Why? Why? Why?

"why doesn't this person speak to me anymore?'
"why did my friend say this negative thing about me?"
and my grand daughter recently asked, "why would a friend violate my trust?"

and of course, the biggies, "why do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people?"

Herrmann's brain dominance research noted that "why?" is a fundamental question governed by the upper right quadrant of the brain. We equate the ability to answer the "why?" questions to higher order knowledge called wisdom.

Yet, King Solomon admonishes us about the futility of such questions because meaning in life is determined only by God, and wisdom comes from recognizing this. - Ecclesiastes 7

This point is supported by the popular scripture "trust in God with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

Making sense out of events in our life by pursuing the "why?" question seems then to be carnally minded.
Our human mind is governed by "cause and effect" logic.
Might we become more Kingdom minded if we ask God His perspective instead of pursuing and demanding answers to the question "why?"

This blogs for me!!    The rest of you can ponder it too if you'd like :-)

"Man, have you no shame?"

There was a great discussion this morning among Christian men about the notion of feeling shame when we sin. While some of the debate centered around not having a common meaning for the word shame, some of the tension is our difficulty of making sense of ourselves without the influence of our carnal mind.

If a word can mean anything then it means nothing, so what does shame mean? It literally means "covering ourselves," but it's more applied meaning is to feel the pain of disgrace. Once Adam and Eve were conscious of their sin, they "covered themselves". Thus, shame is a response to wrong doing that came with the Fall. Up until then, Adam and Eve "knew no shame." We may confuse the feeling of shame with the sense of grief. Grief is the pain of feeling "loss".

When we sin, we offend God by violating His purpose for our lives. We may and should feel grief in that we break fellowship (not relationship) with Him as we trust in getting our needs met through the world. However, we should not feel shame. Shame does not come from a Kingdom mind but from the carnal mind (our Fallen state). "Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," who make sense of themselves and the world around them through things of the God's spirit.

God does not depend on our behavior to be honored. He is honored because He is God and His Son is the King. Those who trust God for their identity and value know that we are always graced, never disgraced. As a parent I would never want my children (or grandchildren) to "cover themselves" from me because of anything they did.  While they may regret disappointing me, I would not want fellowship to be broken, AND SO IT IS WITH GOD AND HIS CHILDREN. God said to Adam & Eve, "why are you hiding?"


It is sooooo difficult for us to make sense of ourselves through God's eyes. In some respect doing otherwise is just as sinful.   Is it just as sinful (outside God's will) to feel shame for telling a lie as it is to lie? Think about it .....

Blessed to be predestined?

Many acorns fall to the ground in the Fall of each year. I have to pull up each that becomes a tree in the Spring and there are many. However, what impresses me is how many fall to the same soil and do not become a tree. Aren't acorns made to become a tree. many more do not than do. Ummm ..









 "Blessed be God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places."

Notice there are the three different Greek words used here: first is eulogetos meaning adorable or speak well toward (God is adored or receives our highest praise) next is eulogeo meaning extolled favor or prospered and third is eulogia meaning benefits

So this verse is best understood by the following "how adored by us is this God who granted to us His favor with every spiritual benefit of Heaven"

"In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will."

Predestined simply means determined before - before what? Well, before we determined. In other words because He loved us (not the other way around), God decided that we would be His children through adoption. This is what He wanted. Is it not true that when parents adopt a child, the parents determined before the child did that the kid would be their child? This decision to adopt blesses the child and the child adores the parents. We think when someone adopts a child that is simply "hunkie doorie." Don't we?

Why then do we get our panties in a wad about God determining ahead of us that He wants to adopt us. What offends us so much about the word "predestined"?
See, words properly understood have power. However, when a word can mean anything (whatever we want), then it means nothing.

Think about it .... let's just quit worrying about what God determines for us before we can determine it and focus on the blessings of adoption determined for us by God and our life will be transformed!!!

judgmentalism from another angle

           

Many folks deal with the challenge to not be judgmental. Judging others is considered a form of self-righteousness and comes from not fully understanding or accepting the Grace by which we have been received by the King of the universe.

Seldom do we focus on the challenges we face when others judge us. How do we respond? How should we respond? How does the Gospel of Grace inform our response? When others condemn us because we fail or fail to meet some expectation, it hurts, especially when we wish to be thought well of by the other person. How do we get beyond this hurt? I don't mean how can we muster up enough of something to grin and bear it?

How can grace be active when someone we care about "demonizes" us? This is the truest test of what it means to love another with unmerited favor. It may be the closest we come to understanding just a little of how much God loves us because we are very good at accusing Him of all sorts of things when He doesn't be God like we expect Him to be.

Think about it ....

a word about "sacrifice"

A moralistic society notes sacrifice as something we do for someone else that provides them something we value with no expectation from them in return. Memorial Day was a day we note the "sacrifice" others have made through the years for our freedom by giving their lives in war. Certainly people serving others by risking their lives  is always admirable. However, if we look at sacrifice as it is generally practiced, their seems to be a sense of the giver that the receiver is obligated to respond to the giver in some way. Further, when we speak of sacrifice we generally hold the view that what we give is ours (a possession) to give based on our own discretion.

Historically, sacrifice meant giving something of value to appease a god. All religions of the world have this notion that "god(s)" need to be happy with us and to keep them happy, we need to "sacrifice" to them. Interesting how this view of sacrifice has crept into the Gospel of Grace. We speak about "sacrificial giving" for instance as if we are giving something to God (via the church usually) from what we own to satisfy some obligation to Him (or His church) for being included.

The irony of the way we view sacrifice is that what we give (including our life) is not our own and the Gospel of Grace carries with it no obligation (unmerited favor). So, when we make sense of sacrifice through a carnal mind, we again lose the understanding of grace. The Kingdom mind says we cannot sacrifice anything because we own nothing - everything we have is "on loan" to us by God Himself (real meaning of stewardship).

"As to every man God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor - this is the gift of God."  Ecclesiastes 5: 19

Secondly, the Kingdom mind knows that appeasing God for things that displease Him has already been taken care of by the Cross.

I was always amused at church campaigns on sacrificial giving and how these messages distorted the very message of the Gospel. I wondered, "how is giving something of no eternal value for something of eternal value a sacrifice?"

So what do we really mean when we say "we sacrificed" this or that?  Something to think about :-)

"Seek out the grunt work"

I was chatting with a young man this morning who is headed off this summer to do a research internship. Our discussion led me to a principle that I have followed all of my adult life. I encouraged him to aspire to do everything that no one else wanted to do, to "seek out the grunt work."

In 1969 I got a summer job working in the computer section of the State of Ala Highway Dept. I had never seen a computer before but I was a Math major and computers were the up and coming thing. I show up and they have no idea what to do with me. I said, "I'll do whatever no one else wants to do." So they gave me a rag and cleaner and said, "wash all of the computers." I did this for several days and got very familiar with computers. After that i went to the computer programmers and asked them to let me help them do what they do in anyway I could. The long and short of this story was after two summers and it was time for me to graduate college, I had learned as much about computers and how to program them than most anyone around. This experience served me very well for the 28 years of my career as an IT/IS professional.

30 years later I leave that profession and enter graduate school as a Ph D freshman. Although I entered with a distinguished career behind me, I was starting anew. So i asked my professors, "what is it that I can do for you that you really don't want to do?" From this level of willingness I got all kinds of experience and data for my research and finished the program in 3 years (5 was normal). Plus, I got a very robust research stream that has served me well as a scholar.

I have made many mistakes in my life and many bad choices (I was not good at delayed gratification), but one thing I did right was to "seek out the grunt work." No matter how smart or successful (or old) you are, doing what others do not want to do will strengthen you in many ways.

From a professional looking back for professionals looking forward - "seek out the grunt work!!"

"Blogger's block"

It's common knowledge that author's and journalists get writer's block. This is a dry period of inspiration and constrains creative writing. Well, I may be coming down with "blogger's block". For the past 4 months or so I have been inspired by situations (teaching school and bible study) and by the "sunshine to my soul" that comes from knowing and enjoying special relationships.

This season seems to be in a lull and along with it inspiration for blogs. It's kinda that "grooves and funk" thingy I blogged about recently. Maybe after a little sabbatical the creative juices will again flow. In the mean time read the past posts that you haven't read or reread those that especially connected with you.

As the saying goes, "it is what it is", but wait, there is more - "until we change it!!"

Until next time, just spend some of your own time pondering - it doesn't hurt :-)