Author: eejoseph

Watery sounds, birdsong, people at play, music, animals at night

eejoseph,

What do you listen to while you work?

I like to alternate between sounds in the foreground and background sounds. Running water is just lovely, but ocean waves breaking are superb. The laughing sounds of people at play reminds me that life is still very good and valuable. I listen to recorded music for my work as a keyboard player, both intently to learn musical progressions and peripherally to catch the soul of a song. I wish there were lions roaring in the dark, and do not wish to forget frogs croaking all night long.

Just because the cause of racists is now boldly public

eejoseph, , ,

It is said that the groundbreaking bile issuing from official sources is overdue.  People who despise government, people who are prone to use violence to get their way,  people who are unapologetically racist and xenophobic, are having their day in the spotlight.  The poorly opinionated will believe that the public airing of their views is a sign of triumph, but they willingly are wearing blinders and will not escape the lesson learned by Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. The sun sets on the kingdoms and empires.  The sun and moon also set on television clips,  the simple get lost in the spin, trapped in the web of insincerity and ignorance, and while the number of people who think that they can plant flags on things they hear on TV from people they admire, remains at the same level,  the voices become more insane in support of racism. 

Privileged but gehenna-bound

And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!

Luke 10:15, NASB

Although Capernaum was Yeshua’s chosen hometown there was no benefit to the town from the fact.  Capernaum never became a tourist attraction and did not become a holy city.  The Bethlehem native was never compromised about righteousness and goodness, unlike the people of the so-called Book.  Just as he fled from Bethlehem to avoid Herod’s sword so he fled Capernaum to avoid the stones of synagogue attendees.

The United States is an aborted frog-prince

There is no free lunch for homicidal cultures.  Lots of people associating themselves with Christ of Nazareth like to think of ultimate justice as the annihilation of wrongdoers.  They believe in unending punishment and ignore the successive generations of public villains and private sinners.  They play with capital punishment and mouth platitudes about Christian virtue. The wonder of the American rise from under the British colonial boot and the new national psyche is still unprecedented in the modern era, and God must have inspired the vision of rights and liberty as basic to all human beings, even though American powerbrokers feel they can change ALL to SOME and get away with it. The pressures to steer the United States into the mold of the nations whence the pilgrims came are immense and unrelenting.  One would have to be pretty naive to see as unrelated to these pressures the perversion of religion and politics.  Instead of the land of the free and the home of the brave, we are witness to “a home for demons, a cage of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.” (Revelation of John 18:2). Believe your eyes: all kinds of crime and immorality get the approval of legislatures and high court justices.  The prince in shining armour of the American Revolution is today, 200 years later, a Wizard of Odds, clamouring to ensure a place at the table of honour for criminal types.

Nobody knows justice like the Nazarene.

Solomon was wise, learned and discerning, but he made the mistake of embracing the spiritual priorities of all the nations within the young king’s reach.  We make the same mistake concluding that ancient customs are the best, and like Israel, cannot seem to be able to pull away from the agricultural and astronomical elements of all primitive cultures.  We have no excuse for trying to combine the nobility of human beings with the interests of earth’s rulers.  Governments will continue to prosecute people for doing things the Almighty authorized.  You have no leg to stand on when the very things you proscribe are in your bosom, mouth, hands and feet (Romans 2:17-21, 3:13-18).  There is no such thing as a spiritual government.  Every example before us is like an agent of Sheol, dealing out pomp and ceremony and death. Each one parades  their wealth and tradition like a hypnotist.

Who is drumming up war with Caesar, Herod, or the Council?

It surely is last gasp bravado and chest-thumping when instead of providing peace and security for all the people in their care leaders all over the globe are arming their supporters with increasingly lethal weapons and hateful rhetoric.  The alliance between religious movements and political parties is as abominable as partnerships can get.  Yeshua did not join a political or religious party and he raised no militia against Rome.

24) When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?” 25) He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” 26) When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt.” 27) “However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”

Matthew 17:24-27, NASB

The megaphone justification fizzles

We are witnesses to an unspeakable disregard for facts.  Because worms do not eat them up and the ground does not open up and swallow them we should not think that their causes are just.  Even if the majority marches in support of racism, xenophobia and misogyny.  The doors are closing of tribalism and insurrection, but people are loathe to acknowledge the fact.  The voices of intolerance are loud and urgent but God has a generation that will situate itself in the valley between tradition and the here and now.  I have to imagine that the Jewish public at the time of Solomon’s Temple felt that Yahweh had swept the country free of Canaanites, but God had a surprise for them, and in such a way as to make sure that it could not ever be forgotten. David bought the property on which the temple was built from a Jebusite, one of the nations destined for dispossession by Yahweh in the instructions that came from Moses.  Inconsistencies in national policies do not escape Gods notice, as surely as the xenophobic policy the Israelites thought they had could not be laid at Yahweh’s feet.  No magaphone or megaphone can prevail when hearts get turned to hearts. If we keep falling for extreme sound bytes and violent revolutionary slogans just because it is on television and comes from an elected official, we may never recover from the tinsel that passes for public discourse, and we may never see the light.  Tune in!

What is creamy chocolate rice?

eejoseph,

What’s your go-to comfort food?

It used to be a secret. Now the intelligence agencies and legislators of our times are going to eat like princes. Rice cooked in milk until it is soft and melts in the mouth, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and coconut, may look like rice pudding until you add cocoa. Light or dark brown, sweetened with sugar and/or raisins, this edible is also a favorite of some of my closest friends. I make this for me, and paradise would be having it made “like mommy used to make it”. Bring your 5 hour version of rice porridge.

The dunghill awaits the adventure buffs

eejoseph,

Are you seeking security or adventure?

Give me collective security any day

Mercenaries and the pampered class would like to be known as adventurers but one would think that after two deadly wars and dozens of deadly conflicts that humanity would have found a formula for security.  Not the case.  Most people are plotting their next investment in capital projects.

The mercenary and merchant complex

Every single bloc of nations prefers to pour billions of dollars into lucrative ventures than to secure a foundation for societies to cooperate and thrive.  Is it because people think that there must always be us and them in every aspect of life?  If collective security was a priority among the well armed nations Russia would not be levelling Ukrainian towns and villages today, sixteen months after Russia declared its special military operation.

National choices

I seek to become free having to hear from MxGA mercenaries.  Any nation that once was great deserves a place at the bottom of the barrel and a throne at the landfill.  Great again? What a total load of manure!  Did Greece or Rome or Babylon or Persia ever rise again?  Who is going to Jerusalem to be awed by the wisdom of any of Israel’s sages or political stars?  Not a soul.  Most adventures end up with somebody being cheated, oppressed, discriminated against, and exploited.  It is not walls that give people security, but arms outstretched with assistance and cooperation.  

Physician, heal yourself

eejoseph,

In New Testament times the jab at incompetent professionals hits a brick wall.  The physician healed himself and the whole world, if they darken his door.  The jab comes hundreds of years after the Jewish people were given 70 years to correct their rebellious ways.  The leopard did not change its spots.  The Republicans despise the republic of equal rights and justice for all.  The Christian preacher spends more time in the Pentateuch and the book of Proverbs than in the message of Jesus Christ crucified, dead, buried, Risen and exalted.  I am sure you recognize a prophet and expert who does not read proficiently.   Miracle-workers who never turn the hose on themselves are all over the broadcast world and proliferate in the churches.  The physicians are not healing themselves.

And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’”

Luke 4:23

Prove who you are, here and now

I find it ludicrous that gospel workers want to appear as fixers of problems but only those of others.  They do not seem to be aware of,  or much less fix,  their own medical, financial, and professional pathologies.  The obsession with the sign or wonder is a symptom of adultery.  So said the Lord Yeshua in Matthew 12:39b, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet”.  After hearing a mumbo jumbo message, most typically, one that says nothing about the cross or the Spirit-led life, the last thing a person needs is an uncorroborated miracle.

When the law and the prophets fade

Yeshua goes on to lay down his life, with people daring him to rescue himself from an ignominious death, from ridicule and taunts. It was obvious that neither the law nor the prophets had healed the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The law was quite clearly instruction people sought ways to ignore, and the prophets were constantly making stuff up. The proverb “Physician, heal yourself” was a better fit for the case of the slaughter of animals in the temple and the lucrative market that was making some people wealthy.  Yeshua puts a cap on the healing arts and the “proof of the pudding” in such a way as to make the proverb, “Physician, heal yourself” unforgettable and forever relevant.

Tent of meeting is fleeting

eejoseph

The centre of Israelite worship and government was a tent.  That fact along with Yahweh’s promise to put his name in a certain place in Canaan makes certain that no one should be trying to make the tent economy permanent.

Tent economy

The tent had both secret and known components.  It was the hub of a literal economy.  The spiritual exercises – everything requiring thought – can be summed up covenant privileges and obligations.  All the workings spilled out into plain and public view the day Christ died.  If a temple is built in Israel it would revive the Mosaic economy with the same exclusive regulations and tribal supremacy.  The tent economy was a role play of global salvation.  The second temple was a mere shadow of Solomon’s temple, and yet it was filled with unprecedented glory when the children filled the compound with cries of Hosannah.  If that Temple was indeed a permanent installation in Salvation history Christ would have died there, as was the case for all the animals slaughtered to pay for sin and transgression.  Christ died outside the gates of the city.

The temporary arrangements

  • Things to remember, primarily events
  • Things to avoid
  • Things to repeat annually
  • Things to come, primarily promises, detailed and unspecified

The darkness without Christ, the Logos

When the writer of Hebrews wrote that Christ is now God’s spokesman (Hebrews 1:1-2) he was telling his readers where to look and to whom they needed to listen.  Since Christ was the sacrifice, the priest, and the guarantee of God’s promises the sacred tent was now obsolete, and so were its regulations.  It is not a secret that all the prophets, priests and kings of Israel and Judah give way to the Seed, Son of David, God’s Anointed.

11) Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? 12) For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.

Hebrews 7:11-12, NASB

Most believers sleep in through breakfast

One of the good things that came

No mercy seat, made of gold, silver, or platinum, compares to Christ. The sacred tent was not a picture of another tent. The furniture was not a picture of other furniture. Since the outcome of Christ’s sacrificial service is complete and effective what use is there for a location, anywhere, where atonement takes place? People who never accepted Christ as God will try to keep the juvenile handrails in service and eventually turn to theories about everything, while God’s manifest accomplishments lie like fallow ground.