the stories of the land and look into the hearts of the people, we can always find a starting point to begin telling them the rest of the story – the true story. But as far as not contextualizing the gospel – if that is the right thing to do, then we must go back to the context in which it was first told, before Luther, before Augustine, back to first century Christianity. I know we should trust the HOLY SPIRIT, that He can use any portion of any translation of the Scriptures to speak Truth into our lives. I also believe the Bible Translators who have worked so diligently to put the Scriptures into a language we could understand, were sincere in their efforts and deserve our respect. However, I have come to the conclusion, that all of our translations have been greatly influenced by the teachings of Luther, Calvin, and Augustine. Since it is common knowledge that these men (as well as the Roman Catholic translators) had strong anti-jew sentiments, identifying the elect mentioned in the Bible as Jews, would be unlikely. They would need another way to interpret those verses. And since Augustine’s doctrine of personal predestination was so influential in the early church, when the translators had a choice of words, one which supported personal predestination, and another equally viable word, which doesn’t support it – which one would they choose? Of course we don’t all need to be Greek and Hebrew scholars to understand the truths of the Bible, but we who are teachers should be able to search out the truth. Word studies usually show that there are many possibilities…the words chosen often reflect the bias or preconceived ideas of the translators. I do not believe in Divine Election, or Personal Predestination. I am not the only “Christian” in the world who denies that doctrine. If we follow that doctrine to its logical conclusion, than God is the author of lies, and the creator of sin. He is a puppet master and we are all behaving exactly as He willed it from before the beginning of time. That is not God, as He revealed Himself, in the written word or in the living WORD. God is Love. God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. God is a covenant God. He guides, He instructs, He forgives, and He restores. This is not putting out fires, this is being a loving parent who has given His beloved creatures, made in His image, a free will, and a responsibility.

Do people seek God? In my “seek ye first” post I gave several verses that support the claim that we do, and indeed we should seek God. There are many more. When I get to the key board again, I will site some verses that show that God has given us a free will, and that He also has been know to “change His mind” because of the prayers of the faithful. I loved the illustration that Wanderer left on my Romans 1 post, the difference between a story writer and a story teller. There is a light shining in the darkness, the darkness does not comprehend it, but the darkness cannot put it out.

Monday Mournings

I am tired and hungry and heading for home.
I didn't get a chance to pray in my room because there was an unplanned staff meeting this morning before school. and My students were insane today...
There are 50+ comments on my Romans 1 post. My head is spinning.
Do we realize how close we are to the end? Wars and rumors of wars, hurricanes and rumors of volcanoes. The words of revelation are being printed in newspapers around the world and the world continues to embrace darkness. Brings to mind the old "hymn" from the "March for Jesus" movement - Shine Jesus Shine!
that's all I have to say right now...that's all I have to sing!

I am reading a book

I went through my husbands rather extensive theological library and found a small book called "fountations of wesleyan-arminian theology" Art says it's a pretty good one, not too hard to read, so even though I'd rather just read the Word, I think I'll try to get through it. So far, I'm on page 20, read it at the laundry matt. Here are a few jewels I've gleamed from its pages so far:
The author does not wish to "engender heresy hunting" which I would also like to avoid and warns "beware of a schism making a rent in the Church of Christ." and "Since both holiness and predestination are Biblical Doctrines, there should be no division of fellowship over them." So I will read on and report back when I am done.
Also, if any of my old friends, and prayer partners drop by (seems the comments have been monopolized by three rather strongly "opinionated" brothers, which I don't mind (really)) but I miss some of my other blog mates...anyway, my family could use a little renewed prayer...something has come up which may be very difficult to deal with.

Romans One

Ok, so I am writing at work, off the clock though so don't scold. And the only Bible I have here is THE MESSAGE, which most hard core scholars would argue isn't even really a Bible. The cover identifies it as "The Bible in Contemporary Language". It is not broken down into verses, so it is a little hard to reference parts, and the "translators" took a lot of license in how they put things. It mentions train tracks and cotton candy, not exactly Biblical terms.
But, there is a discussion going on in my "Questions" post which led me to write the prior piece about seeking God, and this one on Romans 1, which is really about the same thing. Do people seek God, and can God be known outside the Scriptures, and was there, is there salvation for people who never heard the gospel...
This is how THE MESSAGE puts it.
" But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over the truth. (wow to put a shroud over truth, powerful way to put it huh?) But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is. By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being, so nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat Him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense not direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all , but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in His hand for cheap figurines you can buy at any road side stand."
One of my commentors suggested that even though the nature of God has been revealed to man from creation and through creation, no one ever got it until Jesus. I believe there were natives in Africa and the Americas who did get it, even before - no - especially before the missionaries came. They knew and worshiped the Creator rather than the creation, they recognized the Spirit of God long before Pentacost. And when the missionaries had sense enough to realize that, they were very willing to accept the Word made Flesh as soon as they heard the "rest of the story". Well, time to go home. Pastor Art should have dinner ready by now. Tuesday night - worship practice and dance team! Yeah!

Seek Ye First

2 Chronicles 15:2...and if you seek Him, He will let you find Him, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you…. Isaiah 55:6 …seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near…Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the LORD and He will have compassion on Him…1 Chronicles 22:19...now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God…Isaiah 65: 1 I permitted myself to be sought by those who did not ask for me…Proverbs 8:17 …I love those who love me, and those who diligently seek me will find me…Psalm 119:2 How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seeks Him with all their heart
Psalm 24: 6 This is the generation of those who seek Him…
When Elijah fled to Horeb in I Kings 19, he lamented that the children of Israel had forsaken the covenant and that He alone was left. He felt desperate and wished to die. King Solomon, Jeremiah, Job all in moments of desperation made statements that if they were read alone, out of context, could lead a person to believe all sorts of things … David wrote Psalm 14 in desperation, it seemed as if the whole world had turned against God. Paul quotes that verse to Jews who would have known the context of it, and who were in a rather “self-righteous” mood. Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, without which man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning. Hebrews 11:6 for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek HIM. If there are verses in the Bible that seem to contradict, then we need to look deeper, for the connection, for the truth, and through the Holy Spirit we will find it. Through the Words I have read, the teachings I have heard, and the experiences of my life and the lives of others, I have come to the conclusion, that each person is born with a hunger, a longing for Spiritual Truth. That was put into their hearts by their creator, who is longing for every man, not just a few elect, but for every man to find the Way, the Truth and the Life…He calls to us all. He never stops calling. But the coming…the answering of the call, or rejecting it, is up to us.

Just a Note

Because it is 12:34, and my students are testing - poor dears.
Ingrid on Slice and my hubby, Pastor Art on Temple Corners agree with each other concerning the "meaning" behind Katrina. And although I'm more merciful than prophetic or judgemental (which Prophets often are called to be) I have to agree...
This is a dark world we are living in, and these are critical times.
Lord, have mercy on the innocent, protect the people who are trying to help in this time of crisis,
and forgive those, called by Your name, for our indifference, inaction, and self-centeredness.