Behind The Words

June 30, 2018

Year 3, Day 181 | No Comments

Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

This is being written during 2013 when the issue of Same Sex Marriage has become a hot and divisive issue in American life. It is a world topic and has been approved in a few nations that are seen as largely secular in context. The discussion in the electorate is fiery, and includes language and ideas that should not be incorporated in an objective treatment of an issue. But the cerebral must bear with the emotional and judgmental attitudes, with the ill will, with unsupported accusations as a matter of habit in nearly any issue of controversy. On the day I am writing this Page, a column appears in a major newspaper, in response to a published statement about homosexuality… Read more

Commandments

June 29, 2018

Year 3, Day 180 | No Comments

Related to spiritual meaning, the central point of history for mankind relates to the life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. His death was necessary to meet the holy nature of God, which death countered the imperfection of mankind so to provide means for personal fellowship with God. Without that redemptive divine gesture there would appear no recourse to counter the lostness of mankind. Without that redemptive plan God could not maintain his integrity of perfection, and also receive human beings as his children. The unity of God has to be maintained. There is no hope for mankind beyond the grave without some plan that meets the nature of God, and provides rescue for imperfect (in nature, sinful)… Read more

Infancy to Maturity

June 28, 2018

Year 3, Day 179 | No Comments

This summary about Jesus’ enculturation is, in my view, one of the most informative of all passages on the matter of the nurture and education of a child in maturing as an individual and a member of society. We need to be reminded that Jesus, to fulfill his mission, did not confuse his humanity with his deity. What occurs to other persons in the course of human mortality occurred for him. We get hungry. He experienced hunger and needed food. We are tempted. He was tempted as intensely, even more so, than we are. He resorted to prayer so was strengthened spiritually in his human person as faithful prayerful persons are aided. He noted, when asked some questions, that he… Read more

Human/Divine

June 27, 2018

Year 3, Day 178 | No Comments

Section of The Crucifixion, Pedro Orrente, ca. 1625–30

We must accept some elusive mysteries of our lives, but we need to form our perceptions of mystery. This is not a play on words or to create an odd sentence. It is important to those who mean to be creative, to work in life contexts that become too large for us, visited with complexity, ignorance, impotence, and personal preference. Life is larger than we are; information is limited by unavailability and our incompetence to gain all that is available; our influence is modest in gaining adequate attention to what we have to offer or the end we seek; and, we deal with personal circumstances in presuppositions, prejudices, experiences, and orientations that push us in directions that create different maps,… Read more

Go For It

June 26, 2018

Year 3, Day 177 | No Comments

Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

An important factor in success for life is the building of meaningful relationships. Chosen relationships for purpose provide the context and atmosphere for the best learning, and learning to effectiveness in whatever we decide to be and do in the course of productive lives. There can be mentoring, perhaps a mutual mentoring in the context of relationships. There are E-mail services, including Christian accents, dedicated to bringing persons together with similar interests. At this writing they appear to be helpful. Mentors are sometimes identified as examples or models, as super persons, as idealists, as heroes. Jesus is our model, but he was full mentor to at least twelve men, and less intense with 120 other persons, likely including women. But… Read more

Life Orientation

June 25, 2018

Year 3, Day 176 | No Comments

Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

A major issue in the context of life relates to boredom. We do not understand ourselves without a conscious understanding of the influence and nature of boredom. We fear it, and design ways to escape its incursions on our lives. We are not mature until we learn when and how to manage boredom, accepting it on some occasions – if we are to minister to self and others as we ought. A long rambling conversation may be boring to us, but necessary for a troubled person to emerge from some negative context. Most bored persons permit their boredom to show with wandering eyes, shifting body language, and near meaningless responses to the words they hear from the casual, perhaps troubled,… Read more

Science And Complexity

June 24, 2018

Year 3, Day 175 | No Comments

Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

The rugs are being pulled from under our intellectual/spiritual feet. Our distant forefathers appear to have believed in a context of nature. If nature was pleasant and the hunting good, then whatever gods there may be were gracious. If negative there was deep disappointment in life, and punishment followed in nature’s turmoil. Combinations of explanations were odd and fanciful, as the surviving concepts and practices of primordial man continue in parts of the world today. In all this, God appears to have been gracious. In one of his sermons the Apostle Paul referred to invented devices, and asserted: The times of this ignorance God winked at – Acts 17:30 (KJV). Then followed belief in God and gods, beliefs related to… Read more

Education/Emotion

June 23, 2018

Year 3, Day 174 | No Comments

Mankind is characterized by two large factors, mind and emotions. Often they are at odds with each other and we become contradictory/paradoxical in our lives (personal) and conduct (social). Some of us knowing (mind) the health problems related to tobacco smoking, smoke anyway (emotion). Knowing the physical cost of poor nutrition, some of us continue eating menus saturated in fat and sugar. Nagged about the need for exercise to sustain health, mobility and long life, we are known as a sedentary population. Addictions have their seat in the emotional contexts of our lives, but they have to be fed (managed) by the decision-making of the mind. Addictions are not all bad. Addicted to habits of proper sleep, of good hygiene,… Read more

Education

June 22, 2018

Year 3, Day 173 | No Comments

Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

Students should choose the education/training they need, for both life and occupation. That ought to be done with counsel from those who have received formal education, and with insights from some who have not, especially from those gratified with choices they made. The first objective for the Christian student is, or ought to be, to glorify God, to develop as a thoughtful and cultivated person with conviction to serve society, and that most practically in beginning with his or her family. The large context is identified as a search for truth for life. Truth is an affirmed objective for both Christian and secular thinkers and doers, but the processes and conclusions may differ. Sincerity and respect for both contexts is… Read more

Motivation

June 21, 2018

Year 3, Day 172 | No Comments

Christians commonly wrestle with what it is to be both Christian in genuine faith of acceptance with God and the practical daily living that Scripture defines for faithful followers. It is not easy for us to live in a world motivated as it is by materialism and with the models of success found in wealth/power, without being taken by similar drives. Further, the materialistic motivation does not need great wealth to distract from God’s preference that once we have our own needs addressed (so not to rely on others) and have a residue left over we are wealthy in common world society. Relatively few Christians, having some bounty in material wealth, sense real sacrifice even when they are generous. Christians,… Read more

Monthly Archives: June 2018