Faith Learning

January 11, 2019

Year 4, Day 11 | No Comments

Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

Reading widely with an attitude of search for truth and meaning, one finds statements that reflect what the reader would like to say. I found another one quoted from: Man:The Dwelling Place of God, but without noting the author (A. W. Tozer): In natural matters faith follows evidence and is impossible without it, but in the realm of the spirit faith precedes understanding; it does not follow it. The natural man must know in order to believe; the spiritual man must believe in order to know. The faith that saves is not a conclusion drawn from evidence; it is a moral thing, a thing of the spirit, a supernatural infusion of confidence in Jesus Christ, a very gift of God…. Read more

Social Orientation

January 10, 2019

Year 4, Day 10 | No Comments

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

It was during the early 1930s when there appeared some laws that ended Common Law Marriage. The change was based on several beliefs which were perceived as negative to both the social structure (as represented in government), and other reasons such as effect on children and the hypocrisies that grew out of acknowledging singleness when that proved a benefit, and marriage when that proved a benefit. Before the law was stricken there was no contract that would hold up in court when unmarried couples split and a settlement of mutual property was legally appealed. Living together without marriage was taken as something of a moral matter, even by the state. It had always been a major issue of morality in… Read more

Self Symbols

January 9, 2019

Year 4, Day 9 | No Comments

Thomas Edison once mildly shocked his associates when he introduced an important staff meeting with the question: How many light posts are there between the door of our building and the street curb? As I recall the response was that none of these brilliant persons knew the correct answer. Edison responded by saying that their attention and alertness was lacking for the job of discovering and developing the currently unknown facts important to the advancement of the programs he and they had designed. He was focusing on a factor that is seldom, if ever, mentioned in either our daily lives or formal education. We have little sayings that have been used related to the matter, such as: He is so… Read more

Problem of Leadership

January 8, 2019

Year 4, Day 8 | No Comments

Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

Not a great deal has changed in leadership qualities through the years, although concepts and application are always matters for analysis, understanding and adaptation. From season to season emphases change, and that is important for persons who are engaged in leadership. For example, during my first years as a professional there was a strong hangover of the rugged, individualistic pattern of leadership found in authoritarian perceptions (I have the authority, so do what I say). Henry Ford, or John Calvin, and many others are illustrative of the genre. It is a method that is sometimes identified as militaristic. Today, the person is presumed most perceptive in leadership who is sensitive to the followers, workers, citizens he or she leads, and… Read more

Competition

January 7, 2019

Year 4, Day 7 | No Comments

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

We return to a favorite contextual parable of spiritual life – the concept of a life race, followed in the culture of Christian context. This is a major difference from competition in the humanistic (secular) context. In natural environment the competition is against individuals or against things. The runner wants to beat his competitive runners. The adventurer wants to be first ahead of others. Competition was so intense on who would be the first to fly the Atlantic that Lindberg took chances, even to the hour of take-off, in concern that another rival was about to take off for the first successful Atlantic flight. Competition is constant. It appears from conception in that you reached the ovum before all those… Read more

The Gospel Name Of Jesus

January 6, 2019

Year 4, Day 6 | No Comments

Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

What is the minimal content of a person’s faith to establish biblical assurance about spiritual safety? This is not a question (minimal qualification) that a Christian should ask for self, and not one a knowing Christian would ask, except in reasoning about God and mankind – so to be rhetorical. A knowledgeable Christian is growing (maturing), which is to say that there is a seeking of knowledge for wisdom in the holiness and affirmations of God affecting individual beliefs, motivations and conduct. Christian life is a measure of the genuineness of the initial Christian experience of faith that relates to redemption. If I am not living the life of Scripture instruction, I have reason to fumble with my claim to… Read more

Work and Working

January 5, 2019

Year 4, Day 5 | No Comments

It takes some doing to move from mankind’s pattern of life meaning and modus operandi to God’s context. For mankind it is better to be a prince than a pauper, a free person than an indentured person, a citizen of this country and not that one, a man or woman, to be rich rather than poor, to be educated rather than uneducated – and so the contrasts may be listed. God does not deny that it is better for each person that this or that in the list may (or may not) serve for a better life on earth. We work, and rightly so, to move from whatever we consider a lesser context of life to a better one. Scripture… Read more

Learning and Living

January 4, 2019

Year 4, Day 4 | No Comments

Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Learning is experience. It is most useful when it relates to us personally. It arrives whether uninvited or sought. Learning that seems best to us is that which is invited when needed. Experience and daily life include some invitation, but may be guided by numerous factors over which we may have little or no control. We do not choose our parents who may or may not favor our self-vision. In America at this writing there are innumerable voices deploring the paucity of numbers of students seeking education in mathematics and science, especially as that education relates to society’s life of commerce and social requirements. It provides greater opportunity for employment, and at higher salary than liberal arts students and social… Read more

Ensue/Pursue

January 3, 2019

Year 4, Day 3 | No Comments

We have referred to the difference between ensue and pursue. Americans have been informed from the founding fathers that they are in the pursuit of happiness. The implication is taken that happiness is out there someplace on the move, and we are pursuing it. If we are intrepid detectives we are supposed to find it. It is something to be found perhaps at the end of some rainbow road. Many believing that wealth is the road may find that it doesn’t guarantee happiness. Stories abound of men and women winning great riches, believing they would be happy, only to find enough troubles that they wish they had never gained financial wealth. Despite all the warnings, masses of persons seek out… Read more

Conscience

January 2, 2019

Year 4, Day 2 | No Comments

We used to hear references to conscience in serious discussion. We seldom include conscience in our discussions at the time of this writing. For some persons conscience appears to be ephemeral, and appears in other terminology of the publics and the courtroom, as well as the church. Perhaps the loss has emerged from the displays of poor, even tragic, performance of distorted conscience. Again, the mass of mankind may be interpreting the value of something on the basis of its violations. Violations of conscience on the part of some persons from whom we expect to see admired conduct or affirmations are not to be used to condemn the uses of good conscience for rightness. Though society may fall to some… Read more

Monthly Archives: January 2019