"He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in jesus"

The reason for this was:

" ...displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. To demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of his righteousness at the present time,"

This particular passage is loaded with visual words, earlier:

• Has been manifested
• witnessed
• displayed
• publicly
  
• demonstrate
• demonstration

Also the re-iterated topic here is: righteousness.

• ...apart from the Law, righteousness of God has ...
• ...witnessed by the law and hte Prophets, even righteousness of God...
• ... demonstrate his righteousness
• ...for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time...

These two ideas are associated with the first statement. That somehow it should be shown, that it would be displayed that God the father is Just, and the Justifier.

Why two? Why just and justifier? Why is it important that God be just and the justifier? Well let's consider this:

God is the justifier : this a fine phrase, but the idea that one might get is that God is patching up some mistake that his people made or that he made.

God is Just: well, this is an attribute of God, how he dispenses appropriate response to appropriate action.

So lets talk about some combinations. If god justified people, but he was not just, it sounds like he is cheating the system. If god was just, it might imply taht he is just, but there is another way to be justified out side of his will, power or scope. This would lead to all sorts of other bad theology.

In what ways am I showing God the father as Just and the Justifier in this life? Where then is anger, knowing that God is Just, and god is Justifying.

The other hting interesting about this passage is that it says: demonstrate his righteousness at the present time. Why isn't this passage talking about demonstrate his "justice" at the present time. Or demonstrate his "compassion" at the present time. Why righteousness. And how do you demonstrate righteousness?

It would seem that I am digging myself a deeper and deeper hole.

Perhaps sacrificing oneself on the cross is demonstrating righteousness, then the second phrase is referring to say, our display of christian values and virtue here. And our behavior that we display is the demonstration of righteousness. How do you demonstrate that quality of a person. That quality is not like a character trait or habit, it is like a purity of human being.

BLargh. Ill have to come back to this later

What does the bible say about thinking?

I read books on economic thinking.
I read books on doctor's thinking.
I read books on teacher's thinking.

Many people claim the horrors and disasters of TV, unfiltered advertisements or even the lack of literature. Side effects cannot be clearly sighted, but all claim a sub-conscious altering of the mind, the patterns and rails of thought patterns being hijacked by over-planned media and capitalism.

But Really.

What does the bible say of our thought patterns?

The bible does talk about the heart, talks about the machinations of the putrid evil of the faithless. But does it talk about logic, fact, cognition? It talks about blindness, but is that a heart issue or a lack of a logical thought process?

And, if we should consider ourselves responsibile christians, how should we go about these processes.

Guesses:
Look at "dwell", "consider", "ponder", and I would even submit "wait"

THe contrast of Death and Grace

Death reigned since adam. From the first sin, death plagues mankind. Sin may be given a softer face from day to day, but not so in death. Looking into the eyes of the kind, the mean, the strong, and the weak alike all suffer from the sin. There has not been a man that has escaped it.

Amazing to consider that one man should condemn his whole family, how Adam our father, should fall, and the weight be poured out generation to generation; what disease is there that rivals the punishment of the lord.

Still, grace was given as a free gift from christ so that everywhere that Sin reigned, grace abounded much more. Death is the punishment awaiting us at the end of a very long road, but grace abounds not only in the end, but in the very pores and fabric in our life. Now only is it our flight to heaven in the end, it is the rescue from the woes and wails of the world. it is our divine purpose and surpassing joy in the present age.

What is the price of being funny?

Does being humorous have a cost? A mean leader will lose friends, family, love, but gain respect. A people pleaser will gain many friends but lose his personality because of pleasing others. What about a joke teller, a funny man, a stand up comedian? What is his science? My guess is that jokes require one of two things, either you make fun of yourself or you make fun of others. Simple enough. Have you heard the phrase "fun at my expense". Jokes cost something, but what?

Consider the personality morphing funny man, he dons personalities of famous or familiar people. Strange body language, strange word strings, foreign accents. What is the effect? Well, comedian is pointing out consistency and ridiculousness of a celebrity. It has to be both repeated and a little strange. An awkward way of saying "r"s, or the ill-logic of statements or behavior. The problem is that implicitly, the comedian exonerates himself in the process, to tell of someone else's problems is to look at self-flaws very small.

An example would be "your momma is so fat when she sit around the house, she really sits around the house". This is a play on words. The components are, your mother is overweight, and I'm calling it out because I am very different from that. It doesn't mean literally that the comedian isn't over weight, but that he has distanced himself from it.

Much of joke telling relies on having an outside perspective, and perhaps too many jokes will leave one on the fringes, forgetting first what is happening on the inside.

The real difficultly is in men, when jokes are barter. If you can tell more jokes, you gain more respect. Yet often times i find that the Guys that tell the most jokes often are the most blind, and the most distant from other people.

So again, what is the price of being funny?

7^(M)Submit therefore to God ^(N)Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

8^(O)Draw near to God and He will draw near to you ^(P)Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and ^(Q)purify your hearts, you ^(R)double-minded.

9^(S)Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

10^(T)Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

11^(U)Do not speak against one another, ^(V)brethren He who speaks against a brother or ^(W)judges his brother, speaks against ^(X)the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not ^(Y)a doer of the law but a judge of it.

12There is only one ^(Z)Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is ^(AA)able to save and to destroy; but ^(AB)who are you who judge your neighbor?

This passage says "let your laughter be turned into mourning". It is a strange transformation. It is also supported in later ecclesiastes.

2It is better to go to a house of mourning
Than to go to a house of feasting,
Because that is the ^(A)end of every man,
And the living ^(B)takes it to heart.
3^(C)Sorrow is better than laughter,
For ^(D)when a face is sad a heart may be happy.
4The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning,
While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.

Some sort of Praise Song

Previewing a new Hillsong CD is always a war of two desires. Hillsong's guitar work has been top notch in worship, spanning blarring licks, or soft dreamy atmospheric peace for slower songs. Unfortunately the cadence and the lyrics have been... original. I am thankful that these austrailian authors are paving new musical ground, but it still feels rather awkward.

Much of the music is singer centric. There is a lot of I's or "grace given to ME". A song might start with praising Jesus or Christ, but all the good stuff seems to always dribble back to "me" or "I".

It is inevitible I suppose, how do we see light? By seeing darkness also. Everything in life and in the bible is a contrast, and how do we know the greatness of the power of God? By having a world with rules, and incomplete people, that his power might go beyond the system that is in place. Again, without the system of expectations, there can be no miracles, there can be no amazing power shown.

Arrogance? Not here

5Therefore (F)do not go on passing judgment before [a]the time, but wait (G)until the Lord comes who will both (H)bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's (I)praise will come to him from God.

6Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed (J)what is written, so that no one of you will (K)become arrogant (L)in behalf of one against the other.

How do we fight arrogance? It is as simple as this verse. We wait till the Lord comes. We must also believe that he is coming soon. to think, that day by day we are proven wrong, but still to wait in anticipation.

It is cliche to say "live each day as it was your last". Movies have squeezed these idea into comedy, drama, action, and romance. It has been played over and over again. Is it really possible for people that consider themselves responsible to actually be allowed to live like that? And if not, is it possible for the great administrators and long term investors to be partially-carefree? To say what we mean, and mean what we say?

Is this the reign of fear we feel day to day? As it was said in "V for Vendetta", "i see people in fear everywhere they go, but it should not be so! " And when the calm maiden askes to be free of fear, it takes losing all things, hair, freedom, comfort and joy to realize what it means to be free of fear.

"It seems strange that my life should end in such a terrible place, but for three years I had roses and apologized to no one. I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An inch. It is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must NEVER let them take it from us."

And so i digress talking about how we should live in the shortness of life. I do believe that I can live without regrets, seeking to fight the fear that dwells in me. Fear that I may not die alone, but live alone, that I shall be a small dingy in peaceful shores, with no fellows to race with, or to talk about rudders and fishing with. Fear that I may fall down and have no hands offered to pick me back up.

If you do not feel this fear every moment of the day, you are sick with a deep disease, it is called sin. Perhaps the heinous of all sins, the oblivion to the obvious, a death to the mirror. See the monster behind hte mask, the inner decay of a beautiful tree.

1 Corinthians Ch 1

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved itis the power of God. For it is written,

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

Where is the one who is wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the debater of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs,
and Greeks seek wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified,

a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness if God is stronger than men.


For consider your calling brothers:
not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,
not many were powerful,
not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;
God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
God chose what is low and desised in the world,
even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

so that no human being might boast in the prescence of God.

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, "let the one who boasts, boast in the lord"

Giving within

"Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of^(BG) greed and wickedness. 40^(BH) You fools!^(BI) Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41But^(BJ) give as alms those things that are within, and behold,^(BK) everything is clean for you.

If I'm honest, i have given time and effort to the lord. But i think some of me inside, has longed to be elsewhere. Oh how difficult it is to give within to the lord. To give the lord what i want. How sick I am....

Showers and Repentance

Every morning I need I shower. I believe it is a good ritual. As much as I avoid mud puddles, cess pools, and disposal parks, dirt accumulates on my body. Often times I believe I'm about 25% franklin (from peanuts).

After a long day of any kind of sweating, working, or running, a long shower is always welcome. The heat, the wiping away of my own odors, despite all its work is for one goal : clean. By the way, I don't know how it is for the rest of you, but my shower needs to be hot.

last week in the midst of a hot cleansing, i was struck by this thought. salvation is a cleansing also. It is a wiping away of sins, the forgiveness of sins. It is not a new slate to be written on all over again. It is the magical switching of accounts. Sins I commit become evil investments accredited to Jesus. And I have, for a lifetime, receiving the payments or the interest of Jesus' holy lifetime actions.

So how does the shower like this? For me the shower is a lot like daily repentance. When we first come to believe, the account switchign takes place. The check books have forever been switched. We only receive the goodness of the Lord. Now, sin will always be a part of this world, our skin, bones and flesh, so we will continue to bruise our soul. But time and time again, our lord has left us a means of forgiveness, Jesus. Now though spiritually the sins automatically go to Christ, we are still commanded in Colossians to keep seeking the things above. And we are commanded in Hebrews to run the race set before us, we are also called to lay aside every sin that encumbers us.

Long words to say, there is still work to be done, maybe not on the cosmic level, but on our psyche's level. The cleansing I referring to is repentance, the preservation of holiness. That daily practice of identifying sin, and recognizing the power of God. Must it always be like this? must it always be through sin that god's glory will be seen?

No.

Amazingly enough in the end, the wonderful creation of God will make bodies that can somehow comprehend the glory of God on a magical scale. At that point, will we have to know evil to know good, or will good be made to us self- evident? there will be no tears, no death, no pain, so i take that to mean that there is no sin.

How will this work? to comprehend greatness without a scale? I leave that up to the lord who made senses, who made variation, and magnitude. Example - magnitude is having someone taller and someone shorter. Variation is having yellow, red, black, blue. Which is more colorful? None of them. Which is more black? well, then you have something to measure. And if the lord can make this world, the expanse, the heat transfer, the mystic electromagnetism. I'm sure he will figure out a way to make us know his Glory to the fullest.

BTW - paradox- his Glory is hindered by sin, but it is also magnified by it, because he is greater than sin. Chew on that.

So in the meantime, I will not think of praying as trudgery but wil consider teh confession of sins as the shower of the soul the cleansing of all things evil in my head, in my heart, in my will. And if one day I shall not enjoy the confession of sins, or the meditation of the word, then may I learn how to shower properly to get hte full feeling between showering and not.

Psalm 19

Psalm 19
1The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Wonder and awe are to be had staring at creation. The world is made by God, as in all the people in it. The expanse is declaring the work of His hands. The word expanse is also used in the creation narrative, subtly pointing to the creation of the world. Its funny how we live in the present, and often forget the beginning and the end. In the beginning, God created all things, and set the world into motion, and the world that I am living in is still in that same God given motion that started it. And this story God has penned in the cosmos, it will have its end one day, for a great purpose, and I would do well not to forget that.

Summary: One of the intentions of the expanse, of space, is to show the works of God. It’s existence is to say “I cannot be made by you”

2Day to (C)day pours forth speech,

And (D)night to night reveals knowledge.

This continues the idea. One powerful item here is “day to day”, one of the possibilities is that this refers to “time”. Time pours forth speech, time is testament. With the night to night here, this could refer just to general nights, or to the time progressing. Another meaning could be that during the day, much happens, and in the night meditation occurs.

3There is no speech, nor are there words;

Their voice is not heard.

4Their [a](E)line has gone out through all the earth,

And their utterances to the end of the world

This is referring to the testament of creation, how its words have gone out into the world, and that no one has heard them, yet the whole world has heard and seen creation.

In them He has (F)placed a tent for the sun,

5Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber;

It rejoices as a strong man to run his course.

6Its (G)rising is from one end of the heavens,

And its circuit to the other end of them;

And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

This section proclaims the sun. This is an interesting comparison, as most bible comparisons are. I call it a two way street. Many analogies are used to illustrate the behavior of some foreign idea. It is usually a one way association. For example, if this new game “wartball” is compared to baseball, wartball would be associated with baseball, but not the other way around. For instance, baseball would not always make people think of wartball.

Not so with biblical analogies, the sun reminds us of the groom coming from his chamber, and the groom reminds us of the sun, how he glows with expectation, and anticipation of the wedding that is to be had. The sun rejoices like a strong man. Nothing can hide from its heat, and it crosses the heavens

For a mock message – 6 Actions of the Lord

1. Law
a. Perfect
b. Restores the soul
2. Testimony
a. Sure
b. Making wise the simple
3. Precepts
a. Right
b. Rejoicing the heart
4. Commandments
a. Pure
b. Enlightening the eyes
5. Fear
a. Clean
b. Enduring forever
6. Judgements
a. True
b. Righteous altogether

7(H)The law of the LORD is [b](I)perfect, (J)restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is (K)sure, making (L)wise the simple. 8The precepts of the LORD are (M)right, (N)rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is (O)pure, (P)enlightening the eyes.
9The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are (Q)true; they are (R)righteous altogether.
10They are more desirable than (S)gold, yes, than much fine gold; (T)Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.


11Moreover, by them (U)Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great (V)reward. 12Who can (W)discern his errors? (X)Acquit me of (Y)hidden faults. 13Also keep back Your servant (Z)from presumptuous sins; Let them not (AA)rule over me; Then I will be [c](AB)blameless, And I shall be acquitted of (AC)great transgression. 14Let the words of my mouth and (AD)the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, (AE)my rock and my (AF)Redeemer.

Psalm 16

" I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken." verse 7-8

It scares me to think of my heart as a teacher or educator. Most of the time my heart plays the role of the hedonist, or the indulger. It longs for toys, riches, companionship; and with some inflammation, it craves for these things. The heart is often deceitful. The bible tells us that we may think that we may find purity in our own ways, but only God knows the depths of our hearts.

So how can this unstable engine instruct us? Earlier in the Psalm we see

"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, i have a beautiful inheritance. "

So choosing God provides a filling of the cup, a satisfaction of good things. All longings all desires, filled, and satisfied and innundated by God's truth and his physical provision in this world. As a sidenote, it would be interesting to consider the following christ as a weaning away from the world to weaning towards christ. As our heart is filled, my suspicion is that it will testify even to ourselves of what the LORD has provided for us.

Notice, it happens at night, at the end of the day.

Scattered

Yesterday on a dirty couch, with comfy sweat pants on I received a unsettling revelation. Two friends had come over in the middle of the pouring rain to come and visit our apartment. Being of the career age, conversation was all ho hum: schools and dating (is there anything else we really care about?). Then the talking took a uncomfortable turn: the topic was me.

I like myself. Or at least i think i like myself. Looking in the mirror is always difficult depending on what the mirror is made off. A glass mirror will portray a asian image; a bent mirror will fold me into fat albert. A friend is also a type of mirror, only the picture is more clouded and distorted. I can never be sure if a companion really is telling the truth. One friend, say stacy, hangs around prison inmates and comments : "you are really nice". Compared to a murderer and a serial thief, my drawing hobbies and faithfulness to homework and sure to shine, but if I am put in a dog and pony show compared to some of my peers, the images sours quickly.

This is all a long way to say I am bothered. My friend called me "Scattered". Two paragraphs of preface mock me on my own blog. Am I really that scattered? And how do scattered people bring it together? Or am I humpty dumpty destined to never be put back together again?