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

Persons to Persons

March 1, 2018
Year 3, Day 60 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

My professional life has been committed to Christian education and ministry, both in academic and church contexts.  I have high regard for both contexts and believe they, at their best, complement each other.  There is, and always has been, some tension between some of the advocates relating themselves to each context.  If the situations were sifted out for many advocates they would not be exclusive to a preferred context.  Scripture advocates education on both the level of nature (creation, either from God or mystery evolvement) and super-nature (also from God or mystery evolvement).  We begin with sources, and gather evidence that leads to understanding, with understanding leading to wisdom.  Wisdom is, in the final analysis, that which leads to problem… Read more

Means and Endings

February 28, 2018
Year 3, Day 59 | No Comments
Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

There are a number of experiences/events in Scripture apparently permitted of God that do not fit what God approves in divine grace for mankind.  There is a type of spiritual (moral) bravery found, sometimes misdirected.  Participants often pay a severe price for what is done.  Common grace may permit some of the end justifies the means related to conflicts for mankind.  This matter may be illustrated in numerous ways, and begs to be understood, as resting on carnal bases.  There is a long history of the concept from Aristotle, through society and the church, especially in the writings of Aquinas continuing to our generation.  It is vital to existentialism.  The concept continues not only as a matter of justification of… Read more

Personhood

February 27, 2018
Year 3, Day 58 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

There is, or seems to be, a connection between human life and spiritual in that humanity becomes a parable of the nature and work of God.  As mankind can rule the animals, even those running freely in nature, so mankind lives freely in the nature God gave, unless God or other persons choose to interrupt that freedom.  Mankind must pass through gestation to birth from a mother, so spiritual birth must take place to gain spiritual life. (John 3 & 5:24)  Mankind must eat nutritious food to maintain life, as spiritually nutritious food must be taken to sustain spiritual life.  For this purpose the Christian eats (ingests) from Scripture to application (digestion).  Some ingested substances are poisonous to physical life,… Read more

Achievement

February 26, 2018
Year 3, Day 57 | No Comments
Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

In common grace found in nature there is broad acceptance (unrelated to approval) of mankind by God, and hopefully by society, of all peoples of the world.  Without that acceptance from God there would be no common grace, a grace applicable only to nature and holding no status we know about in divine grace.  In the various populations there are significant differences some of which are built into nature’s patterns.  These are pointed out in anthropology courses, even to the measurements of body parts as head forms/sizes (the cephalics), noses, eyes, even the range in the sizes of the buttocks.  What is natural and attractive to one group in the human population can be diminished in respect and meaning by… Read more

Common Grace

February 25, 2018
Year 3, Day 56 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

Common grace may be far deeper, and engaged more by God, than we imagine.  Grace as we relate the concept and reality to God is the largess of God to all his creation related to mankind. It is inevitable to us. Grace of God is one of his ways of creating a context for human fellowship and peaceful advantage.  Common grace extends to all of life – whatever we would identify as God’s creation.  The introduction of rebellion, identified with Adam and Eve in their temptations, removed some meaning of common grace for mankind, but factors remained.  Divine grace comes directly from God and is motivated by his pleasure.  It is identified as spiritual.  That representation of his grace given… Read more

Perception

February 24, 2018
Year 3, Day 55 | No Comments
Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

Study of the word perfect (mature) as it is used in English translations of Scripture clarifies much of the process of practical attitude and growth related to Christian life.  It also serves as an example of any error we might make in resting important intellectual and spiritual concerns in the current use of language only, and testing emerging meanings with originals.  This concerns Christians believing in the inspiration of Scripture – that its meaning be known and defined from original definitions.  Even The American Heritage Dictionary noted the problem and added a notation after an extensive list of definitions for the word perfect: In absolute senses, perfect and perfectly cannot correctly be used in the comparative and superlative. However, when… Read more

Improved Means/Unimproved Ends

February 23, 2018
Year 3, Day 54 | No Comments

For much of the world a radical change is taking place.  Historically the ideal of marriage with children was taken as the most fulfilling personal context for life fulfillment.  The children related together with generations, including those who did not marry so incorporating all persons for family context that generated much of human belief and conduct.  It became the base for responsibility to society.  These sometimes included persons adopted into a family by law or mutual consent.  There is a new paradigm in formulation that incorporates options.  The new approach reduces the physical relationship and enhances the mental/emotional base for acceptance of life paradigms.  The dominant paradigm for centuries has been mother/father/child and the extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents). … Read more

God Communicates

February 22, 2018
Year 3, Day 53 | No Comments
Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

I have been through four sets of hearing aids during the last decades with varied results.  My problems are mixed in with my spirit in that the devices have been partly successful but troublesome in matters like high cost, phone conversations, and noisy contexts.  They have been costly, and in my view should have been more durable.  Some of the problems have been my own in that I have put those aids in places where they were damaged so that two (one of each of two pairs) I have purchased over the years were crushed in my neglect.  The first pair simply quit after a couple of years and I was sold a new pair that needed rather early repair,… Read more

One and Many

February 21, 2018
Year 3, Day 52 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

Do some persons of Christian faith make wrong statements about nature, science focus, and practical education?  They surely do.  They may even make extraordinary statements about faith that embarrass persons of more careful (biblically interpreted) faith.  The only comfort one may find in this is that some persons of non-faith make similar statements about their own beliefs, perhaps adding in misunderstandings about faith-based contexts.  Errors and prejudices appear to belong to all persons, with greater or lesser emphases on this or that factor in the mix.  We ought to use proper means to lessen the distortions, but as a child follows dangerous conduct on occasion, rightly addressed by parents, who achieve uneven results in their efforts – so will societies… Read more

Tools of Life

February 20, 2018
Year 3, Day 51 | No Comments

There are several universals to useful life that have worked well for me.  Sometimes I call them my tools.  They are not cast rigidly (although some are for me), but there has to be good reason to amend those that may have to be negotiated.  They find themselves repeated in these Pages in various contexts, a deliberate way for me to repeat for emphasis and importance to the good life.  (I have never forgotten the statement given to me in high school that, the mother of learning is repetition.)  These aids become larger, and more useful, when they are combined.  For example, two of these tools are Questions and Percentages. Questions: These are important to pleasant and useful communication.  (One… Read more

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