Lenten study 2007 - Day seven
February 28, 2007
Colossians 3:3 (Continued): For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God
Author Patrick O’Brian says this about the harsh life of the foremast jack in the Age of Sail: The seaman were used to their hard life, and what they were used to they liked. I have gotten quite used to my life in this world, and I confess that I like it, not that I won’t like my eternal life better, but that the known, with all its problems, is less threatening than life in another dimension.
Philippians 1:21 My confident hope is that I will in no way be ashamed but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether I live or die. 1:21 For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.
These words by Paul seem to up the ante. He sees a life of service that intimately connects with his life after his death. Christ lives through him while is alive and will receive him when he dies for even greater gain.
Do I have that kind of confidence?
Lenten study 2007 - Day six
February 28, 2007
Colossians 3:3: For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
This statement by Jesus has intrigued me for many years. What does it mean to have a life “hidden with Christ in God?” In one sense the meaning is pretty clear. I am expected to subordinate myself to a Christ that I know only in part and whose realm is in another dimension.
John 12:24-25 I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. 12:25 The one who loves his life destroys it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards it for eternal life.
I am quite sure that the words of Paul to the Colossians are based on these words of Jesus in the gospel of John. What I am not so sure of is how this plays out for this Christian still on the ground. I’m afraid that I rather like life in this world, rather than hating it.
I’ll try again tomorrow.
Lenten study 2007 - Day five
February 26, 2007
Continuing on in Colossians, Chapter 3, Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth. . . . In many respects, I am what I think. My mind is the center of my awareness of myself and my environment. Many men of faith before me have concluded that we do only what we want to do, not necessarily what is best. I am guided by what my mind tells me is in my best interest. I am inherently selfish in my being.
My only hope is for a renewed mind, the work of Christ in me.
Rom. 12:2 Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.
It takes a renewed mind, one that tends to think God’s thoughts after him, to please the Lord God and be of some use to him. It is clear to me that the way to facilitate a willing mind is to let my thoughts about “things above” crowd out thoughts about less important stuff. I believe that this is an act of will on my part, so that renewal can continue on God’s part.
Final word: It’s all about loving God and serving my fellow man.
Lenten study 2007 - Day four
February 24, 2007
Completing Colossians Chapter 3, Verse 1 . . . where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Scripture provides me with various crutches for my spiritual imagination, and this is one of them. I know that Jesus and the Father are a unity, but it helps to picture the risen Christ sitting on a throne at the right hand of the enthroned Father. I know better than to strain at such a visualization, and I believe it’s God’s gracious allowance for my weakness and human limitations.
Rev. 7:9-11 After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. They were shouting out in a loud voice,
“Salvation belongs to our God, to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
And all the angels stood there in a circle around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground before the throne and worshiped God, saying,
“Amen! Praise and glory,
and wisdom and thanksgiving,
and honor and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”
Final word: Even my imagination-challenged soul can say “Amen!”
Lenten study 2007 - Day three
February 23, 2007
Continuing on in Colossians, chapter 3 . . . keep seeking the things above
That’s above in the sense of on a higher plane, not altitude. This presupposes a supernatural reality, free from my direct observation and not dependent on my physical senses. My will is involved, as it is in the natural realm. I shouldn’t be surprised that “seeking the things above” does not come easy to me. It’s all about faith in things unseen and, as always, it’s all about Jesus.
Heb. 11:1-3 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see. For by it the people of old received God’s commendation. By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God’s command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible
God’s commendation gives me the eyes of faith. I am sure of what I cannot see. Of all things I must praise him for that, because my mind would lead me into very dark areas, else.
Final word: My glimpses into the “real reality” keep me going.
Lenten study 2007 - Day two
February 22, 2007
Easing in to Colossians Chapter 3, … If you have been raised in Christ introduces the idea of personal identification with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Rom. 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Following the Reformed principle of letting Scripture interpret itself, how about this?
Eph. 2:4-10 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together and made us sit together in the in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
So it is not an “if” for the Christian. It is a foundational fact of life. (to be continued . . .)
The taking of the Java
February 20, 2007
It was in late December, 1812, at the beginning of The American War. The the almost new frigate, USS Constitution, took and burned the English frigate HMS Java off the coast of San Salvador. How do I know all this stuff? Why, from reading the sea novels of Patrick O’Brian, of course. Any gate, I ran across this image while lurking in The Gunroom, the POB mail list, and since the person who originally stole the image is probably several thefts removed by now, I will share it with you.
This may be as good a time as any to record that I am reading away on my umpteenth pass through the POB canon, presently delighting in the blooming of Brideen on her first voyage in the Ringle, a topsail schooner of the Baltimore Clipper type, a model of which is languishing on my workbench. This is in The Commodore, Volume seventeen of the canon. This is perhaps the best of the twenty books in the series, for what that may be worth.
Dave, which he is not getting sea-sick, at all.
Reduced to counting Barack Obama’s nose hairs
February 16, 2007
I wish I had thought of that line. Peggy Noonan, while opining about the media’s obessing on the presidential race, says this:
Earlier this week I heard a minister quote a spiritual genius: “All the problems in the world are caused by man’s inability to sit quietly in a room by himself.” We’re restless and need action, which in a modern media world means information. We need the busy buzz–the Internet, TV, instant messages, magazines and newspapers, the beeps and boops and bops. Rudy’s up in Iowa. Hillary’s stuck. We want to be among the first to have this information and the first to share it. And we want it not because it’s crucial but because it distracts us from the crucial. It takes our minds away from what is most important. Who you are, for instance, or what we are about. It’s a great relief not to think about the important. It’s a relief to focus on factoids.
Does this ring true, even profound, with you as it does with me? She hearkens back to the story of Esau, Isaac’s oldest son, who “sold his soul for a mess of pottage” (Genesis 25:29-34). In this case, she says, the wannabe presidents are selling their souls for a “pot of message.” (A little too cute, perhaps?)
About the candidates, she says this:
But it must be uncomfortable to walk around in a skin that isn’t really your own. It must be really damaging to your soul, if you have a soul, and not just appetites, or a rugged, rocky little sense of what you deserve.
Maybe the candidates would do themselves good by leaving the trail a few days and trying to sit quietly in a room, by themselves, with no distractions, and think about big things, such as who they are.
Right on!
Dave, still adjusting to walking around in his own skin.
I’m astonished!
February 15, 2007
In 1956 it was the Cold War, and our national priority was defense, as it should be. Fast-forward a half-century, and my, how our priorities have changed! With the usual caveat that comparisons like this strongly depend on the comparison year selected, consider this:
Anyone who doubts that we are pushing the margin of the socialist envelope should look again. Assuming we are getting a valid comparison, always a good question, the chart begs the questions of whether we are adequately defended and whether our present allocation of national resources is appropriate for the times in which we live.
What do you think?
Dave, getting more worried about the world facing his grandchildren.
I embrace my siesta
February 14, 2007
Like millions of others with coronary artery disease, I keep a sharp eye out for comforting news, especially when it agrees with my own prejudices. I liked this article, for obvious reasons.
Embrace your siesta for a healthy heart - International Herald Tribune
In a study released Monday, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and in Athens reported that people who took regular 30-minute naps were 37 percent less likely to die of heart disease over a six-year period than those who never napped. The scientists tracked more than 23,000 Greek adults, finding that the benefits of napping were most pronounced for working men.
I must admit that the last sentence above gives me pause, but never mind.
For more years than I can count, I have courted the after lunch nap. In a prior life it took the form of a ten-minute doze in my desk chair behind closed office doors. Today it is a half hour of glorious reading and snoozing on my bed.
Dave, counting the minutes to nap-time.
