tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69077391333137387832024-03-13T10:40:23.068-04:00Faith on a Stone FoundationThis blog is a companion to my book, Faith on a Stone Foundation: Free Will, Morality and the God of Abraham (2017). Both the book and this blog are an exploration of Scripture and the concept of justification by faith alone.Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comBlogger403125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-58384030074204519372020-05-02T20:20:00.001-04:002020-05-02T20:20:54.640-04:00Consolation Series - Part 12<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ri4jNpYj-qU/Xq4OF7rI5FI/AAAAAAAAES0/c-i8SWIEQPU5zkZfvtq5g3sRbO_nT7mswCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/beautiful%2Bmosque%2Bceiling%2B2%2B-%2B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="670" height="414" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ri4jNpYj-qU/Xq4OF7rI5FI/AAAAAAAAES0/c-i8SWIEQPU5zkZfvtq5g3sRbO_nT7mswCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/beautiful%2Bmosque%2Bceiling%2B2%2B-%2B.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh is my rock,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">my fortress,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">and my deliverer, even mine;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God is my rock in whom I take refuge;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">my shield, and the horn of my salvation,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">my high tower, and my refuge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">My savior, you save me from violence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">So shall I be saved from my enemies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For the waves of death surrounded me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></sup><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The cords of Sheol were around me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The snares of death caught me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In my distress, I called on Yahweh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes, I called to my God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He heard my voice out of his temple.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">My cry came into his ears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then the earth shook and trembled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">because he was angry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Smoke went up out of his nostrils.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Consuming fire came out of his mouth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Coals were kindled by it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></sup><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He bowed the heavens also and came down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Thick darkness was under his feet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He rode on a cherub and flew.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<sup><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></sup><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He made darkness a shelter around himself:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At the brightness before him,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">coals of fire were kindled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh thundered from heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Most High uttered his voice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He sent out arrows, and scattered them;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">lightning, and confused them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then the channels of the sea appeared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The foundations of the world were laid bare by Yahweh’s rebuke,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He sent from on high and he took me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He drew me out of many waters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He delivered me from my strong enemy,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They came on me in the day of my calamity,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">but Yahweh was my support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He also brought me out into a large place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He delivered me, because he delighted in me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For you are my lamp, Yahweh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh will light up my darkness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For by you, I run against a troop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">By my God, I leap over a wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As for God, his way is perfect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh’s word is tested.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For who is God, besides Yahweh?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Who is a rock, besides our God?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God is my strong fortress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He makes my way perfect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He makes his feet like hinds’ feet,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">and sets me on my high places.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He teaches my hands to war,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">so that my arms bend a bow of bronze.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You have also given me the shield of your salvation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Your gentleness has made me great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You have enlarged my steps under me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">My feet have not slipped.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh lives!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Blessed be my rock!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You deliver me from the violent man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Therefore, I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">and will sing praises to your name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He gives great deliverance to his king,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">and shows loving kindness to his anointed,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">to David and to his offspring, forever more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2 Samuel 22:2-20, 29-37, 47, 49-51</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">As David nears the end, he surveys his life and finds God was with him all the time, as promised. When David was in trouble, God roused Himself to a fury to protect His own, laying bare the very foundations of the earth. David was not immune from suffering: He had lost his favorite son and was overcome with grief. And being God’s beloved didn’t inspire him to be particularly virtuous all the time, as he arranged for the death of Uriah so that he could continue his relations with Bathsheba. But David was always sure of God’s loving gaze. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><br />
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-54917853676560953032020-04-10T11:50:00.003-04:002020-04-10T11:50:51.453-04:00Consolation Series- Part 11<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nd6O6YNRBlo/XpCVYTuKUeI/AAAAAAAAERw/LYCBupJ-x1cpMJslLijHAsenXdOHmPuaQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/caravaggio-david-and-goliath-1606-1607-oil-on-canvas-1363567702_org.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1333" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nd6O6YNRBlo/XpCVYTuKUeI/AAAAAAAAERw/LYCBupJ-x1cpMJslLijHAsenXdOHmPuaQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/caravaggio-david-and-goliath-1606-1607-oil-on-canvas-1363567702_org.jpg" width="532" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">David took his staff in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag which he had. His sling was in his hand; and he came near to Goliath, the Philistine. The Philistine walked and came near to David; and the man who bore the shield went before him. When the Philistine looked around and saw David he disdained him; for he was but a youth. The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and kill you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh doesn’t save with sword and spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and he will give you into our hand.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When the Philistine arose, and walked and came near to meet David, David hurried, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1 Samuel 17:40-48<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">David represents God’s beloved; outmatched, outgunned and with virtually no chance of success against the troubles he faces. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Nonetheless, David delivers his inspiring, confident war cry and then runs headlong against his enemy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God will not necessarily deliver us from the cause of our suffering (“Yahweh doesn’t save with sword and spear”). But in the end, the day will be His and the day will be ours. In the story of Noah and the Ark, the Flood did not represent the judgment of God, it represented Chaos. God did not make Creation from nothing, but rather drew it out of Chaos - dividing light from dark, night from day, earth from water, and finally humanity from earth. Chaos <i>will</i> return in each of our lives, but God tells us it does not have to sink us. He will invite us to float over it until it recedes and dutifully close the door of the Ark behind us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This Good Friday, we might feel outmatched and outgunned by COVID-19. Our lives feel chaotic, with no real sense of what the future holds for us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Knowing that we are the beloved of God means that we never suffer alone and we don’t have to let suffering demean us. We can run headlong into it.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Image: David & Goliath, </span><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Caravaggio</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (1600)</span></i></span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-70379300556593199702020-04-07T15:25:00.001-04:002020-04-07T15:25:19.622-04:00Consolation Series - Part 10<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">There is no one as holy as Yahweh,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">nor is there any rock like our God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The bows of the mighty men are broken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Those who stumbled are armed with strength.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Those who were hungry are satisfied.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yes, the barren has borne seven.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She who has many children languishes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh makes poor and makes rich.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He brings low, he also lifts up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He raises up the poor out of the dust.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He lifts up the needy from the dunghill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">to make them sit with princes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">and inherit the throne of glory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He has set the world on them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">He will keep the feet of his holy ones,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">and no man will prevail by strength.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1 Samuel 2:2, 3-5,7-10<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One of the most prominent themes in Scripture is that God is with those who suffer. It manifests itself in every book of the Bible in one way or another. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Heroes are always the smallest, the morally compromised, the second born: Moses, chosen by God to be His chief negotiator with Pharaoh, is a stutterer. Jacob, later to be renamed Israel and father of the twelve tribes, was the second born and obtained his older brother’s birthright and blessing by fraud. David, chosen to be king of Israel, was out in a field shepherding sheep when the promising candidates were lined up for selection, and the thing with Uria was pretty disgraceful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Also, God always concerns Himself with those the widows and the orphans. Jesus concerns himself with the sinners and tax collectors, the prodigal sons, the lost sheep, the poor and the sick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">We’ve heard this so often, the existential shock of it has worn off. Historically, God’s competition was Ba’al. According to the Canaanite mythology that Judaism replaced, Ba’al was a fertility god and demanded the execution and immolation of first born children to appease him. It is said that the valley outside Jerusalem, Gehenna, stank from the smoking pyres of human sacrifice. Ba’al, like every pagan god before him, clearly favored the strong, the wealthy, and the powerful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When, in the fullness of time, God revealed himself, he announced that He was different. God favored those who could not defend themselves and found themselves brought low. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This is our God.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-70203313340522839352020-04-03T14:13:00.000-04:002020-04-03T14:13:10.795-04:00Consolation Series - Number 9<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ne97WCqN0fA/Xod8oA67UoI/AAAAAAAAERE/jsBSd3pArPknryh8Wl4437K13x1BdOnqwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/13160158265-night-stars-forests-trees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ne97WCqN0fA/Xod8oA67UoI/AAAAAAAAERE/jsBSd3pArPknryh8Wl4437K13x1BdOnqwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/13160158265-night-stars-forests-trees.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is how you shall bless the children of Israel. You shall tell them:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">May God bless you and keep you.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">May the light of His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">May the Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.’</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">So shall you invoke My name to the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Numbers 6:22-27</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Every Sunday night before we sit down to eat, my wife and I place our hands on our daughter’s head and recite this ancient blessing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It is not so much an attempt to get God to do something, but a recognition that He has already done it. As the descendants of Abraham, we can claim the ancient promise God made to him. This is the covenant, so often repeated, and so often confirmed throughout the Biblical narrative – that God will always suffer with us and love us. Though the universe is vast and often seems capricious and cold, we are never alone.</span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-33886557347577122772020-03-30T11:17:00.000-04:002020-03-30T11:17:40.923-04:00Consolation Series - Number 8 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tdJ0aaRPadE/XoINW3ZIYcI/AAAAAAAAEQs/MSxxQ8gK_pofmbaGaA9XNa8NANOQO0S7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Pale%2BBlue%2BDot%2B-%2BVoyager%2BI%2B-%2B3.7bn%2Bmiles%2Baway%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="600" height="484" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tdJ0aaRPadE/XoINW3ZIYcI/AAAAAAAAEQs/MSxxQ8gK_pofmbaGaA9XNa8NANOQO0S7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Pale%2BBlue%2BDot%2B-%2BVoyager%2BI%2B-%2B3.7bn%2Bmiles%2Baway%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. Yahweh didn’t set His love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples; but because Yahweh loves you, and because He desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know, therefore, that Yahweh your God Himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations. Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which He swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. You will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be male or female barren among you, nor among your livestock.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Deuteronomy 7:6-9, 12-14<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This is an extraordinary statement of divine acceptance. God chose Abraham at random to be the recipient of God’s eternal blessing and covenant. Abraham had not yet demonstrated any virtue and would, over the course of the story, be a model of vice as much as virtue. Here again God states that He does not choose us because we have been particularly deserving or have stood out to Him at all. God goes on to say His covenant will survive anything and is practically irrevocable. He asserts that it would take at least a thousand generations of uninterrupted sin to rouse Him to the least indignation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As Paul Tillich wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You are accepted! You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephan/OneDrive/Personal%20-%20Book%203%20-%20The%20Book%20of%20Consolation/8%20-%20Deuteronomy%207.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[i]</span></span></span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Image: The pale blue dot on the right is Earth taken by Voyager I twenty-five years ago from 3.7 billion miles away</span></i><br />
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-56003457610747847202020-03-28T11:04:00.000-04:002020-03-28T11:08:04.775-04:00The Nature of Consolation <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I
know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. But
now faith, hope, and love remain - these three. The greatest of these is love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i>1 Corinthians 13:12-13</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Usually, plants sprout and
grow spontaneously and organically. We don't really need to understand or
even think about the processes that are going on to make it happen. But
sometimes we need a plant to grow in an artificial environment. Then it
is important to know how the process works naturally and what the component
parts are so we can make it happen synthetically.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Usually, we find ways to
sooth our stresses spontaneously and organically. We don't really
need to understand or even think about the processes that are going on to make
it happen. But now we are in isolation from one another facing a serious
disease and an uncertain future. There is value in thinking about how we find
consolation naturally so that maybe we can recreate it in our new, challenging
circumstances. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It seems to me we find
consolation in three ways: in solitude, in communion with God, and in community
with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Consolation in Solitude</span></u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. This
is the specialty of Buddhism and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. It also
appears in Christian Scripture and tradition. It boils down to
deliberately thinking in ways that reduce stress and, because the mind is
influenced by the body, physically behaving in ways that do the same
thing. Most Christians are familiar with the Serenity Prayer (“God,
grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage
to accept the things I can and wisdom to know the difference”). In
the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus made the distinctly Buddhist statement, “therefore
do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own”. And relatedly, “consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin”. I know there is a
great deal of allegiance to the idea that the content of The Lord’s Prayer is
beautiful, but I really don’t agree. What makes it profoundly comforting
is that it is easily memorized and recited at a moment of stress, and instantly
places the speaker in the content of the divine and eternal. It pushes
stressful, damaging thoughts aside. All these thoughts and actions
tend to relieve stress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Communion with God</span></u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. A person
of faith never feels alone. Perhaps the boldest assertion of faith is that if
you have faith you will find a joy not accessible any other way and of
exceptional power. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God
which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus” (<i>Philippians 4:6-7</i>) This is the great disconnect between atheists
and agnostics on one hand and people of faith on the other. The
former believes we are waiting for consolation from God through a miraculous
change in circumstances or a turn in luck. We know our consolation
lies in simply abiding with God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Consolation in Community</span></u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. Finally,
there is consolation in community. The Harvard Study of Adult
Development has concluded that close friendship is the best predictor of
health. A good friend of mine who is a social worker for a
metropolitan school system says that when he is presented with a deeply
depressed student, he tries to reconnect them to their social group. This is
the dynamic that caused the early Christian church to sweep the
globe. In John’s retelling of the Last Supper, there is no
mention of a Eucharistic liturgy and he offers no new theology. Instead,
Jesus lays out how cultivating community will spread the Gospel. “A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved
you, you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another.” <i>John 13:34-35</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Consolation in isolation
corresponds roughly to “hope”, consolation in communion with God corresponds
roughly to “faith”, and consolation in community corresponds roughly to “love”.
We would expect St. Paul to value faith – communion with God - over any other
consolation. But he says the greatest of these is love. We are social
beings. The isolation that has been imposed on us is very difficult
to bear and deprives us of the most reliable and strongest means of consoling ourselves
and each other</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I don’t know how to
overcome this new obstacle to community. The threat of COVID-19 is a
dark cloud that is hard to shake in isolation. I appreciate the
efforts of churches to provide remote services and sermons, but no mass-produced
online content has successfully taken the place of physical proximity for
me. Fortunately, the situation is unpleasant but not overwhelming so
far. I am fortunate in that I am only in relative isolation and
still have the community of family. I suppose the best we can do is to cultivate and rely on
the other two forms of consolation and to be sensitive to the needs of those who
are not in isolation with family members, or do not have access to the other
two forms of consolation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><i>Photo: Rembrandt's St. Paul</i></span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-40029045533310348312020-03-27T10:57:00.000-04:002020-03-27T14:14:51.626-04:00Consolation Series - COVID-19<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X3CopHRtoZc/Xn4SJz276gI/AAAAAAAAEQM/YCSCvro9Eqge7_Na01DyGEsoJI-XumA0wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Earthrise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X3CopHRtoZc/Xn4SJz276gI/AAAAAAAAEQM/YCSCvro9Eqge7_Na01DyGEsoJI-XumA0wCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Earthrise.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My hero
is Fred Rogers of </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Mister Roger’s Neighborhood</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. What I find
particularly compelling about him is that he crafted his way of living
independently. He obviously took strong cues from his faith, but on that
foundation, he built a beautifully lived life. Any one of us could
imitate how he behaved. It would be exceptionally hard, but doable. But
how many of us could invent a genuinely beautiful life from whole cloth as he
did? In one of his biographies, he told a story about his mother.
When young Fred saw scary things on the news, his mother would say to him,
“Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Well,
there are scary things on the news. What is truly
extraordinary is that we are all helpers. Every one of us has risk
of a worst-case scenario, but in all likelihood for the vast majority of us,
COVID-19 will not make us seriously ill. We are all living in
isolation to protect the vulnerable. That is extraordinarily noble when you
think about it. Collectively, we are allowing the global economy to
falter and collapse for the same high purpose: to ease human suffering and loss
of life. The scope and breadth of this act of compassion has no
precedent in human history. If you look for the helpers, you need
not look far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is
easy to do the opposite. We can focus on those who refuse to isolate themselves
or engage in other behavior that risks the health and lives of
others. Those decisions may have serious consequences for the people
they encounter. They are a tiny minority by any standard. Because
of the way our media is structured (both news media and social media), those
stories will have dramatically exaggerated prevalence. Additionally, the human
mind is evolved to have a tendency toward negativity in order to protect us
from bad people and bad situations. The human mind is also evolved
to seek intimacy and community. The easiest, cheapest form of intimacy and
community is through anger. That kind of intimacy never lasts and doesn’t
support resilient happiness. It is short-sighted self-soothing - like
everything that we do even though we know it will bring us down. People who
invite anger are out there. It’s up to us whether their influence on us is
proportional and wise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Much has
gone well. The seriousness of the virus was identified swiftly and
extraordinary measures to ‘flatten the curve’ were put in place very quickly
almost universally. Much has admittedly gone less well. One would have thought
every federal government around the world and every hospital and senior care
facility would have stockpiled protective gear for a pandemic. Will anger
about it in the midst of the pandemic do any genuine good? Will
retaliation afterward do any genuine good?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have
been avoiding news and social media for several months. I find it is
a poisonous influence. Nowadays, I think its probably important to keep up with
current events, so I have been back. There is a lot of anger out
there. Or at least there appears to be a lot of anger out
there. Those who are consumed with anger, or who habitually seek
intimacy through anger, are out in full force. It probably seems vitally
important, righteous and justified to them. Anger always does. It is all
worse than useless. All these professional and amateur pundits are
managing to do is poison their own minds and the minds of those of us reading
their material.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is
a sacred, liminal quality to this time. Much good is being done, and
much compassion is being shown. Maybe more importantly, much suffering
is occurring and many thousands of members of the human family will not survive the next few weeks and
months. We can use this time reflexively producing anger and
consuming it. Or we can try to embrace the inherent sanctity of this
moment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Look for
the helpers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Photo: Earthrise from the Moon </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-79080945301196732162020-03-24T15:27:00.000-04:002020-03-24T15:27:02.032-04:00Consolation Series - Number 7<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WecL_WuxBsU/Xnpe5gix24I/AAAAAAAAEQA/b-qw8Ylgyck2KCpyWSu3JYEdYK4hNYTAQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Borrowdale%2BValley%2Bin%2Bthe%2BLake%2BDistrict%2BNational%2BPark%252C%2BEngland%2B-%2BPublic%2BDomain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="358" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WecL_WuxBsU/Xnpe5gix24I/AAAAAAAAEQA/b-qw8Ylgyck2KCpyWSu3JYEdYK4hNYTAQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Borrowdale%2BValley%2Bin%2Bthe%2BLake%2BDistrict%2BNational%2BPark%252C%2BEngland%2B-%2BPublic%2BDomain.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God spoke to Moses, and said to him, “I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them. I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their travels, in which they lived as aliens. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore, tell the children of Israel, ‘I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments. I will take you to myself for a people. I will be your God; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage: I am Yahweh.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Moses spoke so to the children of Israel, but they didn’t listen to Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Exodus 6:2-9<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Here, again, God refers to the covenant He made with Abraham. He promises that He will save them from slavery and take them to Himself as His people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But the Israelites are so broken-hearted by their circumstances they cannot hear, let alone believe, this extraordinary divine promise of loving attention. But their inability to hear Him doesn’t prevent God from keeping His promise. Later in the rescue mission, at the shores of the Red Sea the waters of which God is about to part to complete their escape, Moses will tell the people: “Don’t be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation Yahweh will work for you today; for you will never again see the Egyptians whom you see today. Yahweh will fight for you, and you need only be still.” (Exodus 14:13-14). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God will do His work. We need only be still. </span><br />
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-81565541508154752222020-03-22T15:20:00.000-04:002020-03-22T15:20:05.101-04:00Consolation Series - Part 6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CipwNdgvwF0/Xne6UaFmXuI/AAAAAAAAEPk/I06_APbEGvEMkMsH3h9P2p-LwA0yuLGiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/beautiful-nature-river-in-the-green-forest-5120x2880.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CipwNdgvwF0/Xne6UaFmXuI/AAAAAAAAEPk/I06_APbEGvEMkMsH3h9P2p-LwA0yuLGiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/beautiful-nature-river-in-the-green-forest-5120x2880.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God’s mountain, to Horeb. Yahweh’s angel appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Moses said, “I will go now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When Yahweh saw that he came over to see, God called to him out of the middle of the bush, and said, “Moses! Moses!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Moses said, “Here I am.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Don’t come close. Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing on is holy ground.” Moreover, He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey. Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to challenge Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Certainly I will be with you.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Exodus 3:1-12<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Again, the dual themes of asymmetry and proximity reveal themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God appears as mysterious fire and warns Moses that he cannot approach too close. Moses must remove his sandals in recognition of the sacredness of the space God occupies. Later in the story, the Israelites will be warned not to touch Mount Sinai as God descends onto it amid thunder, lightning, trumpet blasts and earthquakes. Moses is afraid to look at God and indeed God will warn him in the coming chapters that no one can see God and live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But Moses will later see God “face-to-face” and Jacob will be renamed, “Israel,” because he wrestled with God and lives. In Genesis, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, marvels that she looked upon God and lived. And God has arrived to deliver a message of warmth, nearness, and loving concern. He is with us, and although He evidently cannot free us from suffering, He suffers with us. He frees us from the slavery of being one little mote in a vast universe and places us squarely in the center of His palm. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-22112130747635658222020-03-20T12:29:00.001-04:002020-03-20T12:30:06.032-04:00Consolation Series - Number 5<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.” He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This short passage contains three themes that are repeated throughout Scripture:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Jacob’s dream of a stairway to heaven with angels ascending and descending represents that we do not live in a dualistic universe where there is divide that cannot be crossed between the divine and the human, or the sacred and the profane. Jesus is the incarnation of the divine in the human. When he dies on the cross the veil that separated the Holy of Holies in the Temple from the outside is torn in two. In the Catholic tradition, we both venerate the tabernacle in which the Eucharist is kept, and reach in and eat the contents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Jacob receives precisely the same promise of abundant divine love and attention that his grandfather, Abraham, received. God’s promise to Abraham that His covenant will endure generation after generation is fulfilled. It doesn’t mean that Abraham’s decedents will not experience suffering. Far from it, as they will find themselves enslaved in Egypt in the next book. But it means that God is with us, exults in our successes, but especially suffers with us in our pain and failures. Isaiah will prophecy the arrival of a messiah named Immanuel, or “God is with us” – a story that Matthew relates at the birth of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And finally, Jacob is awed by his encounter with God. Our deepest intuitions of God are paradoxical. On the one hand, God is with us; a familiar Presence and our most intimate relationship. On the other hand, we can’t help but feel our smallness in the presence of God. Rudolf Otto called this feeling “<i>mysterium tremendum et fascinans</i>”, the numinous, the utterly ineffable and overwhelmingly holy – the feeling our creatureliness in the presence of our Creator. Martin Buber put it this way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">O, you safe and secure ones. You who hide yourselves behind the ramparts of law so that you will not have to look into God’s abyss! Yes, you have secure ground under your feet, while we hang suspended looking out over the endless deeps. But we would not exchange our dizzy insecurity and poverty for your security and abundance … Of God’s will we know only the eternal; the temporal we must command for ourselves…</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">Twas’ grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace that fear relieved.</span><br />
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-58674351592856784022020-03-20T09:09:00.001-04:002020-03-20T09:09:18.992-04:00Consolation Series - Number 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The people who walked in darkness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The light has shined on those<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">who lived in the land of the shadow of death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You have multiplied the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They rejoice before you as at the harvest,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">as men rejoice when they divide plunder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For the yoke that burdened them,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">and the staff on their shoulder,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-79611754662592712612020-03-18T07:57:00.000-04:002020-03-18T07:57:18.302-04:00Passion or Passover?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I think this photograph is so funny. It has taken social media by storm, usually with a caption to the effect of: "Telling Jesus how bad your life is right now." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That the Passion started at the close of Passover has extraordinary meaning in itself. At Passover, God saved the Israelites from slavery "with a strong arm." In the Passion, God allowed His son to be brutally tortured and killed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">One of Jesus's most repeated themes is that bad things do happen to good people. Re-read the story of the man blind from birth. The theology of the time was that any hardship was a sign from God that you (or your parents!) had done something bad and the hardship was imposed on you by God as punishment. Jesus spoke out against this repeatedly. I have argued elsewhere that the Beatitudes are not moral advice - they are a statement against this view. Blessed - not cursed - are the poor in spirit. At our lowest, we have God's highest attention and love. The Story of Lazarus and the rich man is also not moral advice. It contradicts the theology that if you are rich it is because of God's favor and vice versa. The Old Testament challenges this thought too. The Book of Job is often dismissed as a story about a wager between God and the devil, but it is really a statement that bad events are not punishment from God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When something like COVID sweeps the globe, it is easy to doubt that God is in control of good and bad. That's progress because He isn't. Scripture tells us that God is not the dealer of life's cards - even on a global scale. God loves us and suffers with us. You only have to look at a crucifix to see that. </span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-80247063564334135412020-03-18T07:32:00.000-04:002020-03-18T07:32:04.872-04:00Consolation Series - Number 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh. Abraham came near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it? May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes. What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Abraham spoke to him yet again, and said, “What if there are forty found there?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh said, “I will not do it for the forty’s sake.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Abraham said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Abraham said, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh said, “I will not destroy it for the twenty’s sake.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Abraham said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh went his way as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is often assumed to be about a wrathful God punishing bad behavior. But the story really isn’t about that at all. The vast majority of the text consists of an extraordinary discussion between Abraham and God in which Abraham ask God if He will spare the city if just a few innocent people can be found there. God’s answer is inevitably, “yes.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In the Biblical narrative, it sometimes seems like God’s concern is with the Israelites as a group rather than with each individual. And in our lives, it is easy to feel very small and insignificant – one person in a world of billions. We might ask, “does God take notice of me?” One of the most disconcerting things bout COVID is that it makes us all feel like cannon fodder - a nameless statistic - a potential carrier or patient. The story of Sodom and the discussion between Abraham and God reveals that God does not love groups; He loves each of us as His unique creation and takes notice of each one of us because each one of us is the center of His universe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Jesus said something similar in the Gospel of Matthew:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Aren’t two sparrows sold for an Assarion coin? Not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father’s notice, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore, don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-47340597056587111192020-03-17T18:00:00.000-04:002020-03-17T18:00:06.645-04:00Consolation Series - Number 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JxhLs1D4yxU/XnFILxxlyDI/AAAAAAAAEOc/_PXJUQHPqekelihcLT32fbCt6gdHZKz7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_6197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JxhLs1D4yxU/XnFILxxlyDI/AAAAAAAAEOc/_PXJUQHPqekelihcLT32fbCt6gdHZKz7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_6197.JPG" width="480" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. They entered into the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land. Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” (Genesis 12:1-7)</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for I will give all the land which you see to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be counted. Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its width; for I will give it to you.” (Genesis 13:14-18)</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will be.” He believed in Yahweh, who credited it to him for righteousness. He said to Abram, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur to give you this land to inherit it.” (Genesis 15:5-7)</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Abram fell on his face. God talked with him, saying, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations. Your name will no more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you. I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:1-8)</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. (Genesis 22:17)</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God promises that Abram will be the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam which, taken together, today represent well over half the global population. There is nothing in Abram’s backstory to suggest he deserves to be chosen for this immense blessing and honor. In fact, Genesis tells us who Abram’s ancestors were, but doesn’t tell us anything else about him. God’s choice appears to have been entirely random. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">But Abram’s story is more than just the history of world religion. Abram’s name means, “father,” and the new name God gives him, “Abraham,” means “father of nations.” We are not supposed to see Abram as a heroic, distant Biblical figure, but as being in our own immediate family and our direct decedent. Abram represents each one of us and God’s unreasoning decision to take each of us as His very own. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God repeats His covenant with Abram repeatedly as though to make sure we don’t forget it. He speaks in the most evocative language: He tells Abram to look in every direction to see the land God will give his children as an everlasting possession. He invites Abram, and each one of us, to look up into the ancient starlit night sky and the sand on the boundless seashore to illustrate God’s abundant, eternal love. </span><br />
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-48869994734298072772020-03-16T20:58:00.001-04:002020-03-16T20:58:32.565-04:00Consolation Series - Number 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yNu6RVBXtIk/XnAggAvj0WI/AAAAAAAAEOQ/qlgquUgrwAY0msJSQasjBf6UNT_R5kj2gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Flowers%2BThru%2BSnow%2B-%2BPublic%2BDomain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yNu6RVBXtIk/XnAggAvj0WI/AAAAAAAAEOQ/qlgquUgrwAY0msJSQasjBf6UNT_R5kj2gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Flowers%2BThru%2BSnow%2B-%2BPublic%2BDomain.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so. God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good. God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth;” and it was so. The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth;” and it was so. God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;” and it was so. God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished. On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Genesis 1;2:1-3</span></i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Some extraordinary themes reveal themselves in the first Creation story:</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God brings order from Chaos, represented by the distinguishing of things from one another and, even more evocatively, the watery Deep. In a few chapters, God will teach Noah how to survive the return of Chaos when floodwaters engulf the world, and carefully lock the door of the ark behind him. Moses will command the waters of the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape the Egyptians, pursuing them to return them to slavery. Elijah will divide the Jordan river as he faces the chaos of the end of his earthly life and his apprentice, Elisha, will divide it again to begin his own ministry. Jesus will calm turbulent waters, walk on them, and teach Peter that he can walk on them too. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The earth and everything that emerges from it is Good, and God blesses it.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God is ancient and sovereign. He created an abundant, nurturing universe heartrending in its beauty, mystery and majesty. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">God made us in His image. From the very beginning, He intended us to be His children – a message He would underline with earthquakes, thunder and lightning at Mount Sinai and again in Bethlehem and once more on Calvary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">And He must be still, as we must be, to reflect on the enormous beauty of it all.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-44033836673422653302019-11-29T10:31:00.001-05:002019-11-29T10:31:37.318-05:00St. Nicholas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Nicholas, before he donned his red coat and moved to the North Pole, was the
third century bishop of the city of Myra in modern Turkey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Many
miracles were attributed to Nicholas. But the most evocative story attributed
to him, and the one that would come to lend the most to our vision of him,
wasn’t magical at all. He reportedly helped a poor man who had three
daughters and who could not afford a dowry for them. Without a dowry, in the
culture of the day, the daughters would have been condemned to a life of
prostitution. Under cover of darkness, Nicolas threw a small bag of gold
coins into the open window of the home of the poor man to pay the dowry of each
daughter as they came of age. As the last daughter came of age, the
poor man tried to discover Nicolas’s identity by waiting for him by the
window. So, Nicholas instead threw the bag down the chimney into a
stocking the daughter had hung by the chimney with care - to dry after washing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
another variation of the story, the poor man successfully confronts Nicholas
and thanks him. But Nicholas urges him to thank only God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So,
Christmas really is about gifts! But it is not gifts that we
give - it is the abundant gifts God gives us. When Jesus multiplies a few
loaves of bread and feeds thousands, he does not expect us to be able to repeat
the miracle. The story demonstrates that God’s love is
abundant. While in the human economy everything of value is scarce, must
be rationed and reserved for the worthiest, God’s economy is
different. God’s love is abundant enough to go around with plenty left
over. We don’t need to decide who is good enough – and God won’t either
- He’ll just quietly throw His love to us under cover of darkness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-46948251953986702982019-08-27T21:56:00.003-04:002019-08-27T21:56:55.274-04:00The Sovereignty and Immensity of God - Part 6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oix7M4HzwZA/XWXfUgAv-6I/AAAAAAAAEJU/U7nk0sbiGY8W8zw5UGm1wXGTQCnnJksIwCLcBGAs/s1600/Chile%2527s%2BMount%2BCalpuco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="780" height="358" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oix7M4HzwZA/XWXfUgAv-6I/AAAAAAAAEJU/U7nk0sbiGY8W8zw5UGm1wXGTQCnnJksIwCLcBGAs/s640/Chile%2527s%2BMount%2BCalpuco.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders
and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an
exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp
trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood
at the lower part of the mountain. All of Mount Sinai smoked,
because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke
of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. When the sound of the
trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a
voice. Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. Yahweh
called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yahweh said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people, lest they
break through to Yahweh to gaze, and many of them perish. Let the
priests also, who come near to Yahweh, sanctify themselves, lest Yahweh break
out on them.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Exodus 19:16-22</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-63369973551961911542019-08-27T21:52:00.000-04:002019-08-27T21:58:41.335-04:00The Sovereignty and Immensity of God - Part 5<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QHMj_CLt8J0/XWXeQ-fwGEI/AAAAAAAAEJI/toGwVg7iB_cCVR0yjlUIDj5rkOsxt5S1gCLcBGAs/s1600/Cleft%2Bi%2Bthe%2BRock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="962" height="398" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QHMj_CLt8J0/XWXeQ-fwGEI/AAAAAAAAEJI/toGwVg7iB_cCVR0yjlUIDj5rkOsxt5S1gCLcBGAs/s640/Cleft%2Bi%2Bthe%2BRock.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and
will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” He said, “You
cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.” Yahweh also said,
“Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. It will
happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock,
and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take
away my hand, and <o:p></o:p></div>
you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i>Exodus 33:18-23</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-1962885052079695992019-08-27T21:37:00.000-04:002019-08-27T21:37:48.867-04:00The Sovereignty and Immensity of God - Part 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CkXeHdkyNPE/XWXavUkb0oI/AAAAAAAAEI0/NDDBoVfo2ygcZ8285oq2LjFSLD2pg1DeQCLcBGAs/s1600/Leviathan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CkXeHdkyNPE/XWXavUkb0oI/AAAAAAAAEI0/NDDBoVfo2ygcZ8285oq2LjFSLD2pg1DeQCLcBGAs/s400/Leviathan.jpg" width="400" /></a>“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or press down his tongue with a cord?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can you put a rope into his nose,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or pierce his jaw through with a hook?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will he make many petitions to you,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or will he speak soft words to you?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will he make a covenant with you,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that you should take him for a servant forever?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will you play with him as with a bird?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or will you bind him for your girls?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will traders barter for him?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will they part him among the merchants?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can you fill his skin with barbed irons,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or his head with fish spears?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lay your hand on him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Remember the battle, and do so no more.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Behold, the hope of him is in vain.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
None is so fierce that he dare stir him up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who then is he who can stand before me?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Everything under the heavens is mine.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who can strip off his outer garment?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who will come within his jaws?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who can open the doors of his face?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Around his teeth is terror.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Strong scales are his pride,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
shut up together with a close seal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One is so near to another,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that no air can come between them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They are joined to one another.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His sneezing flashes out light.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Out of his mouth go burning torches.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sparks of fire leap out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Out of his nostrils a smoke goes,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His breath kindles coals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A flame goes out of his mouth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is strength in his neck.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Terror dances before him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The flakes of his flesh are joined together.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They are firm on him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They can’t be moved.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His heart is as firm as a stone,</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
yes, firm as the lower millstone.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They retreat before his thrashing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He counts iron as straw,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and bronze as rotten wood.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The arrow can’t make him flee.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sling stones are like chaff to him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clubs are counted as stubble.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His undersides are like sharp potsherds,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He makes the deep to boil like a pot.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He makes a path shine after him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One would think the deep had white hair.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On earth there is not his equal,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that is made without fear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He sees everything that is high.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He is king over all the sons of pride.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Job, Chapter 41</i></div>
<br /></div>
Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-78393869916149581332019-08-27T21:31:00.002-04:002019-08-27T21:31:39.481-04:00The Sovereignty and Immensity of God - Part 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LytteBeMtzQ/XWXZZFI3wII/AAAAAAAAEIo/uUEZU2I8fUgrEhonLJ915JaDuVkEBaoIgCLcBGAs/s1600/download-Night%2BSky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LytteBeMtzQ/XWXZZFI3wII/AAAAAAAAEIo/uUEZU2I8fUgrEhonLJ915JaDuVkEBaoIgCLcBGAs/s640/download-Night%2BSky.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Moreover Yahweh answered Job,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He who argues with God, let him answer it.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then Job answered Yahweh,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I lay my hand on my mouth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have spoken once, and I will not answer;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Now brace yourself like a man.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will question you, and you will answer me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will you even annul my judgment?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or do you have an arm like God?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can you thunder with a voice like him?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Array yourself with honor and majesty.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pour out the fury of your anger.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Look at everyone who is proud and bring him low.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Crush the wicked in their place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hide them in the dust together.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bind their faces in the hidden place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then I will also admit to you<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that your own right hand can save you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“See now behemoth, which I made as well as you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He eats grass as an ox.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Look now, his strength is in his thighs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His force is in the muscles of his belly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He moves his tail like a cedar.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The sinews of his thighs are knit together.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His bones are like tubes of bronze.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His limbs are like bars of iron.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He is the chief of the ways of God.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He who made him gives him his sword.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Surely the mountains produce food for him,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
where all the animals of the field play.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He lies under the lotus trees,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The lotuses cover him with their shade.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The willows of the brook surround him.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-81389738559595689802019-08-27T21:26:00.000-04:002019-08-27T21:26:04.371-04:00The Sovereignty and Immensity of God - Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JSwU_M7u_wE/XWXX_dYkTuI/AAAAAAAAEIc/ydxdD6sLEtclsQUw5WLpX3Ig08ZgjQiYACLcBGAs/s1600/Attachment-1%2B%2528002%2529.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="670" height="420" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JSwU_M7u_wE/XWXX_dYkTuI/AAAAAAAAEIc/ydxdD6sLEtclsQUw5WLpX3Ig08ZgjQiYACLcBGAs/s640/Attachment-1%2B%2528002%2529.gif" width="640" /></a>“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can you count the months that they fulfill?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or do you know the time when they give birth?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They bow themselves. They bear their young.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They end their labor pains.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Their young ones become strong.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They grow up in the open field.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They go out, and don’t return again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Who has set the wild donkey free?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
whose home I have made the wilderness,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and the salt land his dwelling place?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He scorns the tumult of the city,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
neither does he hear the shouting of the driver.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The range of the mountains is his pasture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He searches after every green thing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Will the wild ox be content to serve you?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or will he stay by your feeding trough?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or will he till the valleys after you?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will you trust him, because his strength is great?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or will you leave to him your labor?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and gather the grain of your threshing floor?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but are they the feathers and plumage of love?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For she leaves her eggs on the earth,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
warms them in the dust,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and forgets that the foot may crush them,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or that the wild animal may trample them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not
hers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
because God has deprived her of wisdom,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
neither has he imparted to her understanding.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When she lifts up herself on high,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
she scorns the horse and his rider.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Have you given the horse might?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Have you made him to leap as a locust?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The glory of his snorting is awesome.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He goes out to meet the armed men.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
neither does he turn back from the sword.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The quiver rattles against him,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the flashing spear and the javelin.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He smells the battle afar off,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and stretches her wings toward the south?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and makes his nest on high?<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the cliff he dwells and makes his home,<o:p></o:p></div>
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on the point of the cliff and the stronghold.<o:p></o:p></div>
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From there he spies out the prey.<o:p></o:p></div>
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His eyes see it afar off.<o:p></o:p></div>
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His young ones also suck up blood.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Where the slain are, there he is.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Job, Chapter 39</i></div>
<br /></div>
Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-48674027997271538082019-08-27T21:19:00.000-04:002019-08-27T21:38:06.968-04:00The Sovereignty and Immensity of God - Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-zR3GIvM2I/XWXWU2JT2XI/AAAAAAAAEIQ/BntOuMkbs3wi2qcyFGdn3l78aI549IxigCLcBGAs/s1600/Galaxy%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="227" data-original-width="222" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D-zR3GIvM2I/XWXWU2JT2XI/AAAAAAAAEIQ/BntOuMkbs3wi2qcyFGdn3l78aI549IxigCLcBGAs/s400/Galaxy%2B3.jpg" width="390" /></a><i>Most readers
don't get past the first chapter of the Book of Job. It appeals to our
sense of the dramatic and the binary: God makes a wager with Satan to
tempt poor Job. Most commentators believe it is a story about the
importance of fortitude. But the book is really an exploration of the Problem
of Evil. We are told at the onset that Job is good man. As the
story progresses, he is beset with ever more challenging circumstances.
Job's three friends - Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar - offer the theology of the day: If bad things happen to
Job, it must be a punishment from God for some bad conduct. Decades or even centuries
after the principle book is written, the redactor even adds the character of Elihu.
Even Elihu argues that bad things only happen to bad people. God eventually loses patience. He curses the three friends for being so
wrong about His nature. He does not answer
the Problem of Evil directly, but God described Himself in the most profound
and powerful terms: </i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Who is this who darkens counsel<o:p></o:p></div>
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by words without knowledge?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Brace yourself like a man,<o:p></o:p></div>
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for I will question you, then you answer me!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Declare, if you have understanding.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Who determined its measures, if you know?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Or who stretched the line on it?<o:p></o:p></div>
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What were its foundations fastened on?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Or who laid its cornerstone,<o:p></o:p></div>
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when the morning stars sang together,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and all the sons of God shouted for joy?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Or who shut up the sea with doors,<o:p></o:p></div>
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when it broke out of the womb,<o:p></o:p></div>
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when I made clouds its garment,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and wrapped it in thick darkness,<o:p></o:p></div>
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marked out for it my bound,<o:p></o:p></div>
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set bars and doors,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and said, ‘You may come here, but no further.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Have you commanded the morning in your days,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and caused the dawn to know its place,<o:p></o:p></div>
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that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and shake the wicked out of it?<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is changed as clay under the seal,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and presented as a garment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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From the wicked, their light is withheld.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The high arm is broken.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Have you entered into the springs of the sea?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Have the gates of death been revealed to you?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Have you comprehended the earth in its width?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Declare, if you know it all.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“What is the way to the dwelling of light?<o:p></o:p></div>
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As for darkness, where is its place,<o:p></o:p></div>
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that you should take it to its bound,<o:p></o:p></div>
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that you should discern the paths to its house?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Surely you know, for you were born then,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and the number of your days is great!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,<o:p></o:p></div>
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or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,<o:p></o:p></div>
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which I have reserved against the time of trouble,<o:p></o:p></div>
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against the day of battle and war?<o:p></o:p></div>
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By what way is the lightning distributed,<o:p></o:p></div>
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or the east wind scattered on the earth?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Who has cut a channel for the flood water,<o:p></o:p></div>
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or the path for the thunderstorm,<o:p></o:p></div>
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to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man,<o:p></o:p></div>
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on the wilderness, in which there is no man,<o:p></o:p></div>
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to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,<o:p></o:p></div>
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to cause the tender grass to grow?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Does the rain have a father?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Or who fathers the drops of dew?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Whose womb did the ice come out of?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The waters become hard like stone,<o:p></o:p></div>
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when the surface of the deep is frozen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or loosen the cords of Orion?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Can you lead the constellations out in their season?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Do you know the laws of the heavens?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Can you establish its dominion over the earth?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,<o:p></o:p></div>
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that abundance of waters may cover you?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Can you send out lightnings, that they may go?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Or who has given understanding to the mind?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Who can count the clouds by wisdom?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,<o:p></o:p></div>
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when the dust runs into a mass,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and the clods of earth stick together?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness,<o:p></o:p></div>
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or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,<o:p></o:p></div>
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when they crouch in their dens,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and lie in wait in the thicket?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Who provides for the raven his prey,<o:p></o:p></div>
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when his young ones cry to God,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and wander for lack of food?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Job, Chapter 38</div>
<br /></div>
Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-5664071453826943782018-12-23T07:04:00.004-05:002018-12-23T07:04:53.987-05:00Timshel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://pasyn.org/resources/sermons/timshel">https://pasyn.org/resources/sermons/timshel</a></div>
Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-25156526314174685042018-10-27T11:15:00.000-04:002018-10-29T11:40:41.372-04:00Aquinas on Free Will<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ys84c5AlNZQ/W9SAu5wk0uI/AAAAAAAAD-s/nG7KXzxuuAIKgoXCbrjtHPrNA0tyFUIGwCLcBGAs/s1600/Thomas%2BAquinas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="324" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ys84c5AlNZQ/W9SAu5wk0uI/AAAAAAAAD-s/nG7KXzxuuAIKgoXCbrjtHPrNA0tyFUIGwCLcBGAs/s640/Thomas%2BAquinas.jpg" width="460" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Aquinas distinguished between two kinds
of volition. First, there is the inevitable attraction to those things that you
deem perfectly good or desirable. You always will choose what you perceive as perfectly
fair, for instance. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> Aquinas would say you
are not truly “free” to choose otherwise.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Second, there are those things that are deemed
partially good or partially desirable.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> In
those cases, human beings have the capacity to evaluate the pros and cons of
each – to deliberate. It is in the weighing of those pros and cons that humanity
exerts something akin to freedom.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> Of course, we each deliberate as best we can with the facts at our disposal, subconsciously applying our preconceptions and biases. Although we make a "choice", it is not "free" in a manner for which we can be held morally responsible. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">“Aquinas
did not talk about “free will”; the term </span><i style="font-size: 10pt;">libera
voluntas</i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> is found </span><i style="font-size: 10pt;">only twice in all
his works</i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">, and then only in a nontechnical usage.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> Rather he spoke of free choice or decision (</span><i style="font-size: 10pt;">liberum arbitrium</i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">).”</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6907739133313738783#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: justify;">If we do not have free will, and if God is aware of this fact and is reasonably fair-minded, then universal salvation is a reality. If it is heretical to think so, then St. Aquinas's position is too. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
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<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6907739133313738783#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Vol. 8, p. 108</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<br /></div>
Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6907739133313738783.post-43044503730752222702018-10-19T08:41:00.000-04:002018-10-19T08:44:34.762-04:00October 21, 2018 - Be Humble or God Won't Love You<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-76FWATU9sgM/W8nQV_jpgnI/AAAAAAAAD90/EQ5SKd_x2y8weXCHKoXhQAHL0s0MMA3lACLcBGAs/s1600/slider-bg-tres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-76FWATU9sgM/W8nQV_jpgnI/AAAAAAAAD90/EQ5SKd_x2y8weXCHKoXhQAHL0s0MMA3lACLcBGAs/s640/slider-bg-tres.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
came to Jesus and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever
we ask of you." He replied, "What do you wish me to do for
you?" They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit
one at your right and the other at your left." Jesus said to them,
"You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I
drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" They
said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I
drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will
be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is
for those for whom it has been prepared." When the ten heard this,
they became indignant at James and John. Jesus summoned them and said to
them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord
it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But
it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will
be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of
all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give
his life as a ransom for many."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mark
10<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">This overarching theme of this blog is
that God is unconditionally loving; in other words, He will love us regardless
of what we do or don’t do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This sounds
like the ordinary Christian position, but it is more uncompromising:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God requires nothing – no behavior, no
contrition, and no belief – in order to love us. The result is universal
salvation and it is almost universally rejected. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God knows we don’t like universal salvation
and so innumerable stories and parables <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">criticize
us</i> - those who demand that God judge and condemn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember the elder brother in the Prodigal
Son story? Remember Jonah and the Ninevites? Remember the lost sheep and the
lost coin?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember the vineyard workers
who started work earliest? Remember the multiplication of the loaves?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All these stories speak of a God whose love
is so abundant that it can feed everyone with more leftover, and the people who
don’t like that. Yet we always read these stories as requiring something from
us: usually altruism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">In this case we read the story to mean
that God requires humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And certainly
this Sunday’s Gospel and last Sunday’s Gospel can be read as instructions to
clergy to live an ascetic, simple life and not to organize themselves into hierarchies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can also be read as instructions to the laity
to give generously to charity (although the story seems to call for something
more extreme) and to be humble. And maybe Jesus became incarnate to encourage
these traits in us – but it makes Jesus seem a little prosaic. More
importantly, that view requires that God is not unconditionally loving; He
imposes conditions. It is an inviting interpretation because it allows us to
tsk tsk at unpleasant arrogant people, or to critique the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s easy and fun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">What is the true meaning? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">It is hidden in plain sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two millennia after the life of Jesus we have
become numb to the extraordinary message of the Gospel. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God became incarnate!</i> Whether this is true in every respect or true
just in the most important ways, this is an extraordinary thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And He didn’t become incarnate to establish dominion
over humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scholars say the Jewish
innovation was monotheism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe the
Jewish innovation was divine regard and love for humanity. Before Abraham’s encounter
with God in which God tells Abraham he must not sacrifice his son, the divine
was either wholly disinterested in human affairs, or imposed a transactional relationship:
you do this for me, and I’ll send rain, or fertility, or let the sun come up
again. Today, we hear something extraordinarily different:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to
serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Think about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or think about how good it is to be humble.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Stephanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07785731212712472330noreply@blogger.com