Month: June 2024

Good and consequential reads

eejoseph,

List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

I’m going to leave the Bible out of this response because it is much more than “book”.

  • George Orwell’s Animal Farm,
  • Haile Selassie I University Press’ Utterances of His Imperial Majesty
  • Brevard Child’s Biblical Theology

The first for opening my eyes (in a very creative way) to society’s lies and justice game; the second for steering me away from a shallow kind of Rastafarianism, and the third for putting the genuine values of the two divisions of the Holy Bible into a healthy perspective.

Scam the sky with ‘scraper

eejoseph

Donald Trump is famous for scamming the world but a more down to Earth and ridiculous scam is his claim to have made the skyline of New York excellent with his Trump Tower.  He remains puzzled – scratching his head  – about what happens when the law uncovers massive and habitual fraud.  The refrain of one of my latest songs, completed on the day he became a felon, says …

Scam the sky! Punch a hole with a scraper 
Scrutinize every pretty girl then say you didn't rape her
Scratch your head, your scrounging is captured on tape
Scram all the way to jail and Gehenna 
There you can embrace every scape

Song by Kyu and Ganjy (my son and I)

Every Scape

Comforting Role of the Spirit

eejoseph

You may have heard people refer to the Holy Spirit as  the Comforter and that is exactly what one 17th century translation of the Bible says.  Comfort  is the proper remedy for sorrow, and if the term parakletos (paRAKlaytoss) is to be associated with anything permanent we expect joy in the midst of all our incidental distresses and afflictions, because no one lives in a permanent valley of years, sorrow and pain.

“And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” (John 16:22, KJVA)

Parakletos is better translated as HELPER, because if only  comfort can be expected from the Holy Spirit we would be  mostly sad and full of sorrow.  The Holy Spirit is tasked with packaging Messianic things and bringing them into the lives of believers.  This is the primary thrust of “guiding into all things”.  It also clarifies the permanence of Christian anointing.  If we can find a time when Christ was not Spirit-anointed we could find a reason to pray for anointing as we embark on a task, such as a teaching or evangelistic.  Genuine Christian anointing does not come and go.

“As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” (1 John 2:27, NASB)

If you did not study the Bible and meditate on a  topic or topics you should not expect God to give you a set of cogent things to say.  After all, the promise of words given at the event is for hostile environments.

12) But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. 13) It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. 14) So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; 15) for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.  (Luke 21:12-15, NASB)

When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.  (Mark 13:11, NASB)

The Holy Spirit’s work is much more than words or talking, because truth, as it is in Christ, Is not mere word, but is experience.  Indeed, when words are at stake then the due diligence demands a study of original languages because translations are woefully inadequate for giving the intended meaning of the writers of both the Old and New Testament.  Two graphic examples of translation dysfunction are (1) the many instances of misplaced tenses and  (2) the deliberate avoidance of both original languages and modern (or contemporary) translations. We are not scratching the diligence of modern translators who call attention to existing problems by adding footnotes drawing attention to manuscript evidence leading to better word and phrase translation.

The trance and vision seduction

There have long been surreptitious solutions to the absence of answers from the Bible.   Even Moses, as the temporary example of communication between God and humans, was not plied with visions and parables.  There was straight talk between God and his servant.  The prophets, on the other hand, should not be thought of as less intimate with God because of the proliferation of visions and dramatizations to transmit his messages to them and then to us.  Recently, visions and miracles are seen as divine authentication, but that is a fatal flaw.  Yeshua himself dropped the hammer on the expectations of those who rely on charismatic manifestations to decide what is Messianic truth.

AUTHENTICITY DOES NOT COME FROM MIRACULOUS WORKS

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Matthew 7:22)

If the Holy Spirit’s helping function and Yeshua-reflecting mission are not central to the individual believer’s life we might as well kiss our disciple – Christian – identity goodbye.