Video on knowing God and Christian meditation

Trying out a videoblog!  

Obama and Romney will die, just like the rest of us.

The last traces of fall are slipping away; the leaves have done most of their falling and the orange and yellow glows are greying, preparing our eyes for the white winter.  Okay, enough of the sappy intro.

Lately I've been reading J.I. Packer's Knowing God, and page after page I'm humbled.  Not by Packer, per se, but by the recognition of my own "knowing" of God.  I've long prided myself on knowledge; if you know me, you know this.  I have lots of big, classy looking books; blue and red cloth hardcovers with golden gilt lettering.  Many of these books have tons of incredible information about the world and philosophy and God and language.  My primary interest in all of this is centered around knowing about God.

And that seems noble.

The problem, though, is that key word "about."

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Plato, The Good, And The God.

Deep within the first utopia, Plato's dialogue known in english as The Republic, lies the renowned "allegory of the cave."  In brief, the allegory goes like this:  There are prisoners chained to chairs with their necks and bodies fettered forward, so as to disallow any turning of their vision away from the end wall of the cave they're in.  Far above and behind them is a fire casting shadows on the wall before them--but, of course, they don't know the reality of anything behind them.  Between them and the fire is a raised road with a high wall, which is blocking the shadows of people who pass on the road.  The people are carrying constructed objects--like cardboard cutouts of sheep and boxes and children--putting them above the wall.  The objects cast shadows on the wall before the chained prisoners.

It's like a puppet show.  These shadows are all that the prisoners know.  They have games and honors for the prisoner who can guess which figure will dance next as a shadow across the wall before them.

Plato compares the shadows on the wall to the objects of our imagination...

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sunday encouragement from 1453

One of my favorite quotes.  It was written in 1453 by an Italian Christian, Nicolas Cusanas (1401-1464), in his major philosophical treatise De Visione Dei, "On the Vision of God."  Cusanus is considered the "principle gatekeeper between medieval and modern philosophy" (H. Lawrence Bond).

O Lord, how inclined you are to show your face to all those seeking you.  For you never close your eyes, never turn them elsewhere; and although I turn my self away from you when I direct my attention entirely to something other, yet notwithstanding this, you change neither your eyes nor your gaze.  If you do not look upon me with the eye of grace, I am at fault because I have separated myself from you by turning away toward some other, which I prefer to you.  Yet, even so, you do not turn completely from me, but on the contrary, your mercy follows me so that should I ever wish to turn back to you, I would be capable of grace.  If you do not regard me, it is because I do not regard you but reject and despise you. [...]  Everyone, therefore, who is seeking seeks only the good and everyone who seeks the good and withdraws from you withdraws from that which one is seeking.  (Translated by H. Lawrence Bond)

Death is dead.

Begin with part one of this series here.  Or, read this, and if it happens to interest you then go back to part one later.

The grasshopper-eating vagrant is down by the river again. People are gathered around; some are watching from a distance with folded arms, others are pressing in, water to the ankles, straining to get a closer look.  Some are well dressed, others look as if they've just awoken from a drunken slumber somewhere nearby.  It happens today that a certain young man has joined the interested crowd. Perhaps he's standing next to you and the warmth of his arm on your skin is lessening the shiver.  Then, suddenly, he steps forward to be put into the water, joining the ranks of those who've gone before.  He's placed himself as one of them.

***

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sin, death and the salvation of the cosmos. part three

-----The following is part of an ongoing process of discovery taking place in my inner recesses.  That said, these topics are still being wrestled out in my mind and heart and are in no way definitive.  This particular series has been written with much wrestling and reading, and I have no doubt that some of the statements contained herein will be tuned and transformed over the course of my life with God.  If you have anything to add or comment, I would appreciate it greatly; even if you disagree with the whole thing, tell me that too.  Wrestle with the truth alongside me.-----

you might want to start with part one here.

 

"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you."

(Ezekiel 36:25-29)

"When, Lord?" Cried his people.  "When will you make us clean from this creeping death, all these dichotomies of good and evil?  This life is painful.  Help us."

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...and the shimmers of a new birth. part two of three.

-----The following is part of an ongoing discovery that has taken place inside my mind for the past five years, before which I couldn't have possibly cared any less about any of this religion talk.  That said, these topics are still being wrestled out in my mind and heart and are in no way definitive.  This particular three part series has been written with much wrestling and reading, and I have no doubt that some of the statements contained herein will be tuned and transformed over the course of my life with God.  If you have anything to add or comment, I would appreciate it greatly; even if you disagree with the whole thing, tell me that too.  Wrestle with the truth alongside me.-----


Read Part One Here

God's just and loving character went uncompromised through the whole story of Israel.

Here's a little pop culture button-art.  Did you know--MLK had a PhD in Theology from Boston University?

mlk

After the exodus from Egypt, led by Moses and his brother Aaron, God called Moses to a mountain top (mount Sinai) where he gave him a list of commands.  The "Ten Commandments" or "Decalogue" made up only a small portion of these commands.  The books "Exodus," "Leviticus" and "Deuteronomy" contain hundreds of them...

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