The last few days

So, I'm sitting here quietly in the minutes before I head to bed and realize that it is the perfect moment to write on my blog.  My aunt, uncle and cousin Sarah have all gone to bed, one of their dogs (Possum) is curled up beside me under a blanket, and Chiaki-san and Kiesa (the other canine members of the family - Sarah's chiwuawa that, thank God - and I mean that literally - she has trained not to yip, although it does lick hands rather convulsively if given the chance, and a medium sized dog whose breed I cannot specify, although I know it has one - i.e. it is not merely a mutt.  Possum is a grayhound - the miniature kind) are also already asleep.  In the background, a soloist sings, "I need thee, oh, I need thee... every hour I need thee" and I find myself in a rather dreamy mood.  Therefore, this will not be the much-anticipated (haha - did anyone even read it?) continuation of the last post, but instead a more quietly reflective and probably/possibly less controversial piece.  In fact one thing I would like to do is capture the last few days for immortality because they were truly lovely, love-filled and joyful.

I arrived in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) airport Monday morning around 8:00 Central Standard Time (noon São Paulo time) and was promptly swept up and taken to breakfast by my aunt - Jennie Kornfield (formerly Brown).  After wandering around a mall (unsuccessfully) looking for exciting Christmas gifts for my cousin Claire, we headed back to get Sarah from DFW, as she was coming in from an early end to her semester up at U of Penn, where she is getting a doctorate in comm - specifically gender roles in the media; a fascinating area of study about which we've had many delightful conversations recently.  Eventually we headed home in time for a lovely walk with the dogs and a nap before heading to a bee-keepers convention dinner that evening (my aunt is spasmic about bee derivatives - i.e. honey and wax - and their many uses and my cousin is a walking encyclopedia on the topic - if you're curious how that came about, ask her sometime).  After a delightful 11 or so hours of sleep (it is very difficult to sleep on the overnight plane ride from Brazil), I spent a day being utterly lazy.  I needed it.  It was so bad, I didn't even change out of my pjs (this was also occasioned by the glass aquarium I attempted to transport to the US for my sister Karis, which promptly broke on the way here, covering my clothing with miniature - but nonetheless cutting - bitsies and pieces of glass.  Oh well... sorry Karis.  Maybe next time!).

Three days later, we have not only shaken out and washed my clothes to assure that they are free of glass, but we've also managed to remove the slight mold smell that accompanied them from my wardrobe in São Paulo. It turns out I'm alergic to mold, so it was delightful to be coughing, sneezing and snuffling a good deal less.  Not to mention the watery and itchy eyes.  Thank you A. Jennie!

So, in the last days, I have also had a delightful time watching sit coms that include both a male and female main character and that Sarah is analyzing for her doctorate, chatting with my aunt about her nursing work (she has been recently been examining and scolding a bunch of firemen), hearing about my cousin Claire's enjoyment of her work as a speech-language therapist and thoughts of doing a doctorate in philosophy, in part to get away from a nasty headmaster at one of her schools, and bike-riding and hanging out with my Uncle Bill, my dad's quieter, less ambitious and insightful younger brother and Kiesa (the bike-riding part.  Well, she was on 4 paws but generally kept me going about as fast as I was up for!).

Today I also managed to get some left-over work done on the MAPI site - go me!  Tomorrow I'll hopefully send out the first MAPI e-news letter in Portuguese, after my Dad has time to make corrections.  So much progress... hopefully to soon cease as I plunge into vacation full force.

This delightful paradise of good food, good laughs, delightful insights and meaningful conversations, well shift to a different set of mouths as I head north to Pittsburgh on Saturday.  My sister Val gets there the day before I do (Dec. 18th) and my brother flys in on Christmas Eve.  Everyone else is already there.  Hurray for family! What would we ever do without them?

Love and blessings,

Rachel

After All, How Involved IS God?

So... wise and intelligent people like Benjamin Franklin considered themselves deists - believers in the existence of a single god, but not in his direct involvement in our world.  Such a belief can spring from the perception of the non-action of a divine being in teenage years and/or adulthood, while simultaneously feeling impossibilitated, by teachings from one's childhood and the natural and scientific evidence of order and law in the universe, as well as its hard-to-explain beginning, that a creative god must exist, must be a god of order and some level of goodness, but a god utterly distant, a god to whom it does no good to pray and with whom there is no direct relationship - the most we can gain spiritually is an ever-deeper intimate connection with his created beings, human and otherwise.  This person might believe on some level in Gen. 1-2, or at the very least Gen. 1:1, but dismisses all the rest of the Bible as imaginary.

On the other extreme are those who believe in a god or gods that are involved in absolutely everything and are more or less subject to our control - from this belief in an all-encompassing spiritual reality springs numerous religions.  In fact, perhaps the true extreme on this other end is the belief that everything IS god or at least a part of god and god IS everything.  Within the Christian spectrum, the most extreme belief that I know of - and a very common one - is found in some fundamentalist or pentecostal traditions which claim that anything and everything is possible through faith - healing of any sickness or pain at any time; wealth that springs from nowhere or anywhere; freedom from spiritual attack independent of lifestyle; etc.  "If you only have faith", these people claim, "your friend/sister/brother/mother/father/child/etc will be healed".  Naturally if they are not, then its your fault.  After all, it can't be God's, now can it?  Few realize that while rejoicing in God's tremendous power and ability, these people nonetheless subject Him to little more than a slave, available whenever wanted to do their wishes as long as you know how to pull the string of faith and summon him.  The concept of God having a will of His own that does not coincide with ours, and that sometimes it is not bad to experience pain, is either rejected or never imagined until a true experience with God or of unmitigated suffering DESPITE faith sadly knocks down this house of cards.

Thousands if not millions of people are caught in this network of lies, impeded by their beliefs from experiencing the freedom and joy of walking with the Lord who gives peace and strength to make it through suffering and even, in certain cases, embrace it.  These Christ-following groups believe themselves "Biblical" in the sense that they are constantly reciting bits and pieces of the Scriptures.  However, they generally come from the less educated half of the world's population and neither they nor their leaders realize that the words they claim so prayerfully are taken out of context and that the original inspired authors generally intended to communicate something very different than they understand.  It often takes a significant level of theological education for this perception to sink in.

Human experience demonstrates the falsehood of both extremes: if any intelligent and educated group of researchers started to investigate all the nooks and crannies of claims of God's intervention in people's lives, they would probably be astonished at what they would find.  Despite all the fictitious, spurious and fanciful tales of miraculous intervention in the world, the number of documentable real cases is overwhelming once you start to notice it.  In fact, just about any Christian biography will tell of impossible things happening as the protagonist seeks to follow the will of God.  In order to dismiss them, you would have to call thousands of men and women who have contributed invaluably to human well-being in societies across the world, not only liars bur potentially lunatic.  Interestingly, though, the tales of miracles are not limited only to those with a conscious faith in Christ.  Similar difficult-to-deny tales exist throughout the history of almost any religious belief system.  So although this does not prove what invisible force(s) is (are) at work, it provides evidence upon evidence that SOMETHING spiritual really goes on in our world, whether people are alone or together, Muslims, Hindus, believers in Vudu or Satanists, born-again Christians, philosophers, psychologists, poets, artists or musicians, the illiterate or among the academic elite, wealthy south-Asians or poverty-stricken Americans.

The other extreme becomes hard to sustain for various reasons:
1. If god is everything and everything is god, than god must includes all good and all evil and it is hard to explain god inflicting suffering on god.  It also seems to follow that we would know we were gods, as would butterflies and fishies and that we would be far less vulnerable to the apparent winds of fate.
2. Of all the beliefs alternate to monotheism, the idea of various gods external to the physical world with various levels of power and divergent desires and whims seems the most logical.  After all, doesn't it sometimes feel like SOMETHING out there is mad at you and causing everything to go wrong one day, while the next two you float through on a dream before having a so-so one?  The problem is, almost every such belief system that has existed has been shown to be little more than superstition - it can be proved that most attempts to placate the "gods" do very little or nothing in actuality, that what they do accomplish are statistically more coincidental than causal.  But is this always the case?  Undoubtedly not - in some cases it is, once again, very evident that spiritual forces ARE at work in response to religious processes - or at least human senses so indicate.  People work a spell and someone DOES fall sick, a counter-spell is used and they mysteriously get better.  This is most evident in traditional African religious contexts and in places that have been influenced by them, like Brazil.  However, does that mean certain "gods" are real?  How DO we gain a sense of what spiritual forces are at work in the end?

Hmm, I'm out of time.  My lunch break is over and I have a lot to do.  I'll have to continue this one later.

Love and blessings,

Rachel

So I haven't written on here for... what... a whole couple of days!  And when I did it wasn't very personal.  Like my parents were saying yesterday on the phone - my life has been incredibly intense recently and it makes it feel like a lot more time is going by than actually is!  As they also point out, it makes me hard to keep up with.

I'm definitely ready for vacation.  And even MORE ready to be with my family.  Yay Pittsburgh!  Here we come!

And that's all I have time for at the moment! :D  Time to work on packing.

love and blessings,

Rachel

Part of "Mr. God, This is Anna" - the last bit.

Really the whole book is too precious to miss, but this is just the last bit:

I had been given a bundle of books some time previously, but I hadn't bothered to undo them.  There didn't seem to be much point.  It was one of those idle moments; I didn't know what to do with myself.  [The war years] had made my eyes tired with looking and my ears ache with listening.  Some sign, some vision, just for a moment.  I picked up the books.  They didn't seem all that interesting.  Nothing seemed very interesting.  I flipped through the pages.  It wasn't until my eyes fell upon the name Coleridge that I stopped the pages of the book slipping through my fingers.  For me Coleridge is at the top of the heap.  I began to read:


'I adopt with full faith the theory of Aristotle that poetry as poetry is essentially ideal, that it avoids and excludes all accident, that its...'


I turned back a few pages and began to read again.  ...


'The process by which the poetic imagintation works is illustrated by Coleridge from the following lines of Sir John Davies:


"Thus doth she, when from individual states
She doth abstract the individual kinds,
Which then reclothed in divers name and fates
Steal access thro' our senses to our minds." '


.... A few lines further on my eyes caught one word, 'violence'.


"The young poet', says Goethe, 'must do some sort of violence to himself to get out of the mere general idea.  No doubt this is difficult, but it is the very art of living.'


It slowly began to make sense, the bits began to fall into place.  Something was happening and it made me cry; for the first time in a long, long time I cried.  I went out into the night and stayed out.  The clouds seemed to be rolling back.  It kept nagging at the back of my mind.  Anna's life hadn't been cut short; far from it, it had been full, completely fulfilled.


The next day I headed back to the cemetery.  It took me a long time to find Anna's grave.  It was tucked away at the back of the cemetery.  I knew that it had no headstone, just a simple wooden cross with the name on it, 'Anna.'  I found it after about an hour.


I had gone there with a this feeling of peace inside me, as if the book had been closed, as if the story had been one of triumph, but I hadn't expected this.  I stopped and gasped.  This was it.  The little cross leaned drunkenly, its paint peeling off, and there was the name ANNA. 


I wanted to laugh, but you don't laugh in a cemetery, do you?  Not only did I want to laugh, I had to laugh.  It wouldn't stay bottled up.  I laughted till the tears ran down my face.  I pulled up the little cross and threw it into a thicket.


'Ok, Mister God', I laughed, 'I'm convinced.  Good old Mister God.  You might be a bit slow at times, but you certainly make it all right in the end.'


Anna's grave was a brilliant red carpet of poppies.  Lupins stood gard in the background.  A couple of trees whispered to each other whilst a family of little mice scurried backwards and forwards through the uncut grass.  Anna was truly home.  She didn't need a marker.  You couldn't better this with a squillion tons of marble.  I stayed for a little while and said goodbye to her for the first time in five years.  


As I made my way back to the main gates I passed by hordes of little marble cherubs, angels and pearly gates.  I stopped in front of the twelve-foot angel, still trying to lay down its bunch of marble flowers after God knows how many years.


'Hi, chum', I said, saluting the angel, 'you'll never make it, you know.'


I swung on the iron gates as I yelled back into the cemetery.


'The answer is, "In my middle".'


A finger of thrill went down my spine and I thought I heard a voice saying, 'What's that the answer to, Fynn?'


'That's easy.  The question is "Where's Anna?" '


I had found her again - found her in my middle.


I felt sure that somewhere Anna and Mister God were laughing.  


(By Fynn, Fontana/Collins, London, England 1974)

... And a little child shall lead them...

Written to a good friend

Dear good friend,

I read the following thoughts by John Eldredge recently and thought of you, as he argues convincingly about something that troubled me in your attitude toward yourself. I don't know what you think of John Eldredge personally, and I myself think he is over the top on some things, but in this particular text I think he is right on the button. Parts in bold are my special emphasis and parts in [ ] are comments of mine.

No Good Thing?

Excerpts from pages 74-79 of Waking the Dead

In an attempt to explain the biblical doctrine of sine, we've let something else creep in. You'll hear it come up almost automatically whenever Christians talk about themselves: "I'm just a sinner, saved by grace." "I'm just clothes for God to put on." "There sure isn't any good thing in me." It's so common this mind-set, this idea that we are no-good wretches, ready to sin at a moment's notice, incapable of goodness, and certainly far from glory.

It's also unbiblical.

The passage people think they are referring to is Romans 7:18, where Paul says, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing" (KJV). Notice the distinctino he makes. He does not say, "There is nothing good in me. Period." What he says is that "in my flesh dwelleth no good thing." The flesh is the old nature, the old life, crucified with Christ. The flesh is the very thing God removed from out hearts when he circumcised them by his Spirit. In Galations Paul goes on to explain, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful nature [the flesh] with its passions and desires" (5:24). He does not say, "I am incapable of good." He says, "In my flesh dwelleth no good thing." In fact, just a few moments later, he discovers that 'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2, KJV).

...

And listen to the way he [Paul] talks about us: "You shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life" (Phil. 2:15-16). As Shawn Mullins sings, "We're born to shimmer; we're born to shine." You are supposed to shimmer. "Let your light shine before men" (Matt 5:16). All of this groveling and self-depreciation done by Christians is often just shame masquerading as humility. Shame says, "I'm nothing to look at. I'm incapable of goodness." Humility says, "I bear a glory for sure, but it is a reflected glory. A grace given to me." Your story does not begin with sin. It begins with a glory bestowed upon you by God. It does not start in Genesis 3; it starts in Genesis 1. First things first, as they say.

... It was only after [God] made you that he said, "It is very good" (Gen. 1:31).

[this part will be especially useful to you guys in your relationships with the female sex, although I know only too well that women are not the only ones who obsess uncertainly about their looks]

... A woman wants to know that she is truly a woman, that she is beautiful; she longs to know that she is captivating; and all her life she wonders, "Do I have a beauty to offer?" The poet Yeats wrote,

If I make the lashes dark
And the eyes more bright

And the lips more scarlet

Or ask if all be right

From mirror after mirror

No vanity's displayed:

I'm looking for the face I had

Before the world was made.

("Before the World was Made" from the poem "A Woman Young and Old")

Yes, that's it. When you take a second glance in the mirror, when you pause to look again at a photograph, you are looking for a glory you know you were meant to have, if only because you know you long to have it. You remember faintly that you were once more than what you have become. Your story didn't start with sin, and thank God, it does not end with sin. It ends with glory restored: "Those he justified, he also glorified" (Rom. 8:30). And "in the meantime," you have been transformed, and you are being transformed. You've been given a new heart. Now God is restoring your glory. He is bringing you fully alive. Because the glory of God is you fully alive."

Well... now its me, Rachel, again. Wow, right? I recommend the whole book, but that's the section that especially made me think of you. The phrase, "the glory of god is man fully alive" actually comes from Saint Iranaeus in the second century (REALLY near the beginning :D ). I would just add a couple more Biblical passages, which I am putting almost in their entirety because they are SO good and thanks to the ease provided by Biblegateway.com. Emphasis mine, of course.

2 Corinthians 3

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? ...

4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4

Treasures in Jars of Clay

1 Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. ... 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

2 Corinthians is my current favorite book of the Bible.

Love and blessings,

Rachel

Life is good

Life is good right now. :D

Thank you, Oswald Chambers, for the following encouraging thoughts:

(from a book called "The Quotable Oswald Chambers", which is pretty much everything he's ever written, separated out by topics)

On the topic of "Broken Bread/Poured Out Wine"

"Just as my Lord was made broken bread and poured-out wine for me, so I must be made broken bread and poured-out wine in His hands for others. What is meant by 'in His hands' is seen in the kind of things that bruise me - tyrannic powers, misunderstanding people, things that ordinarily I would have resented and said, 'No, I can't allow that.' Is there being produced in me, through the crushing of His disguised feet, the wine that is a real quickening of other lives? A yielded life to God becomes a doormat for men. He leaves us here to be trampled on." (which sounds unloving unless you truly know the heart of the ultimate trampler :D ).

On the topic of "Call of God"

"God can break or bend or mould, just as He chooses. You do not know why He is doing it; He is doing it for One purpose only, that He may be able to say, 'This is My man, My woman.' Never choose to be a worker, but when once God has put His call on you, woe be to you if you turn to the right or to the left. God will do with you what He never did with you before the call came; He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way."

"Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him."

And get this one:

"The call of God embarrasses us because of two things - it presents us with sealed orders, and urges us to a vast venture."

To be honest, I feel I have been given 'sealed orders' on the Center of Hope thing. Just pray I can withstand nobly the crushing involved and not run away from it.

Love and blessings,

Rachel

Prayer

Lord, you know better than anyone what it is to groan under a burden. Help me to bear this well and rightly. In Jesus' name, Amen

Wow, so many amazing Christmas songs

Here's another one, sung by Steve Green:

Good news...

Good news

An angel brings good news

Close your eyes

And fold your hands

For a moment, let your sorrow fade

Why, why are you afraid

Has this world stripped you of your faith

Close your eyes and on bended knee

Listen to an angel pray

And once again prepare the way

So you see a gift that's given

Behold a time of joy

Behold a baby boy

Good news

Good news

An angel brings good news

Good news

Good news

I leave you with good news

Bow your heard and speak not a word

Let the silence take you far from here

The spirit of a child dry a tear

And may your doubts thus dissapear

Bow your head and on bended knee

Hear the story once again

A child will learn to wear a cross

A child will love to pledge a life

Behold a time of joy

Behold Christ a baby boy

Good news

Good news

An angel brings good news

Good news

Good news

I leave you with good news

Good news...

" ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ... ¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Cor. 4:7-9, 16-18). Maybe not all burdens are a bad thing. Lord, thank you for where I am right now, even though the burden seems unusually crushing. Thank you that by your grace, I will not be crushed, only molded, shaped, re-shaped, polished, refined. You are good.

Come thou long expected Jesus

Born to set thy people free

From our fears and sins release us

Let us find our rest in thee

Israel's strength and consolation

Hope of all the Earth thou art

Deep desire of every nation

Joy of every longing heart

Born thy people to deliver

Born a child and yet a King

Born to reign in us forever

Now thy gracious Kingdom bring

By thy own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone

By thy own sufficient merit

Raise us to thy glorious throne.

Come, Lord Jesus

Come quickly Lord

Come...

Thank you, Lord, that nothing I can do can make me more deserving of you and of grace. You are good... by YOUR OWN SUFFICIENT merit... thank you.

By your grace,

Rachel

What IF??? the end of all things continued

So... I'm back

It started raining as I was about to leave the house, thankfully in time for me to decide to drive. My friend is safely here and ensconced in her homework, so I'm back to work. The big problem with writing too many blog updates, other than the fact that no one ever has time to read them all, is that it takes away from the other things I'm supposed to be doing... like updating the MAPI site. Oops. Sorry Dad! I will get to it, I promise. In fact, I'll work on this particular update only when I'm waiting for the internet to catch up with my updates on the site. How's that?

Isn't it fun when things in the Bible that were pretty much complete mysteries all of a sudden click into place, forming a bigger picture that makes sense? I'm excited - FINALLY the book of Revelation makes some sense to me! Woohoo!

At the end of my last blog I was talking about the anti-Christ and whether there are prophesied one or many. Many seem to be indicated also by Christ in Matthew 24 (v. 5) - "For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ' [the Savior] and will deceive many." Hmm, maybe Marx does fit in the anti-Christ category after all. He certainly thought himself a savior of mankind. Or just a describer of the eventual salvation of mankind? Its fascinating how much his final conclusion looks like heaven. Natural means leading atheistic men to true results. Kind of like the urbana article I put up recently.

Matthew 24: "^{15 '}So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ... ²¹For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. ... ²³At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. ²⁴For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. ²⁵ See, I have told you ahead of time."

"See I have told you ahead of time". Because in our times of distress we are most likely to look to false hope. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.

... "³⁰ At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. ³¹And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³²"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁴I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Matthew 24 cont).

The meaning of "this generation" is interesting to speculate on, since Christ obviously did not return before the deaths of the apostles, but I'll leave that for another time. Its interesting also that he tells us to be sure to keep our eyes open for the signs of the coming of this time while also saying that it is impossible for us to know exactly when it will happen. So we can have a general knowledge that its coming soon, just not a specific knowledge of the moment.

³⁶"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ... ⁴²"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come" (Matthew 24 cont).

The idea that the timing of Christ's return depends in part on our decisions - how long we continue to follow God correctly and keep hope in this world, keep on giving Him reason to be patient - would explain why not even Christ knows the time of his coming! How very typical of God. And COOL!

Keep watch... you DON'T know... keep watch. Yes, Lord, may we indeed have our lamps ready and full of oil when you come.

Back to the book of Revelation, chapter 14.

Chapter 14 - "Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb" (v. 1) - hurray!!! In this chapter the saints overcome Babylon the great and all becomes beautiful again! All that is evil is destroyed.

Chapter 15 and 16 - God's judgement against evil is described.

Chapters 17 and 18 - The fall of Babylon continues. God certainly isn't in a hurry, is he?

Chapter 19 - "¹After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

"Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
²for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants." ³And again they shouted:
"Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever."

⁴The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried:
"Amen, Hallelujah!""

Judgement is both just and over. Christ and His saints are clothed in white and celebrated in victory!

Chapter 20 - " ¹And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. ²He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. ³He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time."

Hmm, so apparently the culmination of evil does come first, THEN the millenia. Too bad. But not entirely surprising, given the state of our world.

^"7When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
"10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

So, people are given the chance to see clearly and obviously the full goodness of God in the millenia and THEN when they still rebel they are sen to the lake of fire. Poor people. I shudder at the thought.

Rev. 21 - the new Jerusalem! Once all who choose to rebel against God are judged, the rest are taken to a place without pain. Wow.

Rev. 22 - the conclusion. Jesus declares, "'Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.'" And after a book about judgement, John ends with the following significant and important words: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen."

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. In the proper time. But meanwhile, come always and continuously and more and more, in our hearts, minds, souls, homes, relationships, jobs and every other aspect of who we are, what we think, what we do... BE! Make us Frodos... Sams... Merrys... Pippins... Gimlis... Legolases... Gandalfs... Aragorns... each according to our particular characteristics. Or, not to leave out the important females in the story... Eowyns, Galadriels and Arwens. In Jesus' name, Amen

P.S. Other than the movie version of "The Return of the King" which partially inspired this and the previous blog, another excellent movie I saw recently, although it only spells out the salvation of one family instead of a whole age of the world, is called "I'll Be There". I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

What IF??? the end of all things

Wow, I'm really grateful for blogs. They're a great way of processing a mash of thoughts in a way that makes them open to the feedback of the world. SO much fun. I wanted to create a place like this way back in college, but at that point I was afraid of having my thoughts open to just about anyone (I had not yet developed a tough and sympathetic skin) and so I wanted one I could open to just a handful. Which actually can be done with blogs, which I didn't realize at the time, but now I don't even need to. Which is nice. Yay for growth.

So now for the subject of this blog. WHAT IF? Wow, I'm so excited. Get this idea:

What if Christ has not returned yet BECAUSE THE CHURCH IS DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB? What if... what in the world do I mean? Ok, think about it this way.

The end of all things ("I'm glad to be here with you, Sam, at the end of all things") will come, I think, when the world can no longer bear its own weight. When the O-zone is so depleted, global warming has reached such a state, etc, etc, etc that the world starts to fall apart... destroyed by earthquakes and fire, as Revelation indicates. When the ring bearer DOESN'T make it to Mount Doom with the ring of power OR the ring overwhelms him and he truly becomes corrupt. However, before that happens, before the final judgement is brought about not so much by God's desire but by our own dreadful, deathly mistakes, or by the end of His patience (if THAT'S what it depends on, no WONDER its taking several thousand years post-Christ), WE have to become totally degenerate. The O-zone won't deplete if we follow God's initial command to take care of our world and God won't run out of patience if we keep doing what we're supposed to. After all, who is to say what would have happened if Frodo had kept the ring? If Gollum HAD been killed earlier and hadn't been there to interfere? Would the eye have been more powerful than the bearer of its own ring? There probably would have been a terrible war between two forces of evil. Hitler and Stalin. IF Frodo had won, which seems unlikely, it would have been much like the lady of the forest said - she would have become the great goddess; Frodo would have become the diminutive and dreadful giant and set up towers and gates of his own, because that's the way the ring works. If Mordor had won... will... the rest is history. We all know that TRULY would have been the end of all things good. Although, in point of fact, good takes an awefully long time to die and keeps on springing up when you least expect it. Like the coming of the eagles in that final battle.

That reminds me. Where are the dwarves in the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy? Other than good old Gimli, they seem to dissapear after the Hobbit. Why? They may have been another source of rescue for men if it had come to that. ANYWAY...

So let's say Frodo brandishes the ring. A terrible battle ensues. The outcome, in the end, would probably depend on more Frodo-like characters. Small, seeminlgy insignificant creatures who have life-changing roles to play. Like you and me :). Not so insignificant after all, right?

In other words... the fellowship - the Church, the true church of Christ - might be the true reason this world hasn't ended yet. Because there is still SO MUCH hope in this real world, infinitely more than in the Lord of the Rings where Gandalf says, "there never was much hope. Only a fool's hope". Instead, we get to see good ALL around us ALL the time if we choose to notice it. So much fun! And we have so much opportunity! Because we don't have just a Gandalf. WE have the Holy Spirit, the very presence of Christ in us, guiding us each step of the way! WE have a counselor who will NEVER abandon us, can never be pulled into the abyss by the demon-like creature (what's it called again) or stuck on the top of Saramun's tower and who can actually be right within us at the same time he is with and within every single other good person in the world. There's SO much chance to make this world more the way it is supposed to be - because His Kingdom IS still coming on Earth as it is in heaven. WOW.

When hope truly disappears, when we can no longer do anything more, even with His help, when all goodness on this Earth is gone and the very saints are being put to death because they are no longer tolerated ANYWHERE anymore, THEN I think Christ will return. And a glorious day it will be. But until then, let's keep on hoping it will take a VERY long time, as does our Lord himself:

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9, NIV, emphasis mine).

If the world could become heaven before it becomes hell, our Lord would be infinitely pleased. Maybe THAT's the meaning of the millenia. MAYBE we ARE progressing, as Marx liked to think. Maybe this place WILL become truly wondeful - the whole ALL of it under the invisible leadership of our Lord. And maybe at THAT point Jesus WILL com and walk among us physically once again. Wow. Wouldn't that be something. And wouldn't it be worth it to have all of that happen BEFORE the end? While we still live on this beautiful Earth He created, BEFORE the new heavens and the new Earth? That would be really cool.

So maybe that's where we are in history... we're heading for the millenia, recognizing our wrongs, making this world a better place, banishing our Hitler's, criticizing our genocides, becoming more tolerant of differences, learning to take care of our natural environment... and learning to show Christ to the world in a whole new way. Maybe... if the Lord wills it... our children or grandchildren will get to see Christ walk this world once again in the flesh. Now that is worth living for. Wow.

Because all the suffering in all the world is worth it if flowers continue to grow.

Maybe that's why the book of Revelation starts with the letters to all the churches that can't quite get it right - because when the church can no longer get it right and all the ones who do are dieing, than the judgments of Revelation will begin. Scary thought.

"After this [the letters] I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.' At once... [I saw God on his throne]" (Rev. 4:1-2).

Then (chapter 5)... the lamb opens the scroll...

Chapter 6 - terrible suffering - famine - is decreed on the Earth

Chapter 7 - 144,000 (a remnant - isn't that just like God) are sealed with protection; tribulation is decreed

Chapter 8 - the seventh seal is opened. There is SILENCE in heaven for half an hour. Something that surely hasn't happened since the fall. Hope fails ... then... the silence is broken: "¹³ As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth" (last verse of chapter 8)

Chapter 9 - locusts and other plagues are sent by God as judgement but cannot touch the elect (sound familiar?). What God has done for Israel he will do for the church...

Chapter 10 - "Then I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings." (v. 11). THAT'S not going to be any fun. Talk about leading to suffering... a prophet is never welcome in his own home (on his own Earth).

Chatper 11- God realizes the above and sends two prophets from heaven to help us out. But they too are killed by the creature from the abyss in the end. Gandalf-like.

Then - hope! " ¹A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head." (Rev. 12:1) ... "And there was war in heaven" (v. 7)... Satan is hurled to Earth; the woman gives birth to her Son... "¹⁷Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus."

Chapter 13 - the rise of the anti-Christ(s?). "This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666" (v. 18) Could it be that their are actually 666 anti-Christ's that have lived and will live throughout time, not one? Each of them men led astray and inhabited by the beast - Satan? I can think of a few... Mohammad (sorry, Karis), Hitler and Stalin (I WOULD NOT include Marx or Nietzsche in their number, believe it or not. But that's a conversation for another time. They only spoke the truths of their time - they did not create it) among them. People who caused thousands of others to deviate from the truth of Christ. Not irreparably, but nonetheless, deviate. It could be nonetheless, that there will be one final anti-Christ that will trump all the rest. Not unlikely. We'll see.

Uh oh, I have to go pick up a teenager who is spending the night with me from school. More later!

Love and hope,

Rachel

Worth reading, from Urbana.org Least of These section

Can We Change the World Without God?

Posted At : November 25, 2009 12:23 AM
Related Categories: Atheism

(From Urbana.org Least of These section)

When you survey the wondrous and tragic history of the human drama on planet earth, it is overwhelming to recount all of the individuals who have contributed positively to human advance. Agriculture, music, engineering, art, political science, mathematics, medicine, genetics, zoology, literature … they each have their own very large “halls of fame” filled with people from different continents and eras and coming from different faiths, worldviews and cultures. Daniel Boorstin in his books, The Creators and The Discoverers writes sweeping accounts of the thousands of years and the hundreds of persons who have contributed to our life together as humans.

It is interesting to consider what part faith in Jesus Christ makes, if any, in bringing about positive change for humanity. Are the contributions of Einstein, Edison, Benjamin Franklin or Freud rendered null because they were atheists or agnostics? I don’t know about you, but I still love the effect of flipping on a light switch along with the various forms of energy harnessed because of atheists like these. The above list represents just a few modern, western atheistic inventors, and says nothing of the Arab, Asian, Latin American or African creators and discoverers who added something to human flourishing without a belief in Christ as savior.

Of course the list of contributors motivated by their Christian faith is quite impressive as well: Michael Faraday (speaking of electric energy), Louis Pasteur, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., William Wilberforce, not to mention the Arab (i.e. Charles Malik), Asian (i.e. Watchman Nee), Latin American (i.e. Oscar Romero) or African (i.e. Desmond Tutu) followers of Jesus who have added to human flourishing.

Because every human bears the marks of a Creator who infused us with ingenuity, artistry, imagination, governance and creativity – whether they believe in him or not – the propensity for humans to contribute to their own flourishing is simply a reflection of the fact that we were made in the image of a God who loves to make things which flourish. We have much to gain from atheists like Pavlov or Hawking, and I am thankful for the myriad clever, compassionate, God-hating (or sometimes just Church-hating) men and women who give themselves to serve to the poor and marginalized or advance the general well-being of our planet and her inhabitants.

So is there any benefit in knowing Jesus as friend, master, and teacher when bringing about global change?

The Hope Catalyst: One of the most pernicious scourges of humanity, especially among the poor, is despair. Despair is a spiritual condition, and its primary manifestation is apathy towards ones own welfare and the welfare of others. Hope is the only cure for despair and requires something more than wishful thinking. Hope must be grounded in truth. For me the truth of God’s love, incarnate in the man Jesus, and God’s promise to be with us in our trials and sufferings makes a difference. Aligning ourselves with the Creator brings power to confront evil and to right wrongs. Hope – a conviction about God’s love and a future of redemption – is the catalytic power behind a change agent.

The Ear of God and the Mind of Christ: There is something about communion that positively infects the Christian thinker, artist, writer, scientist and aid worker. I’m not necessarily talking about the Eucharist, though this is a picture of what I mean. I am talking about that place of intimacy with the Divine. That God invites us into fellowship, that Christ calls us to consume him, that each believer is possessed by the Holy Spirit – these things make the Christian more than flesh and bone. We have God’s ear in this Divine – human romance, and access to a kind of wisdom that confounds human wisdom. There is a mystical beauty in being united to God which bodies like the UN or people like Stephen Hawking do not understand and it affects how we interact with the world and expands what we have to offer an ailing humanity.

The Perseverance of Faith: I know Christians who have reached places of burnout or become jaded … I’ve danced pretty close to that line myself. But there is something about the believer’s access to Sabbath rest that I often do not see in the lives of others. Some studies suggest that half of returning NGO workers suffer pretty serious burnout, depression or post traumatic stress disorder. For Mother Teresa and the Sisters of Charity and for the New Friars whom I hang with, there is a qualitative difference in their devotional focus which gives many of them staying power in some pretty awful situations. It has something to do with their ability to get alone with Jesus, allowing him to replenish them. It is as if there is a kind of water available in Christ that quenches a thirst for justice and righteousness and satisfies a tired soul.

Can we change the world without Jesus? Yes. Can we bring the kingdom without the King? No. The kind of change I want to see involves giving hope to the hopeless. It requires the sort of thinking and problem solving that rises out of meekness and divine wisdom. It requires the power to stay with a difficult situation without growing weary. Many good things have come from God’s image bearers who do not believe he exists. But true transformation must have a spiritual dimension – and as someone who believes in a singular, intelligent Creator who made a way for the world to climb out of our mess through his Son, I do not see real transformation coming from anywhere else but him.