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

Humor

March 11, 2018
Year 3, Day 70 | No Comments
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Laughter does not appear to verify spiritual meaning.  We expect solemnity when we deal with serious concerns.  We do not laugh or even smile when we pray.  On occasions of my attendance where grace has been offered at a banquet there appeared humor in prayer.  It may be taken as innocent, but it did not seem devout in the lives of the diners.  Like many gifts for life, humor can be distorted in either the practice of it, or an excess of time devoted to it.  Further, it is not understood as an attitude that relates directly to serious values as do humility, affirmation, problem solving, and related orientations.  It is rather easily grasped in assisting us in understanding when… Read more

Open Secret

March 10, 2018
Year 3, Day 69 | No Comments
Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

There is a prevailing perception in Scripture that is not interpreted adequately to faithful congregations, confirmation classes, and students – or the general public.  It is stipulated firmly in the writings of Solomon, but appears, especially in references to methods related to life patterns, even of God’s order for nature.  Jeremiah here notes that God used, in his creative work, that wise pattern he offers to mankind.  Solomon makes clear that our assignment is to gain knowledge, extrapolate from that knowledge for ourselves in understanding and from that understanding act in wisdom.  Overarching that pattern of intellectual and physical conduct there is an authority (power attached to spiritual meaning) that makes the thoughtful experience of the individual (or society) practical… Read more

Methodology

March 9, 2018
Year 3, Day 68 | No Comments
Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

The Epistle of James is one of the most practical and straightforward documents one will ever read about Christian life.  It is one of those literary instruments admitting life as it is, and God as he is, to extrapolate common sense applications for living in nature and society.  Some of James’ remarks support success in both common grace and divine.  In common grace, the Apostle supports goal orientation (I will do this or that.), while living also in divine grace (If the Lord wills, I will do this or that.) (4:15)  The wisdom of the Christian is to learn how to function effectively as a member of both earthly and heavenly societies.  Some Christians never quite get it, and so… Read more

Intellectual Activists

March 8, 2018
Year 3, Day 67 | No Comments
Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

In the pursuit of the interests of the mind we need to be aware and resolve the variances of meanings, methodologies, presuppositions, limitations, contexts, and values, related to any proposition or chains of propositions.  For those debaters holding the humanistic presupposition that only that which is proven by verifiable evidence is valid for affirmation leading to conclusions and theory, the concept of extra-natural facts is untenable.  For them – to offer truth statement from such an orientation is wishful and/or fanciful.  This affirmation of a system to discover facts to truth is commonly identified as the scientific method.  It is affirmed as authoritative, perhaps the only route to commanding truth.  For many persons working with it, it is presumed to… Read more

Seeking in Mystery

March 7, 2018
Year 3, Day 66 | No Comments

We wrestle endlessly with the mysteries of human life and nature.  Why would we not also wrestle with concepts and realities of spiritual life?  Human life and the environment of nature offer some evidence that is verifiable about life and meaning.  We honor it partly because it is inherently verifiable, providing confidence, in our perceptions of the laws of nature, education for future benefit.  Even so, there remains considerable natural mystery.  Spiritual life introduces a different context, beyond physical and natural evidence so to be approached differently, grasped in a different context of knowing.  It is helpful to us in the process to give some attention to philosophy related to humankind.  Philosophy is the theology (incorporating concepts beyond nature) of… Read more

Paradox and Contradiction

March 6, 2018
Year 3, Day 65 | No Comments
Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

There is an underlying belief or assumption in advanced world countries that progress is presumed inevitable.  The lessons of history don’t support the assumption, except in some categories with declines in others so to make difficult summarizing statements about the larger direction of societies.  Further, differences between nations and cultures create even greater complexity for world society.  Even further the underlying principles clash so as to create paradoxes we have not learned to manage.  For example, the emergence of the internal combustion engine has given us freedom to move about in the world, enlarging our experiences and effectiveness related to vision and the development of environment and life benefit, but the automobile alone causes the deaths of more persons than… Read more

Wisdom Prayer Nature

March 5, 2018
Year 3, Day 64 | No Comments
Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

Prayer, like nearly anything else in life can be engaged in pedestrian fashion or by those who determine to apply prayer in its most profound meaning.  Prayer has been seen as pedestrian in such words as, Oh God.  The words may be casual and irreverent as those heard often in everyday conversation, even heard on television as either an oath or slang – perhaps a meaningless blurting out of some habitual phrase for casual persons.  The devout man or woman may cringe at the sounds.  The suffering, grieving devout person may be making the most serious prayer they ever made with the two words – in their identification with Jesus Christ.  Persons using words related to deity, if not in… Read more

Work and God

March 4, 2018
Year 3, Day 63 | No Comments
Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

There is an important theology of work that includes several factors in achieving the ideal of it for both the individual and society.  In summary, every person has work to do unless incapacitated in some way.  The matter was addressed to Adam as a means of survival, dependent upon the sweat of his brow, and to Eve on the work to the weariness of pain related to the birth of children.  In the combination the family is sustained and advanced in a context of nature that works for purpose.  Plants work to emerge from seed to bear fruit to harvest and then to die, leaving seed for an ever larger perpetuity to future time.  The sun works in its cycles,… Read more

Interpretation

March 3, 2018
Year 3, Day 62 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

An analyst well known to the public at large, to leaders in government, and reputed to believe in God as a factor in society, recently recited in a carefully worded list the indications that he interpreted as dangerous decline for America.  The factors included a number of unresolved issues: seventeen trillion dollars national debt; political/partisan conflict; military/defensive retraction; costs and confusion in application of recent laws such as health care and same sex marriage; education in some confusion; economy slow in recovery from recession; inability to resolve issues related to a troubled/violent world scene; lack of effective leadership shown in the statistics of loss of confidence by voters; and, general malaise in society.  After listing the problems, the analyst stated… Read more

Children

March 2, 2018
Year 3, Day 61 | No Comments
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

The move of society into the twenty-first century has been to make legal some growing beliefs to action in a secular society based largely on values found in evolving social thinking and practice.  This is related to a concept of freedom that not only changes human beliefs and conduct from secular social history but also from scriptural explanations and injunctions.  During recent decades the debate has been fierce relating to abortion.  Suddenly it also focused on same-sex marriage.  The debates are often odd in that they draw upon unsupported assumptions, some of which are contradictory to justify major moves in general society, and putting down those who have believed on the record of history (that includes spiritual sources for forming… Read more

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