tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41791476845289684862024-03-14T02:41:26.747-07:00A Guy's Bloga guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-19992352597668239952013-12-14T02:08:00.000-08:002013-12-14T02:08:07.581-08:00In Answer to Ross<blockquote>
I wonder, then, what Calvin would have made of the various attempts
since his time to build "transformed societies". Looking at the examples
of South Africa, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands, one is
left with the impression that these initiatives have had fairly short
half-lives. And, while I am not in the Reformed family, it's not exactly
clear to me as to why.<br />
OK, comment/criticism/clarification welcome.<br />
-- <a href="http://baylyblog.com/comment/36667#comment-36667">http://baylyblog.com/comment/36667#comment-36667</a></blockquote>
<br />
I am also not sure how far into (i.e. theological depth) the Reformed family I am. ;) What little [good] theology I have came from being humbled before the Scriptures as a liar (and hypocrite), false religionist, and anomous do-gooder trained-up (wrong) in neo-evangelicalism...for transforming society, but that also left me with [too much to] say here in reply: if the end is to build a society here on earth, compromise is necessary: part-and-parcel with "biblical" theology is that salvation is of God, and Him only; He authors, He either hardens or softens hearts; He makes the seeds planted by preachers (of whatever) grow or whither...anything attempting to transform on a grand scale and which won't be stopped, da*n it! will have to compromise in some serious ways if it is to do all it can to ensure that it remains effective, and either way will be subject to *little* temptations to adjust method and message (see McLuhan on this--it's something the world but not evangelicals get, when the Scriptures themselves authorize but one method of reaching sheep within the world for God). <br />
<br />
Put another way, it must be God who causes the growth or, despite a the appearance of health on the surface, what lurks beneath is cancer. From what I can grasp (because I know the trajectory causing the PCA to depart from where it should be) from discussions and watching, in the past, of that denom., or closer-to-home (heart) the likes of "reformed baptist" assemblies like Sovereign Grace Ministries (er...more difficult to digest due to its origins and lack of ever having truly and publicly repented of false apostles and the very structures it has maintained since and now the revelation that the same dynamics and abuses of the shepherding cults--which my old long-time church also arose out of, and also with a false apostle), what usually happens is the dilution of offense and twisting of words, e.g. probably around the time the Baylies were working with the CBMW I was, despite being in theological and spiritual turmoil, beginning to duke it out with "complementarianism" seeing its trajectory, that it had already become established because it avoided "patriarchy" and allowed the feminist-ettes in the church to dance-around submission or the hard-to-stomach about it, not to mention men to be effeminate about it all; "patriarchy" was even caricatured as much among these type of folks as it is in academia--something reacted to rather than understood or studied carefully. (No offense to the Baylies btw.) <br />
<br />
And that's all despite being raised TO change the world, being told that is what the gospel is and for on the macro--for "changing lives" on the micro. The dynamics you see with failures to actually convert a soul though you transform include, among other things, such dancing-around: instead of telling anyone the thing which would offend them, which btw is likely also what is needed to convict them of their idolatry and sin, many other things that sound wonderful are told, then build a relationship, and once you've got the emotional leverage and interpersonal credit, ONLY THEN! should you go on to teach those offensive things, gently, prodding and pleading, reassuring and "adjusting" words as fit to keep the hearer/new friend/convert/potential convert...e.g. you'll find in a certain popular author's IVP book how it's best to let the topic of Sovereignty alone, until someone is converted and then grows into a stomach that can handle it...I loved [listening to] that book, but couldn't believe my ears when Jesus himself not only frankly declared it to the crowd (and continues to in the gospels--what do you do when you first arrive at that reading, rush past it and urge no one to pay much attention?) but was even doing so to offend men away from believing to whom it had not been given... I realized this once to break the false gospel-ization of a girl who had been told very little of Lone-Author of salvation and looked very much to her "my decision", though explained it along with the other keys of the gospel: those who supposedly tag-teamed to convert her glossed-over in the eyes and looked bored, she was crying and saying "God did all this just for me?" and marveling that she had no part in it: that's good theology (I think), and the stuff it's meant for--producing proper understanding of our position and role with regards Him in all things.<br />
<br />
I am guessing the Reformed world has been all-too-happy to accept, without discipline, people with no good theology or doctrine at all since, for a long time, they grew by birthing and, though in secret, assured themselves that baptisms meant regeneration for their infants (watch as the semi-devout women untutored in the file-cabinet orthodoxy of the affluent Presbyterian social clubs begin to go berzerk when some minister who baptized their children as infants is exposed to have been in some heinous sin or two: it's quite a temptation to fall into that self-assurance just as much as churches everywhere are tempted to keep it comfortable and civil and expose and shame and convict no one, "after all, we need the new blood and growth and it'll be good for them to be able to come sit comfortable and hear the word..."). I am quite certain they largely came from my old quarters in the neo-evangelical mix, and that they go after becoming intellectually dissatisfied, and that these Churches are also easily duped for finding how wonderful these newcomers are in being very active, zealous, excited to do things, push people into the open and run programs...but their theology and actual substance barely tested and they haven't left their old homes over becoming horrified at the realization that the teaching and practice is false, indeed no--all manner of disorder and insobriety and false teaching filled those times and they still attribute it all to God's name and call it all a stepping stone that somehow He authored what they needed at that precise time, and you dare not say anything against my former [false] pastor!--so they...<br />
<br /><!----actual--><!----actual-->
So you end-up with masses and masses of converts who never sorrowed unto unto the repentance not to be repented of...and masses and masses of converts into "more intellectually satisfying" (and that's how it's put, "we had learned all we had at that [old] church" <-actual a="" affiliations="" and="" are="" as="" atop="" been="" boot-strapped="" br="" brian="" but="" change="" changed="" changes="" changing="" churches="" counterfeit="" day="" declared="" deep="" despite="" doctrine="" either="" everything="" expect="" false="" for="" get="" god="" goes="" have="" his="" how="" impressive-sounding="" in="" into="" it--to="" it.="" it="" leaven="" leaveth="" little="" long="" lump="" maclaren="" more="" never="" not="" of="" one="" only="" opposed="" or="" over="" participants="" people="" perils="" quote="" read="" religion="" remain="" renewed="" rolled-over="" should="" sin="" so="" some="" someone="" sorrowed="" soul="" sound="" suit="" systematically-rigorous="" teachers="" teaching="" the="" then="" theologically="" these="" they="" things.="" to="" transformed="" unchurch="" us="" washed="" we="" which="" who="" whole="" will="" with="" within="" you=""></-actual><br />
<br /><!----actual--><!----actual-->
<br /><!----actual--><!----actual-->
* I had been invited to see this [spectacle] by a friend.<br />
** I was writing to this friend in frantic terror on the back of the
pamphlet given-out there how the things being taught were false, and all
sounded like the sort of claptrap from the mouth of the false teacher
Brian MacLaren, just before this teacher shouted that sentence. <br />
<!----actual--><!----actual-->a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-88583382513630730182013-11-27T13:24:00.001-08:002013-11-27T13:24:25.541-08:00This is not liberation theology or a social gospel, but it is about being social and liberating the oppressed-by-wicked, and the oppressed-by-ignorance<p>I've been thinking about these things and, want to do more than just find a job, but find a means to be both upright and efficient--in its old term--as well; to effect just outcomes and preach righteousness, embody it, and demand it, for the sake of my Lord and His good name (all to myself in secret, first of all). This also means being social, in the sense of interacting, as well as loving--in the sense of obeying and conforming to Christ, and it also means persuading--meaning finding co-workers with the same ends in view. In our context, it also means legally bypassing power structures of the wicked, to avoid lending them any strength, demanding they go back within their limits, using every measure available to obtain that end, and to call for the proper trial and punishments of those who have done unjustly even though in the name of good. </p> <p>I'm confident that the contemporary-Reformed community--which you never see madly urging people into the kindgom on the busiest of streets where you'll find plenty of the heretics, babbling preacherettes, and televangelist pento-charismatical knock-offs--is currently too plagued with indifference, leisure, comfort, the proud, the intellectually-stuffed (the we-came-cause-we-outgrew-evangelical-insanity-and-became-intellectually-dissatisfied-with-their-stupidity-but-are-still-evangsmellicals-who're-here-to-be-intellectually-satisfied!) as things go; whether OPC or PCA or URCNA, you'll find one kind of off-the-deep-end or another no matter how hard you look for purity, it's appalling; the PCA is infecting the RBs with Tim Kellerism and the last one I attended had men laughing at the idea of fighting over his mis-teachings; the OPC has men proclaiming better to worship with Lutherans than the schismatic baptists because they all deny the validity of their baptisms--despite so commonly Baptists, unlike Landmarkists, actually just require a credible profession of belief and evidence of sanctification (you know, real or Augustinian-type spiritual realities thinking). </p> <p>The difference between the wackos on the streets and the Reformed in their steeple-churches (or God forbid, unchurch hip-scene constructs, or messianic-Jew-Judaizing-synagogues-to-reach-Jewry-with-Jewishness), with the former they're truly mad, though in love with something; we're sane-ish, calculating, just not in love at all. The tutelage of people I wouldn't really trust to help me isn't one I wish to put children under, yet the ones attempting to change things or do good, though often misguided, are also unsound in doctrinal matters: woe are we (as a nation) for the divorce between orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Each alone gives rise to madnesses, and madness to destructions of various sorts. How can our kind perpetuate the unadulatered gospel attended by the Spirit of God, however, without going raving mad in the midst of such tragedy? Why aren't we raving mad exposing the false preachers in the streets, instead of civily speaking of their pros and cons in academic circles, and conferences of celebrated Reformed personalities speaking to the layment-from-far-off just as vainly done by the evangsmellicals, seeking acceptability? Where are the old-school PCA men being brotherly to expose and denounce Dispensationalism and its two-means, two-flocks, two-plans and other heresies, amidst RBs who profess to holding to the London-type Confessions, the 1st-Londoners who reject the second on the grounds of myths because their fundamentalism procludes them from carefully attending to history, or the RBs denouncing the baptismal-regeneration that is, indeed, common amidst the baby-sprinkling women of the paper-orthodoxy neo-orthodoxy professing Reformed-ism? Don't the let's-all-just-be-warm "civils" know that true friends sharpen each other like iron--that clashing with swords can be a good thing and is what friends do? My Chinese friend likes to say that true friends "fight" each other, both to exact understanding from one another and to urge one another to be better.</p> <p>I am not out there because I do not believe I am altogether theologically sound, I am unlearned and mean, without understanding or proper instruction in doctrine; I was given over to much babble in my youth, and though I have worked to undo it, I confess acedie and also succumbing to terrible conditions: oppressive and awful as they may have been, it is still no excuse, I repent. All said, I am also unaware how to escape such traps without help--the poor are needy such as to lack even the means to their own improvement, such is I for now, but perhaps I have just enough to work, incrementally, out of it. It is not that there is no talent or opportunity, either, but that men need help anyway, if only in the acceptation of others to share their substance in exchange for value, whether work or a good, and the men we are surrounded with are not laborers or producers, they are consumers whether or not they wish to be. Many others are stuck. There is even a name for this when the non-choice is poverty, the "poverty trap"; indeed this applies to more than income, but the ability to gain knowledge and understanding, for instance. </p> <p>If men were fair and rulers good, no one would be impoverished, for everyone could produce and be rewarded according to need and his labors, trading and working without fear or taxation or burden or exploitation or being leveraged. The reality is far different. Guys like me cannot accept, though we love, the MacArthurian-and-quasi/really/kinda dispensationalist RBs, 2nd-Lond-Baptist-Confession-is-bad-'cause-[we're-ignorant-of-history-and-still-fundamentalists-attempting-intellectualism-as-though-sophomores/schoolboys], charismatic-enthused-for-Reformed-theology-but-Arminian-in-practice, or even Orthodox-Presbyterian-but-Neo-Orthodox-in-practice camps; impurity and lukewarmness alike are all bad. I am myself guilty of another sin: despairing rather than looking in hope for strength after having been bludgeoned in life so long. But the solution to hard slogging is to slog harder, and get smarter to slog harder and wiser, and to keep going incrementally building strength until you laugh at the mire, something I've had to learn several times before and accomplish extreme feats and which, I realize, I should not only do again, but keep doing.</p> <p>Guys like me have such bad current situations they are even attempting, foolishly, to take-in as much as possible reformulate, and undertake massive exploits which might undermine injustice, and give them space to live...legally, by which I mean homeless people can't sleep in a garage without violate some kind of "public protection" (taxable market values and "character of the neighborhood" i.e. town-created-privileging of property holders' interests over common-to-all rights and liberties) measure or "law" though of course do so outside and police are just as likely to come "greeting" as the crazy crack-addict (or other homeless guy) is to come to your aid if there are only one or two of them popo. That is unacceptable, and I think the first line of assault on entrenched and pervasive injustice is to take-up the means to defend, and do everything one can, to discredit those things which make defenseless, the most needy. Undermine privileges popularly supported which undermine rights, especially those made because ya'-don't-wanna-have-poor-foot-traffic (an actual argument in the original case where zoning was under assault/being defended that decided that zoning was legitimate), or a bad view, or a noisy poor person in his garage working next door (when ya know, you just can't be bothered to better insulated your household office and get thicker windows), or a rooster next door...</p> <p>The next, of course, is to start educatin' those po' self-destructives...self-destructives they may be, but they are also likely people, at least when related, that are most apt to help. They might be inconsistent--may turn on a dime, later, and exact from you some sort of penalty for daring associate--but they're likely also more open, maleable, to being urged to repentance and faith, cause the poorer the less likely to be in this life's comforts, thus often the better, though not always. I’m hoping, Deo Volente, to gain means or strength at least to start reading good books with such people, and maybe in tens years of prep to shake-up the world around me. </p> a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-9464461781367490272013-11-15T08:21:00.003-08:002013-11-15T08:24:32.494-08:00When I was Young I was a Fool, Older I know my Foolishness<div class="separator" style="text-align: center; clear: both"><a style="margin-bottom: 1em; float: right; margin-left: 1em; clear: right" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4179147684528968486" imageanchor="1"></a><a style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2p37BKPCSRM/UoZANe3bwEI/AAAAAAAAAnI/2Of5cUksDrc/s1600/when+I+was+young.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.ggpht.com/-2p37BKPCSRM/UoZANe3bwEI/AAAAAAAAAnI/2Of5cUksDrc/s1600/when+I+was+young.png" width="640" height="264" /></a><a style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4179147684528968486" imageanchor="1"></a></div> <br /> <br />Change the world. <br /> <br />I did not understand that doing so required more than just helping people materially, changing their minds or behaviors, but changing what they love. The gospel of evangelicaldom, which when examined writ-large is a broad way, appealing to people's emotions and pangs of anger and agony and "felt needs” over the state of their broken homes and misery, because of its roots in a philosophy of outreach based on felt needs, arising from paranoia over a perceive state in decline of conversions and Christian society many years ago. <br /> <br />With their indoctrination from youth that they should also help those less-well-off, which is not a bad thing, the people could be shown photos of need and misery far worse throughout the world, experience visceral responses desired by those holding some communicative event, induced to pledges of "I will go", and made ready for making the connection between the miseries shown and a dearth of faith, a need for the repeal of godlessness, a spread of Christianity... <br /> <br />Yet looking back, there was an offer only in superficiality of Jesus' name, empty of much substance or a definite integrity--as is like the broader movement. Meaning can be found here, yet in unity wrought of works, not the faith. Faith can be found here, yet not in the biblical doctrine of God. Its congregations are filled with the hunger for better life: whether in changed lives, fixed homes, happy family, purpose, direction for their activities and energies, feeling far better than the miseries wrought by sin too often bring, and the destruction it has reaped for their lives and society--whether theirs or the sin of their fathers and mothers. <br /> <br />In other words, it is filled with the kind of person to be logically expected from whatever, at a given moment, its members have used to catch people. The modern fishing metaphor applies well here, that you will catch people with what they love; an old warning of pastors that you will have to keep feeding people with what you lured them is also pertinent; the idea of catching men with what they are or you can make them think they are looking for while they are, to use the theological term, unregenerate, means one will continue on with people staid only by receiving what you first sold them. <br /> <br />Yet the fishing metaphor as found in the gospels is much different. Jesus's own words even about the persons who came for teaching and who were kept by the bread that made to fed the five thousand men (not even counting women and children) should strike at the thought of spreading religion by behaviorism, felt needs, inducing emotional responses and then offering catharsis (as you will find in thousands of sophisticated manipulative environments called "Churches" in their services, across our land), and should deal mortal blows at packaged and prominent, as well as extemporaneous and fluid forms of sociological approaches or Church-Growth philosophies and man-centered appeals and efforts to building little kingdoms by whatever seemingly successful means while saying it is all done in the name of Jesus and for God's glory, the Spirit be damned in this pursuit I guess, tragic since He's the Spirit of Christ and One who guides into all truth. Rick Warren writes on how Jesus was meeting felt needs and drawing crowds, as found in various stories of the gospels, yet to read those gospels one sees that after the crowd awakens where he has left them, and follows him across the sea, he confronts them as, really, unbelieving, that they sought him because "you at the loaves and you were filled." He does not in a group or committee plan the next means of drawing a large gathering or encourage these people; he fed them out of compassion on the hungry and looking after them--as the God who sends rain on both the just and unjust--yet tells them they will suffer hell in death for not believing, and even going on to say they do not because they cannot, because it hasn't been given them to... <br /> <br />The felt needs of natural man are often distinct from their true needs as declared by God. Men surely need bread, but they would come to make Him king, not to eat his flesh and drink His blood--to believe into and on Him for everything in trust. They would come to set him up as a King to subdue the gentiles and tax them into luxury and opulence, He would author faith in them to bring them into the Court of the temple before ripping down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile and ushering-in an age where they formed for Him a people as one flock, despite the partitions He himself, at first, had erected to keep them separate: such was done to make many points, but are useless apart from a heart of faith like that of Abraham, no matter the outward signs. <br /> <br />And that faith is not a decision or option. Men will not, as natural men, if it has not been given to them. Just as the fishers of that time laid down a dragnet and scraped fish from waters, the fishing of which Jesus spoke is a dragging by the Spirit of God; to the very crowd who followed and to His disciples, he said, that none would come to Him except the father "drag" (the literal translation of the Greek term) the one to Him, which is the first half of a famous verse famously ignored to focus on the second half about none whom the Father gives Him will ever get away: men are happy to assure salvation to those who profess to accept, loatheful to announce that salvation is the gift of God, and not by works--even a willful act of assent to easily called "believing". <br /> <br />Our endless politicization of all things, as they have rendered moral points null and subjective, important only for political advantage and gaining leverage in rhetoric over a rival alike who is attempting, through schemes, to make utopia, forgot all these things. Even now, despite the much gossiped decline in religion, Jesus is to liberals and the [neo-]conservatives the one to bring egalitarianism, feminine liberation, individual license to self-actualize or liberty to self-express and build a business. To old conservatism he was an impediment to order and threat to practical means of producing desirable consequences, a potential threat to authority if preached plainly as espoused in Scriptures who might topple the heads of State or king who decides to divorce his wife. He is for some groups the way to excuse every deviation form the norm or misbehavior in the name of "being loving", condemning any criticism or "judgment" as its contrary rather than sound judgement being its corollary and partner, and for other the seat of a new moralism to save society, if not so much to demand genuine faith. He is the excuse for the productive to build mansions and little kingdoms for themselves by right and liberty from judgment because they are harmless or they are moral, the self-destructive and "liberal" to condemn their greed for refusal to give to the self-destructive and save them from consequence, and by use of his words to hide that they, themselves, are greedy. <br /> <br />He is the means for evil men and politicians to denounce application of religious sentiment to religion, mis-using "give unto Caesar what is Caesars", in their attempt to censure, silence, and exclude moral voices who oppose ungodly, unnatural, unlawful or unConstitutional actions and programs; yet He is one who gave full approval to the baptizing prophet who condemned Herod for ungodlines sand demanded repentance for taking his brother's wife: so we can do to renounce subversion, theft in the name of redistributivism not to the truly needy but the dissolute and self-destructive; funding of government at every level to interfere with necessary rights and liberties for the sake of men caring for themselves in whatever circumstances, even when those politicians and powers claim they act in the name of general welfare or public interest, and on and on, especially when we are charged by the standing Highest law to resist and even attack the courts themselves should they begin to subvert and ignore the Constitution.We are never anywhere compelled by any valid law to lay down our duty under good law and surrender to evil, if well-intention, people and their schemes' requirements to take liberty away. <br /> <br />Perhaps more than all things, Jesus is the way to determine what is real love, and what men love. He is beloved for His utility by many but not His teaching or own person. And love is what you look to for fulfillment, to obey, and therefore spend your own self on even unto abandon. Men claim his name to say that condemnation of sins like homosexuality is unChristian because it is "unloving" while He himself warned He did not come to abolish the law...and that the greatest in His kingdom (of heaven) would be those who teach it; such call themselves advocates for repressed people while reproaching Christians who likely do not call for any harm to come from those whom they simply disapprove, and then laws to criminalize disapproval as "hate"...just as Jesus said, on account of fidelity to His word, men would "blaspheme (reproach is a better term) and persecute you on account of me." Fake love says what does not make men feel good is harmful, evil, unloving; true love will make you as upset and uncomfortable as possible while doing you no real harm (i.e. moral, permanent physical damage, etc.) as it demands for your own sake, in the eyes of God, that you repent and look to Him for true salvation, truth, etc. Hell, men claiming to speak in the name of Christ call harmful those who disapprove of them and who will not lend them association or a hand, and call upon the government to harm them, while genuine Christians, in accordance with God's word, condemn (as the law) what they do and what they say as sin, while remaining harmless as doves. Men who try, by persecutions, to make for themselves a heaven here, make hell on earth for those misfortunates subject to their power and reach; how happily that the needy and oppressed of the earth are promised for their meek assurance of the faithfulness of God that they will, in His return, receive both heaven and earth recreated all anew, but most of all God Himself their treasure. <br /> <br />And contrary to the notion of love as feelings, that by making men feel good you can gain over them leverage and influence, though it is true, such will not alter their spirits for the good and truly change the world with enduring success. It is rather, by display and proclamation of real love, which is costly, and the command to repent and to practice it, which is costly, and assertion of inherent rights to man by cause of His partaking in the image of God, though ruined, who therefore is said to endow them with innate capacities requiring liberty for exercise, without interference by those of other interests without the most pressing and sincere of necessity arising of their duty, perhaps say to defend from foreign invasion those taxes and compelled in some way, for which men will both die and yet by shed blood and the blessing of God plant seeds in men's hearts and, should God bless such labors, repent of their murderousness even those responsible for making them victims, and so reap to the oppressed and meek brothers in eternity who with them will shed tears, not as much for the wrongs committed against men who became by the Spirit of adoption their brothers, but the God who made them both sons and became their Father and brother, and bequeathed to them alike Himself as inheritance and His riches of benevolence by His graces. <br /> <br />A little prayer: <br /> <br /><a style="margin-bottom: 1em; float: right; margin-left: 1em; clear: right" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4179147684528968486" imageanchor="1"></a>We go out this day, Oh God, to act in our own interests, yet hopefully in the interest of others and in show of thy great goodness and mercies, to the praise of you the Majesty and to glorify thy name, but in us are sins of ignorance, simplicity, malice, iniquitous hearts and deception of error, save us Oh Lord from such causes for harm, and protect us from those who would punish us for repentance and acting in accord with the rule of faith, by their defeat everywhere and submission to justice that is real to show men shall not, in whatever position they find themselves, blaspheme thy name or make mockery of your justice and vengeance against sin as though you are slow in coming. Grant us repentance therefore, before the shedding of blood, assuage thy own anger at us by outpouring of thy truth and power unto salvation from such sin, and by shedding tears of us by looking upon whom we have pierced, laying us down on the earth to wear sackclothe and ashes, and wait upon you in trust to provide us your righteousness and washing unto sanctification to be worthy, without fear or lies in hypocrisy or vanity, to speak thy name. Petitioned of you because we believe these are good petitions directed toward so benevolent and attentive a God, in Jesus name, Amen. a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-62867847948780020622013-04-30T21:55:00.000-07:002013-04-30T21:55:27.148-07:00Jesus Plus Nothing His Word<br />
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Only the sick have need of a physician. Those who say they do not need to get better or do well, do not know of their need, and do not accept the Physician. And millions today who have words to that effect, were drawn not by nets or by conviction unto sorrow working repentance, but for a purposeful life, for a better changed life, for direction in life to do and see great things--to build "Jesus' kingdom", to acquire and finally have a not-dysfunctional/abusive/messed-up family but one with wisdom, happiness, comfort, love, folks worth trusting and listening to because that they have been promised Jesus can do...and I'm afraid that such has nothing to do with precisely with what He Himself said was necessary to possess Him. (Though versions of these things certainly can be--and some certain become--consequences of inheriting the King.)<br />
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For instance, millions--literally millions--scoff and blaspheme those who insist that doctrine not only ought be correct, but that it is Jesus Himself that warned it needs be correct, else one may have been taken captive by wolves in sheep's clothing, teaching and doing in His name--and doing noble things that are great powers!--but will be told, "I never knew you"; so often I have heard men say about this that whether one will hear this is dependent upon their works rather than Jesus', or that therefore they'll keep working to build His kingdom and draw men nigh unto a right life, "loving" and "preaching" what they call "Jesus"!<br />
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But of course, that's kind-of the thing, supposedly, the very men he speaks of coming to Him, having done in His name and yet, "I never knew you" is their reward along with being sent away. Millions more...have dead orthodoxy if any at all, while the zealous nowadays? Zealous for works, but their own. While pretending to themselves to be faithful they go and do what the "liberals" did a century ago--divorcing the life and walk from the doctrine, the thing ill-described with modern notions of "message" or "teaching" used vaguely and without precision to hew to the word, though perhaps a lot of ostentation and sophistry.<br />
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So I would edit this^ (propaganda photo) if it were of my making. I need to get better--of my ignorance and sickness of heart, deadness in sin and ruin by its indwelling and fruits; by the false doctrines spread about in the name of Jesus and thousand little kingdoms built in His name and by attribution to His work blaspheming and causing Him to be blasphemed in regards the many departures and substitutes proposed in the stead of His own word, interpretations for a real reading of His revelations, and so forth: indeed perhaps more do I need repair from the counterfeits substituted for the real thing to draw me and others in, than many other things one could think needing healing for: if cancer, auto-immune conditions, depression, despondency, endless grief...let it be that I have instruction from the Father and Son, through the Spirit and by His leading, to be washed of poisoned and muddy waters, and kool-aid where the blood of the Only-begotten was needful for drinking. I need...to be made well by Him who is the truth and yet warned of the many counterfeits coming--a message His apostles spread and warned of, and wrote eventually "even now there are many antichrists" (in Gr. = substitutes for Christ).<br />
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Why write all this^? Because there is a false piety and love of "simple religion" consisting of "all I want/need is 'JESUS'", divorcing the Man from His word--the life from doctrine, the change of life from a heavenly birth and attributing it to "the philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means" (full context given below*), to give a quote (of an heretical quality) from the hero and model for contemporary "evangelicalism", which has nary an simile to the historical sort named such by the Lutherans; whether a behavioristic manipulation of men with clever speech and attention to what key phrases and current fads catch attention, or looking for "felt needs" (emotions) to take advantage of: no wonder they "burn out" and die, and must "refresh" endlessly at yet another empty well of conferences filled with men's ideas, who think they're rich and praise one another about their humility and knowing one another's hearts. (* "There is nothing in religion beyond the ordinary powers of nature. A revival is not a miracle, nor dependent on a miracle, in any sense. It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means—as much so as any other effect produced by the application of means. . . . A revival is as naturally a result of the use of means as a crop is of the use of its appropriate means" [Charles Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, n.d.), 4-5].")<br />
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NO, in the modern context--due to the abuse of that language--though literally true I think it cannot be said while communicate truth accurately, "I just need Jesus": these have, after all, become words to which the "Christian" population is conditioned to react, to shut-down their thought and turn them upon critics and any who dare "attack" their religion, beliefs and actions alike--or forgive me, "spirituality"...for those who get offended even by this, "Just Jesus!"; those four little words cannot in such a poisonous context be used to proclaim faithfully--when one is cognizant of such difficulties or else fallen prety to the counterfeit now embodied in these few words--and explaining, very thoroughly, also all that entails and what He said--of which it seems the highest preachers are ignorant (I was shocked at the shock of Ted Haggard falling, for instance: around 10 years-old I was in his church several weeks upon invite of mother and I by her friend, and heard him blather about not sinning by mere will for weeks, and instructing all "pray about something only once, else you're doubting God!" obviously diverging from Jesus and apostles--and I hadn't even read the Bible, just heard exerpts in a Catholic mass to which my great aunt would take me). To the modern mind "Jesus" say person; to the ancient, and historical one, just as He said, He is not received apart from His word--or the Father's dragging a man to Him. (Apart from these, there is no surprise that men should abandon "their" faith: the faith--and its Object--were never theirs. Actually, such men are often better off: better such truth become evident to them, than remain in company of men deluded by false religion.)<br />
<br />
And ostentatious as it may seem to use such words from another time and tongue, they're now a technical phrase which embodies--like most technical statements--so much more such that, for those who know that substance, they know whether they are here a fitting end,<br />
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Solo Deo Gloria. a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-47744555535936607652012-12-16T00:41:00.001-08:002012-12-16T00:41:18.982-08:00Here you can find a wonderful photo blog:Even better, <a href="http://rockmountainphotography.blogspot.com/" target="blank">this photoblog</a> (http://rockmountainphotography.blogspot.com/) is of the Rocky Mountain region and its wildlife. It includes shots of landscapes and animals, and some videos.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-22496820807675890662012-12-16T00:09:00.002-08:002012-12-16T00:10:03.951-08:00Striking back...<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://realbookblog.blogspot.com/" target="blank">The Real Book Blog</a>. </div>
a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-3588425628665505362012-07-26T23:54:00.001-07:002012-07-26T23:54:25.954-07:00Where are...<div><p>...the days going: two are missing. I don't know anymore...<br>
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</div>a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-2174929124902987042012-07-11T15:38:00.000-07:002012-07-11T15:42:44.849-07:00Anthophila at Work on Catnip...If ordeals won't end or torment cease, I recommend getting out a while for some idleness in admiring nature. If you click an image it will enlarge; right-click the larger image and select "view image" (in Firefox) to get the ability to zoom in. Noncommercial downloads welcome, and by downloading you can also zoom even more in an image viewer, as these are high resolution photos; please share by pointing anybody here to the source; use for commercial purposes without permission is discouraged as I am hardly able to make an income myself, and would appreciate notice and a little bit of collaboration on commercial work:<br />
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Bees on Catnip...<br />
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...and flying<br />
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...with stump and fungus in background<br />
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Blue (Orchard?) Critters:<br />
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(Apologies for blur image above, but catching these with the camera was quite hard.)<br />
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Apologies, but my 4MB digital Kodak couldn't catch the smallest bees, or every species there: too much movement, so while I hunted a few very pretty individuals, I largely tried to wait on slower individuals that would come close. A very small specimen that "<i>Trigona minima</i>" I had no chance to catch, though what is actually was I don't know. Wasps also buzzed about, but nearer the ground aside from the location I was focused on.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-10214046533269697902012-06-27T13:43:00.000-07:002012-06-27T13:43:39.827-07:00Let it rain...I am sitting here and there are clouds, though thin, and some thunder. It's far south of here, but here's to hoping rain will start to hit Colorado Springs.<br />
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From the looks of radar little is happening there (the big stretch of clouds is north of it, west of Denver). The spots visible may even be just the smoke from fire showing up on radar.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-6484876576415223472012-06-04T00:15:00.000-07:002012-06-04T00:20:47.121-07:00A Re-Writing of Thoughts, Rought Draft, Philosophies that Seem Right but Are Counterfeits, Potential Item 1Philosophies whose far-reaching consequences have badly undermined, subverted, perverted, and twisted organizations purporting to believe and advance the gospel, and the gospel itself:<br />
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1. For everything you do, you should ask how it advances the kingdom of God, or helps fulfill the great commission.<br />
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This one gets equivocated with "gospel centrality", and as that label generally signifies, the gospel is not central: men are.<br />
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In fact, true believers who aren't readily useful to these ends either get treated nicely but ambivalently, pushed-aside, or trampled before all is said and done. The Church is not merely a mission organization--and it is almost a mortally urgent enough a situation to rephrase that "the Church REALLY ISN'T a mission organization": the Church does not exist to save men, or see them saved, that is, the activities of its members, but is rather a congregation gathered by the Lord God, for His pleasure, to worship Him, to be a peculiar people, separate, Holy, pleasing, and "the great commission", perhaps meriting the excision of "the" to remove it from the principle place in men's minds, is but one function: I say "but one" because of the pervertedness of "mission", "evangelism", "gospel" in our age: if they were not so, if the world were not so loved, then I would have to write differently: the gospel indeed is something about which the Church is to gather, because it is precisely what tells of and points to Christ: fail to gather around and declare the gospel, fail to gather around and feast on Jesus Christ. But again, what must be emphasized are the proper placements, the order: it is spoken of today as a thing for men to go out doing in God's name, but the the savior is God, not men, and the purpose of the Church is the corporate worship of God, not scheming to reach men: the Church does not exist to ensure men saved, it is the habitation of those who are, and to really throw a punch at this though--though urging remembrance that it is due to the dire and twisted age we live in--its function as means to reach men might be said to be but ancillary: quote the end of Matthew all ye want, that was said to His apostles, and while their commissioning is bequeathed to all who believe, they must remember the gathering is for the Lord and His sheep.<br />
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The sense are all wrong in our day, because millions have been gathered in wrongly and mistaught: the churches--gatherings indeed but not of Christ, despite ostensible reasons--now exist to serve the unregenerate, those who can't even worship, those who can't continue walking aright without many programs and devices, and many adjustments to definitions and senses of scripture to claim and thinking (in willful ignorance) that despite all the evidence, because they have prayed for Jesus, they are "the Lord's", or saved: they are, however, the Lord's--as objects of wrath, at enmity with Him, though delusional to think otherwise. The mistake regarding these things is that they are made to be about the world, a humanitarian good-cause, a GREAT cause--astoundingly large, colossal, and so seen by many as worthy because it's big rather than trivial, but it was called "the great commission" because it's scope is universal--to go to every nation and tribe; a bit in the gospel so missed by those enamored with saving men, rather than obeying Christ and seeking to live ordinary, or "quiet and peaceable" lives as commanded, is that small things indeed matter: forsake them for the grand, and you will fail in that as well. <br />
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More men come to get men saved than they do to be saved from sin, because they need direction, purpose, meaning in life: it becomes yet another secularly spirited cause-based purpose for living, something to give meaning, to guide one's actions, rather than being led by the Spirit of God, often not so rewardingly, given His leading is to make one forsake sin, and become Holy: to obey God, irregardless of how grand one's works seem. <br />
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Likewise, more come for the meaning in whatever form, perhaps a more moral, therefore fulfilling, life. <br />
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Men come for the promise of blessing, in the temporal sphere, to have a satisfying life. "Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control", but these are left out of their context of hardship (the "straight" before "road" is related to "hard" and notoriously difficult to translate), "tribulation" (which means "suffering--the kind we don't wish to endure) on account of Christ--indeed according to Him perhaps moreoften at the hands of those who will claim God (right then at His time) and then Him ("the many", "who will reproach you") than necessarily at the hands of secular or other-religious authorities (though they are definitely included in that practice): for the lamp on a stand shines brightly in the dark most evidently among those who know something about the truth, than those who cynically answer upon hearing "the truth", like Pilot, "what is truth". <br />
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God did not come to give men a mission in life, a wonderful plan in which as men freed from sin they can realize their dreams, or even to enslave them as followers to self-appointed leaders in the Church who demand obeisance as their right, as the will of God, shouting "obey your leaders", and not explaining either the meaning of "obey" from Greek, or the context of that verse. Christ Jesus came to save sinners, to save them not from its consequences per se, but from that which begets those consequences, not the death and destruction they beget in this life per se, but the death they merit at the hands of an infuriated God who is Holy, who is Just, but who is not loath to visit wickedness with its due simply as a matter of principle that a good man must uphold, as the modern evansmellical kingdom likes to portend to remove offense from the gospel. <br />
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We are indeed to do all for the advance of God's kingdom: but principally for God's glory, because His honor is at stake: in His coming was planned a sacrifice to save men, but we must remember also that Jesus quite explicitly said the purpose of all He did was to glorify the Father: He came, sinners to save, but to glorify the Father: it is the glory of God that is the high goal, not the saving of men which is the wonderful evincement of the riches of His mercies, the which reveals his wondrous love and how great are His mercy--to His glory. Men squeal in scorn at hearing this, that the end in view is God's glory--and not as the modern Christian often says "to God's glory', but really to His glory; they squeal, "God the narcissist", but of course such is a grave misunderstanding, because narcissism is a self-focus, whereas God, King of Kings, is preparing a whole nation to worship Him, and He exists as separate persons in the same being: perhaps a slightly more accurate blasphemy would be to call Him an "attention whore", but the reality is He is the only One in all of Heaven and Earth deserving of every attention and affection, and also demands love toward neighbor, and defines such as intrinsic to loving Him: He even condescended to become a man, and live among men, and proclaim a salvation for wicked man, and give them such attention as a very man that it is written that He can sympathize with our sorrows and travails in this life.<br />
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Irregardless of the scorn, however, that is heaped upon His name, in the end He has promised, "every knee will bow".<br />
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<br />a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-68841868377662086862012-03-17T20:46:00.000-07:002012-03-17T20:46:38.479-07:00A Wonderful Piece of PoemI heard much of a poem recited by Sonja Sohn on an interview with NPR, here is a wonderful excerpt from "Run Free":<br />
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<blockquote><em>You can give birth to an excuse so easily, you'll believe it's always been there. Part of the natural order, made to order by your forever clever mind, constantly protecting you against things you no longer need to be protected from</em>...and i believe. i believe like a holly roller singing sweating preaching go tell it on the mountain speaking in twenty different tongues while diving in ten thousand feet of baptismal water without a life preserver. i believe like my bullet-ridden brother out there somewhere right now gurgling blood through his last breath, spitting out a red ripe prayer so new so sweet so baby fresh so full of truths he thinks it can save his life. Brutal honesty won't knock down the doors of heaven, but it'll damn sure crash the gates of hell.<sup>[1]</sup> (Italics original.)</blockquote><br />
<br />
What stood out to me was the last line I quote, <br />
<br />
<blockquote>Brutal honesty won't knock down the doors of heaven, but it'll damn sure crash the gates of hell.</blockquote><br />
<br />
Given other content of the poem, and given rhetoric proposed for the movie "Slam", about finding "light", and so forth, through personal tenacity and creativity and rising above, I think of Voegelin's critique of the symbol usurped by modern ideology, but emptied of its context and substance, and becoming therefore dangerous, and I doubt the weighty significance of my favorite linejust given is understood by the author of this work for the eternal significance of such terms, and another figure comes to mind, Socrates, and his infamous "apology" in which he speaks of the poets,<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote>After this I went to one man after another, being not unconscious of the enmity which I provoked, and I lamented and feared this: but necessity was laid upon me - the word of God, I thought, ought to be considered first. And I said to myself, Go I must to all who appear to know, and find out the meaning of the oracle. And I swear to you, Athenians, by the dog I swear! - for I must tell you the truth - the result of my mission was just this: I found that the men most in repute were all but the most foolish; and that some inferior men were really wiser and better. I will tell you the tale of my wanderings and of the "Herculean" labors, as I may call them, which I endured only to find at last the oracle irrefutable. When I left the politicians, I went to the poets; tragic, dithyrambic, and all sorts. And there, I said to myself, you will be detected; now you will find out that you are more ignorant than they are. Accordingly, I took them some of the most elaborate passages in their own writings, and asked what was the meaning of them - thinking that they would teach me something. Will you believe me? I am almost ashamed to speak of this, but still I must say that there is hardly a person present who would not have talked better about their poetry than they did themselves. That showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them. And the poets appeared to me to be much in the same case; and I further observed that upon the strength of their poetry they believed themselves to be the wisest of men in other things in which they were not wise. So I departed, conceiving myself to be superior to them for the same reason that I was superior to the politicians.<br />
--Apology by Plato, Translated by Benjamin Jowett, retrieved 2012-03-17 21:13PMST http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/apology.html</blockquote><br />
I must be clear, however, I don't doubt that these words are meaningful to the author; they are not, actually, significant only to her: they are quite clear to this reader as well. I know the religious symbols and milieu she describes personally. They are very concrete, and reflect her history. The brother gurgling blood certainly is: she spoke in her interview of her brother who was, sadly, gunned down. I have a former step-brother in prison right now, possibly for life after trials take place, and through him exposure to culture rather similar to that she describes growing up in; even hell as a metaphor here is certainly fitting, as the environment she speaks of growing up in was pretty bad, and perhaps she speaks of contending with it and the mindsets and excuses and things which caused herself and those around her to create and haunt such a milieu: I say create, for my brother certainly did not grow up in a ghetto, but he and those he associated with, through influence of pop and hip-hop cultures, certainly created something like it, and crime and violence, and dissolution: and their own misery--without being born into disadvantages like as those suffered by people who occupy famous "hoods".<br />
<br />
<br />
<small>[1] retrieved 2012-03-17 from http://books.google.com/books?id=6liXPQphOXUC&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=You+can+give+birth+to+an+excuse+so+easily,+you'll+believe+it's+always+been+there.+Part+of+the+natural+order,+made+to+order+by+your+forever+clever+mind,+constantly+protecting+you+against+things+you+no+longer+need+to+be+protected+from&source=bl&ots=MECpBNG46A&sig=Gp4WRkIiJLS8jEx8_L7oIlMsS9w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ClNlT-HQOZKDsgL4ruG2Dw&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=You%20can%20give%20birth%20to%20an%20excuse%20so%20easily%2C%20you'll%20believe%20it's%20always%20been%20there.%20Part%20of%20the%20natural%20order%2C%20made%20to%20order%20by%20your%20forever%20clever%20mind%2C%20constantly%20protecting%20you%20against%20things%20you%20no%20longer%20need%20to%20be%20protected%20from&f=false</small>a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-1110573310201066212012-02-17T22:01:00.000-08:002012-06-03T01:15:32.195-07:00Baptism (or Ordeal) in Anguish<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/41GPCKc1rmM" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
Addition, 2012-06-03: I wonder where this man's preaching would have gone had he continued to live. A Assemblis of God-Pentecostal who turned into someone beginning to warn against...the manifestations of Pentecostalism (which Pentacostalists have always taken as signs of the Spirit, marking them as the true church--at least at one point, etc.), false teaching and teachers; that sorrow for sin was missing in the churches, that they wanted the hand of God and what it could give, but not He who gives and holds... I wonder whether this preacher would have been reformed by the Spirit of God ever more from the errors and excesses of his background, and made to urge ever further his hearers to discernment, real repentance, true truth, a pure faith, unmixed conduct, and so forth, or whether for mixture and blunders on his own part whether he would have been, by increasing focus on such things, dangerous himself. I wonder... <a href="http://truedsicernment.com/2007/07/20/david-wilkerson-blasts-faith-preachers/" target="blank">http://truedsicernment.com/2007/07/20/david-wilkerson-blasts-faith-preachers/</a>a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-62166565899668052272012-02-17T15:12:00.000-08:002012-02-17T15:16:40.597-08:00Reading the comments about caregiving agencies...online I have found negative reviews about agencies, frequently complaining with statements like "the caregiver they sent was stealing things".<br />
<br />
I moved to a relative's house in order to provide care and oversight because she has Alzheimer's, and lost my job because of it, which means I have had plenty of time to observe and interact with someone with Alzheimer's (and look for work, given that everybody wants you to apply online these days, and some still accept faxes; once employed again she'll have to be watched by her sister and maybe niece, both nearby). <br />
<br />
Pretty much daily she accuses me of stealing her fanny pack, which she hides when we return home thinking people are after her money, and then can't find on the hook she consistently put her fanny packs on for around ten years (probably more). Today I learned from the words of her mouth that until my arrival she did just fine for years with her "six" cats (there are and have only been four cats in my presence), but "since you came I've lost two": each day she fights over the cats being unfed and starving, demanding food or demanding we go get some: we have around four 24-packs in the house of wet kitty food, and they are each fed half a can per meal twice a day with dry food between and overnight, but she can't remember ever doing this--often within minutes of feeding them, with fresh food in the dishes on the floor, and a just-emptied can in her hand, she starts demanding cans of food, and proclaiming, "but the food on the floor is this morning's/last night's! Besides the fanny pack, her teapot covers, the can openers (and frankly just about anything) goes missing randommly, often unfindably despite perhaps three family members pouring over her house, only to reappear later and inexplicably.<br />
<br />
Early on we learned from her, or I should say from other people who she talked to I learned, there is another man in the basement who keeps her hostage, and then one who is sweet, nice, helpful, and so on. From a neighbor who came of "concern" I learned that, apparently, I have been bringing two young women into the house and taking them downstairs. <br />
<br />
As far as men go, there is actually just me. So apparently I am a animal-starving sweet schizophrenic kidnapping kleptomaniac who the world would count as one of the luckiest guys ever, though (I would have to say for the last bit) still under the curse of God. <br />
<br />
And the best part? When she says these things (and she does believe them certainly) she seems completely normal, witty, able to converse. There are many times she is not, and anybody who sees her will often notice how frail she is, but without extensive interaction and being there to know better, one might actually believe it, and never be the wiser. Her sister is just down the road, and we see her almost every day, and she comes to visit (or vice versa), and frankly my family knows me, so they know better. But this relative of mine was not some pathological, paranoid, delusional liar, who would make such things up about people, and from what bits of input she is able to retain about the world, and inferences she is able to make, and interpretative powers left to her, one can probably be certain there is no ill intent.<br />
<br />
"The hostage taker", for example, may be due to the fact that even when she has her keys in her hand staring at them, she often does not recognize her house key. If she just takes them out as she approaches the door from outside, she will often use it: so long as she does so by feel, and not looking at it to determine which is which (or in other words, this tends to mean she only ever unlocks the door to get inside when we are returning in the dark and the porch light is not on). She has repeatedly accused me and the family of taking her keys (the ones we did are to the car, because she has lost her license, but would not accept it when she did, and does not remember now that she did: when she does, she calls neighbors and acquaintances and friends telling them she has never been seen by a specialist to be properly and thoroughly evaluated! Though she has. And then notices that I have one (a copy), so semi-regularly, when by some miracle she is up very early and feeling ambitious, I get an early wake-up knock to come unlock the door so she can let the dog out (she has a deadbolt with no knob) and then demands "I want a set of keys for my own home, I'm getting tired of this!" (Not repeating the ritual of coming for help, which she can't remember, but that she keeps finding herself unable to find (recognize) her keys). <br />
<br />
The extra cats? She often looks for "the other" Fluffy, a cat she had when my mother was a teenager (and which the identically appearing and acting female she has is named after). I am guessing the other she is looking for either is one who was named Morris, and looked like a bigger version of her "Charlie", or the one named "DeWitta", whose "personality" and manner is just like that of Charlie. <br />
<br />
But speculations aside, she is not rational. Glib, ordinary banter and gossip won't give it away. Try explaining, however, that the mail-order price reduction offer on a pendant from such and such company must be mailed in, even after she recognizes that (for some reason) she needs the postage paid return envelope to use it, must be mailed and cannot be taken to a store to be used, and she will insist we still go to the store to check. <br />
<br />
"They don't have one".<br />
"Let's go!!!"<br />
"Which one [name]."<br />
"Let's just go to it!!!"<br />
<br />
Most times people today do not converse deeply, which means they do not argue, but merely comment and opine, adding to the "conversation" and smarminess, so someone like my relative is not going to be found out by outsiders without demanding detail that must be verified, or stating something convincingly, or asking her to strain herself a bit with an unfamiliar (so difficult) concept or thought, and then competently talk about and criticize it. This is not good: it is why she was almost able to starve herself to death before anyone realized something was the matter (you would be surprised how long someone can go without eating before changing appearance, and then only suddenly and rapidly losing weight). I said "detail that must be verified", by the way, because ask her details about the prior day, and she may fill you in completely (wrongly, and not knowing any better). With that comment on the poverty of the ever-"communicating" generation aside...<br />
<br />
The whole point of all of this is, that if you have a relative with a disease like this, get involved, and don't farm all the work out to someone else: we get that you're busy, get over it and change your life. People like this need your help, and some poor Joe or Sally you hire for assistance and would fire for false accusation and bring thereby into ill-diserved disrepute really might be working to help, which is not to say that there are not bad caregivers out there and that you should not be careful, it's just I kept stumbling on the "s/he was stealing so we fired him/her; don't hire from these people" accusers who, interestingly enough, often consist of people who are not overly involved with their "loved" ones that are afflicted with conditions like this.<br />
<br />
If you give a dang about someone in need, being busy or occupied with "more important things" are not realities (if true at all) that you will use to excuse yourself from coming to their aid, and that as long as necessary for whatever cost. If you are a caregiver, beware, as these things will come up, especially from someone growing paranoid and unable to reason, limited, losing their independence (rightfully due to incompetence, and probably before a declaration thereof if the diagnoses and extent of care I have seen from the doctors towards my relative are indicative of the modern medical ethos), and needing someone to blame (don't think for a moment they will accept explanations that they are having real issues, as many probably will not): perhaps be prepared to become a fixation for blame. <br />
<br />
And then remember, however, suffering, loss, and giving in the provision of need towards those who require it, God requires of all men and women everywhere. Don't forsake such endeavors just for difficulty or danger. Don't lose heart.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-47392807629114783672012-02-11T21:17:00.000-08:002012-02-11T21:17:21.181-08:00Here I am.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-53225400466657239272012-02-10T22:37:00.000-08:002012-02-10T22:48:38.144-08:00If they were watered...Rick Warren twits, <br />
<blockquote><div class="UIImageBlock_Content UIImageBlock_MED_Content fsm fwn fcg"><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"><b><a href="http://twitter.com/RickWarren/status/167681645896417281" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter / Rick Warren: Stop expecting someone els</a></b>e to take responsibility for your growth."</div></div></blockquote><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage"></div><div class="mts uiAttachmentDesc translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage">Maybe if the so-called pastors actually preached the word, not about the word, not the word adorning their ideas, not the word in bits useful to their visions, not the word + their ideas, not the word + spices like adulterated wine, and not the word merely in hopes of growing numbers, but feeding sheep, then maybe, maybe the sheep would grow rather than wither and die in malnourishment and poisoning, trampled underfoot by the mobs brought in without a white gown and christened and assured falsely because of which the word of God is blasphemed while they mistake it for persecution for Christ's sake, and maybe then we could say that one plants, and the other waters, and of course then they would grow, that is, those who are sheep, while the numbers would shrink, with the false brethren being driven away by the stench of death which is the breath of life to all those being saved by God's intention.<br />
<br />
And Hallelujah if it was unlike your teaching, trying to keep people from going out the back door when they do for all the right reasons, whether because they are not of His fold, or not regenerate yet, or because the preacher is a hireling, and not His undershepherd, no matter how influential, loved or interesting to the world, shocking, or massively followed, and they were driven out the front door, so that congregations of the dead--that were never alive, can be left that way, those given to Christ would be driven out to leave the dead to bury the dead; live Churches could be purged, whether by driving the false who blot their worship out, or converting them to new creatures, removing the stain, or even getting them who are genuine s voted out along with the true shepherds (perhaps in the name of discipline, and unity, and keeping peace "fort Christ"!) so they no longer need fret and morn in confusion at the disobedience that now passes for the way, or liberty, or Christian, and give thanks to God, and expose the counterfeits. <br />
<br />
Maybe you haven't heard, but pastors are responsible for their flocks, and if not for growth, then they are, as was mentioned, for the things prerequisite to it.<br />
<br />
Frankly, to the Warrenses of the world, someone else <i>is</i> responsible for the growth, whereas the sheep do nothing but hear Christ's voice, and word--the Father's, and follow, and abide, and that someone, is, <i>GOD</i>.</div>a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-57030910882865122422012-02-10T22:20:00.000-08:002012-02-10T22:57:56.148-08:00Dialogues & Conversations<center>The following are interesting projects and sites, and not necessarily religious or irreligious. Links thereto is in no way intended to endorse or imply endorsement, agreement, or approbation thereof.</center><br />
<br />
<a href="http://goodmenproject.com/" target="blank">The Good Men Project</a><small> (Will for the moment avoid commenting on the assumptions underlying the name and project.)</small><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<small>Time of original publication is set back by twenty minutes to make fall below another post of that day.</small>a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-26844672850422217942012-02-04T11:14:00.001-08:002012-02-04T11:20:40.857-08:00On fashion...<div><p>My aunt and I are agreed: looks like a blanket with sleeves. I suppose inspiration is taken from the transition between togas and shirts. She disapproves, I'm undecided.</p>
<p>(pic to be reoriented later at a real computer with complete software functionality: would that KDE or Gnome ran on Android)</p>
<br/><img src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/-1udQ9f319DQ/Ty2Dq9H4tbI/AAAAAAAAAGc/NqMYWTdGc64/2012-02-04%25252012.06.58.png' /></div>a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-43158382397918559412012-02-03T16:45:00.000-08:002012-02-03T16:45:34.695-08:00Changelog2012/02/03 - Added "On the Mortification of Sin in Believers" by John Owen to "<a href="http://aguyblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/resources-food-for-sheep.html">Sheepfood</a>".a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-71776147317166194562012-02-02T20:36:00.000-08:002012-02-02T21:09:56.448-08:00Strange Resonance: Uppity Reformed vs. Gospel, and Jesuits vs. FranciscansI have this weakness for comparisons, especially when evoked unexpectedly by one thing or another that does not seem comparable, but something about the materials juxtaposed resonate:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>Tuesday, 20 July 2010<br />
<h2>Social class or the Gospel: pick only one (part 1)...</h2><br />
(Tim: This article originally appeared in ClearNote Fellowship's newsletter. If you'd like to be added to our mailing list, please send us an e-mail.)<br />
<br />
Each time we sat under the ministry of our much-loved Iain Murray at the old Banner of Truth conferences, the Bayly brothers could predict at some point during the Q & A sessions Murray would strike a plaintive note, asking, “Why is there no evangelism in Reformed churches?” After a while, we realized it wasn’t a question, but a lament.<br />
<br />
No one ever suggested he was wrong. The question brought on a guilty silence.<br />
<br />
But if Reformed congregations don’t have new births, why aren’t our churches dying? Some pollsters even say the Reformed slice of the conservative Christian pie is growing. Doesn’t this prove Reformed men have changed their priorities and are giving themselves to evangelism--that we're all missional, today?<br />
<br />
Sadly not. Our converts have simply moved up the social register. To keep our pews filled, we depend upon men and women raised in Christian homes getting their graduate degree and trading in their parents’ Arminian church for a more respectable Reformed congregation...<br />
<br />
The Wesleyan or Southern Baptist moves up to Presbyterian. And there in his new Presbyterian church, our convert finds the accoutrements of his new social class wonderfully reassuring. It’s the church’s zip code, the minister’s Genevan gown or collar, the frequent repetition of those peaceful words ‘providence’ and ‘sovereignty,’ the high priority placed on the education of the congregation’s Covenant children, the preacher’s thoughtful message and splendid vocabulary, and of course the high classical style of music.<br />
<br />
There's a quote I'm fond of that does a good job of summarizing that genre of books and articles that argues these matters of taste aren't taste at all, but doctrinal orthodoxy: "All an Englishman's preferences are a matter of principle." The quote is best pulled off with a fist hitting the table to emphasize that word 'principle.'<br />
<br />
So are there any preferences in Reformed preaching and worship, or is it all principle?<br />
<br />
Thinking class-wise, Reformed church culture is easily understood through the lens of the aversion to risk characteristic of the upper-middle class. Our converts don’t take pride in the foolishness of the Cross so much as the wisdom of Calvin and their senior pastor’s earned doctorate from somewhere across the pond.<br />
<br />
But this is to flip on its head the focus of the Reformers who, recalling the Apostles were “uneducated and untrained men” (But this is to flip on its head the focus of the Reformers who, recalling the Apostles were “uneducated and untrained men” (Acts 4:13), boldly returned the text of Scripture and the liturgy of worship to the vernacular—what was then called “the vulgar tongue.”--retrieved 2012/02/02 from <a href="http://www.baylyblog.com/2010/07/tim-each-time-we-sat-under-the-ministry-of-our-much-loved-iain-murray-at-a-banner-of-truth-conference-the-bayly-brothers-c.html" target="blank">http://www.baylyblog.com/2010/07/tim-each-time-we-sat-under-the-ministry-of-our-much-loved-iain-murray-at-a-banner-of-truth-conference-the-bayly-brothers-c.html</a></blockquote><br />
cf. the following, which also speaks of preferences of where minds, eyes, and hands are present or employed<br />
<br />
<blockquote>The Jesuits had sought to carry out their missionary activities within the framework of Japanese society and social values. They associated primarily with the upper classes, with a view to working their way down. The Franciscans were suspicious of the Jesuit approach. They were much less well informed concerning conditions in Japan and also much less discreet in their work.<sup>[1]</SUP> Instead of associating with the samurai, the Franciscans worked among the poor and forgotten, the sick and miserable, those at the very bottom of society. The Jesuits did not diguise their contempt for the ignorance and poverty of the Franciscans, the "crazy friars" <i>(frailes idiotas)</i> as they called them, and these sentiments were heartily reciprocated by the friars, who scoffed at Jesuit pretensions. -- p.137, "A Brief History of Japanese Civilization" by Conrad Schirokauer, (C)1993 Harcourt, Inc.</blockquote><br />
--<br />
<br />
<sup>1</SUP>Betrays the author's views on approaches. Material preceding explains the delicate political arrangements and balance of power in Japan with great instability and how the Jesuits, wanting to ensure access to their market, and aware that other foreign religions (e.g. Buddhism) were disfavored/persecuted/outlawed, sought to make themselves gratae by ingratiation with the higher classes, in a sort of religious trickle-down theory by which they could both introduce and encourage a foreign faith but do so without opposition or being banned.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-15658802677937378422012-02-01T22:41:00.000-08:002012-02-01T22:41:07.318-08:00Experimental Faith: Analogies from Alzheimer's[The original idea was something of a little journal entry, the sort I put in text files rather than to paper. So please forgive the rough writing, especially features like pronomial "such" and suches, chains of thought, and whatever other features or hard-to-read narrative that was not originally meant for an audience, but as personal reflection; some adjustments were made to my file after initially writing for reading by others, but not really in attempt to ease things. I just thought my experiences might benefit or encourage some other Christian out there, some day, if put online, where it becomes available for any who might search: I have benefited so much from material others have put online that I thought I might also share something. I apologize for its roughness; more benefit might be possible if it were integrated with more explicit statements or names of theological doctrines, Christian teachings, and so on, but then I might have a book rather than overlong blog entry; maybe some day I will heavily edit this and expand on the experience with more explicit benefit to fellow Christians in mind, but before so doing I think I would ask for heavy investigation and checking by sound pastors of the material. I leave searching the Scriptures, therefore, as a layman, and husband to no one, to the reader or readers.]<br />
<br />
I have meant to begin setting to record anologies to Christian religion with the experience here with my great aunt, but have been occupied with other matters.<br />
<br />
She is reduced somewhat by Alzheimer's, though sometimes imperceptibly to any who do not company long with her. In a respect therefore, she could be likened to fleshly but ordinary man, seemingly living, going about his daily affairs and pursuing his own ends without really being a nuisance or harm to anybody. She is, however, utterly dependent on outside oversight and intervention to last long, to not starve to death, or starve her animals, whether by forgetting where food is, or continuously feeding them until food runs out, or by re-mixing old food into the new, such that the only choices to the animals are either starve or eat the poison: betwixt them I found they will first choose starvation than consume the concoctions she would produce: would that sinful man and Christians could discern unmixed from mixed teaching, <strike>that</strike>what is true from perverted truth, just as the cats detect soiled meat. She herself, before my arrival, may have been eating, in the rare event she fed herself, spoiled food, and unaware: I found bags and bags of it, and on occasion she does suddenly and uncharacteristically begin making herself something, yet when she does I must go check and ensure it is not some morsel of spoilage that I overlooked or which was hidden so I was unaware--sometimes it is. It is a bitter experience because of recognizing, in the past, suddenly all that I had held dear and participated in with others, to be largely spoiled and deceiving, and harmful not only to myself, and to relationship with God, but to others I had held it all with, and to theirs. I have tried saying so to some of them, and some are willing, when I have time, to sit down and hear; others have in the past become offended or renounced discernment of the type or things being criticized; others have not responded to pleas and outreach, or for one reason or another, will no longer communicate.<br />
<br />
The situation here can be likened to the spiritual dynamic between the preacher of life and the dead hearer. Despite her utter dependence, incompetence, and inability, she does not know otherwise, and when in any wise she should momentarily perceive other she burgeons with pride and protests that another should be doing something for her, 'treating her like an idiot', "like I'm stupid", "an invalid", and so forth, though no one is being other than gracious, loving, and so forth, (with occasional lost tempers gone with patience within the family that are quickly apologized for and solaced with hugs); tell her that she is indeed "losing some (a gracious understatement) memory" and she becomes irritated if not angry that she is 'being accused of being an imbecile' (or an idiot, or stupid, etc.). Likewise, the dead hearer of the good news, commanded to faith and repentance---obedience unto God turning from sin in sorrow or grief at his wickedness finally understood and repented of, not merely for the potential fiery consequences or the losses incurred in consequence of sin over a lifetime, but for truly despising hating sin as evil and fearful of losing the only good, who is God, because of it, and sorry for the hurt caused Him, not a turning unto Him for the benefits of a moral and nobler life, or any other thing but these--is not willful to believe and understand contrary his wicked nature and protests in anger, resentment, or mockery the word preached, unless God drags him unto Christ. Her condition is analogous to this, though on the physical level, as her degredation mixed with personal pride prevents her from accepting the truth of her condition like the nature of wicked or depraved man directs his will to reject the word of God.<br />
<br />
Those with Alzheimer's are often found in a state of childishness--some outright, I have read, bluntly state things like "we all know people with this condition become children" (a forum for caregivers and families of people so afflicted)--or become like children, not so much in that significance mistakenly attached in the romantic and idealic modernity in which we live, that is of innocence, but as before, childishness: immaturity and increasing (rather than, as is the ideal for children who are growing physically but also mentally, decreasing) difficulty in understanding sound words given them, whether in counsel, or merely a truth to correct a misunderstanding, like this fact, "the cats are not hungry but have been fed four times already, once just ten minutes ago, by you". The situation can be likened to the spiritual dynamic between the genuine shepherd of Jesus Christ and the ignorant and proud sheep. Despite her loss of competence and ability, she is unaware that there is someone of greater insight and understanding, knowing things she does not, right beside her, and telling her out of love, not to deceive, defraud, or enslave her, but for her own good and preservation, and protection both from herself and from others (she would have had nearly new windows all replaced by now, responded to countless scam letters, etc.). She thinks otherwise, however, and lashes out.[1]<br />
<br />
The same sort of scenario can also be considered like unto when deceived Christians, or those deluded to think they are Christians but who have accepted some other doctrine than Christ's which is a counterfeit of that genuine, are told of concern and for love of the truth that they evince the signs of ingenuineness and need a talking to, or to hear and repent, or at the very least carefully scrutinize themselves, and if they still bear those marks, receive sound instruction and counsel to come unto repentance, a situation not rare, I'm afraid, in our day though it has probably never been, albeit probably worse in our day than ever with the mass mediatizing of gospels and christs and fads and programs and church brands and cults and heretical denominations and associations and movements and exploded and unprecedent population in the world.[2]<br />
<br />
The analogy is more fitting to sinful man than the ordinary child on the one hand in this, that she is still in full possession and recognition that she is not a child, but a woman who has lived a remarkable if not extraordinary life; an extended one, with much of which she might boast if given opportunity. On the other, to the immature Christian in need of discipline and oversight, because exactly those things she does require; or to the willfully ignorant and rebellious, or deluded, though inexactly, because she is now ignorant, and it will only increase (most likely), in becoming rebellious, and is deluded, sadly, because of her condition and the pride remaining in her heart.<br />
<br />
Which leads to another consideration. I have heard my entire life that we ought know ourselves, and I agree: I agree to the extent I am permitted to warn people that such is possible only in the light of knowing God, and with greater precision, of knowing the biblical Christ who is God and man, but not sinful, fallen man, but rather what man ought to be; not ethical hippy Jesus, but sinless, irreproachable, unsearchably perfect and otherwise Jesus. The Jesus his own disciples could hardly come to grips with until after His death, resurrection, and subsequent explanation of the Scriptures to them after all those things shattered their own hopes and expectations for what Messiah should be or do in the world when first come. Insofar as it is preached we ought know ourselves to love ourselves, assert ourselves, realize ourselves, be independent, and so forth, I disagree.<br />
<br />
I disagree for it is a spirit of pride which I have for a while, though I cannot quite remember as of writing when I started, seen as contrary to the poorness of Spirit characteristic of the righteous, also the mark of a true Christian in Jesus, not mere humility or brokeness, as many are humiliated or broken in this world, but in which their eyes are really set on the true God and not some vain imagining concocted to make the one whose name is I AM acceptable to themselves, to be believable so they may obtain salvation, or make a better more humanitarian and moral world, within reach of their own hope. Such knowing of the self is not knowing either of God or man as one ought to know, and probably the mark of unbelief irregardless whether a man professes to know Him.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I disagree even more strongly now that a woman who has known herself so well and so thoroughly for so long, vindicates herself tirelessly from "accusation" of "being an imbecile" when just told "sometimes you really do put the fannie pack in places other than where you are used to fetching it, because of forgetting, but don't worry, we'll help you find it" with "I DO NOT. I SHOULD KNOW. I KNOW MYSELF!!!" Or the same with regards cats already being fed, "THEY HAVE NOT. I HAVE BEEN FEEDING THEM FOR YEARS..." and whatever other situation one might encounter with her, and try to be truthful, sincere, and loving in explanation.<br />
<br />
In dealing with someone like this, (besides some other deep losses of opportunities and openings foregone for belief and obedience in life), one also gains a greater sense and understanding of how costly selflessness can be, and what it really means: there is not much relationship here, what you do for someone today will likely not be remembered tomorrow, if five minutes later. Give a book or make a purchase of something she likes, takes a liking to, sets her sights upon, and in which for a moment she has a little joy, or when she comes upon it later, she might have joy again? Expect not to be remembered. Expect only, as the one who is near, to be the object of accusation and consternation; the one "hiding" or "hoarding" and therefore "preventing me from feeding my cats [read, babies]"; the one "stealing", or "taking jokes of hiding too far", "my fannie pack"; the one who "took my house and car keys" (though she has just lost them, or doesn't recognize them when held in her hand with her eyes looking right at them), and on an on...because I am here.<br />
<br />
In part it is a brutal and tiresome lesson. Altogether, however, is a little bit of insight, from experience gained such that it becomes intuitive and known closely at heart, understood sensitively rather than just sterily in mind, by these analogies into some of what Scripture is talking about; some of what must be the relation and similar misunderstandings, and ignorant foolishness of man toward God who is a loving benefactor and kind keeper of His special possession. Biblical themes are constantly in front of my eyes as I interact with my aunt, deign to even silly demands, try to explain as she accuses but in vain, begin to do all I can for her help even as she yells "I never put my fannie there, I know it's not there" as I search to find it, or whatever, for her; withhold things like cat food so she does not bring them harm from overfeeding in the stead of caring for her beloved pets.<br />
<br />
One of the analogies possible is of Jesus' command not to store up treasures on earth, or seek reward or recognition here (for which I had to do some thinking about whether or not to post this online, and consider out of what motives I do); I mentioned how one can expect to have no recognition, and not be remembered for anything done by her. There is, in fact, little relationship: there is to be sure something--once while leaving her with my grandmother for errands (who is nearby in town, very good since I am required at the moment to seek employment and must be able to take it at the moment any is offered by an employer) she became quite consternated that I was leaving: she cried, "who is going to take me out or home?!" It was as though she was about to be left alone, even with two other people right beside her--even if yesterday and the months before have all gone, and my name, somehow she recognizes dependence in some things, some times, if not for understanding incapability, at least because of legal necessity--there are days with rants about her keys and license being unjustly taken away, and without examination of her by specialists, though nones of these assertions is true, but simply put, she has forgotten it all.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Most importantly, I recognize how I am not God, or rather, how very separate from and other than God mere man is. I have lost a lot because of coming here to help; losing even more opportunity, but am pursuing obedience to love as Christ loves: she is a widow and needy; she would be dead by now if not for the intervention. I am, however, tired. I can lose my temper and have to walk away so as not to sin. I am unable to convince her most of the time of anything, because her condition prevents it. My love is imperfect, as is any man's, such that I have continuously to fight selfishness, or remind myself that even other, important things that I want or have to do, might have to be put on hold as she is here and needs me right now. I am overall powerless to do much more than making sure she has food for the belly, ensure she takes her medication, washes stitches, gets her house cleaned some, has and does not overfeed or mis-feed the cats, gets taken to socials or groups or events she likes, or ferried to stores she might wish to tread; it is impossible for me to heal or do much about her condition; anything one might do, perhaps getting someone like this to become very active for the neural benefits it bequeaths, requires her cooperation; I need help in all this, have to rely and call on family, and still need more assistance all the time; it is very lonely. God, on the other hand, does not grow weary, even though He rested; He does not tire or ever fail in perfect love, (love being the doing, and working all things towards, the good of the objects of His love); He does not require the hand of any man, nor takes any counsel from him; He does not need man's cooperation in anything, though He might choose to use men either against their wills or to use men in whom He has authored faith and grown obedience such that by the indwelling Spirit of Jesus Christ they cooperate with Him.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-8817278343006937912012-01-30T20:20:00.000-08:002012-01-30T20:20:43.416-08:00A rough, untitled poemIt's not that I need something better than this<br />
but what's right in the first place for my twist<br />
of the truth in my heart to make it accomodate<br />
all of the passions and affections to be sated<br />
in the darkness of elation with what is hated<br />
by the God Most High in all His Holiness, wonder<br />
at the state of man who betrays with a kiss, not<br />
bowing down in horror and reverence in confrontation<br />
whence he ought to be convicted and sorrow in regret<br />
not at what he has lost or what he might lose,<br />
or what he might gain here, but that he does not choose<br />
what is good in the sight of the one who is Truth<br />
the hard road promised by He whom it behooved<sup>1</sup>, to show<br />
utter love out of goodness with mercies in grace<br />
unto those Him rejected and nailed to that stake.<br />
<br />
<sup>1</sup><small><a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=behoof&allowed_in_frame=0" target="blank">"taking up (for oneself)."</a><br />
<br />
<strike><br />
at the state of the man who doesn't kiss his feet<br />
<br />
when he ought to be convicted and sorrow in regret<br />
<br />
the hard road promised by He whom it behooved to show</strike></small>a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-10433704623862773422012-01-21T13:56:00.000-08:002012-01-21T13:56:13.558-08:00A Modest Proposal<div>Anyone who titles <a href="http://m.denverpost.com/denverpost/db_/contentdetail.m?contentguid=cpwo9klQ" target="blank">an essay</a> with "A Modest Proposal" in part or whole and proceeds in attempt to persuade men with seriousness of reason shows an indubitable fault in <a href="http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/%7Ejlynch/Texts/modest.html" target="blank">literary education</a>.</div>a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-62550775982540290802012-01-20T21:47:00.000-08:002012-01-20T21:47:01.431-08:00A Perspective on EducationPerspective: Self-study often means poverty and lack of good pressures and oversight. It also means no need to please other men in your conclusions, however. For formal education is conformity, and education that is not formal, is not worth paying for; that which is not structured and rigorous, can be accomplished without the oversight from authorities worth paying. Education has always been a field of standards, and not infrequently standards that have little to do with things like truth, and more concern for politics, marketability, prestige, and accolades. I think it no surprise that Socrates taught open-air, and instilled anosognosia by asking many questions, rather than demanding students claim to know; I think it not good necessarily that any should deny the utility or even goodness of knowing something, for even Socrates, we can see, in his want sought to know. It is the false claimants to knowing that are the problem; we note that politics and education, or the politicians, and the democracy, in this very earliest of cases, do not mix well with knowing, or with truth, or rather, with the exhibition of their lacking knowing: they sentenced one who simply exposed the truth of their deficiency of knowing, exposing their vacuity, to death.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-32427982622715501242011-12-24T08:36:00.000-08:002011-12-24T08:36:13.679-08:00Happy HolidaysBy e-mail is sent me a link to Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln01p1M2cH0<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ln01p1M2cH0?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Given that Christmas was established around this time to suit the interests of the empire, to coincide pagan hollidays, not to actually coincide with the birth of Jesus, though it does celebrate that, and given that when I have to consider what is worse, commercialization of a season of holidays, or commercialization of Jesus himself, the holy, incarnate God, son of God, and Messiah, who lives, tell me, is it really that bad for them to say "Happy Holidays", or for stores not to include pics and adulation of baby Jesus? <br />
<br />
Whether some huffy folks like it or not, nowadays other pagan holidays, just as in ancient pagan times, are celebrated this time of year, only without the unseemingly acts that marred some of them back then: it just isn't surprising that non-Christians would come up with their own holidays when millions of others make this a festive time because of Jesus, and being a Christian, it (that non-Christians exist) does not offend me. Merry Christmas to all, and happy holidays too.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4179147684528968486.post-32913633042291133602011-11-02T18:18:00.000-07:002011-11-02T18:21:01.920-07:00Reasons not to ReadIf you are a reader, it is hard not to have the time for it. I <strike>spent</strike> have expended years on buses with long hours at work, which <strike>occupies time</strike> quite effectively dominates one's time, and <strike>at the end of the day, came</strike> have come to understand why millions of boobs consider themselves too exhausted to do nought but watch the boob tube. (If you're wondering why I didn't read on the bus, try them some time: bumpy, liable to miss a stop if not paying attention, and if one dependent on them, you're liable to be sleeping on them as much as you're able. That's another consideration: you're less liable to miss a stop sleeping, which can be established as a very regular routine in which you wake at the right moments, than becoming absorbed in an activity like reading.) <br />
<br />
<strike>I find it funny, however, that millions have eight to ten hours at work and thirty to sixty minutes to drive;</strike> It's still "funny" to me, however, that millions have, at the least semi-, regular hours--between eight and ten at work, and from thirty to sixty minutes drive time--yet profess that they are stretched to the limit between keeping up with activities necessary to life at home, and those of the workplace. I was spending anywhere from twelve to twenty hours out, with several more for cooking and hygiene in, and hopefully--maybe-- sleep, when I considered myself so exhausted that I could honestly profess inability to do much beyond the basic essentials for living, tasks necessarily done for the job at home, and working on the job itself. Those days I got off early, I spent recouping for all those whose hours were so long that they were hazards to the health, and doing errands. Life was an endless series of labors, mostly just to maintain a job: it is still, in fact, but for a certain reason, I think will get easier. Physical labor is hard, but it's deadly without adequate rest. In it all I have even added aiding a great aunt with Alzeimer's to the mix, for which I have admittedly come close to losing my job (having moved so far from work before acquiring an auto, leaving little room for tiny, but consequential, unexpected issues to crop-up. Four hours of sleep also became one and a half to three, with four being best case scenarios).<br />
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The reason I think things will get easier, however, is that now I do have an auto. And now that I have an auto, I plan to get more sleep, so as to no longer burn so much of the candle, and from there to increase performance at work, because I have time to heal. After some period of recuperation, to begin reading again--heavily; not simply for information; nor, as Mortimer J. Adler would put it, simply for understanding; both are important; also, however, for productive ends--to learn practical things; nevertheless, I really desire to engage in reading for the first couple purposes, mostly the second. All that said, I was thinking of reasons that one might not read. <br />
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<b>Reasons that one might not read:</b> <br />
<br />
<b>1.</b> As already mentioned, <b>being too exhausted</b>. I think I have studied Latin on the bus now for over a year, and I am only five chapters into a tiny little book, part 1 of three, I think, of the Oxford course. I purchased this book for a class at university from which I dropped out due to family issues requiring my leaving. The course was intensive, years ago (so I have forgotten most of what I studied only once in that class), and probably proceeded through five chapters in the first couple days. If you have ever been in a situation that you are so squeezed by circumstances that you hardly sleep, you probably know how it is to find oneself unable to form durable, long-term memories, at least for information unrelated to your immediate practical concerns (and even those might be insufficient to force the neurons to store anything). <br />
<br />
<b>2.</b> <b>Insufficient time</b>. Fairly self-explanatory. I read plenty for amusement, even stuff I really wanted to remember and recall, also already explained. But this also includes expansion on what has been said: one might not merely be needy and pressed between difficult circumstances, but could be quite well off, yet required to fulfill other duties or responsibilities which demand one's attentions; in other words, "one has better things to do"; in the case of being needy, "one has more pressing demands".<br />
<br />
<b>3. To visit old matter after resting old opinions or recollections</b>. I once was part of a religious organization that turned out to be abusive, and commonly heard from former members that they had trouble reading the Bible, something--to put in a very simplified way--they believed to be true (or in a more complex manner that can be orthodox coming from some, or meant to conceal unorthodoxy from the mouths of others, believed to contain truth). Partly from the way it would evoke bad old memories related to horrible teachings built upon wresting the Bible, merely trying to read their holy book was itself another bad experience, and evocative of experiences they did not want to re-live. Advice from folks experienced in helping such folks out included i. putting it down a while and perhaps allowing all that material to receded from immediate importance and memory, and ii. reading other translations less similar to the ones they knew from involvement in that organization.<br />
<br />
Besides avoiding recall of traumatic experiences and episodes in life, one might stop for a while to put aside current opinions and prejudices and revisit once wiser (or maybe not), more open-minded or less prejudiced; or there, to bring a more skillful discipline of reading, involving those other reasons, to bear on a text. E.g. one who reads proverbs without much experience in life, may not benefit too greatly. Similarly, someone who reads a work on epistemology can probably benefit greatly from becoming familiarized with the subjects involved in that work. Any kind of philosophical work is due familiarity with its allusions and assumptions; social commentary, with the phenomena involved, or which its author assumes to be rightly understood in a certain way, or that his audience probably understands in a certain way, and therefore does not explain to the uninitiated, requires one to recognize those assumptions. Also, prejudices, that is, understanding something in a certain way before engaging it, though usually present, and although those who recognize their presence, and who are decent readers will work hard to "suspend belief" (so to speak), and step into the understanding of the writer bit by bit so as to read for to conceive of the real meaning of the text, and not for misconception, can have powerful influence upon understanding despite efforts and abilities, so removing from mind and attention those things which evoke them can cause their diminishment so as to engage a topic more freshly to achieve that goal of understanding in different dimensions, or from a <strike>new</strike> perspective new to the reader. Relating this to the churchy example above, many of the abused told of how they recognized that they were mis-taught the meaning or intent of a passage, and realized how that misteaching and mis-application could still filter into mind when reading some passage of Scripture; for this reason also did those who counseled them recommend other translations, at least to initiate the process of suspending assumptions about what they read, not to relegate formerly beloved versions to the discard pile.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>4.</b> ... I don't know that there is a fourth. Besides cheeky reasons or answers for parody, those above are quite broad, categorical reasons for the reader to stop reading which, I think, sufficiently exhaust the "good" reasons one might cease, at least for a time, to read.a guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03665599489992588994noreply@blogger.com0