Solidarity

 

No one gave Jesus a rose on His way to the cross;
we can bring Him one consisting of our love and solidarity.

I watched a video which stated that the universe had no beginning. It took me aback. The holy Spirit told me that the universe indeed had a  beginning, and it has an end. It was punctuated by the life of Christ the Lord, because He came into it  in a particular way, taking on our fleshen life and suffering death.

In a couple months, we will celebrate the coming, or Advent, of Jesus into the world through birth into a human life.

That life had an end in torture, disfigurement and the suffering of crucifixion. May our ends be kinder than that. 

In that life and death was the revelation of the truth of God's love for us, a truth given each of us to discover for outselves and respond and react to it. 

We are asked to believe and trust and affirm, that truth given us, that God loves us, and has loved us always. We must ratify the truth and respond affirmatively and decisively in solidarity.

Politics is part of life, even in spiritual matters. Either we believe and affirm the Lord or we don't. If He asks us to take up His cross in some way, we must still accept or refuse, and take our stand on His side or not.

The seasons of Lent and Advent both ask us to affirm what He asked of us, and to confirm what we said one way or the other. The world may well hold us to account; do we accept the powers of the earth as our soverign and legitimate ruler, or not. each of the martyrs made their statement and surrendered their lives, not their faith. 

The world may grow to be more and more filled with death, suffering and destruction, but what will still  matter most  importantly, will be our affirmation of Jesus, and our decision to remain His friend.

In asking us to follow Him, we choose to be peace for those most troubled, certain that He will give us peace to contain and share with others. The world is certain of the things it thinks will bring us peace; we are the statement that Jesus is Lord. Those who join us in conviction will know peace, and anyone who chooses anything of this world for peace, have been cheated by lies. Those who are thieves are also liars, and their morality is not capable of standing up to the judgement of God. Those enlightened by the presence of Jesus are peace to His people, and to ourselves. Only good and holiness will give that peace, because it is imperishable. 

The universe as we know it is coming to an end, and something wonderful and new is about to be revealed like a splendid dawn.

Observations

 

That I hurt is no mystery to me; where I hurt can be a source of speculation. Sometimes I can figure out why I am hurting by thinking though my day's activities. Then it becomes plain why I hurt. But it can be a test of humility. Then there are days I wonder why He took the pain away, just when I had made a place for it like a stray kitten. To think I can offer consolsation in  making myself available. When i think about the "who" in the discussion is interesting too.

The sun has just finished rising past the mounrains and the clouds, and I may soon need to draw the drapes to block the sun. The sun rises out of the east, and later out of the far southeast. Then, as the seasons change, the sun will rise again from the northeast. The planet will never stop its  motions, and neither will the rest of heaven. It is  no   mystery why so many religious became astronomers as well, since the motions of celestial objects recur over time and life procedes forward through winter and spring.

One can live life in a dread of anticipation or delight, depending on what presents itself. Advent is not far off, nor is Lent. Prepare; make stright the way of the Lord !

Waiting

 

I have never enjoyed waiting. These days, all indications that something ordered online will be shipped fast are basically spurious. Items ordered  may linger in transit within a few miles of your location, and the item sits waiting to be "processed" when it could be turned over to the person who ordered the item.

Medical  items are no different. It still takes 10 days when it should be deliverable in two days at most, given that the addressee lives within the city limits.

Waiting for the "chastisement" is similar. The only way to deal with its approach is to be longing in the heart of your being with all you've got, for the Lord Our God. There is no comfort in any earthly thing.

To desire anything less is just a disappointment.

Nevertheless, He sees to it we receive small joys that can tid us over. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, had the angels to encourage Him.

What He lacked, the Father gave Him so He could say His "Yes", for our sake. It leaves us with the obligation to say yes to Him, if He asks.

And if we reflect, He has said "Yes" to us all our lives, even when it was most obvious we didn't deserve it.

So I let the pain wash over me, and crash over me like a might wave; for His sake, and for the sake of sinners, it is over and I persist.

The thought of other generous souls saying "Yes" to Jesus is a consolation.

Land

 Which was the greater miracles, the healing of the paralytic in Peter's house, or the reconciliation and forgiveness of Peter and Matthew? Without forgiveness, none of  us will see the world as it is or will be when our eyes open to see heaven and earth the way Jesus wishes we might. With forgiveness. comes enlightenment, power and great joy and love. What a pity to throw it all away for a mere emotion concerning land that will never be restored..

Aggravation

 

A lady on Facebook posted it, it is 
not my work. I display it here
because it deserves to be seen.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Microsoft is so desperate to enrich itself, it will dismantle itself, thinking that throwing all the changes at us will dazzle us with their expertise. I would be impressed if what they did fixed all the bugs and malfunctions. I really have had it with stuff that isn't working.

One of my favorite modes of fixing problems was to create a system image which I could restore at a future date. I had one that captured my system all in one functional piece without the bugs and malfunctions; I badly needed it a few days after creating it, but when I went to go to use it, it would not work. I was left with a hung computer and black screen. The only thing that allowed me back into the system was holding down the power button until it shut it self down. There is also a system called system restore that will restore windows and its drivers and so forth, but it won't restore your apps - they get erased and you get to reinstal them and then customize them according to your taste.

I have since fromatted the drive the backup was on because it was useless, left incapable of functioning by Microsoft's tinkering.

Another glitch was a sound driver which shut down the sound system until you adjusted the volume or the sound was used and I got a loud pop. Using the Control Panel in Device Manager, I right cliked on the drivers listed and chose to click on the driver i wanted which I knew would work properly without the loud pop every time a sound was emitted.

But most mysteriously of all, yesterday, the security icon in the sytem tray began displaying a yellow badge for some unknown reason. Clicking the icon to see what was needed got me a notice that someone had changed my access to the security app so I could not change anything. 

Well, the sound works properly, I have not made a new system image yet, so I don't knmow if that system will work or not, but at least the system can restart and a rescue thumb can be used to reset the computer if I want. About the only way the system will ever act normally again is if I reset the system down to the bare metal and start from scratch. I have backups of my programs and data, but it is very time consuming and a huge aggravation that I frankly, resent very much. In spite of the rule that I should always forgive people, that doesn't mean I have to like what they did, and I hope they find out the hard way, just how much aggravation they have caused by having to live through it themselves.

Forgiveness

The brazen serpent was a healing thing God sent
into the midst of the Israelites to be a means of
forgiving their idolatry.

I was watching "Jesus of Nazareth", and was struck by the fact that Jesus cast the demon out of the possessed man. He was glad to do it. Nobody else could have, nor was it the usual thing to happen in ordinary life.

Then I was struck by how unusual it was that anyone could address demons with such authority as to cast them headlong to the ground by the mere invocation of their name. No one did that sort of thing; it never happened.

We are in such times ourselves, and yet there is plenty of work for exorcists. Padre Pio is said to have cast out a demon from a woman. The man possessed by the demon was cut off from his fellow human beings by his misfortune the same as the woman whom Padre Pio freed.

Some such cases undoubtedly were cases of mental illness, but not all. There are many throughout history that we could say were possessed. Some led millions down into the pit of hell by their teachings and the political systems they invented. The years that have been wasted by such people, were marked by horrors and unspeakable acts.

Keep your mind and heart occupied; do not let them wander ungratefully and unnocupied or they will be full of insinuations of evil trying to separate you from Jesus.

If your thoughts are not fixed on Jesus they are not fixed on God, and are attracted by evil, and evil never has your best interests at heart.

If a man who loves alcohol gets his way, he will spend his time drinking instead of at least part time on jesus. If evil can arrange it, he will see to it that the man drinks his fill and then some, and falls ill or dies from his excess. The same is true of any other vice you can name.

If your mind wanders around unfocused, you need to focus it on something good. Do some good deed for a person, see that the hungry are fed, strike up a conversation with a loneley person. These things do not lead to sin, neither do they focus the heart and affections on Unruliness.

In all things we are capable of messing up the good deeds we try to do; it is a simple law of humanity that we are weak and ignorant and need the strength of God's love in our life to try to be like Him.

Surely if you try long enough, you will come across a moment you did good and you can be glad that you had something to show for your time on earth.

So if you are pastor, and have spent 12 years studying theology and philosophy and how to minister to your people, why should you hate forgiving their sins? If you at least were int he confessional absolving people of their sins, you have been doing something which pleases God and when you stand before Him as the Judge, you will be able to say :I forgave my people's sins".

Extraordinary

 This day is extraordinary and my life is made to be so as well.
Every year, the sun begins descending over the end of the building so I am in the shade, and the light is reflected off everything before me, mellow and clean and clear.

While people are busy building bombs, and tanks and battleships, I rest, enjoy the peace and thank God in my heart for the sensation of His grace flowing through me, so that the joy that comes from it is like the a waterfall, hurtling down at breakneck speed from the tallest heights of the mountain. 

The silence in the midst of all the tumult rests me, and I surrender to it, to the cross, to the nails and toil of soul that is life.

You may enjoy the silence and the peace that come with being alive and turning to God to fulfill His will.

He delights in filling you up, with cold cups of deep spring waters that have journied as clouds half way around the world to fall where you stand, making rainbows in His firmament.

From my vantage point on the cross, I may enjoy your delight as you sit near me listening.