In search of Panacea

Have you seen her? Panacea I mean. The daughter of Aesclpius (Greek god of healing) and Epione. She is the goddess that can cure all, with herbs, and solves all difficult problems. Surely you have seen her?

At least I am assuming a lot of people have seen her b/c their answers to difficult questions are, to them, the cure for the question. Clearly if all of humanity would listen to them then their would be no need for such petty arguments. Ever.

Clearly, and sadly, she does not exist. There is no cure for all disease and no one person that can answer with adept wisdom the toughest questions ever.

So why do you fight and argue like madmen to be right. Why do we tear entire churches and families apart in our desperate attempt to be the final authority on an issue? Clearly we need to see, as the Bible teaches us to see, that we must love one another even if we disagree. And if we have no love we have no God.

There is great need for discussion and passionate debate about real, meaningful, weighty issues. This is part of why I write this blog, so people can help me see things from their point of view. But at the end of the discussion, dialogue, debate we all need to hug and walk away realizing Panacea does not exist. There is no perfect way of doing things. In fact there is rarely a best way of doing things. There are just ways that work and ways that don't work so let's try to find the best in everything and love each other even though it may not be what we wanted.

Given a Commission

There is a huge part of our world that still has no witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can this be? In North America we have heard it so many times and those that have not heard have, in my opinion no excuse, since there are churches all over the place. One question from them and they would at least hear something about Jesus and probably be given some instruction on how to find out more. But this point only distracts from the overshadowing issue of the people who have no chance of hearing about the greatness of God's love through Jesus Christ. Last time I checked only $.05 of every dollar given to spread Gospel goes to reach the unreached peoples of the world. That means, obviously, $.95 goes back into reached people groups. I am not saying that no money should go to reached people b/c certainly there are financial needs and obligations there as well. They need Bible printed in their own language, they places of worship, they need theologically sounded Bible training schools so they can raise up their own people as apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and missionaries. However, should the ratio of money going to unreached people not be significantly higher than $.05 of every dollar? A while ago I heard a person speaking to a church say that "the problem is not that we do not have enough money it is that we do not have enough people to go." I have a very hard time believing that. I think if you had the money finding qualified passionate people to go around the world with the Gospel would be no problem. In fact I think if you had the money missions agencies would want to start trying to recruit top qualified prospects. I think the main problem is that the money is not there as this person claimed. In a minute I will launch into what happens when the money is there for missions. So the question remains where is the money to reach the unreached going to come from? How can this money be raised? Here is my opinion. Where is the money? It is in my bank account, and yours too. It is in so many North Americans cars, homes, boats, humongous TV's, and retirement accounts. We, North American, Christians, have been so inundated with the Gospel we assume everywhere in the world is the same. But, this is not true. We need only to look a little bit to see the world is not filled with the Gospel and it is to a large degree our fault. We have failed to keep the passion to reach the lost. We have failed to remember that treasures on earth are as nothing compared to treasures in heaven. We have been given much and have failed to do much with what God has given us. Maybe you disagree with me and that is fine please write a comment. I am all for discussion and dialogue. Maybe you even want to email me, but you don't want everyone to see your email address, so email me at adimreflectionblog@yahoo.com and I would love to read and respond to your email. Privacy of your email and email address is assured. I say all of that to say this. Consider the last time you gave so much to a cause, any cause, that you had to sacrifice other things. Now more specifically when was the last time you gave so much to a missionary or mission’s organization that you had to sacrifice. I think it is time Christians, who have been commissioned by GOD, became desperate to do all they can in their lifetime with the resources God has given them to reach the lost and the unreached fellow humans of this world. Maybe it is to abstract to call them unreached people groups. People groups have no face in our minds, no emotions rise up within us when we hear that phrase. So let's say this. Fellow human beings created by God to know God and serve God who have wandered from him just as we had now need to have a chance to hear again about the amazing love and sacrifice he has made to bring us back into a true relationship with him. A relationship that will last forever.

Simply looking

In life it seems as though we search and search. We find truth and then we find more truth. This never enough thought we want more. In the search for God we turn our selves around, inside out and every which way. We go to churches we talk to people, but seldom do we find or stay in the state of freedom that comes from true surrender to Christ. To often we are looking all over for the truth and yet it is right with us all along.

Lately the thing that is recapturing my heart is the simplicity of sitting in a room a talking to God, simply reading the Words of God slowly. Maybe only a chapter at a time or even better just one story at a time to get the full meaning and maybe reading it again the next day and the day after that. Too often I, and many others, make the mistake of thinking that if I go to church the pastor will miraculously say something that will solve all my problems, answer all my questions, take away my hurts. Then week after week we leave church having never found what we really wanted.

You see I think the key is turning simply to God and not expecting man to have any answers. We are all weak and poorly informed on the mind and ways of God. We can see far too little to be authorities. Daily we need to turn all of our attention to God. We need to realize it is He alone who is the "I am." Another way to look at this statement by God would be if he had said "Whatever you need, I am. Wherever you are, I am."

This is a key to life, turn to God as your greatest need and deepest source. God is near, always. God is with those that love and serve him, always.

Prayers, Sympathies, Sorrows

In light of today's events in London I just wanted to say that my prayers and thoughts are with all the citizen's of United Kingdom. May God comfort and be with you all, especially those who have lost loved ones and are attending to family members who have been injured.

What a terrible event. What a barbaric act of terrorism. Let us all continue to stand for Truth, Justice, and Freedom.

God be with all the soliders around the world who preserve and protect our freedoms. Thank you and God Bless you all.

Nature

On Saturday I went for a hike on a trail that overlooks a river and after a long while of hiking I found a great place to sit down. I had intentionally brought my bible. Well, the Bible was on my pda, which was to my mind an interesting intersection of raw nature and refined nature. But as I flipped on Psalms which i have been reading lately I read from Psalm 19 "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork..." I can not explain the peace that came over me after sitting quietly reading the Bible, watching the wind blow, the water blow, and the sun warm me until I finally dozed off for a while only to be roused by pesky ants crawling on my leg. As I sat there intentionally soaking in the picture of the creation of God before me there was an intense feeling of being washed clean of all the worry of the modern world. The feeling of refreshement stemming from the intentional seperation from the hustle of cars, tv, and deadlines is beyond words. It was a true moment of spirituality while surrounded by the glory of God embodied in His creation.

Maybe this was the inspiration to the following song by St. Francis of Assisi written sometime between 1181 - 1226.

ALL CREATURES St. Francis of Assisi

Arrangement and Additional Chorus: David Crowder

VERSE 1: ALL PEOPLE OF OUR GOD AND KING

LIFT UP YOUR VOICE AND LET US SING

O PRAISE HIM, ALLELUIA

THE BURNING SUN WITH GOLDEN BEAMS

THE SILVER MOON THAT SOFTLY GLEAMS

O PRAISE HIM O PRAISE HIM

ALLELUIA

VERSE 2: THE RUSHING WIND THAT IS SO STRONG

THE CLOUDS THAT SAIL IN HEAV’N ALONG

O PRAISE HIM, ALLELUIA

THE RISING MOON IN PRAISE REJOICE

THE LIGHTS OF EVENING FIND A VOICE

O PRAISE HIM, O PRAISE HIM

ALLELUIA

VERSE 3: LET ALL THINGS THEIR CREATOR BLESS

AND WORSHIP HIM IN HUMBLENESS

O PRAISE HIM, ALLELUIA

PRAISE, PRAISE THE FATHER PRAISE THE SON

AND PRAISE THE SPIRIT THREE IN ONE

O PRAISE HIM, O PRAISE HIM

ALLELUIA

VERSE 4: PRAISE, PRAISE THE FATHER PRAISE THE SON

AND PRAISE THE SPIRIT THREE IN ONE

O PRAISE HIM, O PRAISE HIM

ALLELUIA

Open Christianity

Here is something I wrote a while ago (years) but I have had no where to put it to get feedback and discussion so go to it.

I serve a God, whom I believe to be the only God, of whom I have such an infinitesimal understanding it is boggling to think about the amount of knowledge that I lack yet “He”, possesses. Even the statement “He” is an expression of our cultural need to frame the Almighty God and Creator of all things in a category and context to which we can more easily relate. In reality near as I can humanly deduct “He” is a Spirit as I understand and believe “Him” to have been revealed through scripture and personal experience. Yet when I speak to others I speak as one who speaks for this God, which is in fact what the Bible tells me to do. So often I speak as though I have a perfect understanding of every thing about Him. I tend to act as though, because I have this belief in Him, that my understanding of the world in which all of us live is more precise than those who do not believe in him or at least do not appear to be trying to live the way “I” understand him to be directing us to live.


Maybe in some ways my understanding is more precise, but what if they have a better understanding of the world in certain other areas than I do? Who am I to say that they are always so far off? If we are all searching for the truth about the world around us are we not trying to find the same thing? Even if our beliefs about the world and its origins differ; are we really not still searching for the same thing? Truth is Truth is it not? As it has been stated somewhere “All truth is God’s truth”.


This struggle for truth can be illustrated by considering the subject of math. Mathematical rules are the same no matter what your religion, language, or culture. No matter where you live 2+2=4. Why can we, Christians, not stop and listen to and engage in conversation and critical thought the observations or analysis of all people. Maybe before we throw out all of their ideas, before we flag them all as destructive to our faith we could stop and say “Hey that is a provoking thought let me think about it some more. Are you available to get together to talk about it again sometime soon?” Maybe really other cultures religions and worldviews are not as destructive to our faith as they are to our religious institutions. This might just be the answer here to the why question.


What are we so afraid of? Why in recent history have Christians been so afraid to engage in meaningful discussion with the world in which we live? Are we afraid we might have to adjust the way we think about the Bible & God? Well I am sure that we do have to adjust the way we think about the Bible, God, and the world we live in! Just like the Jewish people needed to readjust their theology and worldview about God when God, Jesus, (just to keep things clear) came to live with them and restore relationship with them again. How ironic is it that the Church, generally speaking, has become the modern day parallel of the Pharisees. We condemn those ignorant, blind, stupid Pharisees, but who is to say we are not doing the same things right now with the ideas and scientific discoveries that surround us. The Pharisees’ world and ideas were being totally challenged by this Jesus guy from nowhere who claimed to be the “Son of God”. Think about that for a minute. Think about the ramification of claiming to be the Son of Yaweh in Jewish culture. Put yourself in their shoes.


So again why are we, Christians, so afraid to explore these ideas and discoveries with the world around us to determine what truth, if any, can be extracted from them for the benefit of society in general.


The Copernican Revolution is a great example of science turning the theological world upside down by claim that the Earth revolved around the Sun. The scientists and priest who believed in these new ideas, and often in God too by the way, were burned at the stake. Which is a simply the most polite historical term for saying they were tortured by being burned alive in front of the entire town. Maybe we are not burning people anymore, but do we ostracize them from our gatherings. Maybe there is no physical scarlet letter, but there is an unspoken stereotype and if we are all honest with ourselves we know this is the truth.


I am writing this to challenge us to think. To reconsider some long held, possibly unconsciously held, paradigms of thought. Why can’t we be more engaging with the world around us and listen to ideas instead of just trying to make it all fit into a framework of thought that I am sure is so skewed, b/c God’s mind is so immeasurable and ours is so feeble in comparison that we will be shocked by our ignorance at the end of this life. Why can we not engage people all of faiths and creeds, those with and without values, that are honestly looking for truth in all arenas of thought in an honest discussion instead of just trying to make them see the world the way we do.


My hope is that the church would become one the greatest institutions of discovery of truth. We do after all believe that we are created in God’s image and in the search for truth really we search for more and more ways we are similar to our creator.


Of this I am sure; I have so much to learn about the world God has placed me in that I have no right to be so arrogant as to think that b/c a fellow human creation of God does not believe what I do about God that they could not have any good thing to offer in the search for truth. As we search for truth I believe we find God.

Here I Go

I Cor. 13:12 "For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection[of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known by God.

This verse captures for me the reasons for creating this site. I am daily more aware of how great God is and how minute is my understanding of Him and of all of His ways. I have a dim understanding of him and I am as of right now i dim reflection of him. I await patiently the day of the full revelation of our Creator, Savior, God. Until that day I keep seeking to know Him, so I ask for your help in this endeavor. As I write please comment. Tell me your thoughts, ideas, or criticisms. I hope this blog will help you grow in God jsut as mush as i hope it helps me to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

God be with you always by His Spirit