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

Christians

December 11, 2017
Year 2, Day 345 | No Comments
Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

Who among us in the population are Christians?  The range of concepts and claims is mind-boggling.  Those who do not claim personal relationship with Christ may be better oriented for their non-Christian orientation than some of the Christian population seem to be about Christian faith.  This stew of many persons claiming Christianity is likely due to limited knowledge of the content of Scripture; to our tendency to shift meanings of anything to fit our own designs; to various cultural evolvements that include pagan concepts; and, to intellectual adjustments about matters of faith.  This list can be extended.  I read of persons who want to be included as Christian in society in the implication that there is a personal commitment of… Read more

Single Minded

December 10, 2017
Year 2, Day 344 | No Comments
Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

I wanted students to learn an important lesson, never to be forgotten, related to the high cost of distraction.  I carefully designed my research project to be carried out with precision.  In my office, a few steps from the classroom where I was to lecture, I buttoned my jacket with the top hole on the one side enveloping the second button down on the other.  I entered the room at the last moment, using my notes to cover my indiscretion – so as not to gain any response before the beginning of the lecture.  Placing my sheaf of notes on the stand, I began speaking to the class in my standard way, continuing for ten minutes.  I stopped and said,… Read more

Superlatives

December 9, 2017
Year 2, Day 343 | No Comments
Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

We ought to be wary of superlatives in language.  I tend to dislike them as related to life, in mortal context.  I developed some dislike because the meanings of superlative words for persons are too imprecise.  On occasion superlatives imply that a statement of this or that may be formed with judgmentalism.  The good man is not really good enough unless he is very good.  Some of the best authors are spare with language, but precise.  Often superlatives are used by persons who treat language with less authority than it deserves.  On occasions the superlatives are avoided by word choices to evaluate views of the persons responding.  For example, the common five steps in evaluating a product are: Superior, Excellent,… Read more

Meaning

December 8, 2017
Year 2, Day 342 | No Comments
Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

In the Daily Page for this date in Volume 1, there is reference to a nation, where I was a guest.  It seemed to have reduced the sense of God and responsibility on the part of the people for personal relationship to God.  That Page was written some years before this one is composed.  In the interim that nation has elected a prime minister who openly acknowledged, before election, that she did not believe in God.  She admitted to being an atheist.  Since her election the matter of national chaplains has arisen.  There are several thousand chaplains in the country working primarily through business centers.  The fear that the new prime minister would undercut the national program not only proved… Read more

God And Warfare

December 7, 2017
Year 2, Day 341 | No Comments
Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

This is the date that, we were informed, will live in infamy.  While in college I heard the words from President Roosevelt on December 8, 1941, and the world hasn’t been the same since that date as it was previously, even though some new factors slowly emerged during the war and the years following.  I tend to put the dates of December 7 and 8 together.  For the Japanese to launch an attack, the date was the eighth, but for the Americans, the seventh.  In America it was the Lord’s Day – Monday in Asia. On the American 7th, in the evening, I walked into Chapel Hall in the college I attended, now named Nyack College in Nyack, New York. … Read more

Understanding Education

December 6, 2017
Year 2, Day 340 | No Comments
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Lurking in the minds of many ancients was a sense of importance for education of men.  Persons who gave time to education either as teachers (some slaves) or students were special to society.  We remember a few of their names, usually attached to a major preoccupation, persons who are remembered today in philosophy (including religion), medicine, literature, statesmanship, art (including architecture), drama, – and so the list may be extended.  The Bible notes the influences of teachers in the priests and prophets, but also in rabbis (as Jesus or John the Baptist) who taught the people, in more than religious concepts related to both spiritual and natural life.  The Apostle Paul encountered in later years his eminent teacher in Israel,… Read more

Practicing Hospitality

December 5, 2017
Year 2, Day 339 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

Scripture has something to say about world hospitality.  That is to say that strangers are treated as neighbors (not unlike extended family) to be included in our experience with grace and respect.  Hospitality is a way of social life for all peoples.  The loss of it has led to all sorts of nonsense, including warfare.  International meetings are reported in the media with members of delegations shaking hands, posing for photographers in respectful combinations, and expressing good will.  In the meantime there may be little done to address the issues that belong to grace, in the acceptance of each other.  Acceptance does not mean approval, just as unconditional love does not approve ill conduct in the loved.  Even nations, need… Read more

Fans And Fanaticism

December 4, 2017
Year 2, Day 338 | No Comments
Section of The Infant Jesus and St. John the Baptist, Guido Reni, n.d.

FANatics, in the connotative meaning of the word, are fans.  They feel FANtastic about this team, this job, this family, this community, this diet, this or that factor of high attention, of participation.  As a lad I was a fan of the Cleveland Indians, thirty miles away.  My all-time favorite big leaguer is Bob Feller, the Rapid Robert pitcher in Cleveland beginning in the mid-1930s.  When I went to New York, I dampened my ardor for the Indians and became a fan of the Yankees.  I saw DiMaggio and Berra play their game.  Games with Cleveland and the Yankees were marvelous, especially in one run wins.  Living in Illinois I took up with the White Sox, and the great hitting… Read more

Brother/Sister

December 3, 2017
Year 2, Day 337 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Adulteress, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop, ca. 1545–50

All of society, in all contexts, begins with the human individual – the lowest common denominator.  Man and woman are central life for the natural world.  Take away mankind and the result is nihilism, except for nature.  Gender is important to God, partly in representing the Trinity of God and his divine relationship with mankind.  God is represented in Christ as the Groom, and the Church is represented as the Bride – the family of God.  There is mystery to it related partly to function.  It does not speak of competition, but oneness of genders in mankind.  We need context to our words.  The identity, in context, is helpful in understanding life and conduct.  In race I am not a… Read more

Endings To Beginnings

December 2, 2017
Year 2, Day 336 | No Comments
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Scripture teaches that everything related to earth, except for human souls will be ended, replaced by a new creation as the original was meant to be.  This may not be an easy concept to accept for those who would like to hold on to some features of current life.  We must be satisfied with the scriptural story of the end of all creation, and the introduction of a brand new creation.  Depravity and sin are so objectionable to God that everything having anything to do with a fallen creation must be redeemed if it is to last.  The story informs us that only the human soul/spirit will qualify.  Qualification must be gained from choice by God and persons represented.  Reference… Read more

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