MONDAY MORNING BLOG

Chapter 20

Good Monday Morning to this week 20 of 2021

The parable of the lost sheep (Matthew 18: 10–14)
Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep to show that the Kingdom of God is accessible to all. The shepherd leaves the 99 others and searches high and low for the lost sheep.

Theologian Martin Buber adds another dimension as he wrote in his great work, I and Thou:

“Of course God is “the wholly other”: but he is also the wholly same: the wholly present. Of course he is the mysterium tremendum that appears and overwhelms: but he is also the mystery of the obvious that is closer to me then my own I. God is there and here at once, at the same time. He’s with the ninety-nine sheep and he’s with me, too. His searching for us knows no limits – no bounds. His is in a relentless search for us. We can move back and forth every moment between his being in us and separate from us at the very same instant. He’s the searcher but he’s also here, in us, the found.

“That you need God more than anything, you know at all times in your heart. But don’t you know also that God needs you – in the fullness of his eternity, you? How would man exist if God did not need him, and how would you exist? You need God in order to be, and God needs you – for that which is the meaning of your life. Teachings and poems try to say more, and say too much: how murky and presumptuous is the chatter of the “emerging God” – but the emergence of the living God we know unswervingly in our hearts. The world is not divine plan, it is divine fate. That there are world, man, the human person, you and I, has divine meaning.

We are tumbling toward God all our lives. Sometimes we know it; sometimes we don’t. And God is tumbling toward us as well. He’s seeking us – the one of the hundred – and he wants us found. And, one at a time, he also looks for the other ninety-nine.

Tumbling as adjective: tipped or slanted out of the vertical —used especially of a cattle brand …. gives it even more meaning!

Jesus is very much alive and he’s with us, we as also spiritual beings. Jesus is most aware of our spirit self because he also spirit. Our spirit selves have amazing abilities – more than we can comprehend at this time. Jesus is with us and know us as spirit, we as beloved children of God, know by Him the creator, the universal breath.

The only possible relationship with God is to address him and to be addressed by him, here and now—or, as Buber puts it, in the present.

Wishing you a blessed week in the present found state as you tumble towards God and God tumbling towards you!

Philemon

Chapter 19

Good Monday Morning to this week 19 of 2021

Psalm 139.14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made ….

Here a little story of company fully embracing this, finding the solution in it’s biggest crisis in making an emphasis in being unique together!

Akiyama is a biometric identification company that operates in various forms of application of biometrics . The company was founded in 2005, it has a factory in Pato Branco in Brazil. The company developed a system that collects and analyzes fingerprints, thanks to the simple and intelligible interface, the tool can be used by anyone.

Thaís and Ismael Akiyama had big plans for 2020. It was the year they would expand Akiyama, their Brazil-based business to new markets. Their two new companies were positioned for explosive growth. Massive projects were lined up, and profits were expected to hit record highs.

Yet, as King Solomon warns in Proverbs, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” An invisible storm was swiftly approaching that would plunge the world into crisis and force business owners in every industry to confront a threat to their very survival. When the coronavirus hit, no sector was safe. As 2020 spiraled and business leaders were forced to making hard decisions, navigating unforeseen challenges, the Akiyamas saw everything they had built start to crumble. The Brazilian government, slashed its biometric budget, payments only trickled in, and hospitals delayed adapting their new technology as they struggled with an overwhelming influx of COVID-19 patients. 

Managing three different companies with three distinct missions was a juggling act even before the pandemic. Once it hit, things looked bleak for the Akiyamas, yet they didn’t falter. They digitally gathered their team of administrators and employees across all three companies and made a commitment to the whole group summed up in the hashtag #strongertogether.

“The storm came for all of our companies, and we understood that we couldn’t find a way out by ourselves,” says Thaís Akiyama. “We needed to join together, building a community and identity as a group.”

The Akiyamas consolidated the disparate companies under one umbrella and mission, and it served as a catalyst for transformation. They took the crisis as an opportunity to be intentional about their faith anchored in hope and declared 2020 a year of revival. The Akiyamas changed their presentation, no longer letting their action be swayed or influenced by the system of bribery so pervasive in the Brazilian business word. Employees across the three companies started collaborating on community projects.

In this business story I see a great lesson. Being unique is not in contradiction to serving and joining in community and finding identity not only as individual but also as group.

Wishing you a blessed week as you all seek ways out and through this unprecedented pandemic leaving no stone unturned.

Philemon

Chapter 18

Good Monday Morning to this week 18 of 2021

For she said; If I may but touch of his clothes, I shall be whole.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born on September 24,
1825, in Baltimore, Maryland. She was one of the most well known
African American writers of the nineteenth century. Harper published
several collections of poetry, including Forest Leaves in 1846.

One beautiful poem out of Mark 5.28

For she kept saying to herself, “If I could touch even his clothes, I know I will be healed.
(coming from the Greek word  “sozo” with many meanings including; safe and sound, healed, delivered, made whole, rescued, restored, and saved.

Life to her no brightness brought,
Pale and sorrow’d was her brow,
Till a bright and joyous thought,
Lit the darkness of her woe.

Long had sickness on her prayed;
Strength from every nerve had gone;
Skill and art could give no aid,
Thus her weary life passed on.

Like a sad and mornful dream,
Daily felt she life depart;
Hourly knew the vital stream,
Left the fountains of her heart.

He who’d lull’d the storm to rest,
Cleans’d the lepers, raised the dead;
Whilst a crowd around him prest
Near that suffering one did tread.

Nerv’d by blended hope and fear,
Reason’d thus her anxious heart, –
If to touch him I draw near,
All my suffering shall depart.

While the crowd around him stand,
I will touch, the sufferer said, –
Forth she reach’d her timid hand,
As she touch’d, her sickness fled.

“Who hath touch’d me.” Jesus cried,
Virtue from my body’s gone;
From the crowd a voice replied,
Why inquire, thousands throng.

Faint with fear thro’ ev’ry limb,
Yet too grateful to deny;
Tremblingly, she knelt to him,
“Lord,” she answered, “It was I.”

Kindly, gently, Jesus said,
Words like balm unto her soul,
Peace upon her life be shed,
Child, thy faith has made thee whole.

Wishing a blessed week with words like balm to your soul!

Philemon

Chapter 17

Good Monday Morning to this week 17 of 2021

Last week Chris Green made the minor prophets sing.

I’m still amazed at his summary of Hosea:
God’s love wounds, God’s love can be wounded, God’s love, wounded, heals the wounding!

Having read the Biography of Eugene Peterson this weekend, I found another, that could make the Bible sing in many wonderful ways.

Four “Blessings” out of the Beatitudes of “The Message” to start this week.

Blessed are the poor in spirit …
You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.
With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

Blessed are the peacemakers ….
You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

Blessed are the merciful ….
You’re blessed when you care.
At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

Blessed are the pure in heart …
You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

Wishing you a care-full start to this new week!

Philemon

Chapter 16

Good Monday Morning to this week 16 of 2021

The Gospel According to the Minor Prophets by Chris Green

Not sure how I stumbled upon this, but it’s too good, not to share!

The Gospel according to Hosea:
God’s love wounds
God’s love can be wounded
God’s love, wounded, heals the wounding.

The Gospel according to Joel:
Dream, children! Dream, slaves!
There’s nothing now to fear! When God throws the party
the first serve the best wines to the last.

The Gospel according to Amos:
Some truths only nobodies know
like God prefers bent sticks to fine lines
and Justice is worship dead to rights.

The Gospel according to Obadiah:
Because of your pride, I bring you down
In my humility, I go down with you
There, we become sanctuary for others.

The Gospel according to Jonah:
The word of judgment is nothing but the word of mercy
taking the long way home!

The Gospel according to Micah:
The story of salvation: God leaves home
alone in the dark, looking just like his father
limping because of his hip.

The Gospel according to Nahum:
Bloody ones, your cruelties are endless
so I myself will be your end—I’l make your grave my own.

The Gospel according to Habakkuk:
The only praise God wants to hear
comes after nervy protest and the unnerving silence that follows.

The Gospel according to Zephaniah:
You say I’m a do-nothing God, but my day’s coming
I’ll act and when I’m done there’ll be nothing left—but jubilee.

The Gospel according to Haggai:
The poor are God’s signet ring
Only those with nothing left to lose can believe
how good our future may be.

The Gospel according to Zechariah:
What do I see? A city without walls or sentries
A table set for all God’s giddy friends
Faces bright with joy.

The Gospel according to Malachi:
Our curse: we cannot tell how we wound God and neighbor
But the curse is cursed! God, as neighbor, heals.

I’m not sure which is my favorit … but the the one of
Mercy .. is talking the long way home really hits home with me this morning!

Wishing you a blessed week!
Philemon

Chapter 15

Good Monday Morning to this week 15 of 2021

St. Ignatius of Antioch 35 – 107

As the second (or third) bishop of Antioch, one of the most important churches of the day, he was certainly one of the most prominent Christians of the time immediately succeeding the apostles. 

Ignatius was overseer (bishop) of the Christians in Antioch in Syria during one of the persecutions that broke out while Trajan was emperor. When Ignatius was arrested, he refused to acknowledge the official gods and, not being a Roman citizen, was sentenced to die in the amphitheater in Rome. The soldiers with whom he traveled to Rome allowed him to visit some of the Christian communities along the way.

St Ignatius of Antioch has some very practical tips for our daily walk in faith.
A few of my favorites:

Christianity is not a matter of persuading people of particular ideas, but of inviting them to share in the greatness of Christ. 

It is better to be silent and be real than to talk and not be real.

Take heed often to come together to give thanks to God and show forth His praise. For when you assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith.

Do everything as if He were dwelling in us. Thus we shall be His temples and He will be within us as our God – as He actually is.

A Christian is not his own master, since all his time belongs to God.

It is not that I want merely to be called a Christian, but actually to be one. Yes, if I prove to be one, then I can have the name.

Let no man’s place, or dignity, or riches, puff him up; and let no man’s low condition or poverty abase him. For the chief points are faith towards God, hope towards Christ, the enjoyment of those good things for which we look, and love towards God and our neighbor.

Pray without ceasing on behalf of other men…For cannot he that falls rise again?

Pray as if God will take care of all; act as if all is up to you.

Wishing you a good, practical start to this new week!

Philemon

Chapter 14

Good Monday Morning to this week 14 of 2021

It’s the combination of “at one,” as in, “to be in harmony with”. You are at “at one” with God, you atone. The atonement then is “man’s reconciliation with God through the sacrificial death of Christ.”

How and why is this achieved?

Andrew Springer lays out 5 views in an article he published shortly before Easter. It would be great to also hear some views of Asia or the Africa. (I still regret leaving my book in a Rwandan Air flight “Theology Brewed in an African Pot”.)

1 — The Ancient View: Christ as Ransom

For the first thousand years of Christianity, most Christians believed that Christ was a ransom that was paid to Satan in exchange for releasing humans from the bondage of sin. Jesus himself said “Just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” That dualism is what concerns most critics of the ransom theory. One writer called that dualism dangerous because “among other things, [it] threatens the very sovereignty of God.” Basically, in some respects, it makes Satan equal to God.

2 — The Medieval View: Christ as Substitute

In this theory, it is God’s honor that is offended by our sin. And that offense cannot go unanswered, God’s honor must be restored. But man, being so much less than God, can never restore that honor on his own. “The debt is total, the obligation to pay it, total, the power to pay it, zero.” The answer then is found in the sacrifice of Christ: fully human, he can atone for man, fully God, he can restore God’s honor. This is Substitutionary Atonement.At about the same time Anselm was crystalizing his theory that God demands satisfaction, the feudal system was emerging in Europe in the late middle ages. 

3 — The Reformed View: Christ Receives Your Punishment

“The Father, because of his love for human beings, sent his Son (who offered himself willingly and and gladly) to satisfy God’s justice, so that Christ took the place of sinners. The punishment and penalty we deserved was laid on Jesus Christ instead of us, so that in the cross both God’s holiness and love are manifested.”This is called the Penal Substitutionary theory of atonement. “In Christ as Ransom theory, punishment is averted. In penal substitution, punishment is absorbed.”

4 — The Ethical View: Christ as an Example

The work of Christ chiefly consists of demonstrating to the world the amazing depth of God’s love of sinful humanity… There is nothing inherent in God that must be appeased before he is willing to forgive humanity. The problem lies in the sinful, hardened human heart, with its fear and ignorance of God… Through the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ, the love of God shines like a beacon, beckoning humanity to come and fellowship. Critics of moral influence atonement argue that at its best it doesn’t sound like atonement at all, and at its worst, dangerously veers into the ancient heresy , those who argued that Christians could be saved by their good works without divine help. But more generally, critics say moral influence theology doesn’t answer the question, “what do we need saved from?”

5 — The Battlefield View: Christ as Victor

Christus victor means “Christ as conquerer” or “Christ as victor,”. In a large way, Aulén reinterpreted our first theory of atonement, the ransom theory. The dualism demonstrated in that theory returns. The earth and heaven are locked in a cosmic struggle between good (God) and evil (Satan). Christ was sent to battle with and triumph over the elements of darkness in his kingdom. All of us are standing in the middle of a cosmic war zone. This view of atonement lies in sharp contrast to other views by its emphasis on the cosmic significance of Christ over the significance of personal salvation. “We are reconciled because the cosmos (all of creation) has been reconciled. Because the rebel powers have been put in their place, we can be presented ‘holy and blameless’ before God.” supporters point to many motifs found in various passages throughout the New Testament, like the power of Satan and his demonic hosts and our slavery to sin. Not to mention literally the entire book of Revelation, which casts the end times as the ultimate and final battle between good and evil.

To be fair, most, if not all, of these theories tend to crumble when pressed too hard. No theory of atonement seems complete or absolutely correct, at least to human understanding. 

As we ponder these five views and theories of atonement, there are many more, this Easter of 2021 we are in awe of the power of the cross and the atoning work of Christ. Because despite of, or in fact because of, its mystery, this debate, and these endless questions, people still find the answer as they have for two thousand years—in Jesus.

I wish you a blessed Monday Morning as you contemplate these thoughts!

Philemon

Chapter 13

Good Monday Morning to this week 13 of 2021

“The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.”  N. T. Wright

a few more thoughts of the book “Surprised by Hope”

Let’s go back to the ancient Jewish expectation, which is rooted in Daniel and in the Psalms and Isaiah, that one day God Himself would come back and would overthrow the powers that have been running the world.

This is the great revolution, which like revolutions of our own day, is all about people who have been chafing under alien rule and feel their lives being squashed and crushed when they suddenly find that someone has done something to overthrow the tyrant.

That is precisely what happened when Jesus died on the cross. The “revolution” was secret for two and half days because it was only with Jesus’ resurrection that anyone could look back at His cross and say, “He’s defeated sin so the power of sin, the power of evil, has been overthrown.”

Easter a genuinely revolutionary movement that happened.

Easter commands us to think about a non-corruptible physicality, about a physical world that isn’t subject to decay and death anymore.

How about another angle to celebrating Easter? We could do in creative new ways: in art, literature, children’s games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts, anything that comes to mind. This is our greatest festival. Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity; as Paul says, you are still in your sins…

…if Lent is a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up. Christian holiness was never meant to be merely negative…. The forty days of the Easter season, until the ascension, ought to be a time to balance out Lent by taking something up, some new task or venture, something wholesome and fruitful and outgoing and self-giving. But if you really make a start on it, it might give you a sniff of new possibilities, new hopes, new ventures you never dreamed of. It might bring something of Easter into your innermost life. It might help you wake up in a whole new way. And that’s what Easter is all about.”

Wishing you a blessed start into this new week!

Philemon

Chapter 12

Good Monday Morning to this week 12 of 2021

Omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata ….

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 2. Timothy 3.16

A few thoughts from Peter Enns : The Bible Tells Me So

If your dominant vision of God is of a sovereign king, enthroned above, who communicates to his subjects through written decrees mediated to inspired men borne along by God’s spirit to insure the accuracy of the divine oracles, you will likely describe the Bible as necessarily: historically accurate, logically consistant, self-evidently divine, inerrant, fully and absolutely authoritative in all it teaches.

Passages, such as 2 Tim 3:16, are elevated as a super-authoritative standard that trumps any alleged “evidence” to the contrary.

Perhaps it is not the view of God that yields the expectation of Scripture, but the need for a certain type of Scripture that yields a particular view of God.

Ot maybe a little of both?

Either way, our view of God and our view of the Bible go hand in hand—paying attention to the one will always tell us something about the other.

The Bible presents a variety of points of view about God and what it means to walk in his ways. This stands to reason, since the biblical writers lived at different times, in different places, and wrote for different reasons. In reading the Bible we are watching the spiritual journeys of people long ago. Jesus, like other Jews of the first century, read his Bible creatively, seeking deeper meaning that transcended or simply bypassed the boundaries of the words of scripture. Where Jesus ran afoul of the official interpreters of the Bible of his day was not in his creative handling of the Bible, but in drawing attention to his own authority and status in doing so. A crucified and resurrected messiah was a surprise ending to Israel’s story.

This is the Bible we have, the Bible where God meets us. Not a book kept at a safe distance from the human drama. Not a fragile Bible that has to be handled with care lest it crumble in our hands. Not a book that has to be defended 24/7 to make sure our faith doesn’t dissolve. In other words, not an artificially well-behaved Bible that gives false comfort, but the Holy Bible, the Word of God, with wrinkles, complexities, unexpected maneuvers, and downright strangeness. This is the Bible God has given his people. This Bible is worth reading and paying attention to, because this is the Bible God uses, as he always has, to point its readers to a deeper trust in him.

We are free to walk away from this invitation, of course, but we are not free to make a Bible in our own image. What the Bible looks like is God’s call, not ours.

Wishing you a creative handling of your spiritual journey this week.

Philemon

Chapter 11

Good Monday Morning to this week 11 of 2021

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared Titus 3.4 following to 7

The power source is the transforming love of three in one God announced in the gospel.
Apostle Paul wrote a very beautiful poem to help us UNDERSTAND IT.

****************
When the KINDNESS and LOVE

of GOD our Savior appeared,

He SAVED US

Not because of our right behavior,

But because of His mercy

We were saved through the WASHING

of REBIRTH and RENEWAL

Through the HOLY SPIRIT,

Whom God poured out on us through

JESUS  the Messiah, Our Saviour.

And so we are DECLARED RIGHTEOUS

By His G R A C E

And become heirs

of the HOPE of ETERNAL LIFE

*****************

Wishing you week filled with the kindness and love
of God!

Philemon