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Chapter 30

Good Monday Morning to this week 30 of 2022

There was another in the fire
Standing next to me
There was another in the waters
Holding back the seas

Il sera avec moi dans le feu
Là à mes côtés
Il sera présent dans la tempête

Recently I heard the version of this popular song translated to French and it reminded me of the story. Australian songwriters Chris Davenport and Joel Houston were both also going through difficult circumstances when they decided to write a song about a lack of resolution in their life and how, sometimes, our expectations and prayers don’t seem to lead to divine intervention. Also, as Joel asserted in a recent YouTube interview: “Confession precedes belief”. Sometimes we need to speak out spiritual truth even before we can fully apply it to the circumstances of our lives.

The inspiration for ‘Another in the fire’ came from a phrase you’ll find in one of the Old Testament’s most renowned miracles. Daniel 3 recounts how three devout followers of Jehovah, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, were commanded by a deranged king Nebuchadnezzar to bow down and worship an image of gold or be hurled into a fiery furnace. The three men refused, asserting that God “is able to deliver us from it” but then, with remarkable courage, added: “But even if he does not, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (v18). In a rage, Nebuchadnezzar stoked the furnace seven times hotter than usual, and had soldiers bind the men and throw them in. The flames were so fierce that the soldiers were incinerated instantly. But when Nebuchadnezzar looked, he saw four, not three, people walking around in the flames, totally unscathed. The Bible describes the fourth man as looking “like a son of the gods” and is widely accepted to refer to the pre-incarnate Christ. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stepped out of the fire without even “the smell of fire on them” , and Nebuchadnezzar fell to the floor, in awe of the living God.

They were loose, whereas they had been cast in “bound.” They were walking in midst of fire “in the midst of trouble” They walked up and down in the fire, not leaving it, but waiting for God’s time to bring them out. He angel of the Lord came down into the furnace; and Nebuchadnezzar here says , God sent his angel and delivered them; and it was an angel that shut the lions’ mouths when Daniel was in the den. Nebuchadnezzar calls them out of the furnace: He comes near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and bids them come forth and come hither. Come forth, come (so some read it); he speaks with a great deal of tenderness and concern, and stands ready to lend them his hand and help them out. He is convinced by their miraculous preservation that he did evil in casting them into the furnace.

The other in fire walked with them, then justice prevailed and they were called out by the one that caused the injustice!

Another in the fire!

Wishing you a good start to this week!

Philemon

Chapter 29

Good Monday Morning to this week 29 of 2022

Now, you are leaving the desert behind.
You are thirsty, your people crying for water.
But I have no mind to roll on with you.
A new water-out-of-rock must be found.
Be the overflowing spring,
Or a cistern that doesn’t lose a drop.
Be the one who digs deep into desert sand.
Be water-out-of-rock
Rachel Adelmann

A Miriam’s Cup is a new ritual object that is placed on the seder table beside the Cup of Elijah. Miriam’s Cup is filled with water. It serves as a symbol of Miriam’s Well, which was the source of water for the Israelites in the desert. Putting a Miriam’s Cup on your table is a way of making your seder more inclusive.

As we know from Torah and as the liquid in her cup attests, the Prophet Miriam, has always been associated with water. It was Miriam who defied Pharaoh’s death sentence for male Hebrew infants, who placed baby Moses in the basket in the River Nile, a kind of birth canal that delivered him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who found and adopted him, assuring his survival.

It was Miriam who, at the shore of the Red Sea, “took a timbrel in her hand and all the women followed her, with timbrels and with dancing.” And who “sang to them,” leading them through the parted waters, not with hesitation and fear but with music and dancing.

It was because of the merit of Miriam that a miraculous well traveled with the Israelites, slaking their thirst during 40 years in the desert. After Miriam died, there was no water. God instructed Moses to speak to a rock, asking it for water, as perhaps Miriam had sung and spoken to the land they were traversing, asking it for water. Instead of speaking to the rock, Moses struck it — producing water.

Miriam is powerfully linked to all three water sources — river, sea and well — for good reason. Just as without water there would be no life on earth, without Miriam, there would be no Jewish life. Moses had to be kept alive. We have Miriam’s Nile rescue plan to thank for his survival. Without Miriam’s song and dance, there would have been no life-enhancing celebration of our redemption. Without Miriam’s Well, we would not have lived through our wanderings.

Rabbi Tamara Cohen writes; There is no set blessing over Miriam’s Cup but you might want to use the following declaration:

This is the Cup of Miriam, the cup of living waters. Let us remember the Exodus from Egypt. These are the living waters, God’s gift to Miriam, which gave new life to Israel as we struggled with ourselves in the wilderness. Blessed are You God, Who brings us from the narrows into the wilderness, sustains us with endless possibilities, and enables us to reach a new place.”

Wishing you a good start to this week as you have “your cup” filled!

Philemon

Chapter 28

Good Monday Morning to this week 28 of 2022

The fourth-century Christian hermits of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine understood the truth of Christian community profoundly, and their lives demonstrate it vividly—even though they often lived in solitude and isolation.

There is much to learn from the Desert Fathers as true and worthy role models, even for us in our modern lives as dealing with the anxieties, uncertainties, and sense of isolation that have become hallmarks of modern life.

A few translated quotes by Rowan Williams

Truth makes love possible; love makes truth bearable.

This life of utter givenness to God and the other, the neighbour, is already a life that evil cannot contain.

[Knowing God]… call it love, yes, only that can sound too emotional, or call it faith, and that can sound too cerebral. And what is it? Both, and neither… [its] the decision to be faithful, the patient refusal of easy gratifications… of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane and on the cross, that bloody crown of love and faith. That is how I learn finally of a God who will not be fitted into my categories and expectations… the living truth too great for me to see, trusting that He will see and judge and yet not turn me away… That is the mercy which will never give us, or even let us be content with less than itself and less than the truth… we have seen the truth enacted in our own world as mercy, grace and hope, as Jesus, the only-begotten, full of grace and truth..

If you can accept that God is more than an idea which keeps your philosophy tidy – then you may find a way back to an engagement with them that is more creative because you are more aware of the oddity, the uncontrollable quality of the truth at the heart of all things. This is what ‘detachment’ means – not being ‘above the battle’, but being involved in such a way that you can honestly confront whatever comes to you without fear of the unknown; it is a kind of readiness for the unexpected, if that is not too much of a paradox.

I have, by God’s grace, learned as a member of the Christian community what is the nature of God’s mercy, which does not leave me to overcome my sin by my own effort, so I have something to say to the fellow-sufferer who does not know where to look for hope. And what I have to say depends utterly on my willingness not to let go of that awareness of myself that reminds me where I start each day—not as a finished saint but as a needy person still struggling to grow.

Our new humanity that is created around Jesus is not a humanity that is always going to be successful and in control of things, but a humanity that can reach out its hand from the depths of chaos, to be touched by the hand of God.

Wishing you a good start to this week.

Philemon

Chapter 27

Good Monday Afternoon to this week 27 of 2022

The Trinitarian Faith

The Trinity Society,
of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit
Great El Shaddai, Lion-Lamb,
the Fire of God, Dove of Heaven
while three in personality
live so much like One Love
than to our question “Who is God?”
Their voices together sing “I AM.”
David L. Hatton

La Foi Trinitaire

La société de la Trinité,
  du Père, du Fils, du Saint Esprit
Grand El Shaddai, Lion-Agneau,
  le Feu de Dieu… Colombe du Ciel
tandis que trois en personnalité 
  vivent tellement comme Un Seul Amour
qu’à notre question «Qui est Dieu?»
  Leurs voix ensemble chantent «JE SUIS.»
David L. Hatton

Wishing a blessed week of faith in “I AM”
Je vous souhaite une semaine de foi avec “JE SUIS”.

Philemon

Chapter 26

Good Monday Morning to this week 26 of 2022

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? 
Psalm 13:1-2

Following is a passage out of a journal of S. Lee visitting the boarder to the Ukraine a few weeks ago.

When prayer is more a rasp out in gasps.

One refugee I met, broke down as he recalled his horrible year even before the war. His firstborn daughter was born with a permanently damaged brain due to a botched delivery. Sometimes she suffered more than 300 seizures a day, and D. and his wife had spent sleepless nights trying to keep their little baby alive. Because of their child’s condition, evacuating Ukraine was near-impossible, even as shelling and bombing rattled their home. Through the help of others, they were at able to flee to Warsaw.

D. didn’t quote verses about God working all things for the good or testify about finding purpose in his sufferings, which have not ended. He recounted the past year with hollow eyes: “We lived life as though already dead.”

But D. too, has an expression of faith—a real, living one. He continues to pray. He doesn’t pray “leap of faith” prayers declaring healing over his daughter; his lips burned through miracle-seeking prayers long ago. And yet, he prays. There is a name he calls out to, even if his prayers aren’t red-hot passionate or peppered with statements of profound conviction and Bible passages. He prays because, he explains simply, “I can’t imagine any other way of living.” His faith isn’t anchored in mission, in purpose, or in the miraculous. It is more like breathing, even when those breaths sometimes rasp out in gasps.

Wishing God to hear our breathing, our prayers and our rasp out in gasps.

Philemon

Chapter 25

Good Monday Morning to this week 25 of 2022

I have discovered only this: God made human beings for righteousness, but they seek many have sought inuention or alternatives.” Ecclesiastes 7.29

The Hebrew word implies an ingenuity exercised mainly for evil but takes within its range, the varied acts of life which are in themselves neither good nor evil.

This inventive faculty, non-moral at the best, was what struck the thinker as characterising mankind at large.

In this thought again we have an unmistakable echo of the language of Greek thinkers. Of this, the most memorable example is, perhaps, the well-known chorus in the Antigone. In this play, a central theme is the tension between individual action and fate. 

“Many the things that strange and wondrous are,
None stranger and more wonderful than man.
And lo, with all this skill,
Wise and inventive still
Beyond hope’s dream,
He now to good inclines
And now to ill.”

Solomon, in his search into the nature and reason of things, had been miserably deluded.
Vain man would be wise, wiser than his Maker; he is giddy and unsettled in his pursuits, and therefore has many inventions. Those that forsake God wander endlessly. But he here speaks with godly sorrow. He alone who constantly aims to please God, can expect to escape.

We can’t really know for certain what Ecclesiastes thinks about God—but that’s part of his point, in a way. God is a mystery, and he’s forced the rest of us to work inside that mystery, never knowing exactly where we are or what it’s all about. That seems to be Ecclesiastes’s real position on the God question. Although his God may not care about humans, he does require one thing that might seem pretty familiar: humility. “

Wishing you a good week as you seek the God of mystery in humility!

Philemon

Chapter 24

Good Monday Morning to this week 24 of 2022

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5.8

A little bit of theology, along with a few questions this morning!

The technical, theological name for this belief is “penal substitutionary atonement.” This theology was not part of Christian doctrine for the first 1,600 years after Jesus was crucified. Penal substitution derives from the idea that divine forgiveness must satisfy divine justice, that is, that God is not willing or able to simply forgive sin without first requiring a satisfaction for it.

Picking up a long and old discussion …

Was the death of Jesus a substitute or penalty because of our sins.? Did His death scrub us clean of the sins we would commit in the future, or give us a “free for all” pass to do whatever we wanted? Is His death an excuse for our sins, which this theology alludes to?

A few questions and points to this:

Dying for our sins is not the same thing as dying to pay the penalty for our sins. If an innocent person dies because of another person’s wrongdoing, the person who did wrong is still guilty. Whenever the Bible talks about penalties, it always attaches them to the one who committed the offense. We are still held responsible for the sins we commit. In the end, each of us will have to pay for our deeds and there is no way around that. Are responsible for the totality of our actions?

When we look at the world now, we can tell that it has yet to be saved. There is still so much evil and hurt in this world and it’s easy to see simply by watching the news. Dying on the cross did not save us from the darkness of today’s society, and those who choose not to believe in Jesus and commit sins freely will answer for their actions. Jesus didn’t take the sins on Himself to set each of us free. It was only to open a pathway for us to forgive?

Megan Bailey continues with her explanations

As John 15:13 states, however, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus died on the cross to show us what love truly looks like in action.

God is love, and the most important lesson that Jesus teaches us is that when we act in unloving ways, we distance ourselves from God. When asking yourself if something you do would be considered a sin, you should ask yourself if the action comes from a place of love. If it doesn’t, then it’s pulling you further away from living like Jesus.

Jesus dying on the cross was a sacrifice He made for us. His doing so gave us the opportunity to ask forgiveness for our sins and enter into heaven once we had passed. We only have a pathway to heaven because of the loving sacrifice that Jesus made for the world.

NT Wright takes a walk with or alongside this theology. He encourages readers to broaden their view of the atonement to include other themes and not to emphasize solely penal substitution. In typical Wright fashion, he illustrates this with a musical reference: “Substitutionary atonement is a vital element in the gospel. Miss it out, and the music of the gospel is no longer what it should be. But if you only play that note you are in danger of setting up a different harmony altogether.”

Wright believes that the center of the atonement lies in the Christus Victor theme that explains the cross as the moment of “decisive victory over the ‘principalities and powers.” He believes we should give priority (though a priority “among equals”) to this understanding of the atonement while ensuring we do not lose the many other expressions of the atonement. As the story of the exodus is the story of how God redeemed Israel, so the story of the cross is the story of how God redeemed the world through Israel in person, in Jesus, the Messiah.

On the cross, Jesus took on himself that separation from God which all other men know. He did not deserve it; he had done nothing to warrant being cut off from God; but as he identified himself totally with sinful humanity, the punishment which that sinful humanity deserved was laid fairly and squarely on his shoulders… That is why he shrank, in Gethsemane, from drinking the ‘cup’ offered to him. He knew it to be the cup of God’s wrath. On the cross, Jesus drank that cup to the dregs, so that his sinful people might not drink it. He drank it to the dregs. He finished it, finished the bitter cup both physically and spiritually. After being finished – Salvation was accomplished.

Jesus did die to save us from our sins but was it a moment that wiped us clean from all responsibility? Yes, Jesus’ death showed us just how amazing God’s love is for us and give us an opportunity to escape the evils of the world to be reunited with our Father in heaven! Jesus’ death paved an unprecedented avenue for us.

Wishing you a good start to this week as you ponder the works, life, and love of Jesus.

Philemon

Chapter 23

Good Monday Morning to this week 23 of 2022

The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3.8

Ellicott’s comments; the new spiritual birth, like the physical, cannot be explained. We can observe the phenomena yet we cannot trace the principle of life. He breatheth where He willeth, in the wide world , free as the wind of heaven, bound by no limits of country or of race. The voice is heard speaking to the person himself, and through him to others; there is the evidence of the new birth in the new life. We know not when He comes, or where He goes. We cannot fix the day or hour of the new birth.

The more we see into things, behind things, the more we see divine intent in all things.

A beautiful metaphor out of nature;

When did you last blow at a dandelion to see the seeds fly? With their golden flowers in the early spring, dandelions represent the return of life, the rebirth of growth and green after a harsh winter, and a display of abundant strength and power

Dandelions grow so successfully because those puffballs disperse their seeds over long distances in a stiff breeze. Some dandelions don’t need to wait for the wind, though. As dandelions turn to seed, children everywhere rush to pick them, so that they can close their eyes, make a wish, and blow the seeds into the air.

Recently a little article in a paper caught my attention concerning the flight of the seeds.

The dandelion seed holds the record as the farthest travelling passive flying structure that we know of in the plant world, flying up to 100 kilometres. Now, researchers have discovered the secret to the flight of the dandelion. Dandelion seeds fly using a method that researchers thought couldn’t work in the real world, according to a study published. Dandelion seeds bear filaments that radiate out from a central stalk like the spokes on a bicycle wheel, a feature that seems to be the key to their flight. Researchers were curious about how these bristly seeds stayed in the air because they looked so different from the wing-like seeds of other plants, such as maples. Those structures act like the wings of a bird or aeroplane, generating pressure differences above and below the wing to fly. To find the answer, the seeds were put in a vertical wind tunnel and used a laser to illuminate particles that helped to visualize the airflow around the seed. That’s when they saw the vortex (a whirling mass of air, like a whirlwind) floating above the seeds. The amount of open space between the seed’s spokes seems to be the key to the stability and flight of these detached vortices, the says study.

Being born of the Spirit could be like this. There is intent for the seed to fly, it was assumed with the dandelions it was just the gush of wind that would make them fly. But the results showed more, the show that such long distances of flight were not only with one gush.

The Spirits approach, maybe starting with a gush yes, or a tossing wind, but the secret to the long flight, the process of carrying the seeds so far, cannot be seen at first only later in the results. The amount of open space is the key to vortex, the vortex is the key to the long flight!

If we use this metaphor for the moving of Spirit;

The breath of God, the intent of God and the purpose of God have been laid within our structure, but the opportunity to fly, to a fly long and far, to a place where we can be renewed and planted afresh – this s a process of the Spirit needing a lot of space accompanied by a gentle and steady whirlwind!

Wishing a good flight with much open space this week!

Philemon

Chapter 22

Good Monday Morning to this week 22 of 2022

May the Grace of God be with your Spirit.
Galations 6.18

Last week I heard and listened to this song many times, and it profoundly touched me.

The song is written in D-flat Major. H. Berlioz calls this key “majestic”.
Five pitches D♭, E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭ – make this major scale. (a lot of back keys to use on the piano with this song)

Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle 2011

Awaken my soul, come awake

To hunger, to seek, to thirst
Awaken first love, come awake
And do as You did, at first
Spirit of the living God come fall afresh on me
Come wake me from my sleep
Blow through the caverns of my soul
Pour in me to overflow
To overflow

Yes Spirit
Come and fill this place
Let Your glory now invade
Spirit come and fill this place
Let your glory now invade

Spirit of the living God come fall afresh on me
Come wake me from my sleep
Blow through the caverns of my soul
Pour in me to overflow

Songwriters: Andrew Lee Isaac Vowles / Grantley Evan Marshall / Robert Del Naja / Horace Keith Hinds / Fall Afresh lyrics © Mercy Vineyard Publishing

may the caverns of our souls be refreshed this week!
Philemon

Chapter 21

Good Monday Morning to this week 21 of 2022

Fyodor Dostoevsky and Jesus of Nazareth aren’t quite in a discussion yet, implicitly it could go from an interview to a discussion or debate, I am putting out some of their favorite quotes that speak for themselves. Both could make a difference to some of the problems we’re stuck with and stuck in. I’m not promoting the ideology of the first but showing how he tried to unmask with the fundamental idea that lay behind the entire movement in Russia toward atheism, nihilism, rationalism, and materialism, and away from the true Christian faith that was the spiritual heart of the nation before that move.

To love another person is to see them as God intended them to be.
Fyodor Dostoevsky

Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. Jesus of Nazareth

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and, in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal. And it all comes from lying – lying to others and to yourself. Fyodor Dostoevsky

This is what our Scriptures come to teach: in everything, in every circumstance, do to others as you would have them do to you. Jesus of Nazareth

Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.
Fyodor Dostoevsky

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Jesus of Nazareth

Without a clear perception of his reasons for living, man will never consent to live, and will rather destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be surrounded with bread.
Fyodor Dostoevsky

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for. Fyodor Dostoevsky

An argument arose among them as to which one of them was the greatest. But Jesus, aware of their inner thoughts, took a little child and put it by his side, and said to them, “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest.” Jesus of Nazareth

Wishing you a good start to this week, seeing not as you would see, but trying to see the other as God/Jesus would see them.

Philemon