NT - Romans

Your religion is between you, and your God. We can learn from others, and grow together, but I believe that ultimately it's something only God can give you.

I believe God has given me a new view this week; a new way to look at a principle I've been struggling to understand lately. The idea stems from Paul's Epistle to the Romans. How are we saved? By works alone? By faith? I say both. For Christ is who saves us in the end, and we must have at least some form of faith in Him. Remember though, that faith without works is dead. We ALL sin, we ALL make mistakes, and we ALL need to be saved. We need to do all we can in this life; be the best we can possibly be, but in the end that will not save us. Only Christ's intervention in our judgment can do that.

I learned a new analogy the other day for what our judgment might be like. It may not actually be this way, but the principle is there:

The Court

That life is past, the time is here. I always knew this day would appear.
I'm confident I lived my life the best I could; I walked pretty straight.
I'm prepared for what happens next. I'm ready, I did my best.
I sit outside those grand oak doors and let the silence fill the hall.
A quiet sound seeps through the door. It's hard to tell, but it might be a weep.
I start to get nervous; I start to pace.
What happens behind those doors so great? What's the direction of my fate?
I get anxious as I sit and wait.
Yet I ease my soul with a hymn of Him.

When my time comes, the doors give a creak, a young man in white makes a small squeak.
He bids me come, and I follow him in.
Into a small court he leads me, with quick steps he bids me.
To a brown chair he ushers me, smiles softly then leaves.
I'm alone not too long when the prosecutor comes.
He smirks at me bitterly, sets his papers down, and drums.
At the same time, they enter, all twelve not missing one.
The court master enters, cries out, "all arise!"
Everyone present, in highest reverence, stands up and awaits the judge.

He comes in so gracefully, takes His seat and looks towards me.
I see the great love in his magnificent eyes, but also some pain as He voices, "advise."
Like a movie my life plays, flashing brightly before us.
My hurts and my pains, my good moments too; all of my life, through and through.
I cringe at my mistakes, my sins, and my thoughts.
At times I slump down, to hide from the frown.
I realize how weak I had been in life.
I'd tripped and I'd fallen, and at times, didn't get up.
My memory was clearer, I'd messed up all right.

Then Satan, he stopped it, and turned to the court.
"Good sirs," he did croon, "I think that's quite enough.
I think we can all see what this girl deserves.
Let me bring in her mother, her brother, her friend.
And we'll show you all what a mess she has been."
From then on, a line formed, with all the people I've wronged.
They all gave their testimony of how I had hurt them.
I cried when I realized how many I forsook and all the ones I overlooked.
Without end was my weeping as the case kept on leaping.

So many I had harmed with my words or my deeds.
My thoughts and my actions had harmed those in need.
Some had had a hard day, others just lost a friend.
Others were breaking inside or loosing their stride.
And yet I had not helped them, I broke them instead.
My neglect was as bad as a stab through the heart.
So many I had hurt, oh so many I failed to comfort.
My head pleaded, "Stop! What about the pain I was in?!"
But the moment I said it, I knew I was wrong. I had harmed them, not been trampled upon.

I turned to despair as I wept on the chair.
God could not take me to Heaven like this.
I was bad and had sinned and was selfish and wrong.
I'd resolved to go quietly to where Satan had planned.
I knew the judgment was just, and I should hope for no more.
As I readied to go, give up, and move on, a soft hand touched my shoulder and warmth filled my skin.
My Brother the Elder, stood by me just then.
His face was so kind, so gentle, not grim.
He hugged me just briefly, then advanced to the stand.

He spoke shortly with God, put his hand out and then,
I saw Him write something quickly on the stand before God.
He stepped back from the podium and looked keenly toward me.
His outreached hand lifted me from the chair, and lead me away from the stare.
I heard Satan scream behind me, "But how could this be?!"
Then God stated softly, "It is done, she is free."
I looked to my Brother, who smiled without guile.
We walked on, and I thought, "what are those marks in his hands,
and in His feet in his sandles too?"
Then I looked to his finger, on the hand that he wrote with,
and started to cry when I saw the red tip.

NT - Faith, Hope, and Charity

- Ironic that I should write on hope just yesterday, and my blog prompt today is on faith, hope, and charity. -

1 Corinthians 13 is a short chapter on charity specifically. It basically states that without charity, we are nothing, no matter how much knowledge, understanding, faith, prophecy, or eloquent speaking we have. It even states, "and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (vs. 3). So what is charity if it is not giving all we have to the poor through welfare (which is actually what the word "poor" is referenced to in the King James Version of the Bible)?

I have come to the persuasion that charity, along with both hope and faith, are attitudes not actions or knowledge. For how could any of those three be action-based if the scripture clearly states that no matter what we do or know, it matters not if we have not charity? Therefore, it must be more than action or knowledge.

I believe it to be an attitude.
A desire of the heart.

For Charity is long suffering,
kind,
envieth not,
does not boast in itself,
is not prideful,
behaveth not crudely,
is not selfish and has no hidden agendas,
is not easily angered,
thinketh no evil towards itself or others,
does not rejoice in sin,
rejoiceth in truth,
beareth all things,
believeth all things,
hopeth all things,
endureth all things,
never fails and it never gives up.
(paraphrased from the chapter)

It is the true love of Christ...it is Christ, we could substitute His name for the word "charity" or any pronoun for it, and it would fit...it is perfect as He is. I believe that Christ not only bestowed all his goods upon the poor physically, but also spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. I think the most important part of His gift to us, was that He did so willingly, because He truly loves us. That is what I believe charity is.

Faith is like unto it. It is a belief that things are which are not seen. Like Judy the Elf in The Santa Clause says, "Seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing." It requires action and not waiting around, but it is not based on the action either. I believe it is an attitude of believing in God the Eternal Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost and trusting that they will not lead you astray. I already spilled about hope, so I won't reiterate it here, but I also believe that hope is an attitude.

hOpE @};-

Hope. I think I'm beginning to figure out what it is, and how important it is in life.

It's trust that God will make everything work out ok.

It's belief that life will continue on when it seems like it's about to die out.

It's knowledge that God won't leave you in the dark abyss of life alone.

It's trust in God when He tells you to give up something because He has something better planned for you, and you can't see anything better than what you already have.

It's knowing that even if you aren't who you want to be, or don't feel strong enough to do something, God will be there to make you strong enough.

It's a vision of a better future, which gives you the drive to keep working in the present.

God has something great planned for me, for you, for each of us. Do we see even a small glimmer, or glimpse of that great plan? Life's so much lighter when we can see that; it gives us the courage and strength to go forth and do hard things. Life may suck right now, but we can keep pressing through and get to a better place...that's what makes us better people.

"Hold on, if you feel like letting go.

Hold on, it gets better than you know.

Don't stop looking you're one step closer.

Don't stop searching, it's not over.

Hold on."

NT - Paul on the Second Coming

December 21, 2012.

The day the world is supposed to end, or, in the language of Christians, the time of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Modern movies, books, discussions, facebook groups, and other parties show the fixation people have on this "end of the world" date. However, this obsession is not limited to just our day and age, if we look back in history, we can see that people got into this mind frequently. When the Iraq war came, people thought it was the end. When 2K was upon us, people thought the world was going to explode. With WWII, and before that, WWI, people thought it was over.

We can trace these heightened expectations for the Second Coming through history to the 1st century A.D. Just a few years after Christ had come the first time, people began to expect Him to come again, end the sufferings of the people, and reign supreme for the Millennium. During Paul's ministry, this obsession became a major problem within the Church at Thessalonia, not because the people believed that the Second Coming would happen, but because they were throwing away their lives in expectation of it. So Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus wrote an epistle to the Thessalonians in an attempt to help the people keep hope in the Second Coming, but still live and plan for life (read the full epistle here). Chapter 4, specifically addresses the issue, stating, "study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you...for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep...then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air" (verses 11-17). The problem was, that these people stopped working, planning for the future, and caring about life because they thought, "the Second Coming is upon us, why work and save for a future that will not be?" They sit around, and literally wait for the Second Coming; the exact problem Paul was addressing.

Does not the same idea apply to us today? Some people give up actually living their lives because "the end of the world is near, so why break my back over something that will soon be gone?" "Why spend my life working away at making the world better, when it's only going to get worse until it ends?" The point of life is not to waste it waiting for something better to come along, the point is to make this life the best we possibly can. It's a proactive approach instead of a reactive one. Like Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 "for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." No one but God knows when the Second Coming is. We can speculate about it all we want, but waiting for it leads to a wasted life.

So we need not give up our schooling, jobs, finances, storage areas, retirement funds, or any other areas of planning for a future because we speculate that the world will end. That way, we'll be prepared for the world to end, or continue on.

NT - Special Collections Seminar

Our class attended the Special Collections Seminar this week to learn more about ancient writings and how the Bible was transcribed. What peaked my interest was the evolution of writing materials used. Man first wrote on rock (cave drawings and such), but in order to have a portable form of their writings, they figured out how to make clay tablets. I was expecting these tablets to be something like what Moses brought down from the Mount; the big, almost tombstone-like, clay slabs. What we were shown, however, was much smaller. The tablet was just bigger than the palm of my hand with characters inscribed about one centimeter tall, filling up the tablet on both sides.

Next, the Egyptians figured out a way to use papyrus - a reed-like, water dwelling plant - to write on. The material was thin and could be fairly easily produced, but was not flexible and had to be carefully taken care of. Since the papyrus could not be folded, the Egyptians instead rolled it into scrolls - hence the Papyri Scrolls and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Later, in the Medieval period, animal hides were used. These hides were thin and flexible. They could be written on as well as erased and re-written. Monks often created books, written on animal hides, with wood covers to protect them. Hides were expensive, and difficult to come by at times, and were considered very valuable. The best hides to produce vellum from were the hides of newborn animals, or even better, those animals who were still developing prenatally. Apparently, one baby calf would produce enough hide for two pages. So in order to produce one copy of the Bible, containing somewhere around 1200 pages, 600 calves would have to be killed to provide the vellum. That's just one bible! What happens when they get groups of monks together, all working on transcribing the Bible? No wonder this vellum was such a pricey commodity. So pricey, in fact, that when supply ran out in the middle of a religious transcribing project, monks took books of pagan writings, erased them, and wrote over the old writings.

Paper wasn't discovered until about 100 years AD, now it's something we take for granted often. It is so easy for us to write now, to print books. What took dozens of years to produce in ancient times, we can now print in a few minutes. Makes me wonder though, is what we write or print what's important? In the ancient times, people had to know that what they were inscribing was important and worth the effort. Do we even think about what we write sometimes? Do we write the unimportant, meaningless wanderings of our lives and "forget" to write down what's truly important?

I know I don't even try to remember to do that sometimes. Maybe our writings should have more thought put into them.

Perception

Hey guys, check this out! We watched this in one of my classes today; it's amazing. Be patient, but pay attention to what Amanda says... never thought of it that way.

Hope it makes you stop and think about how you perceive those who are different from you. I know it made me.