HE CALLS YOU BY YOUR NAME

This is Tuesday of Hurricane Harvey, August 29, 2017. I'm washing dishes at the sink listening to the radio people  (88.7). They told about the band COLDPLAY, who had to cancel Houston show cuz of hurricane flood. COLDPLAY was in another town yesterday and sang a song they wrote for Houston, to let us Houston people know they are thinking of us. It is a really sweet song, expressing that sentiment. I shed a tear thinking about when they will play in Houston next and will sing that song here; and their audience will roar in joy that the COLDPLAY people thought of them in their night of flood nightmare.
So now I want to tell you about Our Lord and Creator.
He knows us by name. He knows us intimately, our secret us; and He loves us.
I remember a few years ago walking down the hall at church and overhearing the youth leader teaching his Sunday school students and asking them when they feel closest to God, feel most loved by God. I wanted to pop into the class and give MY answer: I feel closest to God when He calls me by name; when I know He is talking to ME specifically, individually, and knows the innermost me me.
Recently, I've been thinking about that very idea. I have the privilege of attending a Bible study taught by Poksoon Kim and she is teaching on stories in Bible book of LUKE, LUKE 8:42-48.(Poksoon Kim's recorded teaching is available online. Maybe Google her name.) she was telling about the woman who had bleeding that would not stop and secretly touched Jesus' clothes to be healed because she believed that she could be healed that way.
Well, she WAS healed; but Jesus did not want it to be a secret. Sister Kim was explaining and wanting us to enter in to all that was involved that Jesus wanted to heal by insisting that her healing be public instead of private.
Sister Kim explained that the woman, because of her illness had come to feel very isolated and pushed away from her community. Also, since she had 'taken' the healing instead of actually asking Jesus to heal her, she may have felt that she didn't deserve that healing and that another might have lost out because she 'took' it. So Jesus wanted to clear all that up so she could feel really happy and at peace (Shalom) about her healing. Wow!!!
Thank you, Jesus!

George III

I try to write something specifically about the "1776 decision" every fourth of July (approximately) since rethinking 1776 is the topic of this blog.
This year I write of George III.  He was monarch of England when England ruled American colonies oppressively.
I studied portraits of him first. (Bible says to pray for those in authority over us. It is easier for me to pray for someone can when i can visualize that one. Bible says God is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him. Bible says God answers prayer.) I felt that if I am going to judge the colonists who rebelled against the ruler in authority over them, I want to know how they should have prayed; and how hard it may have been for them to think charitably of the leaders in England (and in colonies).
[An aside here: the word charity is translation of Greek word "agape" which means the perfect love which Creator God has for His Creation and each of His creatures; and that God and Jesus call their followers to have toward all. God's kind of love.].  So, . . .

George III was born 2 months premature. The family and doctors were, of course, not sure he would survive so had him privately baptized immediately; and later a public baptism. He had big "bug eyes" or "google eyes". Generally a nice looking man, though (if the portraitist s can be believed.) He was Queen Victoria's grandfather.
He married the woman that his mother and her advisors chose for him; and gave up the young woman he first wanted to marry when the advisors didn't accept her. He did not take a mistress. He had many children.
He was grandson of a German royalty , Frederick , of Hanover. He spoke English and German both from childhood.
He had periods of mental illness, but also times of mental good health. Some medical experts now think he may have had "porfiry".
He was the longest ruling English monarch up to his time, becoming King near 20 years old when his grandfather died(around 1740.) ( His father had already died.) He died in 1820. But his son reigned in his place his last 10 years , as he was mentally ill then.
Aside from being the King that the American colonists rebelled against, he is known to have purchased the land where Buckingham palace now is.

BACK TO THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE

I'm thinking , this morning, about how God pays attention to us on this tiny planet with our sun, floating somewhere in the universe.
Perhaps in the actual "physical" center of the universe is a super black hole. We are not there. Yeay! (Do you want to be there?)
I'm thinking of Galileo standing before the Church leaders (1616 to 1633) trying to be true to himself (integrity) about his understanding of the Earth orbiting around the sun. The Church leaders could not at that time accept that the Earth was not the physical center of the universe (ie. The solar system.)
I think about Isaac Azimov's sci fi creation, Trantor, the city planet that was the capitol of the galaxy wide government in his FOUNDATION trilogy. The planet was relatively near the center of the galaxy; but of course it was not at the center. The center was giant black hole surrounded by really hot stuff. Not a good place for life.
So nowadays we are not concerned about whether the Earth is at the physical center of the galaxy or solar system or universe. I personally can conceive of the Earth as perhaps the center of God's plans (inasmuch as it is His home that He made for mankind which He made in His image) without the Earth being at that center.
Even non believing scientists wonder at the thought that the Earth perhaps could not have developed as it has without this entire giant universe surrounding it.

HARDHEARTED

JOHN 11:47-53 tells of the moment when the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus' day publicly decided to kill Jesus. This happened right after they heard the report that Jesus had resurrected Lazarus of Bethany.

For a while now, I have specifically blamed the corrupt, hardhearted religious leaders of that day for the consequent rejection of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah who fulfilled the prophecies of the Jewish prophets. The Jews of these later ages rely on the leaders of that day who were on the scene to rightly judge whether Jesus was or wasn't the promised Messiah. Hard hearts were portrayed in this JOHN 12 passage. When they heard Jesus had resurrected Lazarus, the Jewish religious leaders of that day didn't say this must CERTAINLY be a sign from God. Their response didn't even have God anywhere in it, at least as it was reported to us. I can see where the strong, corrupt leader, Caiaphus, might have run the meeting and no other wanted to speak in opposition to him. But there was NOTHING about God! HARDHEARTED! Please don't let that be your life and your choices. (We want to always think of God and His desires and plans for us.)

For a while, I've decided that Jesus had a reason for naming a man Lazarus in his parable of LUKE 16. (Did He use any proper name in any other story?) Jesus was asking us to connect those two Lazarus stories together.

In the LUKE 16 parable, Abraham says "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."

So that parable ends with Abraham refusing to send someone back from the dead to warn beloved relatives of God's judgement. But with Jesus' DELIBERATE resurrection of Lazarus (even delaying his going to Lazarus until after Lazarus died) expressed God's divine, greater-than-Abraham love in that He would go farther to try to reach the hard hearted Jewish leaders.

I planned this post to be about the hard heartedness of those specific religious leaders. I hope I showed that. But let me mention again what I consider to be Jesus' main point in telling the RICH MAN AND LAZARUS AFTER DEATH story.
Jesus, I think, was responding to the Jews who were expressing to Him that they were children of Abraham and therefore they had an automatic "in" with God(?) Was Jesus trying to show them that they were idolizing Abraham and that Abraham was an imperfect human , not divine.

Love divine, all loves excelling!
Thank you , Jesus!

LOVE ONE ANOTHER: PARENTING SKILLS

In recent weeks I have been thinking about that in my line of work I must be careful (I take care of babies), and wondering if I am careful enough. I had broken a glass container, but not near babies. But it did cause me to wonder if I could and should up my carefulness.

I start to wonder if I'm more careful, as careful or less careful than others. I guess there is a wide range of carefulness​ in people. Also, people range in carefulness throughout their daily activities, taking more care where more care is called for. But this IS a character quality of people, and something that CAN be worked on.

A childhood memory comes to me from time to time. I don't have as many memories from childhood as some (tho' I had a good childhood), so the memories I have, I cherish. One memory is from when I was 10 to 12 years old and carrying a nice glass bowl filled with salad from the kitchen to the dining room and dropping the bowl.
I started to cry, expecting Mom and/or Dad to fuss at me.
Well, they did not at all. They were saying it is ok, it was an accident, etc.
Well, from my perspective now of 50 years later, I finally realize that Mom and Dad could have done more, they could have done both -calmed me down, nurtured me, AND corrected me saying "yes, Joan, you CAN be more careful."
See, that memory unfortunately went into my full memory as representative of my parents' love for me and ALSO saying we are all not perfect and a little carelessness is ok.
Well, an acquaintance recently asked me to reimburse them for something of theirs I had broken. (I had been intending to offer to reimburse, but had gotten busy and let time pass.)
They informed me that I really should reimburse. Actually, I was not at all upset by their speaking up about this.(I valued that that one was requiring me to do right.) I was a little embarrassed that I had not repaid them by then.

I took from this episode the lesson that love can include telling others when they need to do better. I already knew this, as we all do perhaps, but to be reminded that it's important and often but easy- that is good.

PLAYING WITH SCORPIONS

First, let me explain about the "scorpions". (REVELATION 9)
The Bible is a very big book. Until you become familiar with it, it may seem too strange, too varied to make sense.
There are stories about the leaders and early members of the Jews and Christians; there are the set of rules for living that our Creator gave (the Ten Commandments and others); there are songs and poems of praise and thanks and pleading for help to God; there are wise guidance words and instructions on how to do right; there are the words and stories of Jesus  Christ, Yeshua; and there are words that are God speaking to one person or many people, people in the past and people now, where (the writer, writing for) God tells what the future will be, in order to warn and encourage the reader, and to show God's reality and power to foretell the future.
This last type of writing in the Bible is called prophecy, and often sounds like a nightmare or dream, full of symbols, strange animals that symbolize people or things.
The book of REVELATION is a book of prophecy that is in the Bible.
One of the types of fantastical creatures in that book, REVELATION,  that is symbolic is "the scorpion-like creatures" that swarm out of the "abyss" and sting people.
I have decided that these "scorpions" symbolize electronic devices connecting people to the internet etc.  that are so prevalent these days. The description of these monsters (scorpion things) describes beautiful woman's long flowing hair, ferocious, ultra-masculine violent and victorious male. Those two things seem conflicting. What they DO have in common is unrealistically "super" something.  My opinion of the media feeds these days is that the offerings are unrealistic- too beautiful, too powerful, too compellingly evil; and these images seem to ask nothing of us , but they take our time and our mental effort, turn our minds to jelly. Is this true? If so, then the Bible warned us.

NICE VS. COMPETENT

When my mother fell and was injured, she was sent to St Luke's hospital here in Houston (2007). She had turned 90 a month earlier, and seemed to be suffering from dementia, unable to communicate much with others. The injury was causing her much pain.
In the hospital there was a nurse from one of the countries of Asia who was very business-like and brusk. I thought of her initially as less caring than some other nurses because of her manner.
However, in the few days that my mom was in her care, I saw how this excellent nurse did several things, and tweaked things to make mom's care the best it could be. I was sad to leave the acquaintance of this woman, even as I was mourning the looming death of my mom.
That was a real eye opener about the difference between niceness and competence,
appearance and substance.