Author: eejoseph

Jammed 45s and other fecal matter disturbances

eejoseph

When we look at what the leaders of our various faith communities are saying is important to us we sometimes wish they’d taken a look at what faith is supposed to accomplish. There are extremists, fundamentalists, and ultra orthodox operatives who make us think about our place in the community.  Rushing to leave a faith community is not a priority is some communities.  A wall of negative affect deters many.  In every case, however, leaders are guilty of overstating and understating what the original message was. Many do not even care what the patriarchs wrote or bequeathed.  In the Christian community we have apostles, who are quite literally the foundation of what we are and believe, who wrote the things we cannot afford to ignore or not know.  The lines of communication run straight from from Christ, to them, to us.  Miss that connection and you will end up dabbling in fecal matters and arm yourself with dull blades and malfunctioning weapons.

Jammed and useless weapons

Who would have thought that a religious leader would be proudly incapable of handling the clear, simple and lifegiving words  of the apostles?  Who would trust an imam who has no expertise in the original language of the Qur’an?

Who would have thought that a legislator, supposedly an expert in the law, would devote his energies to circumventing the law.  Isn’t that what “smart” politicians do?

Who would have thought that a head of state and commander in chief could be so cowardly as to sit sheepishly beside an avowed enemy of his and deny the facts of  foreign interference in American politics?

It is not surprising that many standing in places of leadership have no clue about the revolutionary nature of their functions.  We find them “holding the fort”, toeing the line, being radical fundamentalists, gimmick processors, isolationists, merchandisers , and preservers of ancient things. Serving people eludes too many.  They reduce God’s call and care to childish pep talks about what God can do.  The Christian faith is not a lottery of miracles,  because the benefit of faith in God’s son are not  outcomes of what is possible.  Christian faith rests on the fact of what God has done that changes everything. No whataboutism fecal  matter stands a chance.

This is war

Make no mistake.  The spiritual life is drenched in conflict and combat language.  David reported his hands as trained for war (Psalms 144:1-2) saying “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle; My lovingkindness and my fortress, My stronghold and my deliverer, My shield and He in whom I take refuge, Who subdues my people under me.

We are certain his bloodletting is neither lovingkindness nor fortress.  We must remember that this dude was gracious to enemies, bold to love and respect his neighbours. When the solutions are always miracles there is little gratitude for God’s design of work and rest. The world is seeing a rash of aborted projects, amid calls for revolutionary solutions, snd we know that God has confounded the wise and the powerful because they have paid little attention to the poor and needy.

Worry’s wear and tear

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Alive or dead, believers are assured God’s presence. Members of the divine royal family expect to have the common experiences of the monarch. Follow me means exactly what it sounds like: get in line behind me. There are a lot of people who are bent on dodging the turns, climbs, pauses, and adversities appointed by God for our good. Worry (or concern!) about life’s situations is what moves people, but that it kills relationships, hope and people is clear from Yeshua’s admonition “Do not even start with worrying about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34)

Politics and religion are incapable of creating the world most people want. The world we inherited is a tool of uncaring and greedy people. We see them scrambling for the success of their family and their tribe. They do whatever it takes to create the appearance of their dominance.

Worry displeases God and ruins faith

That worry is simple and deadly is clear from Yeshua’s stop sign about food and drink and clothing (Matthew 6:25) and his prohibitions in verses 31 and 34. What we fear most also is entirely, like growing a centimetre, out of our control. We become fools by building ever larger warehouses while neglecting the necessary pathmaking.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15. and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Hebrews 2:14-15

If you thought that you could plot a worry-free path to tomorrow for yourself or children you have still the worry about today’s food, drink and clothing. It is not only the risk of hunger, thirst, and nakedness that concerns us, but the evaluation of our food, drink, and clothing by our neighbours. One “boo” from a believer and death’s terrors flees back into the shadows.

Growth’s groaning

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This saying is popular and highly recommended.  No question lingers about its value, but we can help define the growth rates and expected outcomes.  “Together” may well mean different things to different folks, and growing is not likely to happen without some groaning with accompanying pains.

Grow

We have some “say” in our physical growth.  Mother’s milk sets that in motion and  we take that nutrition over with some level of wisdom. There are pandemic fatalities in the area of human physical development.  Growth is not without fatalities.  Some things we cherish will perish.

Growing

We are responsible for advancing our stature as imaginative workers and fun lovers. No growth in these aspects are signs of certain catastrophe. If you are a gardner, planting the same solitary fruit in exactly the same manner every season may feel like a comfortable mission, but doing so is blind to the wide world of fruit diversity, not to mention missing the potential of harvests feeding more people.

Growth

As much as we can and do increase the scope and rate of personal development we face the demands of decreasing the space between us and family  advancing our stature as imaginative workers and fun lovers.

People settle for the comfort  and placidity of togetherness. People think that personal goals and strides towards excellence should take a back seat to their spousal responsibilities. Since family is intended to reflect the creative, procreative and sovereign elements of divinity we can do ourselves a huge favour.  A spouse who decides all growing is over is a threat to togetherness and growth.

The whole creation groans

In many regards the expectations of a couple have a tough road to navigate, even with reasonable and regular discussions. People grow at different rates and healthy couple growth may need more than common faith. The passion and crucifixion of Christ contains the essential roadmap even though all they tell us when we get married is “for better or worse” and “until death parts us”. I like to think that none of us really gives up ourselves in order to have a married life. We, with difficulty, break with our parents, but a husband-to-be giving himself for his wife-to-be is rare if not unlikely. Like the heavenly Father who saw the potential in human beings before he created us, we can recognize that there is a whole lot of birthpang groaning involved in the arrival at love’s togetherness, whether that unity is the planet’s final destiny or a couple’s bliss.

Staircase

eejoseph
Please do not forget

It’s not hard to believe, it  happened right here
Many graves are telling us how little we’ve cared
Happy and innocent lives crushed by colonial fear
Happening in plain sight right beside houses of prayer

The children’s voices are loud and clear
Peace for the survivors and a readiness to hear
The children’s stories some did not believe
Stories that are the truth we must now receive

Sure you took the staircase down
Robbed us of home and school
Canada you  played the clown
Now let’s take the staircase up
From border to border to border let’s pursue
Until justice be the rule

Happier national days cone after the political game
Stops treating First Nations like objects of shame
When inhumanity and police brutality
disappear like women and children with no accountability

Comes a time to move on, is that today?
Apologize and not correct what we do or say
Let every human heart feel our neighbour’s pain
Genocide’s on our record let it never happen again

Contradicting the Lord

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Leader says “you can’t”, the people say “we will”

Joshua 24:19-21 lays out the hard facts about serving God.


19. Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins.

20. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.”

21. The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.”

Exodus 23:25 is a conditional statement about sustaining life and guaranteeing health.

But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst.

Ruth 1:1 establishes famine in the land
Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.

Nehemiah 5:3 reports famine
There were others who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine.”

They should all be alive today if they had served (had not forsaken) Yahweh.

Giving God the credit

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When we read something that appeals to us we are often eager to apply its benefits to ourselves.  We even pretend that we have invented a new thought or maxim, unaware that a hundred souls may be gobbling up the same messsge with varying expectations and emphases.  The one thing that rarely occurs – I know from experience – is that we give the credit to the Holy Spirit for opening that particular window into God’s heart.

Exegetes beware!

Even if the Biblical kernel is combined with an observation in nature a Messianic significance is necessary or the exercise is futile. How likely is a reader to look under rocks (in the text) without seeing them? How often does a sentence or verse appear in glorious maturity with the Cornerstone in place? The number of people finding light from a gold plated Ten Commandments box is equal to the crowd that walks around picking up gold nuggets that are strewn everywhere. No mining is necessary! Consider that and meditate before beginning a message run without giving credit to the One who hid the gold in the first place.

The providential incidental

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Why did the God of Jacob keep saying “Here I am” to a nation that does not call on his name? So what was all the tabernacle and temple activity about? 

Permitted Discovery
“I  Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’ To a nation which did not call on My name.

Isaiah 65:1

Question gallery

  • How shall Yahweh admonish a perfect woman?
  • To what does Yahweh compare the incomparable woman?
  • She wants comfort without contrast?
  • Is not her ruin too big to be unseen?
  • Who is the specialist for her disease?

How much worse can a lament get?
How shall I admonish you? To what shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I liken you as I comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea; Who can heal you?

Lamentations 2:13

What a childish game the prophet was shown!

The Fix-it God, Part 2

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It is an absolute riot that regenerated people spend practically all their inheritance on seeking solutions to problems, which are, admittedly, resolvable by a mere word, or by mustard-seed-sized faith. One person prays in the common language, another prays in tongues. One fasts in expectation of miracles, others rejoice in the sad circumstance, confident of God’s love and guidance. Another utters decrees which cannot possibly be fulfilled because they claim to do things that belong only to Christ and are only released by Him at the parousia . Some dance and whirl, others make a noisy and repetitive display. They stomp their feet and clap their hands. All the while they are claiming to be God’s children and agents, but in the absence of solutions one does not have to imagine God shaking his head in dismay. In what sense is this either deliverance or edification? Do people not believe that God is their Ever-present Help? Which part of the God-with-us reality do they not want to embrace? Is God’s precious love absent when we think we have a problem?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Rom. 8:35)

You know the answer. No-one! Not tribulation, not distress, not persecution, not famine, not nakedness, not peril, and not sword.

Are church-goers really that gullible? Or are we satisfied with the good feeling that comes from reading, singing and hearing “what’s possible”? Perhaps not.

Because faith is substance we would be negligent if we said we see results when there is no evidence of God fixing anything or everything. Is a miracle all there is to faith in the Son of God? After all the talk about what God can do, when all is said and done we should ask, “What did faith do today?”

Compared to what the 11th chapter of Hebrews reports as accomplished by faith we can say confidently “I did not see”, “there is nothing to report”, especially to the claim that all suffering is banished by virtue of our sonship and by virtue of the power to decree and declare. It is most problematic for a Christian to claim things that even Christ does not do. The kingdom of God is not “anything goes”.

Or are certain worshippers of the Fix-it God expecting us to have a faith that is not perceptible? Do they want people to just have faith? Do they have real information about what God is doing, when He will do it, and how He will do it? Prophets used to be acclaimed when their utterances come to pass, and they were in dire straits for being found to be false. Gospel ministers should subscribe to the same standard.

This kind of riot helps us along the road to unproductive fields. There ought to be a manifestation of honesty and clarity about God’s interest in our daily lives in addition to the long-term issues. To be sure, Christ did not promise you that He will remove your challenges and disabilities. You are mad and misguided if you, a child of God, go to church for a miracle sideshow, ritualistic prayer, and dead-end faith.

Lock your brain onto God’s grid! If the things we call problems are not problems to God why do we bother people with our fix-it routines? Since the things we typically call problems – tribulation, not distress, not persecution, not famine, not nakedness, not peril, and not sword – are not problems to God why bring the matter up as if we can be the fix-it guy? After all, are not these miracles part of the atonement?
A huge amount of Christian credibility is on the line every time we declare things that do not appear. When God said “Let there be…” there was. When Christ said “Your sins are loosed” they were loosed. When he said “Lazarus, come”, Lazarus came. You get the picture.

Fix-it or deliverance ministries ought to be just that. They ought to deliver people, not harass them with rituals and useless manifestations. They ought not to burden the sufferer with guilt about his or her little faith, for if a little faith and just a touch of the Saviour’s garment can do wonders why are we taken in by long prayers, fasting and healing services?

May God protect you the next time you go to church and encounter one of these fix-it agents. Let your faith be on the God who is with you, the God who hears your cry, who knows what you need, and who is taking care of you, no matter where you are or what you are going through. Our great God and Saviour is most certainly a healer, surgeon, and yes, we can say it, a fix-it Person who does much more than fixes things. He fixes people by transforming them.

Grace is greater than all our shortcomings!

Elbert Joseph, PhD