N T WRIGHT AND SEMINARY DROPOUT

Bro Shane, with his blog SEMINARY DROPOUT, interviewed Brother N.T. Wright. i was so thankful and blessed to be able to hear their discussion . bro wright summed up his understanding of what we, as Christians are called by God to do. (this is my recollection) "As Jesus to the Jews, so the Church to the World." Meaning that our job as Christians is to do amazing and beautiful and loving and challenging things that cause non Christians to ask what and why. and then bro wright said, answer them with a cryptic parable expressing God. Well, that's what n.t. said. any way, the first part makes sense to me. maybe the second part has to do with people- hearers- internalizing God's truths by coming to conclusions themselves instead of having another explain something to them as a superior to an underling. oooh! Did i use the word "underling"? Anyway, that was a wonderful, inspiring interview. SEMINARY DROPOUT and N. T. WRIGHT

THE "UNITED METHODIST" SHIFT

A few years back, i was talking with our minister of music (ordained by the UMC after getting additional degre and going through the ordaining process.) He was on the committee to interview candidates seeking to become a part of the UMC ministries. (becoming a UMC pastor was one goal.) From him and from other subsequent sources, i learned that candidates must vow that they hold (and will defend?) certain beliefs that have been part of the UMC historically. It seems to me that during this time of "change", candidates have entered into the ministry by vowing that they have one set of beliefs while in truth their hearts were elsewhere. is that possible? I'm sure that many of those who have become more and more "liberal" over the decades have done so as a result of influence and reflection subsequent to their entry into the ministry heirarchy. However, surely there are some who misrepresented themselves when they initially signed on. would be possible to invalidate the individual's ordination because they lied about their convictions during the ordination process? i think that what is in the heart of each one must be judged by Our Most High God. So the end of the "unity" of the UMC cannot be untangled (truly) by mere men and women. However, other denominations may learn the lesson that people can appear to have one set of beliefs, unconcerned that what is in their heart is not what they are representing to others. How might a denomination guard against that? The prompt for my writing this post now was our Sunday school consideration on the passage in ACTS where Ananias and Saphira lied to the Holy Spirit (God Most High) by slightly misrepresenting themselves to their church community.

FOR YOUR SAKES

This post continues the thoughts i started exploring in the post POOR FIG TREE. If you are a modern day person connected to the Jewish community and somehow unable to step toward Yeshua Jesus, even if only to see if His claims have any value, because of the possibility of strife that would cause in your family or in the community, then it was for you and others like you that Jesus Yeshua spoke in anger against the religious leaders of His day because they, for their own selfish, ungodly reasons publicly rejected Jesus Yeshua's claims even when faced at that time with the evidence that our Lord God most high, Creator and Lord of ALL, GAVE. (THE EVIDENCE AT THE TIME OF JESUS WAS THERE FOR ALL TO SEE: AMAZING MIRACLES OF PEOPLE BEING HEALED AND RAISED FROM THE DEAD; MIRACLES OF JESUS PROVIDING FOOD FOR GREAT CROWDS; COMPELLINGLY WISE TEACHINGS THAT EXPANDED ON THE TORAH; THE EVENTS IN JESUS YESHUA'S LIFE THAT FULFILLED PROPHECIES FROM ISAIAH AND OTHER PROPHETS.) As an aside here, the evidence today that we all need to look to, to judge whether Jesus Yeshua is the One prophesied about in the Jewish writing is different. Those catagories of miracles that i mentioned, that are written in the Christian Bible- which contains the Jewish Torah, Prophets, Psalms and Proverbs and books of history all considered valid writings- those all seem far away, perhaps. (although the Bible IS God's Holy, LIVING Word and has compelling truth for us even these two and three thousand years later.) So, .... Jesus Yeshua saw the future- all the way from that day to this day and all that transpired from them to now(and with every individual!) So Yeshua saw the repercussions that would come from those insincere (hypocritical) religious Jewish leaders of that day rejecting Him. Now, another aside here: Yeshua agreed with His Father and Holy Spirit in the time before the foundations of the universe that He would be sacrificed for the sins of all who would call on Him. God chose that particular time when the religious leaders were totally overwhelmed by the evil leaders among them. God chose that particular time. i mention that because in THIS DAY, we can see how the leaders of a people or group can run things in a horrible, evil direction which is not accepted by the general people and definitely NOT the will of God. So Yeshua was angry and sad that the evil of His day would cause so many people who would live later to stumble. In cursing the did tree, He (Yeshua Jesus) was expressing God 's anger at the religious leaders of that day without pointing the cursing finger directly at them. ooh! there is also another aspect. i will write about that another time. JESUS SPEAKS OF GOD'S TIMING (looking for figs out of season. God's strategy given to Gideon.)

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

this morning, as i listened to Krysta Tippet interview *** Zornberg who is a Scottish, Israeli woman scholar and author, I'm inspired to post about the sad turn of events when Moses rashly killed a man in his human desire to help his fellow Hebrew brothers. i would like to write a book or at least an article sharing and exploring the thought that some of these events in the Bible are not exactly the fulfillment of God's will even when they are done by those who love and know the Lord and when those ones are trying to do God's will and think they are, in fact, doing God's will. another example: i remember the time early in my faith journey with the Lord when i realized that the things that Abraham did were not all things that God wanted for him. (Abraham and Sarah's decision to have a child by Hagar when they couldn't maintain faith that God would give them a child in their old age.) I'll continue this more later.

POOR FIG TREE

I'm discussing Jesus' effective cursing of the fig tree. #1) it remind me -since I've been listening to a series of sermons on JONAH this summer and fall- of the vine that GOD caused to grow up, first to shade Jonah from the hot sun and then to be object lesson to Jonah to coax a little empathy out of him; #2) I just want to express my view that Jesus wanted to show- without being so VERY harsh to the unbelieving Jewish leaders- the consequences of rejecting Jesus in the light of all the divine confirmation that God had confirmed Jesus with to the people present at that time. #3) ... i continued my thoughts at posts called FOR YOUR SAKES, and JESUS TALKS OF GOD'S TIMING

LIMITATIONS OF HEARSAY EVIDENCE

Hearsay evidence, my lawyer husband told me, is someone,telling what happened in a case, that is not in court or under oath. that type of testimony is not valid for making legal decisions. there are , apparently, exception- particular circumstances under hearsay CAN be admitted for evidence in a case. right now, however i want to discuss What Jesus and His followers , and other Jewish doctrine, said are ways to separqte flawed evidence from solid , valid evidence. ok. gotta go. I'll write more later. just one thought here: in JOHN 13, Jesus said "they will kmow your are my disciples if you love one another."

DAY END QUIET TIME

Day End Quiet Time

I have been thinking of a particular child in my care recently, and that she openly rebels against me. She is not the only one that acts out , but yesterday, her choices were particularly bothering to me.

Historically, "classroom management" has been difficult for me. I think here about three  changes that I will make:
     First, I will interact with the children myself when they need to be stopped, "called out", or redirected at times when I am  one of three teachers in the class, instead of walking the child to the lead teacher for the lead teacher to correct the child. (In the past, I've been doing the latter considering that it is more respectful to the lead teacher and reinforces the teacher's authority. However, now, I think I need to create in the children a sense of my own authority as their teacher.) Also, at home I need to experiment with different voices to express authority and seriousness without sounding too angry, stressed or severe.
     Second, I will really make great effort to express to each child my great love and affection for each one. The child care training authority, Maryln Appelbaum, and others often say you can not care for children properly until they know that you care for them with your heart, too. (The actual quote is much better than that.)
I think that in the past, I have tried to tone down my affection to the children when they have graduated to next level so each one can bond with the teachers of the next class. But now that I put that down in words, I see how not correct that is. That's not good at all! So I will change that.
     Third, I will have something at the end of the day that the children can look forward to that is pleasant. In the case of the dear one who irritated me so, yesterday, i think she gets angry and uncooperative because she is bored and resentful of being at school so long - and physically tired, too.

The thought that first came to my mind is that I used to have some videos of the tv series THE WALTONS. Those would be good. That would be an expression of what I think relaxing at the end of the day should be. That content, in particular, instead of the content that another has quickly chosen because it is bright and animated, I would definitely want to try for the end of the day. If it turns out that I gave that WALTON collection away, I would consider purchasing something else for that purpose/ time. (That would be my "stamp" , my particular choice of what to offer the children at that time.) I will also consider doing another pleasant teaching or activity at the end of the day -that is my own.  But I think that first, I want to use the "TV" to calm and relax the children in that time slot from 5 to 6pm. (I'm a little shocked that I am considering using TV in childcare, but I really think it might be appropriate for this. I will pray and ponder this.) Other relaxing, special end of the day activities that I/ we have used in the past that have been successful are: play dough, "cleaning" with wipes, puzzles (tho' the puzzles that are out there presently are too familiar and easy for the children , maybe). How about shaving cream? Another building set? There used to be one that they really enjoyed playing with. Also, I will talk to other teachers about this specifically. Currently, with added health precautions due to the pandemic, some things are not possible. But, some are, praise the Lord!