Meditation/Apologetics

I sat down to write this blog fifteen minutes ago, then realized that my e-mail box had nearly 3000 messages and needed to be cleared. When I began the tedious process, I saw some attachments that I wanted to keep--some photographs--and got involved in trying to download them. Five minutes into that, I remembered what I had sat down to do. It reminded me of the difficulty of maintaining priorities and how easy it is to get caught up in our flood of media and other technologies. If you're paying attention, you realize how much your soul needs quietness. And if you're not paying attention, you may feel somewhat frazzled and anxious. Life is moving fast these days; perhaps faster than is good for our souls. If we don't attend to our souls, none of the rest of it will matter.

I invite you to let this reading be an opportunity to tune in to your soul--your heart of hearts; the core of your being. Pay attention on purpose to your inner being. Pause now and take some time to do this.
What do you detect? What is in your heart? Maybe write or journal about what you discover. You may find yourself feeling compelled to break way from this and go do something. I'm inviting you to just BE rather than DO.  Be wherever and whatever you are in this moment. Breathe deep. Settle in to this moment. Feel your life pulsing in your body. Be amazed at your amazing body. (What comes up when you think of your body? Pay attention to that, then let it go, and come back to being amazed and thankful for your body. Let go of making judgments about your body. Whatever condition it is in, it is a miracle!)

Take some time to meditate on your death. If this evokes anxiety, that is good! Face that anxiety. It will not protect you from death. Move through that anxiety until you come out on the other side of it where death becomes your friend. Death is your friend, not because you are morbidly desirous or callous about it, but because it is such a great teacher. The Bible reminds us that our lives are like a mist that arises briefly and then is seen no more; like grass that flourishes briefly then wilts away. This, of course, is alluding to our physical bodies, not our souls. The Bible teaches that our souls are eternal; and that Christ has opened the doorway to this eternal life of the soul in the most wonderful way--in the way of divine Love; the Love that brings forth and sustains the universe--that moves the sun and moon and stars. The Love from which this exquisite earth has blossomed like a flower in an otherwise, as far as we can see, barren universe. And we are at the apex of life on this planet! We may be the only creatures within a billion light years that are contemplating the meaning of life! That have the capacity to experience beauty, love, and humor.  We should be dancing!

And that is what happens when we go deeply and courageously into our selves--our souls. We realize that we did not create ourselves. And the more deeply we look into the amazing complexity of life, and it's interdependent inter-wovenness, the more difficult it is to hold to a theory of random chance--that we are here because of an accident occurring in inorganic dust and gasses that have somehow always been here, and that accidentally brought forth living creatures with something as miraculously awesome as consciousness!  That consciousness evolved from unconsciousness!? We can begin to credibly believe that the Power by which we are here must be conscious and beneficent. It/He/She gave us our precious lives! We begin to see what Jesus was and is talking about. A God who is Love.
We begin to see that this universe (including us, of course) is a manifestation of Divine Love! And nothing can be lost from the universe. If we are here because of Love, then we have nothing to fear and nothing to dread. Not even death.
But we see the reality of evil. Some may say that since there is no conscious core of the universe--no God--that there is really no standard by which we can say that anything is evil or good. We only have our own projections, coming from our own consciousness. But we realize that we did not create our consciousness, as we did not create our physical bodies. And the proposition that there is no evil or good goes against something in us that feels universal and true. We sense that we did not create the reality that murder, rape and theft are evil. We sense that the evilness of these deeds was true before we ascribed them as "evil".  And by what innate intuition do we sense this "evil" and "good"? Is that intuition also a randomly evolved phenomenon? Something that is issuing independently out of DNA? ( I suppose there will always be some who believe so. The Bible says "The fool has said in his heart 'there is no God.'" [Psm 14:1]  But I don't want to come across as arrogant. I'm simply quoting the Bible, which, I believe, can still be rightly considered the most influential book on the planet. )
Does it not seem valid to suppose that that intuition of evil and good issues out of the same power by which we are here? And is it possible that inorganic material can have a sense of evil and good? Or a sense of anything for that matter? It seems that we keep coming back to the Conscious Core; some Consciousness from which we emanated; something that imparted such things as love, beauty, humor and truth into us--God.
If  we cross the continental divide from atheism to theism, we must begin to wonder if the Conscious Core of the universe has communicated to us, and if so, what?  Someone [like me] may come to you and say that One has come to this earth claiming not only to know the Truth, but to actually BE the Truth. How can one be a person of intellectual integrity and choose to ignore the one who claims to be universal Truth? A truth-seeker must come to his/her own independent conclusion regarding this, and that can only be done by sincere and careful investigation. This can lead into an honest and deep investigation into the life and teachings of Jesus-- something that could be of immense value! In fact I think it's fair to say that anyone who has not done this investigation is either too busy, a coward or a fool. Every time we write the date we testify to His historical existence and to His eminence.  This is 2017 AD (in the year of our Lord).
So here are some statements from the Bible that you may find helpful to meditate upon:
Be still....and know....that He is God. Psm 46:10
I have calmed and quieted my soul. Even as a baby at its mother's breast is my soul. Psm 131:2
Peace I give to you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. (Jesus)
Don't be afraid, and don't let your heart be troubled. (Jesus)
As I have loved you, love each other. They will know that you are my disciples by the love that you have for each other. (Jesus)

Parenting

Many of us white-knuckle it through the parenting of our children, feeling hamstrung by them most of the time, occasionally delighting in them by accident, while we wait for a "freer" time when we can pursue our individual hobbies or adventures. As they grow, so do we; then we look back and think something like "Holy crap! The most important thing in my life was happening under my feet while I was looking out toward some future horizon!" If we are blessed, we haven't screwed up our relationships with out children to the point that we don't have access to our GRANDchildren. We get a chance to redeem ourselves. Our children look on in awe and wonder "Why weren't they like that for me?!" The answer is "We weren't mature enough. Learn from our mistakes. Don't miss out on your children."

Bible and Qur'an Not The Same

"Jesus answered, 'You know neither me nor my Father.  If you knew me you would know my Father also.' "  John 8:19

"The one who rejects me rejects him who sent me." Luke 10:16

"I and my Father are one."  Jesus, John 10:30

"Whoever believes in him [the Son] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in him is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." Jesus, John 3:18

"Jesus was no more than a mortal whom Allah favored and made an example to the Israelites." Qur'an 43:59

Grace and Forgiveness

Grace and forgiveness are a doorway of spiritual growth that we must go through; or rather open wide our hearts to receive. If we do not open our hearts very wide to receive Grace and forgiveness then we will not be able to face the truth about ourselves. And if we cannot face the truth about ourselves we will die spiritually. There is no growth that circumvents Truth; and if an organism isn't growing in some way, it dies.

What happens when we open wide our hearts to receive God's Grace and Forgiveness given through Christ?

A Light comes flooding into our soul, into the deepest core of our being---a warm healing Light that is also like a River—a River of Life that washes away death and everything associated with the darkness. There is no darkness in this Light. No guilt. No fear. No dread of anything, including death and sickness and pain. The Light is the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus Who has overcome the world of darkness and oppression. In this Spirit is freedom and peace and joy. There is Love for God and man—good will toward all people. As long as we are in touch with this eternal Reality—the Reality of Christ—we remain in this freedom and Love. We realize that this is eternal Reality and that all our fears and worries were and are delusions. As long as we live in this Love we know that, from our standpoint, all is well in the universe because we are doing all that we can for it by loving God and man. We have come home. As we grow in Spirit, we are able to stay in this place for longer periods of time, and even when we are distracted by the “world”, we still know, in our deepest level, that all is well and will ever be well. We know that God is working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). In this Reality we know that we are now and have always been in the domain of a loving Creator Who is pleased with us because we have received the righteousness of Christ (Romans 3:22, 5:17, 8:10, Philippians 1:11, 3:9 and elsewhere). This righteousness was and is so pure that God spoke in an audible voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) . This is the righteousness we have received from God through and because of Christ. God is pleased with us. We can rest in His gracious acceptance of us. We are content in our souls but not yet satisfied. How can we be satisfied as long as children are starving and humans are killing each other, stealing from each other and abusing and using each other? We realize that we have work to do. This work is motivated only by the Love of Christ—not guilt or fear:  Those have been eradicated by Grace (Ephesians 2:8-10). And this work is a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light (Matthew 11:30). Because of the Holy Spirit in us, we can not have peace unless we are working to further the Kingdom of God. This is the work Christ did on the earth; and it is the work that we, His earthly body, the Church, continue to do. We do this work joyfully and thankfully. (John 15:11, 1Thessalonians 5:18, James 3:18).  

Coming Home To Christ

When we come to Christ we come home. We cross over a great divide and the course of our life changes in a glorious new direction. We enter the pathway of true life. We realize the Truth about life, good, evil, love, and lostness. In some ways, it is only when we come into the Light of Christ that we realize how lost and desperate we were—how dark that darkness was and is.

It's like we were traipsing along our blind pathway and someone came to us and said “You know this road is not going in a good direction.” And we had already hit some pretty bad bumps, gotten some bruises of the heart, etc. so a miracle happened and we listened, and turned onto a new pathway—the pathway of the Love of Christ. And this pathway took us up a winding mountain, and at some point we could look down and see where our old path was taking us. And we were horrified! The old path was full of pitfalls, poisonous spiders, snakes, & camouflaged traps. It was littered with the bones of those who didn't make it out. Some were caught in the traps and webs of the evil one. All the people were miserable, constantly arguing and blaming each other, stealing and killing, using and taking advantage of one another. And the pathway ended at a cliff, falling into a pit of endless fire. From where we stand on this mountain looking down, we are tremendously relieved and joyful that we took the path of Christ. We realize that we would have died, not only physically, but spiritually—the death of the young man in the pig pen before he woke up to Reality. Christ is Reality! He said it Himself: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me.” Jn14:6.

Then we look again and we see some of our loved ones traipsing along that dangerous old path. We try to warn them. But they think we are too religious or old fashioned or conservative or restrictive. We may even plead with them, but it just makes them feel uncomfortable; and so they travel on. But we cannot go with them, no matter how much we love them. We are on a different path, going in a different direction. Sometimes they are angry and judgmental of us for not "loving" them they way they want to be "loved", but we realize their way will never work for them--something they cannot yet see from within the darkness. We do not blame them or argue with them. But we are following the Lord of all creation, the Lord of Life and eternity, and we can not allow any human to pull us away from the Pathway of Life. It would not help them, and it would be catastrophic for us. So Jesus said that He brings a sword to separate fathers from sons, mothers from daughters, brothers and sisters from each other. (Matthew 10:34-37) He does this--not us! Our desire is unity for the entire human family. But we follow in the Way of Christ, not of man or the world. If we have a loved one who is walking in the lostness of the world and who will not repent, they are walking in a different direction than we can allow ourselves to walk. So we do our best to sow good seeds of Truth in them, hoping they will take root and grow in them at some point, and we continue on in Christ's Way, with some sadness in our hearts--a sadness that we can feel fading in the eternal joy and peace of the heavenly existence that Christ promised, and is fulfilling in us. The peace that only He can give. The peace of knowing, with fading doubt, that we have come home and we are going home. And we will not fail to make it all the way.

Suffering

The sufferings, trauma and losses that we experience in life that create vacuous holes and deep wounds in our souls, when faced in faith, hope and love, shape our personalities in a very beautiful way, making us more compassionate, wise and strong, and connecting us more deeply with the entire human family that shares in these sufferings.  Life has a raw edge of pain. People vary in their sensitivity to this raw edge of pain. [Some of the most sensitive we label mentally ill.] It causes some to hate; others to love.

Christianity: Global Religion

In Renaissance: The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times, well-known evangelical Os Guinness claims that Christianity is the world's first truly global religion. He cites five facts in support of his thesis:

1. Jesus of Nazareth has the greatest number of followers of any religion on planet Earth.

2. The church is the most diverse community on the earth.

3. The Bible is the most translated book in human history.

4. Churches are the most numerous social service agencies across the world.

5. In many parts of the world, the Christian faith is the fastest growing religion and is growing through conversion rather than simply through the birth rate.

Yale history professor Kenneth Scott Latourette said of Christianity, "More than any other power in history it has impelled men to fight suffering, whether that suffering has come from disease, war or natural disasters. It has built thousands of hospitals, inspired the emergence of nursing and medical professions, and furthered movements for public health and the relief and prevention of famine."