tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45670701635833340882024-02-21T21:07:56.053-08:00Two Cent PearlsA Mindful Momma's MusingsLeighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-87532495555133899582018-06-19T13:50:00.005-07:002018-06-19T14:12:54.872-07:00What about Old Testament Violence? Part 2 - Some attempts at reconciliation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZ6_g5ForGFSHFs7U66wnFAQWnzJE456gL77toLeWS65y7ShDbuW3EAfHcDwzoMHonQKkdhWZpSkuj50Qh6pbVM_JS5aWnBn44-WRrBE_dH1eNrpgIJUXXlTpf6IuTDj0IimbRPYEMBo/s1600/God+and+Jesus+reconcile+violent+portraits+of+God+with+god+of+love+revealed+in+Jesus+Christ.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="How do we reconcile troubling Old Testament violence with the Jesus Christ's admonition to love and bless our enemies?" border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZ6_g5ForGFSHFs7U66wnFAQWnzJE456gL77toLeWS65y7ShDbuW3EAfHcDwzoMHonQKkdhWZpSkuj50Qh6pbVM_JS5aWnBn44-WRrBE_dH1eNrpgIJUXXlTpf6IuTDj0IimbRPYEMBo/s320/God+and+Jesus+reconcile+violent+portraits+of+God+with+god+of+love+revealed+in+Jesus+Christ.png?imgmax=735" width="213" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsgaYszQaLFF10Q6EGdPlO_E9eFwR0tdnhVPF4KmdRXui4ZG5xCM8gt8YNIPwLInguqW3dE9SxLZ1TDdMEMrwV7J91lgj4WkNSYI3tdZ8pTBuHoodmrZQevwRyzAU-YlGDpD-g1aRT1ng/s1600/God+and+Jesus+reconcile+violent+portraits+of+God+with+god+of+love+revealed+in+Jesus.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="How do we reconcile troubling Old Testament violence with the Jesus Christ's admonition to love and bless our enemies?" border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsgaYszQaLFF10Q6EGdPlO_E9eFwR0tdnhVPF4KmdRXui4ZG5xCM8gt8YNIPwLInguqW3dE9SxLZ1TDdMEMrwV7J91lgj4WkNSYI3tdZ8pTBuHoodmrZQevwRyzAU-YlGDpD-g1aRT1ng/s400/God+and+Jesus+reconcile+violent+portraits+of+God+with+god+of+love+revealed+in+Jesus.png?imgmax=940" title="How do we reconcile troubling Old Testament violence with the Jesus Christ's admonition to love and bless our enemies?" width="400" /></a><br />
Are you inspired by Jesus but disturbed by the violent portraits of God recorded in the Old Testament?<br />
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Many attempts have been made to reconcile these very different, often contradictory pictures of God and we'll look at some of those here.<br />
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Last time, we started with the question <a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.com/2018/04/old-testament-violence-is-god-schizophrenic.html" target="_blank">'Is God Schizophrenic?'</a> and ended with the statement that 'What we see is what we become.' If you see God as unpredictable, never knowing if you're going to get the Yahweh version or the Jesus version, it's harder to behave consistently yourself.<br />
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Do believers act more aggressively when they believe that God sanctions violence?<br />
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A study done at the University of Michigan by social psychologist Brad Bushman and his colleagues suggests they do - <a href="https://news.umich.edu/when-god-sanctions-violence-believers-act-more-aggressively/" target="_blank">read it here.</a><br />
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History provides substantial evidence of its own though. The church has used the image of the war-mongering God of the Old Testament to justify all sorts of atrocities. They felt justified in committing acts of horrific violence because they believed it was the moral thing to do. God, who set the standard of morality, modelled violence as a solution to situations of conflict. <i>(A fascinating article on how people resort to violence because they believe their moral codes require it can be found <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/people-resort-to-violence-because-their-moral-codes-demand-it" target="_blank">here</a>.)</i><br />
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Divinely sanctioned acts of atrocious violence, seemingly contradicted by Jesus' instruction to love and bless our enemies, can be confusing. How should we respond to situations of conflict?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVe1c6Adk6-xXMyGjM4-GBwIcfBqCPDyForsjc7CinORth4ZjGd97KzFGFqQrsKkx1v6PHVETQ32B17Qz2rE9lB4gtEj64Ehq76yANnCmbGwYdBGSVjZXpUpAGSLMORgYUHwf8vfaCwtM/s1600/And+we+all%252C+with+unveiled+face%252C+beholding+the+glory+of+the+Lord%252C+are+being+transformed+into+the+same+image+from+one+degree+of+glory+to+another.2+Corinthians+3_18+ESV.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="2 Corinthians 3:18 - What you see is what you become" border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVe1c6Adk6-xXMyGjM4-GBwIcfBqCPDyForsjc7CinORth4ZjGd97KzFGFqQrsKkx1v6PHVETQ32B17Qz2rE9lB4gtEj64Ehq76yANnCmbGwYdBGSVjZXpUpAGSLMORgYUHwf8vfaCwtM/s320/And+we+all%252C+with+unveiled+face%252C+beholding+the+glory+of+the+Lord%252C+are+being+transformed+into+the+same+image+from+one+degree+of+glory+to+another.2+Corinthians+3_18+ESV.png?imgmax=940" title="2 Corinthians 3:18 - What you see is what you become" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXgfMbkAIUGHITfotK1idRZ_nvkTwG9umNdFL14quFMiE03CnZ-HcHPFTkA6YcWnuXzERtP2imaFRXGWfJSJqEdB0LNCk3PlgJOIMl9dkRrqiZzuhduIopMPif73BbtWYK3DjVu4T_aJw/s1600/What+you+see+is+what+you+become+2+Corinthians+318.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="2 Corinthians 3:18 - What you see is what you become" border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXgfMbkAIUGHITfotK1idRZ_nvkTwG9umNdFL14quFMiE03CnZ-HcHPFTkA6YcWnuXzERtP2imaFRXGWfJSJqEdB0LNCk3PlgJOIMl9dkRrqiZzuhduIopMPif73BbtWYK3DjVu4T_aJw/s320/What+you+see+is+what+you+become+2+Corinthians+318.png?imgmax=735" width="196" /></a></div>
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I know enough of God to know that there must be an explanation. How do I know that? Here's a clue:<br />
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Whenever we see something about God that doesn’t match the character of Jesus, no matter how bad it looks, we can trust that there is an explanation.<br />
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But I must be clear: platitudes like: 'One day all will be made known,' and 'Each to their own,' and 'God's ways are higher than our ways,' are not, to my mind, satisfactory explanations.<br />
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So how do we explain it then? Some people simply dismiss the Old Testament picture of God by ignoring it. They just never read that section of the Bible. If it's not in their ‘Live your best life’ devotional they pretend it's not there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlLhnStE6FYCenN-bR08ckFRpMqWIBxry9gJMWwwa7KgOzC3nqafmLRceZwwM-HvCTaoE_yR95uNjTZKH7OWtgwxpfiRp-ZwW61NmW_ZnFdIu7kE4jByoVMqQiLGv8zWBlmGKbrX6osM/s1600/is+god+really+good_.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Old Testament violence - How can I believe God is Good, even when He looks bad?" border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlLhnStE6FYCenN-bR08ckFRpMqWIBxry9gJMWwwa7KgOzC3nqafmLRceZwwM-HvCTaoE_yR95uNjTZKH7OWtgwxpfiRp-ZwW61NmW_ZnFdIu7kE4jByoVMqQiLGv8zWBlmGKbrX6osM/s400/is+god+really+good_.png?imgmax=735" title="Old Testament violence - How can I believe God is Good, even when He looks bad?" width="266" /></a></div>
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On the other hand, some will take those revelations as equal in authority to our revelation of God in Jesus, often thereby justifying atrocious acts of violence in God's name. - they get to choose which aspect of God they want to demonstrate in any given situation.<br />
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The difficulty with this view is that Jesus himself directly contradicts God’s words in the Old Testament. Which do we take as our example?<br />
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Even others find a way to show how justified the violence was in each situation; spin it one way or the other to make it more palatable.<br />
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Some will blame a translation error - that's a common one. Maybe there was some kind of mixup and 'slaughter' doesn't really mean 'slaughter'.<br />
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Maybe I'm just hard to please, but none of these approaches solves the glaring contradictions to my satisfaction.<br />
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We can't ignore chunks of the Bible - every word has to be taken seriously and acknowledged as inspired of the Holy Spirit, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. Why do I believe that so emphatically? For starters, Paul, referring to our current Old Testament, described it as 'God Breathed'.<br />
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We have the added complication that Jesus believed the Old Testament. Nuts! Just when you thought you get away with leaving it on the shelf we see that Jesus directly quotes 24 of the 39 books in the Old Testament. Only 4 books in the Old Testament are not quoted by all the New Testament authors combined.<br />
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But what do we do now? Jesus is the peace-loving hippy and Yahweh is the warmongering despot, ready to chop everyone's heads off and Holy Spirit wafts about making windy noises. With Jesus and Yahweh making up 2/3 of the Trinity - How can they be so at odds with each other? How do we reconcile these pictures of the persons within the Godhead? These are not just different behaviours as expressions of the same character - this looks like completely different characters. Is there disunity in the Trinity?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMD-qI3yD3HVGJsWC1GlWxXz1GHzENhKHBlcndjCd43Xz71SVcu4NCEN-bmpj2Y_5zQoWyMBnYVHjWmQjcuD01tWS70nlnX64_EdSCvBKFrPl-5X764NX6hY93yMO9XmU4bR1_Lz5PD3E/s1600/Can+I+trust+God+is+good.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Old Testament Violence - Can I trust God?" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMD-qI3yD3HVGJsWC1GlWxXz1GHzENhKHBlcndjCd43Xz71SVcu4NCEN-bmpj2Y_5zQoWyMBnYVHjWmQjcuD01tWS70nlnX64_EdSCvBKFrPl-5X764NX6hY93yMO9XmU4bR1_Lz5PD3E/s400/Can+I+trust+God+is+good.png?imgmax=800" title="Old Testament Violence - Can I trust God?" width="400" /></a></div>
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Which one are we going to get in any given moment? We'd never be sure what to expect. It's a bit like growing up with an unstable parent - you never know if you'll get furious mom or patient mom or withdrawn mom or sweet mom - and that makes it harder to know how to behave because like all kids, you blame yourself for triggering the behaviour changes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4xJuZMMNhIgnemzBOwJ62cr7-OPAf7zeuy5G4QualvntkokBYSCNXESbsVVCLVRrDkrtFs525V4CGISLI7Q1zSj4gXTbor1FrRTUD9P_oh2NbjZ4FFfRzUx54LjZtZJB982FV9aUpQg/s1600/the+cross+is+the+interpretive%252C+or+hermeneutical%252C+lens+through+which+God+is+seen%253B+it+is+the+means+of+grace+by+which+God+is++known..png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Cross is the lens through which God is seen, it is the means of Grace by which he is known. - Michael Gorman" border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4xJuZMMNhIgnemzBOwJ62cr7-OPAf7zeuy5G4QualvntkokBYSCNXESbsVVCLVRrDkrtFs525V4CGISLI7Q1zSj4gXTbor1FrRTUD9P_oh2NbjZ4FFfRzUx54LjZtZJB982FV9aUpQg/s320/the+cross+is+the+interpretive%252C+or+hermeneutical%252C+lens+through+which+God+is+seen%253B+it+is+the+means+of+grace+by+which+God+is++known..png?imgmax=735" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQElm0ZpeeC2JabXFOPdQhKiQEIaheNBnG-seHynMrk9Ci8AcxCgX5aCQ7poNqzPEy05o2LolKMxdlziLTol6ekjMnP9E8lzuY_0uCI_QWOwb0Xg3qmOOI2NNuKpFPCJ7s-kQZrze2Ihk/s1600/Can+I+trust+God.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Old Testament Violence - Can I trust God?" border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQElm0ZpeeC2JabXFOPdQhKiQEIaheNBnG-seHynMrk9Ci8AcxCgX5aCQ7poNqzPEy05o2LolKMxdlziLTol6ekjMnP9E8lzuY_0uCI_QWOwb0Xg3qmOOI2NNuKpFPCJ7s-kQZrze2Ihk/s320/Can+I+trust+God.png?imgmax=735" width="213" /></a></div>
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That's just exhausting, feeling like it all depends on you and your behaviour. You stop taking risks - even good ones - especially good ones - because you're never sure how mom / God is going to respond. And so you try to make yourself smaller and as invisible as you possibly can so maybe you won't be noticed and so no one can blame you for the inevitable outburst.<br />
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As usual, I've got myself in a bit of a hole - one I'm going to have to wrestle my way out of. Fortunately, I have a pretty good precedent in the Old Testament when it comes to wrestling with God.<br />
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Of the great patriarchs mentioned in Hebrews 11 as champions of faith, Jacob wrestled with God through the night, Moses repeatedly objected to God's intended course of action and had the audacity to suggest an alternative, as did Abraham. Usually, they were questioning the consistency of his actions with his character... which is precisely what we are doing here.<br />
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Even crazier than the thought that they could question God, is the thought that he changed his way that he was going to do because of them. On that precedent, I feel confident in asking God what he's up to.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaUMNL72jCgv3Omj7Xy2U_CfabBip9fR4b3hDSJaCDvqbuQBYLplD8eoauc8pIcMYAFa6bjM5GE4cibvgupPVATUvubcSxqqU2YXkcqPj5PcW9KaMCqkNcBTE6FsHUh3xjWYtXwzf5FVQ/s1600/the+cross+is+the+interpretive%252C+or+hermeneutical%252C+lens+through+which+God+is+seen%253B+it+is+the+means+of+grace+by+which+God+is++known.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Cross is the lens through which God is seen, it is the means of Grace by which he is known. - Michael Gorman" border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaUMNL72jCgv3Omj7Xy2U_CfabBip9fR4b3hDSJaCDvqbuQBYLplD8eoauc8pIcMYAFa6bjM5GE4cibvgupPVATUvubcSxqqU2YXkcqPj5PcW9KaMCqkNcBTE6FsHUh3xjWYtXwzf5FVQ/s320/the+cross+is+the+interpretive%252C+or+hermeneutical%252C+lens+through+which+God+is+seen%253B+it+is+the+means+of+grace+by+which+God+is++known.png?imgmax=940" title="The Cross is the lens through which God is seen, it is the means of Grace by which he is known. - Michael Gorman" width="320" /></a></div>
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I mentioned the clue to all of this earlier: If we see a portrait of God in scripture that doesn't match how he has revealed himself in Jesus, we can trust there is some explanation because Jesus is the standard by which we measure all revelation. How can I be so sure of that?<br />
You'll have to wait for part 3 to find out... Or you could read ahead, but just know that if you do end up buying from one of the links below, I'll get a small commission at no extra cost to you. <i>(<a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.com/p/privacy-policy-disclaimer.html" target="_blank">Full Disclosure</a>)</i><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074GJSPNZ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B074GJSPNZ&linkCode=as2&tag=twocentpearls-20&linkId=72f0899d901ae23619a3dae466ca9108" target="_blank">Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=twocentpearls-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B074GJSPNZ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is the popular version of the more academic <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1506420753/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1506420753&linkCode=as2&tag=twocentpearls-20&linkId=f947097c6b2bf23afd340c32bed1926a" target="_blank">The Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Volumes 1 & 2</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=twocentpearls-20&l=am2&o=1&a=1506420753" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> which Greg Boyd spent around 10 years writing in his quest to find out how to reconcile the troubling pictures of Old Testament violence with the self-sacrificial love of God revealed in Jesus' work on the cross. With the heart of a pastor and the skill of a theologian, he forges a path that shows how even the most horrific episodes in the Old Testament testify to a God of peace and love. Sound too good to be true? It's not, He really is that good! Get the book if you don't believe me.<br />
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Or, if you're willing to take the gamble that the next post will be ready before you get the book, make sure you subscribe via email to be notified of future posts, and/or follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TwoCentPearls/">Facebook</a>.<br />
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And, if you'd like to hear a recording of me sharing this in person at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DwellChurch/">Dwell Church</a> in Durban, in May 2017, complete with South African accent, weird belly chuckle-laughs and a couple of family anecdotes, click on the Soundcloud link below.<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/460616412&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%"></iframe>
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<br />Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-62012386547379529382018-04-20T07:17:00.000-07:002018-07-02T07:08:00.228-07:00What about Old Testament Violence? Part 1 - Is God schizophrenic?I am convinced that God is good, but I'll admit there are times when I wonder, "What about the time when?..."<br />
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I've realised I spend quite a large portion of my thought life asking, 'Yes, but what about...?" I test my opinions and observations by trying to find exceptions.<br />
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If you've spent any significant amount of time reading the Bible, especially the Old Testament, you'll have a lot of those, "Yes, but what about...?" questions, I'm sure!<br />
Moments where God does something that doesn't look 'good', things that I wouldn't consider morally good, or things that don't seem to match up with God's own definitions of what is 'good'.<br />
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Many people reject Christianity outright because they don't feel they can serve or worship or love God as he is represented in the Old Testament. To be honest, I've had my moments where I've wondered aloud how on earth (or in heaven!) this all fits together.<br />
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A. A. Milne, the author of the Winnie the Pooh books wrote:<br />
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<i>'The Old Testament is responsible for more atheism, agnosticism, disbelief, call it what you will, than any other book ever written.'</i></blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTX9SRcCJEKGn5UruHwxTuX9bGZ9BiqolrZOnz8v4enJX0dA6TYtpL7JjBNjJ7EfhkoSeYxiR0vR90KkdZmALoVVbNuX6iqpFxKcnA6cWNWrfD_TWWHNLmSenevWKHTH_jYrEl5TsmBng/s1600/The+Old+Testament+is+responsible+for+more+atheism%252C+agnosticism%252C+disbelief%252C+call+it+what+you+will%252C+than+any+other+book+ever+written..png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTX9SRcCJEKGn5UruHwxTuX9bGZ9BiqolrZOnz8v4enJX0dA6TYtpL7JjBNjJ7EfhkoSeYxiR0vR90KkdZmALoVVbNuX6iqpFxKcnA6cWNWrfD_TWWHNLmSenevWKHTH_jYrEl5TsmBng/s320/The+Old+Testament+is+responsible+for+more+atheism%252C+agnosticism%252C+disbelief%252C+call+it+what+you+will%252C+than+any+other+book+ever+written..png?imgmax=735" width="213" /></a>It’s a strong statement but frankly, I can see where he is coming from. What makes it more complex is that we can’t dismiss the Old Testament by saying, 'It’s just not like anymore.'Yes, we are in a new dispensation, but our new dispensation is on the foundation of the Old Testament - we can’t dismiss that foundation. But then again, these Old Testament portraits are so very different from the portrait of God we find in Jesus.<br />
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These differences can seem quite stark. There were times when Yahweh, I’ll refer to him as Yahweh as distinct from Jesus even though we know they are God, where Yahweh commands his followers to slaughter every man, woman, child and animal as they were entering regions of Canaan - their Promised Land, where Jesus comes and says, 'If someone strikes you, turn the other cheek.'<br />
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Yahweh threatened curses on those who showed mercy to their enemies, Jesus comes and says we are to forgive our enemies - and when his disciples ask how many times - he says seventy times seven times. Jesus also prayed for those who persecuted them and taught forgiveness.<br />
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Yahweh even brought judgment on a group of people by causing them to cannibalise their children. Yes, that's in the Bible. But Jesus praised the faith of children and said that for anyone who harms children 'it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.' (Matthew 18:6)<br />
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These are very different pictures of God we're getting from the Old and New Testaments - I trust I can bring some clarity to this seeming contradiction.<br />
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Those of us who have known God's love, we have enough experience of him to say, 'I know there's an explanation for this.' If you are not yet in that place - please don't panic - there is an explanation.<br />
For those who haven't ever met Jesus, who haven't experienced his presence, often there isn't enough for them to go on to trust that there is an explanation for the contradictions they find - and so they reject Christianity outright.<br />
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I'd love for this post, and the posts following, to give you confidence that he is good, more good than you could ever imagine. You may have seen some ugly pictures of him, but he is good!<br />
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In case you're worried, I am absolutely not going to tell you that God is good in some creepy abusive partner kind of way. You’ve all heard of the guy who gives his wife a black eye and tells her it's for own good and he only hits her because he loves her. We’re not going down that road. Promise!<br />
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But why spend the energy on finding an explanation? Well, I agree with this guy called Aiden Wilson Tozer who stated that 'The Image that comes to mind when you think of God is the most important thing about you.'<br />
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It affects absolutely every moment of how we live our lives: what we think about ourselves, about other people, how we read the circumstances around us - they determine the direction we move in, who we become - what we believe about God really is the most important thing about us. How did the serpent get Eve to eat the fruit? He attacked her mental image of God.<br />
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Paul writes to the Corinthian church:<br />
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<i>'And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image.' </i>(2 Corinthians 3:18)</div>
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What we see is what we become.<br />
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So I'm trusting that as you join me in this journey of discovering how good God really is, your life would be transformed as have the lives of many believers before us.<br />
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If you'd like to 'read ahead' then I'd recommend one of the books linked below. They are two different versions of the same material written researched and written over the course of a decade by Pastor-Theologian Greg Boyd - a man I believe may go down in history as one of the most influential but underrated theologians of our time.<br />
<br />
<i>(Note: If you do end up buying from one of these links, I'll get a small commission at no extra cost to you. <a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.com/p/privacy-policy-disclaimer.html" target="_blank">Full Disclosure</a>)</i><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1506420753/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1506420753&linkCode=as2&tag=twocentpearls-20&linkId=f947097c6b2bf23afd340c32bed1926a" target="_blank">The Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Volumes 1 & 2</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=twocentpearls-20&l=am2&o=1&a=1506420753" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is the more academic version, clocking in at over 1500 pages. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074GJSPNZ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B074GJSPNZ&linkCode=as2&tag=twocentpearls-20&linkId=72f0899d901ae23619a3dae466ca9108" target="_blank">Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=twocentpearls-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B074GJSPNZ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is written for a more general audience. Both are very readable and wonderfully unstuffy. (I have copies of both and have been reading them again in parallel. #theologynerd) I found myself in tears often as my understanding of the goodness of God was stretched in all directions.<br />
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<td><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074GJSPNZ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B074GJSPNZ&linkCode=as2&tag=twocentpearls-20&linkId=5270d6d6c9f680c55721e1f640c3eb9a" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=B074GJSPNZ&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&tag=twocentpearls-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=twocentpearls-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B074GJSPNZ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></td>
<td><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1506420753/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1506420753&linkCode=as2&tag=twocentpearls-20&linkId=c8c7946cdda8b0659aaf1523e34ff316" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1506420753&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&tag=twocentpearls-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=twocentpearls-20&l=am2&o=1&a=1506420753" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></td>
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<i>So, how do you usually resolve your, 'Yes, but what about?' moments?</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Share below!</i></div>
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Click on the Soundcloud link below to listen to an original recording of this post - recorded in May 2017 at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DwellChurch/" target="_blank">Dwell Church</a> in Durban, South Africa.<br />
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/432530790&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%"></iframe>
<br />
The most certain way to make sure you get the next post in the series is to subscribe via email, second best would be to follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TwoCentPearls/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, but if you missed either of those, here it is: <a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.com/2018/06/what-about-old-testament-violence-part2.html">Part 2: How do we reconcile contradictory pictures of God?</a>Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-3699454233468625082018-02-12T02:44:00.000-08:002018-02-26T22:39:27.822-08:00Why Pray? Part 3: What about unanswered prayer?<h4>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ANif98tarHjsrG-SU76mAQ3C-5OroAl2-1iR1irKICAQUth07_jRFF8jB0dvv3Hpj9CxtOBD-7Itkdd9-ELCe038lbcDaIQEIZRoLOMbjjMxbDqN9X-a8AyvK3lufmKz-FQckwDOF2s/s1600/what+about+unanswered+prayer.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ANif98tarHjsrG-SU76mAQ3C-5OroAl2-1iR1irKICAQUth07_jRFF8jB0dvv3Hpj9CxtOBD-7Itkdd9-ELCe038lbcDaIQEIZRoLOMbjjMxbDqN9X-a8AyvK3lufmKz-FQckwDOF2s/s400/what+about+unanswered+prayer.png" width="266" /></a><span style="font-weight: normal;">If you've never had an unanswered prayer then I think it would be safe to say you've never prayed for anything. </span></h4>
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And I'm pretty certain that in experiencing unanswered prayer, you've had moments of wondering why you prayed anyway. <b>Did God even hear?</b><br />
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From <a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.com/2018/01/why-pray-part-i-what-difference-does-it.html" target="_blank">Part 1: What difference does it make?</a> & <a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.com/2018/02/why-pray-part-2-does-god-change-his-mind.html" target="_blank">Part 2: Does God change his mind?</a> of our 'Why Pray?' series, <b>I'm hoping you've come to the point of agreeing that our prayers can and do make an actual (rather than imagined) difference</b> in how things are. But what about that time when you prayed for that thing? <b>You had faith and you knew it was God's will, but nothing happened. What do we do with unanswered prayer?</b><br />
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From experience, we know that <b>when we pray for something, it’s not an automatic guarantee that it will happen. As much as the statement is pretty self evident, I feel like a bad Christian for saying it. </b>But we all experience unanswered prayer, even when we pray in faith and in accordance with God’s will.<br />
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But it is precisely <b>because we assume God's will and our faith are the only two variables at play that we make life difficult.</b> There are many more variables than only those two. (Inspired by Greg Boyd <a href="http://reknew.org/2014/07/what-hinders-answers-to-prayer/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://reknew.org/2014/04/why-do-some-prayers-go-unanswered/" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfULiXjhq6goygfsTqbF3ePecMfQ-xSbQ3n6fXq_sIeOK1Wc90OIMe2WyZ4pnhk2dPd29q3jg5SfuRGzTrIAjNf-eJZUdtmeZ-wb_eP9qWMictWHbbi9VunZZwJgLQvDlSgrWxzWICz4c/s1600/Deposit+prayerWithdraw+everything%2521+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfULiXjhq6goygfsTqbF3ePecMfQ-xSbQ3n6fXq_sIeOK1Wc90OIMe2WyZ4pnhk2dPd29q3jg5SfuRGzTrIAjNf-eJZUdtmeZ-wb_eP9qWMictWHbbi9VunZZwJgLQvDlSgrWxzWICz4c/s320/Deposit+prayerWithdraw+everything%2521+%25281%2529.png" width="320" /></a>The reason it’s hard to say that is because <b>we love the idea of deposits and withdrawals</b>. In that sense <b>we’re legalists at heart: Do this and you’ll be blessed, do that and you’ll be cursed. </b>Simple. Easy. It's this for that and it works.<br />
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<h4>
<b>But that's not how it works.</b></h4>
<b><br /></b>
<b>It cheapens the relationship that God invites us into. He isn't a genie and our wish is not his command.</b><br />
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<b>When things don’t go our way we generally default to one or more of the following: possibly God doesn’t want to best for us, or he doesn’t have the power to make it happen, or we don't have enough faith.</b> But that view omits all other variables, like the fact that we have an enemy. <b>Unanswered prayer also doesn’t negate that God is all powerful </b>- he has all power. But this is how he chooses to govern on earth. <b>He values free will so highly that he’s happy to let this much ride on our free will and the free will of angelic beings. </b>That to me is an incredible gift that God has given us that we can have so much influence.<br />
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The Bible does seem to say that sometimes persistence may be required when we pray - and I struggled with that for a while. I felt like I was begging.<br />
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<h4>
<b>If I'm a daughter, why do I need to beg?</b></h4>
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Like fasting -<b> I always had a suspicion that fasting was like a hunger strike. If I fast for long enough, then God's just going to have to do what I want.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6vXOyN9L814ovSKShW8_Tfnyn8rhToNPHtYUH86lNWAvxcQc09NQHVf0IjEJ_FVatcWRFZgEwM1zSltpsoxS_gwoezNYcMiIkIYaIoUAnhzPBLdVF-rNm759hW224GTFT2zhxzlgk4M/s1600/If+I+fast+for+long+enough%252C+then+God%2527s+just+going+to+have+to+do+what+I+ask..png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6vXOyN9L814ovSKShW8_Tfnyn8rhToNPHtYUH86lNWAvxcQc09NQHVf0IjEJ_FVatcWRFZgEwM1zSltpsoxS_gwoezNYcMiIkIYaIoUAnhzPBLdVF-rNm759hW224GTFT2zhxzlgk4M/s320/If+I+fast+for+long+enough%252C+then+God%2527s+just+going+to+have+to+do+what+I+ask..png" width="213" /></a>I was uneasy, because this view <b>assumes that God isn't generous in bringing about the greatest good, that we care more about his will being done than he does, and we need to manipulate him for things to happen</b> and secondly, it again assumes that God's will and our faith are the only variables at play.<br />
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Jesus nonetheless encourages persistent prayer. What’s up with that?<br />
<b>Sometimes we need to persist in prayer because there are forces that resist us.</b><br />
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<h4>
<b>We are at war. </b></h4>
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I would describe myself as a pacifist on the whole. <b>But we know that 'we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies</b>, but against evil rulers and aut<b>we are not at coming at this from a losing position</b>, because 'He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.' (Col 2:15)<br />
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horities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places' (Eph 6:12) and <br />
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We engage in warfare from a place of victory and 'the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.' (2 Co 10:4) <b>So why does the Bible speak of us being in a place of victory but also at war? It's part of the dual nature of Christianity that I mentioned in the <a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.co.za/2018/02/why-pray-part-2-does-god-change-his-mind.html" target="_blank">last post</a>. </b>There are still obstacles to be overcome - our defeated enemy still attempts some last gasp skirmishes - and that forms one of the variables that affects whether our prayers are answered or not.<br />
<br />
<b>So, fallen angelic beings can be obstacles to prayer being answered. </b><br />
<br />
In Daniel 10 we see an account where a heavenly messenger appears to Daniel. He tells Daniel that <b>he had been dispatched immediately when Daniel had prayed 21 days earlier, but was resisted by the [spirit] Prince of Persia </b>and was only able to get there after all because the archangel Michael had come to his aid.<br />
<br />
<b>It’s not that Daniel’s faith only kicked in at 21 days, it’s not that God’s will only kicked in at 21 days.</b><br />
<b>There were forces that opposed them.</b><br />
<br />
I understand that in the New Covenant we have greater authority than under the Old Covenant, but nonetheless there is still this impact. <b>Jesus had to deal with demons during his time of ministry. He dealt with them by God's authority but he still had to deal with them, as did the early disciples.</b><br />
<br />
Even now with the Holy Spirit we have forces that oppose us, that resist the kingdom of God, and aim to thwart the will of God in our lives. <b>So if God gives us a heart for something we keep praying for that thing until it happens or until that conviction is removed, but we keep going</b> - because we can’t see always what is happening in the heavenlies, but God can.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdPDfB-xAn7rUZ_n0YF4rObwQj5-bp84IdmYgp6wd_VdH3qGVWrZEFubiQkpXmoh1sDVXly1bgykBYJNZ6Q6gTb8PITr8IKDWvJy3iyb2bsNdhMCnvvqrKNly0pAS-0iugfOnfK_th0E/s1600/we+love+the+idea+of+deposits+and+withdrawals.+In+that+sense+we%25E2%2580%2599re+legalists+at+heart_+Do+this+and+you%25E2%2580%2599ll+be+blessed%252C+do+that+and+you%25E2%2580%2599ll+be+cursed.+Simple.+Easy.+It%2527s+this+for+that+and+it+works.But+that%2527s+not+how+it+w.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdPDfB-xAn7rUZ_n0YF4rObwQj5-bp84IdmYgp6wd_VdH3qGVWrZEFubiQkpXmoh1sDVXly1bgykBYJNZ6Q6gTb8PITr8IKDWvJy3iyb2bsNdhMCnvvqrKNly0pAS-0iugfOnfK_th0E/s400/we+love+the+idea+of+deposits+and+withdrawals.+In+that+sense+we%25E2%2580%2599re+legalists+at+heart_+Do+this+and+you%25E2%2580%2599ll+be+blessed%252C+do+that+and+you%25E2%2580%2599ll+be+cursed.+Simple.+Easy.+It%2527s+this+for+that+and+it+works.But+that%2527s+not+how+it+w.png" width="266" /></a><b>One other factor, among a few others, is the free will of other people.</b> God can and does influence people, but doesn't coerce them. <b>He values free will insanely highly. </b>So sometimes people's free will decisions will interact with our answers to prayer.<br />
<br />
There have been times where we've been struggling financially, and I remember thinking, <b>'I wonder who is not listening to God. </b>I'm sure somewhere God is telling someone to help us out with some cash or a better job or a car or something, but they're just not exercising their free will in the right direction.'<br />
<br />
So I’m not going to blame God for this, I’m going to blame the person who’s not listening to what God is telling them to do. Maybe that will help you when you're struggling, but <b>maybe it will also encourage you when God is asking you to help someone - maybe he wants to use you as the vehicle for provision and blessing in someone's life!</b><br />
<br />
What is tragic, is that so much of the suffering on earth is the result of people’s free will actions. It’s tempting to ask, is it really worth it God? <b>This free will thing: It’s hurting me. It's hurting us. Is it really worth it?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<h4>
<b>His answer is a resounding YES.</b> </h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
God believes it’s worth it for us to have free will, for us to have agency. Without free will, without actual choices that have actual consequences, there’s no possibility of love. Love requires free will. If I don’t <i>choose </i>to love God’s then it’s not love. <b>If I act in a loving way: if I serve him and I worship him, but I never chose it, if I never had the option to do otherwise, then it’s not love. </b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFusTAp9ThGRwT84Hg37DFhT72qZST8k-CvfkRAB7yt1DjW_LZRC9abreANaifEmKAgHfIV-X0FcP0Zt07dFzom7RCC3hsmJo0G3Tji9cQ5ATPUltt2_vRlfrFcA939GEj_FocJsdNePc/s1600/prayer+is+not+magic.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFusTAp9ThGRwT84Hg37DFhT72qZST8k-CvfkRAB7yt1DjW_LZRC9abreANaifEmKAgHfIV-X0FcP0Zt07dFzom7RCC3hsmJo0G3Tji9cQ5ATPUltt2_vRlfrFcA939GEj_FocJsdNePc/s400/prayer+is+not+magic.png" width="266" /></a><b>He values love, he values relationship so highly that he allows us free will even though we can use that free will for good or for bad.</b> With Jesus we have an even greater capacity to use our free will for good. When we make decisions for good they have even greater impact than they could have had before the cross. He is willing to take a risk on giving us free will because he knows that even though we have a capacity for evil, it is only because we have free will that we have any capacity for goodness.<br />
<br />
There are other reasons for unanswered prayer - some listed <a href="http://reknew.org/2014/04/why-do-some-prayers-go-unanswered/" target="_blank">here</a> - but I think the examples above are enough to prove that our faith and God's will are not the only two variables at play. <b>But, we can always rest in the knowledge that God works all things together for the good of those who love him. </b>(Romans 8:29) <b>It doesn't say that what happened is necessarily good, but God can take the worst, most seeming irredeemable situation and bring something so beautiful out of it, that one might be forgiven for assuming that he planned it that way all along. </b><br />
<br />
Going back to the idea that prayer is not magic - often we see God as an input output machine, like a bank teller. <b>You put in your prayer and your church attendance and your tithe and your good deeds and ta da! - health, wealth, prosperity, comfort, rainbows, dolphins and sunflowers are yours forevermore.</b> We get this idea that because we did everything right, I’m entitled to a life of comfort. When we get upset with God that’s our attitude - I did what you said and you owe me and why is it not happening like that.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxkuFMD1DRnB3sEMFqmW6nYlqJn6Ngj3pMEwDmaO0YkebX-WOlNRsSyQVlfFSFXW_oRFBQkqjx-LxTI4H4QT2gR6Qt9mWu4t8amD1lXVJ7eEYtdhQvbv3plyODBMS1wbEdF0K1TduFAoE/s1600/You+put+in+your+prayer+and+your+church+attendance+and+your+tithe+and+your+good+deeds+and+ta+da%2521+-+health%252C+wealth%252C+prosperity%252C+comfort%252C+rainbows%252C+dolphins+and+sunflowers+are+yours+forevermore..png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxkuFMD1DRnB3sEMFqmW6nYlqJn6Ngj3pMEwDmaO0YkebX-WOlNRsSyQVlfFSFXW_oRFBQkqjx-LxTI4H4QT2gR6Qt9mWu4t8amD1lXVJ7eEYtdhQvbv3plyODBMS1wbEdF0K1TduFAoE/s320/You+put+in+your+prayer+and+your+church+attendance+and+your+tithe+and+your+good+deeds+and+ta+da%2521+-+health%252C+wealth%252C+prosperity%252C+comfort%252C+rainbows%252C+dolphins+and+sunflowers+are+yours+forevermore..png" width="213" /></a></div>
He wants us to live in freedom and health. I don’t doubt that. He wants us to live in a place of more-than-enough and all of those wonderful things, but <b>greater than any of those things is his desire for relationship.</b><br />
<br />
<b>I don’t know if any of you remember the Prayer of Jabez back in the day - coffee mugs, devotionals, bible covers, fridge magnets - you name it, it was everywhere.</b><br />
<br />
It came from 1 Chronicles 4:10:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.'</blockquote>
</blockquote>
My theory is that someone thought this verse would make a good prayer, so they prayed it and something good happened and then <b>all of a sudden, everyone needs to pray the Prayer of Jabez three times a day and abracadabra you'll never have pain and always be blessed.</b> You can solve all your life problems by praying the Prayer of Jabez.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7PJ7gko4LfjisJven3A-F5yHEqxQkrbpEY33G1Aba_GITlezYGJSODUBoG8o7NzsRNy3eUVD3zZ85TxoWYTuxJlxPpekaClgIksUWlwuWbnE8eNDbUraoWRA1MfX4DJw-tSBtdyyETlA/s1600/JabezJunk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="273" data-original-width="400" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7PJ7gko4LfjisJven3A-F5yHEqxQkrbpEY33G1Aba_GITlezYGJSODUBoG8o7NzsRNy3eUVD3zZ85TxoWYTuxJlxPpekaClgIksUWlwuWbnE8eNDbUraoWRA1MfX4DJw-tSBtdyyETlA/s320/JabezJunk.jpg" width="320" /></a><b>And maybe that's even true. But I feel its an impoverished view of what we are invited into. We love that kind of thing because it makes it easy. Relationships are hard. </b>They take time and effort and vulnerability and reciprocity. If we could just pray the Prayer of Jabez 20 times, say 20 Hail Marys, 50 Lord's Prayers and get what we want, who needs all that messy relationship stuff anyway?<br />
<br />
<b>Then there's <i>The Secret</i> that’s not so secret anymore </b>since they sold so many million copies and loads of related merchandise. It's based around the idea of the <b>Law of Attraction</b> (capital L and capital A) which is purported to be a 'natural law' (like gravity) in which <b>your thoughts become feelings, which radiate from you into the universe causing the universe to vibrate at the same level, cause you to attract what you are thinking</b>. If you think about sickness, you will attract sickness, if you think about wealth, you'll attract wealth.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqTVj903IpzRwNllhCezVE41RX-CXLUfNeOmYV3LI5UW913FUMEe8AurhUpMw_onFRNAVneCHL6mr4TpXREfBO_PK7m8ILPZ3HCQwoPfva_kPs-z9Tb0_elIY-mEB8eIan4b_lHNqPODY/s1600/The+secret+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqTVj903IpzRwNllhCezVE41RX-CXLUfNeOmYV3LI5UW913FUMEe8AurhUpMw_onFRNAVneCHL6mr4TpXREfBO_PK7m8ILPZ3HCQwoPfva_kPs-z9Tb0_elIY-mEB8eIan4b_lHNqPODY/s320/The+secret+01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Um, No.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>I've seen how this idea has been attractive to many Christians - believe and you'll receive. 'Whatever you ask for in my name' and all that.</b> I could write pages on this stuff, and I might, <b>but essentially the Law of Attraction collapses under the weight of real evil in the world. The young child sold into a human trafficking ring - she must have attracted that to herself. Like for real?</b><br />
<br />
No, I'm not taking it out of context. <b><i>The Secret</i> teaches that there is no such thing as coincidence or accident - we are always getting what we deserve, what we ourselves attracted.</b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjbPp2wkSB_W_nCH83mU2slZpZYTpkVv6agKqNFwANdXoXD3eMG-nCQZMfBYo39iy4mOlf3o5Tu97AZBokupW9n5eKmHnfLto7AjmmsbtS7NDvoAAxt8bRlSXMS1w43jxK7Bk0DG8YyA/s1600/we+attract+what+we+believe+we+deserve.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjbPp2wkSB_W_nCH83mU2slZpZYTpkVv6agKqNFwANdXoXD3eMG-nCQZMfBYo39iy4mOlf3o5Tu97AZBokupW9n5eKmHnfLto7AjmmsbtS7NDvoAAxt8bRlSXMS1w43jxK7Bk0DG8YyA/s320/we+attract+what+we+believe+we+deserve.png" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still Nope.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>And if it doesn't work out how you wanted it, you obviously weren't thinking about it just right. </b>Or maybe someone else was attracting it to themselves stronger than you were. <b>While it has helped some people be more optimistic and feel happier with life, and dwelling on good things can be good for us, Christians are honestly doing themselves a great disservice by going anywhere near something like 'The Secret'.</b><br />
<br />
While I'm at it, <b>I detest all those emails and Facebook posts and Whatsapp chain messages</b> telling you to share or post or like or else. <b>It makes God into a genie and prayer into magic:</b> light this candle, say this prayer, burn this incense and you’ll get your job back or be blessed or not die.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<b>That’s not God. That’s superstition.</b></h4>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioSSXsBkj464vyaZSkSf2Izqq-MB-JzbiwCRMJ70D0I85dDnPI6Fybs-esCoLDUxXNKNb_edV2ZcwerooVMd7tUffiz1hwugoK6bkuu5femCXZkZCb3wxkgUmipRjt6tkiYJZKpBVVzuM/s1600/Your+chain+messages+die+with+me..png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioSSXsBkj464vyaZSkSf2Izqq-MB-JzbiwCRMJ70D0I85dDnPI6Fybs-esCoLDUxXNKNb_edV2ZcwerooVMd7tUffiz1hwugoK6bkuu5femCXZkZCb3wxkgUmipRjt6tkiYJZKpBVVzuM/s320/Your+chain+messages+die+with+me..png" width="320" /></a><b>God calls us into relationship - a dynamic, living vital relationship. We’re not trying to twist God’s arm and neither are we his puppets. Prayer is not an abstract manipulation tool. He calls us to co-labour with him, to work with him to accomplish what he’s doing on earth - primarily in the context of a relationship.</b><br />
<br />
So even though we can mentally acknowledge the various reasons why our prayers go unanswered, it doesn't address the real heartache that we experience when things do go wrong and real suffering is experienced. <b>The very human response is to ask why, often so we can assign blame.</b><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9iPXeS3CfFBkUDPigZxDA6pLhQE75qrngCTbteXZEu3iksIyzao2VtdXaSkb1g5BgpPmnjqxlaLhRaHj0QtU6hY40pWhk76WtH-oqf2BYKgcehqqB9mE3s4GCujQppe7dp7dEVkE0m2g/s1600/why+is+my+prayer+not+answered.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9iPXeS3CfFBkUDPigZxDA6pLhQE75qrngCTbteXZEu3iksIyzao2VtdXaSkb1g5BgpPmnjqxlaLhRaHj0QtU6hY40pWhk76WtH-oqf2BYKgcehqqB9mE3s4GCujQppe7dp7dEVkE0m2g/s320/why+is+my+prayer+not+answered.png" width="320" /></a><b>Even if we only take free will into account, we have no way of knowing the intricacies and effects of every single free will decision ever made, by humans or angels, fallen or otherwise.</b> I don't know if it is possible for us to ever know why, not because God is vindictively mysterious, but because the answer is more complex than we could ever comprehend. Sometimes we need to live with the fact that we don't know why some are answered and some not, but <b>we can always affirm that God is good and always loving, because that is how he revealed himself on the cross.</b><br />
<br />
In conclusion,<br />
<b>Prayer is important.</b><b><br /></b><b>Prayer makes a difference.</b><b><br /></b><b>God loves you.</b><b><br /></b><b>More than anything else he wants you in relationship with him.</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>That marks the end of our 'Why Pray?' series. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Feel free to engage or ask questions by commenting below - I love hearing from you!</i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><i>If this touched you or made you think, please share with 10 people within the next 5 minutes... </i></i></div>
<i>
</i>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Just joking. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Rather, feel free to exercise your (uncoerced) free will to share this post with people you feel may be interested in reading it. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Or not. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>It's your choice.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>It's also your choice to subscribe to future posts by making use of the 'Subscribe by Email' box. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>I'm trusting you choose well. </i>;-)<br />
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><i><b>You can listen to all three parts of the series as an audio teaching using the link below:</b></i></span></span><br />
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/405831234&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%"></iframe>
Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-66419460549110613432018-02-02T08:10:00.002-08:002018-02-26T22:39:01.089-08:00Why Pray? Part 2: Does God change his mind?<br />
<h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo7AAWNfVFscaWcSjeG0et6tIOh96OG_y3nUF6lgHVVAMfOM6e9t77KWsKMocbWcs64dEgnc-OKVHt3Ej7SvZRT4zJCQRSRqIXGIdyB8if9nR5mfWJAkT4GZYEPiS5dnGPCFwihNBydJw/s1600/If+it%2527s+written+in+the+stars+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo7AAWNfVFscaWcSjeG0et6tIOh96OG_y3nUF6lgHVVAMfOM6e9t77KWsKMocbWcs64dEgnc-OKVHt3Ej7SvZRT4zJCQRSRqIXGIdyB8if9nR5mfWJAkT4GZYEPiS5dnGPCFwihNBydJw/s400/If+it%2527s+written+in+the+stars+%25281%2529.png" width="266" /></a>
Does God change his mind?</h3>
<h3>
If not, then why pray?</h3>
<i><br /></i>
<i>(Make sure you read </i><a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.co.za/2018/01/why-pray-part-i-what-difference-does-it.html" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Why pray? Part I: What difference does it make?</a><i> for context!)</i><br />
<br />
One of the keys to understanding the purpose of prayer is making peace with the '<b>Done' and the 'Doing', the 'Being' and the 'Becoming'</b> nature of the Christian faith. There’s the f<b>inished work of the cross where, to some extent his kingdom <i>has</i> come</b>, but he wants to complete the expression of that through us. This duality seems to be crux of the whole thing. ('Scuse the pun.)<br />
<br />
<b>Now while I find the idea that 'prayer changes us, not God' rather unsatisfactory, (Apologies to C. S. Lewis!) I'm not saying that prayer doesn't change us. </b>Acknowledging our dependence on God on a regular basis can only be good for us, <b>but that's not the primary purpose of prayer.</b><br />
<br />
Still, something about the idea that prayer only changes us just didn't ring true, and when I actually checked my Bible, wonder of wonders,<b> I found my suspicions confirmed.</b><br />
<br />
<b>In fact, it seems like the whole Bible narrative is stitched together by God responding the the prayers of his people.</b><br />
<br />
Some examples...<br />
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At one point the Isaraelites had been getting up to no good, not unusual. This specific incident occured just after they had left Egypt.<b> People were extorting money from each other, oppressing the poor, essentially slipping away from what God had called them to.</b> So God says to Moses in Numbers 14:12-20<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<sup>12</sup> I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you [Moses] into a nation greater and mightier than they are!”<br />
<sup>13</sup> But Moses objected. “What will the Egyptians think when they hear about it?” he asked the LORD. “They know full well the power you displayed in rescuing your people from Egypt. <sup>14</sup> Now if you destroy them, the Egyptians will send a report to the inhabitants of this land, who have already heard that you live among your people. ... <sup>15</sup> Now if you slaughter all these people with a single blow, the nations that have heard of your fame will say, <sup>16</sup> ‘The LORD was not able to bring them into the land he swore to give them, so he killed them in the wilderness.’<br />
<sup>17</sup> “Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed.</blockquote>
<b>I’m not sure I’d be quite so bold as to pray that kind of prayer, but seeing as he isn't incincerated yet, he continues...</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For you said, <sup>18</sup> ‘The LORD is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. ...’ <sup>19</sup> In keeping with your magnificent, unfailing love, please pardon the sins of this people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”<br />
<sup>20</sup> Then the LORD said, “I will pardon them as you have requested.</blockquote>
Moses is quite bold in his response, but, <b>somewhat surprisingly, God acquiesces: 'I will pardon them as you have requested.'</b><br />
<b>Not, 'I will pardon them because that was what I going to do anyway.'</b><br />
He actually says, 'I will pardon them as you have requested' - because of your request, I will pardon them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ-GsqH7nnfqy5zu1thWvqCFfyRSiEaqO-GzzdUvAICGjzzvp9mDGOugVzoKozrqu3kUxqWC5tssUWreeGLViWhK-cNKDd5HL_7Wn8hXpS-IWo3YUvUkrwt1EnGwhAucF3NwnLkpJmZAw/s1600/CAN+god+change+his+mind_.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ-GsqH7nnfqy5zu1thWvqCFfyRSiEaqO-GzzdUvAICGjzzvp9mDGOugVzoKozrqu3kUxqWC5tssUWreeGLViWhK-cNKDd5HL_7Wn8hXpS-IWo3YUvUkrwt1EnGwhAucF3NwnLkpJmZAw/s400/CAN+god+change+his+mind_.png" width="266" /></a>There are other examples where Moses cries out on behalf of the people and <b>God appears to change his mind. </b>And the same with David. It's a scary thing to say, I know. <b>People get very stressed when we observe God changing his mind, because we have this idea that changing one's mind suggest inconsistency,</b> but we see it in scripture so we’ve got to find a way to figure this out.<br />
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Another example: God tells Elijah that because King Ahab humbled himself, he (God) wouldn’t destroy King Ahab’s dynasty in his generation as he promised to do - he actually says ‘I promised’ but because KingAhab humbled himself I won’t don’t it.<br />
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Because of King Ahab's response, God changed his mind as to what he was going to do. <b>If God had intended that outcome all along, then he was lying when he said he had changed his mind, or he actually does change his mind and King Ahab's prayers actually did make a difference. </b>(1 Kings 29:21)<br />
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Then there's verse we’ve all seen on bible covers and mugs at the Bible shop - 2 Chronicles 7:14-15<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<sup>14</sup> ...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. <sup>15</sup> Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. </blockquote>
<b>Did you catch all those 'ifs' and 'thens'? </b>We see this 'if - then' pattern quite regularly in scripture. <b>God has given us this incredible gift called agency - our decisions do actually influence what happens on earth.</b><br />
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This also has a negative side - we see in Ezekiel 22:30<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<sup>30</sup> I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.</blockquote>
<b>God relies on our prayers to get things done - and just as things change for the good when we do pray and act, so things change (or stay the same) in a way that is contrary to God's will when we don't pray.</b><br />
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This illustrates to us again <b>the insane importance of prayer. It’s not just something we’ve made up to feel pious.</b> It’s the way God has chosen to govern this earth - by relying on our prayer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVUBFWdl76eiprE2l9tI4aZZlGuZbbb4Hoyf4l-1EEWdVYDEoxG_2GkDjz8iLH2xcoXu28IyL8ymI2LIclmWmZv_LmRAik0xXwzCdb2eOvVGxOCjYqJ5ygNcJcNFJtEqu39imisRVE_CU/s1600/cooperate+in+prayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVUBFWdl76eiprE2l9tI4aZZlGuZbbb4Hoyf4l-1EEWdVYDEoxG_2GkDjz8iLH2xcoXu28IyL8ymI2LIclmWmZv_LmRAik0xXwzCdb2eOvVGxOCjYqJ5ygNcJcNFJtEqu39imisRVE_CU/s400/cooperate+in+prayer.jpg" width="400" /></a>It’s a difficult thing to say,<b> 'God needs our prayers,' especially when God's own name is Yahweh: 'I am', the self-existent one who needs nothing</b>. But there is a difference between something needed for existence and other kinds of needs. God needs nothing from us in order to continue existing, <b>but he has chosen that for his will to happen, our prayers are <i>required</i>, </b>which is maybe an easier word than <i>needed.</i><br />
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Also, <b>I see people start twitching when we talk about God changing his mind. </b>But even in Genesis 6 concerning the flood, the text says that <b>God repented of creating human beings</b> - which I understood as regret. This understandably raises some concerns as most churchgoers today see the idea of God changing his mind as totally inadmissable - and I think I know why.<br />
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Let's start with a teeny tiny philosophy lesson. The whole idea of change being bad comes from Greek philsophy, Plato specifically.<br />
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A friend went to study theology at a university that shall remain unnamed. At one of their first lectures, the lecturer starts by sayng, <b>‘God is perfect. Agreed?’ The first years nod their heads. The lecturer relates an instance where God seems to change his mind and asks, 'And if something perfect changes, what does it become?' The immediately obvious answer seems to be, 'Imperfect'.</b><br />
<b>Imperfect. God. What?</b><br />
You can see everyone blinking. Uh oh!<br />
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<b>Plato is credited with the idea that when something changes it can only change for better or for worse. Later theologians applied these ideas to Christianity: If God changes his mind and it is something better then he wasn’t perfect to start with, if he changes his mind to something worse, then he has become imperfect. Either way there is no option for God to change his mind.</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5IV7rj01FZvKJGl9xOR8dmiT4_u09gPyvQodkH5_7twyp6VDnVJZP-15HHrC9Ag9vYdAngM6zk65ucKw6_Hj-JtvuMbi_9Zdg2e79Dv5b5ueH0xehRQHv-J66HkvY2YLIstlE1dBzhnQ/s1600/Where+there+is+change+there+is+sequence+and+where+there+is+sequence+there+is+time.+If+God+is+unchangeable+then+he+experiences+history+as+a+timeless+unchangeable+%25E2%2580%2598now%25E2%2580%2599.+Everything+that+will+happen+is+already+eternally.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5IV7rj01FZvKJGl9xOR8dmiT4_u09gPyvQodkH5_7twyp6VDnVJZP-15HHrC9Ag9vYdAngM6zk65ucKw6_Hj-JtvuMbi_9Zdg2e79Dv5b5ueH0xehRQHv-J66HkvY2YLIstlE1dBzhnQ/s400/Where+there+is+change+there+is+sequence+and+where+there+is+sequence+there+is+time.+If+God+is+unchangeable+then+he+experiences+history+as+a+timeless+unchangeable+%25E2%2580%2598now%25E2%2580%2599.+Everything+that+will+happen+is+already+eternally.png" width="400" /></a><br />
Where there is change there is sequence and where there is sequence there is time.<br />
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<b>'If God is unchangeable then God experiences all of history and all of the future as a timeless unchangeable ‘now’. If everything that will happen is already eternally settled in his unchanging mind, why pray?'</b><br />
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<b>If nothing changes in his experience, if there’s no way I can genuinely interact with him. If it is all eternally settled and unchangeable, why pray?</b><br />
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<b>I don’t feel like I can have any response to that other than passivity.</b><br />
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<b>So before you panic - it's the underlying assumption all change is for better or for worse that is at the heart of the problem, and I want to say that I reject that assumption.</b><br />
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<b>Greek philosophy is not derived from the Bible but a lot of our Biblical interpretation is derived from Greek philosophy which is unfortunate.</b><br />
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But we need to remember that when we talk about God's changelessness, we're referring to his character. <b>He is always loving and always just and always good, but the precise way in which he chooses to express that can take many different forms, and, I believe, can change in response to our prayers.</b><br />
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<b>If I'm asking him to do something he wasn't already planning to do, surely it wasn't the best thing? But, we see in Scripture God accommodating and even inviting our input. As risky and ungodlike as it might sound, he invites us to engage with him and he responds to our engagement. </b>His character will never change and he'll never act contrary to his essence, but still he wants to give us say-so in our relationship with him.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUpXas8QS0gVvHvI28lJe0iKOg0xKKiC-4FOpXw50_gWIxLypDledyEcszxAtC8E9CsvrOaFBWjlz10out2v5Rn6WssVLfE7pVXLsF_hiAogxkulXYHUfZDCJiHqCgfOYNFCXPm8OzY3Q/s1600/ian-schneider-108618.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUpXas8QS0gVvHvI28lJe0iKOg0xKKiC-4FOpXw50_gWIxLypDledyEcszxAtC8E9CsvrOaFBWjlz10out2v5Rn6WssVLfE7pVXLsF_hiAogxkulXYHUfZDCJiHqCgfOYNFCXPm8OzY3Q/s400/ian-schneider-108618.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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It’s almost a bit like being married in community of property - you need a co-signee to do things like open a bank account. <b>God invites us as his bride, in community of property, to be his cosignee. </b>There’s things he wants to do for both of us, there’s things that he wants to accomplish, things that he wills, but he needs (requires?) our cosignature on it. <b>Without that second signature, without us aligning ourselves and agreeing to his will through prayer and action, he can’t do what what he wants to do.</b><br />
<h4>
That’s huge.</h4>
And quite sobering.<br />
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It made me realise how lightheartedly I’ve taken prayer, glibly declaring, ‘Let’s pray.’<br />
<b>God is restoring a sense of gravity to ‘let’s pray’. </b>We know that when we pray, something is going to change or happen ormove because he's chosen to assign that importance to prayer.<br />
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Having said all that, <b>I'm not sure getting things done is God’s primary purpose for prayer.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2tFGnaoMKarcBA-nC5FfhyKv4sBnAR7x0qSkSTSB-8tFh_WuYm6oFhKIgCCTz7xJSuByGsdbBVwREJAajzZf9amuZsKUzUDzhxQQ2cvhF1IRWZmzrMgts1spMZdRkCdOPR9yeSyAX6GQ/s1600/money-card-business-credit-card-50987.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2tFGnaoMKarcBA-nC5FfhyKv4sBnAR7x0qSkSTSB-8tFh_WuYm6oFhKIgCCTz7xJSuByGsdbBVwREJAajzZf9amuZsKUzUDzhxQQ2cvhF1IRWZmzrMgts1spMZdRkCdOPR9yeSyAX6GQ/s320/money-card-business-credit-card-50987.jpeg" width="320" /></a><b>I believe the primary purpose is to build relationship. It’s not just for us to get our needs met, like some kind of transactional thing. </b>He wants relationship with us because he loves us. He is so good. He wants to draw us in - he wants to engage with us.<br />
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<b>Otherwise this incredible gift of prayer, this intimate engagement and dynamic relationship is reduced to a transaction - the bank teller in the sky where you punch in the right numbers and put in your request and your wish is granted.</b><br />
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<b>Even with the risks, he’s chosen for us as the church, his bride, to rise up into our authority and co-reign with him.</b> It seems the most insane thing to say that we are called to co-reign with God - but it's right there in Revelation 5:20:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.</blockquote>
Some translations even say 'they reign' in place of 'they will reign'.<br />
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<b>I am continually in awe that he refers to us as co-laborers, co-rulers, even as a marriage partner - even though we sometimes act like employees or even beggars. We come primarily to get our basic needs met when God has called us into intimacy. Having said that, it is by no means a symmetrical relationship, but it is definitely a reciprocal one.</b><br />
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For there to be any real intimacy there has to be mutual influence, give and take, <b>like a dance where each impacts the other</b>, where we actually have some way of effecting change.<br />
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So prayer makes a difference, because God has chosen for that to be one of the methods to accomplish what he wants done on earth.<br />
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<b>But, prayer is not magic. When prayer works like magic, then we've lost the relationship again.</b><br />
<b>So why aren't all our prayers answered? More on that in Part 3.</b><br />
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<i>Do you feel the post answered the questions raised in <a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.co.za/2018/01/why-pray-part-i-what-difference-does-it.html" target="_blank">Part I: What difference does it make?</a></i></div>
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<i>Did you have any, 'Yes, but what about...?' moments? Please share below.<br />Share if you found it helpful!</i></div>
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<i>Subscribe by submitting your email address in the 'Follow by email' box so you don't miss <a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.com/2018/02/why-pray-part-3-what-about-unanswered.html" target="_blank">Part 3 - What about unanswered prayer?</a></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><i><b>You can listen to all three parts of the series as an audio teaching using the link below:</b></i></span></span>
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/405831234&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%"></iframe>
Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-74412723449802597412018-01-31T05:55:00.001-08:002020-10-24T21:47:25.562-07:00Why pray? Part 1: What difference does it make?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIygZ6YSSW281ua2oh3af8LR2sdgwteQ0tFBlyjTBE8_-b0wQ4lT088ToxIQeGE6sfni2IJd5J07bvntolwVQ5cnp59_yEyNlR39jOY9BPJcnaObQxnTHQ2F6seymc7NUaw3Gytb3ohQ/s1600/If+God+is+Good+%25281%2529.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="If God is Good, Why Pray?" border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIygZ6YSSW281ua2oh3af8LR2sdgwteQ0tFBlyjTBE8_-b0wQ4lT088ToxIQeGE6sfni2IJd5J07bvntolwVQ5cnp59_yEyNlR39jOY9BPJcnaObQxnTHQ2F6seymc7NUaw3Gytb3ohQ/s320/If+God+is+Good+%25281%2529.png" title="If God is Good, Why Pray?" width="213" /></a><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why Pray?</span></h2>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Does prayer change God? Or me? Or circumstances?</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>I get demotivated when I feel like what I’m doing isn’t making a difference. That’s probably why I really struggle with housework so much.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s also one of the main reasons I have a blog. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>No one can draw on it, no one can puke on it, no one can unpack it</b>, no one can do anything to it, it’s just there. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">U</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">nlike the laundry pile that never seems to reach its end. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not feeling like I was making a difference was part of the reason why <b>I really struggled with the whole idea of prayer for a while</b>. In short, why pray?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My logic was this: God is all good. So if he’s all good, he’s always doing everything he can to ensure the greatest good and the least evil. <b>So when I pray, what am I really doing? </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Am I trying to twist his arm to get him to do something he didn’t want to do in the first place? Who am I to think I know better than him? </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If he’s all good and he’s all wise and he didn’t already want to do that thing I’m asking him to do, and I’m still asking him to do it, then that’s a bit stupid. <b>It’s clearly not the best thing. </b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCE8MkAgNxlUneJ_zrfkWbQ_9HCt91z1j_66JjcH2DztjPWOXLAYWuiaRoSxUlMJ7HSp_qQNis1oeExBGpY0_GA5qZwdr-1B6lXuNo941wkJiQwzpAlMYlaYTDvDQOOMta6RBmp1f7sg/s1600/laundry.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRCE8MkAgNxlUneJ_zrfkWbQ_9HCt91z1j_66JjcH2DztjPWOXLAYWuiaRoSxUlMJ7HSp_qQNis1oeExBGpY0_GA5qZwdr-1B6lXuNo941wkJiQwzpAlMYlaYTDvDQOOMta6RBmp1f7sg/s320/laundry.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, if I’m only asking him to do what he already wants to do anyway, then why ask, why pray? <b>Surely he would do it, whether I pray or not, because that’s what he wants to do. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I give food to my kids without them needing to ask because that's what parents do. Being kids, they ask me for food anyway, but<b> I do have a plan to give them food on a daily basis. Genuine. A number of times a day even.</b> (Totally winning at parenting, I know)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If God is good then I assume he never refrains from doing the best thing. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So then why must I ask? <b>It’s not like he forgot and needs to be reminded. It’s not like he doesn’t know what I need. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If it isn’t good then hopefully he won’t give it to us even if we do ask. So what do we do?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Either way praying seemed pointless</b> - whether I was praying in accordance with God’s will or not, <b>I didn’t feel like my prayers made a difference</b> and that, like I said, demotivated me and sucked the life out of prayer for me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amidst all these questions, we have the Bible. In it we are commanded to pray; expected to pray. <b>Jesus says, "When you pray." Prayer is assumed.</b></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETSFpwYMlxeqQAhoA_Uc33flHSJBcO8Vb1NAFL6Ey2YXcs0f-dy-jDroyqPFNyyI4HzQv6uxTU1sNk06LmT113UuuAXE09UHO_zEcxll74v8ty2fopLvNy09qfZ8ScFetWwRXx8tzuAY/s1600/existential+crisis.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETSFpwYMlxeqQAhoA_Uc33flHSJBcO8Vb1NAFL6Ey2YXcs0f-dy-jDroyqPFNyyI4HzQv6uxTU1sNk06LmT113UuuAXE09UHO_zEcxll74v8ty2fopLvNy09qfZ8ScFetWwRXx8tzuAY/s320/existential+crisis.jpg" width="252" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>When I felt like there was no purpose to prayer other than to tick the prayer box, I trusted that there had to be a purpose. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some say God knew what he was going to do all along, and so <b>prayer doesn't change him, it is meant to change me. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Another possibility is that God merely lets us think that our prayers are being answered while doing what he intended to do all along</b> - he is just testing us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">He says that he is going to do X and unless we pray, when he’s actually intending to do Y all along. Then we pray, and he does Y and gets his desired outcome anyway. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But if he ends up doing what he was intending to do all along, then <b>did I really have a choice whether or not to pray?</b> And did my prayer actually make a difference? And if I did have a choice and I didn’t pray, then he wouldn’t get the outcome he wanted. It felt like a case of she knows that he knows that she knows that he knows and it’s all just a test or whatever. So that got my brain all stuck again.<b> </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>I remember driving home and thinking, “I just can’t do this. I can’t. It just doesn’t work. If this is how it’s going to be, I’m out.”</b></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLFsFxpJxCr3D7xhlx9zFunKwD_LFH-zh_Vejtydx7oycdVT-pnFcaBqb4gWXBzeMVrLcSIrR3pOP28HhUmoZKPriPieyDkvQfzppA-47RfaHMQmqRpwkId4Dhu1j4BMscYMeco5x-OeI/s1600/existential+crisis+2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="800" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLFsFxpJxCr3D7xhlx9zFunKwD_LFH-zh_Vejtydx7oycdVT-pnFcaBqb4gWXBzeMVrLcSIrR3pOP28HhUmoZKPriPieyDkvQfzppA-47RfaHMQmqRpwkId4Dhu1j4BMscYMeco5x-OeI/s320/existential+crisis+2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>I suppose you could call it a crisis of faith because it was a make or break moment for me.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The idea that God lets us think that our prayers make a difference, or that prayer is to change me, not to actually change the circumstance feels patronising and humiliating. To be told that something can make a difference, because that’s what the word tells us, but actually it doesn’t really make a difference, in actual real life - I couldn’t deal with that.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">t’s not that my theology is based on what I find acceptable about God’s character or not.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not as though I just chose to reject prayer because I wasn’t happy about it worked. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>I felt like this view of prayer only serves to diminish God’s relationship with us.</b> If we don’t genuinely have agency or some kind of say-so in our relationship, is it even worth it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">About</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the whole idea that prayer primarily changes us, it doesn’t actually change circumstances, my reply would be that <b>Jesus said to tell the mountain to move and it would move.</b> He didn’t say our attitude to the mountain would change, or our perception of the mountain would change, or that our feelings about the mountain would change, He said the mountain will move.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>He assures us that things change when we pray.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_P-4JhZPTYqXWvDO5-WexpTqNIxo26FcK0sm24lYOgtkMc81j-8V7LDTven5jUvGQK09-dFKlLHKoVtSSolJjI3EZZ7Z-PW954E2yJeFslXCrccu0FfCGU6pUFENaoACz0UBiBo0na9I/s1600/AlternativeMedicine.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_P-4JhZPTYqXWvDO5-WexpTqNIxo26FcK0sm24lYOgtkMc81j-8V7LDTven5jUvGQK09-dFKlLHKoVtSSolJjI3EZZ7Z-PW954E2yJeFslXCrccu0FfCGU6pUFENaoACz0UBiBo0na9I/s320/AlternativeMedicine.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">He also taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that we should pray that God’s will be done on earth: “Let your kingdom come, let your will be done.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">That would assume that there are elements on this earth that are not in line with God’s kingdom, that are not in line with God’s will - otherwise why would he command us, in his summary of how to pray, to ask for his will to be done and his kingdom to come?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>It only makes sense if there <i>are </i>some things that are not in line with his will and his kingdom and it’s our job to partner with him and pray those things into being. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>It only makes sense if it actually makes a difference. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>If it doesn’t make a difference, then why pray?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>To catch <a href="http://twocentpearls.blogspot.com/2018/02/why-pray-part-2-does-god-change-his-mind.html">Part 2: Does God change his mind?</a> where I find some real & satisfying answers to my questions, please do subscribe using the 'Follow by email' box! </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>I promise I don't post often enough to clog up your inbox, but at least you know you'll never miss a </i></span><i style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">post and you won't have to stew in your own existential crisis for too long...</i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have you ever asked these questions? </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">How did you feel about the answers you were given?</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><i>Did you have any, 'Yes, but what about...?' moments while reading? Please share in the comment section.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><i><b>You can listen to all three parts of the series as an audio teaching using the link below:</b></i></span></span></div>
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/405831234&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true" width="100%"></iframe>
Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-44517124648375515892016-01-06T04:51:00.002-08:002016-01-06T05:17:34.925-08:00Wells, Springs and Living Water....For my day job I had the opportunity to research wells and boreholes, which led me to start looking at the significance of wells in the Bible. <b>Before you close this browser tab</b>, let me say that I would probably have stopped reading right there too, but <b>I'm going to ask you to hang in there with me</b> - I got some really incredible revelations from this study and<b> I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I'm about to share.</b><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="undefined" class="mw-mmv-final-image mw-mmv-dialog-is-open" crossorigin="anonymous" height="240" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Water_well_types_wiki.svg/788px-Water_well_types_wiki.svg.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This image shows types of water wells.<br />
Dug wells like the one on the left are relatively easy to dig, <br />
but are also most seasonal and vulnerable to contamination. <br />
Wells that access the groundwater / underwater aquifers <br />
are least seasonal and least vulnerable to contamination, <br />
but are also hardest to dig.<br />
(<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Water_well_types_wiki.svg#/media/File:Water_well_types_wiki.svg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>In Bible times, and in rural areas today, wells and the water they provide are essential to life.</b> Aside from some of the water cuts we've had here in KwaZulu-Natal and intermittent droughts, for the most part we in the cities and urban areas have clean water readily available. This is not the experience for inhabitants of Biblical Palestine, and of course, for many South Africans today.<br />
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<b>In Biblical Palestine there were only two rivers of any significant size. Small streams were rare and usually seasonal and there were a few springs, but certainly not enough for the majority of the population to live near to one.</b> So you can imagine that wells were not just important, they were essential to life; so much so that it was assumed that if you owned the well, you owned the land around it. Owning land without a well or water source was rather pointless as water was necessary for crops, animals and of course, for people too.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="mw-mmv-final-image" crossorigin="anonymous" height="240" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Well_In_Kerala.JPG/2560px-Well_In_Kerala.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A dug well in Kerala, India. (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Well_In_Kerala.JPG#/media/File:Well_In_Kerala.JPG" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>)</td></tr>
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<b>Like many people today, finding, collecting and transporting all water required for drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing and irrigating was a daily reality for the people alive in Bible times. This process requires a large amount of time and energy every day.</b><br />
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<b>Besides this, actually building wells is quite a mucky and difficult job. </b>Often wells were only big enough for one, perhaps two people to be digging. They would send the dug out material up via buckets, and those at the top would send down stones to reinforce the walls of the well, depending on the substrate they were digging through. <b>You would essentially stop digging when the rate of water seeping in was faster than you could dig dirt out. It was dirty, dangerous and difficult. Alone in the dark, sometimes over 30-40m underground, with dust falling on you from above, clawing and chipping away at the dirt below - it was arduous but essential work.</b><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.clean-water-for-laymen.com/images/250xNxhanddigging.jpg.pagespeed.ic.QtlyTjxFBJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.clean-water-for-laymen.com/images/250xNxhanddigging.jpg.pagespeed.ic.QtlyTjxFBJ.jpg" data-pin-media="http://www.clean-water-for-laymen.com/images/handdigging.jpg" style="max-width: none;" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="http://www.clean-water-for-laymen.com/hand-dug-wells.html" target="_blank">Lifewater International</a></td></tr>
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As I was studying wells in the Bible, and the process of actually digging wells, <b>I came to see that even though they are so necessary, they are also very vulnerable.</b><br />
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<b>Water is such a precious, yet unpredictably finite resource, that it would be difficult to be generous with your well water.</b> Your well was part of your family's wealth, dug to supply the needs of your family first and foremost, often with little to spare.<br />
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<b>They were also vulnerable to collapsing or contamination </b>- if an animal fell into the well and died you would have a big problem on your hands. <b>They could also dry up or be vandalised. </b>We see stories of the Philistines filling in the wells that Abraham dug as a form of guerilla warfare. Alternatively, you could also fill in wells that would be passed by enemies on their way to you to effectively block their passage. <b>In order to maintain water supply and protect against siege tactics, many of the more established cities and settlements, like Jerusalem, had cisterns in which they would store water gather during rainy times. </b></div>
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So after that history lesson, <b>you can see how it would be very easy for me to move on to spiritual metaphors:</b><br />
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<ul>
<li><b>Make sure your spiritual wells are deep</b>; dig them as deep as you can, because the deeper the well, the purer and more plentiful and constant the water supply</li>
<li><b>We need to defend and guard our wells against contamination</b></li>
<li><b>We need to make sure our cisterns / water stores are not broken / badly maintained</b> so that when barren times come or enemies try to besiege us we have a plentiful supply</li>
</ul>
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<b>But, I think this would be doing you a disservice, because it seems to me that wells represent the Old Covenant way of doing things, where streams and springs represent the New Covenant... </b>I say this for a number of reasons:<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Wells represent human effort and cleverness – where springs represent God’s plentiful provision. </b>Even once the work of digging the well is over, getting that water out involves significant muscle power. With a spring, the effort is more in trying to channel the flow – there is no effort needed to get that water going!</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="File:Leather bucket of a well.jpg" data-file-height="1521" data-file-width="2281" height="266" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Leather_bucket_of_a_well.jpg/800px-Leather_bucket_of_a_well.jpg" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Leather_bucket_of_a_well.jpg/1200px-Leather_bucket_of_a_well.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Leather_bucket_of_a_well.jpg/1599px-Leather_bucket_of_a_well.jpg 2x" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leather_bucket_of_a_well.jpg#/media/File:Leather_bucket_of_a_well.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>)</td></tr>
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The Hebrew word for 'well' is '<i>beer</i>' where the word for 'spring' is '<i>en</i>'. <i>Beer</i> has implications of boring down, finding, moving towards the water, where '<i>en</i>' literally means 'eye' with the inference of 'springing up' - to me that's a picture of the grace poured out towards us in the New Covenant. <b>No longer are we trying to access God's provision of salvation through our own efforts, but through the incarnation, Jesus comes towards us to bring us living water.</b><br />
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<b>Speaking of Jesus, I’d like to propose that it’s not just me that thinks that wells represent the Old Covenant – when I read about Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 - I have the feeling Jesus felt the same way.</b> This is one of my favourite accounts within the gospels for a number of reasons – and I could spend hours talking about this story – but for today let’s dig a bit deeper...<br />
(Sorry, couldn't help it.)<br />
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Let's read the account:</div>
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<b>John 4:4-30</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhULRUgzLvCNQS12QjPlA9aWrWlo9sfNuiq84me5ll-LeTnAj4MFZqzQBHR1VsrwHq6xaF_FY_bdEz3R371Jo8NgnVzBScX4Wxr1FW8GCRLvaShMuZdKEurRGuBLesC89avh3XXnlZX4uE/s1600/Living+Water+nourishes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhULRUgzLvCNQS12QjPlA9aWrWlo9sfNuiq84me5ll-LeTnAj4MFZqzQBHR1VsrwHq6xaF_FY_bdEz3R371Jo8NgnVzBScX4Wxr1FW8GCRLvaShMuZdKEurRGuBLesC89avh3XXnlZX4uE/s320/Living+Water+nourishes.jpg" width="320" /></a><sup>4</sup>And he had to pass through Samaria. <sup>5 </sup>So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. <sup>6</sup> Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.</blockquote>
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<b>Keep in mind, this is the only actual well mentioned in the New Testament.</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<sup>7</sup> A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." <sup>8</sup> (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) <sup>9</sup> The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)</blockquote>
<b>So what was up with the Jews and the Samaritans anyway?</b> Quick history lesson: When Saul was crowned the first king of Israel, he ruled over all 12 tribes, as did David and Solomon after him. However, after Solomon died, there was a split in the kingdom. The 10 northern tribes - Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulon formed the Kingdom of Israel, and their capital was the city of Samaria. The 2 other tribes - Judah and Benjamin - formed the Kingdom of Judah with its capital at Jerusalem.<br />
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<b>The 10 Northern tribes started worshiping idols </b>- immediately after the division, Jeroboam changed the worship of the Israelites in 1 Kings 12:25-33. <b>No longer did the inhabitants of the north travel to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice and worship</b> (cf Deuteronomy 12:5-14). Instead, Jeroboam set up idols in Dan and Bethel. This was destroyed by Assyrians in 722BC – with whom the people intermarried - so Samaritans were seen as sellouts: he people of God who rejected temple worship and intermarried with other nations.<br />
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<sup>10</sup> Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."</blockquote>
<b>Now we have our own ideas about what this term 'living water' means, largely derived from this passage. But it would have had a different yet specific meaning for this woman at the well. At the very least, 'living water' was flowing water - fresh and cool - as opposed to water that was still or stored.</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Living water flows!</td></tr>
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<sup>11</sup> The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? <sup>12 </sup>Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock."</blockquote>
Traditionally the enmity between Jews and Samaritans was so bad that they couldn't share the same cup - hence the comment about having nothing to draw water with. <b>The woman talks about how this well was provided by Jacob, but Jesus dismisses it as inferior to what he provides.</b> <b>Now Jesus is offering an alternative - himself. He is the fulfillment of the promies.</b><br />
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<sup>13</sup> Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, <sup>14</sup> but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."</blockquote>
<b>The law, the Old Covenant, is never enough to provide for eternal life. Every year a new sacrifice must be made. Every day a new supply must be drawn. With Jesus, the promise is that the law will be written on our hearts, and that we will have a source of living water within ourselves - a spring, a constant flow, not a well that we have to draw from. </b><br />
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<sup>15</sup> The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."</blockquote>
<b>This lady has a sense of humour. She knows he is speaking figuratively but takes him literally. I can't wait to meet her one day!</b><br />
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<sup>16 </sup>Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." </blockquote>
<b>In true Jesus fashion, he doesn't answer the question / request directly - but answers the question behind the question - he addresses the source of her shame.</b><br />
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<sup>17</sup> The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; <sup>18</sup> for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." <sup>19</sup> The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.</blockquote>
<b>Smart lady! She changes the topic and compliments him - 'I can see you are a smart guy!' and continues by acknowledging his discussion of spiritual topics:</b><br />
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<sup>20</sup> Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." <sup>21</sup> Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.</blockquote>
<b>Again, he offers an alternative source of life to that based on the system of temple sacrifices, and emphasizes that it won't be replaced by any alternative system of sacrifice or idol worship as the Samaritans practise - in other words - 'Neither of your religious systems will work.'</b><br />
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<sup>22 </sup>You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. <sup>23</sup> But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. <sup>24</sup> God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." <sup>25</sup> The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." <sup>26</sup> Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." <sup>27</sup> Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" <sup>28</sup> So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, <sup>29</sup> "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" <sup>30</sup> They went out of the town and were coming to him. </blockquote>
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<b>I think it is significant here that the text mentions she leaves her water jar.</b> It's as if the revelation that she won't be needing her own well water anymore has sunk in and she knows that she will have springs of living water flowing from within her - she will never be thirsty again.</div>
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<b>The idea of springs and living water representing something of the abundance of God's salvation is not a new one in scripture - here are some scriptures from the Old Testament - and you can see they are almost all written in future tense.</b></div>
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<b>Psalms 36:8-9</b> They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.<br />
<b>Psalms 87:7</b> Then those who sing as well as those who play the flutes shall say, "All my springs of joy are in you."<br />
<b>Isaiah 12:3</b> Therefore you will joyously draw water From the springs of salvation.<br />
<b>Isaiah 41:18</b> I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.<br />
<b>Isaiah 49:10</b> "They will not hunger or thirst, Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead them And will guide them to springs of water.<br />
<b>Isaiah 55:1</b> "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.<br />
<b>Jeremiah 2:13</b> "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.<br />
<b>Zechariah 14:8</b> And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.<br />
<b>Ezekiel 47</b> – Describes water flowing from the temple.
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<b>Joel 3:18</b> And in that day The mountains will drip with sweet wine, And the hills will flow with milk, And all the brooks of Judah will flow with water; And a spring will go out from the house of the LORD To water the valley of Shittim.</blockquote>
<b>The scriptures from Jeremiah and Zechariah and Ezekiel are quite interesting, considering that underneath Jerusalem there are massive cisterns designed to store water collected during the winter rainy season to supply the city during the dry summer season.</b> This water became quite brackish and nearly undrinkable toward the end of the summer season as it was 'still' water, not flowing, or 'living' water. Living water flowing out of Jerusalem, from the temple, would have been a miraculous sight!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Streams of living water will flow from you...</td></tr>
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So for Jesus to promise streams of living water, flowing from redeemed individuals, united as the new temple of the Holy Spirit under the New Covenant, he is describing the fulfillment of these scriptures.<br />
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<b>The story of John 4 is quite pivotal as he announces this part of his master plan for the first time - to a Samaritan woman of all people - and goes on to reiterate it later on in John's account:</b></div>
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<b>John 6:35 </b> Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.<br />
<b>John 7:37</b> On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.<br />
<b>John 7:38</b> Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"<br />
<b>John 7:39</b> Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.</blockquote>
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And then later in the book of Revelation as well:</div>
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<b>Revelation 7:17 </b>for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.</blockquote>
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<b>Revelation 21:6</b> Then He said to me, "It is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.<br />
<b>Revelation 22:17</b> The Spirit and the bride say, "Come " And let the one who hears say, "Come " And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Living Water Brings LIFE!</td></tr>
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<b>What does living water look like?</b><br />
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<b>In my understanding, you can see when someone is accessing that living water when they bring life to situations rather than drawing life out of them. </b>Like I said earlier, it is difficult to be generous with well water, you have to get it up and out of the well, the amount you can draw depends largely on your own effort, but with springs of living water, your only responsibility is to direct the flow. If I get my primary sense of value and affirmation from things and people other than Jesus, I can easily fall into the trap of getting my life from them too, but when drawing my life from Jesus, when I allow those streams of living water to flow, then I bring life into those situations and into my relationships.<br />
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<b>Living water also refers to the power of the Holy Spirit - as indicated by John 7:39. When I am accessing living water I am allowing the Holy Spirit's power to flow through me and to energise everything that I do.</b> I choose not to rely on my own wells and my broken cisterns, but to accept his moment by moment, life giving flow through my life into the lives of others. <b>When I am not accessing the Holy Spirit's power, I am accessing my own finite resources, making it difficult for me to be radically generous with those resources.</b></div>
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<i>I hope you found that interesting. If you found anything unclear or thought I left anything out, please comment below! I'd love to hear from you. </i></blockquote>
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Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-37853030574395873682015-07-26T07:18:00.000-07:002018-11-20T12:01:31.410-08:00The Pearl of Great Price - What is it? or rather, Who is it?<b>In Matthew 13:44-46 you'll find two quick little parallel parables - the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl of great price. </b>The titles are almost as long as the parables themselves!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">via </span><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pearls_wwalas_2.jpg#/media/File:Pearls_wwalas_2.jpg" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
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Let's read:<br />
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<sup>44</sup> The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.<br />
<sup>45</sup> Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. <sup>46</sup> When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.</blockquote>
So this is the part where the preacher normally says something about how this kingdom, this treasure, this salvation is so very valuable! <b>We should diligently seek salvation and when we find it we sell everything we have, we give everything we value, we even give our whole lives to keep it. And that pearl of great price, that's Jesus, and when we find him, we do whatever it takes to have him in our hearts.</b><br />
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<b>Selling everything you have, giving everything precious to you, giving your life for the kingdom, that's the best investment you can make - that is how you gain this treasure, this pearl of great price.</b><br />
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Then I might ask you - What is the kingdom worth to you? What is your salvation worth to you? Does your life reflect that? <b>And then you feel guilty about all the stuff you haven't sold yet, and we all go home for lunch.</b><br />
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<b>Somehow that interpretation never did ring true, but I've only once ever heard this parable taught differently. That one time changed everything.</b><br />
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<b>I believe that the common understanding of this parable has things all backwards. </b>Sinners don't naturally seek Christ - Jesus draws men to himself and he is the one who seeks and saves those who are lost. <b>We have nothing of value to contribute to our salvation.</b> There is nothing we could possibly exchange to obtain Christ. Our salvation is a free gift.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CC <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/djsik/5001059180/" target="_blank">Image</a> courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/djsik/" target="_blank">Alex Valavanis</a> on Flickr</td></tr>
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<b>So what is it then?</b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b>We need to ask ourselves a few questions here, starting with: Who is speaking? To whom are they speaking?</b><br />
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Well, that's an easy one - We know it is Jesus speaking, and he is speaking, it seems from the context, to the twelve disciples.<br />
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<b>So then, who is the 'man' in these parables? What is the treasure? Why a pearl?</b><br />
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<b>In short, I propose that in these two parables Jesus is addressing the Jews as his treasure and the Gentiles as his pearl.</b><br />
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In all of the parables just before this one, the main protagonist in each one represents Jesus - he is the sower of seed, the baker of bread, the planter of the mustard seed and the wise wheat farmer - so why would it change for two parables where the listener becomes the man who finds the treasure hidden in the field or the merchant who finds the pearl of great price?<br />
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No, I propose that one key to understanding these verses is to see the man and the merchant in these parables as Jesus.<br />
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<b>So that answers that question - but what about the hidden treasure and the pearl?</b><br />
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Jesus was Jewish and all of his disciples were Jewish, so looking at what a Jewish person would have understood about a treasure in a field, and about a costly pearl would certainly be helpful!<br />
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<b>Let's start with the treasure...</b><br />
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His disciples were all Torah observant Jews in that they would have been highly familiar with what we know as the first five books of the Old Testament - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.<br />
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In Exodus 19:5, and Deuteronomy 7:6 (also Deut 14:2 & Deut 26:18), <b>God says about the Hebrew people that he has chosen them as a special treasure.</b> And Psalms 135:4 states<b> 'The Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his special treasure.'</b><br />
<b><br /></b> Jacob - who was later named Israel - was the father of the twelve men who would be the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. In other words, Jacob, and by implication, all his descendants, would be the special treasure of the Lord.<br />
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<b>In contrast to this, it is doubtful whether the word 'pearl' appears anywhere in the Old Testament - </b>there are some words that are sometimes translated as 'pearl' - but any one of them could as easily be translated as another word, like ruby or red coral or something else (<a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11971-pearl">Ref.</a>).<br />
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<b>What we do know is that pearls come from oysters and if we're going to be technical, other bivalve molluscs too, and molluscs, in general, were considered unclean according to Jewish law:</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<sup>9</sup> ...Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. <sup>10</sup> But anything in the seas or the rivers that does not have fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you. <sup>11</sup> You shall regard them as detestable; you shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall detest their carcasses. <sup>12</sup> Everything in the waters that does not have fins and scales is detestable to you. - Leviticus 11:9-12</blockquote>
Their value was acknowledged by Jews who could recognise that pearls fetched a high price in the marketplace, but pearls still had the undesirable trait of coming from an unclean animal. No Jew would be willing to harvest pearls, considering that one would have to go through a couple of thousand of their 'detestable carcasses' to get just a few pearls.<br />
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At that time, the most costly pearls came from regions outside of Israel - specifically the Persian Gulf - about 1700km away across a mountain range and a large desert.<br />
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<b>So they may have understood the first of the two parables, but why then did Jesus tell a bunch of Jewish men that the kingdom of heaven was like a merchant who sold everything he had to buy a pearl?</b><br />
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<b>Let's recap - we have a number of scriptures where God says that he chooses Israel as his 'peculiar' or special treasure. This is the only time that I can find where a specific group of people is referred to as a treasure.</b><br />
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<b>Then in the same breath, as a parallel parable, he talks about pearls - something unclean and foreign. So what else would be considered unclean and foreign to Jews? Gentiles perhaps?</b><br />
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In case that word is foreign to you, a Gentile is anyone who isn't a Jew.<br />
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<b>I propose that Jesus is saying that this group of people - unclean and foreign - these Gentiles - that's you and me, are his pearl of great price!</b><br />
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Isn't that amazing? You and I, we are the pearl of great price that Jesus redeemed by giving everything he had...<br />
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<b>If that offends you, I understand - it offended me too...</b> I was so wrapped up in my efforts to give everything I had to gain the kingdom, that the idea that he paid the ultimate price, rendering my efforts ineffective and pointless, was rather offensive.<br />
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<b>You</b><br />
<b>Me</b><br />
<b>I am</b><br />
<b>We are</b><br />
<b>The pearl of great price</b><br />
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If saying 'I am the pearl of great price' is difficult for you, take heart, it gets easier every time.<br />
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<b>Just that on its own blows my mind, but if we know a little more about pearls it gets even better</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPg4i-f02I51pylLd2BgndL6CvOb5WXUmWYgqPLsfhYHrhiKmuZxuMKIrfoK-UEjHDOPe_eMp0FbjmqltqyxcEkgldTBDnd9jCzii3d6NJ6HQnD27fhBpxl723G-nHqQ4LRt1sEbt3Qok/s1600/4878250278_37b703332f_o.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPg4i-f02I51pylLd2BgndL6CvOb5WXUmWYgqPLsfhYHrhiKmuZxuMKIrfoK-UEjHDOPe_eMp0FbjmqltqyxcEkgldTBDnd9jCzii3d6NJ6HQnD27fhBpxl723G-nHqQ4LRt1sEbt3Qok/s320/4878250278_37b703332f_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: start;">CC </span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/giffordclan/4878250278/" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">Image</a><span style="text-align: start;"> courtesy of </span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/giffordclan" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">Behan</a></span></td></tr>
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An oyster shell is really not much to look at. I've heard someone say that the first person to open an oyster shell must have been mightily hungry! It's not something one would generally do without good reason.<br />
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We have evidence that people of the ancient world ate oysters, not Jews of course, but others. <b>Can you imagine the first time someone opened an oyster and found not only the odd-looking flesh but a pearl too? What a surprise! What a treasure!</b><br />
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<b>And so it must have been somewhat confusing for the Jewish people that God would bring such a treasure from such an unlikely and unclean animal. And so it is with us - the Gentiles. It took quite some doing for the early church to realise that Jesus'' message was not only for them but the whole world, that God intended to include everyone in his plan, not only his chosen people.</b> But, he chose the Israelite nation to be the vessel by which he brought forth salvation - but not only for that nation but for the nations of the world.<br />
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Pearls and Amber are the only gemstones produced by living creatures. Amber is fossilized tree resin and <b>pearls are formed when a foreign material somehow manages to get under the mantle of an oyster </b>or other such creature. It's like when you have a label in your shirt causing an itch - you can't just leave it.<br />
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<b>In the case of the oyster, it responds to the itch by coating the offending object in layers of something called nacre</b> - that same substance that you see inside a mother of pearl shell. Nacre is translucent and each coat forms another translucent layer - with layer upon layer being added until it becomes a pearl as we know it.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrfaNMN33HwaUOimLQQMkitQ-rdxIZNXOdnpUi1ncjSrApg__y7-5wUddnSTKyDGuBrB5vB6gzQU50sn-f8p19nxP7VOPt894yrQjQWlLN7YLAQITYQWEEwDepoNstnK48qBhzQWhnCTo/s1600/Pearl-oister_hg.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrfaNMN33HwaUOimLQQMkitQ-rdxIZNXOdnpUi1ncjSrApg__y7-5wUddnSTKyDGuBrB5vB6gzQU50sn-f8p19nxP7VOPt894yrQjQWlLN7YLAQITYQWEEwDepoNstnK48qBhzQWhnCTo/s320/Pearl-oister_hg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pearl-oister_hg.jpg#/media/File:Pearl-oister_hg.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
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<b>Part of the particular beauty of a pearl is that we can't do anything to improve them. </b>Precious stones have to be extracted from the earth and then worked and cut and polished for them to look good - <b>it takes a lot of work for a diamond to look like a diamond. But pearls come ready formed. </b>Human intervention cannot improve their lustre and brilliance and we certainly cannot reproduce it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmPO94GcSgm8s19WB9U99jrQ67VX0Hb46P2GosMmRuAKB-pxwbaGJB3bpC7wDgGfa3SQjNHokhc1kiDaPu2GUhNL5GTkvLUQRcdNrbc0tL4vnw8q9Eel7cVNLmGBS5stfYJHId61x3pE/s1600/8274677604_3b1c000235_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgmPO94GcSgm8s19WB9U99jrQ67VX0Hb46P2GosMmRuAKB-pxwbaGJB3bpC7wDgGfa3SQjNHokhc1kiDaPu2GUhNL5GTkvLUQRcdNrbc0tL4vnw8q9Eel7cVNLmGBS5stfYJHId61x3pE/s320/8274677604_3b1c000235_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">CC <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/curious_e/8274677604/" target="_blank">Image</a> courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/curious_e/" target="_blank">Michael Davis-Burchat</a> <br />on Flickr</span></span></td></tr>
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<b>This is such a beautiful picture of the completeness of our salvation - it is finished! It is done!</b> We are a new creation, holy and righteous, clothed in pure, radiant white. There is nothing we can do to 'improve' or 'add to' or 'work at' our salvation. 'Work out' perhaps, but certainly not 'work at'.<br />
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<b>Furthermore, pearls are formed in the dark, in secret, and the oyster usually dies when the pearl is extracted. </b>This reminds me of salvation and baptism. In baptism we are buried with him; we accept that we were in Christ in his death. in him we also rise from that death - this kernel of suffering he coats with layers and layers of himself, of his own substance. <b>In his death and his rising, his beautiful pearl is revealed - ready to reflect his light.</b><br />
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<b>Speaking of light, pearls are genuinely radiant. </b>Light enters the pearl and bounces between the layers of nacre, and if you want to get scientific about it, the optical axis of each aragonite crystal that makes up the nacre is at right angles to its surface, from which I understand that light reflects outward in all directions.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><br /></b><b>So, how is it that something formed in darkness seems made for light?</b></blockquote>
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<b>It's as if God takes suffering and coats it in layers and layers of glory until it is wholly unrecognisable and transformed into something utterly beautiful, something that mirrors his glory.</b> I love how this is a picture of how God can take the worst situation and really truly work it for the good of those who loved him. He doesn't just coat the grain of sand in one layer of himself, just to hide it, but keeps adding glory upon glory, layer upon layer, until the glory outweighs the suffering by many orders of magnitude - and it becomes a thing of great value and dignity.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfzRM9xa80Gm6p68SmE3CvqQCK2W5te2v12o_vzbUJDO8TzK8yVfFj9O5Lsw_kmbcRr986bL8BFfBJ7wZKAXdy7IBW2mV_lO_1pECwINzim26jy_dOwugMftB4DsQVBlDl9z6645QHgYo/s1600/4345752808_0b09e03cdf_o.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfzRM9xa80Gm6p68SmE3CvqQCK2W5te2v12o_vzbUJDO8TzK8yVfFj9O5Lsw_kmbcRr986bL8BFfBJ7wZKAXdy7IBW2mV_lO_1pECwINzim26jy_dOwugMftB4DsQVBlDl9z6645QHgYo/s320/4345752808_0b09e03cdf_o.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CC <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrpbps/4345752808/" target="_blank">Image</a> courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrpbps/" target="_blank">mrpbps</a> on Flickr</td></tr>
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<b>It's also a picture of how Jesus took on flesh to bring forth his kingdom. </b>We were bought with a price (1 Co 6:20 & 1 Co 7:23) and that price was his life. He gave himself for us to purify us. (Titus 2:14) He made us partakers in the inheritance of the saints in light, delivered from darkness into light and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. (Col 1:12-14)<br />
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<b>Just a side note - you may have heard that the lustre of pearls is improved when worn</b> - this is because pearls are formed in a waterlogged environment. They can dry out if the environment is dry enough - so being on the wearer's skin exposes them to perspiration which helps to keep them hydrated and not crack. Feel free to make of that little factoid what you will! Hydration is important!<br />
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In closing, in Revelation 21 we read about the New Jerusalem, the holy city. <b>This city has twelve gates - with each individual gate made of one pearl.</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<sup>9</sup> Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” <sup>10</sup> And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, <sup>11</sup> having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. <sup>12</sup><b> It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed</b>— <sup>13</sup> on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. <sup>14</sup> <b>And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. </b>- Revelation 21:9-14 (emphasis added)</blockquote>
The angel gives measurements and speaks of the various stones representing the 12 tribes and continues...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<sup>21</sup> <b>And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl</b>, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. ... <sup>25</sup> and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. <sup>26</sup> They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. <sup>27</sup> But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. - Revelation 21:21, 25-27</blockquote>
<b>Number 12 is believed to be significant as it is the product of 3 and 4. </b>Three represents divinity - the Trinity - and 4 represents the earthly - the four points of the compass. Multiply the two numbers and you have the number of God's divine order on earth. Here it shows the perfection and completeness of the new heaven and the new earth.<br />
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So we have 12 foundation stones with the names of the apostles on them - which inevitably reminds one of Ephesians 2:20 which states 'we are being built as a holy temple, on the foundations of the apostles and prophets.'<br />
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Then there are the twelve gates with twelve angels. Verse 21 tells us that each gate was made of a single pearl - hence the term pearly gates - but what is astonishing is that each of these gates has the name of one the tribes of Israel on it, anyone entering the holy city will have to walk through a gate made of pearl. This also takes me back to Ephesians 2:11-22<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<sup>11</sup> Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— <sup>12</sup> remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. <sup>13</sup><b> But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. </b><sup>14</sup> <b>For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility </b><sup>15</sup> <b>by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, </b><sup>16</sup> <b>and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. </b><sup>17</sup> <b>And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.</b> <sup>18</sup> <b>For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.</b> <sup>19</sup> So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, <sup>20</sup> built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, <sup>21</sup> in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. <sup>22</sup> In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.</blockquote>
<b>In his body, he has reconciled us to God, by covering us in his own substance to give us a whole new nature. </b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhonXc-baPxoOCsG29c0VVSM7xbWsRoDSQvyilRv8FsPMNduE_jLkKzS-Bwyp6XHXI_RyMV5FYoO205AdbRI5ixzFqbIb7aUCO3vobu7mQynb2tVv20lgKLMdmIweA8lbW-hECPth3zU5M/s1600/18659116353_87bcc2de0e_o-AA.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhonXc-baPxoOCsG29c0VVSM7xbWsRoDSQvyilRv8FsPMNduE_jLkKzS-Bwyp6XHXI_RyMV5FYoO205AdbRI5ixzFqbIb7aUCO3vobu7mQynb2tVv20lgKLMdmIweA8lbW-hECPth3zU5M/s320/18659116353_87bcc2de0e_o-AA.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CC <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jev55/18659116353/" target="_blank">Image</a> courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jev55/" target="_blank">jev55</a></td></tr>
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<b> </b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You are, I am, We are the pearl of great price that he gave everything to gain.<br />
Our salvation is that ready made gem that cannot be improved by human hands.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Let that sink in.</blockquote>
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</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He takes our suffering and coats it in layers of himself.<br />
He gives us his perfect righteous nature and reconciles us to himself and to each other in his body.<br />
He clothes us in pure white, radiant with his glory. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>You are, I am, we are the pearl of great price.</b></blockquote>
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<i>Any thoughts you would like to share? Please do comment below. Every comment is appreciated.</i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>Also, if you enjoyed this and you feel someone else could benefit from reading it, please do share it with them by using one of the share buttons below. </i><br />
<br />Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-3976097848650353502015-04-28T10:20:00.002-07:002015-04-29T04:15:58.320-07:00YOLO + FOMO = HECK NO!<b>YOLO </b>- You-Only-Live-Once - and <b>FOMO </b>- Fear-Of-Missing-Out - annoying acronyms often used to justify reckless, if not downright dangerous actions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8JSLQL0W-NJbrg_NWR4fcHv3T51bnQ1W_3ZhaFBr2QaYMFTTfxWBrVv7ifmZJ2PUCxmAsrRvUg2NYkR5aZ22pIBRDG2HBkEkJxtGQGWx0NWoCiIFeWbdbMErrRgs4GoA9tFEUmnnW4UY/s1600/yolo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8JSLQL0W-NJbrg_NWR4fcHv3T51bnQ1W_3ZhaFBr2QaYMFTTfxWBrVv7ifmZJ2PUCxmAsrRvUg2NYkR5aZ22pIBRDG2HBkEkJxtGQGWx0NWoCiIFeWbdbMErrRgs4GoA9tFEUmnnW4UY/s1600/yolo.jpg" height="78" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jack Black on 'YOLO'</td></tr>
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Growed ups like me tend to get all judgy on the young 'uns for taking 'living in the moment' a little too far, but actually<b> I think many of us are guilty of much the same thing. We just don't have a trendy hashtag to advertise it! Instead, we have burnout, fatigue, heart attacks and depression.</b><br />
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<b>Many Christians aren't much better</b> - they have their own version of YOLO:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEDfr0ToP66OWHJxOME_aoIxHXvpg4jP3iUwQng8qxdGyCHrVfumCUDhBV7kXGU_HAQH-McFk3X79OO9o-LYH4zbXDTU9rdYR-qVF3iTtuhvn4QzXrCiRxM4m8jSrzNNikic6dd0o0Amg/s1600/I+can+do+all+things+through+christ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEDfr0ToP66OWHJxOME_aoIxHXvpg4jP3iUwQng8qxdGyCHrVfumCUDhBV7kXGU_HAQH-McFk3X79OO9o-LYH4zbXDTU9rdYR-qVF3iTtuhvn4QzXrCiRxM4m8jSrzNNikic6dd0o0Amg/s1600/I+can+do+all+things+through+christ.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.polyvore.com/can_do_all_things_through/thing?.embedder=0&.svc=copypaste&id=12290042" style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px;" target="_blank">I Can Do All Things Through Christ <br />Vinyl Wall Quote</a><span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px;"> (from </span><a href="http://www.polyvore.com/" style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px;" target="_blank">polyvore.com</a><span style="font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">)</span></td></tr>
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They translate 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' as<b> 'Let me pack on more stuff because doing more good stuff makes me a better Christian</b> and I'll feel guilty if I don't do it'<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi09PNRnYt-4rChJIwuNhOVLKOT5uXr-GI-Kx3EwS1Mr1UGqRX6UGyclg0PdSG3Qmdfasdvxt6LtOlkR-imRrYTuuMd6Slu0aNfjz0Es_SFAHXZlnJI7e0z-itRljDIw-ZMrRP47XCqHsA/s1600/photo-1423882503395-8571951e45cc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi09PNRnYt-4rChJIwuNhOVLKOT5uXr-GI-Kx3EwS1Mr1UGqRX6UGyclg0PdSG3Qmdfasdvxt6LtOlkR-imRrYTuuMd6Slu0aNfjz0Es_SFAHXZlnJI7e0z-itRljDIw-ZMrRP47XCqHsA/s1600/photo-1423882503395-8571951e45cc.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsUhD3NjQ8iefY8PnRThd08d0rib2CO1XoyjCzZ9YgHf670umEoZUHrsjKN34uJ-n2sAA_XItyic7cq54xwLTu_ocjATF680TqPy_IvAVUc7fKofWGYOy8iJrvdva4K73LUnTH-3E7cXw/s1600/512px-Stopwatch_A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><b>I was that person who would secretly enjoy it when people said they just didn't know how I did it all. </b>I was also secretly proud of the fact that I was so very honest and authentic when I told them I cried at least once a week as my form of stress relief.<br />
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<b>I used to have this sneaking suspicion that I was really just lazy and if I only managed my time better or took this or that supplement I really would be able to do it all.</b><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;"><b>That was until my body started showing signs of what 'doing it all' was doing to me.</b> My body chemistry was totally out of whack from crazy sleep patterns, erratic eating habits and rollercoaster emotional rides - mostly because of a very bad combination of YOLO and FOMO. <b>That and the idea that I kind of owed it to the world to do the stuff I was good at. All of it. All the time.</b></span><br />
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By the time I realised that things had to change, I was in an already stressful job situation, and I realised I was taking responsibility for situations I had no authority to change.<b> Responsibility without authority is demoralizing. I was totally overwhelmed.</b><br />
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<b>For my health, for my sanity, for my marriage and for my kids, I resigned from that job and took a job in a totally new field, with a big drop in salary, but with a better potential earning capacity and in pretty much every other area in my life I wiped the slate clean - and over the course of a few months I just withdrew from everything except work and my family and weekly church gatherings.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHlul90uiW2YnBAsDyKlGuXnPg3oa19lx-FGTpqAmJWjU843Z-ZnQeM8tTE7KznZPl5v0fuTaR-ssaWIb62ddTOoXqA5qowSjiloEj9z98bMzCJqUhQwLlrzm3c-JgQ2i32AqOZBrE5CQ/s1600/DeathtoStock_Medium9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHlul90uiW2YnBAsDyKlGuXnPg3oa19lx-FGTpqAmJWjU843Z-ZnQeM8tTE7KznZPl5v0fuTaR-ssaWIb62ddTOoXqA5qowSjiloEj9z98bMzCJqUhQwLlrzm3c-JgQ2i32AqOZBrE5CQ/s1600/DeathtoStock_Medium9.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>It was hard. In many ways it felt like I was dying inside; especially when things I had been involved in carried on perfectly well without me.</b> Maybe it was the part of me that got life from being indispensable that was dying.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf02tXlC53K_2ztAf53oxpVw-KHQU2XJh3B-8Bdt8uKI-HRF9Snzxxgbv6S0A2Jw26ZBBuCxiFBTNB_BwV8c1LTp59mLtynNPzxUmztG_z_oG2__A-7wqDOS4omqkMpB9wEbJw9kv6j1o/s1600/photo-1429371527702-1bfdc0eeea7d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf02tXlC53K_2ztAf53oxpVw-KHQU2XJh3B-8Bdt8uKI-HRF9Snzxxgbv6S0A2Jw26ZBBuCxiFBTNB_BwV8c1LTp59mLtynNPzxUmztG_z_oG2__A-7wqDOS4omqkMpB9wEbJw9kv6j1o/s1600/photo-1429371527702-1bfdc0eeea7d.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a><b>But once I got over that, I felt like a new person! Such freedom!</b> I was able to spend more time with my family and <b>learn how to enjoy my kids again because I wasn't always functioning at my limit. </b>I was able to look at where I could best apply my energy and I discovered some activities I never thought I would enjoy as much as I do - like vegetable gardening for example. <b>I also learnt that I didn't have to feel guilty for lying down to read a book or doing something 'unproductive'.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha1fFJ138r1d1lPPIb9gBIBnqi2BdA8TeBSZYBZvxPrbV9iWMJ6qmSwpJQMp6wdxEMMvBcF9sPvYK9z15jYAx6CZSndo-hSOwvTod21ZN_4A6cH09AP_0J5UaUz5wAlb7ZVgqsX7d5n94/s1600/photo-1422433555807-2559a27433bd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a><b>When I say no to things that aren't heading in the direction I'm going in, then it empowers me to say yes to things that will advance me personally and professionally. It opens up space for real yesses.</b><br />
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Some things that helped me on this journey:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha1fFJ138r1d1lPPIb9gBIBnqi2BdA8TeBSZYBZvxPrbV9iWMJ6qmSwpJQMp6wdxEMMvBcF9sPvYK9z15jYAx6CZSndo-hSOwvTod21ZN_4A6cH09AP_0J5UaUz5wAlb7ZVgqsX7d5n94/s1600/photo-1422433555807-2559a27433bd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha1fFJ138r1d1lPPIb9gBIBnqi2BdA8TeBSZYBZvxPrbV9iWMJ6qmSwpJQMp6wdxEMMvBcF9sPvYK9z15jYAx6CZSndo-hSOwvTod21ZN_4A6cH09AP_0J5UaUz5wAlb7ZVgqsX7d5n94/s1600/photo-1422433555807-2559a27433bd.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a><br />
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<li><b>Read the season</b> - There are things I am good at and many more things I am passionate about, but I am learning to read the seasons. <b>There are some things I carry in my heart daily, keeping the flame alive, but I know they will only come to fruition another time</b>, and even then I carry them lightly and I choose to walk day by day with Jesus - watching for the nuances of the journey he is taking me on. </li>
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<li><b>Good enough is the new perfect </b>- <b>I have been known, in moments of arrogance, to say that I'm not competitive, I'm just always the best, or first, or whatever. </b>Yeah. I really did have that thought. This is a whole blog post on its own. But I've stopped beating myself up or agonising over my 'failures' if something isn't quite on target or absolutely up to the (usually impossible) standard I have set myself. </li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_jL-zBgm0XARWzPGYYMoL5Se_JrvKB33CuH1njrzHlz5m43DHJE9Fn0Hf_DulNCS6ZijP6K0WoEQ6uV-JoM6-3cWOcCzGBRp35LsBHnTLO5eJ6Gm3TK1qbqKkbh5RzZo7SgKCCTE8wk/s1600/photo-1427348693976-99e4aca06bb9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg_jL-zBgm0XARWzPGYYMoL5Se_JrvKB33CuH1njrzHlz5m43DHJE9Fn0Hf_DulNCS6ZijP6K0WoEQ6uV-JoM6-3cWOcCzGBRp35LsBHnTLO5eJ6Gm3TK1qbqKkbh5RzZo7SgKCCTE8wk/s1600/photo-1427348693976-99e4aca06bb9.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a>
<li><b>Find non-violent ways of establishing boundaries</b> - I have been looking at <b>non-violent communication</b> and it really has helped me to find ways of making potential conflict situations into constructive moments. Still learning though!</li>
<li><b>Just be where you are </b>- When I was at work I would feel guilty about not being with my girls and when I was with my girls I would feel guilty about the work I had to finish and so I was less productive and didn't enjoy either activity. <b>Just be where you are.</b></li>
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<li><b>You will always disappoint someone</b> - <b>Not having people disappointed in you is not a measure of success.</b> There will always be someone whose expectations you didn't quite meet - but often you get to choose who that is. And sometimes there is nothing you can do to prevent disappointing someone. Just get over it. <b>It helps me to remember that my Abba absolutely adores me and is always pleased with me - who else matters really?</b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<li><b>I don't have to do it just because I'm good at it </b>- I met someone who was spectacularly good at a number of things in different fields, but chose to forego greater financial gain and follow his passion. <b>I don't have to make sure everyone knows all the things I'm capable of all the time. </b>I was good at teaching ballet - I danced for over 25 years, and I enjoyed teaching. But it didn't ignite my waking hours. <b>I know that many people don't have the luxury of choosing their passion over what they have to do to make a living, but I had it and I seized it. </b></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii3pqa5kNWplmTXJlHEgcqIcZq5hbKWnQUYo6Dliy_GaM3LFAr3Mx1dgx0s8Oy6byypkJykycOthhbTQJUBZ-KcHJwxMJpSlisTu8kiQ_TiFUobZdRkaAtNvKfpHrbepRWZ-dCGLp6xmA/s1600/photo-1416400453940-65c69d70ad91.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii3pqa5kNWplmTXJlHEgcqIcZq5hbKWnQUYo6Dliy_GaM3LFAr3Mx1dgx0s8Oy6byypkJykycOthhbTQJUBZ-KcHJwxMJpSlisTu8kiQ_TiFUobZdRkaAtNvKfpHrbepRWZ-dCGLp6xmA/s1600/photo-1416400453940-65c69d70ad91.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a>
<li><b>I figured out what my deepest priorities are</b> - <b>And I saw how decisions I was making were moving me away from living my deepest priorities and putting me in situations where my values were compromised. </b>I made the choice to get out. I had some idea of what captivates me at my core, and so I started making decisions that would move me towards those goals.</li>
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<li><b>A great team</b> - <b>I had a great functional medicine practitioner who helped me see what my decisions were doing to me</b>, and friends who encouraged me as I made changes, even ones that inconvenienced them, because <b>great friends always want the best for you! </b>Most of all <b>I am so grateful for a wonderful husband who sees us as a team</b>, working together to fulfill both our destinies and meet both our needs. You may be blessed with a great team - or you may have to find it. Do what it takes to get a team, and then, be on someone else's team in helping them achieve what they are designed to do.</li>
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<li><b>Limits are ok</b> - Some limits need to be shattered, while others need to be respected. Deciding which is which is the hard part! <b>Limits are not always the enemy, sometimes they are your friend.</b></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR90VM_uYNGZgoXKl_h9QvVM9Mlxh5aXVwPKW3ojNie17PejvWJ9lt6mP0mANyOd5o7FN3rIt9fkOJSa0atKN-ZbxigxvMAnfrEa1u-MeAVWEwxnibosU8ivO0lEsUktUTr_dYEdlnBpo/s1600/512px-Tightrope_walking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR90VM_uYNGZgoXKl_h9QvVM9Mlxh5aXVwPKW3ojNie17PejvWJ9lt6mP0mANyOd5o7FN3rIt9fkOJSa0atKN-ZbxigxvMAnfrEa1u-MeAVWEwxnibosU8ivO0lEsUktUTr_dYEdlnBpo/s1600/512px-Tightrope_walking.jpg" height="196" width="320" /></a>I bet you're waiting for me to say something about balance. 'Everything in moderation' and all that. <b>But I'm really not that into balance. I don't want to love my kids or my husband in a 'balanced' way. The word balance makes me think of other words like 'pinched' and 'calculated' and 'exhausting'.</b><br />
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<b>I'd rather be centred. </b>And when I'm centred on Jesus that simplifies a number of things.<br />
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One proviso though... if you're the mom or dad with kids and a spouse and it all seems overwhelming right now - this is not an excuse to up and leave and go find yourself by hiking through the desert for 6 months. <b>I removed myself from the places where I was dispensable so I could be more fully present in the places where I was truly indispensable. No one else promised to be married to my husband but me, and no one else gave birth to my kids but me. In all other places, I am dispensable.</b> Immediate family is first priority and making them suffer so I could 'find yourself' or whatever, was never an option for me.<br />
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I really identified with this quote by Thomas Merton,<br />
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<i>There is a form of contemporary violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by nonviolent means most easily succumbs — activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of activists neutralizes their work for peace. It destroys their own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of their work because it kills the inner wisdom which makes their work fruitful.</i></div>
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<b>So I realised that I really can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and sometimes that thing is saying 'No' and letting go of my need to be impressive and just live, because, you know, YOLO.</b><br />
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Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-64452232451569671612015-04-26T05:48:00.000-07:002016-01-06T05:25:56.392-08:00Love the skin you're in<h2>
<b>Have you ever wished you had another body?</b></h2>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blow_Away_by_SillyPuttyEnemies.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
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Before we look at that question, I apologise in advance. <b>Writing this post feels a bit like trying to gather dandelion seeds. </b>Each idea seems insubstantial on its own. <b>Trying to fit them all together seems impossible, but necessary - </b>I trust you will find some value in it!<br />
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So, I've often wondered what it would be like to live in someone else's body. <b>I'm curious. How does it feel to be a baby learning to control that huge head?</b> Or to be a teenage boy - what does one do with all those knees and elbows and feet and hormones?<br />
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I am quite a slim person, and <b>I sometimes wonder what it must be like to have a large bust - to have to 'lift and wash' so to speak.</b> Alternatively, what would it be like to have to shave my face every day? What does sexual intimacy feel like for someone else?<br />
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All these questions got me thinking - <b>do I even really know what it's like to live in <i>this</i> body?</b> How often do I acknowledge all the information my body is giving me at any moment?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tea must be made with boiling water!<br />
Source: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AYellow_kettle_with_boiling_water_on_stovetop.jpeg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
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<b>I think of those times I knew someone had entered the room because of the slightest change in the light, of how I have come to just intuitively know where North is because somehow my body just keeps track of the sun, of how I know when my tea water isn't hot enough by the sound of it flowing into the cup. </b><br />
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<b>Take a moment and acknowledge each of your sensations. </b>Sight, sound, smell, taste and sensation. Consider them each in turn and thank your body for telling you what is happening around you!<br />
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<b>So often we see our bodies as merely vehicles interact with this physical world - just this thing that we use to get around. We speak of them disparagingly, we feed them carelessly and we push them relentlessly. </b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look after it! It's the only body you have!<br />
Source: <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACar_body_in_Bodie%2C_CA.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
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<b>Imagine if we did that with our cars:</b> Give a cup of fuel at time and then complain when it runs out; give them dirty fuel at that and berate them for sputtering along and not performing as they should. It would make no sense.<b> If someone gave you a car and told you this is the only car you would own for the rest of your life - no replacements available - you would look after that car with utmost care - your would treat it as indispensable.</b> There are no replacements for your body - treat it with care!<br />
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On the other hand, some of us identify too strongly with our physical appearance.<b> If looking good means you feel good (How many times have you heard that before?) then looking bad means you feel bad.</b> I'm not sure I want my feeling good to depend on something that fickle. <b>And by whose standard would I determine if I look 'good' anyway? When women define their value by how closely they resemble a warped and culturally specific ideal, they will always experience some sense of failure. </b><br />
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<b>So women tend to judge their physical bodies by comparison</b> and in doing so, view their bodies as less attractive than they are, and hence treat them in less than healthy ways either to gain attractiveness or neglect them as unattractive bodies are not seen as worth looking after. <b>On the other hand, many people, generally men, see their bodies as more attractive or healthier than they really are, and tend to neglect them in other ways. </b><br />
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So where am I going with this?<br />
In short:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Women's bodies are valued as ornaments. Men's bodies as valued as instruments. </i></div>
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<i>- Gloria Steinem</i></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Sfh4yxbotKWUj7mGnIw0gQVC30woSuJd0vC3sZod_Xk2tKji2QCFwlndMhWB2hX5tMWZUzyngEnHKB6C_hlh4ujxSUw5ZWzLeJsIzojfDGXZp-lkL201RzpjvgDrotiCKa9EBi0IE80/s1600/kruger3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Sfh4yxbotKWUj7mGnIw0gQVC30woSuJd0vC3sZod_Xk2tKji2QCFwlndMhWB2hX5tMWZUzyngEnHKB6C_hlh4ujxSUw5ZWzLeJsIzojfDGXZp-lkL201RzpjvgDrotiCKa9EBi0IE80/s1600/kruger3.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Your Body is a Battleground - Barbara Kruger</td></tr>
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Perhaps the gender distinction isn't as strong as it was when Steinem first made this remark - but I think it is still important to ask - <b>Do I see my body an instrument or an ornament? Does my body exist for me to do what I'm called to do on this earth or for the visual pleasure of people around me?</b><br />
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You've probably guessed from that second question that <b>I've chosen to see my body as an instrument rather than an ornament. </b><br />
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This distinction became much clearer to me one day when I was exercising. <b>I have/had really skinny upper arms that make my elbows look huge. I was always self conscious about them as a kid</b>.<b> But, one day when I was working out my arms, I realized that I was doing it because it felt good - the thought of bulking up hadn't actually crossed my mind.</b> I came to a point where I the thought of being able to lift my own body weight with my arms just *felt* good. And guess what, my arms did get a bit bulkier.<br />
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Even for men, what's the point of bulking up for the sake of looking big or defined or whatever, if you actually aren't much stronger or more capable than you were before?<b> Why pump iron when you can build houses? If the aim is to build muscle, I'd rather do something useful with all that energy. </b><br />
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<b>So that got me wondering how things would change if we started making decisions based on how something feels rather than how it looks.</b> For example - if your thighs are chafing and that is uncomfortable for you, do what you can to make the change FOR YOU. <b>Don't do it because a small section of society has determined that your value is defined by your thigh gap. </b><br />
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<b>If you're going to make changes, make them from a place of love rather than loathing, from acceptance rather than tolerance. If you don't love your body because it's yours, can any amount of dieting or surgery or make up change that? I don't know.</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqMs0akew62WiiA1pfI1pReoQDYrJdglLrGXAIFZNW05qULBKVlWrvxYveuRIOXxV5FPZq_klR6VsISS-eK4L2Oostm2LwMf73QbDec2rHxgGlOX1eVmf2P5LosmK2ejuKJDxs4-LNoZo/s1600/High_Heels_pink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqMs0akew62WiiA1pfI1pReoQDYrJdglLrGXAIFZNW05qULBKVlWrvxYveuRIOXxV5FPZq_klR6VsISS-eK4L2Oostm2LwMf73QbDec2rHxgGlOX1eVmf2P5LosmK2ejuKJDxs4-LNoZo/s1600/High_Heels_pink.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pink Prison<br />
Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHigh_Heels_pink.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></td></tr>
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<b>For me this shift has changed the way I shop. I choose clothing almost primarily on how it feels.</b> I can't stand the sensation of synthetics on my skin, so I very seldom buy items made with synthetic fabric. I am a dancer and I love to be able to experience my full range of movement at any moment. <b>When I try on clothes I spend more time waving my arms about, doing some high kicks, dropping some squats and touching my toes than I do looking in the mirror. </b><br />
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<b>I will not be complicit in supplying my own prison! </b><br />
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And <b>high heels - they slow me down</b> and I've discovered they can actually be <a href="http://www.katysays.com/its-not-better-its-just-more/" target="_blank">detrimental to my health</a>. So I just stopped wearing them and found alternatives. If the main reason to wear high heels is because they make your calves look good, count me out. <b>My body is an instrument, not an ornament. </b><br />
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<b>When a woman sees herself as an ornament, she is continually viewing herself through someone else's eyes - she is objectifying herself. She is, in a sense, out of her body. This affects a number of things. Women who self-objectify often engage in continual body monitoring - Cross your legs so you don't have thigh-spread, hunch your shoulders so you don't appear so tall, suck in that tummy, stick out those boobs, check hair, check lipstick, is this a good angle? </b><br />
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According to work by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMS4VJKekW8" target="_blank">Dr Caroline Heldman</a>, among others, <b>this practise can decrease a woman's cognitive function in that there just isn't enough brain space to monitor how you look and do the task in front of you, and, among other things, it decreases one's enjoyment of sexual intimacy. </b><br />
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<b>A woman who self-objectifies tends to view herself having sex as if through someone else's eyes, or through the lens of a camera, monitoring her wobbly thighs and undignified noises from outside rather than being present in her body and enjoying the actual sensation and intimacy of intercourse. </b><br />
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<b>So contrary to the popular idiom, looking good stops me from feeling good. To me, that's just not worth it!</b><br />
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A quote from one of my favourite spoken word pieces - <i>Pretty</i> by Katy Makkai:<br />
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<i>...but this is not about me. This is about the self-mutilating circus we have painted ourselves clowns in. About women who will prowl 30 stores in 6 malls to find the right cocktail dress, but haven't a clue where to find fulfillment or how wear joy, wandering through life shackled to a shopping bag, beneath those 2 pretty syllables.</i></div>
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So, rather than wondering what it would be like to live in another body, I choose to rather be present in my skin, to love my body for what it can do, rather than for how it appears. I choose to be here, really here, in my skin.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
I choose to wear joy. Will you join me?</h3>
Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-8084242617011386042014-10-28T12:59:00.000-07:002018-01-26T01:39:17.073-08:00Two Cent musings on being Two-facedOn school grounds and social media sites the world over, the words: 'You two-faced hypocrite blah blah etc etc...' are flung about as if being a two-faced hypocrite is truly something uniquely awful.<br />
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Confession time: I'm two faced.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Yx_JuM3Ha8e-tS2XLZvgHft-iiJPINDBydPOJmceH0B-y4N1_jgWn1hjw75WE_-RWLK175e-KjbBH-vS-wWhJClfFmCdxPGc8YaT4fWPZDOJXYb0EXADfxDYBNxB8DqfB-A8BRN71eg/s1600/5580723390_01e6a30799_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Yx_JuM3Ha8e-tS2XLZvgHft-iiJPINDBydPOJmceH0B-y4N1_jgWn1hjw75WE_-RWLK175e-KjbBH-vS-wWhJClfFmCdxPGc8YaT4fWPZDOJXYb0EXADfxDYBNxB8DqfB-A8BRN71eg/s1600/5580723390_01e6a30799_o.jpg" width="320" /></a>If ever you are tempted to call me that, please feel free. It really isn't a surprise, or an exaggeration. It is absolutely true.<br />
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To be honest, I think we are lying to ourselves if we say aren't two-faced. And sometimes, dare I say, I think being two-faced can be a positive thing.<br />
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Sure, if someone is consistently <i>nice</i> to you yet speaks badly of you when you are not around but refuses to speak to you about their grievances, that isn't helping anyone.<br />
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But I know that as a Jesus-follower I am included by proxy in that 'hypocrite' label. As an idealist who is vocal about her ideals, I am possibly even more likely to earn myself that title. But like I mentioned at the end of my last post - didn't all revolutionaries start out as idealists?<br />
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As an example: at the moment I feel like I am undergoing a huge revelation of what it means to love and be loved. I feel like I am learning what it means to leave selfishness behind - to let go of self-vindication and self-promotion and self-protection - to just 'Let it go!' (If you couldn't help singing those words then I'm guessing you have young kids in the house!)<br />
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But even as I say that I am learning how to leave self-ness behind, those of you who know me personally can surely think of a bunch of times where I was self-absorbed, or at least not outwardly loving, or where I somehow made you feel unloved or unlovely. I am so sorry. I can't even say with certainty that I didn't mean to at that moment. I have this vindictive streak that pops up every now and then.<br />
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So if you were to accuse me of being a two-faced hypocrite I might even be glad. It shows that you know I have ideals that draw me higher than where I am now. If how I lived now reflected my ideals with absolute accuracy, I would be the most pitiable creature!<br />
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But I press onto take hold of who I am called to be, grateful that my failures are not held against me by those who matter most. This in turn frees me to love others in spite of their failures. And this love does not guarantee that I will never fail, but that I will be loved anyway. Oh let me love with a love like that!<br />
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<br />Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-53534320487602493462014-10-28T00:56:00.001-07:002014-10-28T07:03:43.657-07:00How to bring out the best in people...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixyOpObmZ8Sqc9ZTDmVzg0qF-7IPxS9KRoWSvHC1DfyZBJhhg4uz4mJlMsCiJ3qi9N5hOjGh2huC9qDyukwRiPF5fKo_0t4pp1tKr4x0JiMg7xpRpT-9Ay8OAAFYdfyUndjX8oDAzMWUw/s1600/love+makes+things+grow.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Love makes things grow" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixyOpObmZ8Sqc9ZTDmVzg0qF-7IPxS9KRoWSvHC1DfyZBJhhg4uz4mJlMsCiJ3qi9N5hOjGh2huC9qDyukwRiPF5fKo_0t4pp1tKr4x0JiMg7xpRpT-9Ay8OAAFYdfyUndjX8oDAzMWUw/s1600/love+makes+things+grow.png" height="268" title="Love makes things grow" width="320" /></a>Wouldn't we all like to have someone trying to bring out the best in us on a daily basis? And by that I'm not thinking of the proverbial fitness coach shouting 'No Pain, No Gain' in your eardrum every time you check Facebook when you should be working - but someone who lovingly tends to your thorns and your blossoms, your tough branches and your new shoots, with tenderness and consistency.<br />
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For example, I know we can't change our spouses, only they can release change in their lives, but I have discovered that there are positive things we can do to bring out the best in them - and our children, friends and colleagues and anyone else we see on a daily basis.</div>
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Shaming and blaming, nagging, threatening and cajoling very seldom work to bring about lasting change. At best you may get a temporary behaviour adjustment but not without building resentment and decreasing connection.<br />
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So what I'm learning, tentatively but with growing conviction, is that love always wins.<br />
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I used to think that I believed it, but I see now that I actually believed that love <i>usually</i> wins - unless there is just too much bitterness or rage or indifference, for too long - then love just isn't quite up to the task. I thought that love truly is the most powerful force for change, except maybe for stupidity... We so often think of love as weak and sentimental - like a cheesy greeting card.<br />
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But I am slowly but surely growing in understanding that love - a real, raw, un-self-seeking, scandalously generous love - truly trumps everything. It is the strongest thing there is. Love overcomes even the deepest selfishness. <br />
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John Lennon is reported to have said 'Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.'<br />
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I would like to paraphrase that: 'Love wins in the end. If love hasn't won, it isn't the end.'<br />
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Before you accuse me of being utterly idealistic and out of touch with the <i>real</i> world and demand I have myself committed for such insanity ask yourself this: don't all revolutionaries start out as idealists?<br />
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So, if you want to bring out the best in people - Love them!<br />
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But how? What does love look like?<br />
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Well, good point, what does love look like?<br />
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Follow my blog and walk with me as we see where this road takes us.<br />
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Leighhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10288737862531034254noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4567070163583334088.post-13804786931858196402014-10-10T00:32:00.002-07:002014-10-10T00:32:11.464-07:00‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.I'm tired of 'safe'. I'll take 'good' over 'safe' any day.<br />
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I've been told I should write. I'm not sure if it's because people of tired of hearing me yap on about the things that stir fire in my bones, or if they really think I have something worth saying and a reasonably articulate way of saying it. Either way I'll take them up on it. <br />
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Having said that, if one blog could be considered self-indulgent navel gazing, how does it factor in when you have two blogs and a Youtube channel? But, I trust that over time you will forgive me the arrogance of thinking I have something to say that is worth clogging the already saturated blogosphere. On the contrary: I hope that my Two Cent Pearls - the hard won jewels that have sustained me - presented with vulnerability and love and authenticity and passion - will bring you the freedom and joy they have brought me.<br />
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"To her -<br />
Hand in hand we come<br />
Christopher Robin and I<br />
To lay this [blog] in your lap.<br />
Say you're surprised?<br />
Say you like it?<br />
Say it's just what you wanted?<br />
Because it's yours -<br />
Because we love you."<br />
<i>- A. A. Milne - Winnie-the-Pooh</i><br />
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Now I just have to figure out where to start...<i> </i>Two Cent Pearlshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12493411720178472467noreply@blogger.com0