Opus 2025-613: Does God Celebrate New Years?

For that matter does God pay any attention to what we consider to be the new year?  I don’t see him celebrating, that’s not the right word.  I’m sure He’s aware that we are marking the day as having some significance, but He is also aware of some of the computer games we play and He is not impressed.

I would venture a guest that He looks upon some of the ways in which we celebrate with raised eyes eyebrows.  Hopefully it doesn’t get to the point of throwing lightning bolts or sending tornadoes.

Why do we celebrate anyway?  Why is the end of the year considered an excuse to have a party?   Most of the memes that I see about the baby new year replacing the old man on his way out have the idea of being glad it’s gone.  Many of them don’t forecast any optimism about the year coming.

Why do we celebrate?

I think much of it’s just that we look for any good excuse to have a party.  Those of us who are introverts are happy if we are left alone with our books and our four walls.  As long as your party doesn’t spill over into our world, copacetic.

As you look back over the year, don’t get too depressed about your mistakes.  Mistakes are there for us to learn from.  If you made serious mistakes, it may take a while to dig out but the future it’s full of hope.

May you have a blessed year ahead of you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-612: Season to Taste

At a birthday dinner my son-in-law asked me if he lined 10 different coffees up and had me taste them whether I could tell which was which.  My answer at the moment was no.  Now I could’ve told you the flavored copies from the regular blends, I might’ve told you the traditional American brands like Folgers from Costa Rican, but I couldn’t really tell you which was which.  The reason is I don’t have a great sense of taste.  I am not a discerning diner or drinker.

What that means is that when I find something I like I don’t keep trying to tweak it and make it better.  I have a recipe for teriyaki jerky.  I found that everyone likes it but me.  I don’t hate it, I just don’t like teriyaki.  I make it for them on special occasions.  A few times I’ve tried other types of jerky but they keep wanting the teriyaki.  I am not going to try and improve it.  You might, but I can’t.

So why is it that when God gives us a recipe for behavior we keep wanting to tweak it.  We keep wanting to modify it.  There is a sense in many people that they can do a better job of setting up life than God could.  My suggestion is that we should follow the recipe as given and not try to improve on something we incapable of doing.  When it comes to moral fiber and righteous living, I’m afraid that we all tend to have poor taste.  None of us has a discerning pallet when it comes to the eternal issues of life.  Or I guess you could say to the living issues of eternity.  Or it could be in between.  I can’t tell.

I don’t know how much we will understand eternity but I know that there are many things that we just cannot grasp now.  Does that mean we don’t try to understand?  Of course not.  We are free to think, research, study, and to a certain point experiment but those experiments should not violate of the things that we have been told very clearly.

When I worship in the morning, I have a cup of coffee beside me.  I am usually sitting in a chair that is comfortable.  I prefer the front porch and looking at creation as I meet with God.  I asked myself should I be on my knees with my hands in the air?  Should I be laying flat on the ground?  Should I be crying in a loud voice?  Should I be fitting into the patterns that other people have had or that other people try to tell me?  My general answer is, “No, God has met me now and will continue to meet me.”

Keep in mind that God looks at our hearts and knows our inner being and motivation.  Being God, He is able to give a lot of leeway without crossing any lines.  Reach out.  He is already reaching out.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-611: Babies, Babes, and Bonking

The Muslims tried to conquer Europe with their armies as late as the 17th century.  They failed.  Today they are slowly overcoming the continent with a combination of three things.  First of all, you have massive waves of immigration by people who have no intention of assimilation.  We can see how that’s going.  Secondly, those waves force their will upon the resident population with fear and violence.  It wasn’t organized armies, and it was done in collusion with the local governments.  The third is that they have a lot of babies.  Of these three the third is probably the strongest and most permanent wave.

Part of the package is the terrorism with the use of suicide bombers.  We’ve all seen pictures of children dressed up as suicide bombers like we might have our children dress up like Cowboys.  The kids thought it was fun.  I can understand that.  What I can’t understand is the attitude of parents, especially mothers, to sending their children off to be blown up like this.  There is a mindset in Muslim women that is beyond comprehension to those of us in the Christian West.

We see a lot of pictures of the mourning and wailing women after an Israeli air strike.  They love to bring out pictures of children being blown up by these dirty nasty Jews.  We see them crying out in agony.  I would submit that we should not be feeling sympathetic towards them in their loss because the loss is on their heads.  I’m not condoning killing children or bombing civilians.  What I’m submitting is that these are not civilians.

The women of Islam could stop the slaughter of their children very simply.  They may be women.  They may be physically weak.  They may be downtrodden by the second class status they have in Islam.  They also have cast-iron frying pans.

Frying pans?

Yes, frying pans.

One of the statistics that I find interesting in the United States is that in spite of what everybody thinks, more men are abused by women, then women by men.  We don’t know this in official statistics because men don’t like to admit that they’ve been beat up by their wives and girlfriends.  How does this happen?  Well, my understanding is that a man has to sleep sometime.  When a man is asleep, it doesn’t matter really how big his muscles are.  When an angry woman has a cast-iron frying pan in her hand, carefully planned it doesn’t matter how weak she is, she can get her revenge.

So if the women of Islam wanted to end the killing of their children all they would need to do is decide to take justice into their own hands and apply the back of their frying pan to the head of the sleeping man who sent their children off to die.  It’s not going to happen so don’t get your dignity out of the bag.  I understand that.  But when you have a culture of death where everyone is participating and the only target of your death is Jews then it may be the only solution will be self-inflicted.

So babes, if your babies are getting blown up, consider bonking.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-610: Oh, the Memories

Psalm 37 is too long to print here, but it came to my mind today.  It was a scripture that a man named Earl Lee used to preach on once a year.  His sermon was called The Cycle of Victorious Living.  You may have heard about it.  You may have listened to someone else who stole the idea, borrow the idea or simply hit on it by coincidence.  It’s a marvelous formula for living life.

The point that Pastor Lee kept repeating was “fret not”.  You’ll find that in the first verse then, as you look down the page if you have the King James Version you’ll see certain verbs at the beginning of verses in the first part of the Psalm.  It’s a great pattern to follow.

Trust,
Delight,
Commit,
Rest.

I’m not sure that that’s the exact order that he presented it.  Every year the sermon was fresh to us.  I don’t know if he used exactly the same outline or worked through it again, but it was something to look forward to.

After each point he would remind us to fret not.  Ultimately that seemed to be the key to making the whole process work.

I don’t know if you need this today, but it certainly helped my sun come up.

Blessings.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-609: Trying to Upstage God

One of the YouTube offerings that I have been looking at somewhat regularly is offered by a man named Anton Daniels.  He represents what I believe or want to believe is a growing number of blacks with conservative values who are speaking up and actually engaging their brain instead of just their emotions.  He’s definitely off the plantation.  He also is not on my plantation, so his views are not always what I would want, but he is speaking intelligently.

He will show bits of TikTok videos and things like that where people are saying a lot of nonsense and then he will analyze it.

What came to my mind as I was listening to one today was the lady who was on his TikTok blurb was talking like God was actually a part of her life.  She mentioned God a number of times and used some of the jargon that would make you think that she’d at least been to church.  She was, according to, her 60 years old and according to the camera was still a very attractive lady.  Makeup can do wonders.  As she described your frustrations, underneath it all what came out to me in my interpretation was it the 60-year-old woman was out looking for love in the wrong places and was upset that she was finding nothing but a bunch of men who were looking for easy hook ups in the right places.  What she considered the wrong places were the right places for them.  I assume she was talking about bars and places like that which I would have no idea about.  She seemed to go out fairly regularly.  She mentioned at one point that she kept track of all the people she’d been with.  She’s been divorced for seven years and sounds like she’d been looking pretty hard.  Now, if she had not brought God up, I would have just kind of blown it away and said Ok, here’s another randy broad out looking for a man who will really love her, whatever that means.

That made me think back to the number of times that the host of this podcast had mentioned God or made reference to Christianity and to moral values and such.  At the same time, I’ve never heard anything other than the occasional jargon which would make me think that he had a personal faith in Jesus Christ.  He seemed to be basically an old school, cultural Christian, who knew the words, but not the Word.  Again, this is not a major criticism that I’m making of him.  Where I’m getting to here is the way in which so many people are quite comfortable talking about God and I keep wondering what God are they talking about.

I see the same phenomenon in a lot of the pagan conservatives such as Douglas Murray, Joe Rogan and such.  They seem to believe there is a God; they acknowledge that.  They seem totally confused about who this God is.  If you’ve ever read meditations by Marcus Aurelius, you’ll find that he is all over the page when it comes to his spiritual convictions.  At one point, he is a polytheist.  At another place he is a pagan monotheist.  At another place, he will talk about reincarnation.  It depends on his mood for the day.  If you read the right sections, you might even think he was a Christian.  It’s kind of like people who could talk about cars. 

Now when I talk about cars, it’s usually pretty generic.  If money was not an object, I might get myself a Rolls-Royce and cruise.  More realistically, I might go for a Cadillac Escalade.  It would be necessary that money would not be an object because I would need the kind of roadside assistance and mechanics who know what they’re talking about and would keep me moving.  In reality, the world I live in right now, I’m driving a 2002 Mercury Marquis, which I bought two or three years ago.  It’s running well.  It’s reliable.  It doesn’t embarrass me by it looks.  It has everything I need.

Now go talk to somebody who is really convinced that Chevys are better than Fords.  Or someone who is convinced that a Lexis is the most reliable car in the world.  They are true believers.  They know their cars and they know what they think it’s the best.  That person would be the parallel of the true believing Christian and in this case, I would be an example of your pagan who wants the benefits of religion, but doesn’t want the price.

I pray that some day they will know God as God.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-608: Get the Right Words

In responding to a comment about “Happy New Year” something I already knew came back and bit me on the nose.  As Christians we have had a tendency to adopt the vocabulary of the world.  One of those is what I run into every day when I’m out shopping.  We have a tendency to say, “Have a good day”, or some such platitude.  Here in Texas you run into people who will say, “Have a blessed day” instead.  Every time that happens, I feel guilty because that’s not what I just got through saying.

So when we say Happy New Year’s we are conforming to the world.  We are using their language.  It is not one of the seven deadly sins but we do it without thinking.  Sure I want you to have a happy new year, but even more I want you to have a blessed new year and thus a blessed eternity.

Little things can add up.

homo unius libri

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-607: It’s Everywhere

So is nitrogen and an atmosphere of pure nitrogen will also kill you.

Since I had the opportunity to preach recently, I was caught by the click bait that announced that the majority of pastors are using AI.  The article was not near as damning as I expected, and I understood how they could have honest pastors answering the question with a yes, depending on how the questions asked.

What made it stand out to me was that in my research I would not say I used AI, however, if you’re really honest, you admit that it’s almost impossible to look anything up on the computer without being forced to at least read the first couple lines of an AI presentation.  You all know how that goes; anything you look up it starts off with an AI summary.  Then when I go down to different articles, many of those will start off with the AI summary, so the problem is avoiding it.

I don’t use Google search as much in sermon preparation.  I have Bible study apps that help me with my word searches and investigations into the Greek and Hebrew.  I have actual books that also are used.  So I would say I don’t use AI, however, if I were totally honest, I would have to say that I had read some anytime I turned on the computer.

Recently, I was doing some research into using an air fryer.  I can’t remember exactly the question I asked, but when the response came up the first couple of offerings were from AI.  It’s everywhere.  Is it evil?  No, it’s a computer program.  The people who are programming it may be evil and the people who are prepping it and giving it the first spot in the search engines may be evil, but the AI itself is just the fast computer, so far.

I also thought it was amusing in reading the article that it talks about the burden of the pastors.  I think it was in regard to sermon preparation.  I’m sorry, I don’t feel a lot of sympathy.  I spent 10 years in full-time pastoral ministry.  I prepared a full sermon for Sunday morning, a full sermon for Sunday night, a midweek mini sermon, a Sunday school lesson and anything else that popped up.  Now, most pastors preach one sermon on Sunday morning and cry the blues at being overworked.  I’m wondering if the guy who claimed to have written the article was also using AI or whatever that other program is that everyone seems to love.  Or the pastors could be spending so much time brewing exotic coffees and teas that they don’t have time to study.

AI was not used in the writing of this post.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-606: Oral Tradition Instead of Written Word

I am engaged in an ongoing crusade against traditions that fly in the face of the written word.  Jesus deals with this in Matthew 15.  Interestingly enough the editors picked the title “Traditions and Commandments” for this section of scripture.  

The Pharisees are nagging Jesus because His disciples had not washed their hands before they ate.  Evidently there is no place in the written law that demands this but the traditions of the Rabbis made a big deal of it.  So Jesus says,

(Mat 15:3 KJV)  But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

In the following conversation He repeats this again,

(Mat 15:6 KJV)  And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

He emphasizes it again by quoting Isaiah,

(Mat 15:9 KJV)  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

When I looked this up I got excited when I read it in the NASB.

Isaiah 29:13 (NASB95) Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,

The phrase “by rote” spoke to me of the oral tradition that was replacing the written law.  Alas, I noticed the phrase was in italics.  It was an interpretation but the actual words were strong enough.  What Isaiah was saying hundreds of years before Jesus was that already the religious leaders were replacing the words of God with the words of men.

This is something that is still alive today.  We have doctrines and practices that have wandered away from what God actually says.  A good example of this is the often heard statement that we are saved by “faith alone”.  Do some looking at what the Bible actually says.  Faith is required.  There is no question about that but the only place in the Bible where the idea appears is in denial.  Do a word search.  Don’t take my word for it.  What does the Bible say.  Don’t replace the word with my tradition.

My word searches come up with two place where the two words are in the same verse.  One is in the KJV.

(Jas 2:17 KJV)  Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

The other is in the NASB,

(Jas 2:24 NAS77) You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.

Again notice it is not denying the requirement of faith.  It is just saying inactive belief is rather empty.

Go with your favorite translation not with your favorite theologian.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-605: Pet Peeves Did I ever tell you that I hate telephones?

Did I ever tell you that I hate telephones?

Maybe I did.  I’m not sure I did a good job of conveying the depth of the digust and revulsion that they bring to my life.  Since I’m not someone who has a need to do a lot of talking, I find that I don’t need them.  Since I am someone who gets easily bored listening to gossip level conversations I find that I don’t want them.

Telephones tend to interrupt whatever deep thoughts are developing in my brain.  I can be halfway through writing something or mentally composing it and the phone rings.  Now I have no problem ignoring it if it is just a spam call.  I never answer the phone unless I know who’s calling and so the caller ID is very helpful.  The problem is that when it’s my wife calling I can’t ignore it, I have to answer.  It might actually be important.  It usually isn’t, but it might be.  So I am tired to this disruption of my life.  I’m talking about the phone not my wife.  But now that you mention it…

There are features that I have found beneficial.  To be honest, I like the GPS.  I could get along without it.  I was raised with paper maps.  I know how to find my way around.  But being lazy, the GPS sometimes tends to help.  Of course the fact that it’s wrong at times doesn’t endeared it to me.  The phone is valuable in case I have car trouble.  Of course, that assumes that I have car trouble in an area that has service for my phone.  The way life often works is that there seems to be an agreement between the Telecommunications industry and the auto repair business that breakdowns don’t happen where you can call easily for help.

I am racking my brain trying to find some other great use for my phone.  It works well as an alarm clock and time.  It might be good as a paperweight.  It can reserve my seat in church.  If I were into showing pictures of my grandchildren to people, it would be handy, but my children are so security conscious they don’t like me doing that.

All in all, it’s a losing proposition, but one that I can do nothing about.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-604: Divergent and Convergent Truth

I’m thinking here of trying to address why we explain some things more readily than others.  Some truth is easy to explain.  It’s ready.  It’s right out there in front.  I would call that convergent truth.  An example of that would be the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It is very clearly stated there is no wiggle room.

Our divergent truth might be something like the divinity of Christ and the Trinity.  These are spelled out in different places, and you have to go and get those places then bring them together.  They become issues because the different places in scripture don’t seem to jive with each other.  Take for instance when it says God is one.  Another place that talks about the Father.  Another place who talks about Jesus as God.  And so forth

The dual nature of Jesus would be another example.  How do you explain these things because there is no place where it says or Paul says, “I’m now going to explain to you the incarnation.”  It doesn’t happen.  So when you see things like this that don’t add up, you need to go look for answers and solutions.  Another area of divergent truth, which is hard to deal with is the fact that the Bible seems to say that God does not change and other places it talks about him changing.  You have to dig to find answers to these questions.

Keep digging.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-603: Different Generation, Same Issue

About 50 years ago when I was in seminary, I had another student share an insight with me.  I was probably two or three years older than the average seminary student and he was at least 10 years older than me with two children.  I came from a big city, he came from the small town.  He was also one of the wisest men I knew at the time.

He shared one time as we were working together that ours was the last generation that had our basic values formed before television.  Think about what that means.  Your sense of right wrong. Your sense of normal. Your sense of beauty. Your accent. Your vocabulary.  So much was molded by your source of information and your entertainment.

Today we face a similar challenge.  We have generations which were formed without social media.  Many of them have adapted and use it.  Many of them have been perverted by it.  But I would suggest that perhaps it’s not as strong in the pre-social media generation as it is and those who are raised with it.

That can be good or bad.  So many technologies have their beneficial side and their destructive side.  When I was a kid, we got our first TV and were introduced to cigarette commercials, murder, and violence.  We also had access to programs about science and about history.  And then there were Zorro and Maverick.  Think of the VCR.  It had both the positive and the negative influence possible.  Then you have the Internet.

Ultimately, the direction that things influence us is going to be based on the decisions we make and the priorities we establish.  I remember early on I realized that the things I clicked on the Internet would come back to haunt me.  Fortunately, I realized that soon enough I really didn’t need to go much deeper than one or two clicks into my curiosity about Russian brides.  I was spared a lot of pornography because of that.  I made decisions.  I may not have been aware of the long-term effects of those decisions, but the basis of my decision was the right thing and I benefited from it.

Work on making the right decision decisions. Work on having the right motives. It will pay off in the long run.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-602: Vanilla Survives Ben & Jerry’s

Who would have thought that after all the attention getting flavors that Ben & Jerry’s came up with that vanilla ice cream would still survive?  For that matter I wonder if strawberry is still the favorite flavor in the country?  How can this be?  I just had a cup of vanilla ice cream last night from a Texas company and enjoyed every bite of it.

Really good things, the basics, the pure stuff will always endure past gimmicks and the flavors of the month.  That’s why I can continue reveling in worshiping the one true God, the great I AM.

You see God never changes in his basic character and attributes.  I know as I look at that character and those attributes, I continually find new depths to look into or old shallows that refresh and renew.  There is a dynamic here.  I can just walk out on the porch in the dark sit down with my coffee cup, look up at the sky and say “Good morning Lord,” and know that all is well.

There is a gospel song that starts off,

What a fellowship,
What a joy Divine.
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Notice that is not a question but a declaration. I plan on making this another year of leaning.

Happy new year.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-601: Next!

And now Epiphany starts.  Actually, if my liturgical sense is correct, today is the first day of Christmas.  It is the beginning of the twelve days of Christmas and extends to Epiphany which is January 6.  It celebrates the coming of the wise men.  If that is part of your tradition then, Merry Christmas but for those who are not in the Orthodox tradition it is now “Happy New Year.”

I have no trouble moving on from Christmas.  I turned on my Christmas music after dinner on Thanksgiving and turn it off when I go to bed on the 25th.  I have enjoyed every minute of the season.  I look forward to next year.  But it is time to move on.  

So now the wish for you is Happy New Year.  

It is time to begin to reflect on the past year and anticipate the next.  

What a glorious time of year.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-600: Give Me Gas

Why are internal combustion engines so necessary to our society, our culture and our mental health?  Today is a good example.  I am able to go out and get in my car and drive 40 minutes to see my grandchildren.  If I had to hook up old Bessie to the carriage, it would probably take me all day to get there.  Now in modern times, with all the innovations of technology, I can drive down in about 40 minutes.  That is what I call a blessing.

If you want to go back to total organic and total green, that’s fine with me.  In a free country, you should be able to do that without trying to force me into the same handicap.  So turn in your car.  Buy a horse and buggy.  Learn to hook up all those straps.  Get some curry brushes, shovel and whatever else it takes to muck out the stalls and enjoy.

I for one am blessed by modern technology.

Merry Christmas

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-599: Annual Lock Down

It is so satisfying.  It’s an unusual year.  I drove to my children’s house to spend Christmas morning with my grandchildren.  They were sick last night so we didn’t get together.  I’m assuming we’re gonna have dinner together today but I’m going to be there while they open their gifts.  What a privilege.

What’s really satisfying about the trip is to see how the town is totally shut down.  Well maybe not totally, gas stations are still open.  It looked like McDonald’s has a sign on.  But for the most part, businesses have said this is a special day.  They may not know why it’s special.  They may hate the reason for the season, so to speak.  But they still shut down.  I would like to think it’s out of sensitivity for their employees, but it’s probably more a matter of knowing that they’re not going to do a lot of business on this day combined with the fact that people might notice that they’re open when they don’t need to be.

Anyway, it was a very pleasant drive and with the rewared of seeing my grandchildren.

Merry Christmas

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-598: `What Makes a Day Special?

We are in that time of year which we call the holiday season.  For some it starts with Halloween.  For those of us who don’t celebrate Halloween and it starts with Thanksgiving . At the center is Christmas Day, preceded by Christmas Eve.  Then we have the celebrations of New Year’s.  These are definitely special days.  They are shared by all of us.  They’re part of our cultural atmosphere.

We also have days that may be special to us as individuals, or as a nuclear family.  And this you would have birthdays, anniversaries, other events that are unique to us as a family that other people would not be particularly aware of.

What makes them special?

Sometimes it is the memory on the foundational events that stimulate those memories.  When we celebrate the Fourth of July, we look back to that moment when a document was produced, declaring the beginning of the United States of America.  We recently celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.  That looked back to the day in which a union was established as a covenant before God and we celebrate all of the wonderful things that have happened since that day.

Sometimes a special day is in the future, and it holds the promise of something that’s going to change our lives or the lives of others.  Getting a wedding invitation and writing the date down on your calendar make that a special day.  When I was a child, I remember the prospect of going to a place like Six Flags.  I could hardly sleep the night before.  When I was in the army, the date I was going to be discharged would dangle in front of my eyes constantly.  Toward the end, we might walk around the camps in Vietnam and see guys and shiny new uniforms and we would walk by them and yell, “short”.

I also find that I mark the passing of time by events that are regular and expected.  I have three days a week where I am involved in different church activities.  I have a zoom call one day a week.  I have a day which is the day I usually go out to dinner with my son.  I have a day where I do laundry.  There is a day when the ads come out for next week special at the grocery store.

There are many things that can make a day special some are ridiculous and some are sublime. I hope that today is one of the latter.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-597: Advent Calendar: Day 25, How Is Your Christmas Attitude?

The song was “O Come All Ye Faithful”.  The artist was a soprano like Kate Smith.  For all I know it may have been Kate Smith.  Not my favorite sound.  I almost hit the skip button but stifled myself.  As I listened the words of the chorus came through to me, “O come let us adore Him.”

How often do our Christmas attitudes overwhelm the miracle of the incarnation?  Some are consumed by greed.  Some become Scrooge.  Some are the Grinch.  For many there is nothing to see except behaviors to criticize.  

We have the ability to control our attitudes and as I listened to this song I was hit by the call to adore Him.  The adoration does not stop at the manger.  That is actually a very small part of it.  When we look at a baby and allow the warm fuzzies to overcome us it is not just because the baby is cute but because we sense all the untouched potential that is waiting to develop.

With the nativity we need to adore the teachings of a life cut short by the cross.  With the nativity we adore the sacrifice of the cross and rejoice in the promise of forgiveness.  Then we look on to the resurrection and the hope demonstrated by the chains of death being broken.  

There is much to adore.  “O come, let us adore Him.”

Merry Christmas

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-596: Serious Nonsense

A thought came to me as I was contemplating a statement by Jesus,

John 14:6 (KJV) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

It made me go down a rabbit trail and ask myself, “Is it necessary to come to the Father to be saved?”  It may be a silly question but it popped up anyway.

When the Jews would bring their sacrifice to the temple and would achieve atonement through that sacrifice, did that mean that they came to the Father or simply that this was a type that temporarily filled in because Jesus had not died yet on the cross?

I sense a danger of wandering into the field of hypocrisy and heresy here.  It’s still a serious question.  It’s a question that might be important because there is always that mystery of how the blood of an ox or a goat can be instrumental in forgiving sin and making us a right before God.  The word atone is used.  I know that at least Psalms is full of the idea of forgiveness.  And yet Jesus had not paid the price, yet.

One of the puzzling details of the Bible is that we believe people like Moses made it to heaven?  How?  He appeared before Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.  That must mean something about his eternal destiny.  I think God’s avenues toward salvation are more varied than we assume.  We know they travel through Jesus and the sacrifice of the Perfect Lamb of God but there is a lot of frontage road along God’s interstate.  This is not an idle question, it came up last Sunday in Sunday School.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-595: On the Street: Top Dog in Exile

As I struggled to stay active and overcome my sedentary nature, I finally have extended my walking to make it around the corner and move towards a normal bit of exercise.  One of the first things to greet me was dogs barking.  I hadn’t heard them in quite a while.  As I approached though, I noticed someone was missing.  The dog I call Top Dog was not visible.  His number one competition had taken that position.  I wondered what was wrong.

After a few steps, I heard barking in the distance.  This house has a backyard that is fenced off separate from the front yard, and the dogs are usually either in the back or in the front.  Today, for some reason, Top Dog was locked in the backyard and the others were out front.  What did he do to deserve being put in exile?

I guess we should make a lesson out of that for life.  I think maybe I’ll wait until I see if he’s released from exile before I get too absolute, but it’s just a reminder that this too shall pass.  What goes up must come down.  What goes around comes around.  You can fill in the blanks with whatever your favorite mantra is.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-594: Advent Calendar: Day 24, The Anticipation

Children may look at today as the last day before Santa Claus.  Okay.  They are children.  They are full of anticipation for the glorious morning tomorrow.  Wouldn’t it be great if adults could feel that way about the return of Christ?

I don’t expect Him to return this week.  One reason is He told His disciples that He would come when least expected and since everyone is excited about red heifers and all the parts of the temple being collected, my conclusion is, “Not now.”  I could be wrong.  I would love to be wrong.  I would also like to lose weight over the Christmas holidays.

What does that have to do with Christmas?  If Jesus had not come He could not be crucified.  If He was not crucified He could not be resurrected.  If He had not been resurrected and assended He could not come again.  All those happened.  The last is coming.

Count on it.  Live like it.

Merry Christmas

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-593: Translators’ Views: Some Things Never Change

The intellectual sloth of our modern times often comes back to deprive us of the wisdom that went before us.  I have located on line the original statement by the translators of the King James Bible.  There was a time when it was included in every Bible sold but those days are long gone.  I had heard comments about it and wanted to find out for myself so I downloaded the original and a modern version.  Like the KJV, the original version is very hard to make sense of but I guess it would be possible.  Since I am part of the contemporary intellectual sloth I only spent time with the updated version.  I found a number of intersting statements.  I will look at a few and make some comments.

Today I am reflecting on the way in which the King James Only (KJO) crowd are so resistant to any kind of updating or revising of the 1769 version of the KJV.  I am assuming that most of these people have never bothered to read the words of the translators themselves,

“For, was there ever any thing projected, that savoured any way of newness or renewing, but the same endured many a storm of gainsaying, or opposition?”

I think this was a response to the public opposition to the KJV when it came out.  The general public did not feel the need for a new translation.  My understanding is that it took about 40 years before the KJV was accepted by the general public.

If you are a fan of a modern translation then know that the translators of 1611 would have your back if they were still with us today.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-592: Advent Calendar: Day 23, The Joyful Hope

If your church has the tradition of lighting the Advent candles you know that one of them represents hope.  Different churches observe the hope candle on different weeks.  Hope is one of the great concepts of the coming of the Christ Child.

I do not associate hope with Christmas in isolation.  It calls for hope because this is just the first chapter in the Book of The Word Became Flesh.  The place where hope takes over the narrative is in the empty tomb.  I don’t think that many people associate the full manger with the empty tomb but that is the purpose of the whole process.  The physical resurrection of Jesus is the assurance we have that there is more to eternity than having our sins forgiven.  There is a continued awareness of whom we are and a fellowship with the Incarnate One. 

So Merry Christmas and happy eternity.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-591: The Cost of Christmas

I keep hearing about how people can’t afford to pay their rent or to put food on the table and so forth.  Even people who should know better are complaining about how tight things are.  I feel their pain.  Most of the things I buy in the grocery store have gone up in price.  So far though, I can still afford what I want and need.

I was looking over the Costco ads for their great bargains this week and toward the end of it, they had various offerings in the area of meats that would be appropriate for a Christmas feast.  I think the lowest price I saw was $17.95 a pound.  It went up from there.  Not exactly a cheap dinner.

I must say I have in the past had some of their better cuts when my son was doing the shopping.  Prepared properly, which to me is burnt to crisp, they were really delicious.  And since my son was paying, it was worth every penny of it.  If I had been paying, we would have been satisfied with cheese sandwiches.

And that’s the point really.  When we have family over for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, is the point to have family over and to celebrate together?  Is the point to show off how much we can spend on food?  Is the point to exercise or gluttony?  Obviously those are not fair questions because you already know the answers, at least the ones you would give in public.

If I were putting on a dinner for Christmas and felt like finances were tight, I would have no problem in making a big pan of chili with hamburger and frozen vegetables.  Add to that crackers from the discount store and if I was really feeling frisky maybe some cheese.  If the right people were there with the right attitude, it would be a glorious celebration of the incarnation.

Think values not value.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-590: Click bait: Tell Me Something That’s New

I came across another bit of click bait on my YouTube feed which didn’t require any investigation.  The blurb underneath the picture said,

“This is why Christianity feels unappealing to most today.”

Statements like this make me wonder if people have ever studied their history.  Christianity has always been unappealing to most people.  Now when I say Christianity, I’m talking about the real thing not the social clubs that people seem to like to attend nor the entertainment centers that draw crowds.  I’m talking about the actual call of Jesus to live in obedience to His commands.

We keep talking about the low percentage of people attending church.  In real numbers that may be true, but when you stop to think about how many people have been going to church out of habit or from cultural pressure over the years, it is no surprise.  One of the church experiences that always gives me a smile or laugh was when one of the royal pains in our church told the pastor that he didn’t like his sermons.  His reason was that the sermons made him feel like a sinner.  I think he would say that the Christianity in our church was unappealing.

I almost think that the click bait that shows up on YouTube could be compiled as a comedy routine.  While it’s true that occasionally there is something worth listening to, between AI and the nonsense peddlers the percentage of worthwhile material decreases daily. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-589: Monday Pulpit: Caught My Attention

We shared in communion on Sunday.  Some of you may take it every day.  We do it every few months.  I am not sure of the schedule.  Since I am not in charge I don’t worry about it.  Communion is a special time of coming together.

The pastor said a couple of things that registered on my foggy mind.  The first was, “Coming to the altar should say something.  Not coming says nothing.”  His point is that we are making a statement of our faith when we come forward.  People might not come for many reasons that have nothing to do with their spiritual condition.  Communion is not a time to sift.  He makes this point each time we partake.

The second thing he said he may have said before but it hadn’t registered.  “The pastor does not examine you.   The church does not examine you.  You are to examine yourself.”  That is a good reminder of what Paul said to the church in I Corinthians 11.  Ultimately we are the ones who answer to God for our spiritual condition.  Examine.

Have a Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-588: Advent Calendar: Day 22, The Next Step

When asked what my favorite holiday would be I didn’t need to think too long to come up with Christmas.  If you asked me what was the most important I would say Good Friday.  It is easy to forget that the reason God became flesh was so that He could die on the cross.

I have a friend who tries to convince me that Jesus came only for the Jews.  In his theological system it sounds like the cross was just the result of the Jews not responding, an accident.  But keep in mind that John 3:16 uses words like “world” and “whosoever”.

Enjoy the holiday.  Celebrate the incarnation.  In the midst of the joy don’t forget to be thankful that He was willing to come.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-587: Advent Calendar: Day 21, Old Enough to Share

After the birth of Jesus, while they were still in Jerusalem, they took him to the temple to be circumcised.  We already looked at Simeon and his place in the Christmas story, now we come to Anna.  All of this is taking place in the second chapter of Luke before they return home to Nazareth.

Anna was definitely old.  Specifically it tells us she was 84.  It tells us that after seven years of marriage her husband died and she had not left the temple since that time as she served.  She is identified as being a prophetess.  She’s probably someone that we would have a hard time relating to in our freestyle of living.  I can’t comprehend staying within the temple complex for that long period of time.  There are a lot of social conventions involved here that are not mentioned, making it possible for her to do that.

It seems that she came, saw the baby, realized who this was, and then went and told everybody about it.  Christmas should be a time where we have multiple opportunities to witness about who Jesus is.  There are natural conversations that will come up.  You could generate curiosity simply by responding with “Merry Christmas” to someone who says “Happy holidays”.  You could comment on a Christmas Carol that is playing over the loudspeakers.  Surely someone will come up with the idea that the Christmas tree is a pagan symbol.  The opportunities are everywhere.

So celebrate, worship and witness.  It’ll be another 11 months before you get a chance to do this again.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-586: GIGO Grows Up

Most of the younger generation would understand the concept of GIGO.  For those of you who are not involved at all with computers it still makes sense:  Garbage In; Garbage Out.  It’s no big mystery.  You can’t make bread with rancid flour, rotten eggs, and expired yeast.  Well, you might be able to make it, but no one would buy it or eat it.  That is GIGO.

Why it is that they don’t seem to be able to make the transition to another acronym, I don’t know.  What acronym?  EIRO.  I assume you’ve never heard this one before because I just made it up, but you your gut know it:  Effort In; Results Out.  I have a really hard time believing that intelligent young people who enrolled in college with a major in, say, womens’ studies, partied for four years, borrowed a lot of money believed they were somehow going to go out into the workforce and make enough to fulfill all their dreams right out of the gate.

I understand that there are exceptions to the basic rules of life.  In times of high unemployment and few opportunities there are always going to be a few who will rise to the top and excel.  In times of great opportunity and employers going out and trying to drag people off the street, there will always be people who will sit around saying they can’t find a job.  Those are the exceptions.  Most of us fit into that massive clump of humanity in between.

One of the mantras I’ve been hearing recently is about the average age for buying your first home.  I can’t remember right off what the actual number is but it’s much higher than it theoretically was during our youth or our parents generation.  Every time I hear that I go back in my memory and remind myself that I was 40 years old with two children before I bought my first home.  We had it paid off by the time I retired with my wife as a stay at home mom.  I kind of scratch my head and wonder what are they griping about.

One of the principles of economics is supply and demand.  One of the principles that I heard in a advertisement when I was young was “You get what you pay for.”  That’s true in life generally.  If you want to take the easy road and party on the way then don’t expect to have a mansion waiting for you at the end of the day.  If you want to borrow through the nose assuming that you will either make so much money paying it back will be easy or else the government will do it for you, you deserve whatever poverty you end up in.  If you are buying expensive phones, eating out at expensive restaurants, having food delivered to your door and expecting your checking account to balance, I have a bridge in New York I would like to sell you.  The problem with that is you couldn’t afford it.

Are times hard?  Yes.  But you forget the times have always been hard.  No one can expect to move out into adulthood and immediately start living at the standard which your parents provided when you moved out.  They went through hard times, or at least most of them did.  They grew in the process.  Hopefully they learned the magic of delayed gratification.  And unless they’ve done something really silly, they’re probably going to be OK in retirement.  The same principles will apply to the younger generation.  The one thing they don’t want to consider is that it doesn’t happen overnight.  Another thing they don’t want to consider is that the world does not owe them a living especially in the style to which they want to become accustomed.

Tighten your belt.  Put off buying that new phone.  Drive your old car for a couple more years.  Fix meals at home.  Use the public library.  The results may astound you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-585: Advent Calendar: Day 20, Promises, Promises

Have you ever felt like you had a promise from God and He seemed to be taking His sweet time about the results?

Consider Simeon.  He was a man whom God promised to see the Christ before he died.  We assume that Simeon was getting on in years although it does not specifically say so.  What we do know is a bit about the kind of person he was,

(Luk 2:25 KJV)  And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.

Notice all those qualifications.  He was not the neighborhood drunk who claimed to have seen an angel who promised he would win the lottery.  You might take that into consideration when you think God is promising something.  No, I am not saying you are the neighborhood drunk.  It was hyperbole to get across a point.

There is one other requirement that we might miss.

(Luk 2:27 KJV)  And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,

Notice that he seems to have developed a habit of obeying the Holy Spirit.

All of these things are within our reach.  Make this Advent a time of preparation.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-584: Gun Requirement Zone

I would suggest that perhaps Americans should start avoiding places that don’t allow them to go armed.  In a typical Texas crowd the classroom at Brown University where the shooter went in and just started popping off rounds would’ve had a number of people able to draw their weapons and neutralize him.  I can remember other examples of this avoidable tragedy.  Sadly that does not happen in “Gun Free Zones”.

Why are some people so afraid of responsible citizens being able to respond to criminals?

If we cannot get a nationwide movement with large print signs saying, “Guns Welcome” or ‘No groups allowed without at least one firearm in their midst” then we might at least make it happen on an individual basis.  We have a grocery store called Sprouts in our area.  I used to stop by for coffee or fruit when it was on sale.  I like to walk around and see what the tree huggers were buying and occasionally try something new and strange.  One day as I was entering I noticed a sign on the window saying that firearms were not allowed, concealed or open carry.  I don’t think my pocket was heavy that day but I decided that as a matter of principle, I would not shop at that store any more.

I doubt that my decision did much to their bottom line but if enough people took that stand they would eventually notice.  Of course to make it really effective we would need to send a note to management about our decision.  If they were really committed it might not make any difference but when they had to close that location it would certainly make the neighborhood safer.

One of the sad truths of our culture is that there seem to be a lot of people who pontificate but few who will change their behavior.  If everyone who claimed Jesus as Lord would stop doing anything that directed money toward Disney and would drop them a line to that effect they would know why their revenues were falling. 

It might be that they are a lot like many Christians, their bottom line is more important than their values.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-583: Advent Calendar: Day 19, Beware of Editing Scholars

Herod called for back-up, the priests and scribes.  This would be like the president going to the Harvard School of Theology, if there is still such a thing, for spiritual advice.  I chose Harvard on purpose because any spiritual advice you get from Harvard would be one of those situations where you listen and then do the opposite.

These scholars were experts in their field.  They were good enough to know that they needed to edit their presentation.  Compare what they told Herod with the OT quote they were referencing.

Matthew 2:6 (KJV) And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

Micah 5:2 (KJV) But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Look at the last portion and notice the difference.  They left out the part that indicated this “Prince” or “ruler” would have eternal connections.

Would it have made any difference to Herod?  Probably not.  Herod was not interested in what God might have to say.  How like us so often.  Have you noticed that we already know more than we are obeying?  What would one more verse do?

We are getting close to Christmas.  Take advantage of what is right in front of you.  Do what you know to do.  Make this a red letter Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-582: Different Worlds

I was reading another post and the author threw in a comment about the “lockdown”.  She was writing from Colorado.  That reminded me of a video interview I had recently watched where they made a big deal about the “lockdown”.  They were meeting in Virginia.  I find myself wondering, “What lockdown”?  I live in Texas.

When people bring it up I remind myself I now live in Texas and we tend to react differently here.  The only issue I remember was the inconvenience of having to change my shopping routines in an effort to avoid mask mandates.  I was mostly successful.  I think our church may have shut down for a couple of weeks but I was traveling at the time and didn’t notice much on the road between San Antonio and Yorktown.  Truck stops in Arkansas are not known for their slavish obedience to the Federal government.  I avoid doctors as much as possible and had no brushes with hospitals during the key time.  I remember being extremely irritated but I never felt like I was being isolated from humanity because I am surrounded by rational people who ignored it all as much as possible.

I have friends in California so I understand there are parts to the country that are brain dead.  I still see people who are wearing masks in their car, even in Texas but they usually generate looks of sympathy.  We have a lady in our church who wears a mask on Sunday but it because she is on heavy chemo and her immune system is bonkers.  She would be doing it before Covid.  I personally think that much of the nation ignored the lockdown mandates unless forced to comply by frantic neighbors.  

I can sense the dark forces trying to get us into another panic.  If they go public I think we will see the same pattern except there will be even fewer who will comply.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-581: Advent Calendar: Day 18, The Gold Ring

I recently preached on a Christmas theme and one of my points had to do with Herod.  He was a bit of a bit player in some ways but the parents who had children slaughtered might disagree with that.

The Herod of the nativity is Herod the Great.  He is not the one who cut off John’s head or the one who held court with Paul.  They were all the same family but this one is the original, Herod the Great.  None of them were model citizens but this might be the worst.

He came so close to actually meeting the Messiah.  Would it have made any difference if he had?  Most likely only in a negative way.

How many of us have experiences where we are so close to getting the gold ring but end up disappointed?  How many people would ride the merry-go-round and not even know there was a gold ring to grab for?  How many of you have no idea what I am talking about?

I guess the point is that we need to take all the situations presented to us that might help us grow spiritually and make use of them.  This is true of social growth and emotional maturity also.  We have so many potential bullet points at this time of year.  Don’t be like Herod.  Pay attention to what God is offering.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-580: Advent Calendar: Day 17, All Star Questions

Do you have a star on the top of your Christmas tree?  I imagine you know why it has that spot.  

The star is one of the mysteries we find in the Bible.  If astrology is just superstition, how did the wise men know to follow it to Israel?  Is there any evidence in astronomy that would explain it scientifially?  Why doesn’t it happen today?

When you think about it there are a lot of anomalies that appear in scripture.  How did Cain and Able know to offer sacrifices?  How about Noah?  Where did Balaam find a donkey that could speak?  How did Balaam, outside the people of God, know to pass on the word of God?  How did the witch raise the spirit of Samuel?

The answers will be given in the graduate level studies.

How many questions do you have?  God will answer some, usually through your reading and remembering what is found in the Bible.  Sometimes a sermon or book will get your mind running down paths that it would not have traveled on its own.  Others we will just keep wondering about.

Rejoice that the wise men followed the star.  Expect God to provide you with stars when you need them.  Be willing to listen and follow.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-579: RIP

Recently, Dick Cheney went to his final reward.  I’m not wise enough to predict what that reward is.  What stood out to me was who was invited to the funeral and, even more so, who was not invited to the funeral.  If you want to get a look at the dividing line between those who want to make America great again and those who want to turn back clock to the rhino days, then just look at the invitation list to that event.

I haven’t gone over the list.  I assume there is one somewhere.  I know who I saw sitting in the first couple rows of the pictures, and I know who was very loudly proclaimed as not invited.  In case you were not paying attention that was Donald Trump.

The rhinos of the country want to go back to the days where the left is allowed to continually change the rules to fit what they want and employee law-fair and the media to intimidate anyone who has traditional values.  One of the great meme posters I’ve seen showed President Trump, looking at the camera, saying something to the effect that they are not really after him.  They are after us; it’s just that he’s in the way.  There’s some truth to that.  There’s a lot of truth to that.

Keep in mind that there are still many people in this world whose major moral position is “Orange Man bad.”  As they say in memes and such, they’d rather have no mean tweets that have stability, safety and recovery of the country. Maybe it would be a good thing if someday you were not invited to the funeral of a famous person.  It might be a compliment if you are banned from family holiday gatherings.

Keep up your values.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-578: Uncharted Revelation: Experts Need Not Apply

One of the reasons that I don’t like spending a lot of time in Revelation specifically or prophecy in general is that the experts, the scholars, like to tell me what everything means.  Generally speaking they start with their preconceived poppy cock, and bend the scripture to fit their system.

One of the places that jumps out at me is when I stop to look at the comments at the bottom of my study Bible about the churches in Revelation.  What I saw there I’ve heard before.  When I heard it before it produced one of my gigantic eye rolls and demonstrated the fact that I can control my sarcasm.  It has to do with identifying the churches in Revelations, first three chapters, with periods of history in the Christian Church.

If I hadn’t heard it someplace else, I would’ve thought that the editor of my study Bible had made it up himself one night when he couldn’t sleep very well . But evidently it’s a common thing.  Each church is identified with a period of history. For example,

“The church in Sardis pictures the Reformation church, beginning with the sixteenth century.”.

I have searched in vain to find any indication in the book itself that this is the way to understand this.  Each of these churches existed in the time of John.  Each of these churches has specific personalities issues that are probably present today and we need to have teaching about.  Another reason I don’t go along with this interpretation is that when God wants to be mysterious, he usually finds a way to explain things if it’s important.  Think of the colossal statue in Daniel 2 that was made up of different materials.  God explains that those different materials represent different historical kingdoms.  Or take the parable of the seeds.  Jesus explains to his disciples what He meant by that story.

The purpose of the Bible is not to confuse or to be mysterious.  His purpose is to teach us the things that we need to know for salvation and hiding it behind mysterious secret meanings is the way of Gnosticism not the way of Jesus.  I would venture to guess that you could find a teacher somewhere that will tell you that eternal significance of each type of precious stone mentioned in the foundation and walls of the New Jerusalem.  If that floats your boat and makes you capable of living a more righteous life than go for it.  Embrace it.  Just don’t bother sharing it with me.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-577: Advent Calendar: Day 16, Delayed Gratification

One of the questions Herod had for the wise men was when the star first appeared.  We do not have a record of their answer but from the age of the babies murdered we assume it was two  years earlier.  This meant a two year journey.

Most of the guesses I have heard place the wise men in Persia.  Persia was not a two year journey from Israel.  Common sense would say that they came from even farther away.  I am suggesting China.  It is possible that one started from China and picked up kindred spirits along the way.  This is another one of those questions we don’t have answers for which means we don’t need to know the answer.

What could be incouraging for us today is that they were able to find the Christ child with very little real information.  They had their knowledge of the stars and a willingness to follow where God leads.  That might be a good Christmas gift for us to model this year.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-576: Advent Calendar: Day 15, Leave the Light On

There is actually no mention of an inn keeper in the Christmas story.  It does tell us there was no room in the inn so we conclude that there must have been an inkeeper.  Did he offer them the manger because he was kind hearted or because he wanted a little extra money?  So many questions, so few answers.  We can rest assured that we don’t need the answers.

What questions did the inn keeper ask?  Did he ask for ID?  Did you make a copy?  Did he ask to see their marriage certificate?  Did he do much more than take their money and point at the stable?  It is understandable that he didn’t get into the details of their situation.  He assumed they were there for the census.

How many people today are in that doorway?  They see the celebration.  They hear the music.  They decorate and go to parties but they never ask the important questions.  There isn’t much we can do about the clerk in the 7/11 but we can ask ourselves to pay more attention.  Metaphorically have you dismissed the Christ Child as just another event going by?  Have you stopped to think about the implications that the Christ Child brings to your world?

Jesus came.  Let that be a testimony and not just a day on the calendar.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-575: The Push of God

How can God be considered pure, holy, righteous, and still interact with sinful man and a fallen world?  You would think the mirror contact with human beings in their natural state would introduce an element of pollution.  That is certainly the way it is in our experience.  Think of the plants that produce computer chips.  Think of laboratories that are doing research on viral contamination.  The big problem is being touched by that which is deadly poison.

My thinking is that the solution for God is the same one that the scientist have used in some of their laboratories.  I’m not sure what the actual term is, but I think of a concept of a positive pressure atmosphere.  In many labs, they make sure that the air pressure is higher inside the lab than it is outside.  That way any contaminated air will be pushed out and cannot find a way in.  That is if they are worried about contamination from outside.  If the problem was inside, reverse the pressure.

I’m thinking that there may be a divine principal on that line.  What brought me to this was the thought of the radiance of God.You don’t find it in the King James, but the quote came to me from the NASB,

Hebrews 1:3 (KJV) Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Hebrews 1:3 (NASB95) And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Noticed the word radiance in the modern translation.  It doesn’t appear at all in the KJV, it’s always brightness.  Even the NASB uses the turn brightness frequently. When you look at the theological definition in the Greek, it’s hard to get the nuance.  It’s only used once in the New Testament.  The old testament equivalent is a little more frequent .  The idea is that the radiance is pushing out, is beaming out.

The power of God’s holiness and purity is a radiating factor.  When God touches us in the redemption process or even just listening to the prayers of a sinner, He is aware, but He is untouched and unpolluted.  I think this is one reason why it is so important for us not to just receive the Holy Spirit as the disciples did before the crucifixion, but to be filled with the Holy Spirit as they did on Pentecost.

It is important to each of us to allow God to reach out to us with His full power and His full purity.  Let Him live within us in such a way that the evils of the world have a hard time penetrating.  We are not God.  We will never be perfect like He is.  And because of our frailties, we will probably never be able to put up a barrier totally to all negative influence.  At the same time we can live in the presence of the holy God and have His radiating influence inside us.

I think the Spanish phrase, “Vaya con Dios”, means go with God.  It might have originally meant may God go with you.  It may still mean that.  That’s an even better way to translate it.  Let the radiance of God’s holiness make evil flee from you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-574: Advent Calendar: Day 14, The Bit Players

And then we have the sheep.  It’s interesting which animals are not mentioned and which are.  We have all these Christmas cards with the Wisemen riding camels.  On another shelf are the cards showing Mary riding a donkey.  Then we have the Christmas carols talking about the animals in the stable around the manger.  Those are all traditions.  The only animals mentioned are the sheep that are being watched by the shepherds.

There is no indication that the sheep got excited by the angels.  I’m wondering if they ever even looked up.  Were the angels only visible to the shepherds?  It is possible.  Remember on the road to Damascus only Paul saw the bright light.  I would think that if the sheep had seen them, they would have gotten panicked and stampeded, or whatever sheep do.  There is no mention of any such event.

How like us.  There are miracles going on all around us and so often we just keep going about business as usual.  There are times when we should be shouting “glory” and instead all we can say is, “Pass the potatoes.”  There are times when the glories of God are declared from the pulpit or lectern and we should be running the aisles, but instead we are gripping because he’s using the KJV.

Recently, we had a lesson taken from the 23rd Psalm. In looking at the Psalm, I noticed that sheep are never mentioned.  It talks about the Shepherd.  It talks about the writer.  Sheep do not make an appearance, but they are inferred.  It brought to mind another verse that does talk about the sheep,

Psalm 100:3 (KJV) Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

In the stable, there were only three people to start with.  When the wisemen got there, there were just a few of them.  The shepherds probably represented a little bit larger group.  The biggest group, of course where the sheep out in the field.  That’s us folks.  During this time when we should be celebrating the incarnation and God becoming man, we spend much of our time as sheep in the field.

Take a few moments to stop and look up.  You can do it figuratively or literally, but the point is during this time of year grab the opportunity to rejoice in the God of our salvation, and that He was willing to come and make the sacrificeso that we could know eternal life.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-573: Advent Calendar: Day 13, Notification

Have you ever wondered what angels do with their time?  No?  I tend to get off on angels because I am aware of my guardian angels working overtime.  When I think of all the times I have come within a hair’s breath of disaster I grow thankful.  

At Christmas we think of them fulfilling their main assignment, delivering messages.

(Luk 2:10 KJV)  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

You can also find an angel delivering announcements to Zechariah and Mary.  For Joseph it was a dream.  We don’t know for sure how God communicated with the wise men.  Keep in mind that the word “angel” is a title not a name.  It literally means messenger.  In this case there are no individual names.

So we have the angel and later the heavenly host delivering celestial e-mails to the shephereds.  We think of the Holy Spirit speaking to us or breathing life in the scripture.  It is possible that the angels might also have something to say to us this season.  Perhaps they will join the choir and make a Christmas program extra powerul.

Keep listening.  You don’t want to miss the celebration.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-572: Be on the Alert

One of the issues that I think we need to be constantly reminded of, and reminding our self of, is what I’ve heard called Psyops.  This is sometimes called fifth generation warfare.  It’s the psychological manipulation of the population in order to bring them around to the idea that the elites want.  One of the major goals of the elite is to divide people with traditional values and destroy their culture without firing a shot.  People on the right, have certain things in common as a whole.  There are obviously things that they disagree on, however much of the disagreement is not really between them, but it’s the way it is caricatured by the media and the Talking Heads on YouTube.

I’ve seen this as they vilify Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens and now David Wood.  I’ve seen it as they continually try to act like Trump is losing his mind and people that you know have been consistent and solid are becoming flaky.  When we keep seeing it, we start believing it and often we hear it from sources that we thought were reliable, but are turning out to be not so much.

I was watching a discussion between two groups of people that I thought as generally reliable.  I still think they’re generally reliable.  I know there are things I disagree with them on, but their sense of integrity and their attempt to find truth is solid.  That’s true at least for me.  They were discussing the way in which the people on the right are being divided and being turned against each other.  That’s what I’m talking about.  There are so many attempts to make us form a circular firing squad and go after each other.

On the other hand, I saw a podcast by Victor Davis Hansen and he pointed out that the left is actually starting to freak out because there is so much truth coming through on different sources on the Internet that they can’t act as gatekeepers anymore.  He felt very optimistic about the possibility of success of turning the country around.

Which to believe?  Both.  But above all stay on the alert, realize that the people who control the social media platforms are not necessarily on your side.  Be aware of the AI influence.  Be aware of the propaganda that is proliferating everywhere.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-571: Advent Calendar: Day 12, Time to Move?

Let me spiritualize the experience of the shepherds. Spiritualizing is where you take passage of scripture and look for things which are probably not really intended, but provide some insights into life. Consider,

Luke 2:8 (KJV) And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

I want to focus on the word “abiding that is used in the KJV. When I read this, or at least stop to think about it, my mind went to the statements of Jesus about abiding in him and the promise that he would abide with us if we did. The word and it’s essence simply means to live inside or to locate at a place. It has the connotation of focusing on that place and making that place central to who you are.

The shepherds or where they were supposed to be, watching the sheep. You can only do that out in the fields. I guess in modern times you might set up some cameras and watch it on a monitor, but the idea is you need to be there to help them when they run into problems. You need to guard them. That requires abiding in the fields. That is well and good.

But what happens when the symbolic angels appear and tell you it’s time to move on, at least temporarily. What happens when God speaks to us in the spot where we are serving or comfortable and says, it’s time to get out of your comfort zone? The shepherds could’ve stayed where they were in discussed the awesome display that God had given them. They could’ve just ignored it I guess. In order to make that impossible God sent a whole host of Angels. God made all of them, see it. God made it almost impossible to ignore.

So they went.

be alert to see if God is calling you to get up and move. As I said before that could be a permanent change or just a temporary move. It could be just an adjustment. The thing is, we are to be obedient to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Merry Christmas and joyful obedience.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-570: No Know

Much of my thinking deals with the sifting of what I know and what I just think I know.  In listening to recent presentations at church I was impressed with the assurance that the speaker had that he spoke truth.  Verses were quoted, authorities recited, strong announcements made.  My problem is that I have read enough in my Bible to know if there were significant scriptures being left out, other interpretations that were not only possible, but were more likely, in conflict with his conclusions.

Most of us at sometime in our life want to know if something is true or not.  I will accept the fact that often when we just drift along in the comfort zone and as long as we are feeling no pain, then life is good.  There are other times when is really important to know the truth.  When it comes to what the Bible teaches, I think it’s important to know the truth rather than just live in tradition and habit.  It is very hard to separate Biblical truth from theological traditions.  I considered it a constant challenge in my life.

Knowledge comes in different categories.  I don’t think we stopped to think about it but we should.

One category of knowledge is that which we will never be able to understand or never know, at least not in this life.  When you run into someone who thinks they can tell you what it means, you need to be careful.  Some of that knowledge is of an infinite nature and and finite minds cannot grasp it.  I think of the nature of the Trinity here.  It exists.  We see all the scriptures that make it a logical conclusion.  Understanding it is another matter.  Another area would be something like the book of Revelation with all of it’s figurative language.  Everybody has a theory.  Everyone has a system.  They’re all quite elaborate and often times very entertaining.  But the truth is the person giving you their system doesn’t know any more than you do, in reality they just won’t admit it.  So we have some knowledge that it’s just beyond us.

Then we have knowledge that just isn’t so.  I would put the theological conclusions of people I disagree within this category.  When I meet with a friend and he tells me that Jesus only came to minister to the Jews, I’m afraid I put on my skeptic hat.  When I listen in church and your conclusions about Abraham totally overlook clear statements in other books, I find myself realizing that these people know what isn’t so.  When people use the phrase “faith alone” and the only place you’ll find the phrase “faith alone” is in James where it says that we’re not saved by faith alone.

This is the area that is the most difficult to live with.  People around us are convinced they know the truth.  Since they know the truth, they don’t need to think anymore.  They don’t need to be aware of their own inconsistencies because it fits well together in their plan.  When you read another passage, it makes their conclusions impossible, they don’t want to hear about it.  They tend to get very hostile and hot.  It may be necessary often just to keep what you see clearly to yourself because they’re not going to listen anyway.  In this category, I would think of people who claim that we cannot be righteous because of Romans 3:10.  The big problem with that is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of references in the Bible to people living righteous lives, being upright, even being perfect.

My goal is to go with the third type of knowledge.  I seriously believe that if we read carefully and think things through on our own, we can come to truth.  This does not mean we don’t discuss it with others.  It doesn’t mean we don’t listen to others.  Others might have insight that we haven’t thought about.  The thing is we can recognize truth when we see it because it is consistent with what we’ve been reading.  When we come across things that seem to conflict, I think it’s possible that we will be able to work out the conflicting aspects by digging a little bit deeper and asking ourselves what it really means.  For instance, one of the things I come across all the time are statements that talk about forever and ever.  Most people assume, logically, that this literally means forever.  The problem with that is that often you will find it used in a place where you know it can’t mean forever.  It becomes clear that the phrase is used figuratively rather than literally. J ust knowing that, recognizing it, admitting it, can take away a lot of conflicts.

So seek truth.  Sift.  Compare.  Meditate.  Listen.  And as the old Bible verse says, “Seek, and you shall find.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-669: To be, or not…

I have heard God described as the great I Am.  This, of course, goes back originally to the conversation that God had with Moses,

(Exo 3:14 KJV)  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

This was a great declaration by God differentiating Him from all the other gods. It was Him stating that He existed.

Then we have the I Am statements of Jesus.  These occur in the gospels where He is asked a question and in the translations that we see it usually comes across as, “I am he”.  The first of these in John is,

(Joh 8:24 KJV)  I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

If you have the right translation, you’ll notice that the “he” is not in the Greek text.  He simply repeating the statement from Exodus, “I am”.

So one of the great truths that I have embraced and I hope you have too is that God exists and that He is alive.  The question comes what does it mean to be alive?

That gets me looking around my yard and trying to come up with a definition.  The sidewalk is not alive.  The oak tree is.  What are some differences?  One can grow, one can’t.  One can die, one can’t.  One can change on its own, the other can only change from outside influence.  I originally started looking at this comparing, say, your dog with a rock.  One of the differences I came up with is the dog can move, and the rock can’t, but neither can the oak tree and it’s alive.  I thought of the fact that living things could reproduce and rocks can’t, but our definition of God would say that He does not reproduce.

It gets complicated.  It gets extra complicated as science advances and we come across things like the virus, and I think there are other forms of things in existence, which don’t fit the characteristics of life as we know it.

So when we say that God is alive, it’s hard to define.  I think one of the things that that means is that God is self-aware.  There’s also a term in theology, which I can never remember, which means that His existence is not dependent on anything outside of Himself.  I looked it up, aseity.  In other words He’s not created or supported by other forces.  I also think that it means that, although He does not change in character or basic essence, He is capable of the changes that involve thought and interaction with other lifeforms.  Thus we have God changing His mind based on what people do, but that does not change who He is or what His truth is.

This is an open ended thought process.  I expect to continue questioning myself on this for quite a while.  I expect God to reveal new thoughts to me and take me down rabbit trails that I didn’t know existed.  I’m looking forward to the journey.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-668: Advent Calendar: Day11, Walk It Off

One of the recurring pictures that appears at Christmas is Joseph leading a donkey with Mary riding on it.  That is one of the traditions of Christmas that has no foundation in scripture.  It it possible?  Yes.  Is it certain?  No.  The odds are that Mary had to walk to Bethlehem.  If she started from Nazarath that was about a 75 mile walk.  That would be a major hike for most of us today.  Back then, not so much.  People were used to walking everywhere but keep in mind that “everywhere” for most people was within a few miles of home.

We have a lot of traditions at Christmas.  For the most part they are harmless diversions as long as we don’t get consumed with them.  A donkey for Mary doesn’t have any theological significance.  Many of our traditions are supplements that make the celebration part of the holiday more special.  

Make sure that you take the time to concentrate on the miracle of the incarnation.  That is an essential.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-667: Roadkill Is Up

I noticed this morning that in the middle of town on a four lane divided roadway there was a dead deer laying on the center divider.  It seems like there’s been a lot of roadkill lately.  I’m not sure why it would seem that way at this point.  Maybe the cold weather dulls their senses.  It could be rutting season.  It could be they heard they are giving out free donuts somewhere.  I don’t know.  All I know is I’m seeing more of these animals that didn’t make it across the road.

What’s really interesting to those of us who are in Texas, and I would imagine it’s that way and other parts of the world, is that many times the roadkill is right in the middle of town.  If you live in a metropolitan area in Southern California or in downtown New York or something like that, you probably would have no idea what I’m talking about, but in our town there are places where you can drive through and you have to constantly be on the lookout because these deer are just wandering around.  They know they can’t be hunted.  They know their lives are sacred.  And so they’re very bold.  What they don’t understand is that the car could kill them too.

So why so much roadkill?  It is one of those great unanswered questions of life.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-666: A Winter Question

Why did God make snow white?

No, I don’t mean the fairytale princess or the caricature created by Disney.  My question has to do with the color of snow.

Was God making a racist statement?

In case you’re new to people who write with an IQ of higher than 40 that was a rhetorical question.  Since God created all races, it’s kind of hard to believe that He would be racist.  Since Jesus most likely was Semitic and had a certain look about him, it’s doubtful that Norwegians are any higher on the racial hierarchy than people of the Middle East.  While it’s true that we don’t know for sure what the coloring was of people in those days we can look at modern distribution of population and be pretty sure that Jesus did not have blonde hair and blue eyes.

But back to our question…  Why is snow white?

Well, let’s look at the physics of the matter.  White is a reflection of all the colors of the spectrum.  Black is an absorption of all the colors of the spectrum.  So when you look at the color white, you are actually looking at all races mixed together.  Or you could say all race is rejected depending on how you want to look at it.

Why did God design the universe so snow needed to be reflective?  I’m guessing it has to do with the absorption of energy and the generation of heat.  Winter is a time of cooling.  It’s a time of the Earth renewing itself.  In order to do that there are certain temperatures that seem to be better.  If snow were black, it would absorb all the heat of the sun and melt very quickly.  Black cars are hotter in the summer than white cars.  I don’t know what that would do to runoff or to the temperature of the Earth around us.  Instead of being reflected in light, the sun‘s energy would be absorbed and warm the Earth.  Talk about climate change!

I don’t know if there are emotional contents to the color of snow.  Do all people tend to be more optimistic and up in a light atmosphere?  I believe I’ve heard that some cultures wear white to funerals as an expression of morning.  It’s possible that different colors affect different people or peoples in ways that others might not understand.  The fact that snow is winter and winter is depressing to many people might say to me that the reflection of white light is encouraging rather than depressing.

If that’s racist, then deal with it.  Just as snow is omnipresent once you get away from the tropics, so racism is a part of every culture if you define it correctly, or incorrectly as the case may be.

So go ahead and dream of a white Christmas.  Like all dreams it has elements of reality, but people forget what it’s really like driving through the slush, shoveling the sidewalks, coming in covered with cold, wet, white stuff, and all the other mysterious non-joys of winter time.  In case you have never lived in snow country let me advise you not to go out to pick up the newspaper in your stocking feet.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-665: Advent Calendar: Day 10, Second Fiddle

For some reason, Mary seems to be the focus of attention when it comes to the birth of Jesus.  One of the reasons might be that she was His mother.  Another might be the miracle of the Virgin birth.  But there was someone else there, someone else involved.  That was Joseph.

It might do for most of us to identify more with Joseph than any other character involved in the Christmas story.  He has a kind of a bit part, but he is vital.  His character and his willingness to listen to God made him essential and allowing Mary to have the baby Jesus.

Matthew 1:20 (KJV) But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

Of course God chose him just as He chose Mary.  I wonder if in reality He didn’t prepare him for this.  When you go through the genealogies, you find that both Joseph and Mary trace their ancestry back to David.  There had to be some preparation in order to have these two come together at the right time.  God had to be sure that both Mary and Joseph would have the right character to be faithful to their calling.

I personally think it would be more fun to be one of the angels broadcasting the news from the skies.  I might like the prestige of being one of the wise men.  I don’t think I’d want to be a shepherd.  What God needs is more Joseph’s.  He needs more of us willingto serve faithfully, to step up when needed, and rest in the shadows when someone else is the main character.

May you find your place of service this year.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-564: Advent Calendar: Day 9, Stir Well

As Mary moves toward the time when Jesus is going to be born and Elizabeth is looking at the arrival of John, the two women get together.  As they are approaching each other, something happens that is rather unusual in one sense and normal in another.

Luke 1:41 (NASB95) When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The middle phrase of this verse doesn’t portray anything unusual.  Babies kick, squirm, punch and other assorted movements while they’re still in the womb.  I can remember before mine were born, putting in my hands on the distended belly of my wife and feeling the movement, and if I was really lucky, even getting my hand knocked away.  There’s nothing unusual in that.

What was unusual was that this led to Elizabeth being aware that she was being filled with the Holy Spirit.  She must have shared this with Mary and when Luke was interviewing Mary later on, she must have related it to him.  This is unusual.  Pregnancy doesn’t usually end up in this kind of thing.

By coincidence this morning I was reading in Psalms and came across this verse,

Psalm 39:3 (NASB95) My heart was hot within me, While I was musing the fire burned; Then I spoke with my tongue:

We need to be aware that God is quite capable of stirring up our inner emotions and our thoughts.  He’s capable of focusing us or refocusing.  One of the reasons that we remember special days is that so we can gather our thoughts, contemplate, and perhaps decide to do things a little bit different in the future.

Mary and Elizabeth were stirred as they got together.  During this holiday season use the times when we gather with friends and family to allow God to make something jump within us, perhaps you can have a renewal of the Holy Spirit in your life this time of year.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-563: A Song of Desperation

I’m sitting in my room with the lights out, gazing out into the pre-dawn greatest.  I have read in  Psalms.  I have read in Proverbs.  I’ve spent time contemplating things of God; now I am just enjoying quiet Christmas music in the background as I look out the window.  I noticed that a song has come on my stereo, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas…”  It’s a song I really enjoy because I know what Christmas is about.

What if you don’t know what Christmas is all about?  What kind of song does this become?  It becomes a song of wishful thinking, daydreaming about the good old days, and the vain hope that tomorrow will be better.  As I found myself listening to the words instead of just the Christmas emotion that they generate, I noticed that there was nothing in the song about a baby being born in a manger.  There was nothing about God becoming man.  There was nothing about the hope that is in us.  The closest I could come was that line which says “If the fates allow.”  That’s not much to hope on.

Since I know about the incarnation and how the virgin birth was the beginning of the path to the cross and that that led to the resurrection, I can find great joy in this song.  It’s not because of this song itself.  The song is really just the song of desperation when you think about it, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t rejoice in the creativity of the writer because we know why we can have a merry little Christmas.

I hope for you that the cross means as much to you as the manger and that the empty tune is less significant than the creche.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025: 562: Monday Pulpit: Eggs in Your Nose

The pastor, who usually teaches the adult Sunday school class, was out of town and we had a substitute.  Because the original substitute had backed out at the last minute, the man giving the lesson had not had as much time as he would’ve liked to prepare what he had to say.  He did what many of us do when we’re in that situation, you go to something familiar.  His choice was the 23rd Psalm.

We had a good time of discussion and I will be pondering this passage of scripture this week.  What’s amazing is the weird things that stick in your mind when you should be thinking on a higher level.  He was going over the care of sheep, and when he got to the point where it says “he anointeth my head with oil”, he pointed out that one of the problems sheep have is the bugs and flies and stuff that get into their nose and eyes.  I hadn’t thought about that.  When I thought of the anointing, I thought of kings and prophets, not sheep.

In the course of the discussion, he mentioned how the flies would lay eggs in the nose of the sheep.  I’m not sure if he came up with it or if I thought of it as he was talking, but I got this horrible picture of Satan laying eggs in my nose.  I’m not sure how to apply that but it certainly sounds like something I don’t want to happen in my life.

How do we keep Satan from laying eggs in our nose?  By the constant anointing of the Holy Spirit of God.  By constantly being in His presence.  By constantly allowing Him to reach out and touch us.  That happens in worship, and worship happens in so much of our lives and we don’t think of it as that, but it is.

So as you contemplate Christmas, think about how God has reached out to us not only as the race of mankind, but as individuals.  Let His presence be a constant barrier against the eggs of Satan.

homo unius libri