Daily pages of reflection...for knowledge, understanding, to wisdom
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Dependency

August 3, 2019
Year 4, Day 215 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

In the real world we live in a forest of differences – in just about everything.  Most of the differences don’t make any difference unless persons make them so.  It has always been so.  If the differences seem large enough to upset society and threaten peace in a community or world, it is presumed to be bad – so to be managed, perhaps eradicated (warfare) or diluted (put down) in some way.  Media in its various forms are looking for stories, for drama, for newness, for controversy and advance those stories, sometimes in extravagant language.  Preferences and prejudices emerge, illusions are created, exaggerated or underplayed offering differences.  It isn’t long before the matter at hand is so poorly treated that… Read more

Illusion and Reality

August 2, 2019
Year 4, Day 214 | No Comments
Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

There are a number of incidents in history that changed humanity’s ways of belief and conduct.  In elementary school I was taught that the first incidents of the uses of fire changed the human menu and dictated meal preparation that held for centuries, some of which continues in our era.  The wheel was given similar reputation for significant change in the way things were done, and the expansion of the orbit of mankind’s activity, even introducing business as process.  Old ways faded, new ones grew.  We were introduced to great change in the emergence of the Greco-Roman culture, so becoming more cerebral and progressive as the mind began to ponder the laws of nature and super-nature (space theories), especially as… Read more

Illusion and Reality

August 1, 2019
Year 4, Day 213 | No Comments
Section of The Crucifixion, Pedro Orrente, ca. 1625–30

In the real world we live in a forest of differences.  It has always been so.  If the differences seem large enough to us, we may make intellectual or emotional enemies of those who operate on different frequencies than we do, or use different styles, or make appeals foreign to our own.  These last may relate to a number of factors including the use of language.  To resist we may enter into discussion about the issues which is a good thing, or we resort to other responses like ridicule or humor that may put down the other person or context.  This was illustrated strongly to me recently in reviewing the always interesting illustrated you don’t say panel and quotation by… Read more

Cornered

July 31, 2019
Year 4, Day 212 | No Comments

Samuel had made arrangements for a special event.  It was a super picnic, with some disguise to ward off Saul who would have prohibited the event.  A king from among Jesse’s sons was to be anointed, and the barbeque would follow.  The village turned out in mass.  Things started to go wrong.  Even Samuel felt a bit confused.  He was not permitted of God to anoint any one of a string of sons presented by Jesse.  They were all cornered in the belief that only the eldest son would be chosen – if not the oldest, then the next oldest.  The line ran out.  Murmuring likely arose that Samuel was getting too old, that time to eat had long past,… Read more

Faithfulness

July 30, 2019
Year 4, Day 211 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

I am currently taken with the biblical concept of faithfulness.  It is a concept that relates to the nature of God.  He is faithful in his promises, accenting that loyalty with an oath.  He doubled the assurance to mankind of his faithfulness in that his word is unchangeable, giving permanence to it.  There is a combination here used in the courts of the land in our mortal context.  Not only is the witness expected, in normal course, to tell the truth but affirms with an oath (unchanging affirmation) that what he or she states is the truth.  To violate that oath is to put the witness in the dock to answer for a crime, which by the oath becomes a… Read more

Communication

July 29, 2019
Year 4, Day 210 | No Comments
Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

A major article appeared in Fortune magazine for November 17, 2014 entitled, Tony.  It is the story of the professional life of Tony Robbins, a guru of extensive popularity and sought out by leading persons in the world not only for the motivational interests of companies and individuals for personal success and business money making, but for personal counsel in facing basic personal conduct.  My interest in following the story of Tony is that I have heard about his work and personality, and now encounter a more complete coverage.  I saw the material immediately quoted elsewhere after the publication of Fortune.  It captures my attention because, in recent years persons like Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, and others have caught on… Read more

Children

July 28, 2019
Year 4, Day 209 | No Comments
Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

This date was begun in Volume 1 with the birth story of my firstborn, and the event’s effect on me.  That day I felt proud to be a human being, by a deeper concern for others, especially in those days for my wife and our new baby.  The beginnings were difficult in the premature birth of our tiny daughter.  In retrospect the experience was good for all, and certainly marked my feeling of being grown-up.  I became a man, not a boy, a lad, or an adolescent.  (Some things we identify as adult ought to be termed adolescent.)  In Volume 2 for this date there are stories of marriage and children somewhat surreal in the telling.  In Volume 3 there… Read more

Gloom and Doom

July 27, 2019
Year 4, Day 208 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

Prognosticators and prophets often deal with similar topics, but they may play different games.  There are prophets, both secular and divine.  Secular ones rest their summaries and conclusion on the evidence of nature.  Prophets of God must rely on revelation (Scripture in our era), although there is some folding of secular objective in a prophetic context – sometimes to create a sense of compulsion to believe the gospel of Christ.  In theology this is identified as double fulfillment.  For example, Isaiah volunteered to serve God, and was given prophetic duty that included projecting future events.  One of the events included the incarnation noted in Isaiah, Chapter Seven.  King Ahaz, a believer in God, had some doubts about personal news –… Read more

Courage

July 26, 2019
Year 4, Day 207 | No Comments
Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

Courage, confidence, constancy, bravery are all features of human life that we admire and want to possess in adequate dimension.  The practice of them helps us to overcome fear, threat, misfortunes, tragedy, and ultimately death.  To take heart and face life with a sense of impending transition to something better than presently pertains is a spiritual matter in that it is not measureable, cannot be seen but is real to experience, and is engaged in an implication that there is something more available in life if one can find it.  This is sometimes expressed in Scripture as taking heart.  Even if the factor is applied as a part of the maturing life of the Christian, it is also important to… Read more

Joying

July 25, 2019
Year 4, Day 206 | No Comments

Although I have read the above scriptural verse many times, I only recently caught the Apostle’s whole meaning: that the fullness of joy he identifies in his readers related to some degree to his.  There is something infectious in joy.  We get it from others, and we give it to others.  Those who understand the matter recognize that those who have joy are winners.  The winning volume is greater than the losing volume.  Some winning is close, as the San Francisco Giants won the seventh game of the World Series in Baseball, three runs to two – in the 2014 World Series – one run in seven games of many runs on both sides. One run did in the Kansas… Read more

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