tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43705154738672049242024-03-13T03:45:17.176-07:00Logos2GoDaily thoughts on aesthetics and theology, and the entire world in between.David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.comBlogger400125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-66323094861686192312012-03-23T15:06:00.005-07:002012-03-23T15:11:28.115-07:00Brides marrying themselves<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">This was the news I was treated to several days ago:</span><br style="font-family:arial;"><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> A woman has married herself. It was a solo wedding. There she is, standing in front of the congregation, all by her lonesome:</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br style="font-family:arial;"><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://shine.yahoo.com/love-sex/bride-marries-herself-more-singles-throw-solo-weddings-202200537.html" target="_blank">http://shine.yahoo.com/love-<wbr>sex/bride-marries-herself-<wbr>more-singles-throw-solo-<wbr>weddings-202200537.html</a></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br style="font-family:arial;"><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Never mind the larger conflict over whether marriage should be limited</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> to a union between a man and a woman.</span><br style="font-family:arial;"><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> I think when a person marries himself or herself, the real problem</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> emerges. The real problem has to do with words. When words no longer</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> mean things, that is, when a word can mean just about any thing, the</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> world as we know it largely ceases to exist.</span><br style="font-family:arial;"><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Once words were divine.</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br style="font-family:arial;"><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Then words were mass produced in printing presses.</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br style="font-family:arial;"><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Then words evaporated into thin air, or into cyberspace, with a click</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> of a mouse.</span><br style="font-family:arial;"><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Then people began marrying themselves.</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"> </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br style="font-family:arial;"><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Logos2Go</span></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br face="arial"><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> John 1.1 In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and</span></span> <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">the Word was God.</span></span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-72911998937226775302012-03-14T07:56:00.004-07:002012-03-14T08:08:34.916-07:00Lights "R" Us<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">When we see something, we become that thing. Seeing an object means achieving a similarity between that object and our inner faculty that allows us to see it. The two become one.<br /><br />This was how folks in ancient times understood seeing.<br /><br />And so Paul refers to Christians in this way: “you were once darkness, but now you are light in Christ.”<br /><br />He does not say we can elect to turn on (or off) this light. He just says we ARE light in Christ. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The logic here is that, if we’ve been enlightened by Christ – if we see the point of His gospel – then we <em>become</em> that light. It is not a mental thing we store in our brains. It is a whole-person thing that characterizes the essential nature of who we are.<br /><br />Jesus worked under the same rationale. He said this: “But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”<br /><br />When I was a kid I always struggled with this saying. How can the eye be evil (number one); how can light be <em>in</em> us (number two); and how can that light be darkness (number three)?<br /><br />Well, number one: The eye is the point of entry of what we see, and what we see, we become. Therefore if we see (entertain) evil things, we become those things morally.<br /><br />Number two: What we see by the sight of light is the <em>quality</em> of light that is in us.<br /><br />Number three: If what has entered us (by the light of sight) is dark, our whole being is (it equals) moral darkness. So, indeed, how great is that darkness!<br /><br />We are too taken by today’s scientific view of light as simply particles and waves with no moral value to them. Light is just stuff that comes from the sun. Or: Light is just something we can turn on or off artificially, independent of any moral essence within us.<br /><br />But if the Bible is true, we are further away from understanding the true nature of light than ever before.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Logos2Go</span></strong><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Ephesians 5.8 </span> (ESV) For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Matthew 6.23 </span> (KJV) But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!<br /><br />Aristotle’s theory of perception involves big words like hylomorphism and a distinction between potential and actual form in relation to matter. But here is a statement from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy that can help; it can be found in an article entitled “Aristotle’s Psychology” and it is in section 6: “Aristotle is happy to speak of an affected thing as receiving the form of the agent which affects it and of the change consisting in the affected thing's “becoming like” the agent (De Anima ii 5, 418a3–6; ii 12, 424a17–21). So there is in both cases a hylomorphic model of alteration involving enforming, that is, a model according to which change is explained by the acquisition of a form by something capable of receiving it.” </span><a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-psychology/#6">http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-psychology/#6</a>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-69012778091089397312012-01-27T05:25:00.000-08:002012-01-27T06:55:27.656-08:00a question<p class="MsoNormal"><span >We evangelicals pull no punches when insisting on the exclusivity of Jesus as the Way, the Truth, the Life. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span >The very exclusivity of this claim implies holiness, because holiness means separation from that which is common. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span >But it is curious that this profound truth carries with it few consequences in material terms. In fact it is no exaggeration to say that, of all of the major religions, the Protestant evangelical edition of the Christian faith might be the only one that provides <i>no well-considered guidelines whatsoever</i> in the way the Christian confession is lived out, is expressed, in material expressions of an art-aesthetic nature, of an architectural nature. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span >And yet this is the confession that stresses incarnation, God-with-us, as man, in <i>embodied </i>form. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span >If Jesus is the Way, how should the physical venues in which we live our embodied lives reflect this directionality? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span >If Jesus is the Truth, what practices of décor, of comportment, of the design of our physical environments, are informed by this Truth? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span >If Jesus is the Life, how should we then live <i>beyond</i> merely mental conceptions of this truth? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span >If Jesus is indeed <i>the</i> Life, shouldn’t that life spill over, fill up, even overflow, in an incarnational celebration of all that we are physically and materially? </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span ><b>Logos2Go</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span ><span >Matthew 5.16</span> Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.</span></p>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-72564152458293380082012-01-19T10:09:00.000-08:002012-01-19T10:20:38.835-08:00To the praise of his glory<div><span>To most of our ears, this is a redundancy.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Actually it is a redundancy of two unknowns. We don’t really know what glory is; it is just a term for most of us.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>And praise is something we do on Sunday mornings when, frankly, we feel like it. (Shall we go to the Arby’s for lunch after “worship?” They have the 5 sandwiches for 5 dollars deal ...). This is the level of praise for most of us. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>But Paul uses the term “praise of his glory” three times in one of the most out-of-this-world chapters in the New Testament: Ephesians 1. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>The man <i>saw </i>something. He saw a vision in that prison cell, even though he didn’t write about his vision directly. He just wrote about what he <i>saw </i>in the vision. He saw the cosmic Christ.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>And he saw the implications, which amount to this:</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>If Christ is the anchor of the entire creation – the theologian Hans Boersma calls it the “Christological anchor”; I love the term – if Christ is indeed the anchor of all of creation, that glorious condition must be EXPRESSED.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>The expression is the praise.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>This is not too complicated. When we smile because of the assurance of God’s love, it is glory expressed. It is the praise of his glory. This doesn’t have to go on in a church building.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>In fact, if it is not going on <i>outside </i>of a church building, the church part is just the prelude to Arbys. It ain’t much.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>When we live, resigned to the fact that He is God and we are not, and we <i>sense </i>the relaxation which that brings, it is to the praise of his glory. <i>Sense</i>. Sense is of this world, this (still) wonderful world. <i>Sense </i>is what can be seen, what can be touched, what can be handled.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Doesn’t that RING A BELL?? "That which we have heard, which have have seen, which our hands have touched … of the word of life…" Doesn't it say that somewhere...?</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>The aesthetics of this life, the actions, the expressions, the ART of it, the SENSED beauty of it all … this is (or can be, it <i>can </i>be, <i>say that it can be</i>) to the praise of his glory.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>We don’t see glory itself much in our present condition.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>But we sure can make everything around us the praise of it.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span><b>Logos2Go</b></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><span>Ephesians 1.4-6 </span> ... even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the<b> praise of his glorious grace</b>, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><span>Ephesians 1.12</span> ... so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the <b>praise of his glory.</b></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><span>Ephesians 1.13-15 </span> In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the<b> praise of his glory</b>. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><span>1 John 1.1-2 </span> That which was from the beginning, which we have <b>heard</b>, which we have <b>seen</b> with our eyes, which we looked upon and have <b>touched with our hands</b>, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Hans Boersma, <i>Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry</i> (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011).</span></div>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-63973775518280638052012-01-17T15:22:00.000-08:002012-01-17T15:26:06.210-08:00He must be wiping all of our tears away NOW<span><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Time is here, and then it is gone. Minds better than mine have mused about this conundrum -- Augustine, for one, in Chapter XI of his </span><i style="text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Confessions</i><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto; ">. </span></span><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br />As I get old, this matter has been profoundly weighing on me. I’ve come to a conclusion of sorts: it cannot be as simple as this. It cannot be that what I experienced a year ago, or a minute ago, is GONE.</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br />They are not gone. My experiences are not gone. They are somewhere; just not here. But then … even as I write this, even here is not here.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span>And so if I only dwell on the here, woe is me.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span>As a matter of fact, to dwell well – to really DWELL – <i>requires </i>that you take in more than just NOW and HERE. For example, it takes about three years in a new house before that house becomes a home. What has happened? Well, the accrual of all of your experiences in that house has transformed that house, that land, into a home in which you <i>dwell</i>. The house has become you; you have become the house. The sum is HOME.</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br />… In my father’s house are many dwellings; I go to prepare a place for you …</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br />Here is what I am thinking: it is the totality of what the inner man has been made by all of his or her experiences that somehow goes into eternity.</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br />But eternity is also here and now. This is another mistake we make. We think we live the moments of life now. And then when we die … eternity. But this is logically incorrect. Eternity can’t be eternity if it starts to be eternity only tomorrow. Eternity is eternity by virtue of the fact that it is NOW.</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br />So how can time be gone; how can our experiences all be gone; if eternity is now?</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br />And so we need to live in the fear of God. And all that I do today – ah, I am writing again on my recliner – should be done, should be experienced, with the expectation that I will someday experience it again more fully.</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span><br />Think of it: it says that God will wipe away all of our tears someday in the New Jersusalem. But how can it be ALL of our tears if he is only to wipe them away <i>someday</i>? </span></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><span>For it to be ALL of our tears, He must be wiping them away NOW.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br /><br /><b><span >Logos2Go</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br /><span>John 14.2 </span> In my Father's house are many rooms ( μονή dwellings). If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span><br /><span>Revelation 21.4</span> He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."</span></div>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-90271533775006476502012-01-15T09:03:00.000-08:002012-01-15T09:15:46.921-08:00And in the fourth hour of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHKqmYnESFS3E7t2P1dba2QvZdCLfbeVsFOV27S77YX8F-WiWZPZcy7pzyzc5UKrAws1htaUtJPDwHsuFNAZzpz4BXGdAKPW5jTTTOKON0M5aFfcJQ28lGvYpIkZMbmqZGCMa35eyq7wur/s1600/IMG_4357+-+in+the+fourth+hour+of+the+night+he+came+to+them+walking+on+the+sea.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 314px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHKqmYnESFS3E7t2P1dba2QvZdCLfbeVsFOV27S77YX8F-WiWZPZcy7pzyzc5UKrAws1htaUtJPDwHsuFNAZzpz4BXGdAKPW5jTTTOKON0M5aFfcJQ28lGvYpIkZMbmqZGCMa35eyq7wur/s400/IMG_4357+-+in+the+fourth+hour+of+the+night+he+came+to+them+walking+on+the+sea.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697907566068950514" /></a><span ><br /><span><span><div style="line-height: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span>28" x 36" Oil pastels on craft paper, </span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span>with photocopy inlays of:</span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span><i>Christina's World</i>, Andrew Wyeth, 1948</span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span><i>Young Woman with Water Pitcher</i>, Jan Vermeer 1665</span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span>Ospedale degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital), Filippo Brunelleschi, Florence, 1419</span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span ><b>Logos2Go</b></span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span ><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="line-height: 14px; "><span ><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="line-height: 14px; "><span >Matthew 14.25</span> </span><span><span style="line-height: 14px; "> </span><span style="line-height: 14px; ">And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.</span></span></div></span></span></span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-78278230178536680182012-01-14T08:02:00.000-08:002012-01-14T10:36:00.041-08:00Sacrament and Art and Stickley Recliners<div>Sacrament is the overlapping of heaven and earth expressed in a visible fashion. Defined in this way, all of nature is sacramental, because God’s presence is everywhere-present (omnipresent) in nature. And so the Apostle Paul says that men are without excuse who deny God, because his presence is everywhere evident in creation. </div><div><br /></div><div>This presence of God is added to in the New Testament by the unique development of God-become-man, Jesus Christ, coming into the word. It says that Christ tabernacles (the word means to dwell) among men. This localizes the everywhere-present presence of God in a way that does not compromise His everywhere-present presence. This localization of God-with-us is one reason for art.</div><div><br /></div><div>At least it is one <i>opportunity </i>for art. We make art to celebrate the localized presence of heaven on earth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, this truth raises enormous problems in relation to Christian practice. I am referring to religious images. The Eastern Church has long held that religious images – icons – are a special form of art because of their ability to convey the viewer into the divine presence. The Western Church’s view of this matter is a lot more complicated. On the one hand it rejected the Eastern view, holding that physical images of the divine amount to idols. On the other hand the history of Western Christianity (Protestantism aside which, after all, is a recent development) is filled with religious objects. We would not have art history, and we would not have architecture history as most people understand it, without art sanctioned by Western Christianity.</div><div><br /></div><div>(In other words, I would not have a job as a professor of architecture, of art, of philosophy of aesthetics, and of all of that other stuff for which there are no grant monies to go after; but I digress).</div><div><br /></div><div>Now add to this Protestantism, which historically has been the most vocal against religious images of any kind, and we have the ambivalent attitude most Christians today have towards art in relation to the practice of their faith.</div><div><br /></div><div>And the consequence of <i>this </i>is a disjuncture between anything that is material-physical with Christian life. Because I am Protestant, I am mostly thinking of my peers in this category. Whatever worship is, it has little to do with the materiality of our lives. We have mental images of “worship” as something done on a Sunday morning, standing up and sitting down when told to do so by the guy with the guitar up front, and singing pre-printed songs. Many wear jeans and flip-flops; at some places it is <i>de rigueur</i> for the preacher man to wear casual clothing; I have even heard of Mickey Mouse shirts. </div><div><br /></div><div>And the architectural space in which this activity takes place matters NIL.</div><div><br /></div><div>The historian Johan Huizinga, in his <i>The Waning of the Middle Ages</i>, makes a key observation about religious images.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>“The spirit of the Middle Ages … longs to give concrete shape to every conception. Every thought seeks expression in an image, but in this image it solidifies and becomes rigid. By this tendency to embodiment in visible forms all holy concepts are constantly exposed to the danger of hardening into mere externalism. For in assuming a figurative shape thought loses its ethereal and vague qualities, and pious feeling is apt to resolve itself in the image.”</i> </div><div><br /></div><div>The Eastern tradition of being conveyed into the divine presence by icons stresses the <i>moment</i> of encounter. Ideally, at that <i>moment</i>, the materiality of the art object goes away. Thus the art-thing is not an object of veneration, as the Western criticism would have it. But on the other hand, the art-thing is there, with its candles and incense and all the rest of it. And to the one who is not in the moment, it is, problematically, a religious something or other with no actual power.</div><div><br /></div><div>My point is that true sacramentalism can never be resident in objects alone. It must begin in the heart, a heart hungry for the moment of being in tune with heaven’s presence on earth. And heaven’s presence not only in a general way, but in a Christ way, in which he is <i>here</i>, with me, in <i>this </i>place, at <i>this </i>time, in this nice Stickley recliner on which I am writing. In moments like this, whether it is in front of an art object or whether it is sitting at meal, or whether it is writing these thoughts, sacrament and art meet, because heaven and earth meet.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the possibility of these moments, I set my table with honor and care; I work on my art with expectation; I look out at the nature around me with quiet humility; I treat all men with eager expectations of honor and redemption.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I am blessed by this Stickley recliner not as a haughty display of “taste” in expensive furniture, but because it is of an excellence that is becoming for the moment in which You are with me.</div><div><br /></div><div style="color: #b6d7a8;"><b>Logos2Go</b></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #b6d7a8;">Romans 1.20</span> For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #b6d7a8;">John 1.14</span> And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.</div><div><br /></div><div>J. Huizinga, <i>The Waning of the Middle Ages</i> [1942], Doubleday Anchor, 1954, page 152.</div>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-82751824642128233712011-07-16T19:25:00.000-07:002011-07-16T19:27:20.774-07:00C.S. Lewis on the learned life<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >This is from <i>The Weight of Glory:</i></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >... The work of a Beethoven and the work of a charwoman become spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of being done humbly "as to the Lord." This does not, of course, mean that it is for anyone a mere toss-up whether he should sweep rooms or compose symphonies …<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >A man's upbringing, his talents, his circumstances, are usually a tolerable index of his vocation. If our parents have sent us to Oxford, if our country allows us to remain there, this is <i>prima facie</i> evidence that the life which we, at any rate, can best lead to the glory of God at present is the learned life. By leading that life to the glory of God I do not, of course, mean any attempt to make our intellectual inquiries work out to edifying conclusions. That would be, as Bacon says, to offer the author of truth the unclean sacrifice of a lie. I mean the pursuit of knowledge and beauty, in a sense, for their own sake, but in a sense which does not exclude their being for God's sake. An appetite for these things exists in the human mind, and God makes no appetite in vain. We can therefore pursue knowledge as such, and beauty as such, in the sure confidence that by so doing we are either advancing to the vision of God ourselves or indirectly helping others to do so. Humility, no less than appetite, encourages us to concentrate simply on the knowledge or the beauty, not too much concerning ourselves with their ultimate relevance to the vision of God. That relevance may not be intended for us but for our betters -- for men who come after and find the spiritual significance of what we dug out in blind and humble obedience to our vocation. This is the teleological argument that the existence of the impulse and the faculty prove that they must have a proper function in God's scheme … <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" > </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >The intellectual life is not the only road to God, nor the safest, but we find it to be a road, and it may be the appointed road for us. Of course, it will be so only so long as we keep the impulse pure and disinterested. That is the great difficulty…: we may come to love knowledge -- our knowing -- more than the thing known: to delight not in the exercise of our talents but in the fact that they are ours, or even in the reputation they bring us. Every success in the scholar's life increases this danger. If it becomes irresistible, he must give up his scholarly work. The time for plucking out the right eye has arrived.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" ><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><b>Logos2Go</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></span></p></div><div style="font-size: small; ">"The Weight of Glory" in <i>The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses</i> (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 56-57.</div><div style="font-size: small; "><br /></div></span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-91487853606137389332011-03-27T07:29:00.000-07:002011-03-27T07:46:59.184-07:00A thought about constructive criticism<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">When someone asks you to review something he wrote, here is a thought for you.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Do you see that sunset over there?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Constructive criticism is </span><i style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">both </i><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">of you trying to describe that sunset. The first response is the joy of the opportunity to see the view. The other person has made an attempt at describing it and has asked you to help in that description.<br /><br />First, stop and enjoy his description; you were doing something else; you might have missed the view unless he drew your attention to it.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Now, what do you see that can perhaps add to what the other is seeing, so that the celebration might even be greater?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">This is especially true if you know the other person. You know him or her, so when you read something that you </span><i style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">think </i><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">might mean this-or-that, but you know that person could </span><i style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">not </i><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"><span style="font-style: italic;">possibly </span>mean such a thing, than your response ought to be a question, not a disagreement.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">This is why I find papers written by my students at the end of a semester easier to grade, because by then I know them better than I knew them at first. Criticism then becomes a suggestion of how to word things better, rather than warning them that, hey, that sunset they think they see over there is really a hallucination.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">That would be </span><i style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">destructive </i><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">criticism, not constructive criticism.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">There always must be humility, because we do not make the sunsets, we only learn to describe them better.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Matthew 17.24-27 </span> When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast 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 me and for yourself.”</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-28050593366202696182011-03-25T08:49:00.000-07:002011-03-25T08:53:55.950-07:00The first women's movement in the Church<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;" >In 1243 ... Matthew Paris -- surveying the European scene from his English monastery -- made an entry in his Chronicle to which he attached great importance:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >"At this time and especially in Germany, certain people -- men and women, but especially women -- have adopted a religious profession, though it is a light one. They call themselves 'religious', and they take a private vow of continence and simplicity of life, though they do not follow the Rule of any saint, nor are they as yet confined to a cloister. They have so multiplied within a short time that two thousand have been reported in Cologne and neighboring cities ..."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;" >We know that (Matthew Paris) was greatly impressed by the news of this new movement because in 1250, when he summarized the main events of the previous half century, he repeated his information ..."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255); font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >"In Germany there has arisen an innumerable multitude of celibate women who call themselves beguines: a thousand or more of them live in Cologne alone..."</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;" >[Here is also Robert Grosseteste, the great bishop of Lincoln]: one day he preached a sermon to the Franciscans in which he extolled ... the highest kind of poverty: this was to live by one's own labor <span style="font-style: italic;">"like the beguines."</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;" >Between them, Grosseteste and Paris surveyed a very large slice of European life, and they were both impressed by the new and strange phenomenon. The beguine movement differed substantially from all earlier important movements within the western church. It was basically a women's movement, not simply a feminine appendix to a movement which owed its impetus, direction, and main support to men. It had no definite Rule of life; it claimed the authority of no saintly founder; it sought no authorization from the Holy See; it had no organization or constitution; it promised no benefits and sought no patrons; its vows were a statement of intention, not an irreversible commitment to a discipline enforced by authority; and its adherents could continue their ordinary work in the world ...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 255, 153);font-family:arial;" >Logos2Go</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Quoted from: R.W. Southern, </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages</i> (Penguin Book, 1970) 319-321</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-83817835999488622742011-03-21T20:03:00.000-07:002011-03-21T20:08:14.388-07:00Polanyi on art and mastery<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);">Michael Polanyi is the thinker who gave us the term "tacit knowledge." He said so many insightful things, like this:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);">"An art which cannot be specified in detail cannot be transmitted by prescription, since no prescription for it exists. It can be passed on only by example from master to apprentice...<br /><br />... It follows that an art which has fallen into disuse for the period of a generation is altogether lost. There are hundreds of examples of this to which the process of mechanization is continuously adding new ones. These losses are usually irretrievable.<br /><br />It is pathetic to watch the endless efforts -- equipped with microscopy and chemistry, with mathematics and electronics -- to reproduce a single violin of the kind the half-literate Stradivarius turned out as a matter of routine more than 200 years ago ...</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 204, 255);">To learn by example is to submit to authority. You follow your master because you trust his manner of doing things even when you cannot analyze and account in detail for its effectiveness. By watching the master and emulating his efforts in the presence of his example, the apprentice unconsciously picks up the rules of the art ...</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span><br /><br />Michael Polanyi,<span style="font-style: italic;"> Personal Knowledge,</span> University of Chicago Press, 1974, 51</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-24071816117232190062011-01-31T13:56:00.000-08:002011-01-31T14:05:22.389-08:00Psalm 122: where fellowship is complete<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguUXPPKAQHCic9FTXRoXIUrIdH_eaZXemSk5Syl3STA5L-lRU8c6mVBdDQZuN5xTheNHB5w9tkstkOrrsBxK5_NGMJszfO7sjFVNUhhY01XFRb_QK-r3TVfsyCjwmWrvanl8Zd3q7KVO6g/s1600/Ps+122.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 298px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguUXPPKAQHCic9FTXRoXIUrIdH_eaZXemSk5Syl3STA5L-lRU8c6mVBdDQZuN5xTheNHB5w9tkstkOrrsBxK5_NGMJszfO7sjFVNUhhY01XFRb_QK-r3TVfsyCjwmWrvanl8Zd3q7KVO6g/s400/Ps+122.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568472675497460130" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">One of my desires is to pictorially interpret the Songs of Degrees (Psalms 120-134); one composition per psalm. Psalm 120 and 121 are <a href="http://logos2go.blogspot.com/2011/01/psalm-120.html">here </a>and <a href="http://logos2go.blogspot.com/2011/01/psalm-121.html">here</a>. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"><br /><br />I've been stuck on Psalm 122 for about 4 weeks; none of my sketches have been satisfying. There's so much in this psalm. Here is the first complete effort for 122, although it doesn't satisfy me either.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"><br /><br />In this psalm, the wanderer finds himself already in the precincts of Jerusalem, the City of God and, in verse 3, he notices something.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"><br /><br />This something is translated in our English versions as "Jerusalem is a city that is compact together," or "... is bound firmly together," or variations thereof.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">But I like the English translation of the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament. Here, verse 3 is translated this way:</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">"Jerusalem is built as a city whose fellowship is complete ..."</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"><br /><br />A city whose fellowship is complete. <br /><br />I've been wondering and wandering over this for days.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"><br /><br />Psalm 122</span>, ESV (121 in the Septuagint)<br /><br />1 I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”<br />2 Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!<br />3 Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together,<br /><br />(<span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">3 Jerusalem is built as a city whose fellowship is complete</span>),<br /><br />4 to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.<br />5 There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.<br />6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you!<br />7 Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!”<br />8 For my brothers and companions' sake I will say, “Peace be within you!”<br />9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-34208793442520088252011-01-18T14:56:00.001-08:002011-01-18T15:03:44.191-08:00Somewhere over the rainbow<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhddVXAYxS6_SzOqYujmVOULCihU-B0fsWlMZ4PlcQOgpc2WYJnXTXFQn2CX_8trBrE7S1FffYWE6Ykr-rpJhOHhYkAxhWPEeuciislWIe4xocCdcjGVhC4-jnFyB-ukcBDycfM1nuQEHY4/s1600/somewhere+over+the+rainbow+--+IMG_2935.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 304px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhddVXAYxS6_SzOqYujmVOULCihU-B0fsWlMZ4PlcQOgpc2WYJnXTXFQn2CX_8trBrE7S1FffYWE6Ykr-rpJhOHhYkAxhWPEeuciislWIe4xocCdcjGVhC4-jnFyB-ukcBDycfM1nuQEHY4/s400/somewhere+over+the+rainbow+--+IMG_2935.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563663873570309554" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Upon seeing the above painting, my friend Joshua Gilstrap was reminded of Psalm 97. I think it is an appropriate passage to post with this image.<br /><br />I had titled the painting "somewhere over the rainbow."<br /></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Oil pastels and color pencil on paper.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Psalm 97.1 </span>The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">2</span> Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">3</span> Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">4 </span>His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-73917163061807480582011-01-10T13:06:00.001-08:002011-01-10T13:07:53.659-08:00Psalm 121<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUC94kjzFd0yxMYicWlTspodnZ5MCtjGMH3hTZ4Nec-kKmBPnxNuU5Re9DvYvyyN7tAjROSgTalvhf6yyZFxD8U8bjx2E2IswoQL-tUoIQMcMIQd0Lp_WT5Ivhbdoc1KzPWj9wr1vHqUf0/s1600/IMG_2892+-+Psalm+121.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 305px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUC94kjzFd0yxMYicWlTspodnZ5MCtjGMH3hTZ4Nec-kKmBPnxNuU5Re9DvYvyyN7tAjROSgTalvhf6yyZFxD8U8bjx2E2IswoQL-tUoIQMcMIQd0Lp_WT5Ivhbdoc1KzPWj9wr1vHqUf0/s400/IMG_2892+-+Psalm+121.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5560666776503482082" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 204);">Oil pastels on paper.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">121:1-8</span> I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? / My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. / He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. / Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. / The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. / The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. / The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. / The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.<br /><br /></span></span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-2011048587946339072011-01-01T13:29:00.000-08:002011-01-01T13:45:53.904-08:00Psalm 120<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCmR-slAu76PnBMdvg2NKAYskzNQAgCBcO761krxlEvvepvAljSjh_DBOYfA9LOwBax7QasTvO5tW9cV4DxQn2yGhVRhz-eXztARdwv0GAPbWptbsV8-I-Fz27TIb-8r-xGC15PE6__me9/s1600/Psalm+120.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 301px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCmR-slAu76PnBMdvg2NKAYskzNQAgCBcO761krxlEvvepvAljSjh_DBOYfA9LOwBax7QasTvO5tW9cV4DxQn2yGhVRhz-eXztARdwv0GAPbWptbsV8-I-Fz27TIb-8r-xGC15PE6__me9/s400/Psalm+120.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557336018314821154" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Oil pastels on paper</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Psalm 120.1-7</span> In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> deceitful tongue?</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> A warrior's sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!</span></span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-77302140565048953942010-12-18T10:07:00.000-08:002010-12-18T10:23:32.539-08:00This Christmas, treasure up<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >This Christmas I am thinking of Mary. Over the centuries Mary has gotten a bad deal. The Catholics make her almost divine; they even pray to her. We Protestants go the other way: we keep her out of prime time. She's rarely held up as a role model like other women in the Bible: Ruth, Esther, even Dorcas.<br /><br />Churches have Dorcas Funds to help those in need. But I’ve never heard of a church with a Mary Fund.<br /><br />But Mary had a Fund. She had <span style="font-style: italic;">treasures </span>in her heart. We all know the story. Shepherds came to worship the baby Jesus – and Luke says Mary "<b>treasured up</b> all these things and pondered them in her heart." Later on, they lose the boy Jesus for three days only to find him in the Temple. Imagine the panic: You’ve lost your kid, not for three hours, but for three <i>days!</i> What was Mary’s response? She <b>treasured </b>all these things in her heart.<br /><br />But you say: she was Jesus’ mother! Of course she treasured things about her boy! <br />But this is what’s so remarkable. She was the mother of <i>God</i>; you’d think heaven would keep her in the loop about things: <i><br /><br />“Okay these are the wise men … this is a planned visit … we’ve got sharpshooters on the roof … don’t worry …” </i> etc. <br /><br />You’d expect her to be treated like royalty. Think of Queen Elizabeth, mother of Prince Charles. No mean life here. No stables for her. What? Lose her son in a crowd? No!; secret service would be all over the place.<br /><br />But not Mary the mother of God. One visit as a young girl by the angel Gabriel, and that’s it. No more heavenly visits. No more inside scoop. She’s left to her own natural wits to raise this child. She’s not given a palace to live in; not even the Davenport Hotel. She gets a stable. She loses her son and has to go find him. She goes to a wedding and frets about wine. She sees her son die on the cross, and gets handed off to John to be cared for. That’s it.<br /><br />Brothers and sisters: if this for the mother of God, how about for us? Better than Mary, we have the New Testament to guide us. Better than Mary, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We have it much better than the mother of God.<br /><br />And yet do we <span style="font-weight: bold;">treasure up</span> in our hearts the circumstances of our lives?<br /><br />Perhaps because of our comfort we take everything for granted. We forget that we are the <i>continuing </i>story of the advent of Jesus Christ into the world. Luke, who wrote the report about Mary, also wrote in Acts that he was recording what Jesus <i>began </i>to do in the world.<br /><br />We continue to be part of that story. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />We often pray to know the will of God. Jesus <b><i>IS </i></b>the will of God. But how his life unfolds in us is often unclear to us. We are not given a preview. We are simply brought into the circumstances of our lives with Jesus in our midst, in our hearts, in the Word. And far from taking our circumstances for granted -- or even griping about them -- we need to do some <span style="font-weight: bold;">treasuring up</span>.<br /><br />What should we treasure? Not the circumstances themselves. But we treasure the mystery of Jesus Christ in our circumstances. Because he is in the midst, there is something about these circumstances I am going through that is right at the heart of God’s counsel for Christ in me the hope of glory.<br /><br />In this sense they are holy; in this sense I need to give my best, my all, with humility and worship, and free from complaint.<br /><br /><b>Treasure up</b> … this word in the Greek means to preserve, to keep from perishing, to protect from being lost. It means to value. This Christmas, thank God for the circumstances of your lives, because Jesus is in the midst.<br /><br />And that is something worth treasuring up for.</span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> Luke 2.19 </span>But Mary <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">treasured up</span> all these things and pondered them in her heart.</span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Luke 2.51</span> Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">treasured </span>all these things in her heart.</span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Acts 1.1 </span>In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">began </span>to do and to teach...</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-69896301941108146512010-12-17T08:19:00.000-08:002010-12-17T08:20:21.996-08:00de Tocqueville on Christianity and Islam<span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" >The Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville traveled in this country in the early nineteenth century. I came across this observation he made in 1835, and I think it makes for good discussion in light of current events (I break up his paragraph for easier reading):<br /><i><br />"It has been shown that, at times of general cultivation and equality, the human mind does not consent to adopt dogmatical opinions without reluctance, and feels their necessity acutely in spiritual matters only. <br /> <br />This proves, in the first place, that at such times religions ought, more cautiously than at any other, to confine themselves within their own precincts; for in seeking to extend their power beyond religious matters, they incur a risk of not being believed at all. The circle within which they seek to bound the human intellect ought therefore to be carefully traced, and beyond its verge the mind should be left in entire freedom to its own guidance. <br /> <br />Mohammed professed to derive from Heaven, and he has inserted in the Koran, not only a body of religious doctrines, but political maxims, civil and criminal laws, and theories of science. The gospel, on the contrary, only</i><i> speaks of the general relations of men to God and to each other -- beyond which it inculcates and imposes no point of faith. This alone, besides a thousand other reasons, would suffice to prove that the former of these religions will never long predominate in a cultivated and democratic age, whilst the latter is destined to retain its sway at these as at all other periods ..."</i><br /><br />Hmmm. </span> <span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Logos2Go</span></span> <span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />Alexis de Tocqueville, </span> <span style="font-family: arial;font-size:130%;" ><i>Democracy in America</i>, trans. Henry Reeve, B&R Samizdat Express, 504</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-90376117244218856552010-12-14T08:58:00.000-08:002010-12-14T09:03:57.760-08:00This is what it's all about ...<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >"What is Life?"<br /><br />"What is Love?"</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />Big questions like these take up a lot of time without producing answers. Or they occupy huge tomes nobody reads. Some people, having talked long enough about them, might even earn tenure at an institute of higher learning. But the questions only get bigger.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />At the Mission, I've been getting to know a man named Art; and Art tends to ask the big questions. Like last night over dinner ...: </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />... the dining room was overflowing with people and noise, the aroma of dependency freely mixing with the warmth of caring. In addition to the guys staying at the Mission, many had come in from the dreary cold. They were served hamburger patties smothered with chili, with curly fries and salad on the side.<br /><br />As usual, it was a miracle: </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><i>hundreds </i>of servings ... with leftovers.<br /><br />And Art blurts out:</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><i>What's any of this about anyway... ?</i></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;" > </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />Art is a deep thinker in faded blue jeans; I'd even say he's tortured by his thoughts. That's why I find him a kindred spirit.<br /><br />But I'm chomping down on my hamburger and mildly irritated at having to do philosophy at the same time. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />"Pass the salt and pepper."</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><i>Yea but what's any of this about anyway ... I mean look at us ... nobody's interested in anything but eating and the basics ...<br /><br /></i>It was one of those moments when the jigsaw puzzle of thoughts aligned with insight from above; so I blurted out, probably helping myself more than helping him:</span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><i style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"><br />This is what it's all about: you are here; I am here; we are eating this meal together; this moment ... together ... here ... and we are thankful. All of this, NOW, is by God's grace. This is what it's all about, and we must capture the moment ...</i><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span></span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> John 6.29</span> Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-69589800255001765632010-11-21T19:13:00.000-08:002010-11-21T19:45:21.840-08:00water turning into wine<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHnAMQGZZNmI_P11QZRnXFv9doJC0vBCowFVGOBdfyEv9a1Tm2XFvcpFFYWQZxcRWvs8Mcw_dU52NlfHmuMakPT6w7btY0TLzpQQilFqwleAOQYKeH4IIPQ50DmtP5z3zlChNIpTXohK9r/s1600/water+turning+into+wine+3.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHnAMQGZZNmI_P11QZRnXFv9doJC0vBCowFVGOBdfyEv9a1Tm2XFvcpFFYWQZxcRWvs8Mcw_dU52NlfHmuMakPT6w7btY0TLzpQQilFqwleAOQYKeH4IIPQ50DmtP5z3zlChNIpTXohK9r/s400/water+turning+into+wine+3.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542214947073655378" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Oil pastels on board.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">John 2.9</span> When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew) ...</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ykwnBV1PkvuHe-Kxuwbu3_IaGTJGOr0S2KQNv7bPvVhkgP2j6FKYMj_UoNyZDW2B7uBgAyz5T9wGINO9PXUf3IRSgQI2cWszUg5UgLBz9-OtWhd43v-QeVQyas-Fmaqe-Rq6_IVVYUWy/s1600/Water+turned+into+wine.JPG"><span><span></span></span></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2fZcA50zcfK7Th4lYROeoaig3f77Zd1qwY2oBKQ89pff2WIg521UQ33eGsyCinPq4SiBhl7EM8RlzEGEpjuKq48IFx4Uref7xkmBoETRzCFBjvSBzuPa8RW_WqUenjw62cQqbruWMwG6D/s1600/Water+turned+into+wine.JPG"><span><span></span></span></a>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-14701332064952077022010-11-11T07:21:00.000-08:002010-11-11T07:23:23.934-08:00starry starry night<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">We came home last night after dark. "The stars are out tonight!" said Valerie, as we walked up the drive.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Yes, they were. They were splashed across the sky in a virtuoso display of generosity.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">"It's one of the pleasures of living out here," I said. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Even this short distance away from the artificial lights of urban Spokane, the night sky is un-embarrassing in its beauty.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Then I said as we walked into the house, against the inklings of creeping old age that seem to always be near my mind these days:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">"We know nothing ... absolutely nothing about how any of this really works..."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">And I had a vague sense of having something to look forward to.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Psalm 19.1-2 </span>The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. </span></span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-36978677416712967972010-10-27T16:02:00.000-07:002010-10-27T16:39:42.959-07:00Downsizing and dying<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >These days I've been in Los Angeles helping my parents downsize.<br /><br />They are on in years now -- in their late 80s. The one can only walk very slowly; the other, well, she asks me the same questions over and over .<br /><br />The move to a senior community comes with its own exertions; the weight of moving their things is quite different from the weight I carry inside me.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />In midst of moving, I get a call telling me that a good friend's father just passed away in New York.<br /><br />In midst of moving, I know I'm probably myself headed for a biopsy for another spot on the roof of my mouth. What can these spots mean? I've few people to talk to about this here in Los Angeles; and my parents don't know. Why worry them?<br /><br />All of this in midst of:</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > "... do you still want this old bookcase? can we put this stuff on the curb? when is the donation truck coming ...?"<br /><br />The piano I learned to play on is taken away to some Catholic church.</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />I've been thinking a lot about death and dying these days. How absolutely OTHER death is! And yet, and yet ...<br /><br />This is what it's all about. If all of our confession merely stops short on this side of the divide, then there really is ... nothing. Better to just enjoy all these Lexuses and BMWs that seem to flourish here in Southern California. (But the drivers don't seem all that happy).</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />What is it going to be? Dirt ... or GLORY?</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />What is it going to be? Everything I've ever read in the Word: TRUE ... or ... nothing.<br /><br />In midst of a thousand other displaced objects in the house, I see an old calendar with a trite saying for each month: February:<i> Live Each Day to the Fullest.</i> April: <i>Help Me to See it's All Been for Good.<br /><br /></i>Help me to see it's all been for good.<i> </i><br /><br />I wonder: why do we humans have an instinct for better-ness? An instinct that life can be lived to the </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><i>fullest</i>, which can be missed. An instinct that assumes that, beyond this messy reality, there must be a <span style="font-style: italic;">better </span>reality? It must be an instinct God put there. Animals don't have calendars that say: "Help Me to See it's All Been for Good."<br /><br />But we have calendars that say that. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />I pick up an old book about a trip the book's author made to Ephesus. The place is all a ruin now, he writes as he sits on a knoll overlooking the old city -- and he was there in 1897. There's a lot of old books laying around here.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />But he then says that the words of Paul's letter written from Ephesus are still new every day. Oh may it be so! And I do take comfort that I'm all of a piece with Paul's vision; that, somehow and I don't know how, at some point in my existence I'll be able to see Ephesus as Paul saw it. And that would <span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>be a place Northwest-KLM can fly me to.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />I'll be flying some other way.<br /><br />I think of old Ralph Gwinn. Ralph was so confident he was about to see God that, with joy in his voice and energy in his failing body, he led us in a Bible study from the bed he would die on a week later. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />I find myself wishing for more examples like Ralph: role models of people who knew how to die well.<br /><br />I hope you're reading this Ralph, or whatever it is that passes for reading where you are.</span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> Philippians 1.20 </span>... it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not at all be ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.<br /><br /><br /></span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-10824748034546783742010-10-20T14:42:00.000-07:002010-10-20T14:46:25.411-07:00The part I miss the most is the power of the Wind<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">Not all my friends know this, but speaking from a church pulpit has been a fairly regular part of my life since the 1980s.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Changing churches several months ago has significantly reduced my opportunities to do this. In fact, presently, they are nil. </span></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> It's been an adjustment. There's the freedom of not having to prepare throughout the week; that's true. But after several months, the thrill of that freedom is getting a bit old. </span></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> It's a freedom I'm not sure I'd like to be enslaved to.</span></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> The bottom line: I easily get to feeling like I've been sidelined. <br /><br />Sidelined at 26 or 36 is one thing. Sidelined at 56, well, it feels like the cleats have been hung up for good. The thoughts are too complicated to describe in words, at least on a blog post.</span></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> These days I sometimes critically evaluate my preaching in the past. How hard it is to do well! That's because, besides all of the prep, there's one thing you can't control. It's what I call the anointing of the Holy Spirit while delivering the message. Some times you have it. Other times you don't. And it is </span></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><i style="font-family: arial;">never </i><span style="font-family:arial;">formulaic, because the Spirit is Wind. <br /><br />All there is is humility and hard work. If ever given the chance again, I would want to learn that humility more than in the past.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> But the part I miss the most is the power of the Wind.</span></span> <span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" > <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Logos2Go</span></span></span> <span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> John 3.8-10 </span> "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? </span></span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-4164626158992863152010-10-19T09:30:00.000-07:002010-10-20T20:35:46.547-07:00A whiff of snoot<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >I finally see what struck me about a recent event Valerie and I attended.<br /><br />It was one of those financial seminars with the offer of a free dinner at a good restaurant. Free food at Luna is hard to turn down; so we went.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />The minute I stepped into the foyer I realized this was for "high income" folks. (Duh ... when it comes to money I'm not the brightest). </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />So then, how did </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><i>we </i>get selected? This was my question. Well, we don't know, they said, your names just cropped up on our list. Anyway, heeere we go ...<br /><br />Over the aroma of the great food, I caught the whiff of something else ... what was it? What was it?</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />It was ... it was ... it was a whiff of Philadelphia.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />But why? Why did that evening remind me of Philadelphia? </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />Well, it wasn't just any whiff of Philadelphia (and Philadelphia has its share of odors).<br /><br />It was a whiff of the Philadelphia Main Line: MONEY.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />It was a whiff of snoot, that's what it was. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Swimming pools, movie stars ... you know how that Jed Clampett song goes.<br /><br />There in a room at the Luna in Spokane, it felt like I had been transported again to Philadelphia, rubbing shoulders with a particular kind of snootiness I knew so well...</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />My! How money can make people a certain way! What way?</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />Well, I was invisible to them. They walked right by me. I didn't exist. They sat right next to me and ne'er a smile, ne'er a hello, not even a look in my direction. I love Valerie because she just simply engaged the people to her right in conversation. I felt like they put up with it. I wasn't that way with the folks on my left; I just couldn't get it up to bother them in their self-sufficiency. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />(So I'm totally willing to say it was </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><i>my </i>arrogance ... I know how complicated these things can be. One can be arrogant in having <i>less </i>money as well).<br /><br />The wine was not included in the free meal, by the way.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />When the folks next to us left -- they left early -- their signed check was on the white tablecloth for all to see. For two, they spent near 50 bucks on wine that evening.</span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span></span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> Jeremiah 9.23-24 </span>Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Nor let the rich man glory in his riches</span>; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-77983203032958723422010-10-17T07:00:00.000-07:002010-10-17T07:22:05.668-07:00Looking for the Word for the Day<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >This is a new concept for me: instead of reading the Word in the morning (only), look for it in conversations through the day. For example:<br /><br />"Why not rather suffer wrong?" </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >This came up over dessert with friends.<br /><br />Later I found it in the Book: it is 1 Corinthians 6.7, where Paul is chiding believers about taking one another to court.<br /><br />In our case, it was over a relational dust-up in which, if the offended party stood by his guns, he would be correct on principle but probably damage the other person. But "why not rather suffer wrong?" was advice that later led to healing in the relationship.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />It was the WORD FOR THE DAY. It did not come early in the morning in the privacy of my room, sitting on my recliner with a Bible in my lap. It came in the hubbub of conversation late one evening.<br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><i>And the advice wasn't even given to me. </i> But I witnessed the working of the power of the Word.<br /><br />Or this: "Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger ... for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God..." It is James 1.19-20.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />This came in a conversation with a former drug addict at the Mission. Meth, coke; he did it all. Now old and grisly, he sat there in his tattered green jacket, with half his teeth missing. But a well-thumbed Bible was in his hands.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />As we sat talking the thought crossed my mind: who's ministering to whom? </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />That morning I tried reading the Word, but felt empty and dry. So I started surfing the net and checking my email. Later I went to the Mission wondering what good I can do. That's when a former drug addict hit me with the WORD FOR THE DAY.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />Looking for the Word through the day enriches each conversation. It takes me out of my bookish ways, as if reading the Scripture by rote in the morning -- and then forgetting it -- has any sanctifying power. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />One last example: "it is better to give than to receive."<br /><br />I haven't even looked up the address for this passage as I write this. </span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >But "it is better to give than to receive" has been on-again-off-again on the radar of my consciousness the last several days.</span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />It gives me a quiet joy, and a willingness to infuse the fabric of daily events with a spirit of giving.<br /><br />It makes the ho-hum a little more special.</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153); font-weight: bold;">Logos2Go</span></span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br />Okay I just looked it up: <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Acts 20.35:</span> In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, '<span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">It is more blessed </span></span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);" class="criteria">to</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> give </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);" class="criteria">than</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);" class="criteria">to</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);" class="criteria">receive</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">.</span>'"<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">James 1.19-20 </span> Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. </span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">1 Corinthians 6.7 </span>To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? </span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370515473867204924.post-57778362822249036012010-10-13T20:05:00.000-07:002010-10-13T20:19:56.670-07:00Wasteful grace<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">The East Door is where a homeless man first enters the Mission; it is the gateway to the Rescue portion of the Mission's work. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Of all the men who come through the East Door -- not to mention the women and children who also walk through for free meals -- only a very small percentage go on to benefit from the Mission's Recovery and Restoration programs. </span></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> The overwhelming majority of them -- I would say 90% -- are simply there to freeload. And it is a very good deal; they get better food and shelter than many "middle class" folks have in other parts of the world. </span></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> When I first volunteered at the Mission, I felt these guys were just using the place -- and often with ungrateful attitudes. Not a few of my conversations with the men in the Day Room (which is what the East Door opens into) have to do with their gripes: how restrictive the Mission is; how holier-than-thou the staff is (they are not); how daily life at the Mission is boring; yada yada yada.</span></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Then they are the first in line for three hot meals a day.<br /><br />Besides a free bed, there's free showers daily; free laundry, free medical consultation; free legal advice; volunteers come to sew their clothes. <span style="font-style: italic;">Hosts </span>of volunteers attend to these guys' every need.</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Last year, the Mission served over <span style="font-style: italic;">230,000 meals</span>. Food was always on the table.<br /><br />Who says that the miracle of feeding 5,000 people with no guaranteed supplies no longer happens? It happens every day, three times a day.</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Nowadays I am simply struck by the on-going miracle that is the Union Gospel Mission.<br /><br />I've learned that grace, in order for it to be grace, must be wasteful.</span></span> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Love is wasteful. It is not measured. It gives and asks nothing in return.<br /><br />Perhaps we see so few miracles these days because we keep too many accounts.<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" > <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Logos2Go</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);"> Mark 14.3-4 </span> And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, </span><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);font-family:arial;" >Why was this waste</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> of the ointment made?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Luke 17.12-17</span> And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said,<span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 255);"> </span></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);font-family:arial;" >Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> <span style="color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Matthew 18.12</span> </span><span class="rl" style="font-family:arial;">"What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?</span>David Wanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712990231935758681noreply@blogger.com0