Month: May 2024

We do not know

eejoseph

Are you kidding? Sixty-six books and we do not know what God said, do not know what he wants. Books are written even when the weightier matters are undoubtedly fully explored. The biblical narratives fully illustrate justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matt 23:23), but since the reformation books spew out of the blackholes of pretentious accountability like rain after thunderclaps. “The Bible is not sufficient” is what we say when our churches fail to witness to the power of the cross. “We do not know” is a lame excuse, and all the commentary, visionary or ecstatic, put into books is the even lamer platitudinous smoking gun of all time.

Things revealed

Do not think we are kidding. All those adults with their treasured achievements and rational explanations do not amount to much. The visions and insights acquired in dreams and trances turn out to be  God’s proper gifts to children.

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; Matt 11:25

So we construct more fables and juvenile nonsense than the mind can process with a straight face. We do not have to imagine the effect of Christ saying about working on the Sabbath “I and my father have been working since we paused the creative works”. We are not only American Robins that arrive in the breeding grounds two days before a deadly chill and snowstorm, we are also the parents who register children before they are born. The American frivolity of turning everything into hateful and colonial political is another deadly symptom of ignorance.

Really don’t know?

Take Gaza, prominent in the news, and famous for the capture and imprisonment by the Philistines of the Israelite hero Samson 30 centuries ago in Gaza. The wool in Israelite and Christian eyes could not be more effective. The modern state of Israel, capitulating to racist and xenophobic ideals, has set a goal of ridding the planet of Hamas, a terrorist group that was the legitimate choice of Gaza’s Palestinian population. I say thank God for the Bible, because it reveals that the first known suicidal terrorist was an Israelite named Samson. The wanton destruction of property and displacing people from their homes is excatly what the Jewish state has been doing for 70 years. Wait! It is what the Bible said Yahweh authorized the Israelite to do to fulfil his promise to Abraham. On top of all that, Israeli politicians want to have the right to override the law (Mosaic and common), in short, make the law irrelevant. Go figure. All the information and exhortations that are not in the bible are irrelevant, and may be shown to be the result of demonic inflence.

Make your own book of the law

We are not so naive as to think that God’s instructions to the Israelites through Moses and the prophets were intended to be implemented by all nations. A notable insult to God’s intelligence is the attempt to co-opt Old Testament and New Testament principles under the banner of “Judeo-Christian”. The crimes of the nations claiming a Judeo-Christian heritage are too obvious to warrant further comment. It is the religious people, carving out Israelite space for their operations, destiny and identity. There is not a second kick at the can for Israel, no people can repeat Israelite history, and no rational imitation of ancient Israel or ancient Judah impresses anyone. God is not asking anyone to imitate Israel or Judah.  The rebellion, idolatry and organized crime are sufficient warning.  Calling our own inventions statutes, judgments, testimonies or principles our ignorance of what God says only increases.  The Passion of Christ – his death and resurrection – declared the full counsel of God.  Daring to leave it out of reflection or discussion leaves no conclusion except that we have been bewitched.

Meet the sinner’s Jesus

eejoseph

Yeshua has remarks about himself being the shepherd and having folds, yet many of his followers, perhaps too many, carve out an insensitive room for whatever group they align themselves with.  Throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament we find that the Jewish people could not bring themselves to admit that the neighboring nations were also family members.  Many Christians are doing that same thing today in the 21st century.   God, in that mindset, is the sovereign of those who fear God and comply with his instructions.  Every student of the Bible is familiar with the facts:  that Israel failed miserably to keep a variety of covenants and turned to idolatry over and over again.  The current state of the Holy Land is witness to the fact that the glory has departed, akin to the demise of the Israelite nation during the time of Eli the priest.  John, the writer of the fourth gospel and three letters, assures us that believers, unbelievers, and all human beings have respectively the same light, the same Savio,  and the same advocate.

See for yourself;

“That was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the world.” (John 1:9, AKJV)

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19, NASB)

1) My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2) and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2, NASB)

Doubting Israeli Fidelity

eejoseph

Seventy-six years is more than sufficient for Jerusalem and Zion to dwell in safety and be the beacon for human beings to believe that there is one solution to conflict and family feuds.  Neither the pain that girds Israeli and Palestinian families.  Maybe the days are long gone when colonial powers and the colonized can jointly confess the same heritage.  Israeli crimes against humanity are out in the open.  The settler mentality is now deeply entrenched in the government: a brutal taking of land, a brazen mendacity about noble ideals, and the polemic against Gentiles.  Make no mistake: the forces that want Jerusalem divided also visualize the world fee of people who have different opinions from their own. Neither Palestinians nor Jews are ready for the Solomonic administration of the Holy Land.

Doubting Israeli accounts of the drive for peace and a civil society is inevitable, and the attacks by Jewish settlers and terrorist Palestinian factions are the product of depravity.

A blow to the head is suspect

There is a madness that accompanies the endless a cycle of bloodshed and deeper silos of political ideology in the Holy land. If we were to psychoanalyze the parties in the conflict, it would be reasonable to say that they are all suffering from a severe blow to the Head and their brains are now incapable of working.  We are at the place where only a distinctly Christian solution is likely to succeed; namely a rebirth from above. 

A tweak to my imagination

eejoseph,

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

I cannot count the times I have wished for something knowing that it was just a fantasy, only to be surprised when something with an even better “twist” arrives.   It is like misplacing an item and anxiously for hours looking for it and wondering,”Where, oh, where…”.   The thing I would like to tweak is my capacity to give up the anxiety more often and stick with the assurance that an even more fitting solution or delight is usually in the works.