House and Home

December 31, 2018

Year 3, Day 365 | No Comments

Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

The above was addressed by the Apostle to women, but like all Scripture the use of gender does not mean only the identity of one or excuse duty from the other. In the full passage, reference is made to the whole family – not only the nuclear family of mother, father and child. To observe much of home-life, and hear talk of family members on every day experiences, we may wonder if modern persons have learned about what attitudes and environments ought to be relative to blood or intimate relationships. We seek to join the family bond and reflections of life and values God meant for us. The details are so extensive we must limit for this Page. We are… Read more

Open Secret

December 30, 2018

Year 3, Day 364 | No Comments

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

In the context (sin/righteousness, confession/forgiveness, casualness/responsibility) referred to on this date for Today’s Page from Volumes 1 and 2, I found any doubts had faded, sins/guilt were expunged by true confession, and maturity advanced by upgrading my conduct and thinking. Christian life became stronger, growing, with a firm sense of devotion and meaning that I had not felt previous to the process of Christian nurture as it applied to me. My inner orientation turned from mortal environment to immortal, but made me a better ambassador in the mortal context. My guidance depended upon the context of prayer, instruction from Scripture, and the assistance of the Holy Spirit in determining best personal performance, not only for God, but for the society… Read more

Ending the Beginning

December 29, 2018

Year 3, Day 363 | No Comments

What a summary is this text (repeated several times in Pages) for life to death, and it applied to a person who lived six thousand years ago when the harshness of living conditions was far in excess of what we encounter today. We can become quite graphic about personal life of that time, a time when meals were cooked on open fires; when there was a bartering system and little for purchase of food or clothing; when there was no bathroom tissue or napkins; when there were only a few practitioners knowing far less about diseases than today’s layman; when there were no security or protective forces like police and firemen; when there was no public education or public facilities,… Read more

Change In Order

December 28, 2018

Year 3, Day 362 | No Comments

Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

We are thinking forward to the Senior Series in these Daily Pages and to the end of this writing project, aimed principally at young Christians in formulation of their faith and the context of Christian life – incorporating both formal (institutional) and experiential (daily life) education. I venture for this day to outline the context of life and culture for the biblical Christian – as I interpret the context. The Christian must believe that God is first personal, dealing with each person in privacy from all other persons. This is made personal in Jesus Christ, who is recognized as the redemptive person. That redemptive experience introduces vital change in the total life of the person of Christian biblical faith. The… Read more

Interpretation and Truth

December 27, 2018

Year 3, Day 361 | No Comments

I am much taken with the problems of interpretation as related to literary translations – to the meaning of self, religion, society, family, freedom, love and a dozen or so other themes important to our lives. I wince, and sometimes deplore, the applications when varieties of interpretations are applied to biblical passages. Some persons make the Bible literature only, and others nearly equate Scripture with God. (We must remember that God is a person in human terms and not to be equated with any other factor than himself.) Planet Earth: We are told by serious scholars that it all began with a big bang – and it may have. What caused the big bang? Why would God be denied as… Read more

God and Nature

December 26, 2018

Year 3, Day 360 | No Comments

Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

This is a summary Page of the main ideas of the four years of TODAY’S PAGE possible here, near the end of the third year, because the release of the manuscript in final editing is taken by me as the beginning of whatever ministry and meaning this project may have, first to my family, and then onward to the parents and students considering the meaning of Christian education for life and effective functioning for persons both in the natural/humanistic context (without consideration of deity) and in the natural/Christian context. Nature and Super-nature: The world system is the same for both Christian and non-Christian. A value system is built into the context of life and is articulated in Scripture, but is… Read more

Change In Foundations

December 25, 2018

Year 3, Day 359 | No Comments

Section of The Infant Jesus and St. John the Baptist, Guido Reni, n.d.

When I was a child, growing into my adult life I heard the statement: Christmas is for the children. This likely originated in the awareness of the birth of a child long ago who became eminent in what he decided to do. The gifts of the Magi became inspirational to the interpretation. It seems clear that the children are featured at Christmas time, and much of the tradition of Christmas is related to appeal of light, color, tinsel, toys, programming, food (candy) and the like focused on child fantasy and expectation with the overlap to the adults, especially family plans for the holiday. Christmas has largely morphed into a holiday from a holy day. Business has replaced the church in… Read more

Searchers

December 24, 2018

Year 3, Day 358 | No Comments

In academic journals there may appear articles, lengthy and short, reciting evidence for this and/or that point-of-view relative to some issue. Recent to this writing there appeared various defenses for the date (possible) for the birth of Christ appearing in the January/February, 2014, issue of Biblical Archaeology. There are four dates bandied about relative to Jesus’ birth. The two leading ones are 4 B.C. and 1B.C. One archaeologist made firm defense for 4 B.C. Another, in countering the first, not only argued in favor of the 1B.C. date, but wrote: The most often preferred candidate, the 4 B.C. eclipse, is, in my view, far and away the least likely one. (In human search analysts don’t permit the possibility of a… Read more

Gifting

December 23, 2018

Year 3, Day 357 | No Comments

The model of cerebral thought in Scripture is found in comparisons/contrasts/experiences/analogies found in parables of reality or mythology generally found in nature. The process permits the receiver of the information to interpret life from experience that is perceived to be the reality of experiences in the course of the womb of nature in which persons incubate for what follows. From our lives (private) inter-personal lives (social) form. This becomes reality for a person, driven by all the factors related to belief, motivation and interpretation for life. This includes factors that are often contradictory such as the collision of emotions (feelings) with reasons (logics). Cerebral functioning is necessary to both. Parables include directing the individual with the responsibility to extract truth… Read more

Humility

December 22, 2018

Year 3, Day 356 | No Comments

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

These Pages were begun for me in private interest for family members – in writing to make sure they understood what I was about in life, both as a family person and as a member of society – for living the Christian life order, as biblically outlined. The approach was to accent the common grace offered to all persons in world nature – and divine grace for those fulfilling requirements and desire to incorporate it. This was to include my thought and conduct in which I practiced being my own person in the variant contexts of other persons. I neither wanted to be a hypocrite nor did I want to offend those who did not share my context for life…. Read more

Monthly Archives: December 2018