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