Opus 2025-077: Views of Perfection

As I walked through the living room my wife was watching one of those House Lust programs.  A couple was walking through and talking about what they thought was good and bad in a house that they probably could not afford.  I have been force fed these programs on road trips that have one room accommodations and a TV to go with it.  

The little part I picked up today reminded me of an old bit of wisdom about men and women as they enter into marriage.  Men expect the woman to stay like she is.  They married her and want to spend their life with the woman they married.  Women look at the man as a project that has the potential to become what she wants.  It leads to a bit of conflict.

I am wondering if the same applies to buying a new home.  It was that way for us.  All I heard before we moved in was how perfect the house was.  I decided I could live with it and began thinking on how to adjust.  As soon as we were unpacking I started hearing about all the projects she had in mind for remodeling.  All I could say was, “What?”  I am not talking about painting the rooms a different color.  I am talking about closing up doors and covering over windows, moving walls, gutting the kitchen, trenching for plumbing changes and, yes, even painting.

Be prepared.  Be understanding.  The irresistible force eventually wears down the immovable object.  It is a rule of the universe.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-076: Impossible?

I was raised being told that it is impossible to keep the law of God, and therefore we needed the cross, and the sacrifice of Jesus.  I was told all my life that it was the hopelessness of keeping the law perfectly.  It made salvation by faith necessary.

Does the Bible anywhere say that we can never keep the law?  Not in the Old Testament.  Here is a verse in the KJV,

(Deu 30:11 KJV)  For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

 
 The NASB represents an alternate translation found in several versions,

(Deu 30:11 NAS77) "For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.

The issue is not that it is impossible.  The point, even with the Old Testament, is that keeping the law will not earn your salvation.  That is not the result of keeping the law.  The law was designed to make your life better, and to make the life in your community better.  It was a national standard.  It did not deliver salvation.

So no, the point was not that you could not keep the law.  The point was keeping the law would not do you any good in eternity.  Through the entire Bible salvation is offered as an act of God and what He expected of us was faith and obedience.  What Jesus did was replace the blood sacrifice of animals with His perfect blood and made access to eternal life available to all.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-075: Three Guesses

And the first two don’t count.  I kind of feel that way as I continue reading Will Durant in his history.  He’s so full of speculation and clever writing that you might miss the fact that he often doesn’t have a clue on what he’s talking about.  He gets away with inconsistencies because his book is so long.

I’m currently on the section that deals with ancient Israel and he’s dealing with where Israel came from and it’s rather fascinating.  He seems to embrace any theory that goes against what the Bible actually says.

A thought that came to my mind this morning was all of the different theories he gave about where Yahweh came from.  It seems like every page has a different theory.  At one point he had Yahweh as a local fire God living in a cave.  In had another place he speculated that the Israelites had worship a bull in Egypt, thus you have the golden calf.  At another place he had some other “scholar” saying that one of the early gods of the Hebrews was a pig which explains their ban on pork products.  Another place she talks about Yahweh being a local God, who was battling the other gods, and eventually emerged triumphant.  At no place does he accept the clear statement of the Bible that Yahweh is the only God and the creator of the universe.  He’s having fun.  I find it a bit tedious.

I can’t wait to get past the chapter on Israel when he starts dealing with Persia.  I don’t know as much about the history of Persia as I do about Israel.  I wonder if I will be able to trust what he says there anymore than I find I can’t here.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-074: The Good Old Days

We like to sit around and reminisce about the past.  Some of our tales are well embellished and others are actually accurate.  There are a lot of wonderful things in the past that we don’t have anymore.

Some are gone and we don’t know where they went.  Do you remember when you were able to get those big avocados that were just right and you could sit down and eat them with a spoon?  What happened to them?  They weren’t just figment of our imagination.

Some things are gone because they were rotten to the core with a beautiful outside.  I think of Disneyland.  We quit going years ago.  I remember, noticing before all of the corruption came out that every single ride in Disneyland had at least one spot where there was something happen to do with witches or other evils.  That one spot has grown into the major theme of cultural deviancy.  I think of Bill Cosby.  I can remember when he was genuinely funny, and I really appreciated his style of humor.  Little did we know the evil that went on underneath that veneer.  What changed?  I’m still not sure that he was that evil.  I think his big mistake was coming out and speaking up against the degenerate nature of black culture.  It was shortly after that speech the world discovered that he was a pervert.  I will accept it, but I still don’t fully believe it.  Either way, we have Bill Cosby’s humor as only a fading memory.

What about world travel?  I went to Europe while I was still in college.  We got a special deal and five of us went and spent a couple of months over there.  It was a grand and glorious experience.  Even then we were unable to get into the local culture all the way because the drugs and rampant in morality were strong.  There are places in the world that I would love to see to appreciate their historical validity.  I would love to see the ancient city of Zimbabwe.  I would love to see the temples of Angkor Wat.  I would love to visit the holy land.  Most of them I will never make it to because it’s not even close to safe to be there.  What a tragedy.

Some places I will never get to experience because I’m just getting too old.  I don’t expect to ever ride a motorcycle again.  I heal slowly and the ground looks awful hard.  Just getting older and slower keeps a lot of things from happening.  Considering how slow I was even when I was un-old, this is nothing new.

And then you have all of those things which really weren’t that wonderful to begin with.  Remember Chubby Checker and the twist?  How about, “I told the witch doctor I was in love with you”?  Did you ever have a rotary engine?  I used to love baloney sandwiches.  Eight tracks anyone?  

You can make your own list.  The future will produce change for the better or worse.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-073: Lion or Lamb?

Left to myself I don’t spend a lot of time in the book of Revelation, or in prophecy in general.  I accept that it is part of the Bible, and there are lessons to be learned and directions to be given.  I just don’t understand it and have not been able to discern a clear statement about much of what it involves.  I know there are people who have marvelous outlines of the end times, and have it all figured out, but I am not one of them, and I find their theories have more holes in them than a fishnet.

I’m still open to insights that come as long as they’re not trying to make a chart or graph about all the events that are displayed in glorious color and creative imagination in the book.  I started my thinking in the 23rd Psalm.  As you probably know, that implies that we are sheep, and that God is the Shepherd.

That got me thinking about the nature of sheep, and what it says about us.  I got to thinking how most of us want to be the top dog in the pack, the wolf out hunting for prey, the eagle flying majestically in the sky... you get the idea.  Most of us don’t want to be a sheep which implies being dumb, passive and weak.  Jarringly contrasted, with that is the concept of Jesus, being the Lamb of God.  When we were talking about Him being the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins that fits.  In the Old Testament, the lamb was sacrificed as part of the atonement process.

Then I get to this picture in revelation,

Revelation 5:5-6 (KJV) 5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. 6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

The description of the Lamb here is part of the dystopian tendencies we see in the book of Revelation.  Things are described in ways that just don’t seem logical or realistic.  I think that’s part of what’s going on here.  It’s trying to point out to us that as Jesus comes as the lamb, that is not just a weak passive creature.  He is the mighty Lamb.  In the previous verse, it talks about Him as being the Lion of Judah.

This is not “gentle Jesus, meek, and mild.”  This is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.  This is our Savior.  As much as I get frustrated with Revelation as a whole, this is a joy to behold.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-072: The Waiting God

This morning I first greeted God at 4:15 when I woke up enough to engage my mind a little bit.  Then I rolled over and eventually got out of bed around 4:30, stumbled toward the kitchen to start the coffee and went to powder my nose.  It was 5 o’clock before I was ready to again greet Him with my second, “Good morning, Lord.”  I again have Him in my mind, leaning over the banister, tilting His head and smiling at me.

My first thought was He was waiting for me.  He knew how long it takes me to wake up and He knew my heart was in the right place.  All was good.  It dawned on me that He wasn’t really waiting.  Not waiting in the sense of twiddling His thumbs, or looking out the window, or reading a magazine.  First, God is outside time so He didn’t have to sit there wasting it.  Second, He has a million things to do and He is doing them.  It’s more like your father working on the taxes, knowing that you have just come home from school and that you will arrive in a few minutes to share your day and any issues that have come up.  He knows you’re there.  He knows you’re coming.  He’s waiting in a sense but certainly not wasting time.

It always strikes me as funny that we pray that God would meet us when He’s already there.  We pray that God would hear our prayers, when we know He’s already listening, and He’s not hard of hearing.  It’s more a matter of us, finally getting our mind focused and our petty details set aside so that we can approach him and give him our attention.

God was waiting for me.  I trust that He was waiting for you this morning.  Be blessed, trust, move forward with anticipation.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-071: Feudalism II

One of the things that we are seeing in our culture today is an increasing number of organizations that are finding ways around the tax codes.  Churches are obvious as not paying property tax.  I’m guessing that there are many nonprofits that are also included in that kind of loophole.  I know that there are foundations that pay no tax on the money collected.  We have an ever growing number of people lined up at the public trough who live off of government checks and pay no taxes but have the right to vote on raising those taxes.

This follows a parallel pattern from the Middle Ages when the wealthy, the powerful, the religious leaders, and who knows whom else exempted themselves from having to pay taxes.  This put a greater burden on the common people who had no voice and reinforced the power structure.

We are seeing that again today.  There is a multiplying parasite class that sucks the energy out of our economic system while enjoying the benefits.  A large part of this process is making it impossible for working class people to buy property and own homes.  It continues into the push to put us on public transit by making private ownership of automobiles too expensive.  Meanwhile they have chauffeured limousines and private jets.  You need to be disarmed while they pay private security.

Think of the areas of Los Angeles county that were burned off by the fire.  The regulations of California are going to make it almost impossible to rebuild.  Who will step in?  Picture the hills of Altadena, covered with large religious facilities, government buildings, nonprofit headquarters and anybody else who can build without having to pay taxes and find ways around regulations.  They will pay no taxes on the property.  They will probably find ways to avoid taxes on their income.  At the same time, they will be expecting to be taken care of with government services, such as police, fire, and water.

If you are one of the elites that lived in a multi-million dollar home you might be able to go out and pay cash for another one or know the right people to get your mansion rebuilt and include trhe property of a neighbor who lost his because he voted wrong.  The rest of us are expected to live in European style, 15 minute cities where everything you need is less than a 15 minute walk and your cell phone will report you if you go outside your limit.

Peasants, welcome back your feudal lords. They may be a new and improved edition, but they are still feudal lords.  Actually they want you to be serfs, not peasants.  Peasants had some rights.  A few peasants were able to accumulate wealth.  Serfs were bound to the soil and needed a note from their lord if they wanted to go too far from that soil.  Can you say, “15 minute city?”

People came to America to escape oppression and find liberty.  That looks good on a poster and sounds good in a sound bite.  It is even true up to a point.  What that meant was that they could own real estate in this new land.  They could attend the church they wanted in this new land.  They could defend themselves in this new land.  They could travel without a permit in this new land.  They could even wear whatever style and color of garment they could afford.  We have no idea of what it will be like if your overlords resume their positions of power.

Be aware.  Resist the decent into Feudalism.

homo unius libri