MONDAY MORNING BLOG

Chapter 6

Good Monday Morning to this week 6 of 2023

This past week we had a huge misunderstanding about a word. It worked in one language but meant something else in another.

For example the use of the word; “Gift” (English) vs “Gift” (German) – in English, “gift” means a present, while in German, it means “poison.”

Apart from that misunderstanding, I heard a very questionable interpretation of a verse in the bible … leading me to write a few very basic thoughts on this topic.

Here some misunderstood verses from the bible to which interpretation and use of wordage can be of utter importance;

1. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) – this phrase is often interpreted to mean that the punishment for sin is death, but the word “wages” in the original Greek actually means “payment.” So the phrase is better understood as “The payment for sin is death.”
2. “The eye is the lamp of the body” (Matthew 6:22) – this phrase is often interpreted to mean that our eyes give us light and help us see, but the word “lamp” in the original Greek actually refers to a source of light, not the eye itself. So the phrase is better understood as “The eye is a source of light for the body.”
3. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Matthew 22:21) – this phrase is often used to justify paying taxes to the government, but its original context was much more complex. Jesus was actually challenging the Pharisees to consider the source of their authority and whether it was from God or from the government.
4. “Money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10) – this phrase is often quoted as a general statement about money, but the original text actually says “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” So the problem is not with money itself, but with the love of it.
5. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities” (Romans 13) It is sometimes used to argue that Christians should not be politically active or engage in activism. However, other passages in the Bible, such as the prophets and Jesus’ teachings, show that God’s people have always been called to speak out against injustice and to advocate for the marginalized.
6. Exodus 21:20-21 deals with the punishment for causing harm to a slave. The passage reads as follows: “If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod” This passage has been widely criticized and misunderstood due to its endorsement of the use of violence against slaves. Consider the broader message of the Bible, which consistently calls for compassion, justice, and the protection of the vulnerable. The New Testament, in particular, teaches that in Christ there is no distinction between slave and free (Galatians 3:28), and that all people are equal in the eyes of God. Therefore, this passage should not be taken as a endorsement of slavery or violence, but rather as a reflection of the cultural norms and laws of the time, and a call to do better in the treatment of all people.
   
   Or how about some pronunciation?
   
7. Christians around the world know the Christ of the Bible as “Jesus,” but this was not His real name – in fact, He probably wouldn’t even have been able to pronounce it. The letter J did not exist in any language until about the 14th century – and remains absent from the Hebrew alphabet. Jesus most likely spoke either Aramaic, in which He would have pronounced His name as “Eashoa,” or Hebrew, in which His name would have been “Yeshua.” He could also have known Greek and gone by “Iisoús.”
   
8. The Bible condones certain divination and fortune-telling techniques … but many modern Christian churches shun mysticism, fortune-telling, and magic of any sort, but these things were all alive and well in biblical times. Though the Bible does condemn dark magic, it doesn’t forbid magical arts outright, as the following verses demonstrate: Jewish high priests regularly used divination stones called Urim and Thummim to obtain oracles and signs from God (Exodus 28:30, 1 Samuel 28:6). People often cast lots – stones or sticks bearing symbols, similar to runes – to determine the will of God (Proverbs 16:33). Daniel, of “Daniel and the Lion’s Den” fame, was not only a renowned magician and interpreter of dreams, but also “made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers” by the King of Babylon (Daniel 5:11). At the command of God, Moses engaged in what more or less amounted to a wizard’s duel with the magicians of Egypt (Exodus 7:9-12).

Learning to be more careful in the use and interpretation of words, especially when it comes to cultures and languages, requires a combination of knowledge and sensitivity. Here are a few steps that may help:

1. Study the context: To understand the meaning of a word or passage in the Bible, it’s important to consider the cultural and historical context in which it was written. This can help to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations that are based on our own cultural assumptions.
2. Seek out diverse perspectives: Engage with people from different cultural and religious backgrounds, and learn from their experiences and perspectives. This can help to broaden your understanding and increase your sensitivity to different interpretations and meanings.
3. Read multiple translations: There are many different translations of the Bible, and each one can offer a slightly different perspective or interpretation. Reading multiple translations can help you to see the richness and depth of the text, and to avoid relying on one narrow interpretation.
4. Consult commentaries and study resources: There are many resources available that can help you to better understand the meaning and context of specific passages in the Bible. Commentaries, study Bibles, and online resources can provide valuable insights and information.
5. Pray and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit. Ask for wisdom and discernment, and trust that God will lead you in your understanding of his word.

I’ll conclude with one of my favourite biblical jokes:

Who was the greatest financier in the Bible?
Noah! … he was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.

Wishing you a good week as you wrestle with misunderstanding and interpretation!
Philemon

Chapter 5

Good Morning to this week 5 of 2023

The biblical principles of resilience ultimately show us the quality of our faith in the Lord. Hard times reveal to us our hearts and the depth of our faith in God. Are we like waves in the ocean or vapor in the wind, easily tossed and blown away? Or are we rooted in God in our faith?

He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. Psalm 25.9

I look through a book with some life hacks. Why do some have resilience, or in certain situations – while others don’t. The title looked promising and for sure has some nuggets within the many lines. Here a few quotes to start your week!

In Do Hard Things, Steve Magness beautifully and persuasively reimagines our understanding of toughness. Toughness has long been held as the key to overcoming a challenge and achieving greatness, whether it is on the sports field, at a boardroom, or at the dining room table. Yet, the prevailing model has promoted a mentality based on fear, false bravado, and hiding any sign of weakness. In other words, the old model of toughness has failed us.

• Pillar 1- Ditch the Façade, Embrace Reality
• Pillar 2- Listen to Your Body
• Pillar 3- Respond, Instead of React 
• Pillar 4- Transcend Discomfort   

Toughness is having the space to make the right choice under discomfort.

Instead of wrestling the giant monster, start with the smallest item that you can have control over that’s related to the problem. Is it your breath? Can you intentionally slow your breathing down? Or maybe it’s something as simple as showing up on time or getting through the first mile of your marathon.”

The old model of toughness, in essence, throws people into the deep end of the pool but forgets that we need to first teach people how to swim.

“It’s training the mind to handle uncertainty long enough so that you can nudge or guide your response in the right direction. To create space so that you don’t jump straight from unease to the quickest possible solution, but to the “correct” one. The first step in redefining toughness is to understand where we went wrong, why bulldozing through often leads to a worse outcome.”

Research consistently shows that tougher individuals are able to perceive stressful situations as challenges instead of threats. A challenge is something that’s difficult, but manageable. On the other hand, a threat is something we’re just trying to survive, to get through. This difference in appraisals isn’t because of an unshakable confidence or because tougher individuals downplay the difficulty. Rather, those who can see situations as a challenge developed the ability to quickly and accurately assess the situation and their ability to cope with”

Real toughness resides in being humble and wise enough to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses. To find the right point of risk versus reward, to balance upon the expectations-versus-demands scale.”

The lesson wasn’t that we just need to put people in difficult spots and force them to deal with adversity. We need to teach them how to navigate the discomfort they’ll soon face.”

Negative thoughts of quitting are normal. They don’t mean you are weak. They represent your mind trying to protect you.”

We’ve demonised doubt. Showing any weakness, having any hesitation, is a sure sign that you don’t deserve the raise. Humility and vulnerability are signs that you can’t handle “tough” situations.”

Toughness is having the space to make the right choice under discomfort.

Wishing a good start to this week!
Philemon

Chapter 4

Good Monday morning to this 4th week of 2023

For those of you that have been reading with me for a while now. You know there are many recurring topics in my life. I’ve been taking you through some deep valleys of thoughts, theological challenges, quotes and speeches of amazing people and last but not least music and songs are a continuous theme.

One cold morning, as I was commuting by train to work, my hands and feet slowly warming after the bike ride to the train station, the random Spotify playlist jumped to “The Lion King Suit: Part 1 “He Lives in you”. I was about to fast forward, thinking I really don’t need “Lion King” to start the day, luckily I deliberated for 30 seconds, endured something I felt as disruption! Exactly at 0.30’min the bridge surprised me, caught me by great surprise. An absolutely beautiful, touching, awesome new version of the song unfolds. Deep into the song, past a deep solo piece, the choirs join in with “He lives in you” and the song at 2.08 pushes to another crescendo leading to yet another unexpected climax of this song.

He lives in you
He lives in me
He watches over
Everything we see
Into the water
Into the truth
In your reflection
He lives in you
Ingonyama nengw’ enamabala

Could this be an interpretation of the awesome verse out of 2nd Corinthians 4: 6-7
“Let there be light in the darkness,” He has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our greatest strength is from Him, not from ourselves.

Take care of your fragile jar of clay this week!

Philemon

Chapter 3

Good Monday Morning to this week 3 of 2023

Accidental Saints: Finding God in all the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber is a book about an unconventional pastor’s journey through the peaks and valleys of life as a Christian. Nadia Bolz-Weber uses stories from her life, and others’ lives, to convey messages about Christianity. The accounts deal with her own imperfections, how she tries to reach out to others in need, regardless of their background, and how others’ love and wisdom have helped her become a better Christian.

A few quotes to begin this week by Nadia Bolz-Weber

And the thing about grace, real grace, is that it stings. It stings because if it’s real it means we don’t “deserve” it. … And receiving grace is basically the best stinging feeling in the world.

God did not enter the world of our nostalgic, silent-night, snow-blanketed, peace-on-earth, suspended reality of  Christmas. God slipped into the vulnerability of skin and entered our violent and disturbing world.

Sometimes help comes from unexpected places!

Without higher-quality material to work with, God resorts to working through us for others and upon us through others. Those are some weirdly restorative, disconcerting shenanigans to be caught up in: God forcing God’s people to see themselves as God sees them, to do stuff they know they are incapable of doing, so that God might make use of them, and make them to be both humble recipients and generous givers of grace, so that they may be part of  God’s big project on earth, so that they themselves might find unexpected joy through surprising situations.

I looked harder at Matthew 25 and realized that if  Jesus said “I was hungry and you fed me,” then Christ’s presence is not embodied in those who feed the hungry (as important as that work is), but Christ’s presence is in the hungry being fed. Christ comes not in the form of those who visit the imprisoned but in the imprisoned being cared for. Christ comes to us in the needs of the poor and hungry, needs that are met by another so that the gleaming redemption of  God might be known. … No one gets to play Jesus. But we do get to experience Jesus in that holy place where we meet others’ needs and have our own needs met.

The adjective so often coupled with mercy is the word tender, but God’s mercy is not tender; this mercy is a blunt instrument. Mercy doesn’t wrap a warm, limp blanket around offenders. God’s mercy is the kind that removes the thing that wronged it and resurrects something new in its place.

The holy things we need for healing and sustenance are almost always the same as the ordinary things right in front of us.

Oh hey, God told me to tell you something: Get over yourself!

I have come to realize that all the saints I’ve known have been accidental ones — people who inadvertently stumbled into redemption like they were looking for something else at the time!

That’s the crazy thing about Christianity — the idea that the finite can contain the infinite. After all, what is the incarnation if not that? So there’s an incredible physicality to the spiritual within the Christian story. There’s not this weird sort of  Greek separation, where there’s a higher spiritual world and a corrupted, bad world of  flesh. It’s all one. Because if God chose to have a body, there’s a way in which spiritual things are revealed in the physical things that are all around us — bread, wine, people, tears, laughter.

Our ‘ministry’ is Word and Sacrament —everything else flows from that. We see a need, we fill it. We mess up, we say sorry. We ask for grace and prayers when we need them (a lot). Jesus shows up for us through each other. We eat, we pray, we sing, we fall, we get up, repeat. Not that complicated.”

The fact is, we are all, at once, bearers of the gospel and receivers of it. We meet the needs of others and have our needs met. 

Sometimes I wonder if that is what faith is: risking an openness to something bigger than ourselves — something from which we are made and yet without which we are not complete, our origin and our completion.

Wishing you a week filled with the ordinary and the holy – right next to each other.

Philemon

Chapter 2

Good Monday Morning to this week 2 of 2023

Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed. And the mountains will drop sweet wine, and all the hills will flow with it. Amos 9:13

A young man in a wheel chair, discouraged by his condition, asked his physical therapist, “Do you think I have a future?” The therapist replied, “As a pole-vaulter, no! As a man, yes!”

In light of the dire predictions of the prophet Amos, the people of Israel and Judah might have asked, “Do we have a future?” Amos replied, “As a continuation of the way things are now, now! As a remnant, sifted by the judgment of God and purified into a new people, yes!”

That was the word of hope with which Amos concluded his prophecy. This word of hope may seem contradictory, in light of Amos’ prophecies of utter destruction. However, hope in the midst of despair was the common prophetic stance, because they spoke not from the perspective of man’s problems but from the perspective of God’s eternal plan. In the darkest of times, the light of God’s grace breaks through to give us hope for the future.

As Amos struck this positive note of hope, he firmly rooted this hope in God.

Amos ends the book on a note of high hope, looking forward to a day of great prosperity and abundance in Israel. When God releases blessing and restoration, fruit comes quickly. “Ploughman and reaper laboured separately, but here they bump into each other, so abundant are the crops and so eager is the land to grow more.” (Hubbard)

When God releases blessing and restoration, fruit comes from unexpected places. Normally, grapevines don’t grow well on mountains or high hills, but in the days of Israel’s restoration even the mountains shall drip with sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it.

When God releases blessing and restoration, fruit comes with great quality (drip with sweet wine).

When God releases blessing and restoration, the work is blessed – but it is still work. The plowman, the reaper, the treader of grapes, and him who sows seed still have their work to do. God doesn’t just do it all for them, but under God’s blessing and restoration the work is done with energy and joy. The plowman doesn’t just wait around; he gets busy even if he starts bumping into the reaper! D. Guzik

However, we are not to think, if God withholds the dew, that we are to withhold the plough. We are not to imagine that, if unfruitful seasons come, we are therefore to cease from sowing our seed.

I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land, God promised restoration and looked forward to the day when Israel would never again be pulled up from the land.

Wishing you blessing and restoration where needed to start this week.

Philemon

Chapter 1

Good Monday Morning to this Week 1 of 2023

Yes. I’ll stay with you, I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you. Gen. 28.15

By faith Abraham obeyed and sojourned when he was called to go out to a place
that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go.
By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise.

Sojourn: a temporary stay.

Temporary stays can be very rewarding, thinking about a vacation or a trip or journey or season in your life. You get to sojourn for a little while.

Sometimes I think life for us is a series of sojourns. Yes, many of us have a place we call home, it never really is permanent and yet so often in our lives we are called to move on. to make a new start, so sojourn elsewhere. On the other hand, in the midst of our life we get to sojourn, take a pause, rest and dwell with a certain topic, music, theme or atmosphere for “a while”.

So, where does sojourn come in? Perhaps the misunderstanding about its meaning stems from the connective grammatical function of the word so: “I want to travel, ‘so’ I ‘journ.’” However, it derives from subdiurnare, meaning “part of a day” and referring to a resting period during a daylong journey.

In a story of an American activist she also chose the name and title; “Sojourner Truth”. She wished not to travel toward truth, but to abide in it. (To stay for a while in it).

I wish you a great start as you journey and as you sojourn this year. Wising that you, that you stay for a while, in places of deep meaning, inspiration, places of calm, places of joy, places of fulfilment, places of duty, places or care.

Happy New Year 2023
Philemon

Chapter 52

Good Monday Evening to this last week of 2022

A laudation and a celebration to life found in humble beginnings. As we review
the year 2022 and slowly prepare to move on.

Do not despise humble beginnings. Zechariah 4.10

“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe a moment that never was before and never will be again” Pablo Casals

Bachs (1685-1750) “Cello Suites” were discovered and finally published in 1825. But in spite of their publication, they were not widely known by anyone besides a few cellists who viewed them as exercises, if they viewed them at all. The development of the cello as a solo instrument continued without Bach’s influence for another century, during which, again, virtually no music for solo cello was written.

Then in 1889 there was a the spark of discovery. A 13-year-old Catalan wunderkind cellist by the name of Pablo Casals went for a stroll with his father, and they stepped into a second-hand music shop. There, Casals stumbled upon an old copy of Bach’s Cello Suites. He took them home, began to play them, and fell in love.

Casals was born in El Vendrell, Tarragona, Spain. His father, was a parish organist and choirmaster. He gave Casals instruction in piano, songwriting, violin, and organ. When Casals was small his father would pull the piano out from the wall and have him and his brother, Artur, stand behind it and name the notes and the scales that his father was playing. At the age of four, Casals could play the violin, piano and flute; at the age of six he played the violin well enough to perform a solo in public. His first encounter with a cello-like instrument was from witnessing a local travelling Catalan musician, who played a cello-strung broom handle. Upon request, his father built him a crude cello, using a gourd as a sound-box. When Casals was eleven, he first heard the real cello performed by a group of traveling musicians, and decided to dedicate himself to the instrument. His mother, Pilar Defilló de Casals, was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, to parents who were Catalan immigrants in Puerto Rico. In 1888, she took her son to Barcelona, where he was enrolled in the Escola Municipal de Música. – Back to 1889, to the spark of discovery on the stroll with his father to a second-hand music shop.

The young Casals disagreed with the technical constraints advocated by his instructors, preferring to bow and finger the cello in his own manner. His progress was extraordinary, however, and soon Casals’s revolutionary techniques had exposed “a range of phrasing, intonation, and expressiveness that had not previously been thought possible, and [made] the cello an instrument of high purpose.

“The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all. ” Pablo Casals

What audiences heard in Casals’s playing was a suffused reverence for everything around him. “I have the idea of God constantly, I find Him in music. What is that world, what is music but God? Those feelings were heightened for Casals in nature and in the music of Bach, as he indicated when he continued, explaining his morning ritual: “I go immediately to the sea, and everywhere I see God, in the smallest and largest things. I see Him in colors and designs and forms and I see God in Bach.

“In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness, I see God, in all these things.”

“To live is not enough; we must take part.”

It was Pablo Casals, who by rather random incident, discovered the Cello Suits of Bach brought them to life and made the known to all, through great talent, but very humble beginnings.

I wish you a blessed week as you reflect the past year and prepare to the next year!

Philemon

Ps: All quotes by Pablo Casals

Chapter 51

Good Monday Morning to this week 51 of 2022

I read through an very interesting discussion in a public group by R. Mayson discussing the some of works of N.T. Wright.

He started the discussion with the following sentence:

I always thought that as a Christian I would go to heaven when I die. But apparently, that is not the case.

Following some highlights of of the discussion! I love the conversation, especially as it ends with a beautiful conclusion leading us to the happenings of Christmas.

Heaven is a big deal, but it’s not the end of the world.

“Go to heaven” in the Middle Ages blocked disciples from seeing the presence of the Kingdom in their living. That inadequate understanding has carried over to many today.

However, properly understood it is as good a metaphor as any.

“Wright doesn’t say that we don’t go to heaven when we die; he just says that that’s not the end of the story. “Today you shall be with me in Paradise” applies to every repentant sinner at the time of death. The marriage supper of the Lamb leads on to the new heavens and the new earth.

Apparently several early ‘Church fathers’ did not consider as ‘Christians’ those who expected to be wished off yonder rather than be citizens of the coming Kingdom of God on Earth.

Heaven is coming to you.

We are going to “be with Christ.” Sounds like heaven to me!

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord is descriptive of paradise, as Jesus said to the dying thief: “today you will be with me in paradise.”At the resurrection you’ll be rejoined to your “body” and enter the Kingdom which is also when God will remake the heavens and the earth.

So, we’re going “up” to eventually come back “down.” check out the etymology and greek of paradise. Jesus is talking about the Garden.

Let’s remember that we are dealing with the vagaries of language. Just look in a dictionary for the huge number of meanings of “go”. It turns out you can go somewhere without moving. Is there any real difference between going to heaven and heaven coming to me when the universe has no way of determining which is the case, just like there’s no up and down in space. These phrases are reflecting our human thinking about direction

Heaven is the kingdom, including “new” creation. It is deified participation in the immutably dynamic eternity that is the Triune life.

Jesus did prepare a place in Heaven for his followers. Rev. 21 speaks about a new Heaven & Earth. We were made for the Earth ( new earth new resurrected bodies).

Correct. We look forward to resurrection from death not going to heaven.

Heaven is a space not a place. NTW

Well I’m still going… or it’s coming here. Either way is fine by me…

No mate, but very few things truly are… in any case, I reckon He’ll find me.

I think it’s more a question of how you define “heaven”. A spiritual place where we go when we die to be with loved ones. Spiritual bodies that are recognised we will not have ‘spiritual bodies,’ but physical resurrected bodies that are glorified. Christ is our example and forerunner in this – and He had a physical body as well, the same body He lived and breathed in is the same body that was resurrected.

Why is it important to you that heaven be “spiritual”? I go to prepare a place for you in my father’s house that’s a reference to Marriage Supper of the Lamb festival also known as Sukkot/Festival of Shelters/Feast of Tabernacles (it has many ways you can refer to it) but is the last Feast in the yearly Jewish feast cycle, mentioned in Leviticus 23 and celebrates God coming to dwell amongst his people and commemorates when the Israelites dwelled in the wilderness (on their way to the promised land).

It’s also the only feast that has an 8th Day regulation; with fresh starts, second chances, new beginnings, new creation.

So much meaning involved and SO much better than the simple REST stop on the way that heaven probably is for those of us that “fall asleep” before the full and final “Day of the Lord”. In the meanwhile, we get to be the advance guard; the little pockets of heaven or “walking tabernacles” when we accept the invitation to participate in the great rehearsal that is still happening here and now.

Welcome to the dangerous heaven/earth intersection; there’s still work to be done (but now from a place of rest, rather than striving) and how great is that!

Phew. A lot to comprehend. I know God loves me and when I die I will live

So where does it say your not going

Heaven is a space not a place.

Thank God, it will be much better than “heaven”! New Heaven / New Earth…

It’s about being with Christ. Whether it is called heaven or not, it doesn’t matter.

It is a place for those who are in Christ and are awaiting the fullness of new creation to come to pass. We will be in God’s presence that’s what is important

What is that immediate state, a bit of a merry dance when asked, but it’s great, because, he is absolutely totally happy to humbly say there are things we do not and cannot know.

Sure you will. Wherever God is will be heaven.

Life after LIFE, life after death

Heaven is a space not a place.

Richard, that is a big question – what is heaven, where is heaven, who goes there etc. Keep learning, keep praying, and stay close to Jesus and you will learn more and more about your eternal destination and life as you go. The journey is important.

‘Everyone is alive to God’ Jesus said, when arguing for resurrection because of who God is and what God does.

Death is what we see, in time; Life is who God sees in eternity.

When there is love between people, there is kingdom of God in them. If there is no love, even heaven is like hell.

Heaven is a space not a place.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. 

Paul writes if our faith is for this life only we are to be pitied above all men.

Once in heaven there is not more history. What exactly Wright is talking about? We need context

There is life after life after death…NTW

Heaven comes to you…

Yes, through the magnificent gift of the Holy Spirit.The book of Hebrews and other epistles support this understanding.There’s plenty of room for all you believe and approach in confidence.

The Bible is very clear WHO we are with after we die; not so much WHERE we are.

It’s in keeping with John’s rather mystical and symbolic style.

He, and his Father come to us in Spirit and establish us in heavenly places as Paul concurs.

Heaven is a space not a place.

Heaven comes to you!

The deep message of Christmas

blessed Christmas to you all!

Philemon