Love's example a tough goal

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

When I read this scripture this morning I realized that all too often when a preacher is expounding on this passage, they preach and teach on the verse up to the word resentful. So, I started to look at the rest of the verse and to pray on that.

Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins; or love takes no pleasure in other people’s misery. Often what is our sin is also our misery, our living hell. You see, it might be reasonable to think or believe that hell isn’t a destination per se but rather a place in which we put ourselves with our actions and inactions. If we walk with the light of God, the light of Christ as our spirit and guide then we can’t take pleasure in other’s misery or even our own. Wow, knock my socks off on that.

Saying we can’t is a pretty lofty expectation though. Maybe a better turn of phrase is that we shouldn’t take pleasure in other’s misery. This part of the verse is an excellent example of how humans fall short; obviously only a perfect person is the only person who could always overlook with no pleasure another’s failings; that perfect person would of course be the One, the Great I am, the Son of Man, Christ who came as flesh and remains as spirit to teach and lead as example. What people can pray for is the strength to rise to His example; to try.

As a believer, a thinker and a hoper, which is what I believe a follower of Christ is; then through that belief and trust we should endeavor to excuse other’s transgressions; help rescue them from their misery and hope and trust that God will guide us to those ends. No small task indeed.

"We love Him because He first loved us."

"We love Him because He first loved us."

~1 John 4:9-10~

In the old Testament God is an active participant in Israel's internal and external fights, wars and conflicts. With Christ the Messiah God clearly takes on a very different role in humanity and humanity's conflicts. By the actions of his ministry Christ demonstrates and models the love that we humans should have for all. God through Christ shows the world that he is come to demonstrate boundless and endless love, a love that knows no bounds; a love that only requires asking for forgiveness and redemption. Pretty cool.

One wonders....

One wonders…

One wonders what America looks like from the outside. I use America in this instance to describe the United States, if you have a problem there, every time you see America substitute United States. We are a strong resilient people who every generation or so, since our beginning have re-invented ourselves. Yet, when some nut gets on an airplane on Christmas day 2009 and tires to blow himself up with an underwear bomb, some of us and our government come completely undone and unglued. We must look like a bunch of nincompoops from the outside.

The only person hurt on Christmas Day 2009 was the bomber. He did not succeed. There were failures in the system of course, given the fact that he got so far, but this incident was hardly worth the melt down it caused. Looking at the situation pragmatically, he tried to blow himself up and American citizens stepped up to the plate and subdued him, just like they subdued Richard Reid the shoe bomber. At our heart, we American citizens understand that we are in a war, that there are risks, that our government cannot protect us all of the time and that we the people will be called upon to step up and at times take matters into our own hands. This realization started on September 11, 2001 on United flight 93 when against all odds American citizens took their fate and their destiny into their hands and fought back. They understood what could happen and they didn’t let that fear paralyze them.

This in and of itself is one of the factors that make this huge hodge podge of a nation great. If given the facts, if given the consequences, if give the very worst case scenario; Americans will take in and process that information and deal with it as it comes. We as a people know that it is illogical, it is insane, it is silly to let a great nation paralyze itself in contemplation of teenagers strapping explosives to their bodies and committing suicide while attacking our civilian infrastructure.

My advice to those in power, stop behaving like Henny Penny when there is an event. Give us straight forward facts and tools to be vigilant and from the outside America will cease looking like a bunch of neurotic fradie cats.

The face of God and the personality of Jesus

1 Peter 1:15-16 ©
Be holy in all you do, since it is the Holy One who has called you, and scripture says: Be holy, for I am holy.

I am having a hard time finding the face of God and the personality of Jesus. Recently I feel just kind of disconnected and have been unable to find an emotional connection. I find this more than a little disturbing because I am not aware of ever having this problem before.

I wonder if this is a function of being too busy to actually find time to find center, that peaceful, quiet place where prayer and meditation comes easily. Perhaps too this is a function of feeling a bit lonely. A friend and I were discussing loneliness and being alone and he didn't seem to be able to connect that even in the company of others it is possible to feel lonely.

I also think that I am trying to cope with the fact that a decade has passed since John got sick and died and that fact is somewhat staggering for me. The decade represents a lifetime or two and life altering changes on more than one front. It is amazing to me that after so much time I still think about him everyday and still miss him so much that it causes my heart to ache.

Christ a Crisis is the Life of God

I am reading Jack Miles, “Christ a Crisis in the Life of God.” Anyone who professes to be a follower of Christ and serious about their belief should read this book. I am not finished with the book but the major take away for me so far and an enlightening ah, ha for me is; when reading the Bible pay close attention to exactly what is written.

For example, Nicodemus first meeting with Jesus in John 3:1.


1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."

3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.[a]"
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You[c] must be born again.' 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."



Nicodemus is a Pharisee, he therefore believed in an afterlife, and he comes to see Jesus. He is a ruler, he comes at night and he knows of Jesus miraculous signs.
Jesus does not acknowledge or dispute his miraculous signs; he moves on and talks about being born again. He also talks about wind; interestingly wind and spirit identified by ancient Hebrews as living and one in the same. Miles goes into much more detail truly pulling apart the verse and revealing subtle important factors.

The title in and of itself is fascinating and relevant too. In order to reconcile his people to him, God does indeed create a crisis of sorts in his life. God sends himself to Earth to live and ultimately die and be born again; paying the ultimate price for all of humanity in a complete transformation in many respects from the God of the Old Testament.